Haitian President of the Presidential Transition Council Leslie Voltaire attends the inauguration ceremony of the members of new Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime’s cabinet, at the Villa D’acceuille in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Nov. 16, 2024. The Solino neighborhood fell under the control of armed gangs, which formed in February and worked to oust former Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who resigned from his post in April and the risis affecting Solino and the surrounding area, as well as Vivy Mitchel, illustrates once again the powerlessness of the authorities to protect the urban populations of Port-au-Prince, leaving thousands of families violence and insecurity.
Photo by Guerinault Louis/Anadolu via Getty Images
Celebrating 221 years of Haitian independence, local authorities used the opportunity in New Year’s Day to remind France that it needs to repay the country billions in reparations for forcing it to make cash payments to France to avoid attempts at recolonization.
The first country in the region to win its independence during the Atlantic slave trading era, transitional President Leslie Voltaire lashed out at France saying Haitians are losing patience with France over the issue.
Haiti had been forced to pay its former colonizer around 150 million francs that scholars today estimate to be equivalent to more than $20 billion to ensure that France had recognized and had validated its independence and to avoid a military invasion to reconquer the island.
“This invisible injustice constitutes a wound that continues to haunt our memory. Unfortunately, these ransom payments have contributed to significantly compromising the development of the young nation,” he said at a ceremony in Port Au Prince, the capital as Haitians celebrated the victory over French forces, allowing slaves to declare independence.
“Haiti demands the repayment of this ransom and reparations for all the harm caused by slavery which has finally been recognized for many years as a crime against humanity. This means that it is not a simple demand but a necessity for our nation to find the path to prosperity and respect,” said Voitaire who heads the country’s interim government charged with preparing it for general elections early next year. “The time has come to rewrite our economic history just as our ancestors wrote the history of our freedom.”
The payment to France took close to a century to complete and has been persistently blamed by successive administrations for helping to retard the early development of the island of around 11 million. Commercial loans with high interest rates were foisted on Haiti to ensure payment was made.
Authorities in Paris have paid lukewarm attention to demands for reparations but it appears that the current interim council will be pressing the issue even as its Caribbean neighbors are also preparing to take on France, The Netherlands, The Dutch, Britain, Portugal, Spain and other European nations which had participated in the slave trade.
CARICOM, the grouping of 15-nations including Haiti, has already hired an English law firm to review its case. The feedback has been very positive, officials at the umbrella reparations commission have said.