23024: Bell: mapou Bwa Kayman

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: madison bell <mbell@goucher.edu>
----------------------------------------

I walked into Bwa Kayman (the Morne Rouj) site, on August 14 this year--
to
find nothing left of the great mapou there but a stump.  Rase jouk la
terre!
The tree was sick last year.... I had seen that.  It had also been a
target of
American protestant missionaries who have specific plans to uproot ALL the
vodouisant sites of Haiti.

A houngan who was with me there said the death of the tree was a very
strong
mauvais signe from the spirits.  Given events of the last few days it is
difficult not to agree.

I asked him what they did with the wood and he said it had been burned for
charcoal.  Yo te coupe mapou Bwa Kayman, yo fe charbon ave'l!  ala won,
mezami,
a vre di....

msb


The Stone That the Builder Refused-- third and final volume of the Haitian
Revolutionary trilogy, is on sale November 9,  2004.   For a preview,
visit
this site:
http://faculty.goucher.edu/mbell/Stone%20files/stone_that_the_builder_refused.htm