Haitian Culture Curriculum Guide

The schools that these children attend are slowly moving away from the European educational
model of strict, lecture format to the American educational model, where students may voice their
opinions and engage in cooperative learning.
In the cities, the family raises the children in Christian faiths, but largely resorts to traditional vodun
beliefs in times of medical or spiritual crises or for special celebrations. The family structure is
extremely close knit.
Residences: In Haiti today there are very few architectural remains from colonial times. This is
because the French colonists considered Haiti a transitional home, rather than a place of permanent
settlement. Their goal was to become rich and return to France, so they built few sturdy houses and
left no monuments. The few palaces that were the residences of the administrators and the military
were destroyed during times of turmoil.
During colonial times, a typical colonist residence was a large house, “Le grande case” and the
satellite buildings attached to it -- workshops, sanitary facilities, kitchens, warehouses, etc. This
residential arrangement still exists today. For the past fifty years, modern concrete houses have
been built in the larger towns, integrating the facilities that made up the satellite buildings of the
colonist residence. However, the general residential pattern remains a central home, usually with
one or more rooms depending on the owner’s wealth, but typically with the kitchen and bathrooms
outside. Usually there is a “galerie,” a porch or veranda in the front or back of the house where
people gather. This residential model is found throughout the country.
In the rural areas, there is also “la tonnelle,” an open construction of poles supporting a room
covered with coconut palm leaves. This is also a place for social gatherings and children’s play
time.
Peasants in the rural areas often live in a home called “Ajoupa,” a one-room hut with thatched roof
and mud walls (the residence of the former Indian population). However, many of these homes
today have sheet iron roofs.
The “Lakou” is a significant aspect of Haitian residential patterns and is nearly universal in Haiti.
There are three types of lakou:
(1) Descendents of a common ancestor live on a piece of property left to them by the
ancestor. Through generations, the descendents intermarry and create alliances for a
perpetual extended family. People in the same lakou are considered relatives even if
they move away or are not of the same blood.
(2) During the colonial period there were sugar mills; and the slaves who worked in the
sugar mills lived around the mill. Today, the areas around the sugar mill may be a
residential setting where friends and descendants of the former slaves continue to
live. The cluster of residences is considered a lakou.
(3) In the urban area, the lakou is a similar concentration of homes with all people living
together as close friends or family members. This type of lakou is found primarily
in lower socioeconomic neighborhoods.
The lakou concept adds neighbors and close friends to the extended family. When new individuals
join the lakou, they are offered housing, food, and job sponsorship until they can live on their own.
Some form of lakou life can be observed in Little Haiti in Miami, and Broward County.
Haitian Cuisine: The women of Haiti have retained nearly all the African customs of preparing
food. Grain is first pounded in an African-like mortar, with an aboriginal type of pestle, while the
12