Chaloska - Haiti Observer Blog

The story of Chaloska goes as follows, Chief Charles Oscar was a military commander in charge of the police in Jacmel. He was feared by many

The specific things that made him a distinct figure is that he was tall and strong, with big teeth.

His story became one that crosses several generations in Haiti and somehow stays with the time.

It came at a time of great instability in Haiti, politically and socially. President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam was forced to contend with a revolt against his government, led by Dr. Rosalvo Bobo. Unable to do so, he fled to the French embassy, where he received asylum. The mulatto rebels broke into the embassy and captured him. The Haitian president was beating to death and his cadaver ripped into pieces and paraded the parts through the capital's neighborhoods.

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When Carnival season begins in Haiti, the seaside city of Jacmel divides its celebration into two halves. In the daytime, some celebrants meander through the streets dressed up in colorful paper-mache outfits, while others cover their bodies in shiny, black paint and wield ropes as imitation whips. They are addressing Haiti's slave history and the subsequent slave revolt.

Another roving group, the Chaloska, move through the streets in blood-red and black costumes, their faces decorated with over-sized lurid, red lips and monster fangs. They symbolize the 1915 bloody assault carried out on jailed political dissidents by the local police chief.

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