The Hmong or Meos took an active part in the wars in Indochina and then in Viet Nam
fiercely independent, they fought against the French then with the French against the Japanese, the Viet Minh, the Chinese ,and later with US Special Forces against the Viet Cong
The Hmong, Mong or H'Mong (in Hmong of Laos:Hmoob / Moob, are peoples of Asia originating in the mountainous regions of southern China (mainly the province of Guizhou), as well as in the north of Vietnam and of Laos. They are also called Miao (Chinese:; pinyin:miáo; literally:"from the rice fields"). The Hmong themselves often use the term "mountain people".
Demography
The confusion between Miao nationality and Hmong ethnicity maintained by the Chinese government has led some authors to place them at around 8.10 or even 12 million in the world. Closer to reality, the total number of Hmong should now be much more between 4 and 5 million worldwide.
The Hmong living in Laos represent 7.9%3 of the Laotian population, or about 438,300 people. They are part of the Miao group, one of the 49 ethnic groups listed by the Laotian government in 1989.
In the 20th century, an unquantifiable part of the Hmong took refuge in the jungle, in the area of Xaysomboun, hunted down by the Laotian and Vietnamese armies, for having helped the French during the Indochina war and then the Americans during the Vietnam war. . In 2005, there were only 8,000 left, compared to more than 30,000 a decade earlier.
Today, the Hmong people are integrated into Lao life
In recent decades, a large population of Hmong have emigrated to the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada , in Germany, Japan, Argentina and France (estimated at 30,000 according to Chô LY, 2004), including around 2,000 in French Guiana. Most of them still live in Southeast Asia:China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Burma.
Language
The Hmong language belongs to the Hmong-Mien language family, also called "Miao-Yao" after the Chinese names of these languages.
There are many dialect forms, many of which have probably not yet been listed. The two most common are "Green Hmong" and "White Hmong" (the most common dialects in Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Burma), due to their name in the main color of the traditional female costumes of the speakers. These two dialects are spoken by the Western Hmong diaspora. In Vietnam, there are other forms of dialects:"Black Hmong" and "Flower Hmong".
The earliest forms of Hmong writing date back to the early 20th century. Many were trained by missionaries (Father Yves Bertrais), especially in the 1950s, thanks to the Latin alphabet. The alphabet currently most used by the Hmong around the world is the so-called Barney-Smalley alphabet, named after its creators.
History
At the beginning of the 19th century, Hmong people crossed the Sino-Laotian border to settle in the regions of Nong Het, Hua Phan, Phongsaly, Oudomxay, or even Muang Sing. It was on the mountains of Laos that they were encouraged to grow poppy and produce opium. First by and for the Chinese, then by and for the French.
Laos and North Vietnam
The Hmong had peaceful beginnings in Laos, living self-sufficiently on mountain peaks. With the colonization of Indochina, they were encouraged to produce opium for the French. The latter, like the Laotians, called them Méo, a deformation of the Chinese Miao with a pejorative connotation (meaning wild mountain dweller).
The accumulation of taxes and various taxes, as well as the fact of being systematically administered by non-Hmong and the numerous cases of corruption, are all factors that led the Hmong to rise up against the colonizer. This revolt called "War of the Fool" lasted five years (1917-1922), until the death of its leader Pa Chay. This episode led the French to change their policy with this ethnic group in particular. They appointed Hmong leaders, one of whom, Ly Foung, became sub-district administrator.
This position allowed Lyfoung to send his children to school, and one of his sons, Touby (1917-1979), even obtained the baccalaureate, a rarity at the time. His education and his talents as a bureaucrat earned Touby Lyfoung a rapid rise in the ranks of the French colonial administration and to become one of the great Hmong leaders of recent history. He successively held the positions of Minister of Health, Minister of Posts and Telecommunications and King's Advisor. He was the leader of the Hmong of Xieng Khouang, at the end of the Second World War, to help the French army to reconquer the city and regain control of the country. He took advantage of his rank as a leader to push the Hmong for education on the one hand and to fight the Vietnamese communists on the other. Despite his death, he remains a figure of primary importance for the Hmong of the diaspora.
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The French employed the Hmong, known for their efficiency in moving in hostile environments, during the battle of Ðien Biên Phu.
The Laotian civil war then constitutes a conflict annexed to the Vietnam war. In 1962, the United States recruited Hmong guerrillas commanded by General Vang Pao to combat the presence of North Vietnamese soldiers in Laos. This operation called “US Secret War” was financed by the CIA. It consisted of securing the area and recovering the downed American pilots by bombing the Ho Chi Minh trail. When the latter withdrew from Vietnam in 1975, they closed the training camps and suspended all military and financial aid to Laos and the Hmong. When the communist Pathet Lao took control of the country, the Hmong were considered traitors [ref. needed] and persecuted. Their political leader, Touby Lyfoung, was imprisoned and died in custody, while their military leader, Vang Pao, fled to the United States.
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Laotian and Vietnamese reprisals against the Hmong continue to this day. Reports in the Western press by Philip Blenkinsop in 2002, Thierry Falise in 2003, Grégoire Deniau and Cyril Payen in 2005, and the American Roger Arnold in September 2006, showed the disastrous situation of the Hmong in the Laotian forest. They have been hunted down and exterminated for more than thirty years now, without being able to hope to flee the country. Those of them who manage to do so flee to Thailand from where some can be welcomed in various Western countries. However, many also remain in a delicate situation in Laos. In Thailand, parked in open-air prisons, they do not have the status of refugees, but that of "illegal economic immigrant". About ten thousand of them are locked up in these prison camps, in the province of Phetchabun, for example, or in other prisons in northern and central Thailand. The humanitarian situation there is worrying, as evidenced by a French association which had access to the Hmong in Thai camps and prisons.
On December 28, 2009, Thailand began the repatriation of 4,000 Hmong to Laos against their will, despite international protests. Doctors Without Borders has published a column in which the association expresses its concern. In order to protest against what he considered to be a genocide, Colonel Robert Jambon, (Commander of the Legion of Honor, Officer of the National Order of Merit, War Cross of External Theaters of Operations, etc.) killed himself on October 27, 2011, with a bullet to the temple, standing opposite the Indochinese War Memorial in Dinan.
Guyana
In the year 2000, approximately 1,600 Hmong [ref. necessary] live in Guyana, half of whom are under 18 years old. They are divided into four villages that they have built themselves:
Cocoa created in 1977 in the middle of the forest, not easily accessible.
Javouhey, founded in 1979, 30 km from Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, on the site of the former leprosarium of Acarouany, founded in 1822 by Mother Javouhey.
Rococoua, founded in 1990 around Iracoubo with about fifteen families.
Corrossony, founded around 1990 around Regina with a dozen families, most of whom lived in metropolitan France before settling in French Guiana.
They are descendants of village groups originating from Laos. Fleeing communism, they find themselves in 1975 in Thai refugee camps. Recognition by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees of their status as political refugees allows them to be welcomed in various Western countries. The United States will welcome some 100,000 and France 10,000. Villages are being prepared for them in Guyana, created from scratch with the idea of transferring groups of families there who can return to their previous living conditions.
The Hmong arrived in Guyana in 1977. They were settled there with a specific idea:to help repopulate Guyana and develop agriculture. This project was part of the Green Plan, initiated by the Secretary of State for French Overseas Territories at the time, Olivier Stirn. He started from a damning observation for this overseas department:underpopulated, Guyana had only 55,000 inhabitants for a territory representing a fifth of the metropolis, with non-existent resources and almost zero economic activity. /P>
It is also thanks to the help of a president of a regional council of Asian origin favorable to their installation, as well as to the Catholic organizations solicited by Father Yves Bertrais13 (deceased on May 27, 2007), co-inventor of the Hmong alphabet called Barney-Smalley alphabet, which they were able to settle. Pierre Dupont-Gonin also participated in their reception in Guyana and testifies to this in his book.
At the origin of this wonderful initiative we find the strategic and prospective reflection of Admiral Marcel Flichy which has its source in his double experience of Indochina, recounted in the books "Les corsairs de la Baie d'Along" by Michel Girard and "Marine Indochine" by Jacques Mordal, and Algeria, where, as the last Commander of the DBFM in Nemours in 1962, he had taken the initiative to repatriate his Harkis to France on Largentières in Ardèche. It was as Head of International Relations for Secours Catholique and Caritas Internationales that he proposed and negotiated this project with the French Government.
The Hmong in metropolitan France
Their number is estimated at nearly 10,000, many of whom are found in the region of Paris and Nîmes, where they are farmers, particularly in Vistrenque.
The Hmong in the United States
The largest Hmong community in the United States is in the state of Minnesota, in the “twin” cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. This community is estimated at nearly 60,000 people. Hmong immigration to the United States dates from the 1970s and 1980s and is a direct consequence of the Vietnam War. After initially finding refuge in California, notably in Fresno, the Hmong moved to Minnesota and other parts of the Midwest, mainly for economic reasons. Like many other communities originating from the Far East, the Hmong show good integration into the economic and educational system of the United States. Their school failure rate is particularly low
Belief
The Hmong are animists or Christians; at least three churches are mentioned in the region of Sapa in the north of Vietnam
According to local beliefs, the Hmong receive three souls at birth:the first remains with them after death, the second goes to the realm of the afterlife and the third is reincarnated.
Traditions
One of the traditions that characterizes the Hmong is the richness of the embroidered or applied decoration of clothing and headgear.
Concerning marriage, several traditional solutions exist:
When a Hmong man wants to get married, he chooses his future wife, whether the latter wants to marry him or not. During the night, he kidnaps her with the help of his family and brings her home. The next morning, a member of the man's family will wake up the woman's family to discuss the "price" to be paid in compensation for the bride-to-be. This price is paid with lao-lao (rice alcohol), fattened pig(s), rice, etc.
Parents mutually agree on engagement from the youngest age of the children.
The man, as soon as he feels old enough to marry, is accompanied to make arrangements with the parents of his future wife.
Among the Hmong, marriage is possible from the age of 13-14. The age difference is not a problem and a 30 year old man can marry a 13 year old girl, the reverse does not exist. Polygyny is accepted, and a Hmong man can marry multiple wives if he is wealthy enough to pay all the compensation. Conversely, it can be difficult for a poor man to marry.
Once married, the Hmong woman goes to live in her husband's village. She must take care of her husband's parents until their death. This is why it happens that the future wife of a Hmong is chosen by her parents. If the husband's parents realize that their son's wife will not take good care of them, they can divorce her and send her back to her family with compensation for the bride's parents.
The Hmong have 18 different surnames.
A future husband and his future wife must have a different surname in order to be able to marry. When the Hmong woman marries, she takes the surname of her husband, and the children bear the surname of the father. Cousins with different surnames can marry each other.