23/05/2025
In overthrowing me, you have done no more than cut down the trunk of the tree of Black liberty in Saint-Domingue. It will spring back from the roots, for they are numerous and deep.
These were the powerful last words of François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture, widely known as Toussaint Louverture, after his capture during Napoleon's 1802 expedition to crush the uprising in the colony. Deported to a prison in France, he died a year later in captivity.
Toussaint Louverture remains a symbol of resistance and resilience, whose pivotal role in the Haitian Revolution, from 1791 to 1803, marked the course of world history. Today, his spirit lives on in every Haitian, reminding us daily that we are like Wozo, the resilient reed: we bend, but we do not break.
