Othello Bayard, who wrote “Haïti Chérie,” is born at Les Cayes

Louis Achille Othello Bayard was born at Les Cayes on 2 September 1885. He was a violinist, a poet and a composer. In 1925 he wrote “Souvenir d’Haïti” — the song the country has sung ever since as “Haïti Chérie,” second only to “La Dessalinienne.” He wrote it in Kreyòl, at a moment when the American occupier had been on Haitian soil for ten years and much of the Francophone elite had made its peace with him. Bayard died at Les Cayes on 19 July 1971, in the town where he was born.