[NOTE: To the memory of the members of Faculté de Linguistique Appliquée (FLA), State University of Haiti who perished in the January 12, 2010. Their dream was to name the graduating class of 2010 “Promotion Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain” as they requested me to work on a biography of the works of the first Haitian linguist, Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain. May their souls rest in peace! -- Research related to : Creoles and Pidgins, Folklore (Haitian, African), Folktales, French, Haitian Creole, Haitian Language, Haitian Linguistics, Kreyol, Writings from Haiti and Africa. / References: World Catalogue Database, Littérature @ «île en île» (Haitian Literature)]

1937. Les contes haiïtiens (Ière partie): Maman D'leau. Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain; Université de Paris, Faculté des letters. [Thesis/Dissertation : Microfiche : Master microform]. Paris: s.n., 1937; Wetteren (Belgique) : Imprimerie De Messter..

1937. Les contes haïtiens (IIème partie): conjoint animal ou démon déguisé. Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain. [Thesis/Dissertation : Microfiche : Master microform. publisher: s.n: Paris. 
                                                    
1937. Les contes haïtiens. (I-II). Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain; Thesis /Dissertation. Publisher: Paris; Wetteren (Belgique) : Imprimerie De Messter. 

1937. Review of: Le Créole Haïtien, Morphologie et Syntaxe Review of: Les Contes Haitiens (I partie), IIe Partie by C G Woodson, Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain, Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain [Article]; language: English;  publication: Journal of Negro History, Jul., Vol. 22, No. 3, p. 369-372.

1938. A propos du vocabulaire des croyances paysannes. Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain.  Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

1938. Contes du pays d'Haïti. Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain. Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

1938. Loisirs et divertissements dans la région de Kenscoff, Haïti. Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain, Jean Comhaire-Sylvain.Travaux Publics: Bruxelles.

1940. Le roman de Bouqui. Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain. Imprimerie du Collège Vertières: Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

1952. La alimentación en la región de Kenscoff, Haiti. Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain, Jean Comhaire-Sylvain. América Indígena: México, D.F.

1953. Haitian Creole : grammar, texts, vocabulary. Robert Anderson Hall; Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain, Alfred Métraux. American folklore society: Philadelphia; American Anthropological Ass.: Menasha, Wis.; American Folklore Society: New York, Kraus Reprint, 1969. 

1959. Naissance, mort, état-civil à Kenscoff, Haïti. Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain, Jean Louis Léopold Comhaire. Bruxelles.

1959. Urban stratification in Haiti. Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain, J. Comhaire-Sylvain. Institute of Social and Economic Research, University College of the West Indies: Kingston (?), Jamaica, W.I.

1962. Considérations sur les migrations à Addis Abeba [preparé pour le College Universitaire d'Addis Abeba]. Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain. S.L. : S.N. Distr. Restreinte.

1964. A statistical note on the Kenscoff market system, Haiti. Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain, J Comhaire-Sylvain. Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of the West Indies: Kingston, Jamaica.

1968. Femmes de Kinshasa hier et aujourd'hui. Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain. Microfilm. Le Haye  /Mouton: Paris.

1970. Le Nouveau dossier Afrique. Situation et perspectives d'un continent. Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain, Jean Louis Léopold Comhaire. Verviers, Gérard & Co, 1970, ©1971; by Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain, Jean Comhaire, Fernand Bezy, Francis Olu Okediji, Pierre L. Van den Berghe, Amadou Mahtar M'Bow. Verviers: Marabout, 1975..

1974. Jetons nos couteaux! : contes des garçonnets de Kinshasa et quelques parallèles haïtiens. Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain. Centre d'Etudes Ethnologiques: Bandundu, Zaïre.

1975(?). Contes haïtiens : textes intégrales créole-français. Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain. CEEBA: Bandundu, Zaire.

1979. Le Créole haïtien. Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain. Slatkine Reprints: Genève.

1982. Femmes de Lomé. Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain.. CEEBA: Bandundu, Zaire; Steyler Verlag (distributor): St. Augustin, Rép. féd. d'Allemagne.

1982. Mai-ndombe : paysages, histoire, culture (Rép. du Zaïre). Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain et al.. CEEBA: Bandundu, Zaire.

1984. Les montagnards de la région de Kenscoff (Rép. d'Haïti): une société Kongo au-delà des mers. Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain, Jean Comhaire. CEEBA: Bandundu, Zaïre.

1991. Cric? crac! : contes du pays d'Haiti. Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain, Casimir; Maruzen Mates, et al. Maruzen Mates: Tokyo.

 

SUZANNE COMHAIRE-SYLVAIN: BIOGRAPHY

(Translated from French to English: Emmanuel W. Védrine)

Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain, (of her spouse name), was the daughter of Georges Sylvain (1866-1925), symbol of the resistance against the American Occupation, and of Eugénie Malbranche. She was born on November 6, 1898 in Port-au-Prince (Haïti). She died  after a car accident in Nigeria on June 20, 1975. This tragic accident put an end to a bright career, however one that was full of pitfalls, and under eestimated at the time. In fact, this woman had the courage to get out of the beaten tracks in a country where researchers and scientists were all men. Moreover, at the time where Suzanne started her Works, the Republic was pro-American, then she was going to prove that the Haitian culture had unquestionable African roots, and that Creole deserved to be considered a totally different language. Linguists and specialist in folklore, she has inherited the artistic gifts and the intellectual thirst of her father, autor of Cric ? Crac ! : fables of la Fontaine told by by a mountain dweller (1901).
                                             
Her sisters were also remarquable women: Madeleine (Sylvain-Bouchereau (1905-1970, died in New York) founded in 1934 “Ligue Féminine d'Action Sociale” (Women League of Social Actions) that worked for the improvement of the Haitian Women Condition; renown activist, she is also autor of Haïti et ses femmes (Haiti and her women), (1941). Yvonne Sylvain (1907-1989) was the first Haiian physician woman and the first gynecologist-obstetrician of the country. Many articles by her have been published in the magazine Voix des femmes (Women Voices). She was the mother of Bénito Sylvain, co-founder of “panafricanism”, and the sister of Normil Sylvain (1900-1929), poet and founder in 1827 of La Revue indigène.

First black anthropologist of her country, Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain was the student of Malinovski who worked in 1949 with Alfred Métraux, and participated in an important misión of UNESCO on the rural social stratum in Haiti. Thanks to her husband, the Belgian Jean Comhaire who headed the Anthropology Department of University of Nsukka, Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain added to her Haitian journey an African one.

It is imposible to list here the colossal work of this Haitian, guided by a single ideal : serving her country, to make known the folklore. This tireless activity (of more than 200 articles!) was rewarded by numerous distinctions : “Prix de l'Alliance Française” (The French Alliance Prize), “La Médaille de l'Académie Française” (The Medal of the French Academy), “La Grande Médaille de l'Alliance Française et La Médaille de la Société pour l'Encouragement du Progrès” (The French Alliance Medal and the Medal of the Society for Encouregemtn and Progress).

MAJOR WORS:

Essays:
Le créole haïtien : morphologie et syntaxe. Port-au-Prince: Caravelle, 1936. Genève: Slatkine Reprints, 1979.
Les contes haïtiens, origine immédiate et extension en Amérique. Port-au-Prince: Caravelle, 1937, 2 vols.
Contes du pays d'Haïti. Port-au-Prince: Caravelle, 1938.
À propos du vocabulaire des croyances paysannes. Port-au-Prince: Caravelle, 1938.
Le roman de Bouqui. (cover of V. Pierre-Noël and 13 orignal sketches of the autor). Port-au-Prince: Caravelle, 1940; Montréal: Leméac, 1973.
Food and Leisure among the African Youth of Léopoldville, Belgian Congo. Rondebosch: University of Cape Town, 1950.
Femmes de Kinshasa, hier et aujourd'hui. Paris/La Haye: Mouton, 1968.
Qui mange avec une femme : Contes zaïrois et haïtiens. Bandundu, Zaïre: CEEBA, 1973.
Jetons nos couteaux. Contes de garçonnets de Kinshasa avec parallèles haïtiens. Bandundu: CEEBA, 1974.
Femmes de Lomé. Bandundu: CEEBA, 1982.
Les montagnards de la région de Kenscoff (Rép. d'Haïti) : une société Kongo au-delà des mers. (introduction and notes by Jean Comhaire). Bandundu, Zaïre: CEEBA, 1984.

 Collectif works:
  “Folk Songs and Stories of the Americas”. Pan American Union Bulletin (February 1937); Reprint: Washington, D.C., Pan American Union, 1943, 64 pp.
L'homme et la terre dans la vallée de Marbial (Making a living in the Marbial Valley, Haïti). (by Alfred Métraux, in collaboration with E. Berrouet and Dr. and Mrs. Jean Comhaire-Sylvain.) Paris: Unesco, 1951.
Haitian Creole: grammar, texts, vocabulary. (by Robert A. Hall, Jr., with the collaboration of Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain, H. Ormonde McConnell and Alfred Métraux) Philadelphia: American Anthropological Association, 1953.
Le nouveau dossier Afrique : situation et perspectives d'un continent. (from Suzanne and Jean Comhaire-Sylvain, with the collaboration of Fernand Bézy, Francis Olu Okediji and Pierre L. Van den Berghe). Verviers: Gérard, 1971. New revised and updated edition: Verviers: Marabout, 1975.

Selected articles:
For a complete list of more than 200 articles by Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain, consult “le huitième tome de l'Académie des Sciences d'Outre-Mer” in Bruxelles.
“La chanson haïtienne”. Présence Africaine 12 (1951): 61-87.
“Le travail des femmes à Lagos, Nigéria”. American Catholic Sociological Revue (1953).
“Courtship, marriage and plasaj at Kenscoff”. Social and Economic Studies (University of the West Indies, Mona) 4 (1958): 210-233.
“La naissance à Kenscoff”. Revue de l'Institut de Sociologie 4 (1959): 955 ff.
“Vieillir à Port-au-Prince”. L'Etnographie 65 (1971): 12-37.
 
Translations (in English):
“Creole Tales from Haiti”. (bilingual Creole-English)  New York: American Folklore Association, 1937-1938, 2 Vols.

(Courtesy: E. W. Védrine Creole Project and Védrine Online Creole Publishers)

 Viré monté