HAÏTI, the price of independence

On January 1, 1804, Haitian slaves achieved the unthinkable: they drove out the French colonists and declared their independence. Two centuries later, Haiti remains one of the poorest countries in the world. Twenty years after independence, France sought revenge, demanding an indemnity of 150 million gold francs (equivalent to around $560 million in today’s dollars). That enormous sum was meant to compensate former colonists for their lost property – meaning both land and slaves.

Unable to pay, Haiti was forced to borrow from French banks, plunging the young nation into a crippling cycle of debt. Historians call this the “double debt of independence,” which took over a century to repay and severely hampered Haiti’s social and economic development. This film traces the profoundly unfair history of that debt and its lasting consequences.