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RE EDUCATED Entrepreneur Becomes Voodoo Pope

A DOCTOR'S son who was not particularly interested in spiritual matters in his youth, Mr. Beauvoir left Haiti in the mid-1950s for the City College of New York, where he studied chemistry.

Then he went off to the Sorbonne for graduate study in biochemistry.

After various jobs in the New York area, he returned to Haiti in the early 1970s to conduct experiments on traditional herbal remedies.

It was then that voodoo called.

His grandfather, who was in his 90s, was dying and the entire extended family had gathered around his bed. Before he died, though, the old man pointed at Mr. Beauvoir and ordered him to take over his duties as a voodoo priest.

Mr. Beauvoir said he was taken aback.

He did not know his grandfather well, and could not understand why he had been selected from the 20 or so other family members in the room.
And he knew virtually nothing about voodoo.

But that was decades ago. Mr.
Beauvoir has devoted the rest of his life to studying the religion, a mix of Christianity (introduced by slaves to mask their paganism from their masters) and animism that traces its origins to West Africa, which is also where Haitians, descendants of slaves, originated.

The more he learns about voodoo, Mr. Beauvoir said, the more convinced he is that it can, and should, play a role in resolving Haiti's problems, especially given its reach among the most disenfranchised people.

As it is now, he said, the government seeks the input of Catholic and Protestant leaders when grappling with societal issues.

"But do they call for the input of the voodooists?" he asked, shaking his head.
Haiti has long been a battleground for Christian missionaries who view voodoo as devil worship and work tirelessly to convert the population to Christ.

Voodoo, like Christianity, has one god, but it incorporates pagan elements that make Christians uneasy: casting spells and worshiping spirits seen as the major forces of the universe.

To turn things around, the country's voodooists decided they needed to organize themselves and confront voodoo-bashing head on.
Haiti, Jacmel: Haitian Eksperyans (part 2 of 4)