[FOUNTAIN]Devils vs. voodoo

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[FOUNTAIN]Devils vs. voodoo

He danced weirdly every night and memorized a spell cursing Caucasians. Rumors were that he revived the dead and killed opponents as he wished. He announced himself as the god of death. As he became the greatest shaman, he turned Haiti into a country of death with spells and secret agents. This is the story of the dictator president Francois Duvalier of Haiti.
Ninety percent of the Haitian population is black. During the colonial period, Spain and France brought black slaves. Back then, the local religion of the Fon tribe in Africa, voodoo, came into the country. It is a totem religion worshiping supernatural figures and offering blood sacrifices.
In 1863, two Haitian voodoo shamans kidnapped two women and made them sacrificial offerings and ate their flesh. The Catholic meritocracy started oppressing voodoo, accusing it of being a false religion. Bearing grudges, the shamans murdered the president’s daughters. From then, voodoo practitioners disguised themselves to survive. To avoid the white slave owners’ observations, they accepted the Catholic system and some even mixed in Muslim rituals.
Voodoo is a religion that meets aggressively with its gods following the drum beats to gather secretly at night. Drugs were sometimes given to followers to allow them to taste ecstasy, putting them in comas. Sometimes they cruelly killed animals and offered them to the gods, and shamans poured curses on other people for money. But even so, voodoo has many followers in Africa and in the black communities in America and Europe. The voodoo ritual ceremonies that were once cursed as the religion of the evil have now become a tourist industry.
Togo, which Korea will play in the World Cup in Germany, has many voodoo followers. The voodoo leaders in Togo are preparing a spell for the victory of their team and to assure that the Togo national team will advance in World Cup play. The foreign press also adds the story of a voodoo episode in the Ivory Coast. The Ivory Coast soccer team lost consistently for 10 years, but after the minister of defense bought a potion for $2,000 dollars, the team has been on a roll.
For whatever reason, the team has advanced to the World Cup finals for the first time.
But seeing the last of the Duvaliers, the greatest shamans in history, is quite a relief. The father and son dictators ruled for over 30 years but did not last forever.
So we have a secret plan. The cheering of the 40 million Red Devils is a wonder drug confronting the voodoo spell.


by Lee Chul-ho
The writer is an editorial writer of the JoongAng Ilbo.
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