Did Duvalier Possess Mystical Knowledge?

Chapter 5: Did Duvalier Possess Mystical Knowledge?

The many stories told about the extent of Duvalier’s mystical knowledge caused many people to believe that Dr. Duvalier possessed extraordinary spiritual power and that no one could easily harm him. Let us first consider some of what we gathered. Afterward, we will examine what he himself wrote in Mémoires d’un leader du tiers monde, the title of one of the last books Dr. Duvalier published before his death.

Lorimer Denis

From the information we gathered, Duvalier spent a considerable part of his youth in Bizoton. He was still a young man when he and his family left Bizoton and went to live in a house on Rue des Miracles in Port-au-Prince. In that neighborhood, he became acquainted with a neighbor named Jean-Joseph Lorimer Denis.

Lorimer Denis was born in Cap-Haïtien and completed his schooling as a boarding student at Lycée Pétion. He then entered the Port-au-Prince Law School, where he earned the diploma that licensed him to practice law.

Lorimer Denis was an intellectual. He belonged to several learned associations in Port-au-Prince and abroad. He taught at several secondary schools and at the École Normale Supérieure. He possessed substantial mystical knowledge and specialized in matters concerning Africa, folklore, and ethnology.

In 1946, under President Dumarsais Estimé, Lorimer Denis was appointed director of the Bureau of Ethnology. He regularly organized major conferences in Port-au-Prince. It was Lorimer Denis who began teaching the young Duvalier about folklore and, consequently, about Vodou.

Lorimer Denis later became so closely connected with François Duvalier that the two men wrote and published several books together. In addition, when Duvalier married at Saint-Pierre Church in Pétion-Ville on December 23, 1939, only a few invited guests beyond the relatives, godfather, and godmother were present inside the church. Lorimer Denis was among those guests.

Lorimer Denis died in Port-au-Prince on August 17, 1957, two months and five days before Dr. Duvalier took the oath of office as Haiti’s thirty-sixth president.

The Groupe des Griots

Let us now examine what Duvalier himself wrote in Mémoires d’un leader du tiers monde. Many people regard this book as a political testament that Duvalier wrote before his death.

On pages 141 and 142, Dr. Duvalier wrote that in 1932 he invited Lorimer Denis and a Gonaïves attorney named Louis Diaquoi to establish a group with him known as the Groupe des Griots.

The word griot, spelled G-R-I-O-T, should not be confused with griyo, roasted pork. This French word originated in Mali, a country in Africa. A man is called a griot, and a woman a griotte. Griots and griottes are people of great wisdom who travel from place to place recounting events from the distant past.

The role of the Groupe des Griots established by Duvalier was to reconnect the Haitian people with Africa and celebrate evolution, songs, dances, traditions, and all the beautiful elements found in Haitian Vodou.

Duvalier was highly intelligent, a man who learned quickly and learned well. When the Groupe des Griots was established in 1932, he was only twenty-four or twenty-five years old and was in his fourth year of medical school. At that time, Duvalier already regarded Professor Lorimer Denis as a spiritual brother.

It did not take long for Duvalier to feel that he had acquired so much knowledge that he and Lorimer Denis had become equals.

In 1954, during the government of Paul Magloire, there was an occasion when Lorimer Denis trembled upon coming to see Duvalier. Duvalier, remaining calm-hearted, seated Lorimer Denis and told him what to do. We believe this episode clearly shows that by 1954 Dr. Duvalier had become so knowledgeable in these matters that he had surpassed his former teacher Lorimer Denis.

Numerology and Ethnology

Dr. Duvalier also possessed knowledge of onomancy. Onomancy is a practice that allows those who use it to determine which numbers and dates may bring them good fortune. For Dr. Duvalier, that number was 22. For this reason, all the major events under his regime occurred on the twenty-second. Each year, Duvalier appeared to monopolize nearly every twenty-second day on the calendar.

Also on page 141 of Mémoires, Dr. Duvalier wrote that he founded the Faculty of Ethnology and made it part of the State University of Haiti. Before that, a Bureau of Ethnology had opened in Port-au-Prince under President Lescot, with the distinguished Haitian intellectual Jacques Roumain as its first director.

I believe it was necessary to present these four principal figures: General Antonio Kébreau, Clément Jumelle, agronomist Louis Déjoie, and Dr. François Duvalier. Their portraits will allow us to understand much of what will happen next.