Also known as: Mapou, Sacred mapou tree, Silk-cotton tree
Last updated: April 23, 2026
The mapou (silk-cotton tree, Ceiba pentandra) is sacred in Haitian Vodou as a place of ancestor presence, lwa gathering, and ritual action. The tree's vast canopy and buttressed roots mark it as a liminal space between the living and the dead. In the revolutionary archive it figures prominently because the Bois Caïman ceremony of August 1791 is traditionally located beneath a great mapou, linking the tree to the spiritual ignition of the Haitian Revolution.
The mapou tree was a sacred site associated with the kind of ritual gatherings the Marmelade network organized.
Mapou trees served as gathering sites for the clandestine assemblies Telemaque led — a sacred geography embedded in the plantation landscape of the Marmelade coffee zone.
Bois Caïman Ceremony
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"Mapou Tree." Rasin.ai, 2026. https://rasin.ai/connections/concepts/mapou-tree. Accessed 2026-05-05.