🇭🇹 Two Sides of the Same Island: Seeing Haiti Beyond the Headlines.
- Abdulquayyum Yussuf
- Nov 2, 2025
- 2 min read
When I started exploring the two very different portrayals of Haiti, Vox’s “Divided Island: How Haiti and the DR Became Two Worlds” and Passport Heavy’s “Haiti: A Side the Media Won’t Show You”, I didn’t just see two documentaries. I saw two worlds trying to tell the same story through completely different lenses.
The Passport Heavy video stood out to me because of the table talk scene. It reminded me of some conversations I had with friends last summer, especially when the group in the video discussed how Christianity, as introduced to Haiti, was seen as a “watered-down” version of traditional Vodou beliefs. That moment caught my attention because it reflected the kind of complex, sometimes uncomfortable conversations we have in African and diasporic spaces about faith, colonialism, and identity.
Still, I couldn’t help noticing that Passport Heavy’s portrayal of Haiti felt carefully curated, a beautiful, empowering view of the country that many outsiders rarely get to see. It focused on art, culture, and luxury experiences, and while that was refreshing, I wondered how many locals actually live that version of Haiti.
Then there’s the Vox documentary, which takes a completely different approach. Its breakdown of Haiti and the Dominican Republic’s shared history, and how colonialism and global politics shaped two unequal realities on one island, hit hard. What really surprised me was the scene showing the border market between the two countries. The way Haitian traders were treated there shocked me. Coming from Nigeria, where cross-border trade with neighbors like Benin and Ghana often feels more fluid, it was difficult to imagine that kind of tension between two nations so close in geography and history.
Watching both videos side by side made me realize how much power media has in shaping our understanding of a place. One story focuses on Haiti’s beauty and resilience, while the other dives into its struggles and systemic challenges. Both are true in their own way, but they serve different purposes, one invites you to visit, the other asks you to understand.
It left me wondering: when it comes to telling stories about countries like Haiti, is it better to highlight their beauty to inspire hope, or to expose the hard truths to inspire change?
This was really good! I like how you showed both sides of the story. I think it’s important to show the good and the bad Haiti has struggles but also so much beauty. Both sides deserve to be seen.
I also like how you wrote about how the media influences people's thoughts as well as prospectives on certain places just by the tone they are using.