Barrymore A. Bogues, Asa Messer Professor of Humanities and Critical Theory, Professor of Africana Studies, Director of the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice and HIAA Professor, was invited by the Museum of Fine Arts Boston to reflect on a work of art on view in their newly reimagined galleries of 18th-century art. In recognition of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution and Independence, the MFA Boston invited museum staff, artists and members of the community to reflect, in their own words, on both the personal and historical meanings their chosen artworks carry for The Revolution Reimagined.
Professor Bogues selected the 1990 painting Retour Des Esprits Guinen Après La Guerre d’Indépendance d’Haiti (Return of the Spirits of Ginen After Haiti's War for Independence) by Haitian artist André Pierre (1916–2005) for his reflection Haiti: The Dual Revolution—Reimagined. The painting illustrates the struggle to end to racial slavery and revolution resulting in Haitian independence from France that occurred between 1801 and 1804, and depicts the spirits of the vodou religion, known as lwas.
Bogues writes “in Return of the Spirits to Ginen, as in many of his works, Pierre humanizes the lwas. They are dressed in finery, ball gowns, and epaulettes, and many wear the colors of the Haitian flag. They are led by Ogou, the spirit of war. Almost beside him is Ezili Danto, the female sprit who, in Pierre’s words, “brought back the Kongo packet,” a container filled with herbs and other ritual vodou religious objects. The painting’s title presents a different historical narrative about the dual Haitian Revolution. Pierre’s vision foregrounds the revolution for independence. For him the struggle against racial slavery had folded into the struggle to achieve independence from France.
In 2026, as we reimagine the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution and Independence, this painting points to another independence, one that was not mired in the contradictory paradoxes of the demands for liberty that left racial slavery untouched."
Image: André Pierre, Retour Des Esprits Guinen Après La Guerre d’Indépendance d’Haiti (Return of the Spirits of Ginen After Haiti's War for Independence), 1990. Oil on canvas. The Fulling Collection.