Drum Rhythms and Golden Scriptures: Reasons for Mormon Conversion Within Haiti's Culture of Vodou

Abstract

At first glance, it may be difficult to see a relationship between Haitian Vodou and Mormonism.1 How could Mormonism, which established and upheld racist policies and doctrines, be associated with a religion born out of Black power?2 Connections between Haitian Vodou and Mormonism, however, are worth investigating because thousands of people living in Haiti have been converting to Mormonism since the official opening of an LDS Haitian mission in 1983.3 This article shows that Haitians are not attracted to Mormonism simply because converting often means access to social mobility but also because tremendous and paradoxical similarities exist between the two religions despite their differences.4In 2020, the LDS Church tallied 24,192 Latter-day Saints in Haiti.5 Conversion among Haitians, which only started in the 1980s, is relatively new in Mormon history.6 Within two months after the foundation of the Church on April 6, 1830, the Mormon gospel spread through missionary work within the United States.7 Seven years later, on June 1, 1837, the prophet and founder of the Church, Joseph Smith Jr., decided to send missionaries overseas. He announced to one of his fervent followers, Heber C. Kimball, that God told him, “Let my servant Heber go to England and proclaim my gospel.”8 One month later, Kimball left North America to preach in Preston, England.9 Kimball's missionary efforts brought over two thousand converts from the British laboring classes to the Mormon fold. This success fueled Smith's desire to build an international Mormon community.10However, it took 143 years after Kimball's British mission for Mormon missionaries to start preaching in Haiti. The LDS Church's policies on race were the main reason it took so long. Originally, Smith did not put racial restrictions on priesthood ordination, and Black individuals, such as Elijah Abel, were “ordained to the priesthood during Joseph Smith's lifetime.”11 Unfortunately, after Smith's death, his successor, Brigham Young, imposed racial policies within the Mormon community. He announced in 1852 that men of African descent could no longer receive the priesthood. Young further restricted all Black members from participating in temple rituals. These decisions prevented Black members from going through the fundamental Mormon ritual of sealing that has the purpose of joining “a man and a woman and their children for eternity,” creating “family relationships that will endure after death.”12 Hence, Latter-day Saints of African descent were denied spiritual privileges on Earth and in the afterlife. From the pulpit, Young recited racist rhetoric backing his priesthood and temple ban by claiming that “the negro,” whom he called the seed of Canaan, “should serve” the white population.13A racist culture grew stronger within the Mormon community for the next 126 years. In the 1950s and 1960s, Brigham Young University's vice president and head of the Church Educational System, William E. Berrett, openly embraced Young's discriminatory policies. Berrett taught that during the premortal life, God punished those who sided with Satan with a black body. He argued that “Men are not equal when entering this life” and “We were not equal in the pre-earth life and will not be equal in the eternities.”14 According to Berrett, a black body was a reminder of one's transgression in heaven before being born. One of Berrett's essays, “The Church and the Negroid People,” was even published as a supplementary essay in the second edition of Utah State University professor John Stewart's book titled Mormonism and the Negro “to provide needed historical information to the many teachers in the educational system of the church.”15 Although Stewart's book and Berrett's essay were not published by the LDS Church, they were highly circulated within the Church Educational System and fed doctrinal racism.The priesthood ban and temple exclusion were lifted in 1978 by LDS Church president Spencer W. Kimball 126 years after Young enchained racism into Mormonism. Kimball announced that all worthy male Latter-day Saints, regardless of their race, could again receive the priesthood, and all worthy members could enter Mormon temples and perform sacred rituals.16 This decision changed the religious status of thousands of Latter-day Saints of African descent throughout the world and finally enabled the opening of missionary work to Haiti.Not only would Blackness have impacted Haitian Church membership until 1978, but also discrimination toward Vodou cultures was flagrant in Mormon publications. One example of this discrimination comes from a 1991 article published in the official Church magazine the Ensign that uses racist stereotypes and terminology claiming that Haitians need to overcome “voodoo” in order to “fully” convert to Mormonism. In this article, Haitian Vodou is described as a satanic religion focused on “spirit possession, curses, and blood sacrifice.”17 Why would people in Haiti join the LDS Church when their membership requires the abandonment of former religious practices that are entrenched in their cultural identity, history, and society?The wealth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is visible through its financial support programs and its humanitarian efforts, specifically in impoverished countries such as Haiti. Mormon leader Dallin H. Oaks claims that on average the Church spends “$40 million on welfare, humanitarian and other LDS Church-sponsored projects” annually, without support from the US government.18 When facing financial troubles, Latter-day Saints are encouraged to reach out to their bishop.19 Managing director of the bishops’ storehouse (a commodity resource center for LDS members in need of food and other basic amenities) Steven Peterson explains that “the idea of caring for those in need” is “a scriptural mandate.”20 The Church's financial programs and humanitarian efforts are available to its members and to nonmembers worldwide and promote an image of institutional wealth and self-reliance.For many Haitians, converting to Mormonism is associated with coming in closer contact with American culture and the opportunities of social mobility connected to it. The LDS Church was founded in the United States and is headquartered in the state of Utah. From 1978 to 2018, 77 percent of General Authorities within the Mormon community were US citizens. Since 2018, nationality diversity among LDS leaders has grown, going from 16 percent of General Authorities born outside the United States in 1978 to 40 percent in 2018. Despite this increase of international presence in the leadership of the Church, most of the leaders remain US citizens.21 It is, therefore, common to associate Mormonism with the United States.D. Michael Quinn's research on the wealth and corporate power of Mormonism shows that the LDS Church's hierarchy is modeled after an American business structure that he describes as “a formal, stratified hierarchy of officers with church-wide jurisdiction.”22 Because of this configuration, the current LDS Church has been referred to as “corporate Mormonism,” which not only describes the Church's American businesslike structure but also the outward appearance of General Authorities and male missionaries, who must dress according to the Church's dress code.23 Their outfits look similar to the Hollywood image of the American professional. These men travel the world, no matter the climate or customs of the country, in dark-colored suits, white button-down collared shirts, ties, and dress shoes—a wardrobe associated with businesslike matters.During my high school years in France, my friends and I often crossed paths with Mormon missionaries. Knowing me from church, they would ask me about my day. Some of my friends who were not familiar with Mormonism would often ask: “Are your friends American secret agents?” To them, missionaries looked like characters from Barry Sonnenfeld's movie Men in Black (1997) rather than volunteer preachers. Anthropologist Jennifer Huss Basquiat also stumbled upon some American stereotypes while doing field research in Haiti. She writes that “the LDS Church has had to face interesting and prevailing stereotypes held by many Haitians, [including] that the Church and the Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA, are one and the same.” Basquiat mentions that this was a common idea among “the majority of Haitians” she interviewed.24 These two examples illustrate that in countries other than the United States, LDS leaders’ and male missionaries’ dress and appearance is disconnected from their religious work and instead reflects an American professional stereotype.I had the opportunity to discuss the relationship between the United States and social mobility in an interview I conducted with Mathew Gérard, a Haitian Mormon convert living in the United States. When I questioned him about the origin of his American first name, he answered that his father picked it “because like many Haitians, he loved things American.”25 I asked if this admiration for the United States was common among Haitians. Gérard replied that “most Haitians are fascinated with America because of the socioeconomic possibilities this country can provide them.”26The data on the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) website illustrates Gérard's comment by showing that the “United States is the top global destination for Haitian migrants.”27 In 2018, Haitian immigrants in the United States reached 687,000, making them “the fourth-largest foreign-born group from the Caribbean” in the country.28 Gérard used the French term “terre d'asile” (land of refuge) to describe what the US represents for countless Haitians. This idealization is further illustrated by the MPI website's statistics showing that most Haitian immigrants find employment in service, sales, office occupation, production, and transportation in the United States. Haitians can earn the minimum wage, and 26 percent of them can afford health insurance. Even though Haitian immigrants often fall into the low-income category in the United States, many of them are able to send money to family members in Haiti. The employment opportunities and transfer of dollars reinforce the Haitian concept of the United States as a land of opportunity and motivates more Haitians to immigrate there.The LDS Church in Haiti reflects this idea of American wealth and social mobility, especially through its architecture. Gérard explained that the Church is well-regarded in Haiti. Mormon programs air on the radio, positive articles on Mormonism are frequently published in local newspapers, and the Church's humanitarian work is well-received in the country. However, what seems to make Mormonism most noticeable in Haiti are the luxurious meetinghouses and the Port-au-Prince Temple. Those religious spaces are earthquake-resistant and built with expensive material, unlike most buildings in Haiti that are “not durable” and do not follow any building codes.29During Haiti's devastating earthquake in January 2010, most Mormon constructions suffered little to no damage. On his 2013 visit to Haiti, Utah-born LDS General Authority Neil L. Andersen explained that the Church's meetinghouses became shelters for those who lost their homes in the earthquake. The Petionville LDS bishop, Harry Mardy, reported that “600 people—some members of L’Église de Jésus-Christ des Saints des Derniers Jours (LDS Church), some not—call the meetinghouse grounds home.”30 Andersen expressed joy concerning the help the Church provided to the Haitian people in a video clip posted on the Church's Newsroom website. He is filmed in a spacious meetinghouse with high ceilings, freshly painted walls, and uses a microphone and a smart board while addressing the Haitian congregation.31 The luxury, cleanliness, and technology of Mormon buildings in Haiti make it difficult to believe that they stand in one of the poorest countries in the Caribbean. The meetinghouses and the temple's luxurious appearance, the modern plumbing, electricity, internet access, air conditioning, and other amenities are generally available only to the wealthiest Haitians. These amenities support the image of a prosperous America and advertise a lifestyle that countless Haitians do not have access to. Hence, for many Haitians, converting to Mormonism can be seen as coming in closer contact with the wealth of the United States.One of the only scholars who has written about Haitian Vodou and Mormonism together, Jennifer Huss Basquiat, noticed that many Haitian converts were particularly drawn to Joseph Smith's story because they could relate to his mystical experiences and personal background.32 This interest in Smith differs from non-Haitian conversion stories that usually focus on the miraculous translation of the Book of Mormon. Smith's life story is full of magic and supernatural events. He saw and conversed with God and Jesus Christ, was attacked by Satan, had visions of angels, and was given magical tools to translate a book made of gold.33 Smith's First Vision is easily accepted as truth by Haitians because mystical visitations and interactions with the divine are common among the population. Basquiat makes note of these paranormal events while interviewing Elder Vigliotti, an LDS missionary preaching in Haiti. Vigliotti explains that when he tells the story of Smith's encounter with God to Haitians interested in the Church, they are not surprised, nor do they find it strange. Vigliotti quotes several Haitian investigators who told him that their friends “just saw God and Jesus Christ last night.”34 Mystical experiences are part of Haitian culture, and Smith's story fits right into it.Basquiat uses another interview with Alex Lamoricie, a Haitian Mormon convert, to illustrate the social connections that exist between Haitians and Smith. Lamoricie explains that what struck him about Smith's story was his humble background as a poor farmer. Countless Haitians can relate to Smith's financial struggles. Indeed, a large percentage of the population in Haiti lives in poverty and experiences the difficulties of farming. Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the Caribbean. In 2012, it was reported that “six million Haitians lived below the poverty line on less than US $2.41 per day, and more than 2.5 million fell below the extreme poverty line.”35 Haitians make personal connections with Smith through their common economic trials.Lamoricie additionally noticed that Smith “was not an intellect.”36 Like Smith, Lamoricie did not receive a formal education and had trouble reading and writing. This part of Smith's background is reflected in the literacy rate in Haiti, where “un analphabétisme achevé handicape socialement environ 8,5 personnes sur 10” [illiteracy socially handicaps about 8.5 individuals out of 10].37 Basquiat calls this shared phenomenon of educational and economic circumstances an “embodied understanding” of Mormonism because Haitians see themselves in Smith. However, Basquiat's concept of “embodied understanding” is not limited only to Smith's background story but also extends to Mormonism's collective history of suffering, the practice of spirit possession, and an emphasis on ancestors that apply to Haitian Mormons regardless of their upbringing or education.Vodou is a religion with branches from many parts of the world, particularly from Western Africa. Vodou arrived in Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti) with African slaves and evolved into Haitian Vodou, a product of the resolute human spirit that found joy and hope in spirituality among the hellish realities of slavery. Haitian Vodou is a combination of an array of African myths and traditions brought to the Caribbean during European colonization, when over 800,000 Africans of various cultural, religious, and linguistic backgrounds were removed from their native land, shipped to Haiti, and forced into labor on plantations.38 The slave system in Saint-Domingue under the control of the French “was regarded as one of the harshest in the Americas, with high levels of both mortality and violence.”39Spirituality became a source of support and a coping mechanism to these oppressed peoples. As Haitian-born anthropologist Leslie Desmangles shows in The Faces of the Gods, slaves secretly interacted with each other, grouping together according to their native language and common cultural backgrounds to call on their gods for comfort and strength. They organized themselves, shared their religious knowledge from diverse African spiritual traditions, and created a common religion, Haitian Vodou, which is still at the core of Haitian culture today.40In Le Vodou haïtien: reflet d'une société bloquée, Fridolin Saint-Louis deepens the argument that Haitian Vodou emerged from the enslaved populations’ need for spirituality to survive the conditions of slavery. He argues that the desire to incorporate religious traditions into their daily life also illustrates how the enslaved people held on to their African identities. Haitian Vodou became an expression of cultural identity and quickly transformed into a powerful tool in the hands of those practicing it. Saint-Louis writes that Vodou in Haiti “s'affirma aussi comme l'expression culturelle la plus profonde des résistances” [also asserted itself as the deepest cultural expression of resistance].41 Haitian Vodou was a way for African slaves to conserve and express their culture in a European colonial world.42As C. L. R. James demonstrates in The Black Jacobins, Haitian Vodou was indeed a “medium of conspiracy” against slavery and a form of resistance against oppression.43 Runaway slaves called maroons hid in the mountains and created their own communities. Their leaders were Vodou priests (ougan) and priestesses (mambo), who united their community through spirituality and encouraged their followers to fight against the colonizers. During rituals, maroon ougans and manbos called on the lwa (Vodou gods) for protection and strength to defeat the colonists. Haitian Vodou fueled the maroons’ desire for revenge and mentally and spiritually prepared them before each attack against their oppressors.44 The drums that accompanied Vodou rituals became a symbol of destruction for the European colonists who could hear them echo in the mountains before a maroon raid.The ougan Dutty Boukman represents this image of powerful maroon religious leaders who led communities of runaway slaves to fight for freedom. On August 22, 1791, Boukman directed a Vodou ceremony at Bois Caïman where “he stimulated his followers by a prayer spoken in creole,” a common language created by the enslaved that is still spoken today in Haiti. Boukman told his listeners that the lwa saw their suffering and were willing to help them “revenge their wrongs.”45 The Bois Caïman ceremony is considered an important event in the outbreak of the Haitian Revolution even though Boukman was ultimately defeated and beheaded by the colonists. Bois Caïman is one of the many religious events showing that Haitian Vodou connected spirituality to rebellion against tyrannical authorities.Haitian Vodou has continued to evolve by incorporating elements from other faiths into its religious traditions. This phenomenon of fusing different religious traditions is referred to by scholars as syncretism. Haitians do not see any conflicts in practicing more than one religion at a time. As the Haitian saying goes, Haiti is “70 percent Catholic, 30 percent Protestant, and 100 percent Vodou.”46 Desmangles explains that Haitians, Vodouisants and non-Vodouisants alike, “feel the need to participate” and claim “their allegiance” to other mainstream religions in their country but still have strong desires to serve the lwa and act according to their Vodou culture. Joining other faiths enables Haitians to worship Christian Saints and God while serving the lwa. This common practice helps create additional connections with the divine and expand the Haitian people's religious traditions.Desmangles describes the nature of this syncretism as a symbiotic religious relationship between Haitian Vodou and Christianity. He explains that by incorporating elements of other faiths into Haitian Vodou traditions, a juxtaposition of beliefs is created in space and time to “constitute the whole of Vodou.”47 Therefore, Haitians are not restricted to the practices, beliefs, and traditions of one religion only. This cultural and religious flexibility eases the conversion of many Haitians to Mormonism.The persecutions of the Mormon community cannot be compared to the violence of slavery in Haiti. However, the way African slaves in Haiti and Latter-day Saints reinforced their religious traditions through communal suffering and used spirituality to resist oppression are commonalities that both religions share. The collective history of Mormon suffering is regularly preached at church and is part of the curriculum in LDS seminaries. This suffering starts with Joseph Smith Jr. even before the founding of the LDS Church.48 In 1820, in Palmyra, New York, Smith experienced “great uneasiness” to find God's true church.49 He entered a grove of trees to pray God in hopes of receiving an answer on which church he should join. His answer came in the form of a vision, commonly referred to by Mormons as the First Vision. Smith's stroll into the woods marked the beginning of his troubles. According to Smith, God appeared, ordered him to restore his “true” church, and called him as a prophet.50 The news of Smith's mystical experience generated animosity against him and he soon became a target of violence. In Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, historian Richard Bushman mentions that on one occasion a mob “meant to castrate” Smith, but the doctor's “heart failed him, and he refused to operate.”51 Smith's followers also became subject to brutality. They were publicly mocked, tarred and feathered, and received death threats. The suffering that came because of Smith's visions only increased as Mormonism grew.52The quintessential example of Mormon persecution came at the hands of Missouri's government in the 1830s. Smith planned to build a New Jerusalem, or Zion, on American soil, where his followers could “dedicate their time, talents, and wealth to the establishment and building up of God's kingdom.”53 Smith chose Missouri as the place for communal gathering. As Mormons flooded into the state, they became the target of violence.54 Some Mormons started to fight back, but the government sided with non-Mormon Missourians. On October 27, 1838, Missouri governor Lilburn W. Boggs declared that “Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary.”55 With this order, violence against Latter-day Saints increased.56 On October 31, 1838, Smith surrendered to state authorities, hoping his arrest would end the persecutions of his people and prevent the Church's ultimate destruction.57 Soon after Smith was taken into custody, the Latter-day Saints fled across the Mississippi River hoping to find refuge in Illinois.Once Smith escaped from the Missouri authorities, he moved his people to settle in Nauvoo, Illinois. The Mormon community continued to grow, and persecution followed. Much of the Mormon persecution in Illinois, however, was due to rumors about Smith's personal sex life. In July 1843, Smith received orders from God to practice plural marriage, or polygamy. In A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women's Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835–1870, historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich explains that within three years after the start of polygamy, Smith “was sealed to more than two dozen women” who swore secrecy on their union to protect the prophet from harmful reactions to this practice.58 Scandals relating to Smith's sexual practices caused deep unrest both within and outside the Mormon community, which eventually lead to his assassination.59 Disgruntled Mormons fuming over the issue of plural marriage published a newspaper, The Nauvoo Expositor, which uncovered the secret of polygamy in Nauvoo.60 Soon after the paper was printed, Smith ordered and assisted in the destruction of the newspaper's press, which resulted in his arrest for “inciting riots.”61 Within twenty-four hours of detention, Smith was murdered by vigilantes who broke into Carthage Jail.62After Smith's death, Mormons again turned to spirituality for strength and guidance for survival, not unlike enslaved Africans in Saint-Domingue. This spiritual tenacity helped the religious community move forward and rebuild their Zion in the American West, away from the oppression of the US government. Marilène Phipps, a Haitian Mormon convert, recognizes the past suffering that Haitians and Latter-day Saints share when she writes in her memoir that “it is not just Haitians who bear a hard legacy” but that “Mormons also have a troubling history of bloodshed.”63The images and stories of persecuted Latter-day Saints on the verge of extermination are so important in Mormon collective memory that Church members reenact their nineteenth-century westward exodus every year. The Mormon pioneer trek has become a “cultural ritual” with the goal to give participants “a small taste of what it was like for Mormon pioneers to push a handcart to Utah.”64 Participants dress up like pioneers, bring a few toiletries, camp, and eat outside. Remembering the early Latter-day Saints’ sacrifices is an important part of institutional Mormon collective memory. These stories and rituals encourage Latter-day Saints to understand that Mormonism gave their predecessors the strength necessary to endure governmental oppression and survive as a community.These examples of suffering show that, like many Haitians, Mormons consider themselves an oppressed people. The early Latter-day Saints were harassed by mobs and governmental authorities, their possessions were stolen and destroyed, and their prophet was murdered. Like African slaves in Haiti, Mormons used spirituality as a coping mechanism to endure their suffering, rebel against the government, and create their own religious culture and identity. Despite their differences, this history of communal suffering and spiritual strength ties Mormonism to Haitian Vodou, as do other religious beliefs and practices.The confirmation ritual, which occurs shortly after Latter-day Saint baptism, symbolizes the reception of the Holy Ghost, or the Spirit, into one's body.65 This ritual consists of a blessing given by a male member of the priesthood who places his hands upon the head of a newly baptized person and “confirms” this individual as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The priesthood holder uses the specific ritual words: “receive the Holy Ghost,” ordering the person to allow the Spirit to enter their body.66 LDS apostle David A. Bednar calls the confirmation ritual the moment where a member of the Church receives the “companionship of the Spirit.”67 Through this ritual of confirmation, the baptized body becomes a host for the Spirit.For Mormons, receiving the Holy Ghost in one's body is a sacred honor and divine gift because, according to Bednar, its “communication to our spirit carries far more certainty than any communication we can receive through our natural senses.”68 Mormons often use expressions such as being “guided,” “pushed,” or “moved” by the Spirit to refer to their mystical encounters with this supernatural being. In several ways, the confirmation ritual and the reception of the Spirit parallel the scholarly definition of spirit possession. Religious scholar Pieter F. Craffert defines spirit possession as “a central feature in the emergence and growth of most religious traditions,” characterized by a sudden change in a person's behavior that is controlled by an external and supernatural power.69 Even though twenty-first-century Latter-day Saints almost exclusively use the term “possession” in the context of the work of the devil, they, however, experience spirit possession through the reception of the Holy Ghost into their body.In mainstream Mormonism, the idea of possession is most visible in accounts of casting out malevolent spirits such as Newel Knight's story. In 1830, Knight's wife fetched Joseph Smith to rescue her husband. When the prophet arrived at the Knight's home, Newel's body was “distorted and twisted” and “tossed about most fearfully.” Smith caught Knight by the hand and cast the devil out of him through the power of the priesthood.70 This event is often referred to as “the first miracle of the Church” and is used to illustrate how the priesthood can deliver mortals from satanic possession.Mormons, however, resist using the term “possession.” Religious studies scholar Stephen Taysom argues that in Mormon doctrine, certain terms such as “possession” are considered fraught because they are “closely associated with the specific Roman Catholic ritual” of exorcism from which Latter-day Saints want to disassociate themselves.71 Even though twenty-first-century Mormonism refrains from using the term “possession” when referring to contact with the Spirit, Latter-day Saints experience possession because of the doctrinal centrality of the Holy Ghost, whom they receive in their body after baptism. The story of Knight and many other similar encounters in the history of Mormonism have shaped how Latter-day Saints negatively view spirit possession.Vodouisants, like Mormons, experience what religious scholars call “spirit possession” but likewise do not use the term “possession” to describe their experiences. Literary scholar Alessandra Benedicty-Kokken has noted that in Haitian Kreyòl there is no translatable word for possession; Vodouisants instead use the Kreyòl expression “monte chwal” (ridden horse) to describe encounters with supernatural beings.72 In Haitian Vodou, it is said that the lwa “ride” ritual participants. The