Several years of political turmoil culminated in the lynching of Haiti’s president. He was lynched by a crowd of people. This led way to the United States occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1934.
Month: February 2013
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Big Steps Made on the Last Trip to St. Louis High School
Tek4Kids recently sent a team to Haiti for fifteen days to work on our latest projects at St. Louis High School in Jeremie. In addition to the computer education program that we are offering at St. Louis High School, we also wanted to help the school and its students by providing electric power and clean water.
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Post-Colonial Times
After defeating and expelling the colonial powers, the slave descendants had yet another battle to be fought. Due to the class differentiation created by the white French colonists fathering children with their African slaves; and, despite the unifying factor of their oppression by the colonists, the single country of Haiti divided into two separate states. Those of darker complexion were led in the north of the island by Henri Cristophe, while Alexandre Petion held the lighter skinned southern state. After overcoming their class differences and intense internal fighting, Haiti reunited.
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Haitian Independence
Inspired by the equality-based ideals of the French Revolution learned through colonial education, nearly 500,000 slaves revolted. Under the leadership of Toussaint L’Overture, the Haitian slaves fought and defeated the French Colonialists. Declaring independence in 1804, Haiti became not only the first colonialized country in which slaves won their freedom, but also the first independent state in all of Southern and Central America.
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News from Jeremie: Manifestations Throughout the City
Since 2009, there have been efforts to build a street connecting Jérémie to the rest of the country, but obscurities about land titles and other obstacles allegedly stopped the construction. The people in Jérémie have been protesting against the discontinuance of construction since the company carrying out the construction left the city.
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Colonial Times
Haiti became one of the wealthiest Caribbean colonies, due to the heavy importation of African slaves and the exploitation of Haiti’s natural resources. At the height of colonization, almost half of the sugar produced in the world came from Haiti. The country was also the world market leader in the production of coffee, cotton, and indigo. This could only have been accomplished by destroying nearly all of Haiti’s forest. The overproduction of agriculture led to much environmental damage that is still visible in Haiti today.