Haitian President, Jovenel Moïse, accompanied by the First Lady, Martine Moïse, offered this Tuesday, February 20, at the National Palace, a welcome cocktail in honor of Professor Wolé Soyinka, Nobel Prize for Literature and a priceless actor of the radiation of black thought and literature.
The Head of State has, in fact, welcomed the visit to Haiti of the first black and African author to have received the Nobel Prize for literature. "This visit is a significant symbol of the unbreakable historical ties that unite Haiti and Africa," said President Jovenel Moise who took the opportunity to convey to Professor Soyinka all the respect and affection of the Haitian people.
"You insist on the greatness and dignity of Africa by drawing on a model of society that our ancestors had already experienced. Your respect for African history and traditions has never stopped you from dreaming of democracy and modernity for the black peoples of the world, "said the the President who, in addition, recalled the tragedy of the ancestors in the holds of the boats, in the nameless pain of the cane fields, in the servitude of slavery, in the entreaty of foreign gods, and in the blind fascination still devoted to the executioners.
During this ceremony, President Jovenel Moïse thanked the Laboratorio Arts Contemporains who, thanks to meetings from here and elsewhere, facilitated the meeting between Haiti and Wolé Soyinka. He believes that the country needs these structures that provoke exchanges in a respectful generosity.
At the end of this cocktail, the President of the Republic, His Excellency Mr. Jovenel Moïse, in gratitude to Professor Wolé Soyinka, decided to appoint him Goodwill Ambassador and to decorate him with the National Order of Honor and Merit at the grade of Commander.
