Shunned for centuries, voodoo is becoming powerful as Haitians seek solace from relentless gang violence.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Voodoo worshipers chant, their voices rising above gunfire that erupts miles away as frenzied drumbeats drown out their troubles.

They stop to drink rum from small brown bottles, twirling in unison as they sing in Haitian Creole: “We don’t care if they hate us, because they can’t bury us.” »

Publicly shunned by politicians and intellectuals for centuries, voodoo is transforming into a more powerful and accepted religion across Haiti, where its believers were once persecuted. Increasingly, they seek comfort and protection from the violent gangs that have killed, raped and kidnapped thousands of people in recent years.

The violence has left more than 360,000 people homeless, largely closed Haiti’s largest seaport and shut down the main international airport two months ago. Basic goods, including food and life-saving medicines, are dwindling; nearly 2 million Haitians are on the brink of famine.

Between January and March alone, more than 2,500 Haitians were killed or injured, an increase of more than 50% compared to the same period last year, according to the UN.

Amid the spiral of chaos, many Haitians are praying more or visiting voodoo priests known as “oungans” for urgent requests ranging from locating loved ones who have been kidnapped to seeking essential medicines necessary to keep someone alive.

“The spirits help you. They are still there,” said Sherly Norzéus, initiated to become a “mambo,” or voodoo priestess.

In February, she invoked Papa Ogou, god of war and iron, when 20 armed men surrounded her car as she tried to flee the Bon Repos community.

Her three children and the two children of her sister, who died in childbirth, were sitting next to her.

“We will burn you alive!” » she remembers the screams of the armed men.

Gangs had invaded their neighborhood before dawn, burning down homes amid incessant gunfire.

“I prayed to Papa Ogou. He helped me get out of that situation,” Norzeus said.

When she opened her eyes, the gunmen gestured to her that she was free to leave.

Voodoo was behind the revolution that led Haiti to become the world’s first free black republic in 1804, a religion born in West Africa and brought across the Atlantic by slaves.

The syncretic religion which combines Catholicism with animist beliefs has no official leader or creed. There is a single God known as “Bondye”, Creole for “good God”, and over 1,000 spirits known as lwa – some of whom are not always benevolent.

During voodoo ceremonies, lwa are offered treats ranging from papayas and coffee to popcorn, lollipops and cheese puffs. A ceremony is considered successful if a voodooist is possessed by a lwa.

Some experts consider it a religion of the exploited.

“Vodou is the system that Haitians have developed to cope with the suffering of this life, a system whose goal is to minimize pain, avoid disaster, mitigate loss and strengthen survivors as much as the “survival instinct,” wrote Haitian sociologist Laënnec Hurbon. in a recent essay.

Voodoo began to take shape in the French colony of Saint-Domingue during the funeral rituals of slaves and the dances called “calendas” that they held on Sunday evenings. It was also practiced by slaves known as Maroons who escaped to isolated mountains and were led by François Mackandal, a voodoo priest.

In August 1791, some 200 slaves gathered at night in Bois-Caïman, in northern Haiti, for a voodoo ceremony organized by Dutty Boukman, a famous slave leader and voodoo priest. They sacrificed a pig, drank its blood and swore to keep an impending revolt against slavery a secret, according to a surgeon present at the ceremony.

After 13 years of revolution, Haiti became independent, but Vodou remained oppressed.

The country’s new leaders have condemned voodoo worship, as has the Catholic Church.

Catholic leaders required parishioners to take an oath to renounce voodoo in 1941.

Thousands of Vodou followers were lynched and hundreds of symbolic spaces destroyed in what became the most violent attack in Haiti’s history against this religion, according to journalist Herbert Nerette.

But Vodou persisted. When François Duvalier became president in 1957, he politicized religion during his dictatorship, designating certain Ungans as his representatives, Hurbon writes.

In 2003, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a Salesian priest who became Haiti’s first democratically elected president, recognized Voodoo as one of Haiti’s official religions.

Despite this formal recognition, Vodou remains shunned by certain Haitians.

“When you say you are a voodooist, you are stigmatized,” explains Kadel Bazile, a 42-year-old civil engineer.

Until recently, Bazile was a practicing Catholic. But when he lost his job and his wife left him almost two years ago, a friend suggested he try Vodou.

“What I find here is spirituality and fraternity. Being here is like being with family,” he said while attending a May 1 ceremony honoring Kouzen Zaka, the harvest lwa.

He identifies most with Erzulie Dantor, the deity of love represented by a black Madonna with scars on her right cheek.

“It’s the spirit that lives in me,” he said. “She will protect me.”

As the ceremony began, Bazile smiled and moved to the beat of the drums while dancers twirled nearby, their long earrings swaying to the beat.

Voodoo is attracting more believers given rising gang violence and government inaction, said Cecil Elien Isac, a 4th generation oungan.

“Every time the community has a big problem, they come here, because there is no justice in Haiti. You find it in ancestral spirits,” he said.

When Isaac opened his temple years ago in Port-au-Prince, about eight families from the area became members. It now has more than 4,000, in Haiti and abroad.

“We have a group of intellectuals who have joined us,” he said. “Before, they were people who could neither read nor write. Now he has more visibility.

This turnaround is attributed to thinkers like Jean Price-Mars, whose 1928 book, “Thus Spoke the Uncle,” visualized voodoo as a religion, “without making the Haitian elites blush,” wrote sociologist Lewis Ampidu Clorméus .

“Until the 1920s, Haitian Vodou was generally considered to be a collection of superstitions, witchcraft, and ritual cannibalism,” writes Clorméus. “Talking about Vodou was a shame for Haitian intellectuals.”

Vodou has since become a key ingredient in Haiti’s rich cultural scene, inspiring music, art, writing and dance.

It is unknown how many people currently practice Vodou in Haiti, but there is a popular saying: “Haiti is 70% Catholic, 30% Protestant, and 100% Vodou.”

Voodoo also has countless lwas, although Ogou Je Wouj – the red-eyed god – has become more important to Haitians given the lack of security in the country, said Erol Josué, singer, oungan and director of the Bureau national ethnology of Haiti.

Ogou Je Wouj is a manifestation of the god of war and is believed to wield a machete.

“They want power in their body and in their spirit,” Joshua said of those who seek God.

While the spirits breathe energy and hope into believers, voodoo priests warn that they do not perform miracles.

“We pray, but we also take precautions,” Isac said. “There are many lwa to protect you from kidnapping, but if you pass through certain areas, no lwa will protect you. »

On a recent afternoon, hundreds of Haitians gathered on a steep hill and crowded into a small church to celebrate Saint George, a Christian martyr considered a Roman soldier revered by Catholics and Vodouists alike.

They offered him money and prayers in hopes of surviving Haiti’s deepening crisis.

“It’s very important to be here,” said Hervé Hyppolite, a chef who practices Christianity and Voodoo. “You find strength, courage and also protection.”

Around him was a sea of ​​people dressed in khaki and red, the colors of the saint. Some held candles while a handful of women danced nearby,

“St. George!” » shouted the priest who led the celebration. The crowd responded by shouting, “We need you!” »

Josué, the singer and oungan, noted that some young people who become Vodouists try to change traditional prayers or certain practices, but he said the oungans and mambos do not accept this push.

“We make them understand that these spirits are a symbol of resistance of the Haitian nation,” he declared. “There is a lot of substance in Vodou that can lead to a renaissance of Haiti. »

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Associated Press reporter Evens Sanon contributed to this report.

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