Vodou practitioners fear backlash
BOSTON — Authorities have pointed to Voodoo rituals as a possible motive in two separate crimes against children in Massachusetts.
But practitioners of Haitian Vodou, which adherents spell differently to distinguish it from other variants, say the religion does not sanction violence and fear the crimes will spark a backlash against their community.
“We are being targeted,” said Maude Evans, a Haitian native and Vodou priestess in Boston’s Mattapan neighbourhood.
“I’m really concerned that that’s how it’s going to be from now on. They will do things and blame it on Vodou.”
Two sisters in East Bridgewater were arrested last month after they tied down and burned a fiveyear-old girl, permanently disfiguring her, in a “voodoo ritual” meant to rid her of a demon, authorities said. Peggy LaBossiere, who was arrested with her sister Rachel Hilaire, is also accused of threatening to cut off the head of the girl’s eightyear-old brother with a machete. LaBossiere and Hilaire said they had performed “cleansing baths” on the children, but denied threatening or harming them, the Brockton Enterprise reported.
About a week later in nearby Brockton, a mother stabbed two of her children to death in what she described as a ritual involving “Voodoo stuff,” according to court documents.
The mother of the woman accused of killing her sons had voiced concerns to police about her daughter’s mental health and said her daughter had become obsessed with conspiracy theories, rituals and mythologies, the Enterprise reported.
Voodoo refers to religious practices developed by Caribbean slaves who took spiritual traditions from their native Africa and merged them with elements of Christianity and other faiths. Adherents generally believe everything is infused with a spirit and that prayers and other devotional acts will help bring them good health and protection.
There has been a movement in recent years in Haiti to refer to the practices as Vodou, which means “spirit” or “deity,” to set it apart from U.S. Deep South variants more commonly associated with occult objects.
The negative portrayal of Voodoo in American culture goes back at least to the Hollywood films of the 1920s and 1930s, said Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, a retired professor of African Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Lunine Pierre-Jerome, of Randolph, Massachusetts, who was raised in a Haitian Vodou household and practises privately, said what is being described as “Voodoo” in these cases is not a reflection of her culture.
“Some see us as worshipping the devil or evil spirits, but that’s far from what it is,” said PierreJerome, who teaches at Cambridge College in Boston and was a longtime administrator in the Boston public school system.
Evans agreed: “We don’t hurt children. It’s about healing.”
Elizabeth McAlister, a religion professor at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, questioned the link between Vodou and the two cases. “Vodou never sanctions stabbing or any kind of child abuse,” she said. “It seems nonsensical.”