Abstract Book of the 6th World Conference on Media and Communication
Year: 2025
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Haiti’s Public Diplomacy as the Art of Reclaiming Narrative
Wilbert Fils Pierre-Louis
ABSTRACT:
Despite vibrant cultural production and active diplomacy, nations in the Global South, particularly Haiti, remain largely represented through narratives of disaster and dependency. Such portrayals obscure the ways these states communicate agency and creativity on the global stage, producing a gap between their cultural output and their international image. This paper addresses that gap by investigating how small and postcolonial nations employ cultural diplomacy as a communicative strategy to reclaim narrative sovereignty. Drawing on the frameworks of soft power and narrative diplomacy, the study analyzes post-2010 international media coverage and interviews with Haitian diplomats and artists. In doing so, the analysis considers three projects that illustrate how culture operates across state and civil society, including the Ghetto Biennale held in Port-au-Prince, the LEAD diaspora investment program that flows financing into local community development, and the cultural exchanges being supported by the embassy that help connect Haitian creators with global audiences. These cases illustrate how cultural excellence converts visibility to agency and reframes Haiti’s external representation from crises to creativity. This paper concludes by suggesting that cultural diplomacy rooted in authenticity serves as a strategic infrastructure through which small nations like Haiti can convert representation into participation in global dialogue while also reclaiming historical presence in international communication.
Keywords: agency; cultural representation; diaspora engagement; media framing; soft power