by the Rev. Marcia Ricketts, recent volunteer to Haiti

 

I’m continuing to try to understand why Haiti is so poor and how we can best respond.  I looked at two key factors in the formation of the country’s character in this piece.  Now I’m going down to see for myself

 

Why?  Why is Haiti so poor?  Why is it not growing and developing economically?  Despite its efforts, why does Haiti’s standard of living seem to be deteriorating?  My research has uncovered a complex web of progress-resistant cultural influences.  Lawrence E. Harrison,* director of the Cultural Change Institute in at Tufts University, narrows down the “why” to two root causes:  slave mentality and voodoo.

 

Slave Mentality

Slavery was integral to the first Spanish settlers in the 16th century.  They forced the original inhabitants, the Taíno, to work the gold mines, and when the Taíno died from disease and overwork, the settlers imported a steady stream of Africans to take their place.  Slavery in Haiti was especially harsh and slaves were expected to live only 7 or 8 years.  Though Spain passed laws governing the behavior of the settlers, they were ignored for the most part.  When the French “won” the western half of the island in 1697, life didn’t change for most of the inhabitants.  The inhuman oppression continued until the slaves finally revolted.  After more than a decade of conflict, the nation of former slaves proclaimed their independence on Jan. 1, 1804.

 

Haiti's colonial origins had demonstrated that an illiterate and impoverished majority could be ruled by repressive elite. The slaveholding system had established the efficacy of violence and coercion in controlling others, and the racial prejudice inherent in the colonial system survived under the black republic. A lightskinned elite assumed a disproportionate share of political and economic power[i]

 

The only social structure the new ruling class of former slaves had ever known was one in which a few owned almost everything and the rest were uneducated, powerless workers.  After the revolution, the new nation was both isolated by the world community and isolated itself from the world community.  Left to its own devises, the new government mimicked the structure it had been taught: an elite class was born and continues to hold power today.  It has maintained its position through coups, corruption, and oppression.  

 

Though education is free in Haiti, it’s only accessible to the upper classes.  The power of the elite is reinforced by language: everything, including education, is conducted in the official language, French, even though most of the population speaks Creole (a separate language system) effectively barring the majority from access to power.

 

Deforestation and soil erosion has denuded Haiti’s land.  When crops are possible, they’re usually sold for export rather than domestic consumption.  Unemployment and underemployment are massive; economic slavery is common – particularly child domestic and sexual slaves.  Hoping for better lives for their children, poor, usually rural parents are deluded by promises of education and good homes.  In desperation, they sell or give their children to men who then sell them into slavery, perpetuating the system their ancestors had revolted against.

 

Voodoo

Voodoo, that’s a scary concept for most Americans.  We have lurid pictures of sacrifices created and perpetuated by Hollywood.  Try to clear your mind’s eye of them and take a new look at an old religion.

 

The roots of popular Haitian beliefs lie in two religious traditions:

 

·        Haitian ancestor cult which honors family members who have gone before.

 

·        Vodoun (voodoo) from the African belief in a domestic cult of “family spirits” – “good” and “bad” inherited forces that can curse and bless, harm and heal. They can be evoked, banished, cajoled, or placated by the priest, usually for a price. (For more information, check out the sites listed below.)

 

The central and key aspect of Voodoo is healing people from illness. Such healing activities probably constitute 60% of all Voodoo activity. Healers heal with herbs, faith healing (with the help of the spirits) and, today, even with western medicine!”[ii]  When illness or misfortunes strike, folks go to the priest for healing.

 

 

If the spirits can bless, they can also curse.  Though “white magic” – healing bodies and souls and propitiating spirits – predominates, there is also a real belief in “black magic” – priests who call upon evil spirits to curse, control, and hurt.  Fear is sold to the highest bidder.

 

Why are these root causes of Haiti’s poverty?

 

Both the “slave mentality” and religious system create a sense of fatalism, a belief that a person (and a nation) is powerless to control its own destiny.  It’s all out of your hands.  It’s the spirits, or the “overseers” who control a person’s/nation’s fate.  Though you may use your very limited resources to appease the spirits or ask for their help, you come as a petitioner only.  They respond at their whim.  Furthermore, “black magic” or even the mere fear of it is used to give its practitioners power over others.

 

When a people feel they have no voice and no control over their future,

when they’re blocked from government services by language and education is inaccessible,

when jobs are scarce,

when poverty abounds in a nation environmentally devastated and inherently corrupt,

when an earthquake hits and more than 100,000 are presumed dead,

how can a nation survive?

What can we do?

 

I’ll tackle that next.