Bayyinah Bello

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Bayyinah Bello (born 1948) is a Haitian historian, writer, teacher and humanitarian. She focuses on Haitian and Pan-African history and spent 15 years living and traveling in West Africa, including four years in Nigeria, as well as time in Benin, Togo and other countries. She now lives in Port-au-Prince and founded Fondasyon Félicité (FF), formally known as Fondation Marie-Claire Heureuse Félicité Bonheur Dessalines, named after Marie-Claire Heureuse Félicité Bonheur Dessalines, the Empress consort of Haiti and wife of revolutionary leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines. After the 2010 earthquake, Friends of Fondation Félicité was created to help FF rebuild Haiti. Bello is also a professor of history at the State University of Haiti.

Bello was born in Port-au-Prince and moved to Liberia with her father at age 12. She studied in France and the United States, then earned a master’s degree in linguistics in Nigeria. In 1969 she returned to the US, worked as a publicist, and taught French in the evenings. Her first story for children appeared after the birth of her first child, Hashim, in 1970, and she later had two more sons, Siddiq and Akil, and a daughter, Ameerah Bello.

Back in Haiti, she taught at the university and started a bilingual Citadel International School. She also taught English and Arabic in Togo. In 1999 she launched the Fondation Marie-Claire Heureuse Félicité Bonheur Dessalines (Fondation Félicité) to support humanitarian, social and educational work in Haiti. The 2010 earthquake led to the creation of Friends of Fondation Félicité to fund grassroots rebuilding efforts.

In 2014 she was honored at the Gala des Femmes en Flammes for Haitian women who have helped build a better Haiti. Bello is a frequent speaker at international conferences and gave a keynote in Brooklyn in March 2015. She is the author of Jean-Jacques Dessalines: 21 PWENKONNEN SOU LAVI LI, published in 2020.