Duke University has announced that archives from Radio Haiti will be housed at the university’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The archives, which include tapes of broadcasts and other documents, will be digitized and made available online for researchers.
Radio Haiti, an independent station, broadcast the first radio programs in Creole, the language used by the majority of the Haitian population. For many years, Radio Haiti was the only alternative voice in a country ruled by military dictatorships.
The station was operated by Jean Dominique and his wife Michele Montes. In 1991, security forces ransacked the headquarters of Radio Haiti but many of the original tapes survived. Dominique was assassinated in 2000 and many of the tapes were stored in Montes’ garage.
