PORT-AU-PRINCE,
Haiti (AP) -- Passing under a crumbling archway that reads "Thou Art Dust," voodoo
practitioners flocked to Haiti's largest cemetery Saturday to honor the guardian
of the dead with rum, thunderous music and lewd behavior designed to awaken mischievous
spirits.
Followers
visit the tombstones of relatives and pay their respects to Baron Samedi, the
god of the dead, and to his lascivious, sardonic offspring, Gede. To show they
are "possessed," followers often rub hot pepper juice on their bodies. Some hold
swearing contests steps away from the gates of the capital's sprawling municipal
cemetery.
Two-thirds
of Haiti's 8 million people are said to practice voodoo. Earlier this year, Haiti's
government officially sanctioned the faith as a religion, allowing priests to
legally perform baptisms and marriages.
"The
Gedes helped us win our independence," said voodoo priest Desaville Espady, 38,
dressed in a white robe with a silver cross on a thick chain hanging from his
neck. "We pay homage to our ancestors, and they cure us of our ills."
Gede
was the name of a West African tribe that disappeared during the slave trade.
Voodoo
followers integrated some Christian rites into their practice before Haiti won
independence from slave-holding France in 1804. The slaves, forbidden from practicing
their African rites, disguised their gods in the trappings of Roman Catholic saints.
The Catholic church frowns on voodoo and, in the 1940s, tried unsuccessfully to
eradicate it.
Practitioners
believe in a supreme god and spirits linking the human and the divine. Many believe
their spirits will return to Africa when they die. The bodies of slaves were buried
without ceremony.
Men
and women say they are possessed by Gede. Dressed in mauve kerchiefs, white pants
and white or violet dresses, they wander in a mystic trance through the cemetery,
spouting obscenities and asking for money.
"The
cult of the dead is one of the first steps of resistance against slavery and a
foundation stone of voodoo," Haitian sociologist Laennec Hurbon said.
Encumbered
by political problems, Haiti's economy has been in a slump since 1980. The poorest
nation in the Americas, the Caribbean country's population has declined for two
years, and life expectancy dropped from about 53 years in 2002 to about 49 years
in 2003. Most people survive on less than $1 per day.
Because
of deepening poverty, voodoo - which often requires pricey offerings of alcohol
and food to the spirits - has lost some followers. One-third of Haitians are Protestants.
Copyright
2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
