Frequently Asked Questions

The Clarification Oral History Project is an initiative of the Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain Foundation for Clarification Research tasked with recording, curating, and archiving the myriad testimonies of victims and firsthand witnesses of the mysterious humanitarian disaster commonly referred to as “the Clarification.”

The Clarification is an unexplained event that took place in the early hours of January 12, 2016, during which Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian ancestry — up to the third generation —turned, without exception, into fair-skinned, blue-eyed, mostly blond Caucasians.

Only Haitians and Dominicans with Haitian ancestry living at the time anywhere in the island of La Hispaniola were affected.

No. The Clarification consists of a complete genetic reconfiguration affecting not only pigmentation but also phenotype. Victims retain all original cognitive faculties and personality traits. No alteration of brain functions has ever been observed in a clarified individual. Some physiological discrepancies have been found, arousing scientific curiosity. Apart from those, victims of the Clarification are the same persons they were before Clarification.

We have yet to understand the cause of the Clarification or the physiological mechanisms that allowed it to perform the baffling, simultaneous, large-scale transformation. Scientists at the Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain Foundation for Clarification Research are hard at work exploring a variety of promising approaches. Prominent biomedical engineer Dr. Robert Martinez is convinced the cause may have been environmental, a hypothesis that is widely gaining acceptance.

The Clarification grievously affected the economies, demographics, and national security of many First World countries, and threw the social and cultural establishment of both Haiti and the Dominican Republic into utter disarray. The speed with which these changes occurred, during Year One of the event, prevented gradual adjustment and threatened to tear the social fabric of both countries, but specially in the DR. This period of confusion and slow adaptation to fast changes is known today as “Clarification Shift.” The importance of the Clarification is hardly local and its consequences and ramifications are far from regional. After the Clarification nothing has been the same anywhere in the world. Perhaps one of the most enduring and far-reaching results of the Clarification is the final disintegration of Western moral paradigms and the bankruptcy of its cultural leadership.

“The Exception” is the name given to Sylvie Petit-D’Or, a girl of twelve at the time of the Clarification, and the only Haitian meeting all requirements for clarification who did not clarify. Sylvie’s testimonies are especially important, as they provide a unique point of view of the social repercussions of the event. Needless to say, she was subjected to a battery of experiments as soon as she was discovered. One of the first international successes of the Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain Foundation for Clarification Research was her rescue from the lab of the Franco-American team studying her immunity.

Clarified subjects are our top priority. Preference is also given to non-clarified Haitian and Dominican nationals directly or indirectly affected by the event. Foreign nationals living anywhere in La Hispaniola through the first five years of the Clarification are strongly encouraged to testify.

Yes! Children ages 7 and up can testify. They must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

The Clarification Oral History Project does not pay its contributors. In preliminary interviews that extend beyond noon, lunch is served free of charge. Interviewees who get callbacks and complete all five recording stages become eligible for grants and academic endowments awarded by the SCSFCR.

Visit us at the COHP office nearest you (check the map) from 9 AM to 12 PM, or from 2 PM to 7 PM during the workweek. Drop by on Saturdays between 11 AM and 4 PM. You will need to fill out a form and sign a release. If you can’t read and write, please inform the personnel so that they can help you.

After that, a program undersecretary will evaluate the relevance of your purported testimony and proceed to record your story in a soundproof booth. Depending on the content (and often on the form) of your narration, you will be asked — or not — to appear for further recording sessions, usually no more than five.

You can also contact us for an appointment. Fill out the form, and in the appropriate box explain as best as you can, in the language in which you feel most comfortable, the relevance of your testimony. We will get back to you as soon as we can with further instructions. Depending on the relevance of their testimony, we will visit witnesses and victims with limited mobility at their homes.

Bring as many pictures as you can, if you can. They don’t have to be printed out, digital snapshots in your phone will do. If you can support your claims with evidence, bring the evidence. This can be contracts, ID cards, receipts for enrollment in school or university, drivers licenses, video, letters of employment, severance checks, emails. If you can’t get a hold of any of these, do not worry. We are more concerned that your story be consistent, relevant, and coherent, than it be supported by a paper trail.

Perfect, native command of Haitian Creole or Spanish is your best calling card. Unclarified relatives also serve the purpose.

Contrary to popular belief, clarified individuals do retain a semblance of their former selves, and we have today facial recognition software able to determine significant correlations between former self and clarified self. So, again, pictures, birth certificates, ID cards, driver licenses, and passports are useful for establishing identity.

Our workload is enormous on our resources minimal. We have thousands upon thousands of oral histories to process, varying in length from half an hour to sixty-five hours, individually. We depend on the goodwill and loyal sacrifice of many volunteers, a force that ebbs and flows like the tides.

We are always in dire need of translators, transcribers, interviewers, and office staff. Translation and transcription happen on a merit-based system that moved testimonies up and down a priority list. Volunteers, managerial staff, registered scholars, and the the COHP board of directors vote online to move the most relevant stories up the priority pipeline.

We need volunteers highly proficient in Haitian Creole, Spanish and English. They must be familiar with the use of personal computers and popular word processing programs. All volunteers sign up for a minimum of two shifts a week (10 hours), and assigned to the different offices according to need. We do try to staff our offices with volunteers that live nearby. You can also help encouraging others to testify. If you know people with great stories of the Clarification, direct them to our website, tell them to come (maybe come with them) or help them make an appointment with us online.