Presidents

A few weeks ago I saw President Obama's picture painted on the back of a tap-tap and wished I had my camera. I laughed thinking about the President of the United States being added to the tap-tap Hall of Fame along with Bob Marley, Tupac, Jesus, Aristide and Moses. So, today as we sat in traffic on Delma 33 I couldn't help but laugh when I saw this new painting.

Recently, I saw an article in a newspaper comparing Haiti's President, Toussaint Louverture, with our first black President. He too, has made the tap-tap Hall of Fame and the Delma 33 open air art gallery. I wondered if Haitians are thinking it is about time we finally caught up with them and got a black President?


Toussaint-Louverture (May 20, 1743–April 8, 1803) was a leader of the Haitian Revolution. Born in Saint Domingue , in a long struggle for independence Toussaint led enslaved Africans to victory over Europeans, abolished slavery, and secured native control over the colony in 1797 while nominally governor of the colony. He expelled the French commissioner Léger-Félicité Sonthonax, as well as the British armies; invaded Santo Domingo to free the slaves there; and wrote a constitution naming himself governor-for-life that established a new polity for the colony.

Especially between the years 1800 and 1802, Toussaint Louverture tried to rebuild the collapsed economy of Haiti and reestablish commercial contacts with the United States. His rule permitted the colony a taste of freedom which, after his death in exile, was gradually destroyed during the successive reigns of a series of despots. Translated from French, his name means "the awakening of all saints" or "all souls rising".