The Truth:
Robertson created a firestorm of reaction for
his statements, which seemed to suggest that the earthquake may have
been directly related to Haiti's supposed agreement with Satan.
Robertson said, “They were under the
heel of the French, you know Napoleon III and whatever. And they got
together and swore a pact to the devil. They said ‘We will serve you if
you will get us free from the prince.’ True story. And so the devil
said, ‘OK it’s a deal’. And they kicked the French out.”
There are several problems, however,
with Robertson’s statement.
First, the Haitians were not fighting against
the famous Napoleon III, who was not yet born and was not to come to
power until the mid 1800’s.
But more importantly, the “pact to the devil”
is not an event that is simple to pin down, although it has been a story
that has been repeated, especially among Christian missionaries and
writers, for many years. There are varying versions but they all
conclude that during a historic meeting that led to the Haitian
revolution, Satan was called upon for help in a Voodoo ceremony and
there was a pig sacrificed on the occasion. Some popular versions also
claim there is an iron pig monument to the ceremony in the capitol city
of Port Au Prince, but that is rumor and the monument does not exist.
Roberson was referring to a meeting that is
said to have taken place at Bois-Caïman (or Bwa Kayiman) near Cap-Haitien
in Northern Haiti on August 14, 1791 and was led by a man named Duffy
Boukman.
Historians seem to agree that such a meeting
did happen but there is debate among some scholars about the details and
especially the descriptions of the voodoo ceremony.
The event is an important part of Haitian
history because it is regarded as the inspirational and organizational
launch of Haiti’s War of Independence, which 13 years later marked the
only place in the world where African slaves succeeded in ending slavery
and building an independent country.
There is a lack of contemporary sources about
the voodoo ceremony, however, and the first mention of it seems to be in
a book published in 1814 by a French Doctor named Antoine Dalmas. He
told of a feast or sacrifice held by black slaves that involved the
sacrifice of a pig. He said it was held a week earlier than the Bois-Caïman
gathering, however, and about six miles away at a location called Morne
Rouge. There are other historic descriptions of the August 14 meeting
that do not include the voodoo ritual and there is the suggestion that
perhaps the two events got merged in later telling of the story.
Later accounts describe Boukman as a voodoo
priest, and a prayer is popularly circulated that was allegedly prayed
by Boukman during the ceremony, although that was attached to him long
after the event and there are scholars who doubt that he actually prayed
it.
Regardless, the Bois-Caïman event, including
the voodoo ceremony and the Boukman prayer, has been embraced as an
important part of Haitian history and has been retold by everyone from
historians to the presidents of Haiti for many years.
Even if the story is true, Haitians object to
the accusation that any of that meant that they made a pact with the
devil. Satan is not a part of voodoo. They have their own pantheon of
various gods representing everything from a creator to deities of rain,
thunder, fire, and trees. It was the missionaries, they say, who called
their religion satanic and who, then, regarded their rituals as pacts
with the devil, but to say that they appealed to Satan and dedicated
themselves to him is the result of layering Christian thought on Haitian
history.
updated 01/18/09
