A Haitian immigrant is being accused of pouring brandy on her child and setting the little girl on fire in a rite that authorities are claiming was called “Loa.” I’m no expert but the Loa are, in Haitian Voodoo, God’s intermediaries on Earth. Usually a Loa is a being that Voodoo practitioners interact with for religious or magical purposes. In other words this report is either incomplete, or there’s something we’re not getting:

Determined to drive evil spirits out of her daughter, a Queens mom performed a bizarre voodoo fire ritual that left the 6-year-old girl scarred for life, prosecutors say.

While young Frantzcia Saintil was “engulfed in flames,” Marie Lauradin let the screaming girl burn, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said Thursday.

The girl told cops “the flames crawled up her body and burned her,” the criminal complaint said.

Eventually, Frantzcia’s grandmother doused the flames with cold water, but the women then put the girl to bed instead of getting her help, Brown said.

Frantzcia suffered for a whole day before a relative begged them to take her to a hospital.

When doctors finally saw her, Frantzcia had second- and third-degree burns covering 25% of her body, including her face, torso and legs, court papers state.

Lauradin, a 29-year-old Haitian immigrant, was charged with assault and endangering the welfare of a child. She faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

This seems more like abuse with a religious covering. Here’s the part where the rite is described:

Lauradin, her mother and her daughter lived in the basement of a two-family home in Queens Village, where neighbors said they were not surprised.

“They weren’t into conversation,” neighbor Henry St. Jean said. “I used to hear them scream at [Frantzcia]. They would tell her to get on her knees for a couple of hours.”

Lauradin allegedly burned her daughter while performing a ritual that Brown called “Loa.” She sprayed a circle of rum on the floor around her daughter – poured some on her head – and ignited it, police said.

A “friend” named Sketch helped set up the ritual but hasn’t been charged, leading me to think that the child’s mother and grandmother were “winging it” and maybe decided mid exorcism to hurt the child, as the neighbors reports on the child’s treatment indicates they family enjoyed tormenting the girl for some time. Sounds to me like the mother was the one possessed.

But the authorities and papers may just be misunderstanding. Though most practitioners of Voodoo and its relatives are no more likely than anyone else to commit a crime, especially one involving their religion, there are instances of rites and rituals that are criminal coming to light. The murders by Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo and his cult are said to have occurred so he could “feed” his Nganaga, a kind of familiar spirit created by Palo Mayombe practitioners that resides in a cauldron through a magical process that involves Necromancy, Sorcery and religious devotion.

The cult of Santa Muerte (Saint Death) that is so popular with criminals in Mexico is likely responsible for human sacrifices and I believe there is a connection between Constanzo and the spread of the Santa Muerte cult.

But this crime happened in New York and Palo, Sante Muerte worship, Voodoo and all the other Afro-Caribbean traditions are similar to the scholar like myself, but as different from one another as Islam, Christianity and Judaism are. What’s more, practices in these religions often vary from region to region, so New Orleans Voodoo will be different than New York Voodoo.  Because the mother in this case is from Haiti it’s likely she at least thought she was practicing good old fashioned Haitian Voodoo, although I think it’s possible she was practicing what we might call “Spiritual Christianity” where Voodoo is completely subsumed into Protestantism, which puts a special emphasis on casting out devils. I’d still be curious as to what the rite they were practicing actually was intended to do. It is a common practice to use fire to “cleanse” people (as in passing a hand quickly through a candle flame) but I’ve never heard of someone being set alight for a ritual.

Having lived in New York I’ve come across stories of children being injured in makeshift exorcisms with alarming, and tiresome, regularity however. Religious aspect or not, abuse is abuse and the adults here should be locked up for what they’ve done and I’m sure readers will keep the poor child in their prayers.

Here’s a great essay on Voodoo that’s informative if a bit “undergrad” in its barely hidden moralizing. The unfortunately hard to find Divine Horseman by Maya Deren is a good place for the dilettante to start if voodoo peaks your interest.