Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain

Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain (1898–1975), was the first female Haitian anthropologist. Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain was a student of Bronislaw Malinowski who worked in 1949 with Alfred Métraux, and participated in a UNESCO project in Haiti. She married Jean Comhaire, a Belgian who headed the Anthropology Department of University of Nsukka. Subsequently, she worked in Africa.

She was born on November 6, 1898 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and was the daughter of Georges Sylvain, Haitian activist and symbol of the resistance against the American Occupation, and of Eugénie Malbranche.

She studied in Kingston and Port-au-Prince before she obtained her Bachelor’s degree and Doctorate in Paris. Besides her interest in Haitian folklore and social issues of the condition of women in Haiti and Africa, her research focused on the origins of Creole language; an idiom considered juvenile and worthless at that time. She had chosen a difficult path but her quaint work, disregarded by her peers, sparked the interest of famous Polish anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski. The latter invited her in London where she became her research assistant while studying at London University and later at the London School of Economics. She also conducted successful research at the British Museum that resulted in her major work regarding the African roots of Haitian Creole.

Suzanne conducted field research in Kenscoff and Marbial (Haiti), Kinshasa (Congo), Lomé (Togo) and Nsukka (Nigeria) worked with renowned anthropologists such as Melville Herskovits and Alfred Metraux who entrusted her and her husband Jean Comhaire with a mission of the UNESCO in Haiti. Suzanne also taught at the New School for Social Research in New York and was appointed member of the United Nations trusteeship council for Togo and Cameroon under French administration.

Suzanne came from a very notable family, her uncle being one of the founding fathers of the Pan African movement and her father George Sylvain (1866-1925) was an important figure of the resistance against the American occupation in Haiti. Suzanne was the oldest of a family of seven who impacted Haiti in a positive way. Her sister Yvonne Sylvain (1907-1989) was the first Haitian female physician 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, a co-founder of panafricanism, and the sister of Normil Sylvain (1900-1929), poet and founder in 1927 of La Revue indigène. Suzanne's sister Madeleine Sylvain (1905-1970) was one of the founders of the Feminine League for Social Action (Ligue Feminine d’Action Sociale) which fought for women’s legal rights such as equality for married women and suffrage while her brother, the poet Normil Sylvain (1900-1929) was the founder of La Revue Indigène. Finally, her youngest brother Pierre Sylvain (1910-1991) was a botanist who published several reports on coffee production in Ethiopia. Other possible family members include Benito Sylvain and Franck Sylvain.

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