October 17th marks Dessalines Day in Haiti. This national holiday commemorates the life and legacy of Emperor Jean-Jacques Dessalines, one of Haiti's founding fathers and greatest independence heroes, who was assassinated on this day in 1806.
In observance of this significant national holiday, the students of the Institution Classique de Bayonnais (ICB) are out of school today. Around the country, Haitians honor Dessalines’ legacy through parades, debates, and street theater. The State historically lays wreaths at Pont-Rouge, north of Port-au-Prince, where he was killed.
Born into slavery in 1758 on the Duclos plantation in Grande-Rivière-du-Nord, Dessalines rose to become a commander of labor before being purchased by a free Afro-descendant named Dessalines. He eventually led the revolution to shatter the chains of French colonialism. On October 17, 1806, he was caught in an ambush and assassinated. He was targeted because he demanded the fair distribution of land and fiercely fought against systemic inequalities and social injustices. To this day, true justice for his murder has never been rendered.
More than two centuries after his assassination, the world's first Black Republic continues to face instability and threats to its sovereignty, with the political assassinations of Haitian heads of state tragically repeating throughout history. Most recently, on July 7, 2021, Jovenel Moïse, the 58th president of Haiti, was assassinated in office by a foreign commando unit. This heinous murder, which remains unsolved, extends a painful historical list: a total of four Haitian presidents have now been assassinated while in power, a cycle of violence that stretches from October 17, 1806, to July 7, 2021.
