Five days after the devastating earthquake in Haiti that killed thousands, the mental wounds of the disaster were still fresh.
Even as U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., led an opening prayer quoting Scripture and speaking of easing the pain of devastated Haitians this afternoon, Lesly Condé, consul general of Haiti in Chicago, let out wails of grief that could be heard throughout the entire South Side auditorium.
But as the prayer service at the DuSable Museum of African-American History went on, with elected officials, Haitian activists and leaders of various faiths speaking of building a newer, better Haiti, Condé was on stage singing songs of praise while shouting messages of strength to Haitians in the audience.
“My whole being is overwhelmed with emotion,” a choked-up Condé told the crowd of several hundred after his initial tears. “As we speak, my compatriots are still petrified,” Condé said.
“They fear the very ground on which they walk. “This is a long, hard climb, but I know we can make it…we must,” Condé said.
The multi-denominational prayer service, organized by Rush, was aimed at not only saying prayers for Haitians, but to move Chicagoans into action to help restore the country devastated by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake on Jan. 12.
Before a crowd of mostly African-American and Haitian immigrants, the raucous service was part church service and part Haitian pride rally, intermingling messages of faith and rebirth with fiery history lessons of contributions the island nation had made.
Among the first independent nations in the Western Hemisphere, the former slave colony successfully fought Napoleon III’s armies for independence from France and assisted in South America’s independence from Spain.
Today, as one of the Caribbean’s poorest nations, it has been mired in political unrest coupled with other natural disasters such as hurricanes.
Haitian-American State Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago,