ARTISANAT
TROPICANA

Haiti is located in the Caribbean Sea and shares the island Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. The official languages are French and Creole, a French dialect which has meanwhile become an independent language with its own grammar and vocabulary. The population consists mostly of descendents of former black slaves, who were once brought from Africa to the Caribbean to be sold to the European colonies of the New World. The capital is Port-au-Prince with about 2 million inhabitants. 

Haitian bus - each one a piece of art

The first thing which you will immediately realize entering Haiti, are the colors. Everything in Haiti is painted in bright colors, the houses, the autobuses, the traditional clothing. This is the most remarkable expression of the Haitian culture. This colorfulness you will see again in the Haitian paintings, clear lines, strong and bright colors - unique even for the Caribbean neighborhood.  

History

The history of Haiti is unique in the world. The Republic of Haiti is the only known example in human history where slaves managed successfully to free themselves permanently by a revolt against their masters. In the rest of the world the former slaves were granted freedom, when the white governments began to understand that there are common human rights which apply to every human being. In Haiti the black slaves freed themselves against heavy resistance by the French colonists and even against a French expedition force. This was no easy task considering that France was the world's strongest military power in this time. 

The actual modern history of Haiti began when the Spaniards used the island of Hispaniola as a launching point from which to explore the rest of the Western Hemisphere. French buccaneers later used the western third of the island as a point from which to harass English and Spanish ships. In 1697, Spain ceded the western third of Hispaniola to France. As piracy was gradually suppressed, some French adventurers became planters, making Saint Domingue, as the French portion of the island was known, the "pearl of the Antilles" -- one of the richest colonies in the 18th century French empire.

During this period, African slaves were brought to work on sugarcane and coffee plantations. In 1791, the slave population revolted -- led by Haitian heroes Toussaint L'Ouverture, Jean Jacques Dessalines, and Henri Christophe -- and gained control of the northern part of the French colony, waging a war of attrition against the French.

Jean Jacques Dessalines - first black ruler of the independent Haiti

Two separate regimes -- north and south -- emerged after independence but were unified in 1820. Two years later, Haiti occupied Santo Domingo, the eastern, Spanish-speaking part of Hispaniola. In 1844, however, Santo Domingo broke away from Haiti and became the Dominican Republic. With 22 changes of government from 1843 to 1915, Haiti experienced numerous periods of intense political and economic disorder, prompting the United States military intervention of 1915. Following a 19-year occupation, U.S. military forces were withdrawn in 1934, and Haiti regained sovereign rule.

From February 7, 1986--when the 29-year dictatorship of the Duvalier family ended--until 1991, Haiti was ruled by a series of provisional governments. In December 1990, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a charismatic Roman Catholic priest, won 67% of the vote in a presidential election that international observers deemed largely free and fair. Aristide took office on February 7, 1991, but was overthrown that September in a violent coup led by dissatisfied elements of the army and supported by many of the country's economic elite. Following the coup, Aristide began what became a 3-year period of exile. As many as several thousand Haitians may have been killed during the period of de facto military rule. 

Jean-Bertrand Aristide - President of Haiti

On July 31, 1994, the UN Security Council authorized all necessary means to facilitate the departure of Haiti's military leadership and to restore Haiti's constitutionally elected government to power. On September 19, 1994, the first contingents of what became a 21,000 international force touched down in Haiti to oversee the end of military rule and the restoration of the constitutional government. By early October, the three de facto leaders -- Cedras, Gen. Philippe Biamby, and Police Chief Lt. Col. Michel Francois - and their families had departed Haiti. President Aristide and other elected officials in exile returned on October 15.

Since then Haiti has slowly started to develop a stable democratic culture. The country has changed a lot during these last years. And finally the Haitian people have gained the freedom, which they have been fighting for so long.

Voudou

Officially Haiti is a catholic country with a small, but growing protestant minority (16%). However this is only the official truth. The true religion of Haiti is Voudou. Voudou has dominated Haitian history from the beginning and rules its society - invisible, but omnipresent. It started on August 22, 1791, when the pagan priest Hougun Boukman and the priestess Mambo Marinette initiated a traditional sacrifice which incited a violent uprising of black slaves in the Boys Cayman. Christian clerics were slaughtered and African paganism began to dominate the territories controlled by the revolting slaves. Later Catholic saints and pagan gods amalgamated, and a new religion was born: Voudou. 

Voudou itself is a syncretistic religion born of the combination of the polytheist pagan belief systems brought by enslaved Africans and Catholicism, which was forced onto these enslaved people. Like many other religions, Voudou provides its followers with guides for living their lives, and it includes rituals to commemorate birth, coming of age, beginning new ventures, retiring from old ones, and, finally, dying and mourning. Voudou worshipers generally profess a belief in a single, supreme being, just as other Catholics do. However, they also believe that this supreme being, is too concerned with the larger matters of the universe to be able to attend to the needs of individuals. Thus, le Bon Dieu has sent loa, the gods of Voudou, that have become the focus of rituals and practices.

Voudou is not uniformly popular in Haiti, but everyone there acknowledges its presence and power. Many of the secret societies that exist throughout the country have no relation to Voudou other than usually nominal acknowledgment of a patron loa. On the other hand, some of these societies are led by powerful Voudou priests, usually bokors, Voudou shamans who use their powers sometimes for selfish and evil ends.

However Voudou is an occult religion. You can stay in Haiti for weeks without even realizing that it exists. It is necessary to look around with open eyes to recognize the secret symbols of Voudou everywhere. Finally when you have learned to look at everything from a different point of view, you will realize that Voudou is everywhere, and what may have seemed familiar to you, may suddenly become strange and scaring. Especially when the Haitian art is concerned, you will become surprised, when you discover the real meaning behind of it. An innocent naive painting will get a new meaning for you, and what you supposed to be a funny looking little sculpture may unveil its hidden secret to you.