By Kristin Melody

Co-Editor in Chief

On the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 16 at the Clarke Field House, Patrick Bellegarde-Smith cleared up myths and reinforced realities of Haiti’s popular religion Vodou (also referred to as “voodoo”).

Bellegarde-Smith believes that Americans have many misconceptions of Vodou including the dolls, evil possessions and cult-like tendencies. During his engaging, personable and sometimes outrageous lecture, he tried to persuade the audience into thinking that Vodou is different from many religions such as Christianity, that Vodou is about being in touch with the spirits, balance and the existence of God within oneself.

In Vodou, “you do not expect salvation from an external source because you are that source, you are God,” Bellegarde-Smith said.

Bellegarde-Smith is a retired professor from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as well as a practicing Vodou priest, or Oungan. He has written many scholarly works on Africology, Haiti, and the 2010 earthquake and Haitian culture.

Bellegarde-Smith was brought in as part of the popular CSUSM Arts and Lectures series, his visit was also co-sponsored by Phi Alpha Theta and the Global Studies Club. The event was open to students, faculty and general public but required advanced reservation of tickets. The event had a capacity for 225 people and was sold out on the Arts and Lectures series website at least a week before the event.

Daniel Steele, CSUSM senior and history major, attended the event for his class GBST 390/HIST 300-6: Haiti and World History.

“I found [Bellegarde-Smith] to be interesting, informative, engaging and passionate, although on the last count he states other people may see this as ‘arrogant.’ If passion equals arrogance, then he needs to continue being arrogant,” Steele said.

Bellegarde-Smith had a humorous and somewhat borderline approach in comparing religions. While explaining his own, the crowd was laughing at his intelligent and sarcastic comments. “Some of the most religious people I know are atheists,” Bellegarde-Smith said.