The anti-superstition campaign.
In 1941 the Catholic Church and the Haitian state ran the Rejeté — temples destroyed, drums and sacred objects burned in public bonfires, oaths of renunciation extracted at gunpoint. It was not the first campaign and not the last: in 1986, after Duvalier fell, hundreds of oungan and manbo were killed in the dechoukaj.
Campaigns against Vodou are a recurring feature of Haitian history and they have been violent. The best documented is the Rejeté, the anti-superstition campaign of 1941 to 1942, conducted jointly by the Catholic Church and the government of Élie Lescot: temples were destroyed, sacred trees felled, drums, vèvè implements, altars and pwen burned in public bonfires, and Catholics were required to swear oaths renouncing Vodou to remain in communion. There had been earlier campaigns in 1896 and 1913. The most lethal came later: after the fall of Jean-Claude Duvalier in 1986, during the dechoukaj, hundreds of oungan and manbo were killed by mobs, many on the grounds of association with the Tonton Macoute, and the number is generally put in the several hundreds. Vodou's legal recognition in 2003 came against this background rather than in a vacuum.
The same ground, other faiths
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