Who is Jean Jacques Dessalines?

Jean Jacques Dessalines is one of the founding fathers of Haiti. He is affectionately regarded as Papa Desalins. Everything that he stood for was grounded in the belief of liberty in the body, mind, & spirit. Today is his 265th birthday. We acknowledge him as the creator of the first free, independent African republic in the Western Hemisphere. The Haitian anthem is named after him. There are streets all over the world named after him. There are cities named after him.

He was born in the Nord region of Haiti. He comes from a lineage of warriors. At birth he was adopted & raised by a woman he called Tante Toya whose real name is Agbaraya Toya from Dahomey, Africa. She was a Minos general in the Dahomey army which was composed of mostly women. As seen in the movie The Woman King, that was her position before being sold into slavery and brought to Haiti.

As we see Dessalines today as the greatest general in Haitian History, his name wouldn't exist if it wasn't for his Aunt Toya or in Haitian Kreyol Tante Toya. In conclusion, to answer the question of who Jean Jacques Dessalines is you will have to do your own research. The question to answer is Who is Tante Toya?

Who is Tante Toya aka Aunt Toya aka Agbaraya Toya aka the Dahomey general aka The REAL Woman King?

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Reference:

Sheroes of the Haitian Revolution by Bayyinah Bello