Voodoo losing power among Haitian poor

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PLAINE DU NORD, Haiti -- Josephine Derulien, carrying candles and a heavy spiritual debt, walked for 17 hours last month to reach this small farming town six miles southwest of Cap Haitien, swollen by thousands of people during an annual four-day pilgrimage.

The pilgrimage, one of the most important in the voodoo religion, began July 23 with rituals to Ogou, the god of war, and ended with rites to the goddess of love, Erzuli. This year's crowd of more than 10,000 was half the turnout of last year.

"I swore I would make this pilgrimage," said Miss Derulien, 30, wearing a blue dress with a red kerchief, the traditional colors of Ogou. "I had a problem and it was solved. Now I'm here to pay my debt."

Although millions still practice voodoo -- now a state-sanctioned religion in Haiti -- some are turning their backs on the religion brought from Africa, testing other faiths as their Caribbean country grapples with growing instability and poverty.

An estimated 70 percent of Haiti's 8.8 million people practice voodoo to some extent, including many who consider themselves to be Roman Catholics or adherents of other religions.

But a growing number -- estimated at 30 percent -- identify themselves as Protestant, said Andre Corten, a Canadian sociologist. This smaller group adamantly opposes voodoo, which sometimes requires offerings to a pantheon of gods. In a country where most people survive on less than $1 a day and where the government hasn't managed to improve conditions, the appeal of a cheaper religion is powerful.

Thousands of missionaries, many of them Americans, can be seen every day in Haiti proselytizing and trying to draw people away from voodoo. Many Haitians now flock to evangelical Christian churches instead of voodoo temples.

"The economic stagnation has cast a shadow over voodoo," said musician and voodoo priest Ronald "Aboudja" Derenencourt, 48.

One girl selling bananas on the north coast pleaded with pilgrims to reject voodoo.