African Origins of Haitians

Exerpt from a great article on Haiti 360:

"The Africans who came from Africa into Haiti were mainly from the Bight of Benin. The Republic of Benin was known as part of the Dahomey kingdom. Dahomey was a powerful kingdom in the west part of Africa until it was taken over from 1894-1960 by the French. However, before the French took over completely the French were already buying slaves, trading for slaves and shipping them into the Caribbean to be used as slaves."


"... as most scholars would note, most Africans brought to Haiti were of the Yoruba people in Benin. However, this is due to the Dahomey kingdom conquered territories; which were assimilated through intermarriage, uniform laws, and a common tradition of enmity to the Yoruba. The non-Yoruba Africans came from the Kongo and Angola, with most coming from the region in which the Kongo people resided. Be mindful that the Kongo and Angola people were also intermingle with the Yoruba people. In other words the Yoruba people were all over the west part of Africa. If anything, they were considered to be the largest group of people in the west parts of Africa. Although, Haitian descendants come from the same continent, some of the Africans in Haiti were very much from different parts of Africa. Furthermore, mixing the different African tribes with each other, was a tactic used by the French as well as the other Europeans to keep African slaves from revolting or rebelling. For example, if all spoke the same language there would be a higher chance in communicating and revolting; as appose to those who spoke a different languages and possible conflicts already from being in different tribes, would create chaos which gave the European the advantages in control of the Africans."