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A HEARTBROKEN son is demanding answers after his mother mysteriously died during a Vodou retreat.
North Carolina woman Dana Jackson, 51, traveled to Haiti in July in hopes of becoming a Manbo priestess – but her son, Timothy, said she never returned.
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A Manbo priestess is “a female ritual specialist in the Haitian Vodou tradition,” according to Harvard University.
“Like her male counterpart, the oungan (or houngan), she performs ceremonies, initiations, healings, and divination.”
Vodou is an African religion that “originated in the ancient kingdom of Dahomey (present-day Nigeria, Benin, and Togo),” according to PBS.
Jackson told USA Today that his mother had been yearning to go on the trip to Haiti for several years and, before her trip, had been practicing the religion.
“Four years ago, my mom started to do a little bit of research on the African traditional spiritual belief systems and Vodou was a part of that,” Jackson told the outlet.
“She had kind of been on this path of just kind of doing research and practicing, or at least, just doing her due diligence as far as research is concerned.”
‘THEY WEREN’T STRANGERS’
According to Jackson, his mother left the US on July 1 with a group of people also hoping to participate in Vodou rituals. She was scheduled to return on July 26.
“The people that she went down there with, their name is Sosyete and I believe that that means society in the Turkish language and Nago,” Jackson said.
“These weren’t strangers that she went down there with. These are people that she’s built a relationship with.”
Initially, Jackson was not worried about his mother as they were to be out of communication due to the nature of the Vodou ritual.
“If you do any research about that part of the ceremony, even just on Google, it’ll tell you, that’s very sacred and things of that nature,” Jackson told the outlet.
“So she sent me one last message on the 13th, and she said, ‘We will talk on the 21st going to church tomorrow.‘”
As someone who talked to his mother every day, the communications blackout was unnerving.
According to Jackson, the last text he received from his mother was on July 21 when she asked him to, “pray for her.”
What is Voodoo?
VODOU, often referred to by its more common spelling of Voodoo, is a traditional African religion.
The religion, which developed in Haiti and is now practiced by millions all over the world, is rooted in the belief that all things have a spirit.
Rituals are often performed to ward off evil spirits or to heal illnesses.
Vodou has a single God known as “Bondye,” which is Creole for Good God.
In Western culture, Voodoo is often conflated with witchcraft.
Voodoo dolls have become popular images of a magical tradition related to Vodou – but the practice has actually been denounced and declared irrelevant to the religion.
“That whole entire week just kind of low key, [I was] having anxiety because I’m not able to hear from her, and I know that this is a very important part of the ceremony,” he said.
“On the 21st, I didn’t hear anything from her. I did reach out to her at about 5 p.m. on WhatsApp. I didn’t get any response.”
After a few days of not hearing from his mother, Jackson’s grandmother revealed that Dana was dead.
“The way she told me was, ‘Your mom’s not coming back from Haiti.’ So I hung up the phone with her,” he said.
“I called her back. I asked her, ‘What did she mean?’ She said, ‘She’s not coming back from Haiti. She passed away.’ I hung up the phone. I called her again.”
‘SOMETHING SINISTER HAPPENED’
It was then Jackson reached out to the leader of the group who confirmed what had happened.
“To be completely honest with you, my initial thought was my mom went down to Haiti, they did this last piece of the ceremony, and something sinister happened,” Jackson said.
The member of the group told him that Dana had gotten sick and fainted during the ceremony.
When she woke up, the mom reportedly didn’t know where she was.
Timothy Jackson’s GoFundMe
Timothy Jackson started a GoFundMe to raise money to bring his mom’s body back to the United States.
“Hello, my name is Timothy Jackson,” the page said.
“On July 1, 2024, my mom left the United States for Haiti to participate in a spiritual retreat. She was set to return to the States on July 26, 2024.
“On July 12, I received one last message from her stating that she would be unreachable for a few days and that she would contact me on July 21st as part that spiritual retreat.
“That message was the last communication I received from my mother. On July 22nd, I received a phone call from someone who attended this retreat, informing me that my mother had passed away.
“Since then, my family has been lied to, taken advantage of and manipulated. We are unable to get clear answers as to how she passed.
“We also don’t have answers on where she is located or where her belongings are. Usually, when someone dies in another country, the US Embassy is involved and they will work with the family and funeral homes to get the body back to the States.
“This has yet to happen. The group she left with has been untruthful and, at times, hard to reach.
“To add insult, the family has received information that while attending this retreat, Dana was neglected and not properly taken care of during the time of her demise.
“Our family is asking for your help so that we can bring Dana’s body back, give her the memorial she deserves, and bring much-needed closure to her loved ones,” the message concluded.
The leader told Jackson that the group then brought Dana to the hospital, where she started to have seizures before experiencing a heart attack and a stroke.
“That was the initial story,” Jackson said.
“They said that my mom didn’t bring her medicine. So there was a red flag, because what medicine are you guys talking about? it sounds like they were trying to perpetuate a story.”
Jackson is now raising money via a GoFundMe page to bring his mom’s body back to the US – and he plans to get an autopsy for her.
“We don’t know what happened in the last nine days, but whatever happened, my mom did not go to Haiti not to come back to the United States,” he said.
The U.S. Sun has reached out to the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince for comment.
