Haiti

Demographics

• Population: 9,996,731 (July 2014 est.)

  • 95% Black

  • 5% Mulatto and White

• Official Languages: French and Creole

• 2013 GDP per capita: $1,315 USD (The U.S.'s GDP per capita is $53,101 USD)

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Haitians In the United States

• By 2009 an estimated 830,000 people with Haitian ancestry were living in the U.S.

• Of these 830,000, approximately two thirds lived in two states: Florida and New York

• Five states had higher percentage of Haitians than the national average of 0.3 percent: Florida, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Connecticut

• Approximately 59 percent of the population with Haitian ancestry was foreign born

• Median Haitian family income: $46,000 compared with the U.S. average of $61,000

Culture

Religion

• The majority of the Haitian population is Christian with the following: Roman Catholic 80%, Protestant 16% (Baptist 10%, Pentecostal 4%, Adventist 1%, other 1%), none 1%, other 3%. In addition, roughly half of the population practices vodou. For many Haitians, the beliefs and practices of Vodou have been intermingled with the practice of Christianity.

• Vodou - Vodou is an amalgamation of African religious beliefs. The rituals and ceremonies of the religion are performed to call on family spirits to help and protect. Voodoo and Catholicism coexist with no perceived contradiction in dominant Haitian culture.

Race

Modern conflicts of social class and skin color can be traced back to the mix of races and languages created by French colonists and African slaves. The majority of Haitians are descendants of the African slaves taken to the island by the Spanish and French during the colonial period. Many Haitians are mulattoes with both African and European ancestry. Generally Haitians do not consider the term mulatto to be derogatory as it sometimes is in the U.S. A few Haitians are Caucasian. Racism has played a primary role in shaping Haiti's history and culture. African slaves who labored within the homes of French slaveholders often bore their masters' children. These mulatto children were legally free and grew up with exposure to the French language because they spent much of their time in the slaveholders' homes. These advantages over their black peers created a distinct social class for mulattoes but not equality with whites. Light skin has been considered a sign of elite status: the whiter your skin, the higher your status. Thus, mulattoes have been perceived to have higher social status than blacks of strictly African descent. The black majority in Haiti knows that their freedom from institutional marginalization was hard fought. As their economic marginalization continues, tensions and distrust between blacks and mulattoes is perpetuated.

Language

• 93.9% of Haitian-Americans speak a language other than English in the home. Of those, 52.1% speak English less than “very well”.

• Haiti has two official languages: Creole and French. Nearly all Haitians speak Creole. In general, Haitians fall into either of two categories: monolinguals speaking Creole (approximately 90%) and bilinguals speaking Creole and French (approximately 10%).

Creole

Haitian Creole (also spelled Kreyòl) is a creole language. Below is a brief, simplified explanation of how a creole language arises followed by the specific history of Haitian Creole. A lingua franca is a language that can be used to communicate between people groups in a society where various languages are spoken. If no lingua franca exists, the people of the society still try to communicate with one another. A pidgin is likely to arise. A pidgin is a language that emerges as a combination of elements from two or more languages. The pidgin becomes the lingua franca for communication between people groups within the society. Because the pidgin has emerged as means for linguistically diverse people group to communicate between each other, there are no native speakers. The next generation of children in the society may learn the pidgin as their first language. At that point, the language becomes a creole.

Phonology

1. /ŋ/ is not originally a Haitian Creole phoneme, but appears in English loanwords (eg. bèl filing 'good feeling').

2. In some orthographic representations of Haitian Creole, <r> is used for both /ɣ/ and /w/, since [ɣ] only occurs before front vowels and [w] before back vowels. However, some modern orthographies use both <r> and <w> since the difference is phonemic.

Orthography

The currently accepted orthography system for Creole was officially adopted in 1979. Several other orthographic systems had been used prior. Today most written Creole–including that available in the U.S.–uses the 1979 orthography, which has a one-to-one sound-symbol correspondence.

French

French is the language of the wealthy elite in Haiti. Historically, the language difference has been used to protect the status of the elite in Haitian society. Until the last 20 years, formal education and broadcast media were provided only in French which was not understood by the majority of Haitians.

Education & Implication for SLPs in Educational Settings

Few Haitians receive a formal education, and even fewer are educated beyond primary school.

• Widespread illiteracy – about 50% of Haiti’s adult population

  • Literacy (those age 15 and over who can read and write):

    • Total population: 48.7%

    • Male: 53.4%

    • Female: 44.6% (2006 est.)

• Access to education – Only 40% to 65% of primary school-aged children are enrolled in school. Despite free and compulsory education policies, many barriers to education remain: cost of school supplies and uniforms,32) student absences during harvest and rainy seasons.

• The values and practices of the educational system in Haiti contrast in several ways with that of the United States. Therefore, students (and their parents) who have moved to the U.S. after some schooling in Haiti will likely find some of the values and practices of the American educational system to be unexpected and confusing.

• Rote memory is the primary form of learning expected of students in Haitian schools. The American schools' emphasis on analysis, learning by exploration, and thinking for oneself may confuse Haitian students to whom these values have not been explained.

• Haitian parents and students may be confused or even disturbed by the informal teacher-student relationship practiced in the U.S. In Haiti the teacher calls students by their last names. While Americans value eye contact, Haitian students show respect by keeping their heads down and avoiding eye contact with their teachers. The process of learning how to act toward American teachers may be confusing to Haitian students. American educators should be aware that these cultural differences may need to be taught.

• Haitian parents have little involvement in the educational system in Haiti. When inviting Haitian parents to IFSP, IEP, or routine parent-teacher conferences, the American educator should clearly explain the purpose of the meeting. In Haiti, parents are only asked to come to the school if their child has severely misbehaved.

• Although Creole is now used in Haitian schools, it remains controversial. Even though only 10% of Haitians speak French, it is still considered the language of power and knowledge. In the U.S., Haitian-American parents may be resistant to literacy skills being taught in Creole.

Health Care & Implications for SLPs in Medical Settings

• Access to health care is severely limited in Haiti. Many of Haiti's doctors have emigrated to seek financial security and escape the political unrest in Haiti. Few Haitians can afford the services of the doctors who remain.

• Attitudes toward professional health care services vary among Haitian-Americans. Previous access to professional health care, social class, and education all affect the type of health services Haitian-Americans seek. Undocumented immigrants are likely to be fearful of seeking American health care services because they do not want to be deported.

• Many Haitians rely on herbal remedies and religious healers to address their health needs. Traditionally, the mother or grandmother is the one who diagnoses health problems, and remedies are sought within the family system first. Voodoo folk healers are often the next step in seeking help. Many Haitians believe that illnesses can have either natural or supernatural origins. The Voodoo healer is the best person to treat an illness with a supernatural cause. The Voodoo healer tells the family what they must do (including what medicines the ill person should take) to make reconciliation with the spirit causing the illness. Haitian-Americans may never seek the services of American health professionals for conditions they believe are supernaturally caused.

• Illness is often expressed by Haitians as an imbalance of hot and cold. Hot or cold blood could be a cause of illness. Food and medicine are categorized into hot and cold and used to counteract imbalances.

• Health concerns are often described with statements identifying the expected result of the condition:

• The following statements may be used by a Haitian American when he is ill: Kom pa bon (I do not feel well)—indicates a temporary situation and that the person will soon be well; Dan tan zan tan moin malad (I feel sick from time to time)—indicates how the person feels about his/her general health; Moin an konvalesans (I am convalescing)—indicates that the person was sick and is now getting better; Moin malad (I am sick)—indicates the person is ill but the illness will not lead to death; Moin malad anpil (I am very sick)—indicates that the person is in a critical condition; Moin pap refe (I will never get well again)—indicates that the person is going to die from the illness.

• When health professionals are consulted, Haitian-Americans are likely to expect the health care provider to spend some time learning about the patient's life in general. They expect the professional to identify the problem, and extensive questioning of the patient is unexpected. The professional who exhibits an effort to understand the Haitians' cultural beliefs and practices is likely to gain the respect of the Haitian-American patient.

Original contributor: Stephen McCorkle, Winter 2009

Updated Spring 2014: Karen Edwards