The free man will never be broken”

Neg Mawon Statue with the crumbled palace in the background.

PIH Medical Director Dr. Joia Mukherjee arrived in Port au Prince less than 48 hours after the 7.0 earthquake left hundreds of thousands of people dead, injured, homeless and afraid. As she recalls the smell of decomposing bodies in the street and dust from the rubble that choked her breath and stung her eyes, it is clear she has seen horrors that she will not soon forget. It is even clearer, however, that the image burnt most powerfully in her memory is one of hope.

After her first day—a day during which she, along with PIH physician David Walton and a team from Medicines Sans Frontiers Belgium, treated over 800 people—Joia asked the Zanmi Lasante driver “Kote Neg Mawon?“ (Where is Neg Mawon?) He brought her to the destroyed National Palace, and there in front of it was the statue of Neg Mawon. The symbol of Haiti, Neg Mawon means at once marooned man, the runaway man and the free man.

In 1804 the Haitian slaves defeated the army of Napoleon making Haiti the first and only nation founded by a slave revolution. At the time of the revolution, 70 percent of the slaves had been born free men and women in Africa. This victory resulted in Haiti being feared by the world’s powerful countries and thus politically marginalized or dominated for the next 200 years. Symbolizing this epic struggle, Neg Mawon stands, shackles broken, machete in hand, defiant and unafraid. He blows a conch to call others to freedom.

Partners in Health working in Haiti