12099: Haiti carves visitor niche with 'Voodoo tourism' (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: A Wellington <souve64@hotmail.com>

Haiti carves visitor niche with 'Voodoo tourism'
By Michael Deibert, Reuters

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, May 20 — In the maze of muddy alleys and lanes of
Port-au-Prince's crowded Bizoton quarter, Ti Papi, also known as Goodwin
Jacques, is having a busy day.

A large man whose once-muscular build is giving way to the softness of
middle age, Jacques is presiding over the initiation of a dozen converts
from Martinique into his peristyle, or voodoo temple.

''This area was something of a virgin territory, years ago,'' he says as he
adjusts a seashell necklace. ''There weren't a lot of people here, but there
were a lot of trees here, and a lot of water, these being strong attractions
for the spirits -- the sea, the river and the trees. With my clients, from
Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guyana, if I do good work for someone, word
gets around, and those who are interested will come to me.''

Haiti, once a tourist mecca, lost much of its allure to the international
set as a result of nearly continuous political unrest after the departure of
iron-fisted ruler Jean-Claude ''Baby Doc'' Duvalier in 1986.

Now, eight years after an American-led multinational force restored a
democratically elected government to power, Haiti is carving a modest
tourist niche in the most unlikely of places.

Over the last several years, would-be voodoo adepts, anthropologists and
photographers have visited the Caribbean nation to delve into what was once
regarded as a deformation of Catholicism but is now enshrined in the Haitian
Constitution as a religion on par with any other.

At the annual festival of Souvenance outside the central city of Gonaives
during Easter Week, a plethora of foreigners, from international aid workers
to photographers to the odd ambassador, attended a week's worth of voodoo
festivities that included the sacrifice of a dozen animals, bathing in a
sacred pool and chants beneath a sacred mapou tree.

''In Haiti, we have beautiful memories of what tourism was in the 1950s,''
Tourism Minister Martine Deverson said. ''And today we lack a lot of the
amenities and the infrastructure we had then. But today there is a greater
awareness of Haiti's cultural heritage, and voodoo, though it is often
confused with black magic, we believe can be a great attraction to
visitors.''

Though fewer than 200,000 visitors came to Haiti in 2000, according to
figures provided by the tourism ministry, plans are under way to launch a
modest foreign public relations campaign stressing Haiti's unique cultural
value and to open a tourist bureau at the capital's international airport
with information available on hotels, cultural events and
government-sponsored guides.

A RARE EXPERIENCE

''We are not prepared for mass tourism,'' Deverson says. ''But we can offer
an experience that you can very rarely find anywhere in the world. We are
trying to make the resources for these unique experiences available to
everyone.''

Voodoo arose from the animist religions of West Africa and holds that life
is given and sometimes controlled by spirits who can be summoned through
rituals. The traditions were brought to the Caribbean islands by slaves.

Voodoo has played a long, often maligned, role in the development of Haiti's
national and cultural identity. In 1791, a voodoo ceremony held by slaves
outside of the northern city of Cap Haitien initiated a 13-year struggle
against their French colonial masters that ended with the establishment of
an independent Haitian state in 1804.

Faustin Soulouque, a self-declared ''emperor'' who ruled Haiti for a decade
in the mid-1800s, promoted and acknowledged voodoo as a unique religion. In
more recent times, the dictator Francois ''Papa Doc'' Duvalier tailored his
appearance to reflect that of Baron Samedi, spirit lord of the cemetery, in
an effort to cast himself in a mystical, threatening aura.

At Ti Papi's temple, initiates go through many purification rites, including
ritual baths and 41 days of sexual abstinence, before being sequestered in a
windowless room for seven days, emerging only to take part in rituals that
will go on, day and night, for the entire week of their stay.

''My mother was from Martinique and my father from Israel,'' says a young,
white-clad, coffee-complexioned man. ''My grandfather was a gengen (voodoo
priest), but after he passed on there was no one to carry on the tradition.
Over the years, I had very strange dreams, dreams of a man with horns, of
repeated visits to a temple in the countryside.


ABANDONED SPIRITS

''I went to the priest but the priest told me I was crazy,'' the initiate
said. ''Eventually, I realized the problems were coming from the spirits
that had been abandoned. They were trying to claim me, but because I had
lost the knowledge, I didn't know how to properly respond.''

Ti Papi, waving a bejeweled finger in the air, recognizes the problem.

''In Martinique, they have almost entirely lost their African traditions,''
he said. ''I would say that they have almost become too French. We all came
from the same people, but Haiti, with its early independence was able to
keep their traditions strong.

''In many of these countries now, when people have problems with their
ancestors and problems specifically relating to spiritual matters, they turn
to specialists from Haiti to help them.''

With paper Haitian flags hanging from the temple ceiling, the booming
rhythms of the kata drums announce the arrival of the six initiates,
barefoot and dressed all in white to symbolize purity.

They replicate a complex series of salutations learned from Ti Papi before
the assembled congregation as Ti Papi and his assistants strike the center
post of the temple and the ground fiercely with machetes. In voodoo, the
spirits come up from the ground, not down the heavens.

The ceremonies will last long through the night and well into the following
day. Ti Papi, already bathed in sweat in the sweltering room from dancing
with and saluting the initiates, steps behind the drums, taking a deep swig
from a bottle of Barbancourt rum.

''When there's tires burning in the streets, when there's coup d'etat, when
there's everything else, we are still doing our ceremonies, we are still
beating our drums,'' he said. ''Politicians come and go but voodoo is always
here. If it wasn't for voodoo, we would already be occupied, either by the
Americans or the Dominicans. Voodoo? It's been our sovereignty, over the
years.''



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