Also known as: Anti-superstition campaign, Campagne anti-superstitieuse, Anti-superstition campaigns in Haiti
Last updated: April 23, 2026
Anti-superstition campaigns were periodic state and Church efforts in Haiti to suppress Vodou and popular religious practice, framing them as backward, disorderly, or a barrier to national respectability. The most systematic campaigns occurred in 1896 and 1941, the latter driven by Catholic missionaries during the US occupation era. Authorities consistently found that popular ritual was too broad, too local, and too entangled with Catholic practice to be cleanly eradicated.
superstition-campaigns — the institutional destination of the concordat's logic
The paradox of his legacy: the same state that appropriated his ideas to promote 'folklore' continued to persecute actual Vodou practice through anti-superstition campaigns.
Jean Léon Destiné
Katherine Dunham
His 1796 Vodou ban established the template that all subsequent French and Haitian anti-superstition campaigns and legal persecutions of Vodou followed.
Anti Superstition Campaigns
Lescot's anti-Vodou campaign was among the provocations that fed the uprising
Anti Superstition Campaigns
Anti Superstition Campaigns
Anti Superstition Campaigns
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"Anti Superstition Campaigns." Rasin.ai, 2026. https://rasin.ai/connections/concepts/anti-superstition-campaigns. Accessed 2026-05-05.