HaitiAyiti

Hispaniola's Taíno population was destroyed within decades of Columbus's arrival in 1492. France took the western third in 1697 and named it Saint-Domingue. By the 1780s it produced a large share of the world's sugar and coffee, worked by about half a million enslaved Africans under one of the most brutal regimes in the Americas.

In August 1791 the enslaved of the northern plain rose. Under Toussaint Louverture, and after his capture under Jean-Jacques Dessalines, they defeated French, Spanish and British armies, including Napoleon's expedition. On 1 January 1804 Dessalines declared the independent state of Haiti, taking back a Taíno name.

Recognition came at a price: in 1825 France demanded an indemnity of 150 million francs, later reduced, to compensate former slave-owners. Haiti paid it and the loans raised to pay it until the mid-20th century. The US occupied the country from 1915 to 1934; François and Jean-Claude Duvalier ruled as dictators from 1957 to 1986.

Democracy after 1986 was repeatedly broken by coups, and the 2010 earthquake killed more than 200,000 people. After President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in 2021, gangs expanded until by 2024–25 they controlled most of Port-au-Prince; international security missions have tried to push them back (check the current situation).

Almost all Haitians are of African descent, and nearly everyone speaks Haitian Creole (Kreyòl), a French-based language with West African grammar and vocabulary. French is the language of law, school and the elite; Kreyòl became co-official in 1987.

Catholicism and fast-growing Protestant churches sit alongside Vodou, a religion rooted in West African traditions with its own spirits (lwa), ceremonies and pilgrimages. Vodou was long persecuted and remains widely misunderstood abroad; it is recognised in law and central to much Haitian art and music.

A diaspora of several million in Miami, New York, Montréal, Paris and the Dominican Republic sends money home that keeps many families alive, and shapes Haitian politics, music and food far beyond the island.

Haitian painting gained world attention in the 1940s through the Centre d'Art in Port-au-Prince: bright naive scenes of markets, spirits and daily life. Metal sculptors in Croix-des-Bouquets cut figures from recycled oil drums; the Grand Rue artists turned scrap into sculpture.

Music runs from kompa dance bands to rara processions at Easter and the roots bands that mix Vodou rhythms with rock. Food is the Caribbean's boldest: griot (fried pork), diri kole (rice and beans), pikliz (spicy pickled cabbage) and soup joumou, the pumpkin soup eaten every 1 January to mark independence and on UNESCO's heritage list since 2021.

Gang coalitions control most of the capital and the roads out of it. They extort, kidnap and fight each other and the police; hundreds of thousands have fled their homes. The international community authorised a stronger UN-backed force in 2025 to replace the Kenyan-led mission (check its current strength and results).

Port-au-Prince's airport has had no regular international service since aircraft were hit by gunfire; Cap-Haïtien is the working airport. Hospitals, schools and markets close for long periods, fuel runs short and cholera returns in waves.

What would change the picture: a durable reduction in gang control, elections and a functioning government, and the return of regular flights to the capital. Until official advice changes, this site does not plan trips here.