Haiti: 150 years of independence
Haiti: 150 years of independence
One hundred and fifty years ago there occurred an event which remains unique in the annals of world history. Against all odds and to the amazement of all nations, a people of slaves rose up in revolt and achieved both emancipation from degrading servitude and national independence.
Many are the countries that have resorted to arms to win their independence, and on numerous occasions slave peoples have risen up to Win their emancipation. But there is no example, apart from Haiti, of a people who achieved both in one single stroke.
It is these unusual circumstances and this great example of a struggle for human rights that have prompted the Editors of The Courier to devote a large portion of this issue to Haiti, in place of the monthly theme devoted to an important world problem in education, the arts or science.
Haiti has many claims upon the attention of the world: it was the first independent Negro state in the modern world; it was the second free state in the Western Hemisphere; it has answered the question often posed in the past whether a nation ruled by blacks could long endure; it has emerged from a longstanding isolation to join the comity of nations, welcome the aid of foreign experts, pursue a policy of enlightenment in education, public health improvement, soil conservation, and agricultural and general economic development. Haiti is today open to the dynamic influences which accompany a changing economy.
As Haiti's President, Paul Eugène Magloire has firmly put it: "Haiti has shown by its struggle for liberty and progress that the black race and small nations can... achieve a status equal to that of any other human group. Haiti has given the lie to those who pretend that certain races are unfit for liberty, equality and self-government."
When in 1947 Unesco launched its world-wide campaign for belter standards of living through a combined altack on ignorance, poverty and disease, it was Haiti that ofl'ercd one of its most desolate areas the Marbial Valley as a testing ground. Here, by trial and error, new educational techniques and methods were evolved and new paths broken, through the combined efforts of the United Nations and its Specialized Agencies working directly with Haitian officials and the Haitian people. This was one of the UN's earliest large-scale joint efforts of its kind, and in a sense served as a forerunner of the idea which was later to develop inlo the- expanded programme of technical assistance to the underdeveloped nations of the world. Haiti is a land of many contrasts. It is a land of poverty, and faces enormous problems of education, health improvement and rural development. But it is also a happy land. Her people wear a gay and smiling countenance, love to sing and dance and laugh. Although poor in worldly goods, the peasants have three priceless possessions: freedom, a home and a plot of land.
Time and the exuberance of both the land and its people have healed many of the deep scars of slavery, devastation and violence which darkened Haiti's history for so long. Today the hard-won peace and freedom are beginning to bear fruit and give promise of great progress in Haiti in the future.
