The San Diego, CA-based Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) on Thursday honored the 233rd anniversary of the Bwa Kayiman ceremony of August 14, 1791—the historic gathering that ignited the Haitian Revolution.
“It was here that enslaved Africans, led by Dutty Boukman and Cécile Fatiman, pledged unity and resistance against the brutal system of French colonial slavery,” HBA Co-Founder and Executive Director Guerline Jozef told Caribbean Life.
“This act of defiance launched a revolution that, by January 1, 1804, birthed Haiti as the first free Black republic in the world and the only nation in history founded by a successful slave revolt,” she added.
Yet in the centuries that followed, Jozef lamented that Haiti has faced “relentless punishment for daring to be free—from the crippling 150 million gold franc ‘independence debt’ extorted by France in 1825, to US military occupation from 1915 to 1934, to ongoing foreign interventions and neoliberal policies that have deepened inequality and dismantled local governance.
“Bwa Kayiman was our ancestors’ declaration that we would not live or die on our knees,” she said. “But two centuries later, Haiti remains trapped in the vise of imperialism—its land plundered, its democracy undermined, and its people displaced.”
Jozef claimed that “every coup, every occupation, every IMF (International Monetary Fund) austerity measure is part of the same project to break Haiti’s spirit and control its destiny.”
She said HBA rejects “the lie that Haiti is ‘broken.’
“What is broken is the global system that demands our subjugation while profiting from our suffering,” Jozef said.
On the 233rd anniversary of the Bwa Kayiman ceremony, she said HBA reiterated its recommitment to “defending Haiti’s sovereignty, strengthening US-Haiti bilateral/trade relations, and demanding reparations from France for historical and ongoing exploitation.”
Jozef said HBA honors “the revolutionary vision of Bwa Kayiman—a vision of liberation that extends beyond Haiti’s shores to all oppressed peoples fighting for dignity and self-determination.”
