Marco writes: "I've heard this question debated, times and times over and I've heard many different stories about this father of Haiti's only hereditary regime but nothing really coherent. Some said he wasn't even Haitian. Some said they knew him before he became a dictator. Others made their own stories about him. But when it comes to Haitians, this man's backgound still remains a mystery. Why is that? Could that have been part of his master plan?

Well, I did a lil bit of reasearch about this shadowy figure and below is what I've found. How factual is it, don't know, but the more we read about him, the more we may come to understand who he was.
I've also found a website dedicated to the Duvalier family and to those of you who may have no clue besides that he was a dictator, you will find many pictures of him, his son, presidential campaign and speeches there. Read on..

Duvalier, Francois, Born into a lower-middle class Haitian family in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Duvalier attended local primary schools and, later, the Lycée Pétion, where he was taught by his political mentor, Dumarsais Estimé. Duvalier subsequently attended medical school at the national university, earning a degree in 1934. He then turned to civil service, working for the Haitian government for the next ten years. During this time Duvalier became part of a collective known as the Griots, a group of intellectuals, inspired by the Négritude movement, who sought to glorify Haiti's African heritage.

In "Le problème des classes à travers l'histoire d'Haïti" (1946), Duvalier and Lorimer Denis rejected a Marxist analysis of class and claimed that the historical supremacy of the mulatto (of African and European descent) elite in Haiti was an ethnic rather than an economic phenomenon. Many historians deem this work a vulgarization of the Négritude ideology developed in Haiti by Jean Price-Mars. The work became the basis of what has been characterized as Duvalier's black fascism. Duvalier joined the Worker-Peasant Movement (MOP) led by Daniel Fignolé in 1946 and quickly rose to the rank of secretary general. That same year, a military coup removed the mulatto president Elie Lescot from office and put Dumarsais Estimé, a black, in his place. Estimé promptly made Duvalier director general of public health.
Duvalier was forced to abandon his post in December 1950, however, following a coup led by the black commander of the presidential guard, Paul Eugène Magloire. Duvalier's allegiance to Estimé kept him in hiding until August 1956. Duvalier eventually re-emerged and challenged Magloire for the presidency. Under pressure from a number of political sources, Magloire was forced to leave the country. In a race with the wealthy mulatto businessman Louis Dejoie, Duvalier won handily with the support of the Griots and the military, and his supporters took 23 of 37 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and all of the seats in the Senate.
Duvalier called himself Papa Doc, invoking the paternalism and authority that surround the Haitian presidency. He immediately began consolidating power, first removing all military personnel opposed to him and, in 1959, forming his own personal militia, the infamous Tonton Macoutes, composed mainly of peasants from Haiti's rural regions. But even before the formation of the Tonton Macoutes, Duvalier had begun a reign of terror that lasted 14 years, claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people, including his political opponents, and brutalized countless others, many of them mulattoes. During this period he attempted to manipulate the United States, which feared a turn toward Communism in the Caribbean following Fidel Castro's successful revolution in Cuba in 1959.
In a famous speech in June 1960, Duvalier effectively blackmailed the United States by stating that if more aid were not forthcoming he would be forced to obtain it "elsewhere." The Kennedy administration eventually shunned Duvalier. As the 1960s progressed, power became increasingly personalized in Haiti. Duvalier dissolved the parliament in 1961 and had himself declared president for life in 1964. Duvalier used Vodou, a religion previously dismissed by Haitian leaders as obscurantist, in his campaign of terror. Duvalier claimed that Vodou was a part of African tradition that should be integrated into Haitian life. He cultivated the image of the Vodou priest in an attempt to inspire fear in the masses.
Duvalier also strove to be viewed as a world leader, often comparing himself to Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Charles de Gaulle, Mao Zedong, Vladimir Lenin, and, during episodes of extreme megalomania, Christ. These empty symbolic gestures were coupled with corruption on a grand scale. Setting the example for future kleptocrats such as Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), Duvalier transferred most of the country's wealth to himself and his allies during his reign. As his health worsened, Duvalier planned to pass his power and privilege on to his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier. In a referendum just two months before his death, Papa Doc called on the Haitian people to ratify this transfer. With 2,391,916 voting in favor and none against, this referendum represented Duvalier's last act of corruption. Summing up Duvalier's tenure, a longtime opponent put it this way: "Duvalier has performed an economic miracle. He has taught us to live without money, to eat without food, to live without life."

Source:Africana.com"