Haiti Marks 150th Anniversary of Jean Price-Mars with UNESCO Recognition

Haiti is commemorating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Jean Price-Mars, with the Permanent Delegation of Haiti to UNESCO paying tribute to the physician, ethnologist, writer, educator, and diplomat, according to icihaiti.com. Price-Mars, author of the landmark work 'Ainsi parla l'Oncle' (Thus Spoke Uncle), is credited with the rehabilitation of popular traditions and African heritage in Haitian national identity, and is regarded as a precursor of the indigenist movement who influenced the concept of Negritude. The 43rd session of the UNESCO General Conference approved the proposal to include the anniversary in its calendar of commemorations for 2026-2027, the outlet reported. The Haitian National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO, under the Ministry of National Education and in consultation with ANESRS, is organizing a hybrid-format commemorative day on Friday, October 30, 2026, under the theme 'Thus Spoke Uncle.' Culture Minister Emmanuel Ménard, in a message for the occasion, saluted Price-Mars as 'an immense intellectual, founder of the National Bureau of Ethnology,' and noted he was elected in 1956 in Paris as president of the first Congress of Black Writers and Artists. Ménard cited the creation of the Jean Price Mars National Prize for Haitian Thought by the Ministry he leads in the Fils-Aimé Government.