ZANTRAY a Haitian Vodou base organization proposes rules to organize and control Haitian Vodou as a religion.
Wednesday, October 31st, 2007ZANTRAY, in a conference at the Plaza Hotel October 29th 2007, in Port-au-Prince, presented to the Haitian Nation a legal document in which, the Vodou organization exposed the laws to regulate the functioning of Vodou as religion in Haiti, as required by article 30.1 of the constitution.
In the document, Haitian Vodou is defined as a set of religious and scientific beliefs where God is Mother Nature – Unique, Supreme, Omnipresent, Omniscience, and Omnipotent allowing all that is, through its Elements and Principles called “Loa”
In Haitian Vodou, God is named Oloroun by those practicing the Nago cult, where as those practicing the Dahomen cult will call God, Mawu and in the Congo cult God is named Yazi Pongwe.
Haitian Vodou is the spiritual heritage of the Haitian people since slavery, and its source is a mixture of African based beliefs and religious beliefs of the natives.
Haitian Vodou is a popular religion, practiced by the majority of the Haitian people. Haitian Vodou is what constitutes Haitian culture, where Haitian dances, Haitian art, Haitian medicine and Divine Justice, are all anchored to form the collective conscience of the Haitian People.
In this document, not only the religious aspect of the religion is regulated, its social and judicial reality is also taken in the consideration.
For example, Zantray proposes that any body who uses organic or chemical substance on a person and that substance provokes the death of the person, he must be arrested and punish according to the law regulating that matter.
To regulate the hierarchy of the religion, Zantray proposes that among the actual “Ogonou ‘s” , high priest, be chosen one, who is then nominated by Presidential Decree, as the supreme authority to govern a committee of 10 Ogonou‘s, to rule over the Vodou Religion in Haiti.
Zantray goes further and states that a person can be spiritually chosen to be a Hougan but that does not give him yet the authority to act and work as Hougan. He must be trained, ordained and confirmed by the “Council of the Ogonou” to become a Haitian Vodou Priest.
As for the rituals, who are those eligible to administer a legal Vodou Ceremony?
Zantray proposes the hierarchy as follow:
a) The Ogonou – High Priest
b) The Serviteurs – High Priest in old traditional Sacred Temples and in the rural sections of the country.
c) The Prêtres - Those legally responsible to administer a Vodou Ceremony d) The Hougan, The Mambo, The Bòkor, generally more scientifically inclined, also can lead a ceremony – after being confirmed by the State.
As for the type of ceremonies, the religion will be responsible for baptism of all sorts, marriage, funeral, initiatique, public and governmental ceremonies. And the documents goes to talk about the way Haitian Vodou can contribute to the development of the nation, by being involved in medicine, agriculture, the protection of the land, in the health and wealth of the population through a “Konbit” system of cooperatives.
The “Avant Projet de Loi sur la Religion Vodou en Haïti”, Is a document with 95 articles to regulate the entire Vodou Religion in Haiti.
In this conference, the organization ZANTRAY was backed by the national staff controlling the organization and some 80 high personalities from the ZANTRAY community such as Estime Dorsainvil alias Ti Lili who is the “Serviteur of Lakou Badjo” – a highly sacred Haitian Vodou Temple where the Nago ritual is honored every year for 3 days from the 4th to 6th of January.
ZANTRAY plans, is to the transmit the document to the government who in turn will be in charge to submit it to the senate for approbation and from then Haitian Vodou becomes legal and must be subvention by the government.
As a public utility organization, ZANTRAY according to his leaders is seeking to play a major role in the future of Haitian Vodou. They are as of today, the most organized, with more regrouped members, among the Vodou Organization in Haiti.
For additional information http://www.vodouhaiti.org
Reginald Bailly
Archivex Haiti
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
509-556-1463
http://www.archivex-ht.com