The sentiment of union with Africa was genuine to the extent that it reinforced a philosophy long-nurtured in Duvalier's writings, if not in his governance.  
The visit of His Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I succeeded in projecting the Duvalierist State as a pro-African State. So too did Senghor's visit ten years later when François Duvalier's son and successor, twenty-four year old Jean-Claude was in power. Haitian and African pride in these events was justifiable. It could not conceal, however, the corruption of a regime that had become universally  
reviled for its oppression. Worse, it twinned Haitian black consciousness - so long in formation, so deeply connected to Haiti's glory - with tyranny.  
What did Senghor make of this in 1976? He most certainly knew of the protests and the resulting tortures, exiles and murders that had become part of Haitian reality. The issue faced by independent Africa was the same as Haiti's Caribbean neighbours: how do you engage with a nation state with whom you share such powerful historical and racial alliances, but that is at the same time despotic?  
The complexity of the situation influenced diplomatic relations with Haiti as the twentieth century drew to a close. When, a decade after Senghor's Haiti trip, the Duvalier dictatorship was toppled amid a burst of grassroots resistance, the rest of the black world rose in solidarity for Haiti. The linkages between 1804 and the struggle for freedom in Zimbabwe and against Apartheid in South Africa fit into a wider history of black resistance that consciously tied Haiti to independent Africa. These political ties in the post-Duvalier era were more tangible than before.