Will anyone think of apologizing to Pat Robertson after reading this Boston Globe story?The United Nations has decided that religion and state can mix -- in this case, at least -- and it is looking to Haiti's 60,000 voodoo priests to help out in the post-earthquake humanitarian efforts. But the voodoo priests themselves see an opportunity here to reassert their authority as well as garner some positive publicity for their bizarre religion. Check it out in this intriguing Brian MacQuarrie story.
“One must understand that Haiti is voodoo," said Max Beauvoir, 75, the "pope" of Haitian voodoo and a former biochemical engineer who once worked for Digital Equipment in Maynard, Mass. “Helping Haitians is nothing else but helping ourselves."...
In a nation where government barely functions, and where more than half the population of 9 million is believed to practice voodoo in some form, the assistance of these priests is considered critical to better assess the situation. The priests in Haiti dispense unofficial justice and cater to religious needs.
The religion, born in Africa but melded with elements of Christianity by colonial slaves to mask its “pagan" veneer, is a nature-based belief that venerates one’s ancestors, calls on their spirits, and promotes a fervent love of family and community. “In fact, we are the country," Beauvoir said of Haiti’s voodoo followers. “Many people do not want to see it that way."...
As a result, the voodoo priests - “houngan" if a man, “mambo" if a woman - are conducting an informal national census of the dead and injured, Beauvoir said. They also will participate in a national ecumenical memorial service that has been scheduled over six days beginning Friday...
In addition to the census, the priests have been busy practicing their healing arts...
The living are the priority, of course, but the dead hold an essential place in voodoo culture. A few hundred yards down a steep hill, in a voodoo sanctuary that survived while all around it disintegrated, Pierre walked among three “spirit rooms," where human skulls, voodoo dolls, murals of dancing skeletons, and the belongings of the newly dead had been stored.
Garlands of flowers hung from chandeliers, paintings of Christian saints adorned the walls, and tall voodoo drums lay stacked for safekeeping in a small, secure room. “This is where we call the spirits," Pierre said. “In the voodoo, we only do good."
That version of voodoo, far different from the dark imagery with which the religion is sometimes painted, was echoed by Marc Yves Louis, 59, who works as a groundskeeper at Beauvoir’s lush estate about 10 miles west of Port-au-Prince. “Voodoo is our culture, our roots, and our strength,’’ Louis said. “Voodoo is our heart."...
And as the self-styled “pope" of Haiti voodoo, Beauvoir adjudicates domestic and other disputes from an ornate concrete chair set under a towering ficus tree. On the back of the seat is a “carrefour,"which resembles the Christian crucifix but represents the crossroads to which the plaintiffs and defendants have arrived.
On the right arm of the chair, inside a sculpted fist, is a stone dagger that represents Beauvoir’s power as a voodoo judge. “I do it on a constant basis," Beauvoir said of these duties.
Beauvoir stressed that he respects all religions, despite what he sees as others’ disrespect for voodoo. Christian televangelist Pat Robertson, for example, said that Haitians had been cursed by the earthquake because of a “pact with the devil," referring to a 1791 voodoo ceremony that began their revolution against the French. “Do we sacrifice animals? Of course we do," Beauvoir said. “There is nothing we do that does not implicate nature."
Haitian voodoo holds that a single spirit has 16 lives, equally divided between male and female lives. After each death, the spirit returns to the sea, Beauvoir said, where it is cleansed before “a proper body" can be found for the next incarnation. Throughout the cycle, he said, the spirits of the dead are a constant, accessible presence. In a striking symbol of that belief, a sculpture in the sanctuary’s amphitheater shows a skeleton locked in an embrace with a woman who represents Haiti. “She dances with her tradition," Beauvoir said, “and with all of her ancestors who are dead."
The calamity, Beauvoir believes, is a chance for Haiti’s voodoo culture to reassert itself by taking a prominent role in the recovery. “It is inconceivable," Beauvoir said he hopes, “that people will think about Haiti without thinking about voodoo."
