Could this spell the beginning of a new era in the troubled relations between France and Haiti? Two centuries to the day after France imposed a harsh tribute payment on its former colony, in exchange for recognizing its independence, Emmanuel Macron has called for the two countries to "face this history head-on."

In a statement published on Thursday, April 17, on the bicentennial of an ordinance by which French King Charles X forced Haiti to compensate the slave-owning colonists who had been expropriated during the country's war of independence, Macron acknowledged that the young republic was "confronted with the unjust force of history from its very inception." France must "acknowledge its part of the truth in the construction of the memory, painful for Haiti, which began in 1825," stated the president.

To this end, Macron announced the creation of a "Franco-Haitian joint commission, tasked with examining our shared past," studying the "impact of the 1825 indemnity on Haiti," and proposing "recommendations" to the governments of both countries to "build a more peaceful future." This body, composed of historians, will be co-chaired by Haitian academic Gusti-Klara Gaillard-Pourchet and French diplomat Yves Saint-Geours.

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