Haiti Needs Strong Leadership to Move Forward

Black people have been in charge of Haiti since 1804 when they defeated the French during the revolution, and took control of their country with the help of freedom fighters like Toussaint Louverture. Still-Haiti is the poorest nation in the Americas.

Since then many of their leaders have been weak and corrupt, leading to instability, poverty and crime. But there is more here that meets the eye. Europeans colonizers were turned off with a free Black Nation in their midst, especially after beating a White Power like France. So what America, England and Spain did was total isolation of Haiti.

The US placed an Embargo on Trade with Haiti in 1806. Fearful that the Haitian revolution might inspire enslaved Africans in other parts of the world to rebel, US Congress bans trade with Haiti joining French and Spanish boycotts. The embargoes crippled Haiti’s economy which was already weakened by 12 years of civil war.

When Haiti (Saint-Dominque) was colonized by the French it took a string of Black revolutionary leaders from 1791–1804 to expel the colonizers, most notable Toussaint Louverture.

Since then Haiti has had leaders that robbed the coiffures and brutalized the oppositon, including Francois Duvalier (1957-1971) who died in office and son Jean-Claude Duvalier (1971-1986) who took over and led Haiti before he was overthrown.

In addition to being the poorest countries in the Americas, it is one of the poorest in the world for 2016, according to the World Bank. And now they are helping Haiti get back on its feet after losing more than 225,000 people, and 8 billion dollars in destroyed property and other losses from a major earthquake in 2010.

If that wasn’t enough Matthew a Category-4 Hurricane left billions in losses when it struck the French speaking country in 2016. With millions of dollars invested in Haiti from the World Bank to build infrastructure and grow the economy, progress is at a snail’s pace.

President Rene’ Garcia Preval served a full term from 2006-2011 which shows stability after Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown in 2004. The new President, Jovenel Moise is a businessman, hopefully the leader to develop the country’s infrastructure, improve the economy, and move Haiti forward.

Source: World Bank and History Commons