Max Beauvoir

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Max Beauvoir
Born
Max Gesner Beauvoir

(1936-08-25)August 25, 1936
Houngan, biochemist, chemical engineer
Known forVodou leader
TitleAti, High Priest
SpouseElisabeth Marchand
ChildrenEstelle Manuel, Rachel Beauvoir-Dominique
Parent(s)Dr. Gesner Beauvoir, Paulette Icart

Max Gesner Beauvoir (August 25, 1936 – September 12, 2015) was a Haitian biochemist and

houngan
. Beauvoir held one of the highest titles of Voudou priesthood, Ati or "Supreme Serviteur" (supreme servant), a title given to Houngans and Mambos (Voudou priests and priestesses) who have a great and very deep knowledge of the religion, and status within the religion. As Supreme Serviteur, Max was seen as a high authority within Vodou.

Biography

Beauvoir was born on August 25, 1936, in

Digital Equipment Company in Massachusetts. His interest in steroids led him to experiment with hydrocortisone synthesized from agave plants; however, the death of his father led him to move back to Haiti in January 1973 where he found employ at Plantation Dauphin, a large agave plantation, then with Société Haitiano-Américaine de Développement Agricole
.

In 1974, with his wife Elisabeth, he opened a restaurant/night-club in his home in the village of

voodoo priests.[1] This is when they founded Le Péristyle de Mariani,[2] a Hounfour. In the following years, as Beauvoir built up his reputation to the public, he deepened his knowledge of the religion by visiting and paying hommage to other branches of Vodou around the Haitian countryside. During this period, he founded the Group for Studies and Research on the African Tradition (French
: Groupe d'Etudes et de Recherches Traditionnelles, GERT) with his daughters and a group of like-minded scholars.

The ruling

Tonton Macoutes
paramilitary which had been used by the Duvalier regime to oppress the Haitian people, the violent crowds, at times manipulated by Christian churches or by profiteers, turned against Vodou practitioners and their temples. The resistance that Max Beauvoir led to protect innocent Vodou victims would earn him the respect of the entire Vodou community.

In 1996, Beauvoir founded The Temple of Yehwe, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization for the promotion of education concerning Afro-American religion. In 1997, he became involved with the creation of the KOSANBA group at the University of California, Santa Barbara. [citation needed]

In Port-au-Prince, Max G. Beauvoir died on Saturday, September 12, 2015, aged 79.[3]

Involvement with KNVA

Main article: National Confederation of Haitian Vodou

In 2005, he launched the Federasyon Nasyonal Vodou Ayisyen, which he later renamed in 2008 as Konfederasyon Nasyonal Vodou Ayisyen; he serves as "chef Supreme" or "Ati Nasyonal" of the organization, which is an attempt to organize the defense of Vodou in the country against defamation.[4]

In media

References

  1. ^ a b Lacey, Marc (4 April 2008). "New head of voodoo brings on the charm". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 September 2011.
  2. ^ What is The Temple of Yehwe
  3. ISSN 0013-0613
    . Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  4. ^ "Max Beauvoir, King, but of Grand Voodoo Priests, Ordinary Voodoo Priests"
  5. ^ US application 3981867, Max G. Beauvoir, "Process for obtaining sapogenin particularly hecogenin from plant material such as agave sisalana leaves", published 21 Sep 1976 .

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Max_Beauvoir&oldid=1143157292"