When-the-One-Who-Bears-the-Scars-is-the-One-Who-Strikes-the-Blow_History-Human-Rights

The practice of keeping restavèks, or unpaid domestic child laborers, in Haiti has come under scrutiny by both human rights activists and journalists, many of whom describe it as a form of slavery. While this description is not entirely inaccurate and may also be useful, it fails to reflect the variability of treatment of restavèks, the complex ways in which power is exercised, the ways in
which people occupy “oppressor” and “oppressed” roles simultaneously, the various local understandings of restavèk relationships and human rights, and the particular historical meanings and memories attached to slavery in Haiti.