Tonton Macoute

For other uses, see Tonton Macoute (disambiguation).

Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale
Tonton Macoute
Tonton Makout
Paramilitary organization overview
Formed1959 (1959)
Preceding agencies
  • Cagoulards
  • Milice Civile
Dissolved1986 (1986)
Superseding paramilitary organization
  • Several semi-legal paramilitary organizations
JurisdictionHaiti
HeadquartersPort-au-Prince
Paramilitary organization executives
Parent paramilitary organizationPUN
Agency IDVSN

The Tonton Macoute (Haitian Creole: Tonton Makout)[1][2][3] or simply the Macoute,[4][5] was a Haitian paramilitary and secret police force created in 1959 by dictator François "Papa Doc" Duvalier. Haitians named this force after the Haitian mythological bogeyman, Tonton Macoute ("Uncle Gunnysack"), who kidnaps and punishes unruly children by snaring them in a gunny sack (macoute) before carrying them off to be consumed for breakfast.[6][7] The Macoute were known for their brutality, state terrorism, and assassinations.[8][9] In 1970, the militia was renamed the Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale (VSN, English: National Security Volunteers).[10] Though formally disbanded in 1986, its members continued to terrorize the country.[11]

  1. ^ Taylor, Patrick (1992). "Anthropology and Theology in Pursuit of Justice". Callaloo. 15 (3): 811–823. doi:10.2307/2932023. ISSN 0161-2492. JSTOR 2932023. After François Duvalier was elected president with popular support in 1957, he created his own security force because he did not trust the army. (Its popular name, tonton makout, is taken from a tale about an uncle who carries off children in a bag on his shoulder.)
  2. ^ Bernat, J. Christopher (1999). "Children and the Politics of Violence in Haitian Context: Statist violence, scarcity and street child agency in Port-au-Prince" (PDF). Critique of Anthropology. 19 (2): 121–122. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.623.758. doi:10.1177/0308275X9901900202. ISSN 0308-275X. S2CID 145185450. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 December 2013. Assisted by contemporary factions of the notorious tonton makout – the rightist, army-supported civilian death squads – Cedras completed what would turn out to be the bloodiest coup d'etat in recent Haitian history.
  3. ^ Fouron, Georges E. (2009). "2. Leaving Home § 4. 'I, Too, Want to Be a Big Man': The Making of a Haitian 'Boat People'". In Okpewho, Isidore; Nzegwu, Nkiru (eds.). The New African Diaspora. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. p. 78. ISBN 978-0-253-35337-5. LCCN 2009005961. OCLC 503473672. OL 23165011M. The strength of his government was invested in a non-salaried paramilitary civilian militia known as the Tonton Makout (Uncle Knapsack). Staffed by informers, spies, bullies, neighbourhood bosses and extortionists, the Makout freely used extreme violence, terror, and intimidation to cow the population out of all illusions of destabilising the regime.
  4. ^ Fass, Simon M. (1988). "Schooling". Political Economy in Haiti: The Drama of Survival. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. p. 250. ISBN 978-0-88738-158-4. LCCN 87-25532. OCLC 16804468. OL 4977156W. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  5. ^ Danticat, Edwidge (1994). Breath, Eyes, Memory (in English and Haitian Creole). Vol. 16. New York: Soho Press. ISBN 978-1-56947-142-5. LCCN 94-38568. OCLC 29254512. OL 1806978W. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  6. ^ Filan, Kenaz (2007). "1.2. The Roots of Haitian Vodou". The Haitian Vodou Handbook: Protocols for Riding with the Lwa. Rochester, Vermont: Destiny Books. p. 21. ISBN 978-1-59477-995-4. LCCN 2006028676. OCLC 748396065. OL 8992653W.
  7. ^ Sprague, Jeb (2012). "1. A History of Political Violence against the Poor § The Blood-Soaked Record of the Duvaliers". Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti. New York: Monthly Review Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-1-58367-303-4. LCCN 2012015221. OCLC 828494729. OL 16618213W.
  8. ^ "François Duvalier". Encyclopedia Britannica. 26 May 2023. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
  9. ^ "Military regimes and the Duvaliers". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
  10. ^ "The Tonton Macoutes: The Central Nervous System of Haiti's Reign of Terror". Council on Hemispheric Affairs. 11 March 2010. Archived from the original on 26 May 2015.
  11. ^ "Government and society". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 22 June 2023.