This hero is a nation

If, in the absence of a full revolutionary epic, the glory of Toussen Louvèti (Toussaint Louverture) had to be distilled into five words, we would simply recall Lamartine’s celebrated remark: “This man is a nation.”

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Conversely, since devotion knows no measure, a fervent admirer would hardly refrain from offering this hero a few lines of unrestrained praise.

 

''KRIK''-''KRAK'' (storyteller's opening call)

 

Son of Deguénon, prince of the powerful kingdom of Allada—today in southern Benin—and commander-in-chief of its army, Toussen Louvèti stands among the principal architects of Haiti’s independence. A military prodigy, he earned the name Louverture—“the Opening”—for his unmatched talent in carving breaches through enemy lines. As King Kpodégbé of Allada recalled in 2004, the man long hailed as the Black Spartacus was truly “the master of impossible and perilous situations.”

 

Commander of the revolutionary army and later Governor of Haiti, this charismatic leader possessed a cultivated mind; he wielded the pen with the same mastery as the sword. As head of the struggle for liberation, he endowed the island with a Constitution, promulgated on July 8, 1801—an act that signalled to the European invaders that Haiti was preparing to claim its place among sovereign states.

 

Less than two years later, a resounding military victory confirmed that Haitians held full command over their destiny. Louvèti’s successor, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, after routing the French invaders at the Battle of Vertières on November 18, 1803, proclaimed Haiti’s independence on January 1, 1804.

 

Since that memorable dawn, the triumphant nation has never ceased to acclaim its liberators.