| Summary: | Like many former colonised countries, Haiti has been plagued by insecurity and
conflicts caused by internal and external influences as well as natural disasters.
In 1804, after a protracted conflict between slaves and French colonialists, Haiti
became the first black country to gain its independence through a revolution.
Today, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, ranking 153rd
on the Human Development Index and a significant number of humanitarian
organisations are present on the island aspiring at improving the standard of
living of the population. The following study examines how the relationships of
power emerging through the relationship between humanitarian and local
leaders affect their perceptions of each other and identified the emotions
emerging from these perceptions. The perceptions identified are the coloniality
of power, corruption and distrust, the occurrence of conspiracy theories and the
obstacles encountered in the implementation of a relief-development continuum
model envisioned by general humanitarian policies. These perceptions create
tensions between the humanitarian and local leaders, contributing to fuelling
negative emotions such as regret, sadness, sense of failure, disappointment
and anger. Negative emotions in this study affect the collaboration between
humanitarians and local leaders, diminishing the positive influences and impact
of humanitarian action on the well-being of the Haitian population. One of the
components to increase these positive influences of humanitarian action is to
lessen the asymmetricality of power between humanitarian and local leaders
through the adoption of a Cultural Competence model by humanitarians.
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