21493: (Hermantin)Sun-Sentinel-Healer wants recognition for Haiti's Vodou religion (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Healer wants recognition for Haiti's Vodou religion



By Alva James-Johnson
Staff Writer

April 22, 2004

The exclusion of Vodou practitioners in plans to uplift Haiti will keep the
country in a chaotic state, a Vodou priest said Wednesday.

Max Beauvoir, 68, of the Temple of Yehwe in Mariani, Haiti, said
politicians, humanitarian organizations, and Christian leaders from abroad
have refused to acknowledge the role of the religion in the country's
culture for 200 years. As a result, Haiti is on the brink of total collapse,
and he believes Vodou gods are upset.

"I think if they continue with this kind of scheme of unfairness, [the gods]
may soon be tired of them and see us all disappear," he said.

Beauvoir is in South Florida to educate the public about his religion. He is
one of several traditional healers from Haiti, the United States and Jamaica
who will participate in a panel presentation from 5:30 to 9 tonight at
Broward County Main Library. The event is titled "Holistic and Traditional
Healing."

During his visit, Beauvoir has participated in a ceremony at a Vodou temple
called "Halouba" in Little Haiti in Miami. He spoke Sunday at a Vodou
seminar at Florida International University, part of a series that will
culminate with a Vodou Fest on May 1 at Bayfront Park in Miami.

Beauvoir said Creole linguists changed the spelling of the religion's name
to "Vodou" about four years ago to disassociate it from "Voodoo," which has
been stereotyped as an evil religion.

"So many movie producers have painted us as horrible and ugly to the point
that even our children are afraid to look us in the eye," he said. "But
Vodou is a religion that covers all aspects of life and goes hand-in-hand
with Haiti. It carries with it a vision of the human in the center of the
universe, among stars, animals, plants and among each other."

Beauvoir, a biochemist educated in the United States and France, said his
family has always practiced the religion. He returned to Haiti in the 1970s
and followed in the footsteps of his grandfather, who was also an hugan or
Vodou priest.

He said people come from all over the world to his temple for physical,
mental and spiritual healing, which he provides using plants, leaves and
animals.

Beauvoir said Vodou is very much alive in South Florida, which has the
largest Haitian population in the United States. It's influenced by African
and American Indian religions, and is related to the Santeria religion of
Cuba, the Shango of Trinidad and Tobago and Macumba of Brazil. All can be
traced to African religions, which slaves brought to the New World.

Those who practice Vodou believe a goddess named "Yehwe" heads the universe,
and her characteristics are manifested through 401 smaller deities who
together make up her complete image.

People hold ceremonies in their homes and in Vodou temples, using decorative
flags for messages from deities called "Lwa." They sing and dance to call up
the deities, which possess their bodies and cause them to take on one of
Yehwe's characteristics.

He said hexes, which many Westerners associate with the religion, are only
used when a vodouist is mistreated by another person and calls on a deity to
intervene.

"The largest part of the Haitians practice the religion," he said. "They
solve their daily problems through Vodou."

Alva James-Johnson can be reached at ajjohnson@sun-sentinel.com or
954-356-4523.


Copyright © 2004, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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