More on the alleged prayer/pact with devil ....
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But was there a pact with the devil? I would also note that the Haitian Revolution began in 1791, years before Napoleon took over France as Consul. Napoleon III didn’t come to power until 1848. So clearly Robertson is confused on the basic history. But I believe that Robertson is referring to the
Bois Caďman Ceremony that in Haitian national mythology initiated the revolution. This was a Vodou ceremony and the following text is normally attributed to its leader, Boukman:
If you were a white, Catholic French person or Haitian plantation owner, I can see why you would characterize this as a prayer offered “to the devil.” The black Haitians are postulating the existence of two Gods, one for the whites and one for the blacks. The whites regard the God they pray to as the one true God. So if the blacks are praying to some second god, and doing it with a Vodou ceremony, it stands to reason that they’re engaged in a satanic ritual of some sort.
But there’s no reason for 21st century Americans to accept this interpretation of the story. From the Haitian perspective, I think you’d say they were just praying to God for his assistance and asserting the justice of their cause. This is what pretty much everyone does before heading into battle.
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/ar...-the-devil.php
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Satan doesn't even factor into this equation, Pat!
This is more about some slave soldiers with West African roots and entrenched in Voudou religion .... which espouses various West African pagan gods like Shango (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shango), the deity of Thunder.... getting together to pray to a West African deity to pray.
While many of the bourgeois, mulatto and assimiliated Catholic Christians of the island primarily led the masses in this fight for Haitian independence.
... 'Till this day, Haiti, has kept it's centuries old Catholic identity as its official religion ... with its archbishop notably passing in this latest tragedy.
This reeks of excuses of a few who can't understand how they got their tails whooped, straight up ignorance ... or a racist cop out.
Yes, I believe race plays a role in how this has been framed historically ....
BTW, many references to many of these deities still find their way in our folkloric Caribbean music and literature.