The Audacity of Hope
Life has taken Haiti to endless twists and turns for the last 220 years. Has anyone told the French in 1798 that the slaves of Saint Domingue would revolt, kick them out of the Island, and proclaim it an independent Country; they would have laughed at you for sure. The whole world would have thought you were mad, for that matter. But, that's exactly what happened. In a period of 6 years, ex-slaves, illiterate at best, from Toussaint Louverture to Jean Jacques Dessalines, lead the French army, European's best, to a series of tactical and fierce battles, sometimes with them, sometimes against them. Given the condition at the time, they did what no one else could, and no one else has done since. Armed with the best weapon of all; the will to be free; the Indigenous Army defeated the Army of Napoleon, Leclerc, and Rochambeau; and along the way they also beat the Spanish and the British. They simply dare to dream. But somewhere along the way, we lost that spark that occupies a lar