13th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest People
Voodoo Festival, Haiti

HAITI, VILLE BONHEUR, Close to the waterfall, men and women sell candles, blue and white beads represent the praise and images of the Virgen de los Milagros. The drums play syncopated rhythms, and some people go into a trance, talking loudly and moving frantically. Beyond the stereotypes, which describe pure voodoo as black magic rituals with dolls, animal sacrifices and undead, this is basically a peaceful religion, which the rites are a mystical experience for the uninitiated. Many people in Haiti believe in the existence of zombies, people returning from the grave after death to scare the living. They say this is possible thanks to Bokor, sorcerer, who say it serves the Iwa with both hands. The victims are given a kind of secret potion that causes them a lot like cataleptic state death and imprisons the individual. Then the Bokor exhumed corpse and revives the false back to the person throwing it into a trance in which she can do anything it pleases, usually hard work.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 07.2015
Date Uploaded: 11.2015
Photo Location: VILLE BONHEUR, Haiti
Camera: NIKON D300
Copyright: © Sergi Reboredo Manzanares