Students line up for Matènwa's annual Flag Day parade.
So much of what the world hears about Haiti right now is only crisis.
But yesterday, Flag Day, Matènwa students were carrying a different truth: Haiti is also about an ancestry that instills courage, dignity, pride, and joy in every Haitian.
May 18th is one of Haiti’s most meaningful and beloved holidays. Our students, dressed in red, blue, and white, marched proudly with their teachers, parents, and neighbors to the next town and back while singing Flag Day songs accompanied by the school’s marching band.
An MCLC student shows her Flag Day pride.
As the Haitian Times explained in a brief history of Haiti’s flag, during the final days of the Congress of Arcahaie on May 18, 1803, revolutionary leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines sought to create a unified banner for the revolutionary forces.
To symbolize a complete break from France, Dessalines seized the French tricolor flag, tore out and discarded the white center strip, and kept the blue and red bands. He then handed these remaining pieces to his goddaughter, seamstress Catherine Flon.
The blue represented Black citizens, and the red represented mixed-race citizens, united together against colonial oppression. To honor her contributions to the fabric of Haiti's liberty, Flon’s likeness was placed on the Haitian 10-gourde banknote.
The Jean-Jacques Dessalines mural and the Catherine Flon mural, on the walls outside the Matènwa Community Learning Center.
These and all the historical murals at MCLC were repainted as part of the school's Flag Day celebration.
This history matters at Matènwa. Heroines and heroes are muraled across the entrance walls of the school, where girls and boys learn together, lead together, work in the gardens together, and grow up seeing that dignity and leadership belong to everyone.
Flag Day felt bittersweet too. Even though there were some neighborhood celebrations in Port au Prince, the government moved their Flag Day celebration, far from the gangs, to Cap-Haitien. Regardless, Haitian communities, despite the gangs, celebrated. That is not pretending everything is fine. That is courage.
Students with the Matènwa Community Learning Center band play as part of the school's Flag Day parade.
In Matènwa, Flag Day is celebrated because our children deserve joy. The message rings out that Haitian culture is strong; Haitian history gives us courage; Haiti’s music and art is beautiful; Haiti is much more than just crisis.
And because you stand with Matènwa, students can keep learning, teachers can keep teaching, gardens can keep growing, and children can keep experiencing days filled with pride, belonging, and hope. The future belongs to the children marching in these photos.
MCLC co-founder Abner Sauveur, Vana Edmond MCLC Leadership Team member, and Chris at Flag Day festivities.
This Flag Day, we celebrate the people of Matènwa: the students who marched with joy, the teachers who prepared them, the parents who walked beside them, and the community that keeps showing what dignity and determination look like.
On Haitian Flag Day, we honor Haiti’s past. And in Matènwa, we see Haiti’s future.
Peace,
Chris
