X-Nico

5 unusual facts about François Duvalier


Duvalier

François Duvalier (1907-1971), nicknamed "Papa Doc", President of Haiti (1957-1971)

François Duvalier

The first authoritative book on the subject was Papa Doc: Haiti and its Dictator by Al Burt and Bernard Diederich, published in 1969, though several others by Haitian scholars and historians have appeared since Duvalier's death in 1971.

The British television journalist Alan Whicker made a documentary Papa Doc: The Black Sheep (1969) and interviewed the president.

Joe Gaetjens

He was related to Louis Déjoie (his great-grandfather Thomas married Leonie Déjoie), who lost the 1957 Haitian presidential election to François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, and although the family also had connections to the new president, Gaetjens's younger brothers became associated with a group of exiles in the Dominican Republic who wanted to stage a coup.

Overprint

The brusque symbol obscured the images of Baby Doc and Papa Doc until they were replaced with images of figures from Haitian history.


Vere Bird

The Antiguan author Jamaica Kincaid compared the Bird government to the François Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti in her politically charged narrative A Small Place.


see also

Duvalier

Jean-Claude Duvalier (born 1951), nicknamed "Baby Doc", son of François Duvalier and President of Haiti (1971-1986)

Simone Ovid Duvalier (1913-1997), widow of François Duvalier and mother of Jean-Claude Duvalier