Daniel-Gérard Rouzier was born and resides in Haiti. In Memoirs of a Madman, he leads us into the heart of a psychiatric asylum in Port-au-Prince-a city that is overwhelmingly Christian, yet deeply rooted in Vodou traditions. Here, a young psychiatrist, a mambo (a Vodou priestess), and a Catholic priest sit in cautious, skeptical silence as they listen to the astonishing tale of a peculiar patient.
The man, seemingly in his forties, claims to have arrived on the island with Christopher Columbus and insists he is immortal. He recounts praying alongside Las Casas, witnessing the Bois Caïman ceremony, standing by Toussaint Louverture, and fighting in the Battle of Vertières. He speaks of encounters with the signers of the Act of Independence and recalls being enchanted by Claire Heureuse.
But how did he end up in the asylum? Is he truly mad, as the doctors suspect, or has he genuinely lived through centuries of Haiti's history?
As the narrative unfolds, the reader is drawn deeper into the enigma of this man-a character whose implausible tale becomes increasingly difficult to dismiss. Through his eyes, we glimpse the Nation's Founding Fathers, portrayed in their full complexity. He reveals them not as distant, idealized figures, but as men marked by both greatness and fallibility-at times cruel and monstrous, at other times, magnetic and heroic.
