 Although he later claimed those years had been spent in Africa, such as Dahomey and Ethiopia, scholars regard that as more likely an instance of promotional myth-making than factual.Hyppolite's talent as an artist was noticed by Philippe Thoby-Marcelin, who brought him to Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince in 1946.There Hyppolite worked in the studio run by Dewitt Peters, a watercolorist and schoolteacher from the United States who had come to Haiti to teach the English language as part of the Good Neighbor Policy.