Marmelade

Marmelade (Kreyol: Mamlad) is a commune and former duchy in the Artibonite department of Haiti. It is the chief town of the Marmelade Arrondissement, a third-tier administrative division, which also includes the commune of Saint-Michel-de-l’Atalaye. Marmelade is connected to the cities of Limbé, Gonaïves and Cap-Haïtien by an important road, Route Nationale 1.

The family of President René Préval is from Marmelade. During his presidential term, Préval initiated several social and rural development projects, including a project in which young people learn to make furniture out of bamboo.

Background:
The Haitian town of Marmelade (pop. 38,057), known as Mamlad in Creole, is best known as the boyhood home of Rene Preval, past president of Haiti, who succeeded the troubled and turbulent presidency of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. During the era when the island of Haiti (known as Hispaniola then) was ruled by nobility, Marmelade was recognized as a duchy.

Geography:
Situated high in the Massif du Nord (Many rivers have their sources here) mountain range between Cap-Haïtien and Saint-Marc, Marmelade overlooks the jewel-toned, aquamarine Atlantic Ocean, which lies 17 miles northward. It is also bounded by the equally breath-taking Gulf de Gonave on the westward side. The annual rainfall here is 2,500 mm (98 inches). This commune has three communal sections. Its dominant relief is the mountains and its climate is temperate. Because of its geographical position, it is considered interior. The population of the commune of Marmelade was estimated at 21,212 inhabitants in 1998 barely reached 22,100 inhabitants in 2004. The 2015 count saw a rise to 38,000. Marmelade Center (Ville de Marmelade) measures 3 km2 (1 square mile) and its density 13,312 per km2 (37,000 inhabitants per square mile).

The commune is composed of three communal sections:
Pine Ridge
Basin (or Bilier)
Plato

Economy:
During the rule of President Preval, Marmelade rose to become a model city of successful farmland resource development. Its main micro-industry, furniture production, particularly bamboo, put Marmelade on the map as a manufacturing center. It demonstrated the potential of Haiti as a source of private investment.

Besides manufacturing, Marmelade is also a coffee-growing center. Its premium coffee beans are sold under the Café Marmelade brand. There are some 3,000 coffee producers, and some of the coffee is for export. As part of a first-tier coffee-growing collective, it is certified as a fair-trade producer of coffee-bean exports to the U.S, Europe, and elsewhere. Market gardening is also present in the municipality of Marmelade.

In the deforested areas of the surrounding mountains, beans and cassava are harvested.

This commune also has a restaurant and a marketing cooperative.

Transportation:
Marmelade is connected to the cities of Gonaïves and Cap-Haïtien by an important road paved with tar.

Education:
The Ministry of National Education of Youth and Sports is not represented in the municipality of Marmelade. The distribution of schools is as follows: twenty-one primary schools with four public, five private, six congregational and six Protestant. At secondary level there are: one public and one private.

Health:
The Ministry of Public Health and Population is not represented in the municipality of Marmelade. Regarding health facilities there is only one dispensary. In addition, a team of a nurse, a few auxiliaries and certified matrons provide the health service at the communal level.

Utilities:
Four rivers and over 50 springs have been inventoried. For the other water points, more than twenty taps are available. Water taps are used for domestic consumption and use. Only the city center is electrified. Electricity de Haiti (EDH) is the institution responsible for distributing electricity. It provides an average of 24 hours a week.

Security:
With regard to the Administrative and Judicial Infrastructures, the commune of Marmelade has a court of peace, located at la Rue du Marché and a sub-station, located at the Rue Sainte-Marthe. There is no prison in the municipality of Marmelade.

Religion:
Marmelade, referred to as Marmeiade or Marra Town by its local residents, has more than thirty-five temples of all beliefs. This Christian community that is predominately Catholic, also has members of the Adventist and Baptist faiths. They attend baptisms, holy communions, weddings, funerals, and Sunday masses at St. Martha Catholic Church, 18 miles from Cap-Haïtien International Airport.

Organization:
With regard to the Political Parties and Organizations, there is a popular organization and a womens group.

Communication:
The municipality of Marmelade has no newspapers, magazines, radio station, nor television station.

Leisure:
As for Culture and Leisure, there are six gageres. For other types of entertainment, football (soccer) is the only sport practiced in the municipality on unsuitable spaces. Regarding cultural heritage, two monuments and sites of historical and natural type located in Corail (High Fort) and Dufour were counted in the municipality of Marmelade.

Monuments:
Fort Jalousière is one of about twenty military structures built on the territory of Haiti after independence in 1804: this defensive system was directed against a possible return of the French, former masters of the colony of Santo Domingo.