Destination : HAITI

Seven hundred miles south of Miami by sea, Haiti shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. More than 7 million people within its mountainous 10,000 square miles make Haiti one of the most densely populated countries in the western Hemisphere.One of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti has been plagued by political violence for most of its history. Over three decades of dictatorship followed by military rule ended in 1990 when Jean-Bertrand ARISTIDE was elected president. Most of his term was usurped by a military takeover, but he was able to return to office in 1994 and oversee the installation of a close associate to the presidency in 1996.

The capital of Haiti is the city of Port-au-Prince : Over the years the city has spilled out of its original waterfront location, climbing further into the mountains behind. A rural exodus has swollen the population from 150,000 in 1954 to over two million now.  Steep mountains tower over the city to the south, La Gonâve island lies in a horseshoe bay to the west, and another wall of mountains beyond a rift valley plain rise to the north.  The worst bidonvilles (shantytowns) are in a marshy waterfront area north of the centre, but most of the city is very poor. There are crowds of people everywhere, spilling off the sidewalks into the streets, moving to a cacophony of horns and engines.

The Haitians are descendants of slaves brought over from Africa centuries ago. In 1804, Haiti became the first Black Republic in the world, gaining its independence by driving out the French colonists.Haiti was a French colony until 1804 when, fired by the example of the French Revolution, the black slaves revolted, massacred the French landowners and proclaimed the world’s first black republic. The decades of self-rule since independence have not been easy ones, especially for the rural Haitian. Today, he struggles for a different kind of independence and freedom - freedom from poverty, illiteracy, and lack of education - from malnutrition and disease.

Except for a few small, mainly coastal plains and the central Artibonite River valley, the entire country is a mass of ranges. The highest peak is the 2,674m La Selle, southeast of the capital. Little remains of Haiti’s once luxuriant forest cover, cut down for fuel or to make way for farming. With soil erosion and desertification far advanced, Haiti is an ecological disaster. The main regions still regularly receiving abundant rainfall are the southwest peninsula and the eastern two thirds of the northern seaboard. The Republic of Haiti occupies the western third of the island.

The culture of Haiti is a unique mixture of African and French influences. Throughout the 19th century the Haitians reverted to a primitive way of life, indulging in a succession of bloody, almost tribal wars. Even today African cults, particularly voodoo, play a large part in everyday life like nowhere else in the Caribbean. The country is desperately poor and the standard of living is the lowest in the Americas. According to UNICEF, the literacy rate is only 45%, while only 20% of children reach secondary school.

Voodoo, brought from Africa by the slaves during centuries of foreign rule, is still practiced by most Haitians. There are many spirits, each named and with individual characteristics. Ceremonies and fetishes are aimed at pacifying the evil spirits and invoking the good ones - keeping them all pleased, distracting them from any evil they may have planned for family members. At the ceremonies, the priest or a special participant may eat glass, walk through, or handle fire, or perform one of any number of acts to show special powers given by a spirit. Voodoo offers illusions of power and is used to control the masses by treachery, mistrust, and fear.
 

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