2010 Haiti earthquake: The earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, 2010 was unprecedented in its scale and magnitude of impact. In total it is estimated to have caused as many as 250,000 fatalities, cost up to $13.2 billion, destroyed 280,000 residences and commercial buildings, and displaced more than 3 million people. With the epicenter located close to Port-au-Prince, the earthquake devastated the greater Port-au-Prince commercial area, leveling hospitals and destroying communication systems and electrical networks.
arrondissement: Each of Haiti’s ten départements is further divided into arrondissements, totaling forty-two in all. These arrondissements are the second-largest political subdivision within Haiti.
bidonvilles: The 2010 earthquake leveled in excess of 200,000 structures throughout the Port-au-Prince area, leaving more than 1.5 million people to form makeshift dwellings clustered into what would become 1,555 bidonvilles, or tent cities. Five years after the earthquake, that number was down to 79,397 people in 105 sites. While the effort to close camps has been relatively successful, the International Organization for Migration has focused on rental subsidies, funded by donors and pushed by the government but largely unpopular with displaced Haitians wary of long-term dependency. The I.O.M. has recently shifted its approach toward building two-story houses for quake victims able to show proof of home ownership, with the provision that they house another victim rent free for two years.
Citadelle Laferrière: A UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the largest fortresses in the Americas, the Citadelle Laferrière was built by Henri Christophe in 1820 in Haiti’s Nord-Est Department.
citizenship issues in Dominican/Haitian relations: The Dominican Republic (DR) and Haiti have had a difficult political relationship since the Dominican Republic won independence from Haiti in 1844. In 2013, that tension was expressed in the passage of a decree that reviewed all national birth records from 1929 to 2007, retroactively restricting citizenship of tens of thousands of Dominicans. These former citizens were left facing deportation. In response to an outpouring of international criticism, the Dominican congress passed a bill in 2014 that extended citizenship to those who could provide proof of registering their birth. To date, fewer than 9,000 people have registered under this program, despite over 110,000 potentially qualifying, leading many to doubt the sincerity of the Dominican Republic’s efforts to appease conflict between the two countries.
commune: The third tier of political divisions in Haiti after département and arrondissement. Forty-two arrondissements are divided into 140 communes and 570 communal sections.
corvée labor: Unpaid labor imposed by the state. At various points throughout the initial stages of Haitian independence, the state used corvée labor to force civilians to work under brutal conditions without remuneration in order to complete a variety of public works projects, notably King Henri Christophe’s palaces and fortifications and the expansion of Haiti’s road networks. During American military occupation from 1915-34, troops took advantage of corvée labor laws, long unused but never repealed.
deforestation: Haiti is more than 98 percent deforested. This process began under colonization and intensified with coffee production in the early eighteenth century. Currently deforestation and resulting soil erosion is driven by charcoal production. Charcoal is produced by the poor to pay for food, shelter, and other necessities.
département: The highest-level administrative division in Haiti. There are ten départements in Haiti, each with its own regional capital. The départements are divided up in arrondissements and further into communes.
external debt: Money owed to foreign creditors (governments, banks, individuals) has hampered Haiti’s economic growth since independence. In 1825, newly independent Haiti struggled against the threat of French invasion and a return to slavery, and agreed to pay an indemnity and reduce its import and export taxes by 50 percent. Ultimately totaling 90 million francs, this indemnity was largely financed through loans from French financial institutions. The indemnity wasn’t repaid in full until 1947, with loan payments accounting for 50 percent government expenditure in 1898 and 80 percent by 1914. Debt further skyrocketed under the Duvalier dictatorship, growing from US$302 million to over US$1 billion between 1980 and 2004.
Fanmi Lavalas: A Haitian political party formed in 1996 after a leading leftist political party Lavalas (Kreyol for flood) split to become the Struggling People’s Organization and the Aristide-led Fanmi Lavalas. Fanmi Lavalas strongly opposed neoliberal policies and austerity measures supported by the Struggling People’s Organization.
Front Révolutionnaire Armé pour le Progrès d’Haïti (FRAPH): A right-wing paramilitary group that emerged in 1993, aimed at repressing support for Jean-Bertrand Aristide in the aftermath of the coup that ousted Aristide from the presidency in 1991. Led by Emmanuel “Toto” Constant, the group worked in tandem with the military regime using violence to maintain political repression and authoritarian control.
gens de couleur: French for “people of color.” Originally short for gens de couleur libres, or free people of color, the phrase was a common way of referring to free blacks or people of mixed race in France’s West Indian colonies prior to the abolition of slavery. Pre-Haitian Saint-Domingue was legally divided into distinct classes based on race and land ownership, with the white plantation and working class set apart from the freedmen (affranchis) and slaves. Post-independence, Haiti inherited the division between mixed-race, French-speaking gens de couleur, and black, Kreyol-speaking Haitians, laying the foundation for race-based discrimination that continues today.
Hispaniola: the area of land comprising both Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Kreyol: Spoken by all Haitians, the language is a creole, a stable native language combining other languages, in this instance predominantly eighteenth-century French with elements of Spanish, Taíno, various West African languages, and Portuguese.
loa: Loa, also spelled lwa, are the sprits of Haitian Vodou and serve as intermediaries between God (Bon Dye) and humanity. Vodou ceremonies are centered on invitation of a priestess (mambo) or priest (houngan) calling the loa to take part in the service. Loa arrive by possessing a worshiper and acting or speaking through them. Most loa are linked by syncretism to Catholic saints based on iconography or other characteristics.
restavek: A child domestic worker taken into a more affluent household ostensibly in exchange for receiving education and board. In reality, the majority of restaveks are trafficked or forced into slavery, vulnerable to abuse, and often escape to a life on the streets. Before the earthquake, about 250,000 restaveks lived in Haiti and an additional 2,500 had been trafficked into the Dominican Republic. Approximately two-thirds of all restaveks are girls.
Saint-Domingue: The French colony on the island of Hispaniola that would become the Independent Republic of Haiti in 1804.
Saint-Soleil School: a popular movement in Haitian art, drawing on symbolism from Vodou rituals and relying heavily on abstract forms.
Taíno: The indigenous people who populated the island of Hispaniola when Columbus arrived in 1492. Estimates put the pre-contact population at roughly hundreds of thousands to several million. While historians emphasize the disappearance of Taíno culture along with its population, its legacy continues in current Haitian and Dominican traditions, with many making efforts to claim direct Taíno lineage.
Temporary Protected Status (T.P.S.): A temporary legal residency status within the United States granted to citizens of specified countries. T.P.S. was established as a legal, nonpermanent form of residency by an act of Congress in 1990 in response to armed conflict in El Salvador. The T.P.S. visa is typically granted during a specific window of time to citizens of specified countries that are under a state of emergency due to warfare, natural disaster, or other humanitarian crisis. T.P.S. status is not intended to be a pathway to such permanent status documentation as green cards, but it does allow for work authorization in some cases. Currently, T.P.S. visas are administered by the Department of Homeland Security. T.P.S. status can be terminated for individuals at any time.
Tonton Makout: The paramilitary force formed by dictator François Duvalier (“Papa Doc”) to suppress political opposition. Literally translated, Tonton Makout means “Uncle Gunnysack,” a Haitian bogeyman who stuffs children into a bag at night. By regularly employing state-sanctioned rape and murder, they perpetuated a culture of terror that maintained their absolute command. Human Rights Watch estimates that the Duvalier regimes are collectively responsible for the death of 20,000 to 30,000, with the Tonton Makout responsible for the majority of violence.
United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH): The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti was initially authorized following the 2004 coup d’état that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. After the 2010 earthquake, the UN peacekeeping forces were given a greater mandate to support reconstruction and stability efforts. MINUSTAH came under scrutiny when reckless sewage disposal at the UN base located on the Artibonite River near Mirebalais was directly traced to the outbreak of cholera, infecting hundreds of thousands of Haitians. The case triggered a re-examination of how peacekeeping personnel are used in disaster recovery.
United States Agency for International Development (U.S.A.I.D.): The division of the U.S. government responsible for foreign aid, U.S.A.I.D. has had a presence in Haiti for over fifty years.
Vodou: Practiced throughout Haiti, Vodou dates back to the eighteenth century or earlier and combines various elements of West African religious practices with Roman Catholicism and other belief systems. The same religious practices that developed in Haiti into Vodou have also found expression in other global religions, such as Louisiana Voodoo, Vodun (practiced in Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria), Santaria in Cuba, Candomble in Brazil, and Dominican Vudú. The spirit of humans, saints, and the semidivine loas are central to the Vodou belief system, and much of Vodou ritual centers around honoring, summoning, or driving away loas and other spirits. Many core Vodou beliefs—especially around sickness and other forms of suffering—are shared by a majority of Haitians, regardless of personal religious beliefs.