A tale of 'two' Vodu gods and the Dangers of Cults of Personality: Let's take a look at our orange used car salesman, Baron Samedi and the implausible, horrific, barbarous "Papa Doc" Francois Duvalier.

It could happen, Dear Reader.

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Yeah, I guess it may be good to be the king;  or dictator as the case may be. 

OK. So who was Francois Duvalier, and why should we care? Americans should. Americans must. How would you like it if Donald trump was perceived as the second coming by his faithful followers? Oh sh$t.  He already is.

Truth Social user @austinnegrete said: "Jesus is the Greatest. President @realDonaldTrump is the second greatest."

Any cult of personality begins with a propaganda that asserts a person's identification with a popular deity.

So, what is a cult of personality? 

a situation in which people are encouraged to show extreme love and admiration for a famous person, especially a political leader

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/personality-cult

I'm not sure I really like that definition.  It's too reductible.  I like this definition (although it's NOT exactly from Oxford University Press):

"A cult of personality, sometimes referred to as a personality cult, is defined as “exaggerated devotion to a charismatic political, religious, or other leader.”1


Authoritarian figures, such as Benito Mussolini of Italy and Vladimir Putin of Russia, are often associated with cults of personality, as are totalitarian regimes such as the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, Germany under Adolf Hitler, and North Korea under Kim Jong-Un.


Leaders of cults of personality often use imagery and the manipulation of mass media to form an exalted, even superhuman, version of their persona in the minds of their followers."

Crabtree C, Kern HL, Siegel DA. Cults of personality, preference falsification, and the dictator’s dilemma. J Theor Polit. 2020;32(3):409-434. doi:10.1177/0951629820927790 Their followers accept the leader's persona and authority, which leads to their devotion to the leader and their mission to bring about an imagined future."

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-cult-of-personality-5191337

If you think of Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Francois Duvalier and Trump, there are scary similarities.  All of these men were personally insecure.  All of them exploited the 'social other' as a focal point for the public--a group to blame for just about everything wrong with their lives.  And, all of them were not above mass murder of people they conveniently called 'enemies of the state.' Trump just hasn’t had an opportunity yet, but if he’s given time….  Remember, if you will, when Trump imprisoned the children of illegal immigrants? 

So, Dear Reader, if I may try your patience, let's take a look at a flagrant example of the above phenomenon:  "Papa Doc" Francois Duvalier, and the nation of Haiti.

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Let's begin with this poem by Yeats:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre   

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst   

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.   

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out   

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert   

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,   

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,   

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it   

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.   

The darkness drops again; but now I know   

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,   

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,   

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

William Butler Yeats

I know, depressing, right? But this was written in the period immediately after World War 1.  Yeats is writing about many things in this work, but chiefly he points out that comfortable old men order the slaughter of the innocent in wars that only serve to further their pointless political goals, and preserve their power.  These were chiefly the reasons for World War I, and World War II.  Let’s just consider, for half a ‘mo, the name “world war,” shall we? Remember the tens of millions slaughtered in that conflict? And it could so easily happen again folks, it really might. And, what’s scarier, is that’s not an overly dramatic statement--my sister always accuses me of being overly-dramatic, no matter what I do, so I'm a little sensitive.

So, what is the commonality between William Butler Yeats, World War, and Papa Doc Duvalier? Well, a couple of things, really:  relevance and the cult of personality.  Let me explain.  Right now, in this country, we're experiencing an interesting/terrifying phenomenon:  the cult of personality, surrounding a certain orange-faced (two-faced) used car salesman currently whipping up the lunatic fringe of this country into a homicidal fury.

OK, so after all of that preamble, let's learn a little bit about Francois Duvalier, Dear Reader, and perhaps you'll agree with me that his story is potentially relevant for Americans in the terrifying months before the presidential election.

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Francois Duvalier (b. 1907, d. 1971) graduated from the School of Medicine at the University of Haiti in 1937.  He served his country as a general practitioner, until 1943.  During this time, he became a beloved figure of the impoverished Haitians, due to the fact that he freely gave medical care to those who could not afford the services of any doctor.  He was also known to travel great distances just to help a single patient.  Well, it wasn't long before people began calling him "Papa Doc," making him a recognized and beloved local figure.

So, how does a benevolent figure like Dr. Duvalier evolve into this:

The Vodu god, Baron Samedi.

Kind of a stretch, right? Yeah, I think so too, but it was definitely a horrifically fascinating journey. The distance between physician and Vodu deity was begun in the late thirties, when Duvalier became involved with Lorimer Denis (a mystic) and Le Groupe des Griots, a bunch of like-minded guys who promulgated an uneasy mixture of Vodu mysticism and Haitian nationalism.

Duvalier became director general of the National Public Health Service of Haiti in 1946. He was subsequently made under-minister of labour in 1948. In 1949, Papa Doc was created minister of public health and labor, a job he held until 1950.  Okay, so far so good, right? How does a guy like this become a psychotic dictator? A very good question, indeed.

At some point, between 1950 and 1957, Duvalier became a popular opposition figure to the various regimes rising and falling from power in Haiti.  In '57, Duvalier became President, and whoo boy, watch out.

One of the first things that identifies a modern dictatorship is a secret police force. In Duvalier's case, it was the the "Toutons Macoutes," or “Bogeymen." These hoods were organized by Francois' chief aide, Clément Barbot, and were specifically charged with eliminating supposed 'foes' of the Duvalier regime.

And, Duvalier was off and running.  In 1959, though, he had a heart attack, and Bardot temporarily took control.  It was not a success.  After Duvalier's recuperation, Barbot was arrested.  After his release, Bardot apparently tried to head an insurrection.  He was caught and immediately executed--and the first enemy bites the dust.  It kind of went even further downhill from there.  

By 1964, Duvalier declared himself president of Haiti for life.  Dictator Perpetuo a la Julius baby. By this time, Francois had begun depicting himself as semi-divine.  I think that, in some way, he really believed it.  It was also about this time he began evincing disturbing tendencies--like publicly stating that he was the personification of the Vodu god Baron Samedi.

Check out this link, for some insight into Baron Samedi:  https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-ancient-traditions/baron-samedi-0016698

So, what happens when some guy believes he has divine, or semi-divine status? Uh, nothing good., particularly in this modern age.  What if a 'mortal god' had soldiers, jail cells, and machine guns at his beck and call? You do the math, Dear Reader.  Under his regime, Haitians suffered. Terror trials. Terror raids. Mass arrests. Suspension of due process.  Complete control of media communications.  You know, Dear Reader, the usual suspects of any totalitarian state. 

It is time to relate one of the nastier happenings under Papa Doc's regime:  April 26, 1963.  Mass murder resulted from a false report that Duvalier's son had been kidnapped.  Here are some of the things that occurred:

"The bloodbath began at the home of Montas's neighbor, Lieutenant François Benoit, an elite marksman who had been dismissed from the army. Benoit's parents were killed. His house was set on fire, with a seven-month-old baby inside.

"Soldiers and Tonton Macoutes seemed infected with a blood lust and shot anyone who moved or came near the Benoit place," retired Marine Corps officer Charles T. Williamson, in Haiti to help train Duvalier's army, wrote in his 1999 memoir, United States Naval Mission to Haiti, 1959-1963. "Throughout the town the word was out that former army officers were to be arrested along with anyone thought to oppose the regime.... The hunt was on."

The hunt was indeed on for Duvalier's adversaries, army and civilian alike. Roadblocks were set up. Death squads though roamed freely. Grenades and bombs exploded in the daytime and gunfire crackled at night, resulting in what Bernard Diederich, co-author (with Al Burt) of Papa Doc and the Tonton Macoutes, recently called "a day of mayhem, genocide!"

Montas recalls "the smell of rotting bodies for days, but also the gripping smell of fear. It had become the norm, whole families guilty by bloodline, condemned, executed."

Hundreds were rounded up or disappeared into the bowels of Fort Dimanche, the notorious dungeon prison where many of Papa Doc's victims lost their lives."

https://progressive.org/latest/memories-duvalier-massacre-50-years-later-danticat-130425/

Lovely, isn't it? A f*&king 5 star hotel.  Imagine being kept in a place like this, knowling you're gonna be executed at any time.

Francois Duvalier was a cad.  A 'blaggard.'  A dick.

Here's another tragedy:

"1964 (August): Event known as the “massacre des Vêpres jérémiennes.” In the locality of Jérémie (in the Southwest of the country), army soldiers led by Lt. Abel Jerome, Lt. Sony Borge, Col. Regala and by macoutes Sanette Balmir and St. Ange Bomtemps killed 27 individuals (men, women and children); almost all of them belonged to educated mulatto families. All the perpetrators knew the executed families well. Several families from Jérémie (the Sansericq, Drouin and Villedrouin families) were entirely wiped out. A four-year child, Stéphane Sansericq, was tortured in front of his relatives before being killed. macoutes Sony Borges and Gérard Brunache extinguished their cigarettes in the eyes of crying children."

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1969 (April 5): Event known as the “massacre de Cazale.” In the village of Cazale (sometimes spelled Casale or Casal), North of Port-au-Prince, army soldiers and macoutes killed several dozen peasant families. A few weeks earlier, several young, light-skinned members of the Communist Party, a political party persecuted by the regime, including Alex Lamaute and Roger Méhu, had taken refuge in this town, assuming that they would blend into a population regarded as generally light-skinned (for having harbored many Polish soldiers after the war of independence). At the same period, locals had been embroiled in a tax dispute and had refused to pay taxes on the sale of agricultural products, which had alienated the Duvalier regime further. On April 3, several macoutes arrived in the area, set several houses on fire and raped an unknown number of peasant women. The following day, after the macoutes arrested two peasant leaders opposed to taxes, the local population burned down the mayor’s office and took down the black-and-red flag of the Duvalier regime (the original Haitian flag was blue-and-red). On April 5, 500 soldiers and macoutes arrived in the area and started the killing. At the end of the day, 25 bodies were found but 80 had disappeared and were never found. This represented the largest “forced disappearance” under the Duvaliers. Several families were entirely wiped out. In addition, 82 houses had been looted and torched. Cattle was killed or taken away by looting soldiers. Women were forced to dance and “celebrate” with the soldiers who stayed in the village.

https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/massacres-perpetrated-20th-century-haiti.html

I think Jack put it best:

And yet, even that term seems complimentary when dealing with characters like the Trumps (oops!) I meant Duvaliers of this world.  Haiti is a small country when compared with Germany and Soviet Russia.  Now, let's consider what would happen if the 'new and improved' version of the orange-faced used car salesman returns to sit behind the Resolute Desk, with American resources at his beck and call.

I'll just close with a quote from a 2020 article from The Atlantic, which I think we can all agree is a reputable source.  The subject of this articles deals with Trump's proposed visit to a WW1 cemetery in France (just one of many):

When President Donald Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018, he blamed rain for the last-minute decision, saying that “the helicopter couldn’t fly” and that the Secret Service wouldn’t drive him there. Neither claim was true.

Trump rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day. In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/

It's all in our hands, Dear Reader, so be careful which path to the Emerald City you take, OK?