Photos from Our World

Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital

Port-au-Prince replaced Cap-Français (the modern Cap-Haïtien) in 1770 as capital of the colony of Saint-Domingue, and in 1804 it became the capital of newly-independent Haïti. During the French and Haïtian Revolutions, it was known as Port-Républicain, before being renamed Port-au-Prince by Jacques I, emperor of Haïti. When Haïti was divided between a kingdom in the north and a republic in the south, Port-au-Prince was the capital of the republic, under the leadership of Alexandre Pétion. Henri Christophe renamed the city Port-aux-Crimes after the assassination of Jacques I at Pont Larnage (now known as Pont-Rouge, and located north of the city.)

Port-au-Prince is the nation's largest center of economy and finance. The city currently exports coffee and sugar and has food-processing plants as well as soap, textile, and cement factories. Despite political unrest, the city also relies on the tourism industry and construction companies to move its economy. Port-au-Prince was once a popular place for cruises, but has since lost nearly all of its tourism, and no longer has cruise ships coming into port. Though unemployment is high in Port-au-Prince, it would be more accurate to say that people are underemployed. There are high levels of economic activity throughout the city, especially among people selling goods and services right off the streets. Port-au-Prince also has several upscale districts in which crime rates are much lower than in the centre of the capital.

The population of the Port-au-Prince metro area is greater than 2 million. The majority of the population is of African descent, but a prominent mulatto minority controls many of the city's businesses. There are sizable numbers of Hispanic residents, as well as small numbers of Europeans (mostly foreign-born). Citizens of Middle Eastern (particularly Syrian and Lebanese) ancestry are a growing minority with a significant presence in the capital; most are concentrated in financial areas where the majority of them establish businesses. The majority of the city's poorer inhabitants are concentrated in densely populated slums such as La Saline, located directly north of downtown and west of the middle-class Delmas neighborhood, Bel-Air, Martissant, and the poorest, most-dangerous slum, Cité Soleil, located directly north of La Saline. There are however, many comfortable living quarters in the city, especially in the southeastern portion of the city around the School of Sacred Heart (École du Sacré-Cœur), and going towards the wealthy upper class suburb of Pétionville, known for its plush mansions on the hills overlooking Port-au-Prince from the southeast, but it too has begun to receive an inundation of job-seeking migrants from the countryside, where farmland is eroding into desert. The government cannot accommodate the flood of migrants into the city, and shantytowns have been erected even in Pétionville, as well as in nearby districts like Carrefour, and the financially wealthier (when compared to the former) district of Delmas. Most of the mulattos in the city are concentrated and reside within these wealthier areas of Port-au-Prince.

The catastrophic earthquake of 12 January 2010 left much of Port-au-Prince in ruins and many of the survivors homeless.

	View to Port-au-Prince	Along the seafront	Paintings for sale	School in Port-au-Prince
	Schoolchildren	A market of Port-au-Prince	Market women	Selling food on the market
	Muddy street	Selling bread	The Marché en Fer	Ice blocks

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