Presidential Candidate Hopes to Reclaim Haiti for Christ

Janet Chismar | Senior Editor, News & Culture | Updated: Aug 24, 2005

Presidential Candidate Hopes to Reclaim Haiti for Christ

On the tiny island nation of Haiti, voodoo is a way of life. By some counts, 75 percent of Haitians actively practice the ancient melding of West African spiritism and witchcraft. One common saying is that Haitians are 70 percent Catholic, 30 percent Protestant and 100 percent voodoo.

 

Discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492, Haiti’s tropical location and lush soil made it a treasure prized by Britain, France and Spain. By the middle of the 17th century, the island became a French colony. Producing abundant crops of cocoa, sugar cane, cotton and coffee, Haiti was one of the wealthiest places on Earth. Unfortunately, this wealth depended on the labor of 500,000 slaves.

 

Desperate to be free, the slaves began to organize. On August 14, 1791, a black slave and witch doctor named Boukman led the slaves in a voodoo ritual. They sacrificed a pig and drank its blood to form a pact with the devil, agreeing to serve him for 200 years in exchange for freedom from the French. The slave rebellion began on Aug. 22, 1791, and after 13 years of conflict, the slaves won their independence. On Jan. 1, 1804 they declared Haiti the world's first independent black republic.

 

Today in Port-au-Prince – Haiti’s capital – you can see an iron pig statue.

 

Overcoming 200 years of political corruption, poverty and voodoo is an ambitious agenda, but for Pastor Chavannes Jeune, his faith allows no less. Jeune, an influential Christian leader, pastor and evangelist, formally announced his candidacy for president of Haiti in his home town of Les Cayes on August 10.

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Presidential Candidate Hopes to Reclaim Haiti for Christ