t In the Parc National Historique
t In the Parc National Historique
Experience Haiti
Haiti fills the mountainous western third of the island of Hispaniola. During the 1700s, the French turned what was then called Saint-Domingue into its richest overseas possession, its huge workforce of enslaved Africans producing vast quantities of sugar and coffee. In the late 1700s, Toussaint Louverture led a revolution of nearly half a million slaves. After a prolonged armed struggle, Haiti was able to declare its independence in 1804. By doing so it became the world’s first black-led republic, and the first state in the Caribbean to throw off the shackles of European colonial rule. In return, it was forced to pay crippling reparations to France, a debt that took over 120 years to settle. The country has also had to deal with dictatorships (notably François “Papa Doc” Duvalier in the 1960s) and natural disasters. In January 2010, an earthquake with a 7.0 magnitude struck close to the capital, Port-au-Prince, killing an estimated 300,000 people. All these factors contribute to Haiti having the unenviable status of being the poorest nation in the western hemisphere.
Haiti’s unique cultural elements – its creole language, renowned art, vodou religious practices, and kompa music (like a modern merengue) – have all developed from, and reflect, its African and French heritage. About 95 percent of its population are of African descent.