Coicou, Massillon (1867–1908)

Massillon Coicou (b. 9 October 1867; d. 15 March 1908), Haitian writer. Coicou became secretary of the cabinet of President Tirésias Sam in 1897. He later served as secretary and chargé d'affaires of the Haitian legation in Paris from 1900 to 1903. Several of his plays were produced in Paris, and he became known in literary circles. Several volumes of his poetry were also published in Paris. After returning to Port-au-Prince, Coicou founded the journal L'oeuvre. He taught philosophy at the Lycée Pétion from 1904 on and founded the Théâtre Haïtien during this period. After becoming involved in clandestine opposition to President Nord Alexis, Coicou was arrested and summarily executed with his two brothers and eight other persons.

Coicou was the author of numerous plays—tragedies, comedies, and one-act plays—most of them unpublished. The historical drama Liberté (produced in Haiti, 1894; in Paris, 1904), on the Haitian revolution, was highly praised by Parisian reviewers. While his surviving dramas have been criticized for weak structuring, Coicou was a master of French versification, and his poem "L'alarme" was memorized by most Haitian secondary students.

See alsoTheater .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Poésies nationales (1892); Impressions (1903); Passions (1903); Poésies nationales (1904); La noire (novel, published in the newspaper Le soir, 1905); L'empereur Dessalines (drama, 1906); and Le génie français et l'âme haïtienne (essay, 1904).

See also Naomi M. Garret, The Renaissance of Haitian Poetry (1963), pp. 35-37; Robert Cornevin, Le théâtre haïtien des origines à nos jours (1973), pp. 110-115; F. Raphaël Berrou and Pradel Pompilus, Histoire de la littérature haïtienne illustrée par les textes, vol. 1 (1975), pp. 423-492.

Additional Bibliography

Gaillard, Roger. Le grand fauve (1902–1908). Port-au-Prince, Haïti: R. Gaillard, 1995.

                                    Carrol F. Coates