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In Week 3 of our Summer 2026 series, Under the Haitian Skin, we step beyond the history books and into the lived reality of Jean‑Jacques Dessalines, not the myth, not the propaganda, but the man.
This episode takes listeners through a single day in Dessalines’ life, revealing the emotional truth behind the figure the world thinks it knows. We explore how a child born in chains became the architect of Haiti’s independence, and how the world used his name as a lens to judge an entire nation.
Through a powerful conversation between Souvni and Valentin, we uncover the psychological scars Dessalines carried from enslavement, the betrayals that shaped his distrust of colonial powers, the propaganda that turned a liberator into a villain in foreign eyes, the tenderness and grounding he found through Marie‑Claire Heureuse, and the survival logic behind his leadership, a logic born from brutality, not cruelty
And as always, we close with a new episode of La Famille Pòt, where Tika paints Dessalines with three faces, a humorous, heartfelt moment that reveals a deeper truth: a man who lived through fire cannot have just one face.
This week’s episode is not just history. It is an invitation to understand how the world sees Haiti through Dessalines, and how we, as Haitians, can reclaim the narrative.
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