Haiti marks the 220th anniversary of the assassination of Emperor Jean-Jacques Dessalines on Saturday, October 17. Public offices, businesses, industry and schools will be closed across the country, the Secretary General of the Presidency, Marie E. Régine Joseph Haddad, announced.

Education Minister Vijonet Déméro asked schools to hold events on Thursday, October 15, and Friday, October 16, to help students understand Dessalines's military, political and historical role. The ministry suggested debates, lectures, stage performances, songs, dances and patriotic music, and invited universities to take part.

Dessalines, born in 1758, rose from slavery to command the army that defeated Napoleon's troops at Vertières in November 1803. On January 1, 1804, in Gonaïves, he proclaimed the independence of Haiti, the first free Black republic and the first nation born of a successful revolt by enslaved people.

He ruled as governor-general and then as Emperor Jacques I. On October 17, 1806, he was ambushed and killed at Pont-Rouge, on the northern edge of Port-au-Prince, by officers opposed to his land policies. His death opened the way to a divided country, with Henri Christophe in the North and Alexandre Pétion in the South.

Today Dessalines is honored as the father of the nation. The national anthem, “La Dessalinienne,” bears his name, and his legacy of independence and dignity is taught in every Haitian school.