‘In Search of the Sylvain Sisters’: Spouses and Siblings in the Socio-Anthropological Nexus of the Haitian Diaspora

In this article, with a nod to Zora Neale Hurston1, I first position Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain (1898–1975) in a line of couples working together in the field of anthropology (especially Alfred Métraux and his different spouses). I then continue with Suzanne’s younger sister Madeleine (1905–1970), while choosing another discipline, sociology, also covered a vast field of the human sciences. Through the ‘Ligue féminine d’action sociale’ and La Voix des femmes, she was able to fight for the emancipation of Haitian women and together with her sisters and peers worked hard for the improvement of the peasantry and their children. While Suzanne was the first female anthropologist, her sister became the first female sociologist. Both have obtained their Ph.D.’s from prestigious foreign universities (Sorbonne and Bryn Mawr, respectively). In a second part, I focus more on the respective role between partners Jean Comhaire and Suzanne Sylvain. Jean Comhaire has worked together with his wife in Haiti, Congo, Senegal, and finally in Nsukka (Nigeria). Finally, in a last part, I elaborate on the invisibility of Suzanne whose tombstone has only recently seem to have been identified. Belonging to a pioneering group of female Haitian activists, their burden under the rule of dictators has inspired some of the most influential female authors today. In other words, traces of this lost generation’s sacrifices and scars appear in female writing and contrast sharply with the ‘géo-libertinage’ of Dany Laferrière and fellow authors, such as Raphaël Confiant.