AYITI. Memorie e oblio della Rivoluzione haitiana: un approccio fotografico

The unique aspects of Haiti, whose date of birth coincides with the abolition of slavery and the birth of the first black republic in 1804, have been determined by its history. In Haiti, the memory becomes a unifying element, perhaps the only common denominator of a vertical society divided into castes. In all social latitudes, memories of the resistance to slavery acquire a value of identity and give a sense of belonging to the same historic community. These memories have been embraced by the different social groups living in the country, each in its own way, so that today Haiti has an exceptional heritage based on popular culture, even if largely unrecognized by the public institutions and the international community. This photographic series, realized a part of a research supported by Fokal foundation, traces the multiple experiences related to these key memories, the descendants of revolutionaries, the Voodoo pantheon, the “Poles” affair, the Carnival in Jacmel, the “relics” of national heroes, the question of the debt (or ransom) of Haiti and the new forms of re-appropriation of the past, to the impressively popular initiative of the “Movement for the Success of the Image of the Independence Heroes”.