At a time when increasing numbers of informed audiences in both scholarly and popular circles have begun to recognize African religious cultures and the rich contributions they have made to African diaspora civilizations, Pat Robertson has made another dubious contribution to America’s fascination with the ‘problem of Haiti.’
As Robertson narrates it, in his latest fiction-disguised-as-revelation, “something happened a long time ago in Haiti,” and that something was Haiti's vodou heritage. The earthquake, an unfortunate turn of events in Haiti’s unnatural history, presents Robertson, and the Christian cohorts supporting his ministry, yet another platform to characterize Haiti as a reprobate nation destined to suffer one disaster after another under the curse of either the Christian devil or God.
African Religious Legacy
To set the record straight, the varied imperial and stateless civilizations of Africa each had their own established religious beliefs, practices and institutions well before any exposure to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Vodou, a term with endless contemplative meanings and inferences, including “god,” “spirit,” and “deep mystery” is one such religious culture that should not be misconstrued as any devil-dealing clan.
Today, libraries of reliable scholarship confirm Vodou’s credibility as a viable historic and contemporary tradition most prominent in West Africa and Haiti. This religious heritage links Haiti, Benin, Togo, and Ghana through a civilizing legacy where cognate cosmologies, philosophies, languages, medical therapies, diets, rites of passage, codes of conduct, aesthetic norms, artistic conventions, and technologies furnish entire communities with a shared sense of identity and the ritual/theological grammars required to guide their common life and transmission of humanity from one generation to the next.
If God’s Good Nature is Reflected in the Slave Trade, What was the Devil Up To?
American ignorance of Vodou beliefs and practices aside, I am befuddled by Robertson’s lack of reflection on what his tall tale of Haiti’s unpaved road to hell inevitably registers about the nature of the Christian God. Where was the almighty Christian God when Haiti’s founding patriots and defenders of human liberty allegedly “swore a pact to the devil?”
There is something sinister at work when a god who is purportedly all-loving, just and powerful over human history is reconciled effortlessly with the jarringly asymmetrical social and historical arrangements like the transatlantic slave trade and ensuing slave economies in the Caribbean and the Americas. If racial slavery of this sort was an expression of “God’s” good nature, then how should we understand the devil’s nature in this theological schema?
Robertson would say that Haiti’s centuries-long struggle for freedom, sovereignty, and dignity is indeed a demonic project—but it would have been hard for captive Africans in Saint-Domingue to embrace the divine character of their colonizers’ Christian God. What the colonial ruling class understood to be either divine or demonic in the Christian pantheon, the enslaved African laborers had to have understood as one and the same evil force.
Prayers for Protection
While the details concerning how Vodou traditions played a role in fortifying Haiti’s foundational freedom fighters during the revolutionary period are inconclusive, the devil is not in the details of this narrative; and there is no dispute about the fact that Vodou is. Pat Robertson is now reading a page from the same narrative fiction that his White racist Christian predecessors scripted soon after the birth of the Haitian Republic. But the re-naming of Vodou’s divine community with the moniker “devil” only reminds us that twenty-first century North America has no shortage of contemporary counterparts to the slave-breaking masters who claimed the right to re-name the human beings they believed they owned.
Today, white Christian missionaries retain power over representations of African civilizations, often influencing the African and Caribbean sheep among their flocks to condemn ancient African religions and customs. Long after the abolition of slavery in the Caribbean and the United States, Mr. Robertson and others in his camp can’t seem to restrain themselves from trying to beat Haiti’s saltwater heritage into total submission.
Sadly, some Haitians, especially born-again Christians of the Pat Robertson and John Hagee persuasions, have joined their White Christian masters in this seasoning ritual. Though they are determined to interpret Vodou religious services like the legendary Bois Caïman ceremony as conventions with the “devil,” most Haitians need no cues from alien interpreters when it comes to their history and religious heritage: Bois Caïman is one of many Haitian landscapes where the divine Vodou community mercifully answered their founding ancestors’ prayers for guidance and protection during their struggle to liberate the island from slavery and colonial rule.
In all religions, gods are summoned to support their devotees in times of war and peace, tragedy, and celebration. Vodou is no different.
Vodou Priests and Priestesses were First Responders
It is probably futile, and ill-advised, to try and assuage the Western personality’s anxieties about (self-generated) legacies of mythical “voodoos” in the region. Yet many able respondents have followed this course, assuring audiences that Haitians are for the most part tamed and predictable Christians. And yes, most Haitians are self-professed Christians—though we should remain aware of the privileges that accrue to the enslaved and colonized who affiliate with the religions of Empire.
This line of discussion, however, concedes to the fear that behind the portrait of meandering earthquake survivors peacefully singing Christian hymns in the streets of Port-au-Prince is a barbaric “voodoo” ceremony waiting to unfold. It is for this reason that accessible Vodou priests and priestesses who were first responders, providing medical care to wounded victims pouring into their temples in the immediate aftermath of the quake, remain unaccounted for in the US American media’s roll call of international heroes and heroines now at work in Haiti.
Whether strict Vodou practitioners or dually aligned members of Vodou temples and Christian churches, the millions of Haitians whose lives are touched by Vodou in countless ways remain unaccounted for when the primary rejoinder to America’s fear of the “voodoo” it created in the first place is to reassure the world of Haiti’s established Christian identity.
Notwithstanding Haiti’s Christian character, the Haitian personality, if there is one, has been nurtured by a Vodou civilization that any responsible treatment of the subject must disentangle from the Western world’s manufactured “voodoo” culture. To be sure, both traditions exist, but audiences should not confuse one with the other; they are mutually exclusive and distinct.
Given the outrageous mischaracterizations of Haiti’s Vodou heritage that have come to signify the gospel truth for so many over the past few centuries, outsiders desiring reliable information about Haitian Vodou and its West African foundations should consult the ever-growing body of scholarship that gives the topic serious scientific attention.
Body of Christ, Bodies of Slaves
What the “voodoo” of popular America and Pat Robertson actually demonstrates is an index of their very own Christian heritage. More than anything it is a sordid effigy of the Western body of Christ as experienced by commodified African bodies. It is a register of the most pervasive expressions of Western Christian culture encountered by captive Africans and their descendants since the first Christian chapels were erected at Elmina, Cape Coast, Ouida, Gorée, and other commercial slave dungeons along the Atlantic coast of Africa beginning in the fifteenth century.
In the end, I must concur with Mr. Robertson: “Something” did “[happen] a long time ago in Haiti, and people [do not] want to talk about it.” Enslaved Africans asserted their humanity, religious freedom and political sovereignty and, under the influence of sour grapes, Western powers have sent one ‘earthquake’ after another Haiti’s way ever since.
Tags: earthquake, haiti, haitian, pat robertson, tragedy, vodou
Beautifully written. May it be printed in every news outlet. Our "christians" sorely need an education, and then they must apologize.
A few of us Christians are educated in such matters, have apologized, and offered more accurate and sensitive portrayals of Haiti and its religious diversity.
Very good article, I loved it. However, no one ever seems to mention the history of the long lost native Haitians who were there before the Africans (who the world thinks of as Haitians) and Europeans. These islands of the Caribbean were inhabited by natives that have been wiped out. Can't leave out that bit of history.
Native Haitians (remember, Ayiti itself is an Amerindian name) are well represented in the Vodou religion, as spiritual exemplars and heroes, and as embodiments through cultural artifacts and rhythms.
I would like to refer those who are interested to read the writings by the priest Bernardo de las Casas penned in the early 16th century re. the indigenous population of Ayiti and the bloodlust of the Spanish explorers.
This is just a myth and we should stick on facts. A bunch of people have likely seen text message charity campaigns that looked like scams, and thus didn't donate, and are probably thinking that if they were to donate to any of them floating around currently, they'll need payday loans and a lawyer to sue some con artist. Well, some of them are real – for instance, text Haiti to 90999 is real – that's the American Red Cross. Also, text Haiti to 501501 is the foundation run by Wyclef Jean, and text Haiti to 20222 is the Clinton Foundation. The skepticism is warranted, but some of them have bona fides.
Profound and very necessary writing here, thank you. As the world becomes smaller, we have much to learn from the coexistence (both peaceful and stressful) of Christianity and Vodou in Haiti. As it happens, I just posted on this...http://onbeingboth.com/
The essay assumes that all religions are equal. Thus, Christian America has no obligation to spread the good news of Jesus Christ to Haiti.
Jesus said I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6.
Jesus also said, go into the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Matt. 28:18-20.
Jesus closest followers (John and Peter), when confronted by religious leaders, said that they will not stop talking about Jesus. There is no other name under Heaven given to men by which we must be saved. Acts 4:12.
The Apostle Paul warned the Church of Corinth, not to mix the the cup of the Lord with the cup of demons. 1 Cor. 10.
The Apostle Paul also wrote that it is by grace we have been saved, not through works lest anyone should boast. It is a gift of God. Eph. 2:8-9.
I write all of the above to state this, either you are a follower of Jesus Christ or you are not. God the Father wants you to receive his Son, so that you may become a child of God. You cannot do this by mixing things up with the doctrines of demons. Repent and put your trust in the Savior today.
I used to believe that message. I was raised to believe, my parents and the rest of my family all believed. At some point it had to be questioned. The message is actually circular reasoning. People believe the message because they believe the scriptures are true, and the scriptures prove the message. But if you look closer, it starts to fall apart. The message is this is God's word and God's way, and God is working through the believers. Then you notice the stronger the belief becomes, the more ungodly the people are. They start believing science is wrong because they have God's word, and it sure seems like they end up hating science and scientists. They start believing in Bible prophecy, and it sure seems like they start looking forward to war, even encouraging it, and accepting torture or whatever else the war brings. They end up following conservative politics, and that means believing the message of the party of the rich because the rich are buying a message to feed to their vanity. They don't care they are causing pain and suffering for the nation, and the rest of the world. They are putting their trust in rapture.
Bradford, you might be better than this, but that doesn't make your message true and doesn't prove you are of God. The belief is causing great damage to the world, and you can't overcome that.
Mad props to Jim Reed!
So true, so true.
Thank you for saying this.
I too was raised with the beliefs that you refute so well in your post, and experienced the effects you describe.
Now I practice what Jesus taught, rather than what Paul and so forth have said about him. I no longer feel compelled to convert everyone I meet. I no longer call myself Christian but others have said that I'm more of a Christian than most Christians. By their fruits you know them.
I don't know if that makes sense? I prefer to just say non-believers tend to live life more like Jesus than the believers do.
The problem is what exactly is that supposed to mean, because of course Jesus himself was not a Christian.
While I like the article, it makes some very disturbing assumptions: that Blacks (African and Haitian) are passive, powerless, uncreative followers of Whites. The article says white Christian missionaries retain power over representations of African civilizations, often influencing the African and Caribbean sheep among their flocks to condemn ancient African religions and customs. There is certainly a partial truth to this statement, yet Black Christians have also creatively appropriated Christian teaching, both from the Bible and from "white missionaries", and made it their own.
Another article "Biblical Disaster: Understanding Religion in Haiti says that around 40% of the population of Port-au-Prince is Pentecostal, and that the majority of these Pentecostals are from local, indigenous Pentecostal churches that are unrelated to Christian mission groups. Similar churches are common throughout Africa. It is insulting to claim that they are simply passive followers of whites.
Thank you Dr. Diakite for turning the imperial discourse of Western Christianity on its head and restoring Vodou to its rightful place. As a Christian myself, I often wonder how Western Christianity led so many people astray and indeed crucified Christ twice by emasculating and desecrating his body all over the world. Western Christianity is indeed a destructive construct, which malevolent power in history utterly dwarfs the magnitude of the Haitian earthquake.
I have been so frustrated by all the news reports showing Haitians singing Christian hymns post-earthquake.
I appreciate your article and will be posting it to my blog, www.raisinglittlespirits.com, about raising our Haitian children to appreciate Vodou.
Let me start by saying that in no way do I agree with Pat Robertson's sick remarks about Haiti (or anything else for that matter). However, I don't think Pat Roberston meant that god condoned slavery. Rather that people will have hardships in their lives and they can try to overcome it (with God's help I suppose) or the Devil's help. He is saying the Haitians took the easy way out and had the devil rescue them (ie anyone facing hardship can pray to god and struggle through or pray to the devil and get instant relief). This is where religion looses me because the role of god is not clear. Man has free will, god does not interfere (so why do we pray?).
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