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Republique d'Haiti, Repiblik Dayti, Republic of Haiti
Flag adopted: 25 February 1986
Coat of Arms adopted: 25 February 1986
Overview
From :
Constitution of 1987 (Article 3):
The emblem of the Haitian Nation shall be a flag with the following description:
Two (2) equal-sized horizontal bands: a blue one on top and a red one underneath;
The coat of arms of the Republic shall be placed in the center on a white square;
The coat of arms of the Republic are: a Palmette surrounded by the liberty cap, and under the palms a trophy with the legend: In Union there is Strength [L'Union Fait la Force]
Dov Gutterman, 7 January 1999
I have found the original French version (national languages in Haiti are French and Creole) of the Constitution at: (Website of the General Consulate of haiti in Montreal):
ARTICLE 2:
Les couleurs nationales sont: le bleu et le rouge. (National colours are: blue and red)
ARTICLE 3: as above, but: Les Armes de la République sont : Le Palmiste etc...
What is puzzling is that the original French text and the English translation do not refer to the same tree!
According to DOD Bourke's French-English horticultural dictionary (CAB International, 1989), palmette (Fr) = palmetto (En) = Sabal palmetto, palmiste (Fr) = cabbage palm (En) = Roystonea oleracea. Palm cabbage is the growing point eaten as a vegetable. DK Pocket Book calls the tree the 'royal palm', thus referring to local palmist species (Roystonea regia in Cuba, R. oleracea in Barbados, and R. borinquena in Puerto-Rico). I suggest to change 'palmette' to 'cabbage palm' to avoid confusion. Smith (1976) calls it 'emperor palm', a palm I have not found in any of the botanical books I have searched in.
The motto on the emblem (L'Union fait la Force) is NOT the national motto, which is Liberte - Egalite - Fraternite, fide Article 4 of the Constitution , as erroneously reported in DK Pocket Book and Smith (1976 & 1980)
According to Album des Pavillons, the flag with the emblem is the national flag and ensign as well as the war ensign, and the 'plain' flag is the civil ensign. This is seconded in Pedersen (1970) showing the Duvalier's era flags (with black instead of blue) .DK Pocket Book shows the flag without the emblem, with the caption 'For official and state purposes, the flag is charged with the national arms on a central white disc . Smith (1976 & 1980) also shows the Duvalier version (black instead of blue) without emblem as state and war flag and ensign.
Ivan Sache, 12 December 1999
I have here a letter dated 01 12 1987 sent to Roman Klimes by Ministère de l'Information et de la Coordination of Haiti . It says more or less the same as your sources, with the following details
- "Palmiste royal"
- flag 2,90 x 1,74 m
- a drawing b & w showing the flag with coa on a white rectangle 0,55 x 0,45 m
I also have a photo of President Preval in Jane's Defence Weekly dated 14 01 98, the white rectangle is much bigger in the flag than in your web photo.
When visiting me here on 25 09 97, an Haitian hydrographer brought me a flag and told me that :
- the size of rectangle is variable
- blue should be the same as french blue but we often see a variable blue
- civil flags are without rectangle and coa
- there is no war navy, airforce (last aircrafts have been sold), so no jack, no aircraft markings.
Armand du Payrat, 13 December 1999
Palmiste royal agrees with royal or emperor palm mentioned in my first message, so it makes sense to consider the tree as a cabbage palm, locally called royal palm, in Latin Roystonea sp. (sp. for species because the species status of this particular palm is not clear).
Ivan Sache, 13 December 1999
I suddenly noticed that Sesam Encyclopedie (1977) has two coloured plates of flags. Concering Haiti (State flag), the central rectangle noticably larger, with the same ratio as the flag. If there ever was an official description saying this should be a square, than it's never followed; all flags I can recall have always had clearly rectangular shapes in the center. it's not exactly the same ratio as the above flag. The rectangle takes almost half the height of the flag, and just over half the length. The difference is just enough of to stop the rectangle from looking like a flag (or hole) inside the flag, if one pays attention to it.
I noticed we have the English description, and though we don't have the relevant part of the French description, we do have a link showing it. Both describe the white field as a square, but I would like to hear from anyone who ever saw an actual square white field on an Haiti flag. I'm beginning to think that, regardless of what the law says, even the Haiti government will most likely use an oblong field, simply because it fits the coat of arms better.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 6 October 2000
At "Nouveau Petit Larousse Illustre" (1924) - Haiti: Version with rectangle (not square), with a very wide image. I'd say some three quarters of the rectangle's width is taken up by flag cloth, or higher up by palm leaves, this being wider than the rectangle's height.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 29 October 2000
Pavillons Nationaux et Marques Distinctives [pay00] clearly states that:
- the flag with the arms is the National and War Flag and Ensign.
- the flag without the arms is the civil flag and ensign.
Note that Dorling-Kindersley Pocket Book shows the flag without the arms only and says "for official and state purposes the flag is charged with the national arms on a central white disc" (sic).
The flag is sometimes 3:4 in proportion and several variations in shade and size of the rectangle including the arms have been reported.
Ivan Sache, 5 January 2001
According to Album 2000 [pay00] - Civil Flag and Ensign (C--/C-- 3:5) - Civil variant of the flag is without the coat of arms, so just a blue over red bicolour. This is the flag that once "inspired" Lichenstein to add the crown on
its flag. Recently we discussed an objection from a visitor, claiming that the flag with coat of arms is "true" national flag of Haiti. Either this has changed since 1930's (when the Lichenstein "incident" happened) or indeed the visitor's perception of the
national flag is somewhat distorted.
Zeljko Heimer, 30 October 2001
National Geographic [gmc17] show the coat of arms, state and civil flags (fig. 486, 490, 491) that are virtually the same as those reportedly used today accurding to Album 2000 [pay00] , with some differences in the representation of the coat of arms, that could be ascribed to artistic redention, and are of no significance.
Flaggenbuch [neu92] agrees again, but giving the size of the coat of arms much bigger and more elongated (and again with different artistic redention).
Smith [smi75c] and [smi82] show the 1964 version of the flags, vertically divided black and red.
Zeljko Heimer, 31 October 2001
The official dimensions quoted as being supplied by the Ministry of Information on 1 September 1987, were, in fact, taken from Article 3 of a Law of 1949 (published in 'Le Moniteur' of 18 September 1949) which was, in turn, based on the report of a commission (appointed 3 May 1948) whose report was dated 10 June 1948.
The flag with arms replaced the bi-colour as National Flag under Article 3 of the Constitution dated 10 March 1987, where in all legislation before that date it was referred to as "The State/Official Flag and Naval Ensign (the plain bi-colour being referred to as the National Flag).
Christopher Southworth, 10 November 2003
Haiti celebrated its 200th anniversary of independence on 1 Jan 2004, and there were several news reports in German TV about the celebrations and the riots there. During the celebrations all the people listening to president Aristide's speech waved Haitian flags with the coat of arms, in a rectangular field much bigger than we have above. The flag seems to be widely used by the "common" people (as far as people listening to the president's speech can be called "common"), so this is obviously not only the state/war flag, but also at least one variant of the Haitian civil flag.
On the other hand, some protesters had two plain flags without coa. So both versions are used as civil flag. It would be interesting to know, if the different usage is due to political reasons (with coat of arms = pro-government; without coat of arms = anti-government), or simply due to the fact, that poor protesters can't afford buying the flag with the coat of arms, but can just sew a plain flag from two pieces of cloth.
Marcus Schmöger, 3 January 2003
Could it be, perhaps, that most Haitians do not know the distinction?
Guillermo Aveledo Coll, 4 January 2003
Guillermo is probably right about the people of Haiti , and I, myself, would probably disagree with many of my fellow vexillologists about what constitutes a "National Flag". However, none of us would disagree that where the law (or the Constitution) states such and such a flag is the 'National Flag' of a country that is the flag we show here.
According to the Constitution/laws of Haiti, until a change in 1987 the plain bi-colour was the 'National Flag' and the flag with arms the State Flag and Naval Ensign.
Christopher Southworth, 4 January 2003
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