October 17th is Dessalines Day. This holiday celebrates the anniversary of the death of the Emperor Jean-Jacques Dessalines in 1806, one of Haiti’s Independence Heroes.
Every year, Haitians honor his legacy through many activities – debate conferences, parades, and street theatre. To commemorate the death of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the State traditionally will lay wreaths of flowers at Pont-Rouge (located north of Port-au-Prince) where Jean-Jacques Dessalines was assassinated. Because of the political unrest in Port-au-Prince, including Pont-Rouge, these activities in memory of Dessalines are, in recent times, relocated to the Museum of the Haitian National Pantheon (MUPANAH) based in the Champs-de-Mars, Place of Heroes. It [MUPANAH] is a public institution. MUPANAH has a mission to participate in the conservation of Heritage and the dissemination of national culture.
Social institutions such as the media and other schools trivialize the cult of The Memory of Jean-Jacques Dessalines. They carry out very few activities aimed at perpetuating the memory of Dessalines and other historical facts. In order to help get back on track, the leaders of the Institution Classique de Bayonnais (ICB) are in the process of drawing up a calendar of activities, says Pasteur Jean-Jonel Fleurisma.
Caught in an ambush, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the father of the founder of the homeland, was assassinated on October 17, 1806. The cause of his murder? He demanded the distribution of land and fought against inequalities and social injustices. To date, the motive for this crime is never known, that is to say justice is never rendered.
Jean-Jacques Dessalines, was born a slave in 1758 in Cornier, Grande-Rivière-du-Nord, in the French part of the island of Saint-Domingue (Republic of Haiti) on the Duclos plantation, where he became a commander (in charge of organizing the work of slaves). He was then bought by a free Afro-descendant named Dessalines.
All this time has passed since his assassination, and the first Black Republic is still unstable and not sovereign. And the acts of assassination of Haitian heads of state keep repeating. As proof, Mr. Jovenel Moïse, the 58th president of Haiti, was assassinated in power by a commando composed, for the most part, of Colombians. This heinous murder, whose causes have not yet been elucided, extends the list of Haitian presidents assassinated in power, a total of four ranging from October 7, 1806 to July 7, 2021.
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