Rest in Peace to my Uncle Jean Jacques Honorat (former Prime Minister of Haiti)

Jean Jacques Honorat was a prolific thinker, patriot, and an incredible patriarch of his family. He was respected by all who met him. He was named after Haiti’s founding father Jean Jacques Dessalines.?He was also Prime Minister of Haiti from 1991-1992.

A story that he told me when I was a kid always stood out to me, it was the first time he came to USA.?Who knows what year this was but when he first visited, he was in Miami, Florida and the bus driver told him to get to the back of the bus (segregation) Instead of riding the bus he walked to his destination. He said in my country we are all equal people. There’s no such thing as being forced to get on the back of the bus. This is the man I knew & respected growing up.?

He set the standard for excellence. I learned what I could from him but there is no way I could ever stand in his shoes. I look to him as an example for how a man should conduct himself in the face of hate.?He emphasized the importance of education. Our family knew him as Tipop which means “little father” or “little pops” because of who he was to us all.?

He was a renaissance man of his time. His family was close to the Duvaliers'. Papa Doc was like a father figure to him. Growing up Uncle Tipop saw the good, bad, & ugly of his country. He was trained as an agronomist. He understood the importance of agriculture & technology to the country of Haiti. His work was rooted in human rights.?

He founded an organization called Haitian Center for the Defense of Public Liberties (CHADEL). He believed that one day Haiti would regain itself as a fully free nation without negative outside influences.?

As an activist, he went up against the Duvalier (Baby Doc) regime and the Aristide regime. He disagreed with their politics and how they were being used by outside agents who wanted to see the demise of a powerful Haitian government. These were all people he knew personally but he stood up against all odds to defy what he saw was wrong.?

Uncle Tipop believed in what he was doing and never stole a dime from the Haitian government although being bribed by multiple agents. Even my own family tried to get him to take money from the government but he never folded. He stayed true to his word. His alliance was to the Haitian people not to anyone else. His family was the Haitian people. He lived by that and died by that at the tender age of 92. He was given a National Funeral in his birthplace of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti on August 5, 2023.?

In his honor the current prime minister of Haiti, Ariel Henry came to pay his respect. When I would visit Tipop and my aunt in Haiti as a kid he would exercise every morning, he taught me proper etiquette & manners on how to properly conduct myself. He wasn’t a soft man in anyway but he was a gentleman in every way.?

Jean Jacques Honorat defended the house he built from the ground up from unknown assassins. He shot and killed the men who broke into his house.?These same agents tried on multiple occasions to eliminate him after his exile to the USA. One of these assassins who worked directly for Aristide even recounted seeing the Blessed Mother Mary in front of his house which caused him to turn the car around and leave the family alone. God saved the Honorat family.?

Rest in Peace to a Haitian legend named Jean Jacques Honorat. A man who selflessly sacrificed for the love of his country, Ayiti.?