From Haiti Progress August 5 - 11
EXORCISING BOUKMAN
The origin of the 13-year Haitian revolution is traced to a Voudou ceremony held at Bois Caiman,
near the northern city of Cap Haitien, on the night of Aug. 13 - 14, 1791 and presided over by a
slave and Voudou priest named Boukman. Now 207 years later, a band of right-wing Protestants
has launched an evangelical crusade to posthumously "convert" Boukman to Christianity.
Pastor Berthony Paul, Pastor Joel Jeune, and preacher Gregory Joseph, a former police attache,
have threatened to lead their congregations, which they call Haiti Protestant Vision, to Bois
Caiman to hold a Protestant service to "exorcise" the spirit of Boukman.
But their crusade so far has been foiled by a coalition of Haitian popular organizations as well as
by Haitian authorities. On July 8, the Ministry of Culture issued an order prohibiting the
Protestants from assembling in the Bois Caiman area. The three Protestant leaders were arrested
on Aug. 2 when trying to defy the order.
Meanwhile more than a dozen grassroots organizations like the National Popular Assembly
(APN), the Milot Peasant Movement (MPM), FEMODEK, and Zantray have come together into
the "Initiative Group for the Commemoration of 207 Years of Bois Caiman." In a July 28
declaration, they charged that the Protestants' project would be "desecration" of Bois Caiman and
that it is being politically influenced by the International Republican Institute (IRI), the right-arm
of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which is very active in Haiti these days
organizing political opposition to the Lavalas movement. "We ask the Macoute pastors Joel
Jeune, Gregory Joseph and Berthony Paul along with the reactionary American missionaries to
keep their distance from Bois Caiman," the statement said, referring to previous Protestant
attempts to overrun the site in August 1997 and January 1998. "The plot which IRI is planning
with Macoute forces, through Joel Jeune under the cover of the Protestant church, is to organize
all the reactionary forces in the country."
On Aug. 2, the pastors tried to march near Bois Caiman with the excuse that they were going to
another church. They got into a shouting match with the chief of police of Acul du Nord near the
police station and were arrested. The following day, several groups of demonstrators from the
"Initiative Group" marched around the area, cleaning it up for the day of commemoration. The
demonstrators burned down two raised-roofs (tonel) which the pastors had identified as
"churches."
With the anniversary approaching, tensions and confrontations may continue to grow over Bois
Caiman, which the popular organizations prize above all as a symbol of Haitian independence and
resistance. "The big powers, which today continue to hold all the small poor countries in shameful
modern slavery, have never stopped trying to bury Bois Caiman and all that symbolizes the
memory of the Haitian people," the "Initiative Group" said. "The Haitian people reject with all
their might the presence of the U.S. military occupation on the soil of Boukman, of independence
leader Jean Jacques Dessalines, and [1915 anti-occupation guerrilla leader] Charlemagne Peralte.
The Haitian people must rise up to throw out the occupying forces the same way as our ancestors
at Bois Caiman."
All articles copyrighted Haiti Progres, Inc. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haiti Progres.
For more articles on this and other current events in Haiti, check Haiti Progres regularly.
Selected articles are posted online on the newsgroup soc.culture.haiti.
For more information on current human rights cases in Haiti and in the United States, see Human Rights Watch: Haiti.
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