Haiti: Earthquake, Rebuilding, Voodoo

I spent New Year's Day eating pumpkin soup. Eating pumpkin soup is a yearly tradition that my mother started as a way to pass her Haitian heritage to her children. We eat pumpkin soup every year in celebration of Haiti's independence from France. My mother made sure that I ate pumpkin soup this year because I had missed out on this tradition for the past two years because I was in New York. However, it made no difference whether I ate pumpkin soup. while eating pumpkin soup was an act of celebrating Haitian independence, Haitians became oppressors themselves with the help of witchcraft. Hence, this took away the significance of the soup for Americans like me.

About two weeks after eating pumpkin soup, something surprisingly flashed on my TV screen. It was a news alert: Earthquake hits Haiti.

Many building collapsed including The National Palace, the seat of government. This is being called the deadliest earthquake in history.

I visited Haiti in 2003 with my mother and brother. While we did not stay in Port-au-Prince, I got a chance to see some of the country's beauty.

My curiosity with the country spurred my decision to write my master's project at Columbia University about successful Haitians. Stories about Haiti's poverty was highlighted throughout the news (ex. Haitians eating mud pies to fight hunger pangs). For my project, I profiled six Haitian-born residents of the U.S. who had left Haiti's oppression and succeeded in America. I believed that their stories were unknown.

But, Haiti has another untold story that no one wants to talk about: voodoo.

When I first logged into my Facebook account after seeing the news alert, some of the Haitian Americans in my network wrote, "God is good" and "God is great." For a moment, I was baffled. What was great about an earthquake?

Well, in their opinion, the earthquake symbolized God's wrath. God was basically purging Haiti of the evil load of witchcraft.

This is disappointing because Haiti overthrew two harsh systems of oppression: slavery and dictatorial rule. However, its citizens have themselves become oppressors with the help of voodoo.

Voodoo is the dark, evil cloak that has been causing centuries of death and suffering on the island. It helps to maintain Haiti's oppression and poverty.

As I write this post, my family and I have been battling voodoo and now Obeah for at least a decade. The latest withcraft attack began because I decided to go to New York to obtain a masters degree in journalism from Columbia University. Sadly, I never told any of my parents relatives about my decision.

The nature of the attack is two-fold: Envy and a family conflict. My parents' relatives do not want me to have money or a house. They claim to have come to America for a better economic future, but they use witchcraft to stop Americans like me from living the American dream. God created me to reflect his glory and to fulfill my inevitable destiny. I refuse to live below the level that God has ordained for me to live.

While almost 80 percent of Haiti is Roman Catholic, that number is meaningless because most churchgoers are also practitioners of voodoo. In fact, voodoo is recognized as a religion in Haiti's constitution.

Members of the diaspora say that God is using this earthquake as a wake up call to the Haitian people: stop doing evil. Too much blood has been shed in the country's 209 year history. Some Haitian-born add that Haitians kill you for what you have and those who have money pretend to be poor because they are afraid of people killing them.Voodoo is a tool that Haitians use to prevent you from achieving and prospering.

While every ethnic group practices some form of witchcraft, Haitians, Jamaicans, and Africans are among the most notorious. They are very vocal about witchcraft and have access to it with just a phone call or money transfer. However, people are not all of one thing.

Ricot Dupuy of Radio Soleil was recorded as saying that Haiti is not built to withstand anything. He is right. I recently read the Book of Nehemiah about the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem and I hope that God will use this earthquake to both rebuild Haiti and to uproot voodoo from Haiti's national identity.

Unless God becomes the foundation of Haiti, the rebuilding will be in vain or as Psalm 127:1 puts it, "Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted." Psalm 33:12 adds that "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." However, that does not mean that Haiti is under a curse.

Nevertheless, Haiti needs love, mercy and support. Here is a link with organizations that you can donate money to help Haiti.

For a history of Haiti, refer to this timeline.