1903-00-00: (The Haitian National Anthem Written, the Republic Now Nearly a Century Old and Still Defining the Symbols of a National Identity Forged in Revol…

1903-00-00: (The Haitian National Anthem Written, the Republic Now Nearly a Century Old and Still Defining the Symbols of a National Identity Forged in Revolution and Tested by Violence and Civil Strife): In 1903, the Haitian national anthem was written, nearly a century after independence. The anthem joined the flag that Catherine Flon had sewn at Arcahaye in 1803 and the name Haiti itself, reclaimed from the Taíno, as part of the symbolic architecture of a nation whose identity had been defined by revolution but whose subsequent history had tested the meaning of every symbol the Revolution had produced. The anthem was composed on the eve of the centennial, a moment of national self-reflection that would be celebrated on January 1, 1904, amid violence and civil strife that made the contrast between the revolutionary ideal and the political reality impossible to ignore.