Origin from 2010
The January 2010 Haiti earthquake killed more than 200,000 people, and American televangelist Pat Robertson publicly claimed the disaster was retribution for a supposed Vodou "pact with the devil" in Haiti's founding. Inside Haiti itself, Vodouisants were attacked and, in some cases, denied emergency medical assistance in the disaster's immediate aftermath. When a cholera epidemic struck later the same year, Vodou practitioners were blamed again, and lynch mobs killed dozens of Vodou priests. This reversal fell only two years before this atlas's next recorded event, the 2003 decree recognizing Vodou as an official religion, showing legal recognition did not by itself end social persecution of practitioners on the ground.
Facts
Dates
Start YearThe earthquake struck in January 2010 and the cholera-driven violence followed later the same year; the source names no month narrower than that for the lynchings, so this atlas carries 2010 as the whole span rather than inventing a sharper date. Learn More
How the 2010 Earthquake Brought a Violent Backlash Against Vodou
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
The earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010 killed more than 200,000 people, and in the disaster's aftermath, American televangelist Pat Robertson publicly claimed the catastrophe was retribution for a supposed Vodou pact with the devil at Haiti's founding. The claim reached a wide American audience even as Haiti buried its dead.
Inside Haiti itself, the backlash turned physical. Vodouisants were attacked in the earthquake's immediate aftermath, and some were denied emergency medical assistance because of their religion, at the exact moment survivors most needed care regardless of what they believed.
The violence did not end with the earthquake itself. When a cholera epidemic struck later that same year, Vodou practitioners were blamed again, and lynch mobs killed dozens of Vodou priests over accusations that they had caused the outbreak through sorcery.
What 2010 changed for Vodou practitioners was a demonstration that legal recognition, granted only seven years earlier in 2003, had not by itself ended social persecution on the ground. A religion the Haitian state had formally recognized as legitimate still saw its practitioners attacked, denied care and killed by mobs when disaster gave old suspicion a new occasion.
Connections
Occurred In
Source Vodou Was Once Blamed For The Haiti Earthquake, 10 Years Later It's Seeing A Slow Revival (The Haitian Times)Danielle Hyams
Spread Event Of
A second reversal for Haitian Vodou, later and social rather than legal: violent blame following a natural disaster, distinct from the 1835 to 1987 legal ban already on the map.
Source Vodou Was Once Blamed For The Haiti Earthquake, 10 Years Later It's Seeing A Slow Revival (The Haitian Times)Danielle Hyams
Sources
1. Vodou Was Once Blamed For The Haiti Earthquake, 10 Years Later It's Seeing A Slow Revival (The Haitian Times)
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