Winning Haiti for Jesus
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ii Abstract. My research explores nation building, religious conflict and Christian democratization in Post-earthquake Haiti. Christians I spoke with blamed Vodou for the destructive quake. In Haiti, Vodouisants now require UN protection to practice their faith. The thick religious tension in Haiti post-earthquake could portend deep political riffs and dangerous religious persecution. What is more, the quake has effectively shut down government, leaving in its wake essentially an NGO Republic. Moreover, some sectors of the population, particularly the very poor in the black majority, have been converting to evangelical Christianity at very high rates. About the conversions Vodouisants say, "Kay koule twompe soley soley men li pa twompe lapil." A leaky house can fool the sun, but it can't fool the rain. I took this notion of a leaky house from the discussion with a Vodouisant research participant who often compared the massive conversions to an incomplete and quick cover for the inner turmoils of the Haitian subject. I expanded this phrase to work as analogy for the significant evangelical/NGO infrastructure in Haiti. Can this leaky house last as the pseudo-governmental body of Haiti? Problem: A devastating 7.0 Earthquake rocked Haiti on January 12th, 2010. By January 24th, at least 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater had been recorded (CBS News 2010). Cite’ De Soleil has turned into a devastating battleground-- Vodouisants against Christians. Christian evangelicals have a carte blanche to intervene into the lives of devastated Haitians, also into the Haitian government. Struggling with insufficient capacity in the face of overwhelming poverty and iii environmental disasters, the Haitian government has capsized in what many are calling a religious coup d’état. At least 10,000 religious non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are operating in Haiti. Against this background, the actual hypothesis to be tested in this research is that the conversion from Vodou to most sectors of evangelical Christianity and the subsequent violence against Vodou practitioners is, in the case of some of my research participants, actually a modality for expatriation from, or incorporation into, the New Haitian body politic. iv Table of Contents ABSTRACT. ................................................................................................................................................ II TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................................... IV DEDICATION ............................................................................................................................................ VI ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. ........................................................................................................................ VII LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................................. VIII NEEDFUL THINGS................................................................................................................................... IX INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 1 DELINEATION –NOT JUST A RIVER IN EGYPT ....................................................................................................... 6 RAPTURE AND RUPTURE ...................................................................................................................................... 10 LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................................................................... 16 TRAUMA .................................................................................................................................................................. 17 ETHICS..................................................................................................................................................................... 23 HAITIAN NATIONALISM AND HISTORY .............................................................................................................. 28 Nationalism in a broader context ........................................................................................................... 37 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................................................... 39 METHODS ................................................................................................................................................ 40 A NOTE ON METHODOLOGICAL (AND ACTUAL) AGNOSTICISM: .................................................................... 40 FORGIVE ME FATHER- IN WHICH I WILL DIVULGE TWO CARDINAL SINS OF OBJECTIVITY ......................... 42 ORDERING MY STEPS ............................................................................................................................................ 44 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS .................................................................................................................... 47 ANSWERING RESEARCH OBJECTIVES ................................................................................................................. 55 Field consultant/ translator ............................................................................................................................ 61 Data analysis .......................................................................................................................................................... 63 Methodological problems ................................................................................................................................. 64 CHOKING UP BLOOD ............................................................................................................................ 66 THE NGO LANDSCAPE ......................................................................................................................................... 69 A NEW THING ........................................................................................................................................................ 78 CLASS AND THE BATTLE FOR HAITI ................................................................................................................... 82 WINNING HAITI FOR JESUS ................................................................................................................................. 88 THAT VODOU THAT YOU DO ............................................................................................................................... 89 BLOOD ON THE GROUND ...................................................................................................................................... 97 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................................................... 102 EVANGELIZATION NATION .............................................................................................................. 105 A STAR IS BORN. ................................................................................................................................................. 107 STRONGHOLDS AND PRINCIPALITIES: ETHICAL WORK TO NATIONALIST ENDS ..................................... 117 PART 3: MORE OF THE SAME: RACE AND ECONOMIC STRUCTURE IN THE NEW HAITI .......................... 142 Race to the top .................................................................................................................................................... 145 Blonde Jesus ......................................................................................................................................................... 150 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................................... 151 THE BELL OF THE BALL: HAITI AS THE IDEAL TYPE.............................................................. 154 v 9/11 FLEETING FERVOR ................................................................................................................................. 155 Things you can tell just by looking ............................................................................................................ 158 HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS AND ALIENATE PEOPLE: WCM IN INDONESIA ................................................... 161 What’s Good for the Goose… ......................................................................................................................... 164 The Devil vs Allah .............................................................................................................................................. 165 Women +Men =Fail.......................................................................................................................................... 166 Follow the Money .............................................................................................................................................. 167 NARRATIVIZING THE DISASTER ....................................................................................................................... 169 MEN ARE FROM MARS: GENDER DIFFERENCES IN CONVERSION ..............................................................