Voodoo / Ancient African religions on Rodrigues island.

Currently Catholicism is the most practised religion on the island of Rodrigues. There are also a very small number of Anglicans, Muslims, Buddhists and 7th day Adventists. Voodoo / ancient African religions used to be prevalent on the Island but have since died out. The early African slaves bought their religion with them to the island and some continued to practise voodoo until the mid 1900s. Apparently all Rodriguans who practised the "black magic" part of voodoo all died horrible deaths by fire. There aren't any published documents stating voodoo used to be practised in Rodrigues but I'll share some anecdotes from some of the older inhabitants. As a skeptic I find some of these stories very hard to believe but these are eyewitness accounts from trusted people. Hallucinations? Too much drinking? You be the judge!

MINISTRE PRINCE: This creepy story was told by my Grandmother. On a moonlit night, early 1930s in L'Anse Aux Anglais, my Grandmother and her sister were sent on an errand by their father. They were walking home, using their usual path, next to the river (I don't think the river currently flows). In the distance they noticed two people dressed all in while swinging from the branch of a tree. Being nighttime they couldn't easily make out these two individuals so they decided to approach the tree. The closer they got to the tree the stranger these two appeared. As they got closer they could make out two men all dressed in white dangling / swinging on the branch of this tree. All of a sudden the hairs on the back of their necks stood up and a chill went down their spine. These two men were extremely skinny and at least 15 foot tall! The two young sisters screamed and ran home to tell their strange story to their father. Instead of getting scalded by their father he told them that these creatures were called "Ministre Prince". These "Ministre Prince" , summoned by the voodoo priests, were indeed giants and had been seen by other people in Rodrigues.

HUMAN ANIMALS: Apparently one can turn into any animal using secret voodoo rituals. Rodriguan Voodoo practitioners were able to do this so the story goes. I have heard numerous first hand stories about voodoo practitioners turning themselves into animals, here are a couple. Most of the anecdotes about humans turning themselves into animals relates to dogs. My Grandad was sitting on the beach at L'Anse Aux Anglais at night to enjoy the cool night air. Suddenly he felt somebody breathing on the back his neck. Turning around he saw a huge werewolf like dog. Apparently this animal was bigger than any dog he had ever seen. Obviously he ran like hell to his house which was nearby. On another occasion a man heard a commotion outside his house in the dead of night. He went out to investigate and came across a huge werewolf like dog. He grabbed a stick and started striking the dog. One blow landed on the dog's front leg and it ran off yelping in pain. The next day a voodoo practitioner, which people had suspected could turn herself into an animal, was spotted at the hospital with a broken arm.
The last story is actually quite hilarious. A man was walking home after visiting his girlfriend at night. He spotted a turkey walking on the path. As nobody was around he picked up the turkey, tucked it under his arm and continued on home. After a bit of walking the turkey looked at him and said, "mete mwa anba, monn arrive kot moi" (English translation "Put me down, I've arrived at my place"). He got the fright of his life, dropped the turkey and ran like hell. Pretty LoL story that is supposedly "true".

TI ALBERT: I'm not really that familiar with Ti Albert but my cousin told me a strange story when I was on holidays in Rodrigues which sounds like Ti Albert. At the time he just told me the story without mentioning Ti Albert. He reckons that people would get woken up in the middle of the night by the very loud sound of large stones raining down on their corrugated iron roof. On further investigation they would only find little pebbles on the roof and in their yard. Supposedly Ti Albert could make little pebbles sound like huge rocks. On other occasions there would be no evidence left anywhere of anything at all having rained down on the roof.