15305: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Voodoo (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2003 20:19:46 -0400

   By MICHAEL NORTON

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, April 9 (AP) -- Haiti's government has officially
sanctioned voodoo as a religion, allowing practitioners to begin performing
ceremonies from baptisms to marriages with legal authority.
   Many who practice voodoo praised the move, but said much remains to be
done to make up for centuries of ridicule and persecution in the Caribbean
country and abroad.
   Voodoo priest Philippe Castera said he hopes the government's decree is
more than an effort to win popularity amid economic and political troubles.
   "In spite of our contribution to Haitian culture, we are still
misunderstood and despised," said Castera, 48.
   In an executive decree issued last week, President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide invited voodoo adherents and organizations to register with the
Ministry of Religious Affairs.
   After swearing an oath before a civil judge, practitioners will be able
to legally conduct ceremonies such as marriages and baptisms, the decree
said.
   Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest, has said he recognizes voodoo
as a religion like any other, and a voodoo priestess bestowed a
presidential sash on him at his first inauguration in 1991.
   "An ancestral religion, voodoo is an essential part of national
identity," and its institutions "represent a considerable portion" of
Haiti's 8.3 million people, Aristide said in the decree.
   Voodoo practitioners believe in a supreme God and spirits who link the
human with the divine. The spirits are summoned by offerings that include
everything from rum to roosters.
   Though permitted by Haiti's 1987 constitution, which recognizes
religious equality, many books and films have sensationalized voodoo as
black magic based on animal and human sacrifices to summon zombies and evil
spirits.
   "It will take more than a government decree to undo all that
malevolence," Castera said, and suggested that construction of a central
voodoo temple would "turn good words into a good deed."
   There are no reliable statistics on the number of adherents, but
millions in Haiti place faith in voodoo. The religion evolved from West
African beliefs and developed further among slaves in the Caribbean who
adopted elements of Catholicism.
   Voodoo is an inseparable part of Haitian art, literature, music and
film. Hymns are played on the radio and voodoo ceremonies are broadcast on
television along with Christian services.
   But for centuries voodoo has been looked down upon as little more than
superstition, and at times has been the victim of ferocious persecution. A
campaign led by the Catholic church in the 1940s led to the destruction of
temples and sacred objects.
   In 1986, following the fall of Jean-Claude Duvalier's dictatorship,
hundreds of voodoo practitioners were killed on the pretext that they had
been accomplices to Duvalier's abuses.