Thursday, February 10, 2011

Haiti's History

In 1937, 74 years ago, 17,000 to 30,000 Haitan immigrants were slaughtered in the Dominican Republic by the Dominican Army. This massacre was demanded by Dominican dictator Raphael Leonidas Trujillo so that the Domincan was able to clear out the border region and leave room for landowners to take over the rest of the land.

A lot of the people that live in Haiti believe that Voodoo is the main religion. It may be even considered Haiti's national religion. It mostly revolves around their friends and family. Which is called Loua. Loua protects the children from misfortune. To keep the Loua satisfied, families must "feed" the Loua through rituals. There is a service the familes do once a year and another one that happens once a generation.

The Massacre River (the Rio Masacre) is where the blood flowed between the Spaniards and French colonizers who had faught for the land and possesion of Hispaniola. The land where all the Haitans were murdered in 1937. The river connects and divides both nations.

Boukman (Dutty Boukman) was the leader of the Boukman rebellion and helped to ignite the Haitan Revolution. Some believe that he led a voodoo ceremony which started the rebellion. He was a vodou priest.

Toussaint Louverture was the slave who defeated Napolean. He was a great hero of the Haitan Revolution and considered one of the great revolutionaries in his time.

Francois Duvalier (Papa Doc) was a huge ruler of Haiti in the 1960s. He got the name Papa Doc because he was a physician. He worked in the Haitan government and was elected to the presidency in 1957. He was an expert in voodoo and ruled Haiti with such force and terror.

Tonton Macoutes was the central nervous system of Haiti's region of terror. It was a personal police force of dictator Francois Duvalier. He licensed them to torture, kill and extort anyone and then hanging the corpses as warnings.

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