HAITI

[Guest]

.

[Natasha]

Haiti

Haiti (English pronounced /ˈheɪtiː/; French Haïti pronounced [aiti]; Haitian Creole: Ayiti), officially the Republic of Haiti (République d'Haïti ; Repiblik d Ayiti), is a French and Creole speaking Latin American country located in the Greater Antilles archipelago on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti (Land of Mountains) was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island. The country's highest point is Pic la Selle, at 2,680 metres (8,793 ft). The total area of Haiti is 27,750 square kilometres (10,714 sq mi) and its capital is Port-au-Prince.

BRIEF FACTS:
•  Haiti is the oldest black republic in the world. 
•  Population: approximately 8.3 million, almost entirely of African origin
•  Employment rate: 30% 
•  Illiteracy rate: 48% 
•  Religion: Catholic 85%, Voodoo 90%
•  Languages: French (official), kreyol (most widely spoken)
•  Current government: Elected president
•  Haiti is the poorest and most densely populated country in the Western Hemisphere.
•  Average life expectancy is 52 years. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiti
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/haiti/
http://www.travelinghaiti.com/index.asp

Move to the invigorating beat of a luminous culture.

Haiti is a poverty-stricken land of urban overpopulation, denuded hillsides and a people suffering the wounds of civil strife and oppression. It is also a vibrant country of colourful art, fantastic music, cloud forests and an intensely spiritual people whose humour and passion are legendary.

Random Photos of Haiti (4.49 minutes)
Music by Sweet Mickey "Pa Fe Mwen Mal"



Visions of Haiti (2.11 minutes)
Soundtrack composed by Zain Effendi

[Diane R]

Religion: Catholic 85%, Voodoo 90%

I find this a fascinating fact, Natasha!!

--Diane.

[Dottie b]

There's either a typo in the religion percentages or it's a very intereting overlap! 

Dottie B

[Natasha]

There's either a typo in the religion percentages or it's a very intereting overlap! 
Dottie B

Hi Dottie & Diane!

Actually, although surprising, I think that is it is correct, in fact it is something that I have heard before when studying.

Cheers,
Natasha

Haitian Vodou

Haitian Creole forms of Vodou exist in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, parts of Cuba, the United States, and other places that Haitian immigrants dispersed to over the years.

The majority of the Africans who were brought as slaves to Haiti were from Western and Central Africa. The Vodoun pracitioners brought over and enslaved in the United States primarily descend from the Ewe, Anlo-Ewe, and other West African groups.[citation needed] The survival of the belief systems in the New World is remarkable, although the traditions have changed with time and have even taken on some Catholic types of worship. One of the largest differences however between African and Haitian Vodou is that the transplanted Africans of Haiti were obliged to disguise their loa (sometimes spelled lwa) or spirits as Roman Catholic saints, an element of a process called syncretism.


Roman Catholicism was mixed into the religion to hide their "pagan" religion from their masters who had forbidden them to practice it. Any practitioners caught doing anything outside of the Catholic religion would be subject to execution. To say that Haitian Vodou is simply a mix of West African religions with a veneer of Roman Catholicism would be correct. To this day, many uneducated Haitian practicing this religion would intergrate Roman Catholic very much by including their prayers into the ceremony. Throughout the history of the island from the the day of Independence of 1804 to the present, missionaries repeatedly come over to the island to convert the Haitians back to the Christian religion they where forced into. This has set many Haitians to project vodou as an evil religion from the brainwashing by the missionary to abusive practitioners who use vodou to persecute. To convince other religious members in the Haitian islands, practitioners want to convice others that their religion involves God as much as Christianity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_Vodou

[Claus-Peter]

The CIA Factbook's always cover a lot of knowledge about a country.

Here is their background information about Haiti

The native Taino Amerindians - who inhabited the island of Hispaniola when it was discovered by COLUMBUS in 1492 - were virtually annihilated by Spanish settlers within 25 years. In the early 17th century, the French established a presence on Hispaniola, and in 1697, Spain ceded to the French the western third of the island, which later became Haiti. The French colony, based on forestry and sugar-related industries, became one of the wealthiest in the Caribbean, but only through the heavy importation of African slaves and considerable environmental degradation. In the late 18th century, Haiti's nearly half million slaves revolted under Toussaint L'OUVERTURE. After a prolonged struggle, Haiti became the first black republic to declare its independence in 1804. The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti has been plagued by political violence for most of its history. After an armed rebellion led to the departure of President Jean-Bertrand ARISTIDE in February 2004, an interim government took office to organize new elections under the auspices of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). Continued violence and technical delays prompted repeated postponements, but Haiti finally did inaugurate a democratically elected president and parliament in May of 2006.

For more details you can look up at:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ha.html


Claus-Peter

[Natasha]

I find this a fascinating fact, Natasha!!

--Diane.

This came from another website regarding the parallel religions:

Roman Catholicism is the official religion of Haiti, but voodoo may be considered the country's national religion. The majority of Haitians believe in and practice at least some aspects of voodoo. Most voodooists believe that their religion can coexist with Catholicism.

Misconceptions about voodoo have given Haiti a reputation for sorcery and zombies. Popular images of voodoo have ignored the religion's basis as a domestic cult of family spirits. Adherents of voodoo do not perceive themselves as members of a separate religion; they consider themselves Roman Catholics. In fact, the word for voodoo does not even exist in rural Haiti. The Creole word vodoun refers to a kind of dance and in some areas to a category of spirits. Roman Catholics who are active voodooists say that they "serve the spirits," but they do not consider that practice as something outside of Roman Catholicism. Haitians also distinguish between the service of family spirits and the practice of magic and sorcery

http://www.travelinghaiti.com/haitian_voodoo.asp

[Natasha]

Haitian Voodoo

The belief system of voodoo revolves around family spirits (often called loua or mistË) who are inherited through maternal and paternal lines. Loua protect their "children" from misfortune. In return, families must "feed" the loua through periodic rituals in which food, drink, and other gifts are offered to the spirits. There are two kinds of services for the loua. The first is held once a year; the second is conducted much less frequently, usually only once a generation. Many poor families, however, wait until they feel a need to restore their relationship with their spirits before they conduct a service. Services are usually held at a sanctuary on family land

In voodoo, there are many loua. Although there is considerable variation among families and regions, there are generally two groups of loua, the rada and the petro. The rada spirits are mostly seen as "sweet" loua, while the petro are seen as "bitter" because they are more demanding of their "children." Rada spirits appear to be of African origin while petro spirits appear to be of Haitian origin

Loua are usually anthropomorphic and have distinct identities. They can be good, evil, capricious, or demanding. Loua most commonly show their displeasure by making people sick, and so voodoo is used to diagnose and treat illnesses. Loua are not nature spirits, and they do not make crops grow or bring rain. The loua of one family have no claim over members of other families, and they cannot protect or harm them. Voodooists are therefore not interested in the loua of other families

To read more about this subject: 
 http://www.travelinghaiti.com/haitian_voodoo.asp
 http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/index-faa.html
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_Vodou

[Claus-Peter]

The age structure of Haiti is quite different from that one in developed countries:


Population:    

8,706,497


note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2007 est.) 


Age structure:    

0-14 years: 42.1% (male 1,846,175/female 1,817,082)
15-64 years: 54.4% (male 2,313,542/female 2,426,326)
65 years and over: 3.5% (male 134,580/female 168,792) (2007 est.) 


Median age:   

total: 18.4 years
male: 17.9 years
female: 18.8 years (2007 est.) 


Claus-Peter

[Claus-Peter]

Flag of Haiti:

[Natasha]

Amnesty International Report 2007: Haiti

This particular report is comprehensive, so if you would like more background information on Haiti, please either download the word document report (2 pages) or go to http://www.amnesty.org/

"The government remained unable to ensure the economic, social and cultural rights of its population with 60 % of its 8.5 million people living on less than US$1 a day. Serious food shortages, difficulties in access to safe drinking water, and the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the region aggravated the humanitarian situation."