The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has announced a joint commission with Haiti to examine the countries’ shared past as Haitian campaigners demand a reimbursement of billions of dollars worth of “ransom” paid to France. Macron announced his intention to create the commission as campaigners renewed calls for reparations on the bicentenary of an agreement to pay 150m francs to France in 1825 to compensate slave-owning colonists after the Haitian Revolution. “That decision put a price on the liberty of a young nation, which from its birth thereby confronted the unjust force of history,” Macron said. Though the figure was later reduced to 90m, Fritz Deshommes, president of the Haitian National Committee on Restitution and Reparations (HNCRR), estimates the converted value of the payment today could be between $38bn and $135bn, depending on how the sum is calculated and whether it reflects lost customs revenue and economic stagnation. Macron said the commission would be tasked with the “necessary and indispensable” work of examining all aspects of Haiti’s and France’s shared history and “propose recommendations to both governments to draw lessons from it and build a more peaceful future”. Once France’s most important colony in the Caribbean, Haiti received hundreds of thousands of Africans who had been kidnapped, forcibly transported across the Atlantic and sold into slavery. After a bloody struggle between self-liberated slaves and French, Spanish and British forces, it became the first Caribbean nation to gain its independence from colonial rule in 1804. But, under threat of military action, France later demanded what HNCRR member Jean Mozart Feron described as an unjust and exorbitant ransom, supposedly to provide compensation for former enslavers. The enormous payments, Feron said, crippled the fledgling nation. “This ransom plunged Haiti into a spiral of economic dependency from which it has never fully recovered and … strangled the young nation, stifling its development and diverting precious resources that could have been invested in education and infrastructure,” he said. The debt not only created deep structural poverty, social inequality and weak institutions, but also affected “the way Haiti is perceived and treated on the international stage without due consideration for this history of economic exploitation”, he said. Monique Clesca, spokesperson for the Kolektif Ayisyen Afwodesandan, a civil society organisation that has been campaigning for reparations for Haiti, said the “monstrous debt” created by the ransom prevented the country from “moving forward at the rhythm that we should have been moving forward”. “Politically this meant that we almost became a neocolony, totally indebted to France, not only in terms of economics, but symbolically and politically, we were tied. So there are serious repercussions and consequences to this continuous debt that you can’t undo,” she said. The campaigners are calling for France to repay the ransom and offer restitution for the harm caused by slavery and colonisation. The HNCRR is working in alignment with the Caribbean Community (Caricom), which has a 10-point plan for reparatory justice. Speaking at the opening of the UN’s Permanent Forum on People of African Descent on Monday, the Caricom secretary-general, Dr Carla Barnett, joined the calls for reparations for Haiti. “The negative economic and social effects of this historical injustice are painfully clear, with arguable links to the situation in Haiti today. This anniversary presents an opportunity to bring global attention and a deeper understanding of the situation in Haiti and serves as a call to action to address the ongoing security, humanitarian and governance crises in the country,” she said. Macron said France was ready to confront its past and accept “its share of truth in the creation of memory, a painful one, for Haiti, which began in 1825”. He added: “Today, on this bicentennial, we must, here as elsewhere, face this history squarely … Haiti was born of a revolution, faithful to the spirit of 1789, which brilliantly affirmed the universal principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. “This struggle in Haiti, in harmony with the ideals of the French Revolution, should have offered France and Haiti the opportunity to walk a common path. But the forces of the counterrevolution since 1814, the restoration of the Bourbons and the monarchy, decided otherwise regarding the writing of history,” he said. Appealing for global support for Haiti’s reparations claim, Heron said: “Haitian citizens do not hold French people responsible for the decision made in 1825 by the French state. However, we believe that the French people have a moral responsibility and a duty to stand in solidarity with the Haitian people in this initiative.” HNCRR, he said, was of the view that France and Haiti could reach an agreement about the “types of expertise and technical assistance valued within the framework of restitution”. But Haiti, he added, must ultimately decide how to use the reparations. Haiti has been gripped by crisis since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, and a subsequent gang insurgency which forced Ariel Henry, who led the country as an unelected prime minister after Moïse’s death, out of office in March 2024. Since then, support from the international community has failed to restore stable, democratic governance and curb the spiralling violence, which has killed thousands and displaced tens of thousands. Feron dismissed arguments that the current crisis could prevent the country from effectively managing any reparation payments, arguing that the state of the country was a consequence of its history. He added: “Our committee intends to work closely with the civil society to clearly advise the Haitian state on how this money should be used or could be used and how it should be managed with total transparency in a responsible manner.”
Author: Natricia Duncan