Building a better future for Haiti

The Republic of Haiti — or Ayiti as the indigenous Taino peoples named it — occupies the Western portion of the island of Hispaniola, which it shares with the Dominican Republic.

It was the first ever black republic. Christopher Columbus arrived on Haiti in 1492 to the dismay of many indigenous peoples, including Queen Anacaona who resisted the incursion of the Spanish and was executed in front of her people. Diseases such as smallpox decimated many Taino. If they refused to work in the gold mines they were either killed or sold into slavery.

Over the ensuing years of constant colonisation and occupation, the population of Haiti became a mix of escaped African slaves, children born to native women and European men and an important emerging class known as gens de coleur libre (free people of colour). The island became a haven for pirates and buccaneers.