Haiti’s voodoo high priest has claimed believers have been discriminated against by evangelical Christians who are monopolizing aid sent to the earthquake-stricken country.

Max Beauvoir, Haiti’s “supreme master” of voodoo, alleged his faith’s opponents had deliberately prevented much-needed help from reaching followers of the religion, which blends the traditional beliefs of West African slaves with Roman Catholicism.
“The evangelicals are in control and they take everything for themselves,” he claimed. “They have the advantage that they control the airport where everything is stuck. They take everything they get to their own people and that’s a shame.
“Everyone is suffering the same and has the same needs. We are not asking for anything more than anyone else. We’re just asking for it to be fair.”

Mr Beauvoir, 75, a Sorbonne-educated biochemist, spoke as a first convoy of aid arrived at his home in Mariani, a town just outside Port-au-Prince. It contained 400 sacks of rice from the World Food Programme and was mobbed by hundreds of hungry voodoo believers.

“It is the first delivery and it took a couple of weeks fight to get that for the voodoo people,” said Mr Beauvoir.
At the weekend hundreds of voodoo houngans, or priests, gathered in the northern town of Gonaives to plan how to react to the earthquake that left an estimated 200,000 people dead on Jan 12.

Following the earthquake the US television evangelist Pat Roberston said Haiti made a “pact with the devil” 200 years ago when it defeated French colonists.
“I don’t know much about him and I don’t think I’m losing much,” said Mr Beauvoir. “Voodoo as been discriminated against for 200 years.
“It was developed by our ancestors, it is a way of life. To ask us to stop would be like asking an American to stop heating hamburgers.”
He also rejected the idea that voodoo consists of human sacrifices and sticking pins in dolls.
“That’s Hollywood voodoo,” he said. “No-one from Hollywood has ever sent an anthropologist to study voodoo in Haiti.”
In Haitian voodoo, God is supreme and is not involved in human affairs.

Believers instead worship hundreds of spirits called lwa. Other beliefs include that trees have spirits.
As she waited for rice from the WFP Monique Henri, 36 wore a cross round her neck but she also believes in voodoo. She said she had an image of Ogu Feri , the voodoo god of metal and fire, at her home .
“The earthquake happened because people were sinners so God was angry, because people did wrong,” she said..

Clavarus Filisca, 72, a houngan, invokes the spirit of Jambe Male to heal people of fevers, headaches and other maladies. “Voodoo is the most important religion. It’s natural, it’s everywhere,” he said.

Mr Beauvoir rejected the suggestion that the earthquake was an act of God. He says it was a natural event but many voodoo followers still believe it was a punishment.
Christians have also been inundating radio stations asking anyone who has committed a crime to confess, thereby saving the nation from future disasters.
Inspiration, an evangelical station, said 11,000 people had rung up to pledge themselves to God since the earthquake.

Missionaries equating voodoo with devil worship have long tried to convert the population of Haiti but the religion, a mixture of Christianity and animism, remains ingrained. Like Christianity it has one God but incorporates pagan elements such as spell casting and calling spirits.

Mr Beauvoir’s grand house, the Peristyle de Mariani, is a voodoo temple where followers dance around a totem pole in the grounds to the sound of drums. Bonfires are lighted to attract spirits and the blood of animals, including goats and chickens, is drained and used to heal the sick.
However, since the earthquake, he has halted all ceremonies. “This is a big shock for people to absorb,” he said. Voodoo ceremonies are still going on in the countryside.

The elaborate ceremonies include secret languages, people dancing after being possessed by spirits and talismans including dried animal heads.
In rural areas there are said to be people who practice the darker side of voodoo, summoning evil spirits. However, practitioners argue that voodoo is a force for good.
Kompe Filo, one of the most popular TV and radio personalities in Haiti, and a vocal believer, said voodoo predicted the earthquake six months ago.
He said: “God is angry against humanity, not just Haiti but all humanity. This is a message that man must change, and reconnect with the natural world around him.
“We have a lot of beliefs modern people should believe in. For example we believe that trees have spirits which we should not harm otherwise we will all suffer.”