Haiti has a long history of forgetting. Or should I say erasing? Part of what it means to move forward, however, is to understand our past. HCX is highlighting a couple of institutions that have taken on the task of reminding the Haitian people of their past, the adversities they’ve triumphed over, and the consequences of our actions as a people in order to create avenues for remembrance: an opportunity to understand our current condition as a Nation. In a way, the following organizations are offering us ways of moving forward — should we choose to. We applaud and value their efforts.
Akoustik Prod. is a cultural association created 2010, with the mission to actively contribute to the development and the promotion of Haitian art, culture and tradition. They host Krik Krak Festival, a program that was created to allow Haitians to return to traditional values and have a better understanding of their culture. Participants have the opportunity to discover or rediscover, traditional songs, stories, dances and games.
CIDIHCA is a a documentation center in Montreal that provides documentation on Haiti and on the African diasporas to as wide an audience as possible. CIDIHCA has become a place of reference. The CIDIHCA library has assembled a substantial body of magazines, newspapers and documents. The CIDIHCA also has a video library , a large collection of microfilms on the history of Haiti and an important collection of Haitian literature accessible to researchers and students. The CIDIHCA is working to build a sound library music (popular and scholarly) produced in Haiti and in the diaspora .
Created in 1995, the Fondation Connaissance et Liberté / Fondasyon Konesans Ak Libète (Foundation for Knowledge and Liberty), is a well recognized national foundation supported mainly by Open Society Foundations, OSF, a world wide network of foundations and initiatives created by philanthropist George Soros for the promotion of democratic values. FOKAL also receives support from the European Union and the French cooperation. The Foundation offers to local communities throughout the country and to organizations of civil society a large spectrum of activities in the fields of education, arts and culture and development.
Fondation Mémoire is dedicated to the preservation of the culture and heritage of Haiti. They assist in the identification, preservation and maintenance of significant artifacts of the Haitian national heritage, encompassing documents, artifacts, monuments, sites, persons, and historical figures.
Fordi9 is intended to introduce Fort-Dimanche, the most infamous political prison in Haiti during the Duvalier’s era (1957 – 1986). The organization aims to immortalize in its Chronicle, the thousands who suffered, were victimized and perished during the repressive regime.
The project “Haiti fights against impunity”, conceived as a virtual library accessible on the Web, has a given mission to inform on the nature and scope of the system of impunity in Haiti. The project offers, particularly to the younger generations, documents based on real facts, events that took place in Haiti, and whose analysis sheds light on the mechanisms and forms of impunity since the rise of the Duvalier regime in 1957 until today.
The Radio Haiti Archive, housed in the Human Rights Archive at Duke University’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, is an invaluable resource for scholars, educators, and members of the public interested in twentieth-century Haitian politics, society, and culture. The project houses the preservation of the comprehensive archives of Radio Haïti-Inter, the voice of Haitian democracy from the station’s genesis in the 1960s to its closure in 2003.
The Toussaint Louverture Cultural Foundation’s purposes are to promote Haitian culture, stimulate artistic creativity, and support Haitian cultural activities in Haiti and in the United States.
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