Voodoo is the dominant religion of Haiti.  In fact, this “religion” is indigenous to Haiti.  When the French enslaved them, and insisted they be Roman Catholic, they found such a similarity in their African-based ancestor worship that they were able to blend their idolatry with the Roman Catholic idolatry, to trick the French into thinking they were compliant.  This was called a process of syncretisation, where the voodoo loa became identified with Catholic saints and vice-versa.  It was an easy crossover, because it’s all a bunch of idolatry, and once you go down the idol trail, the distinctions really aren’t so important. 

There was a particular syncretisation of Catholicism and African ancestor worship that inspired the masses.  This is captured in the picture to the left of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa and the loa Erzulie Dantor.  This loa is the spirit of single mothers, homosexuals, justice and independence. Yikes on that bizarre conglomeration!  These two figures that are dominant in both Roman Catholic and voodoo worships are depicted in this famous photograph.  Just as the Black Madonna has a special place in Polish national myth, Erzulie Dantor was said to have taken over the body of a voodoo worshiper in 1791, urging the Haitians to “kill the stranger” – which precipitated a violent revolution and the massacre of every Frenchman on the island.

Voodoo means “spirit” and at its core is the world’s oldest ancestral, nature-“honoring” traditions.  These roots go back perhaps as far as 6,000 years, and today it is estimated that 60 million people practice voodoo worldwide.  During the voodoo ceremony the practitioners meet outside to make contact with their loa (spirit), seeking their intervention for their personal wants and needs.  They sacrifice chicken and other animals to these spirits, because they become tired and worn down and killing these animals transfers energy to the spirits to revive and rejuvenate them.  (Try to say that with a straight face, I dare you.) 

Voodoo is interwoven into all aspects of the lives of the Haitian people.  They believe that their destiny is established by the loa, and they control what goes on in their lives.  They are convinced there are spirits constantly among them, and they build their daily activities around this reality.  The Roman Catholic church, over time, wanted to have political and economic influence in Haiti (while they originally only focused on the elite minority).  So they found they had to acquiesce in the merger of voodoo practices with their equally peculiar and unscriptural Roman Catholic practices.  Today, though the official religion of the country is Roman Catholicism, in reality the practice is voodoo.  Any worship service observed in a Roman Catholic church will have significant elements of voodooism, including wild drum beating and dancing.  The people of Haiti turn to their voodoo priests, and make life decisions based on the religion of voodoo.  It is little wonder, then, that this nation is mired in poverty, corruption, violence and hopelessness – and that God is pouring out his wrath on them even as you read these words.