Two Hundred Years Ago, France Strangled the Haitian Revolution With an Inhumane Debt

Two Hundred Years Ago, France Strangled the Haitian Revolution With an Inhumane Debt

On a stormy August night in 1791, Dutty Boukman (1767–1791) and Cécile Fatiman (1771–1883) conducted a Vodou ceremony at Bois Caïman in northern Saint-Domingue, in the French-owned part of Hispaniola. Boukman was captured in Senegambia (now Senegal and The Gambia), and Fatiman was the daughter of a woman from the Congo (as Aimé Césaire wrote) and a man from Corsica. Their ceremony amidst over two hundred enslaved Africans was the catalyst for a …

By Vijay Prashad / Latin American Summary / April 29, 2025. Image. Jean-Claude Sévère (Haiti), L’ennemi attaqué chacun de sa propre volonté se tient debeut pour défendre sa patrie [When the enemy attacks, everyone rises of their own free will to defend their homeland], 1970 Haiti, with its first successful anti-imperialist revolution, has [...] La entrada Haiti. 200 years ago, France strangled the Haitian Revolution with an inhuman debt was firs…

Tribune in L'Humanité signed by a collective (including CETRI) considering insufficient the announcements of the President of the French Republic on the occasion of the bicentenary of Haiti's independence. Two centuries after the imposition of an unjustifiable colonial debt in Haiti, France continues to flee its responsibilities. We, collectives, members of civil society and solidarity activists, express our deep indignation at the statement of …