On January 12th when the earth shook, and didn’t stop shaking for a full minute. You couldn’t help but know that there was an earthquake occurring. Buildings fell, people lost their lives, their loves and their livelihood. But underlying the deep mourning that the entire nation of Haiti feels at this time is a rumbling of regrowth, rebirth and rebuilding. Because the light of faith, trust and love that the Haitian people have is stronger than the darkness that the pain of grief has cast across their hearts, the earth will move once again, only this time it will move entirely in favour of the Haitian people. Such is the promise of the voudou culture.
Haitians are a highly spiritual people. On the surface they appear a nation of Christians, until you scratch a little deeper. There you find a faith and a culture that is riddled with love, pride, and a source of great strength for all. This faith is what carries a Haitian man or woman through the grief that they feel, supports them through their shock and will ultimately help them move the mountains of rubble and rebuild their homeland.
They say that voudou is what makes the Haitian culture so great, it smoulders and pulses like a flaming drum in the hearts of all Haitians, even when they don’t practice it as a religion. For a brief look at the Voudou culture, I invite you to read the linked transcript or listen to the show on this topic that aired recently on NPR (National Public Radio):
