THE WORLD strange behavior, one week before the earthquake, was an obvious message. Alex and Jean-Marc, voodoo priest in Tabarre, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, remains troubled by the memory. He had failed to see.
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was a big day for him, and the ceremony that he had long prepared promised to be both fervent and delusional. "A tradition for me, January 5. It's called" lying Yanma, "the communion of spirits. Suffice to say that it's full of energy!" He invited other houngans (voodoo priests) dozens of insiders, and soon after a long prayer, the drums had unleashed. Invoked the spirits came, as expected. But they were, shall we say, reluctant. "They did not speak, do not eat, do not feasted. They were weeping. It was overwhelming."
Ogou Dad, usually so cheerful and lively, not saying a word. The Guedes (spirits of the dead), who fear nothing because they already lived, and form a happy family rowdy and bawdy, remained mysteriously extinguished. The songs and dances are still passed through the night. But in the early morning, the priest was perplexed. And asked his peers. What had happened? Where was the mistake? Was it a mistake? Should they repeat the ceremony? "It took me a while to understand. Even on the day of the earthquake, I have not made the connection. But the evidence appeared to me. The spirits knew that Haiti would suffer."
"Of course they knew!" Exclaimed Andre Ismaite, hougan also in the town of Tabarre, whose temple - the hounfort - he had taken so long to build, collapsed in few seconds. "We were aware since November." Warned? "Let the spirits warned us by signs, in dreams, in parables. But there are so many problems in this country that we knew to wait. Yet another jolt policy? An economic shock? What wrong not to take more seriously our dreams! "What would have made the houngans, anyway, if they made the correct interpretation?" The government does not, we know, despise us, "laments Andrew Ismaite ". We invite pastors and priests at the presidential palace. But we do understand that there want no voodoo ceremony. What hypocrisy! This country was founded on voodoo. All Haitians, they proclaim themselves Catholic or Protestant, have the voodoo in blood! "
The itinerary of John-Alex Mark was not written in advance. Raised by a mother experiencing a practicing Catholic for voodoo rites great suspicion, it has many attended church before being seduced by the Jehovah's Witnesses. Until his illness. Soudaine. Mysterious. "A 1st January, I found myself blind. No apparent reason. Then my heart swelled. A puzzled doctors. Finally, I went through a period of madness, with real delusions. And it is the outcome that I realized my true place. I called for a spirit. "A ceremony has been confirmed : He was chosen to be hougan. Impossible to refuse. At least to endure suffering until death. "I wanted to save my life. I agreed. And my health was restored."
Since then, he officiates in a small poor community he loves and he is, he says, despite her 36 years, the "dad". It organizes major calendar voodoo ceremonies, weddings, thanksgiving requested (and paid) by individuals. He serves as advisor, confessor, referee, psychologist. And in the small courtyard surrounded by banana trees and located between his home and the small hounfort he shows us around with pride, he receives no stop the visit. His mobile phone is open to all.
Since January 12, "day appalling," it rings constantly. To ask a thousand questions: Why? What sense? What to do? There was wrongdoing, then collective punishment? And what about the dead? ... He has honed his answers, literally "sick" of the suffering of his followers. "God created the perfect world, we men, through ignorance or malice, have degraded you pay the consequence. But God and all the happy minds can ease the burden."
ceremonies for the dead? He closes his eyes and sighs. Ah, the dead ... These bodies broyés sous les gravats. Ces cadavres suintant sur les trottoirs ou jetés dans des fosses communes. Comment ne pas frémir ? Comment ne pas s'épouvanter de cette violente entorse aux rituels du culte qui imposent notamment le dessounen, pratiqué juste avant ou juste après trépas pour libérer le corps des esprits qui le possédaient ? Mais il se veut pragmatique. Et apaisant. "Allons ! La grande catastrophe du 12 janvier balaie toute normalité. Adaptons-nous. Le corps, après tout, n'est qu'enveloppe. Débarrassons-nous des cadavres pour la sauvegarde de tous. C'est l'esprit qui importe. Nous ferons les cérémonies plus tard."
Son collègue approuve. Les hougans de la zone viennent also to meet to decide on procedures. First, of course, join the next ecumenical ceremony planned by the government. Then get in touch spirits that indicate what is right and fair to the dead. Finally, plan for January 13, 2011, a year and a day after the earthquake, the essential ceremony of "brulezin. The dead, he says, speaks, providing an explanation to the fury of the earthquake. "We will be ready then to hear them. Right now it wobbles our heads. No one in Haiti is plumb."
Annick Cojean
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