Haitians Hail the 'President of Voodoo'

"Voodoo has always been practiced clandestinely, first by the slaves brought here from Africa, but even after independence, because Catholicism became the official religion in Haiti in 1860," says Jules Anantua, head of the Ministry of Cults (Religions). "In order for voodoo to survive, it had to borrow symbols from the officially recognized religion. Most voodoo spirits have their counterparts in Christian saints."

Attending services of the Catholic Church and praying to St. Patrick for luck or the Virgin Mary for love were means of addressing the relevant voodoo loa. Individual spirits govern separate realms, from fertility to war to ocean travel, each with its own symbol, favorite colors and preferred offerings.

Anantua's office is overseeing a council of religious, health and education members charged with drafting uniform standards for voodoo practitioners to conduct documented civil ceremonies such as marriages and baptisms.

Voodoo has no formal structure, no hierarchy or geographic center. At least half its houngans and mambos (priestesses) can't read or write, Anantua notes, since they come predominantly from poor, rural areas in a country with 55% illiteracy. To allow voodoo practitioners to officiate at civil rituals, the houngans and mambos must be able to read and write well enough to sign the legal documentation. Because it is the religion of the poor and downtrodden, voodoo has a special power for Aristide, who has the same political base.

By bestowing legitimacy on the African-origin religion, which is embraced by the vast majority of Haiti's 8.1 million residents, the beleaguered president of this poorest of Western countries has signaled to his people that they should be proud of their African heritage, not forced to subvert it under the religious practices of the European Christians who once repressed them.

Bestowing of official sanction has also had positive social consequences, according to some outside of political circles. A recent international development conference on combating the spread of AIDS included delegates from the emerging voodoo community, which has a more open and tolerant view of homosexuality than does the Haitian public at large.

"Voodoo is the only environment in which Haitian gays feel accepted and free to talk about issues," says Laurence Magloire, who last year produced a documentary film on voodoo and its embrace of sexual outcasts. "We live in a country where homosexuality is taboo."