May 18th 2024 Haiti was the 221st Anniversary of the Haitian Flag created during the Haitian Revolution.
This event was organised by the Association of Haitian Nationals in Guyana (AHNIG) and hosted by the Christian Mission Haitian Assembly on their grounds at Duncan Street, Kitty, Georgetown, Guyana. It was a day to celebrate Haitian Culture, distinctive art, delicious food and to learn the traditions of Haiti and its people.
The Haitian Flag represents Freedom from slavery and colonization, not only for the people of Haiti but for all people everywhere. The Coat of Arms on Haiti’s Flag reads, “L’UNION FAIT LA FORCE” which translates, “UNITY IS STRENGTH” which was a rallying force and a cornerstone of Haitian commitment to the revolution.
For Haitians everywhere, Haiti Flag Day represents the cultural heritage, struggles for freedom and independence, and resilience in adversity. Haiti was the first black Republic and the first people to attain their freedom from enslavement from the most powerful military power of the time, the French colonizers. The Haitian revolutionary leaders renamed their liberated country ‘Ayiti’ after the Taino name for their island. The Taino people had been wiped out by enslavement, disease, and massacres by the Spanish.
The creation of the Haitian Flag goes back to the two brief years following the revolution, when a vertical flag of black and red was flown. Revolutionary leader Jean Jacques Dessalines then designed the flag by taking the French tri-colour flag and ripping out the white centre and asking Catherine Flon his god-daughter to sew the remaining blue and red together, the blue representing the African ancestry of the Haitian people and the red representing the blood shed during the revolution.
The Haiti Support Group-Guyana, brought warm greetings to the Haitians in Guyana, in Haiti and in the Diaspora on Haitian Flag Day 2024. The 18th May 1803 was the day Haiti’s beautiful and significant flag was created during the Haitian Revolution.
As we in Guyana see and hear in the news and from friends and colleagues in Haiti of a deteriorating situation unfolding and continuing to unfold, we in the Haiti Support Group came up with the idea of creating a quilt, a visual picture of the revolutionary history of Haiti, with its revolutionary leaders both men and women like Boukman, Toussaint L’Ouverture, Makandal, Dessalines, Fatima, Victoria Montou, Sanite, and Catherine Flon (who sewed the blue and red Haitian flag).
Monuments that marked Haiti’s revolutionary history like the Citadelle Laferriere, the monument to Taino Princess Anacaona and the arresting bronze Neg Maron statue in front of Haiti’s Presidential Palace. The Haiti quilt also shows some of the main crops grown like coffee and rice, the market places with an abundance of local food and the amazing market women and men of Haiti, the fishing industry, traditional Haitian houses, the hisbiscus – the national flower of Haiti, the Karabela the national dress for women, and the drums of Haiti, evoking the heartbeat and the wonderful music and history of Haiti. We named our quilt “Haiti/Ayiti our Heart” because for us, as for Haitians, Haiti is also our heart. The Haiti/Ayiti Our Heart Quilt was created by the hands of 22 persons: Haitians and Guyanese children, women and men. and one Venezuelan sister.
Ayiti Pap Peri – Haiti Will Not Perish!!!
