Interesting Facts about Haiti

There are only two countries in the American continent that have French as an official language. One, as you probably know by now, given my other blog post about Québec, is Canada; the other is Haiti, a country you've probably also heard of, especially after the tragedy that struck Port-au-Prince in 2010.

The Spanish inhabited Haiti in its early days. In 1492, Christopher Columbus and his crew landed in what is now Môle Saint-Nicolas and claim the land for the Spanish monarchs. Then, French established a presence in Haiti in the early 17th century. By the late 17th century, Haiti became a French colony. In the late 18th century, Haiti's nearly half million slaves revolted under Toussaint L'Ouverture, a former slave. After a prolonged struggle, Haiti became the first post-colonial African descent-led nation in the world. It declared independence in 1804. Fearful of the influence of the slaves' revolution, U.S. President at the time, Thomas Jefferson, refused to recognize the new republic, as did most European nations. The US did not officially recognize Haiti until 1862.

Haiti is a gorgeous island. The two official languages of Haiti are French and Haitian Creole. French is the main written and administratively authorized language, as well as the main language of the press. It's spoken by 40% of Haitians. Haitian Creole is spoken by nearly the entire population.

Unfortunately, the country has issues with its racial caste system. Haitian mulattoes--those born to one parent of African descent and one Caucasian parent--became the nation's social elite and racially privileged, despite comprising only 5% of the nation's population.

Now you know an extremely brief history about the Caribbean country, you can learn some interesting facts about it!

• It was the first country in the Western Hemisphere to abolished slavery (it took the United States of America another 65 years to do the same) and the only country in the history of mankind whose independence is the result of a successful slave rebellion.

• It was also the first country in the Western Hemisphere to abolished slavery (it took the United States of America another 65 years to do the same).

• It was the first Black Republic in the World, and the first country in the American Continent to constitutionally grant all its citizen full rights regardless of gender or race.

• Haiti is the only country in the world that lists Vodou as an official religion.

• More than 70 different dictators ruled Haiti between 1804-1915.

• It is the second oldest independent nation in the Western Hemisphere, after the U.S.

Haiti isn't in the best shape as of right now. More than two-thirds of the labor force do not have formal jobs. Athree-quarters of the population lives on $2 or less per day. Most of the 500,000 residents of Cité Soleil live in poverty; and as of 2009, at least 225,000 Haitian children were working as restavecs (unpaid household servants), considered by the UN to be a modern form of slavery. 

It remains that Haiti is still a country with a rich history and definitely worth visiting, especially to help out some of the people.