I dunno that the original dessalines counts as genocidal, despite his attempts to rid haiti of whites. It was more or less a mass murder, and outright unnecessary since he had other options, but I don’t know that genocide would be the right term for it? Maybe, I’m not fully convinced either way, just starting a tangent

That tangent is that the real dessalines was… complicated. He essentially became a central figure in Haitian liberation. One can argue that the revolution might not have succeeded without him. He was certainly effective.

He was also effective as “emperor” (in quotes because it’s hard to be an emperor of a single nation) for the most part. Made Haiti pitchy officially an independent nation, declared slavery abolished, stripped colonialists of property, and generally kept things running.

Of course, part of keeping things running was treating Haitians like slaves, just without the label.

Which shows both why the dev dessalines might have chosen the name, and why it doesn’t really fit. Plus, you know, the whole emperor thing being contrary to socialism being weird.

Fwiw to anyone here for the tangent, there’s been a goodly number of books about the real Dessalines. Likely available at your local library, or on the high seas. He was a fascinating figure.