Haiti

Saint-Domingue, the French half of Hispaniola, was the richest colony in the world in the eighteenth century, producing much of the globe's sugar and coffee with the brutal labour of hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans. In 1791 they rose in revolt, and after more than a decade of war — defeating French, Spanish, and British forces, including an army Napoleon sent to restore slavery — the colony declared independence in 1804 as Haiti, the first nation in the world founded by a successful slave revolt and the first independent state in Latin America.

The new republic was diplomatically isolated and, in 1825, France demanded a vast indemnity — compensation to former slaveholders — in exchange for recognition. Haiti paid, and borrowed to pay, for more than a century, a debt now widely seen as a foundational drain on its development. The nineteenth century brought coups and division; the United States occupied the country from 1915 to 1934.

The Duvalier dictatorships — François "Papa Doc" from 1957 and his son Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" until 1986 — ruled through the Tontons Macoutes militia and drove tens of thousands into exile. Democratic politics since 1986 has been repeatedly interrupted by coups, foreign interventions, and disasters: the catastrophic 2010 earthquake killed well over 200,000 people, a UN-introduced cholera epidemic followed, and the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse was followed by a collapse of state authority and the rise of the gangs.

Haiti's culture is one of its great achievements, forged from West and Central African roots, the French colonial inheritance, and the pride of the revolution. Vodou (Vodun), a religion of its own with an elaborate pantheon of lwa served through drumming, dance, and possession, is practised by many alongside Catholicism and, increasingly, evangelical Protestantism; it is officially recognised and deeply misrepresented abroad.

Haitian visual art — vivid, densely patterned painting and sculpture from Port-au-Prince and the arts town of Jacmel, and the ironwork of Croix-des-Bouquets — has an international following. Kompa is the signature dance music; rara bands parade with bamboo trumpets in Lent; and a rich literature in French and Kreyòl (Danticat, Laferrière, Alexis, Roumain) carries the country's voice outward.

Kreyòl proverbs, extended-family obligation, and the lakou (family compound) are the fabric of social life. Soup joumou, a squash soup once forbidden to the enslaved and now eaten every 1 January to mark independence, is on UNESCO's heritage list and captures the way food and history are bound together here.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas, and the crisis of recent years has pushed much of the population into acute hunger and displacement. More than a quarter of Haitians live in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, now largely controlled block by block by armed groups; the rest live in provincial towns and in the countryside, farming small, eroded plots on steep hillsides.

The economy runs on subsistence agriculture, remittances from the large diaspora in the United States, Canada, France, the Dominican Republic, and Chile — by far the biggest source of income — some garment manufacturing, and, before the collapse, aid. Charcoal production for cooking has stripped the country's forests.

Where life continues with some normality, in parts of the north and the smaller towns, it centres on the market, the church or the Vodou peristil, the lakou, and the struggle to keep children in school and food on the table.

Haitian cooking is Creole, bold, and built on rice, beans, plantain, and root vegetables. Diri ak pwa (rice and beans), often with diri djon djon (rice cooked with tiny black mushrooms) for special occasions, is the staple. Griot — pork shoulder marinated in citrus and epis seasoning, then boiled and fried — is the celebrated dish, served with pikliz, a fiery pickled-cabbage relish, and fried plantain (bannann peze).

Tasso (fried goat or turkey), legim (a mashed vegetable stew), lambi (conch) on the coast, and soup joumou on New Year's Day fill out the table. Street food includes fritay — an assortment of fried snacks — and akasan, a spiced corn drink.

Coffee, once a major export, is still grown in the mountains; Barbancourt, a sugarcane rum aged like cognac, is the national spirit and one of Haiti's most admired products.

Haiti's landmark is the Citadelle Laferrière, a colossal early-nineteenth-century fortress on a 900-metre peak near Cap-Haïtien, built by King Henri Christophe with the labour of thousands to defend the young nation against a French return that never came. With the ruined Sans-Souci Palace below it, it forms a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the emotional centre of Haitian national pride.

Elsewhere, in calmer times, the draws were Jacmel, a faded coffee-boom town on the south coast with iron-laced mansions, a strong arts scene, and a papier-mâché carnival; the blue swimming holes of Bassin Bleu nearby; the beaches of the Côte des Arcadins and Île-à-Vache; the mountain coolness of Kenscoff and Furcy above Port-au-Prince; and the National History Park's revolutionary sites.

At present, almost none of this is safely accessible, and Haiti is a country to learn about — its revolution, its art, its resilience — rather than to visit.