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Haiti

  • Living reference work entry
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Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions
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Definition

Religion affords Haitians a sense of pride and belonging in a broken and hostile world. This belonging fosters solidarity and a hope which looks beyond history in spite of history. Through religion, Haitians seek to offer an absolutely negative response to the seemingly absolute power of suffering in their midst. In 2009, percentages of religious affiliation within the population were 69.3% Catholic, 20.0% Protestant (including 5.1% Pentecostal), 15.9% unchurched Christian, 10.6% doubly affiliated, 2.9% other religions, 0.5% Mormon and Witness, and 2.0% no religion (Mandryk 2010: 393).

Introduction

Years of instability, compounded by an almost complete absence of effective leadership and the constant meddling of foreign powers, force Haitians to live in inhumane conditions (Munro 2010). Many at times go without food for days at a time and many are undernourished. A catastrophic earthquake on January 12, 2010 killed some 230,000 people around the country, left many more...

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Correspondence to Emmanuel Buteau .

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Buteau, E. (2019). Haiti. In: Gooren, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08956-0_353-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08956-0_353-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-08956-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-08956-0

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