HISTORY OF THE HAITIAN FLAG

For a country’s citizens, the national flag is indisputably a symbol of general pride. They would consider any offense to their flag to be an offense to their country. Beyond being an icon though, a flag’s origin can often say a lot about a nation’s social make-up or history. Haitians feel no different and even reserve a special day to honor it. That day is May 18th.

In Haiti, Flag Day is a major national holiday celebrated with great fanfare on the grounds of the national palace. Flag Day is also observed by Haitians in the Diaspora. In The United States for example, teenagers whether in High School give homage to the red and blue by carrying it around with them or on their persona for at least a week. Haiti’s flag’s origin is tightly linked to a history of struggle for freedom.

In the early days of revolt in St. Domingue, the slaves did not have a flag. However, they did notice that their former masters were using the French Flag. From 1791 to about 1793, the revolt became more widespread and gave rise to a number of large groups still fighting independently. In those times, each main leader would use any piece of cloth as a flag. Slowly the slave movement found some synergy and came to follow the leadership one main person: Toussaint Louverture. Realizing that you cannot fight three enemies at the same time, Toussaint and the army of revolted slaves fought successively for the Spanish against the French (1793-1794), for the French against Spain and England (1794-1802) and ultimately against France. As such, he carried the color of whichever European power he was fighting for. He later realized that it was silly to use the same flag as the enemies. He then invented his own flag, which was a white piece of cloth with a Negro head to represent the blacks.

After Toussaint’s deportation, The Indigene Army went back to the French flag for a while. A little explanation is needed here: The French flag as we know it now is a product of the French Revolution. It was made up of Red and Blue, the colors of the City of Paris, and a band of white representing the monarchy (La Nation, la Loi et le Roi –). On the white portion of the flag was the emblem of the French Republic. The Revolution of St. Domingue was in some ways motivated by the French Revolution and for years, the masses main objectives were for freedom and better treatment. To them, the French Flag represented the ideals of Liberty and Fraternity. They hoped that those same principles would be applied to them, non-whites According to Thomas Madiou (1814-1884), a renowned historian of the 19th Century, they also saw in that flag a symbol of blacks, whites and mulattoes living in harmony. Therefore, carrying the French was not stupidity, but rather an expression of their ideals.

As time went on though, a break with France seemed inevitable and to symbolize their resolve of never fighting for the metropolis again, they had removed the French arms from the blue white and red flag they were using. As early as February 1803 however, Petion, leader of the mulattoes and Dessalines had decided to create a unique flag to represent their troops. Thus, starting with the French Flag made up of three blue, white and red bands placed vertically respectively; Dessalines removed the white and created the first unofficial flag with blue and red bands placed vertically. By so doing, he also wanted to impart on the French the message that they had lost that colony forever. To them the blue symbolized the mulattos and the blacks while the red symbolized their blood. While this flag was observed in most part of the country; Cangé, a general in the south used a black and red flag instead.