Raymond Alcide Joseph

Raymond Alcide Joseph

Filed under: Public Official, Diplomat, Politician

Raymond Alcide Joseph is the Haitian Ambassador to the United States of America. He became ambassador of Haiti to the United States on Oct. 3, 2005.

Ambassador Raymond Alcide Joseph is mostly known as a journalist. When he was 19 years old Raymond Alcide Joseph established the first print shop and founded "Reyon Limyè" (Rays of Light), the first monthly Christian newspaper in Cayes Haiti. "Rays of Light" still exists.

Raymond Alcide Joseph went to become a radio personality in the 1960’s, having founded the first radio broadcast in New York beamed against the Duvalier dictatorship. "Radio Vonvon" or "Radio Bug" was nicknamed the "Six O’clock Mass" because it hit the waves at 6:00 a.m. and was the broadcast not to miss.

Raymond Alcide Joseph translated the first New Testament and Psalms in Haitian Creole under the auspices of the American Bible Society in October 1960.

In the 70’s and 80’s Raymond Alcide Joseph was at the Wall Street Journal in New York as a financial writer and co-founded, with his brother Leo Joseph, the Haiti-Observateur, the first crusading commercial Haitian weekly. The Observateur remains the premier organ abroad of the Haitian community.

In 1990 Raymond Alcide Joseph was called to be Haiti’s Chargé d’Affaires in Washington and his country’s representative at the Organization of American States. After helping with the first democratic elections in December 1990, he returned to the Haiti Observateur where he remained until he was called back to Washington in March 2004, where he is currently the Ambassador.

Ambassador Raymond Alcide Joseph is a graduate pastor from the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, a B. A. holder in Anthropology from Wheaton College, Wheaton, Ill. He also has a Master’s degree in Social Anthropology/Linguistics from the University of Chicago.