Flag of Haiti
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Flag ratio: 3:5.svg)
Civil flag. Flag ratio: 3:5.svg)
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The flag of Haiti was adopted on February 25, 1987. The flag is divided into two horizontal rectangles. The top half is blue and the bottom is red. Since 1843 the flag for official and state use has had the coat of arms of Haiti on a white panel in the center. The coat of arms depicts a trophy of weapons ready to defend freedom, and a royal palm for independence. The palm is topped by the Cap of Liberty. The national motto is on a white scroll reading L'Union Fait La Force ("Unity Makes Strength"). The civil flag and ensign lacks the emblem.
The blue and red of the flag were retained after a French Tricolore was torn up by the revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines in 1803. The two parts were stitched together horizontally to make a new flag.
Historically, students in Haiti learn that on May 18th, 1803, in a congress held at Arcahaie, a township located about fifty miles north of Port-au-Prince, Dessalines created the country’s first flag. Ripping apart a French one — blue, white and red, he threw away the white portion that was in the center and asked Catherine Flon, a young girl of the area, to sew the remaining ones.
Having stitched together those two pieces of cloth, he mounted them horizontally on a staff as Haiti’s new national symbol. By this gesture, he publicly designated that this country no longer wanted to be recognized as a French territory and that the people who lived on this land preferred to be dead rather than be slaves. "Liberté ou la Mort!" meaning "Liberty or Death" had become the new motto as it had already been embraced at the Vodoun ceremony known as "Ceremony of Bwa Kayiman" held on August 14, 1791. This motto can be seen on all the official documents signed by Dessalines.
The blue set on the upper part of the flag represented the population of ancient slaves, four hundred and fifty thousand of them, an overwhelming majority indeed who, according to the first constitution, were supposed to be the only social group to personify the country. "…Any argument about skin colors among children of the same family should immediately stop…" Those words were written in the 1805 constitution. "…From now on, all Haitian people will be known as Blacks."
The red, set below the blue part of the flag, represented the people of mixed races known as mulattoes. The white naturally disappeared, as it should in a country where it was well understood that: "Dessalines pa vle wè blan," Meaning Dessalines wanted nothing to do with the white man. Dessalines died in 1806 and the new President Alexandre Pétion who succeeded him, personally designed the coat of arms of the Republique that was placed at the center of the flag along with the motto: "L’Union fait la Force," — There is strength in unity. Ironically, at that moment the country was so profoundly divided that two governments were recognized: a Kingdom of the North and a Republic to the South.
At the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, it was found that Haiti and Liechtenstein were using the same flag, which led to a crown being added to the flag of Liechtenstein.
A rival flag of vertical black and red panels was used at various times, most recently in the period from May 25, 1964 to February 25, 1986, during the family dictatorship of François and Jean-Claude Duvalier.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The Louverture Project: Flag of Haiti
- The Colors of the Flags in Haiti: [1]
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