Gonaïves
Haiti · Americas
About Gonaïves
Gonaïves is a commune in northern Haiti, and the capital of the Artibonite department of Haiti. The population was 356,324 at the 2015 census.
The city of Gonaïves was founded around 1422 by a group of Taíno, who named it Gonaibo (to designate a locality of cacicat of the Jaragua). The Gulf of Gonâve is named after the town.
In 1802, an important battle of the Haitian Revolution, the Battle of Ravine-à-Couleuvres was fought near Gonaïves.
Gonaïves is also known as Haiti's city of independence, because it was the location of Jean-Jacques Dessalines declaring Haiti independent from France on January 1, 1804, by reading the Act of Independence, drafted by Boisrond Tonnerre, on the Place d'Armes of the town.
Marie-Claire Heureuse Félicité, the wife of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, died here in August 1858.
In the early 2000s, Gonaïves was the scene of substantial rioting and violence motivated primarily by opposition to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and on February 5, 2004, a group calling itself the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front seized control of the city, starting the 2004...
Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.