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Concept
Léogâne
Summary
Léogâne (Leyogàn) is one of the coastal communes in Haiti. It is located in the eponymous Léogâne Arrondissement, which is part of the Ouest Department. The port town is located about west of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. Léogâne has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature, cuisine, and architecture. It also holds importance for archaeological and historical sites such as Fort Campan.
The town was at the epicenter of the 12 January 2010 earthquake and was catastrophically affected, with 80–90% of buildings damaged. This is because the country could not afford earthquake-proof buildings as it is very poor.
At the time of the arrival of the Europeans in 1492, Yaguana—modern-day Léogâne—was the capital of Jaragua, one of the five chiefdoms on the island of Hispaniola. This province was the last independent holdout during the Spanish conquest of Hispaniola until the Taíno queen Anacaona, who was born in the town, was captured and killed by the Spaniards in 1503.
As the western part of the island was gradually settled by French buccaneers and filibusters, in 1691 the French court appointed Jean-Baptiste du Casse to succeed Pierre-Paul Tarin de Cussy as governor of Saint-Domingue after he was killed in the Battle of Sabana Real. It was during this time that du Casse had renamed the area Léogâne, with traces of the Taino name Yaguana, as were other names of places that were maintained by the Spanish and transmitted over to the French administration. The French secured legal access to one-third of the island from the Spanish crown by the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697 and established a city. The town was destroyed in an earthquake in 1770. In 1791 and 1792, Romaine-la-Prophétesse, who owned a plantation outside Léogâne (in what is now the Fondwa area) and had been influential in the local community, led rebels in taking control of the town and destroying many nearby plantations and freeing their slaves.
Official source
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