21593: Mambo Racine re: 21272: Simon Gardner and Reuter's on: Blood and money voodoo lifts Haitian spirits(fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Racine125@aol.com
    money voodoo lifts Haitian spirits(fwd)

This is awful.

<<By Simon Gardner

    DABORNE, Haiti, April 13 (Reuters) - Hunched in a dark, dank chamber, his shadow dancing on a blood-red wall in the half-light of a candle, voodoo priest La Vie Bon sings incantations to summon Haiti's spirits.

Suddenly the diabolical-looking figure slumps in silence, the candle snuffs out and mustiness fills the void. A twitching, a spasm and the priest's body starts to shudder.

Voodoo spirit Baron Criminel has awakened.>>

Do journalists writing about Vodou invariably consult The Creepy Thesaurus?

Hunched, dark, dank, shadow, blood, half-light, diabolical, slump, mustiness, twitching, spasm, shudder... all within the opening two paragraphs of the article!

I bet I could write a description of Holy Communion in the Jacmel Cathedral that way too, let me see...

"Hunched in the half-light behind the imposing altar, the androgynously-robed priest stands beneath a sculpture suspended in air by taut wires stretched groaning from the crumbling ceiling.  The sculpture shows the figure of a tortured man, nailed to wooden crossbeams, dripping blood as he slowly dies.  It is to this virulent image that the priest, moving through clouds of musty, pungent incense, offers a cup of wine which he believes has magically been transformed into human blood."

Hmph.

I am so sick of these journalists getting milage out of our religion!  Usually they pay some lip service to "the false stereotypes which have stigmatized Vodou", blah blah blah, and then they write more crap like that above.  I've been to Daborne and I didn't meet any "diabolical-looking figures", I had a good time!

<<But many fear the dark side of voodoo, and tales abound of people turned into zombies -- the living dead -- by voodoo priests. It is regarded as the ultimate voodoo punishment.>>

Vodou priests are called Houngans and Houngans do not make zombis!  Zombification is a sanction taken against criminals by the Sanpwel society.  Houngans and Mambos can certainly be Sanpwel members and Sanpwel leaders, but we do not zombify people in our role as Houngans and Mambos.

And what is all this whining about money all through Gardner's article?  Of course Houngans and Mambos are paid by our clients.  We don't get a salary!  The money we earn, we use to take care of ourselves and of the members of our congregation.  If we don't take good care of our congregation members, soon we won't have any congregation members, because they will all go and serve at the house of a Houngan or Mambo who treats them better.  Naturally we work for money, and the better the Houngan or Mambo, the higher the fee he or she can command.

This Simon Gardner journalist person ought to learn more about the structure of our religion before dishing us.

Peace and love,

Bon Mambo Racine Sans Bout Sa Te La Daginen

"Se bon ki ra" - Good is rare
     Haitian Proverb

The VODOU Page - http://members.aol.com/racine125/index.html

(Posting from Jacmel, Haiti)