Haiti’s traditional religion has kept a low profile in the aftermath of the earthquake. The songs and prayers heard amid the rubble and tent cities around Port-au-Prince are overwhelmingly Christian. The voodoo religion may be practised by many Haitians – the exact number is unknown – and has not been totally absent from the aid effort. Louis Leslie Marcelin, another singer who also describes himself as a spiritual guide and healer, has used his home in Port-au-Prince as an alternative school and a care centre. “We work with children and parents,” he says. “We work with poor people whose relatives have died.” But such efforts by voodoo leaders have been few and far between. The bulk of the religious relief aid work in Haiti has been carried out by Catholic and Protestant groups. “For a religion that’s supposedly the national religion of the Haitian people, it’s amazingly absent in the earthquake phenomena,” says Gerald Murray, a University of Florida anthropologist who has carried out extensive fieldwork in Haiti.