An avenue in the “Little Haiti” section of Brooklyn in New York will now be called Jean-Jacques Dessalines Boulevard, after a Haitian slave turned revolutionary general. The renaming was controversial. Dessalines was the first black leader in the Americas, an ardent abolitionist and - like his American counterparts - a true believer in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But after Haiti’s 1804 war for independence from France, he ordered all remaining white French citizens in Haiti killed. For two centuries, history has portrayed Dessalines as a ruthless ruler. Historian Julia Garfield, who is now writing Dessalines’ biography, thinks it’s time to correct the record about Haiti’s black founding father.

The recent deaths of former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and US Senator John McCain have generated an outpouring of mostly positive eulogies celebrating their lives. Henning Melber laments the selective way we honour dead celebrities, often playing up their virtues and glossing over their shortcomings. In fact, he argues, we need to engage with the legacies of diplomats and politicians in a way that avoids superficial praise-singing.