Trigger Warning: discuss of sexual assault
Se rat kay k ap manje kay la.
Translation: It’s the house’s rat that eats the house
“There is a special place in Hell for women who don’t support other women.”
-Madeline Albright, first woman Secretary of State of the USA
I am not a perfect person, or a perfect manbo, and I’ve never claimed to be. I have more sins and faults than I have hairs on my head. I’ve tried my whole life to use my spiritual paths to make me a better person and make a positive difference in the world. My lwa have done this for me over and over.
Since I am not a perfect person (and no one is) I have done plenty of bad or stupid things in my life. Thus, I don’t try to harp on other people’s faults because, y’know, throwing stones in glass houses and all.
But after hearing the story of my spiritual sister, Manbo Lavi, I cannot help but call people out.
Many folks read my last post about my exit from Sosyete Nago, the Vodou temple where I initiated as a manbo nearly 10 years ago. TL:DR: the death of my sister Dana Jackson revealed a shocking level of spiritual rot, betrayal, lies, and greed that shook me and my siblings to the ground.
I will let you read Manbo Lavi’s story, as it is her story to tell. It is heartbreaking and made me very, very angry on her behalf.
Long story short: Lavi was initiated in 2023 in Haiti. After kanzo was completed, she was sexually assaulted by a Haitian houngan/house elder named Jean Marc.
Incidents of harassment, exploitation, and all-out assaults against Jean Marc were nothing new. In full discloser, he was my parenn (godfather) in Vodou. When someone initiates into Vodou they pick a marenn (godmother) and parenn; these two people will become elders/support for the initiate, and they also pick the initiates “nom valyan” or valiant name, the name by which you are known in the religion. In my case, Jean Marc and my marenn picked “Racine Ginen” for me which means “African root”.
Jean Marc never laid his hands on me in the 3 times I’ve been to Haiti (including my kanzo year) but he did say some inappropriate things to me, including making a sexual/romantic advance to me over text. When I told Manbo Maude about it, she came back to me and placed the blame at my feet, saying that when I mentioned the word “love” to Jean Marc, he assumed romantic love “because Haitian men only understand romantic relationships with women, they don’t believe platonic love can happen between men and women.”
Jean Marc also made repeated requests to me for money after I left Haiti; for the next couple years after kanzo he’d message me near his birthday saying “my birthday is coming, what are you going to give me?”
I did give him some money a couple times.
When Lavi told Manbo Maude about what he did to her, she assured her that Jean Marc had been removed from the Sosyete. However, two years later he is still a member; when Lavi asked about it during another temple meeting (where I was not present), she was told “Maude never said he was kicked out, he was put on probation, and we’re figuring out how to provided training to the Haitian men as to how to not act inappropriately with women.”
And this training needed to be “culturally sensitive”.
Uh, what?
There are plenty of Haitian-born and raised men who are in the US, that I’ve known for years, and I have NEVER heard anyone accuse these men of sexual misbehavior with women. You know why? Because a man of ANY country/culture/religion can easily understand “don’t sexually assault women. It’s a vile act.”
If little kindergartners can understand “don’t touch people who don’t want it”, then an adult male can understand it.
I understand that the roles/attitudes of men and women in different countries are different. Not everyone thinks like an American or someone from the “Global North”. But you don’t have to be a cultural sensitivity genius to understand that
SEXUAL ASSAULT IS A VILE CRIME
YOU SHOULDN’T DO IT EVER TO ANYONE
IF YOU DO IT, YOU DESERVE TO BE PUNISHED AND OSTRACIZED.
Maude is a social worker and mental health professional. Several members of the American temple work in healthcare or mental health. We have licenses to protect and we are mandated reporters; if Jean Marc pulled this shit in the US, not only would he be likely criminally charged and prosecuted, anyone who knew about it and didn’t report it would get their professional licenses burnt in front of them. And more.
Maude, you should know better. You should HAVE done better.
But through the years the allegations crept up and up and Jean Marc was never disciplined, punished, or expelled. He was basically in charge of the temple when Manbo Maude wasn’t there. And in my opinion, Manbo Maude let him stay around because he did so much work for her, and many temple members were at least distantly related to Jean Marc by blood or were loyal to him in some way. I think temple leadership felt if they made him leave, he would take all those people with him and Sosyete Nago would shrink significantly.
Instead of protecting the children of the house and giving them justice, Sosyete Nago pushed the violence against women and girls under the rug in favor of keeping a man around who brought in money and people.
It is disgusting, illegal, immoral, and those at Sosyete Nago who tolerated or encouraged this should be ashamed and on their knees in front of their lwa begging forgiveness.
They need to beg the victims’ forgiveness too.
To sum up: I grieve for Manbo Lavi’s pain, the pain of all the victims, and I wholeheartedly condemn the actions of anyone/everyone in Sosyete Nago who knew about the allegations and did NOTHING to stop it. Nothing to protect or heal the victims.
It’s a sad fact of our world that many men, when in possession of even a little power and money, are protected by patriarchal society. And society continues to blame victims.
Once again I am disappointed in the temple that birthed me into this religion, and they once again prove that anyone, even the most spiritual people, can take the wrong path and descend to the realms of greed, selfishness, and lust for power.
May all those who cry in pain be heard.
May all those who have been sexually assaulted find justice and healing. May all sentient beings achieve liberation in the eyes of the Almighty.
