Read Around the World: Haiti
Facts about Haiti borrowed from this website:
- The official name of Haiti is the ‘Republic of Haiti’
- The capital of Haiti is Port-au-Prince.
- The official languages of Haiti include French and Haitian Creole.
- Majority of the people in Haiti are Roman Catholics, followed by Protestants and Voodoo followers.
- The currency of Haiti is Gourde.
- Around 95 percent of the population of Haiti comprises of Blacks, while Multiracial, Arabs and Europeans make up the rest 5 percent.
- Haiti was the first post-colonial independent black-led nation in the world.
- Haiti is the only nation in the world whose independence was gained as part of a successful slave rebellion.
- Haiti was the first nation in Latin America to gain its sovereignty
- Haiti is the only independent Francophone nation in Latin America. All the other French-speaking Latin American nations are overseas departments of France.
- Haiti shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.
- Hispaniola, along with Cuba, Jamaica and Puerto Rico, is a part of an island chain known as the Greater Antilles.
- Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere.
- The term ‘Haiti’ is derived from ‘Ayti’, a Taino word that means ‘mountainous land’.
- Did you know? Haiti is not considered a third world country. The infrastructure is so weak in this country that it is actually considered a fifth-world country, and a first in its league.
- French rule was established in Haiti in 1790s, when the uprising by slaves brought an end to slavery.
- Haiti gained independence from France on 1st January 1804, when it was declared a Republic.
- Haiti annexed Santo Domingo between 1822 and 1844.
- Jean-Bertrand Aristide became the first democratically elected president of Haiti, in 1990.
- The main industries of Haiti are sugar refining, flour milling, textiles and cement.
- Decades of violence and instability in Haiti has made it the poorest country in the Americas.
Some Haitian Authors:
- Josaphat-Robert Large
- Jacques Roumain
- Félix Morisseau-Leroy
- Frankétienne
- Jean Price-Mars
- Louis-Philippe Dalembert
- Marie-Célie Agnant
- Ida Faubert
- Edwidge Danticat
My book for Haiti:
The Kingdom of this World by Alejo Carpentier (1001 Book)
This was a 3 star read for me but that is not the books fault it is entirely my fault. This book requires the reader to have some knowledge of the history of Haiti and how the slave revolution lead to the first black led nation in the world and what then happened to that first leader.
The book itself was a quick read I then spent a couple of hours using wiki to find out what it was I had just read.
This is the first example of “Marvellous Reality” as opposed to “Magical Realism” and the distinction lies in the fact that both the marvellous and the real version of events live along side of each other and depend entirely on the beliefs and view of those who describe them. The black natives see the “Marvellous” in events while the colonial whites only see the mundane “Reality”
What books did you read for Haiti?
Do we have any readers in Haiti? and if we do what books would you recommend we read?
Next Destination: Macedonia what books will you be reading? What books would you recommend we read?
Book Worm
jenp27
Nicole Del Sesto
The Reader's Room 