21246: (Craig) NYT: An Easter Voodoo Festival With Political Undertones (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig <hoosier@att.net>



An Easter Voodoo Festival With Political Undertones
April 12, 2004
By LYDIA POLGREEN

SOUVENANCE, Haiti, April 11 - Every Easter for as long as
he can remember, John Menard has driven the nearly 100
dusty miles on rutted roads to this tiny enclave, shrouded
himself in white and offered himself up to the spirits.

Last month he lost his job as the catering manager at a
hotel in Port-au-Prince, and he is desperately short of
money, he said. Under the circumstances, he might be
expected to turn to the spirits, or loas, that his family
has worshiped for generations and ask for prosperity, but
not this year.

"This year I will not ask the loas for money," Mr. Menard,
34, said Sunday, as he lounged beneath a sacred tree just
outside Souvenance - a lakou, or village, that is one of
voodoo's holiest pilgrimage sites. "I will tell the loas,
this is your land. You have to make the nation right for
the people."

Hundreds of people flocked to this tiny village over Easter
weekend, filling a couple of dozen whitewashed huts in a
walled compound, arrayed around a sacred temple. On this
spot, for at least 200 years, Haitians have shown their
devotion to the African spirits brought to this island by
slaves from West Africa.

It is one of the holiest pilgrimages for believers in
voodoo and it is also the first major pilgrimage since
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's first democratically
elected president, was pushed from power by an armed
uprising in February that began just a few miles from here,
in Gonaives.

The heady events of the past few months, coupled with the
fact that this year is the bicentennial of Haiti's
independence from France, charged the pilgrimage to
Souvenance with an electric energy. Here, politics,
religion and history bubbled into a peculiarly Haitian
concoction, as hundreds of worshipers converged on the
village.

"We celebrated the bicentennial of our freedom by saying no
to a dictator," said Charles Roland Despinasse, a houngan,
or voodoo priest, from Gona?ves. "We come to Souvenance to
thank the loas for removing Jean-Bertrand Aristide."

In addition to being practiced by a vast majority of
Haitians, voodoo is also a potent symbol of the nation's
liberty. Armies of escaped slaves liberated Haiti from
France's imperial grip in 1804, creating the world's first
black republic.

With the departure of colonial power, and with it forced
Catholicism, voodoo flourished in Haiti in the 19th
century. It has experienced periods of intense persecution,
and a cloud of mystery still hangs over the religion,
fueled by Hollywood fantasies about zombies and demonic
possession. But its survival and strength are a testament
to Haiti's independence, said Laennec Hurbon, a Haitian
sociologist who has written several books on voodoo.

That strength was in evidence during Easter weekend, as
hundreds followed a raucous rara band, a collection of
horns and percussion played by musicians in spangled
costumes who parade through the countryside in the week
preceding Easter, to the gates of the lakou. Fueled by
generous tots of clairin, a fiery raw rum, women in satin
dresses hike up their skirts as they strut to the blaring
horns, baring white panties and broad bellies.

On Sunday morning, believers clad in white to indicate
their devotion to the voodoo of light, not darkness,
gathered in the temple to dance and chant, shaking a finger
in the air to affirm the oath they took as initiates to
remain true to their faith. Hounsi, devout helpers of the
loas, passed three goats and one ram, their throats slit
and gushing blood, from the shoulders of man to woman,
soaking the recipients' white satin head scarves and
sending crimson rivulets down their faces.

Voodoo rituals, like the pilgrimage to Souvenance, often
coincide with events and people in the Catholic faith
imposed upon African slaves when they came here. In that
way, the slaves disguised the practice of their religion,
concealing it from the slave masters, who feared its power.

Residents said the Souvenance holy site was founded by a
group of freed slaves from an area of West Africa they
called Dahomey, now part of Benin. This place is sacred
because of that direct link to the ancestors and for that
reason is charged with a special political significance as
well.

Nestled in the Artibonite Valley, Souvenance lies at the
center of Haiti's revolutionary heartland. Haiti's
independence from France was declared in 1804 in Gona?ves.
It was also the site of the uprising against the brutal
Duvalier dictatorship, and during the last year it once
again took its role in Haitian history, brewing the ferment
that toppled Mr. Aristide.

According to local legend, in the 19th century one leader
came here seeking refuge, and the lakou sheltered him,
bathing and preparing him to lead the country. He was so
impressed with the lakou's power that, upon becoming
president, he shuttered the lakou for decades to prevent
any of his rivals from seeking its strength.

Francois Duvalier, the brutal dictator whose family ruled
Haiti for 30 years, surrounded himself with houngans, and
Mr. Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest, sanctioned
voodoo as a recognized state religion last year.

This year's pilgrimage is no different: representatives of
the new government and of the rebel soldiers who helped
push Mr. Aristide from power came here to pay their
respects and seek the blessing of the loas.

"This past year there are some great forces that helped
me," said Wilfort Ferdinand, a leader of the rebel group
that started the uprising that helped topple Mr. Aristide.
"I have come here to try and connect with those forces. In
Haiti, when someone gets into power they use these forces
to maintain power."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/12/international/americas/12HAIT.html?ex=1082770075&ei=1&en=fd227f2c28a6c7e0
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company