President Emmanuel Macron of France said on Thursday that it was time to “recognize the truth of history,” 200 years after King Charles X recognized the independence of Haiti but demanded that its former French colonists be paid an enormous sum for that freedom.As a result, Haiti became the only country in the world where the descendants of enslaved people were forced over generations to compensate the descendants of their former colonial masters.“This decision placed a price on the freedom of a young nation, which was thus confronted, from the moment of its constitution, with the unjust force of history,” President Emmanuel Macron of France declared.Mr. Macron, who became president in 2017 and had not previously addressed in public the question of the debt, called for the establishment of a joint French-Haitian commission of historians to examine “two centuries of history, including the impact of the 1825 indemnity on Haiti.”The commission will be led by Yves Saint-Geours, a French historian and diplomat, and Gusti-Klara Gaillard Pourchet, a Haitian scholar living in France.“Once this necessary and essential work has been completed, the commission will submit recommendations to both governments with a view to learning lessons and building a more peaceful future,” Mr. Macron said.
