It is not quite a monastic life, but as Jean-Bertrand Aristide waits in South Africa for the call to go home, his background has come to the fore.
“I was a priest, which means I could stay in one place for months without feeling the same thing someone else would feel. Staying in one place is not a problem for me.”
His days are filled with scholarly and literary pursuits.
“I always tried to find at least a couple of minutes to read and write. Now I don’t have to fight to find time to do these things.”
What he is reading, among other things, are books on Zulu grammar. “When I am here I am learning about this country. One way to show respect is to learn Zulu. I have books and I’m learning. I may have a teacher in future, but for the moment I am learning by myself.”
Aristide, who has written seven books, has “95% completed” the eighth, about what he insists was his kidnapping from Haiti. “There is no doubt — and more than half the United Nations members recognise this — that the action on February 29 was illegal and unconstitutional.”
He says his family has settled into life in Pretoria and his daughters, aged seven and five, have found a good school. “They enjoy what children enjoy, but they do ask,’When will we be going back?'”
What does he tell them? “One day.”
Moving around publicly is a problem for Aristide, who is transported in a black BMW accompanied by another car carrying bodyguards.
“Freedom doesn’t mean travelling around the world to feel free. I am a free man and I pay respect to President Thabo Mbeki and the government of South Africa for helping me to be free. But that doesn’t mean I have to try to be somewhere else every day to know I am free.”
He is far from home, “but always in deep communion with my people”, he says.
“When they have to leave the country because of political repression as refugees and die in the sea, I am connected with them and share their pain.”
Aristide maintains that the matter of his ever returning to the presidency is moot. “The Constitution does not say that the president has to spend part of his term outside the country. So this leaves the door open.
“As an elected president by the Haitian people to serve in Haiti, I am always connected to them, sharing their hopes for democracy.
“In Haiti last weekend there were 50 000 people on the street, asking in a peaceful way for my return. They are convinced that they elected a president and they have to have their president back to move constitutionally to 2006,” he says, referring to the end of his second term. “Let us suppose I go back now — then in February 2006 I end, and that is all.”
He is precluded by the Constitution from serving a third term.
What if he were to return a year from now — would he expect his term to be prolonged because of his ousting? “We would see,” he says.
Aristide was not in contact with the protestors in Port-au-Prince last weekend. “I am in contact with Haitians in the diaspora. But contacting Haitians at home would put their lives at risk.”
Occasionally he sees foreign dignitaries. He met Jamaican foreign minister Kenneth Knight in Pretoria last weekend to talk about the UN investigation into his ousting.
“I am prepared to give evidence to that investigation. The United Nations needs to have that investigation for its own credibility.”
He says an investigation into the coup that led to his ousting is being called for by the 34 members of the Organisation of American States, the 53 members of the African Union and the 15 members of the Caribbean Community “minus, of course, those supposedly controlling Haiti”.
It means that “something incredible has happened. France and the United States cannot try to impose a solution on Haiti. The massive protest last Friday showed this.
“Too often this is seen from a political point of view, which doesn’t help to make it understood.
“When you have a bicycle, a car and then an airplane, that means progress. But no one can enjoy that progress without freedom.
“Africa played a major role by having independence struggles for freedom. Haiti was unique in having a slave revolution that was successful.
“If African descendants could do this, it means Africa still plays a significant role in making sure freedom is respected as an international value. This places an obligation on Africans to continue the line of our forefathers and protect the freedom of whites, blacks, Indians and every single human being.”
Aristide’s message to his compatriots is: “In 1804 France and the United States didn’t want to accept Haiti as the first independent black republic. In 2004 they have attempted to isolate us again by mounting a coup.
“The message is clear. We fought peacefully for 200 years for freedom and democracy. We must continue peaceful resistance to the occupation. We must continue to fight peacefully for the restoration of democracy. We should not lose hope. We are not alone.”