Thursday, November 18, 2021 at the Museum of the Haitian National Pantheon (MUPANAH), Prime Minister ai, Ariel Henry, accompanied by Frantz Elbé Commander-in-Chief ai of the Haitian National Police (PNH), Enold Joseph Minister of Defense and officers of the Armed Forces of Haiti (FAd'H) in the presence of members of the Government and the high command of the PNH, participated in the commemorative ceremony of the 218th anniversary of the victory of the battle of Vertières of the indigenous troops against the colonial forces French. In this glorious circumstance as a sign of respect, admiration and pride towards the ancestors, the Prime Minister laid a floral wreath at the foot of the mausoleum of the Fathers of the Fatherland and delivered a speech to the Nation recalling that beyond the duty to remember this day "can help us to better understand the present, but also and above all to better prepare for the future."

Excerpts from the speech of Prime Minister Ariel Henry :

"[..]

On this 218th anniversary of the Battle of Vertières, the time has come for us Haitians to redo history in another form. The Battle of Vertières on November 18, 1803 was the culmination of the will to be free.

The victory of the native troops over the Napoleonic army paved the way for independence and national sovereignty. Despite the antagonisms between them, slaves and freedmen, blacks and mulattoes, had the intelligence to opt for union.

[...]

Haitians, let's unite. This is not an empty word. Let's give meaning to Vertières. Haiti was that light that illuminated the world to show the way to freedom. Our ancestors made Vertières in the tèt ansam.

We have an obligation in the face of history to build the new Haiti we all dream of. A united Haiti. A prosperous Haiti. A Haiti reconciled with itself. A Haiti of consensus and compromise.

[...]

Fate makes us both the witnesses of the collapse of our institutions and the architects of their reconstruction. May we, like our ancestors, respond to this urgent call, to this new rendezvous with History."

Download the full speech of the Prime Minister (PDF) : https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/disours-pm-218-vertieres.pdf

HL/ HaitiLibre