The Idea of Haiti: Rethinking Crisis and Development

10. From Slave Revoltto a Blood Pact with Satan

203 The deadly earthquake that shook the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince and its environs on January 12, 2010, killed an estimated 300,000 people , making it the worst disaster in the history of the Americas. The next day, televisionevangelistPatRobertson,whilehostinghisnewstalkshow,The700 Club, on the Christian Broadcast Network, said that the earthquake could be best understood by a little-known event that “people might not want to talk about.” Haitians were cursed, he said, because they long ago “swore a pact to the devil.” His exact words were: Something happened a long time ago in Haiti and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French, you know, Napoleon the Third and whatever . . . and they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said we will serve you if you get us free from the prince . . . true story . . . so the devil said okay, it’s a deal. And they kicked the French out. Ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after another.1 A media outcry ensued, and a White House spokesman called Robertson’s comments “utterly stupid.” Experts and commentators pointed out that 10 From Slave Revolt to a Blood Pact with Satan The Evangelical Rewriting of Haitian History elizabeth mcalister History belongs to the intercessors. —C. Peter Wagner, Warfare Prayer 204 elizabeth mcalister Robertson’s ideas were outrageous and obscured the scientific and social truths that the quake was a natural disaster made even more lethal by social factors: overcrowded, inadequate housing and dire poverty. Even the Reverend Franklin Graham disavowed the remarks, saying he thought Robertson misspoke. In the view of most who spoke out, Robertson’s offensive story wascallousandracist,anembarrassmenttoAmericaandeventoChristianity. Yet one branch of Christianity—the Spiritual Mapping movement—had been working actively for twenty years to promote this very story. Robertson hadabsorbedtheideathroughhisaffiliationwiththemovementandrepeated it on the broadcast. Spiritual Mapping, which will be discussed at length in the second part of this essay, is premised on a recent evangelical understanding of world history as an ongoing battle between the devil and God; this battle is fought in spiritual ways but in the earthly, concrete places where humans live. Further, God has opened up the present time as a new opportunity for Christians to become warriors in this cosmic battle and act as intercessors and spiritual warriors on assignment to fight the devil. They do this by mapping his activities and undoing his pacts, casting out his demons, and reclaiming the earth and its peoples for Jesus. So Pat Robertson’s comments sounded perfectly reasonable to his audience of believers, who understand the world in terms of demonic activity that must be countered by Christian prayer. He was referring to an event that was indeed written into Haitian history and schoolbooks as a founding moment in the national story: the ceremony at Bois Caïman. The story of Bois Caïman—an iconic one for Haitian patriots, nationalists , and artists—has been written about, painted, dramatized, and rendered in poetry countless times. It is said that during a nighttime gathering at a place called Bois Caïman (Alligator Woods) in the north of colonial Saint Domingue on August 14, 1791, several hundred slaves from different ethnic groups united under a leader named Boukman and vowed to fight the French who ruled the colony and used forced labor to fuel the sugar industry . Haitian writer Stephen Alexis wrote this dramatic version of the occasion in 1949: [Boukman] wore the long garment of papa-loi [spirit-priest], the red robe of sacrifice, and in his right hand glittered a heavy sword. In a deep, hollow voice, From Slave Revolt to a Blood Pact with Satan 205 hebegantochanthissavagehymnofdoom,callingdownontheNegroesallthe blessings of the invisible powers. . . . At a sign from Boukman, acolytes brought him a gazelle, a pig, and a goat which were killed and disemboweled, and the entrails poured out. Each man present slowly approached, plunged his hands intotheentrails,andraisedthem,vowingaloudashedidsothathewouldsuffer death rather than continue to be a slave.2 Standard histories of Haiti recount that two weeks later the slaves rebelled, set fire to sugar plantations, and launched the revolution. After eleven years ofwar,duringwhichslaverywasabolished,theHaitiannationbrokefreefrom French colonial rule and declared independence on January 1, 1804. Driven by the initial religiopolitical catalyst of resolve and unity at the ceremony at Bois Caïman, Haiti became the first independent black republic in the Americas. The story of the...