Papa Doc (François Duvalier)

François Duvalier was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in 1907, the son of Duval Duvalier, a justice of the peace from the French Caribbean colony of Martinique, and baker Ulyssia Abraham. Raised primarily by his aunt, Madame Florestal, he completed a degree in medicine from the University of Haiti in 1934.

He spent a year at the University of Michigan studying public health and, in 1943, became active in a US-sponsored campaign to control the spread of contagious tropical diseases, helping the poor fight typhus, yaws, malaria and other tropical diseases that had ravaged Haiti for years.

His patients affectionately called him “Papa Doc”, a moniker he used throughout his life.

Impressed by the black nationalism amongst Haitians, Duvalier aligned himself with President Dumarsais Estimé in 1946 and was appointed Director General of the National Public Health Service.

In 1949, he served as Minister of Health and Labor, but when Duvalier opposed Paul Magloire’s 1950 coup d’état, he left the government and resumed practising medicine.

In 1954, Duvalier had to abandon medicine and hide out in the countryside from the Magloire regime. By 1956, the Magloire government was failing, and – although still in hiding – Duvalier announced his candidacy to replace him as president.

By the end of the year, an amnesty was issued, and Duvalier emerged from hiding. Magloire conceded defeat on 12 December.

After being elected president in 1957 (with the support of the army), Duvalier exiled most of the major supporters of his opponent, Déjoie, and promoted and installed members of the black majority in the civil service and the army. In the name of nationalism, he also expelled almost all of Haiti’s foreign-born bishops.

In 1961, Duvalier called a new presidential election in which he was the sole candidate. The election was flagrantly rigged (the official tally showed a total of 1,320,748 “yes” votes for another term for Duvalier, with none opposed) and the New York Times commented, “Latin America has witnessed many fraudulent elections throughout its history, but none has been more outrageous than the one which has just taken place in Haiti”.

On 14 June 1964, a constitutional referendum made Duvalier “President for Life”.

Papa Doc cast his spell through the artful use of voodoo – ostensibly Haiti’s national religion. He affected the staring gaze, whispered speech and hyper-slow movements recognised by Haitians as signs that a person is close to the voodoo spirits.

He solicited the allegiance of voodoo priests in the countryside, often bringing them to Port-au-Prince for a presidential audience, and he encouraged rumours that he possessed supernatural powers.

During his 14-year rule, he murdered and exiled numerous political opponents, with estimates of those killed as high as 30,000. He also misappropriated millions of dollars of international aid, including US$15 million annually from the US.

In 1964, he published a catechism in which the Lord’s Prayer was heavily reworded to praise Duvalier instead of God (“Our Doc, who art in the National Palace, hallowed be thy name . . .”)

His secret policemen, the Tontons Macoutes (the force took its name from a folk bogeyman who devours misbehaving children), murdered and tortured his opponents, sometimes leaving a victim’s severed head on display in a marketplace as a warning to others.

François Duvalier died of heart disease and diabetes on 21 April 1971, seven days after his 64th birthday. His 19-year-old son Jean-Claude Duvalier, nicknamed “Baby Doc”, succeeded him as president.