Here In Victoria at
the Inner Harbour many First Nations people have their artwork on display, along
with other vendors. Amongst these we
noticed a distinctive Folk Art painting from Haiti.
Made me travel back in time
to an experience locked up in my memory cells waiting to be revisited and
released. My eighty-fourth orbit
around the “Leo” Sun is coming up and this reminded me of our visit to Haiti
many years ago and my first meeting with a “Fortune Teller”. We were aboard a
ship going around the world (Royal Viking Line’s “Royal Viking Sky”) back in
1974. I was guest artist and
lecturer.
One of the many ports-of-call
was Port-au-Prince. We had volunteered to serve as minders for a shore
excursion, organized in those days, by American
Express. One of these was advertised as a Vodou Ceremony.
The description said “Not for the
faint of heart”. There were 15 of us on the
tour. We arrived at the destination after a drive through rugged, mountainous countryside
and passing some small villages.
We were met by a local interpreter, who told us the ceremony would not be
“staged”, but the real thing, which our driver had already mentioned. Three
chickens were sacrificed. Whirling and high-pitched chanting brought on a trance state.
A few of the ship’s passengers were feeling
uneasy. Indeed it was not something for the faint of heart. The ceremony was eerie
and mesmerizing. Then the guide announced
the priestess had offered to tell anyone
their future if they were interested. However, she only spoke Patois and French. No one spoke French
apart from us, so I agreed to have my ‘fortune’ told. Thus I found myself alone with the Vodou Priestess.
She predicted
I would reach the age of 80, holding my hands with her leathery, wrinkled hands
– looking me straight in the eye and repeating it twice, “Quatre-vingt ans, quatre-vingt ans.” Almost
forty years later, and approaching my eighty-fourth birthday, she was at least correct
in saying I’d reach 80. The additional
years are a bonus. Following the
ceremony, we started to walk towards the van parked a distance away. Suddenly
we were greeted by a major thunder and lightning storm. Thick raindrops came pelting down.
"The Haiti Umbrella"
The locals
rushed to give us each a huge banana leaf to hold over our heads. These makeshift Haiti-style umbrellas really
did the trick. We must have looked a funny sight, walking in line through the
mud with the enormous banana leaves on our heads. The rain, thunder and
lightning “sobered” everyone up quickly after the intensity of the ceremony, an experience that seemed “unreal”, to the
reality of elemental fury and a deluge. Needless to say, those who were on this
particular excursion had lots to talk about with their fellow passengers back
aboard ship. Just like us, with this
blog post, sharing this unforgettable experience in Haiti after all these years.
Henri van Bentum
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