by Margaret Mair

Created on: January 29, 2010

Francois Duvalier was born on April 14, 1907, in Port au Prince, Haiti into a middle class family.  His father was a teacher, journalist, and justice of the peace; his mother worked at bakery.  Fortunate enough to be born into a family that could afford to educate him, he began his education at the Lycee  Petion.  In 1934 he graduated from Haitian National University Medical School, and went on to do his internship at Saint Francois de Sales hospital.  During his studies was involved in the founding of Les Griots, a group of intellectuals whose members celebrated their African roots and embraced the religion of Voodoo.

On December 27, 1939 he married Simone Ovide, a nurse, and together they had three daughters,Marie Denise, Simone, and Nicole, and one son, Jean-Claude.  For the next fifteen years he focused on his work as a doctor.  Between 1939 and 1943 he served as a hospital staff physician, and between 1943 and 1945 he was active in a US Army initiated sanitary programs against yaws, a contagious tropical disease which can, in some cases, cause damage to bones and joints.  During that time he worked in the countryside as an assistant to the US army medical mission, and studied Public Health at the University of Michigan.  His work as a doctor gave him an understanding of those who lived in the countryside, and it was in working with them that he acquired the name “Papa Doc”.

In 1946 he became Minister of Health and Labour in the government of President Dumarsais Estime, a man who had been his former high school teacher.  In May 1950 the government of Estime ended when the army forced him from office. This was followed by elections in which the leader of the military junta, Paul Magloire, resigned in order to run for President.  He won.   Duvalier actively opposed the takeover of the government by Paul Magloire; at the same time he returned to the practice of medicine, focusing on campaigns to prevent yaws and other diseases, but at the same time using the opportunity to build his political base in the countryside.

In 1954 his political activities made him the central opposition figure and, fearing for his safety, he abandoned medicine to go into hiding in countryside.  In 1956 he emerged from hiding after the military relinquished power and the Magloire government declared an amnesty for its opponents.  Several different governments were formed and defeated; meanwhile Duvalier

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