Voodoo practitioner's death still a mystery

The death of a participant in a voodoo cleansing ritual over the weekend highlights the need for stronger regulation of voodoo priests, the head of a Philadelphia-based religious organization said yesterday.

"When this thing happened, it hurt all of us," said Gro Mambo Angela Novanyon, chairwoman of the National African Religion Congress.

Police have not said that the death of Lucille Hamilton, a 21-year-old transgendered woman from Little Rock, in Gloucester Township Saturday night was caused by the voodoo ritual she was taking part in, and no charges have been filed.

Though authorities say the death does not appear suspicious, toxicology results will take weeks to determine if there were any substances in her system that could have killed her.

Novanyon said greater efforts to certify priests could help boost voodoo's credibility in these situations.

The congress is the only certifying board for voodoo priests in the country, and it covers between 5,000 and 6,000 certified priests, Novanyon said. She said there are likely more than 25,000 people practicing voodoo in Philadelphia.

A man calling himself Houngan Hector, who prosecutors said yesterday was the host of the rituals at the Sicklerville home, was not a certified priest with the congress, Novanyon said.

Hector describes himself on his Web site as a voodoo priest whose aunts and grandmother nourished his spiritual growth.

He writes that he was initiated into voodoo in Haiti, where he lived and learned about the religion from native priests. The site details about a dozen religious services he offers.

Neighbors said the home was a flocking point almost every weekend for those seeking rituals from all over the country. An investigation of the home by county officials yesterday found no health violations.

Novanyon said her organization uses members in 17 countries to verify the backstories of voodoo priests who sign up for certification by checking the legitimacy of the people from whom they claim to have learned.

In November, the congress sent letters to politicians and police departments throughout New Jersey, including two addressed to Gloucester Township Police Chief Edward Smith and State Police Col. Rick Fuentes, urging them to push for legal regulation of voodoo priests.

Novanyon said priests from Nigeria and Ghana often have some kind of certification, and early efforts to crack down on voodoo priests in Haiti have been advocated by the congress.

"Priests and priestesses do make life-and-death situations . . . and because they are doing that, we do feel they have to be certified," Novanyon said.

Terry Rey, chairman of the religion department at Temple University, who spent six years in Haiti, said not everyone agrees that voodoo priests should be certified. Many are attracted to the variable nature of the religion, he said.

"Some people in the religion shun that approach to institutionalization," he said. "This is one of the major issues facing these religions as they grow."

However, both Novanyon and Rey said it was almost unfathomable that someone would die from the lave tèt, or ritual cleansing of the head, that police said Hamilton received prior to her death.

On Hector's Web site, the ceremony is described as a three-day process. Rey said the cleansing typically consists of washing the participants' heads with water and herbs. The site said participants also lie down in a badji, or altar room, where spirits are revealed to them.

Rey said the ceremony is fairly common in Haitian voodoo, adding he would be interested in whether the toxicology results showed any abnormalities.

"It's a very positive experience," he said.

Randi Romo, executive director of the Center for Artistic Revolution in Little Rock, a social-justice group, said Hamilton had not received any medical treatment related to her transition as a transgendered person and was not attending the ceremony because of any "emotional turmoil" related to her identity.

A section on Hector's Web site describes voodoo as particularly accepting of individuals from the LGBT community when compared with other Afro-Caribbean traditions.

Romo described Hamilton, who was the cofounder of a youth chapter of the center, as the "bravest person I've known in my life" for her unwillingness to hide who she was.

"She looked fear dead in the eye and laughed at it," Romo said. "She was a role model; the kids all looked up to her."

Romo said Hamilton believed the ceremony was needed on her "spiritual path" as she prepared to attend college in the fall.

"This was something she felt she wanted to do to get ready for the next part of her life," she said.

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