Religion and Education

A large majority of Haitian emigrants are officially Catholic, while a minority belong to a variety of other denominations. However, an indeterminate number of people of Haitian origin living abroad, especially in Montreal and New York, continue to practise Voodoo. For historical reasons (repression, persecution, and marginalization), Haitians with Voodoo tendencies maintain a Catholic front, and Voodoo priests and officiants shun publicity.

In Quebec, as in Haiti and elsewhere, Catholics and Protestants – at least devout or fanatical ones – have little to do with each other. The boundaries established as a result of religious beliefs between different groups of Haitian immigrants, as between members of other communities, can sometimes be impenetrable.

Socialization, gathering, exchange, recreation, and mutual assistance, as well as worship, all take place within religious groups. As a result, these groups contribute to the social integration of their members. The “Église Catholique Haïtienne” or Haitian Catholic church in Montreal North, for example, plays an important role in this regard. Through the efforts of Haitian Catholics, a section reserved for elderly Haitians was constituted within the Petits Frères des Pauvres. Thus, for some fervent “Haitian Catholics” and Haitians with Voodoo tendencies, religion appears to play the role of a “total institution.”

A concordat signed between the Haitian government and the Vatican in 1860 assigned the task of organizing the Catholic Church and Catholic education in Haiti to members of religious orders from France. While this agreement established Catholicism as the only official religion, Protestant schools have been legally tolerated. The number of such schools grew during the American occupation of 1915–34 and again after World War II. However, over time it has been the Catholic Church that has seen to the training of a Catholic, francophile elite. After 1946, efforts were made to extend the benefits of education to the lower middle class, but education has never reached the Haitian masses, especially peasants and urban workers. As a result of this elitist education system, only about 10 percent of the Haitian population can read and write.

Some families come to Canada from Haiti having given their children a democratic, open education. These children tend to adapt to their new environment without too much difficulty. At the opposite extreme are adolescents who come from single-parent families headed by women working as domestics or small shopkeepers, or whose fathers are almost always away at work, in the hospital, or in jail. Living on the street, with no stable or sustained education, they learn what they can from peers and do odd jobs to get by. Between these two groups are adolescents from the lower middle class and the upper strata of the working classes, whose formal education tends to be marked by Jansenist elements such as sexual repression and deferred gratification.