An Aids clinic in Haiti is liaising with local voodoo medical practitioners to help gain access to their patients, writes ÁILÍN QUINLAN
VOODOO; the mere mention of it conjures up sinister images of zombies, ritual murder, cannibalism and dark spirits.
So why is an Irish aid agency funding an Aids programme in the Caribbean which openly promotes the participation of voodoo priests?
Deeply ingrained superstitions and cultural beliefs along with a lack of adequate healthcare mean that for many low-income patients on the island of Haiti, a voodoo priest or priestess is their first port of call.
“Voodoo is Haitians. Every Haitian is voodoo. Voodoo is what we are,” says Joseph Bien Aime, a practising voodoo priest for 17 years.
So it’s crucial, according to many anti-Aids campaigners there, that the local voodoo doctor is included in any effective referral network.
As a result, the Haitian POZ project (Promoteurs Objectif Zerosida) actively encourages voodoo leaders to refer their patients onwards to its HIV/Aids diagnosis, treatment, support and awareness programmes.
The involvement of voodoo priests may be controversial but it works, says Dr Georges Jolibois, director of the bustling POZ clinic in Montrouis in western Haiti.
“I’m very comfortable with the process of involving voodoo doctors; it’s not a problem,” he says.
Christian Aid, which has branches in Dublin, Cork and Belfast, is the only Irish charity to fund the Haitian POZ project, which runs a network of six clinics around the country.
This year Christian Aid provided $60,000 (€45,000) in funding to POZ, to support its HIV and Aids-related community work in the Montrouis region of the island.
The POZ system of incorporating voodoo practitioners into the battle against Aids may be unusual, but it’s pragmatic, says Adrian Horsman, communications director of Christian Aid, which is the official aid agency of the main Protestant churches in Ireland.
“The Christian Aid organisation was one of the first international agencies to provide funding to POZ.
“Some agencies were put off by POZ’s involvement with voodoo leaders, but we feel that the POZ approach is a practical, grassroots initiative.
“It is a good example of our policy of working with all religions and with everyone, whatever their faith.”
POZ Montrouis handles about 6,000 referrals a year, working closely with 232 trained community leaders of whom 40 are voodoo priests.
The clinic encourages local practitioners to educate the voodoo community about HIV and to refer their patients to the clinic for diagnosis, care, treatment and support.
The cost is low – attendance at the Montrouis clinic for a test and medication is about 50 gourds or a little over €1, though the very ill are treated free. “If they come to me first, which they usually do, then I’ll refer them to POZ or the doctor,” says Charles Bastien, a voodoo ‘boku’, a type of spiritual priest-doctor-sorcerer.
Aids levels are high in coastal Montrouis, a popular tourist area with many hotels and beach resorts, heavy through-traffic and a thriving sex tourism industry with an estimated 400 sex workers in three local towns.
About 10 per cent of the local population, or five times the national average, is HIV positive.
Tina Theodore (20) was referred to Jolibois’ clinic after visiting her local voodoo priest following a miscarriage:
“The priest treated me with roots and herbs, but I wasn’t improving and I went to POZ. I took an HIV test and found I was positive. I was sent to hospital.
“When I came out of the hospital I came back to POZ and have been receiving treatment.
“I’ve been coming to the clinic for six months. I used to sell firewood but since I got sick I’ve stopped. I live with my mother. I feel very weak and I have stomach ache. If I hadn’t come to POZ, I think I might have died. When I was with the voodoo priest I didn’t know what was wrong with me but now I do,” she says.
In such a context, the POZ approach is merely practical. It trains community leaders – which includes local people of status such as teachers and pastors as well as voodoo priests – in recognising the symptoms of HIV/Aids, strongly pushing the message that they must refer potential sufferers to the clinic.
POZ also works with policy makers, the public sector and religious organisations to distribute information about Aids.
Although originally set up as a non-government agency in 1995, it has only been working with voodoo priests for a little over three years.
“POZ does not interfere with the actual work of the voodoo priests. It’s only when he or she is finished with a patient that they send him or her on to us,” says Jolibois, who points out that voodoo priests account for about 30 per cent of referrals to the Montrouis clinic.
“I got 13 referrals from a voodoo priest in one day,” he says, adding that, to avoid stigmatising HIV/Aids victims in the community, voodoo priests are trained to send everybody with an illness to the POZ clinic.
Jolibois’ clinic has a staff of 23, including three doctors, three nurses, four nursing aides, eight field workers and two community liaison officers. Its waiting room is constantly busy.
Quips Jolibois:. “The only complaint we receive from voodoo priests is that POZ does not refer the patient back again to the priests!”
However, not everyone is convinced about the importance of voodoo in Haitian society.
Rev Louis Evans, a local pastor and community leader, says: “Voodoo priests and priestesses know deep down that they cannot really help if you are sick.”
VOODOO: A LIFE CONTROLLED BEHIND THE SCENES BY POWERFUL SPIRITS
- VOODOO or voudou originated in Africa and was taken by slaves to Haiti in the 16th century, where it absorbed various Catholic saints – including St Patrick – into its world view.
- The basis of voodoo is essentially that there are good and evil forces in the universe and that through the correct magical rituals we can ensure our souls are possessed by good rather than evil spirits.
- According to voodoo, life as we know it is really a mirage. In reality it is controlled behind the scenes by powerful spirits.
- These include Legba, the mediator between humankind and the spirits; Damballah, snake god and source of virility and power; Erzulie, the goddess of love, jealousy and vengeance; and spirits like Guede and Baron Samedi, who hold the key to death and evil.
- To the voodoo practitioner – houngan (priest), mambo (priestess), boku (priest- doctor-sorcerer) nothing is coincidental. Everything has a cause rooted in spiritual activities, ie illness, disease, accident, good fortune.
- Ceremonies involve prayers, incantations, the use of magical symbols, sacred relics, dancing and singing. Sacrifices are normal – usually chickens and goats. Water is central to the process, as it is believed to be a magnet for spirits. A rattle wrapped in beads is also crucial to the rituals, as it is believed to be a way of controlling primitive forces.
- A hoped-for outcome is that people will become possessed by the good spirits or ‘loa’, signs of which might include speaking in tongues or uncontrolled movements.
- For many Haitians, the voodoo faith is very real and roughly half its population is believed to practise it. It is intensely bound up in their lives, culture, identity and notions of freedom.
- Outside Haiti it has been treated with derision and been demonised.
Hollywood has often portrayed it as evil, and little credence has been given to its true beliefs and practises.
Within Haiti it has also been treated with suspicion – it has been regarded either as a threat to various political rulers or as a useful tool to manipulate certain segments of society.