The Power of the Voodoo
By W. J. Tanner
No ONE can be long in Haiti without finding that the cult of voodooism is a powerful evil. In every case where we have come in contact with it in our Gospel work, we have been able, however, by the power of the Word of God, to make headway against it. To those who have never studied the workings of this African cult, its hold upon its votaries is incomprehensible. The sway of the papa-loi, or priest of voodoo, is absolute over all members of the sect. He is believed to possess charms, or to have power to pronounce imprecations that will bring health, happiness, riches, or poverty, and even death—immediate or lingering—at will. The natural result is that the voodoo priest or priestess is the most feared and the best obeyed personage in Haiti. Even those who have no confidence in the extraordinary pretensions of the papa-lois fear them, and for very good reasons. Writers generally agree that the voodoo priests have secret knowledge of plants that produce poisons of which the pharmacopoeia is silent; and all are persuaded, who have lived any length of time in the country, that the mystic spell that is invoked against an enemy is something enforced by more material agencies. Such being the unsavory reputation of voodooism, is it any wonder that not only the lower classes, but also the more intelligent Haitians, fear the25power and influence of this base fetishism that has taken such deep root in the republic? The light of Gospel truth alone can dispel the darkness of voodooism; the hammer of God's Word, and nothing less, can break its chains and set its captives free. We have been able to cover but little ground, comparatively; but what we have seen in the salvation of souls and the transformation of life by the power of God's Word, shows us what can be done with more men and more means. The harvest truly is great, and ripe; but the laborers are few.