Reporting from Port-Au-Prince, Haiti – The night was filled with voices, murmuring then gathering together then rising into hymns and chants that carried far in the balmy air.
This was the time for God and for spirits.
On a road next to the central cemetery, residents of a small slum were lying on mattresses and pieces of cardboard set out on the broken pavement. A woman started to hum a Christian song, and soon rallied a chorus, singing and dancing and clapping for rhythm.
“Kem kontan Jesus renmem, aleluya,” they sang — joyously, not mournfully. “I’m so happy Jesus loves me. Hallelujah.”
Farther down the road, two voodoo priestesses sat down on buckets with another group. They made the sign of the cross and started a Catholic hymn, before splashing some rum on the ground to reach out to the gede, the spirits of the dead.
“We are thanking you that we are here,” said Marie Michele Louis, a priestess, called a manbo here. “We are thanking all the spirits of Africa. We are not afraid to serve the spirits of Guinea.”
In Haiti, the spiritual world is omnipresent, a raucous realm where voodoo, folklore, superstition, Protestant and Catholic faiths compete, clash and sometimes converge.
When the earth shakes no one talks about fault lines and tectonic plates. Instead, there are many otherworldly explanations of why the earthquake hit and the aftershocks go on here, from the biblical to the superstitious to the conspiratorial.
The devastation Jan. 12 has also widened a rift that has been growing since U.S. missionaries began coming to Haiti in the 1800s: Evangelical Christians blame voodoo for bringing on this ruin, claiming it is satanic. Voodoo priests counter that the Christians are exploiting the catastrophe to convert people and raise money.
“The Protestants tell people that voodoo is evil,” said Louis, 52, who lives next to the cemetery. “They say that voodoo is responsible for this. They are taking advantage of the situation to get people into churches.”
Louis was teaching her children about the spirits in her temple, which stands behind an iron door on an alley off the Grand Rue downtown, when the earthquake hit.
The walls fractured, but the two-story building didn’t fall.
“It’s thanks to the spirits that we are alive today,” Louis said.
Voodoo has a pantheon of these spirits, the lwa, which evolved from the beliefs slaves brought from Africa in the 17th and 18th centuries. When they were taught by priests in the French colony, they saw the lwa as similar to the Catholic saints, if not actually the saints themselves, and appropriated certain Catholic rituals and liturgy.
Followers believe in God as the almighty power, but find his underlings to be more accessible.
“We are like good neighbors with Catholics,” Louis said. “They just tell us to pray, they don’t tell us we’re evil.”
The Roman Catholic Church does not endorse voodoo, and many Catholics avoid it, but it has not combated it as the Protestant faiths have.
Even under constant assault from Christians, voodoo and traditional folklore have retained deep roots, particularly in the slums and countryside. A man might casually mention that another man carrying a heavy load on a cart is a zombie, or that vampires are killing children in the night.
The spirits of the dead that Louis invokes are a mischievous bunch. They wear black top hats and glasses, live in cemeteries and have funny names like Gede Ti Pete — Little Fart.
The spirit Louis knows best is Stupide Lacroix. When he appears, he adjusts his belt and top hat and saunters around with a cane. Believers splash high-quality Barbancourt rum on the ground for him.
Louis says she calls on him to heal and protect living people and their ancestors. That is the true root of the practice, she says, not sorcery.
But sorcery, including endless rumors of human sacrifice, is what has given voodoo a sinister reputation around the world, which practitioners, intellectuals and foreign anthropologists have been trying to change for decades. And it’s why the daily American Airlines flights between Miami and Port-au-Prince are filled with Christian missionaries.
When televangelist Pat Robertson last week said that in the late 18th century Haiti made a “pact with the devil” for its freedom from the French, he was echoing a message that proselytizing U.S. and European missionaries have long drummed in here.
Protestant faiths, particularly Pentecostal ones, have been gaining a stronger foothold in the country since the dictatorship of Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier, who invited in U.S. missionaries and once held a reception for Oral Roberts at the National Palace.
The missionaries didn’t threaten him politically, brought money into the country and eroded the dominance of the Catholic Church he loathed.
Still, the relationship with the Christians was strange for a man who wanted Haiti to remove European cultural influences and used voodoo himself to inspire fear. His owlish glasses and black attire, in fact, gave him the look of a gede.
His brutal reign — employing death squads called the Tonton Macoutes, named after a folkloric figure who took children away in a knapsack as they slept — reinforced voodoo’s dark reputation in and out of Haiti.
“The earthquake is a warning from God to all those witch doctors, letting them know what he can, what he will do,” said Michele Nandy Henry, 26, an evangelical Christian.
“All the spirits have a leader. That’s Lucifer.”
Henry hinted at the nebulous, whispered-about relationship most Haitians have with voodoo, even those who consider themselves Christian. Voodoo is a very private if not secretive practice for many Haitians.
“A lot of the pastors even go to the voodoo doctors to get a lot of parishioners and white people to donate to their church,” she said. “When a real Christian comes up to them, they feel the power of God and cannot look them in the eye.”
Henry was attending a lively church service in front of the gray cinder-block Eglise de Dieu in the hilly Place Cazeau area on the east side of the capital. The pastor had dragged the pews into the dirt road, and a band played evangelical songs.
At least 200 people gather there every night, praying, dancing, drumming, singing.
“Jesus is coming soon!” they screamed.
Pastor Thimote Elise, 52, has been telling his parishioners that the earthquake is a sign of the second coming of Christ.
He cited Matthew 24: 7-8, which says: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.”
“This is the beginning of the signs that God is going to come,” Elise insists.
He didn’t think the earthquake was a mystical thing, as voodoo is often described.
“Even if it was mistik, if God didn’t give you a way, it couldn’t be done,” he said.
In the rubble of the city of Leogane west of the capital, Francoise Rosmine voiced the same belief, as she scrubbed her children’s clothes in a bucket.
“Mistik don’t have more power than God,” she said. “This is a powerful thing.”
A block away, Marie Elmera Surme, 56, sat in front of a pale-green hut with a peaked tin roof that she planned never to step foot inside again for fear it would collapse on her.
“God wouldn’t do this treacherous thing,” she said. “If it was God, he would just do it for a day. It’s got to be the mistik.”
Tison Jean Baptiste, 46, standing nearby, said he thought the earthquake was caused by the United States conducting some type of nuclear test in the ocean, a rumor running through the country.
“I don’t think God would do that,” he said.
“It has to do with humans.”
Back at the slum next to the central cemetery in Port-au-Prince, the manbo Louis and her followers sing to the spirits each night, as evangelical Christians sing their own songs nearby.
At 8:30 p.m., the road was blocked by bricks so that passing cars wouldn’t hit people sleeping in the streets. A woman tucked her little boy in. Men down the road crouched in the blue light to watch a television hooked up to car batteries. A trash fire lighted up a soccer field filled with sleeping people. A little bar blasted music with a stereo speaker, as a man on a stool sipped a beer outside.
The songs rose up, and then fell away — mostly evangelical Christian.
A large woman in a lime green dress, Louis did not want to sing next to them and cause a stir. Many people have been angry at manbos since the quake. So she set up at an empty spot down the road. Crosses loomed above the cemetery, silhouetted against pale, scudding clouds and a starry night.
Louis started singing, and four women followed, a call-and-response with distinctly African cadences.
“Please don’t let our house fall,” they sang in Creole. “Please don’t let our house fall.”
The Christians sang down the block.
A crescent moon was gliding toward the bay below, and the lilting voices were a bit of beauty in a ruined city.
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times
WHY HASN’T SOMEONE ALLUDED TO THIS FACT SOONER? I DON’T FEEL WE CAN SEPARATE THE HURRICANE KATRINA TRAGEDY FROM THE HAITIAN TRAGEDY. I FEEL WE SHOULD CALL BOTH EVENTS TRAGEDIES AND NOT STORMS OR EARTHQUAKES LITERALLY. TWO THINGS IN COMMON STAND OUT WITH EACH OF THE TRAGEDIES. ONE, EVERYONE CAN SEE THAT THE IMPOVERISHED AREA OF LOUISIANA AND THE IMPOVERISHED AREA OF HAITI HAVE A LOT IN COMMON WHEN IT COMES TO GROUNDS FOR BREEDING HATRED IN THE WORLD AND IN AMERICA. TWO, SEVERAL MONTHS EVEN SEVERAL YEARS, BEFORE THE STORMS THERE WAS STRUGGLING, EVEN FIGHTING AND CRIES OF DIRE HATRED IN LOUISIANA AND IN HAITI BEFORE THE STORM AND EARTHQUAKE HAPPENED. BUT, IN BOTH CASES NOBODY SEEMED TO CARE OR TAKE NOTICE UNTIL THE TRAGEDIES HAPPENED. THE PRAYERS AND MOURNFUL UTTERANCES WERE ALMOST UNBEARABLE AND THE STORMS AND EARTHQUAKES SEEMED TO OFFER MUCH NEEDED RELIEF TO THE IMPOVERISHED AND WANTING AREAS. THE BLESSING/CURSE OF LOUISIANA AND HAITI IS UNMISTAKEABLE AND CANNOT BE DENIED. BUT, I BELIEVE LIKE HAITIAN PRIME MINISTER, JEAN-MAX BELLERIVE THAT THINGS ARE NOT TO BE LOOKED ON AS SOMETHING WITHOUT POSITIVE OUTLOOKS IN BOTH, THE LOUISIANA SITUATION AND THE HAITIAN TRAGEDY. BEFORE THE LOUISIANA TRAGEDY, THE SONGS OF HATRED CUT SO DEEP, THE WORD, LOVE, ITSELF WAS CURSED. IN BOTH INSTANCES, THE DEMONS FROM HELL WERE SO CONCENTRATED IN THESE TWO AREAS THAT ANYONE COULD SENSE THE HATRED AND CRIES OF WORSHIP OF SATAN. THIS IS TRUE OF THE LOUISIANA IMPOVERISHED AREA AND THE HAITIAN IMPOVERISHED AREA. THE DISPARITIES IN BOTH HAITI AND THE DEEP SOUTH WILL ALWAYS NEED THESE TRAGEDIES TO GET A BREATH OF AIR FROM THE PITS OF HELL. THE DISPARITIES ARE THE ENEMIES AND THE DISPARITIES IN BOTH IMPOVERISHED AREAS WILL CONTINUE TO DESTROY UNTIL THE DISPARITIES ARE CONFRONTED WITH REAL INTENT TO ERASE AT LEAST SOME OF IT. FORMER GOVERNOR BLANCO HELD A POVERTY SUMMIT JUST A SHORT TIME BEFORE THE KATRINA STORM. A POVERTY SUMMIT. IS THAT A MISNOMER OR WHAT? NOTHING COULD BE LOWER IN THE COUNTRY, EXCEPT MISSISSIPPI, MAYBE. IN MY OPINION, THERE SHOULD BE SOME EMPATHY AND NOT ZENITH BUILDING STRATERGIES, BUT, WHO WANTS TO EMPATHIZE WITH POVERTY AND WANT? THIS DOES NOT JUST HAPPENED THIS IS DONE DELIBERATELY AND BY PLAN, BOTH, IN CREATING SUCH AREAS AND PERPETUATING SUCH AREAS. I HAVE NEVER BEEN ANYWHERE NEAR WEALTH OR RICHES IN MY LIFE. BUT, I THINK I MUST HAVE RECEIVED THE FIRST PIECE OF PLASTIC MONEY, EVER IN THE WELLS FARGO AND BANK OF AMERICA AND GENERAL MOTORS CUSTOMER BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS. MY DAD WORKED AT SEARS ROEBUCK FOR MANY YEARS AND WITH PART OF HIS PROFIT SHARING HE WAS ABLE TO PURCHASE A LARGE HOUSE AS HOME FOR HIS LARGE FAMILY IN LOUISIANA WITHOUT GOING INTO DEBT AT ALL FOR IT. MY DAD USED TO SUPPLY THE NEIGHBORHOOD WITH FREE CANDY SOFT DRINKS AND EVEN FREE BOOZE AFTER HOURS FOR HIS CRONIES OF ALL NATIONALITIES, IT SEEMED. MY OLDEST BROTHER BY THE SAME NAME WORKED FOR MANY YEARS AT A COMPANY NAMED CLOVER LEAF DAIRY IN LOUISIANA. HERE HE WOULD BRING HOME LARGE CONTAINERS OF ICE CREAM COOKIES AND ALL SORTS OF ICE CREAM, BUTTER, MILK AND COOKIES. IT WAS REALLY A SMALL PIECE OF LAND OF MILK AND HONEY. BUT, NOT EVERYONE WAS AS SANTA CLAUS FORTUNATE. THIS DID NOT ERASE THE POVERTY AND WANT IN GENERAL OF TAR PAPER SHACKS AND OUTSIDE BATHS, NO RUNNING WATER, NO PRIVATE COMMUNICATAION, BUT, IT WAS A PLACE OF BOTH, MIXED BLESSING AND CURSES. THE CURSES ARE STILL PRESENT AND WILL ALWAYS BE UNTIL THE DISPARITIES ARE ERASED. AND THE ONLY WAY THE DISPARITIES WILL BE ERASED IS THAT THE HAVES, I MEAN THE WEALTHY AND THE RICHES, WILL SHARE MORE OF THEIR BURDEN AND TAKE IT FROM THE SHOULDERS OF THOSE WHO CAN LEAST AFFORD TO CARRY IT. THE BIBLE IS A GOOD PLACE TO START SINCE IT STATES THAT THE VALLEYS WILL RISE UP AND THE MOUNTAINS WILL BE MADE LOW. BEFORE WAITING FOR THIS TO HAPPEN, THERE IS THE ON-GOING NEED TO MAKE MORE EQUAL THE BURDONS OF POVERTY AND WANT AND THE WELL-TO-DO RICHES.
I NEVER LEARNED TO HATE, BUT, WE ARE GETTING SUCH GOOD LESSONS ON HATRED AND THE REASONS FOR IT IN THE FIRST PLACE, I, TOO WILL KNOW HOW TO ABHORE AS GOD ABHORES SOME THINGS. I AM REALLY WORRIED THAT WE HAVE BARACK OBAMA UP FOR GRABS AS PRESIDENT. MR. OBAMA DEPICTS THE CREATION AND PERPETUATION OF SO-CALLED “CLIQUES”, “ELITES” AND “CHOSENS”. IT IS HIS WAY OF LIFE OR LIFESTYLE, ONE OF SHELTER AND CHOICE. WHAT WE MISS IN THE MAJORITY LOOK IN AMERICA OR THE WHITE PEOPLE LOOK, IS THE STRENGTH THAT SUCH PEOPLE HAD BY VIRTUE OF WHO THEY ARE. CONVERSLY, MR. OBAMA DEPICTS THE OPPOSITE IN PRESENTING A PICTURE OF FACTIONS, SMALL SPLIT FACTIONS OR FRACTIONS, SO MUCH SO THAT THE CLICHE’ “DIVIDE AND CONQUER” IS NEEDLESS SENSE HIS WAY IT TO DIVIDE QUITE NATURALLY WITH LITTLE EFFORT TO DO OTHERWISE. I DON’T THINK THE MIDDLE AREA OF THE COUNTRY IS SAFE AT ALL WITH MR. OBAMA AS PRESIDENT AND THE IDEA OF ANOTHER OKLAHOMA CITY TRAGEDY SEEMS INEVITABLE. SOME THINGS ARE NOT TO BE. SOME THINGS WERE NOT TO BE. IT IS ONCE AGAIN IN AMERICA, A CRITICAL TIME AS IT WAS IN 1964 WHEN MALCOM X MADE THE STATEMENT THAT IF THE BALLOT DOES NOT PRODUCE THE DESIRED RESULTS, THEN THE BULLET MUST AND THAT STATEMENT IS RESOUNDING TODAY. FOR WHEN IT COMES, TO THE VALIDY OF THE WORDS “IN GOD WE TRUST” AND “SO HELP ME GOD”, THIS IS EITHER SH– OR GET OF THE POT TIME OR NO TIME, SINCE TIME HAS, INDEED, RUN OUT AS MALCOM X STATED AND MARTIN LUTHER KING STATED, ALSO. A PEOPLE WITHOUT A FUTURE IS ALWAYS A DESPERATE PEOPLE AND CANNOT BE PLACATED OR PACIFIED UNTIL SOMETHING BETTER COMES ALONG, BUT, LIKE A WOMAN’S PREGNANCY, TIME HAS RUN OUT IT IS PAY UP OR SHUT THE F— UP. TERMS LIKE “IN GOD WE TRUST” AND “SO HELP ME GOD” ARE NOT TO BE TAKEN LIGHTLY. THEY ARE TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY AND REVERENTLY OR SHOULD NOT BE QUOTED AT ALL. “CAVEAT EMPTOR”.