Transdomination in Haiti, A Book for Thinking

Osmel Almaguer

HAVANA TIMES, Feb. 17 — The book Transdominacion en Haiti (1791-1826), by anthropologist and Havana Times colleague Dmitri Prieto Samsonov, was presented this week as part of the activities of the Havana International Book Fair.

The winner of the latest edition of the Pinos Nuevos Awards, in the essay category, this work was described by children’s book writer Enid Vian as “brief and intense and possessing a novel approach.”

Dmitri Prieto Samsonov contributes a completely new concept: that of “transdomination.”  The term “speaks to and attempts to supplement another concept still in force, that of “transculturation,” coined by Fernando Ortiz.

The idea of transdomination “is a contribution from the author to the social sciences,” which in this work was applied within the context of the Haitian Revolution.

Another aspect that stood out here was the Haitian presence within Cuban society, and not only as an ethnic group, but also as an element that is integrated into and contributes to our culture.

Dmitri is a graduate of biochemistry and law, and he holds a master’s degree in anthropology and society.  At the moment he is working as a researcher with the Cuban Anthropology Institute and teaches at the University campus in Santa Cruz del Norte, where he gives classes in the history of philosophy, constitutional law, and the history and critique of sociological theories.

Jointly with the work by Dmitri, a presentation took place on the book Jesus y la Buena nueva. Aspectos politicos y sociales en el Nuevo Testamento (Jesus and good tidings. Political and social aspects in the New Testament), by Godofredo Alejandro, who shared the previously mentioned award with Transdominacion as it “confronted traditional theories and interpretations coinciding with the ideology of imperialism.”

Likewise the book aimed to analyze, “using methods characteristic of the social sciences and of biblical hermeneutics, the demands and aspirations in early forms of the movement of Jesus, the political and social conditionings present in the different traditions and tendencies in the books that make up the New Testament, and the manner in which ideological elements influence current studies of the issue.”

Godofredo Alejandro has degrees in history, theology and biblical studies. He won mention in the “Concurso de Historia Primero de Enero” (the January 1 History Competition) with his still unpublished El protestantismo en Cuba en el siglo XIX (Protestantism in Cuba in the 19th Century).