--- Page 1 --- V - - M I ( - L VODOU a S PRIESTESS BROOKLYN UPDATED EDITION AND EXPANDED KAREN MCCARTHY BROWN a "Beautifully written. A life story that is full of feeling" CONSTANCET CASEY, LOS ANGELESTIMES --- Page 2 --- Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/isbn, 9790520224758 --- Page 3 --- D. fmul,mpone paper p.iwloc-dimrn --- Page 4 --- --- Page 5 --- MAMA LOLA --- Page 6 --- Comparative Studies in Religion and Society MARK JUERGENSMEYER, EDITOR 1. Redemptive Encounters: Three Modern Styles in the Hindu Tradition, by Lawrence Babb 2. Saints and Virtues, edited by John Stratton Hawley 3. Utopias in Conflict: Religion and Nationalism in Modern India, by Ainslie T. Embree 4. Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn, by Karen McCarthy Brown 5. The New Cold War? Religious Nationalism Confronts the Secular State, by Mark Juergensmeyer 6. Pious Passion: The Emergence of Modern Fundamentalism in the United States and Iran, by Martin Riesebrodt, translated by Don Reneau 7. Devi: Goddesses of India, edited by John Stratton Hawley and Donna Marie Wulff 8. Absent Lord: Ascetics and Kings in a Jain Ritual Culture, by Lawrence A. Babb 9. The Challenge of Fundamentalism: Political Islam and the New World Disorder, by Bassam Tibi 10. Levelling Crowds: Ethno-nationalist Conflicts and Collective Violence in South Asia, by Stanley J. Tambiah 11. The Bridge Betrayed: Religiou and Genocide in Bosnia, by Michael A. Sells 12. China's Cathiolics: Tragedy and Hope in a11 Emerging Civil Society, by Richard Madsen 13. Terror in the Mind ofGod: The Global Rise of Religious Violence, by Mark Juergensmeyer 14. Imaging Karma: Ethical Transformation in Ameriudiau, Buddlist, and Greek Rebirtli, by Gananath Obeyesekere --- Page 7 --- MAMA LOLA A Vooou Priestess 1M Brooklyn Updated and Expanded Edition KAREN MCCARTHY BROWN UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles London --- Page 8 --- University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England @ 1991, 2001 by The Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Brown, Karen McCarthy. Mana Lola : a Vodou priestess in Brooklyn / Karen McCarthy Brown.- Rev. and expanded ed. p. cm. - (Comparative studies in religion and society : 4) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-520-22475-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Kowalski, Alourdes. 2. Mambos (Voodooism)--New York (State)-New York. 3. Voodooism--New York (State)-New York. 4- Brooklyn (New York, N. Y.)- Religion. I. Title. II. Series. BL2490.K68 B76 2001 299'.075'0g2-dcz1 (B] Printed in the United States of America 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 The paper used in this publication is both acid-free and totally chlorine-free (TCF). lt meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/ NISO Z39.48-1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper). @ .)- Religion. I. Title. II. Series. BL2490.K68 B76 2001 299'.075'0g2-dcz1 (B] Printed in the United States of America 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 The paper used in this publication is both acid-free and totally chlorine-free (TCF). lt meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/ NISO Z39.48-1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper). @ --- Page 9 --- TO MY TEACHERS, ABDUL EL ZEIN, FLORENCE MIALE, AND ALOURDES MARGAUX --- Page 10 --- The spirit is a wind. Everywhere I go, they going too : . to protect me. Alourdes Margaux --- Page 11 --- CONTENTS PREFACE TO THE 2001 EDITION ix PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION xvii INTRODUCTION 1. Joseph Binbin Mauvant 2. Azaka 3. Raise That Woman's Petticoat 4. Ogou 5. The Baka Made from Jealousy 6. Kouzinn 7. Dreams and Promises 8. Ezili 9. Sojème, Sojème 10. Danbala 11. Plenty Confidence 12. Gede AFTERWORD GLOSSARY OF HAITIAN CREOLE TERMS BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX vii --- Page 12 --- --- Page 13 --- PREFACE TO THE 2001 EDITION Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in 1991. The product of more than Brooklyn twelve was published in April search and writing, Mama Lola years of overlapping repecially in its proved to be a difficult book, esvoice troubled conception./In the early stages, the me more than any other. Who problem of ke book and from what got to speak in this with a single answer, the perspective? tension Rather than resolving itself when dozens of voices behind this question eased only emerged thick black binders filled with field simultaneously from the two My voices were notes that tI kept on my desk. several, as were Alourdes's Hers included the voices of spirits that (Lola's given name). her. Her daughter regularly speak through Maggie's voice had a central was a collection of ancestors, lovers, role, and there got to speak. Once I had the chorus friends, and clients who also role of voices, it became clear my was to be the conductor. It was that voice got heard. my job to see that each Within weeks ofits appearance Mama Lola was an example of"new postmodern being touted as ethnography." As evidence, the book's ethnography" or "new feminist "lack of a hegemonic "chorus of voices" and its point of view" were cited, as was "the demystifying presence of the author in the described by one person as that of "a narrative," a presence open to change and growth." porous self, vulnerable, (I am still not comfortable with the "porous" metaphor.) Just two weeks after its official date, I found myself in a Columbia publication being pushed to defend University faculty seminar task, since most of the postmodern ethnography, a difficult the end of significant literature had emerged toward my writing process and did not in fact a role shaping Mama Lola. In those play in of early days, the postmodern ethnography made me anxious. Soon after it came critique a copy of James Clifford and out, I bought George Marcus's Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics catalytic volume, time I only managed to read half of of Elhmography, but at the it. I was struggling to write ix , since most of the postmodern ethnography, a difficult the end of significant literature had emerged toward my writing process and did not in fact a role shaping Mama Lola. In those play in of early days, the postmodern ethnography made me anxious. Soon after it came critique a copy of James Clifford and out, I bought George Marcus's Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics catalytic volume, time I only managed to read half of of Elhmography, but at the it. I was struggling to write ix --- Page 14 --- X in a way that did justice to Alourdes's Vodou world as I had experienced it. Because the postmodern critique of was new ethnography to me and, even more to the point, because its Irecognized significance, it threatened to overwhelm Preface to afraid Clifford and Marcus my project. I was the 2001 might convince me there was no for me to write about Lola, the way Edition Vodou Priestess, that was not exploitive, distorting, and destructive. I put away Writing Culture, put my blinders on, and followed the course I had previously set for myself. Only later did I recognize the confluence of my own thinking with that of the postmodern critique of ethnography. So, I have come to embrace the labels placed on Mama Lola some of its earliest readers and critics, even though I cannot by claim to have self-consciously positioned my book in those niches. What is significant for this discussion is that the postmodern label has become, after the fact, one way of understanding my own work and locating myself within the academy. For the academy, it has become one way of appropriating and categorizing it. If I were writing Mama Lola today, my it writing would be a book in more deliberate conversation, not with modes of writing ethnographically, but also with only new studies and gender studies, centers of growth in the postcolonial even academy more important to me. In this way books shape-shift before their author's eyes; they turn on us and change the way we understand them. It makes us feel foolish when our readers learn things from our books that we do not deny but did not deliberately put there. Also, the way a book moves after publicationthe people who read it and the uses they make of it-can occasion important changes in the lives as well as the attitudes and understandings of author and subject alike. Much more will be said about that in the afterword to this updated edition. Is still understand Mama Lola, as I did in 1991, primarily as an exercise in interpretation (14). Yet these days I appreciate the complexity of this posture more than I did then. Each of us moves through the world making meaning, individually and collectively, as we can and/or need to. This is not to that we make meaning out of nothing. We tend to gather say ences-what we have done, seen, heard, read, felt, learned, up experi- intuited, hoped for, reasoned, and believed-and we try to discern patterns there, patterns that are partly discovered and created by our particular perspectives. partly Anthropology, the academic discipline by which I steer much I appreciate the complexity of this posture more than I did then. Each of us moves through the world making meaning, individually and collectively, as we can and/or need to. This is not to that we make meaning out of nothing. We tend to gather say ences-what we have done, seen, heard, read, felt, learned, up experi- intuited, hoped for, reasoned, and believed-and we try to discern patterns there, patterns that are partly discovered and created by our particular perspectives. partly Anthropology, the academic discipline by which I steer much --- Page 15 --- of my meaning making, deals with double and ties.Most anthropologists understand triple complexilematic term for which there different cultures (a probxi minimum, different is no good substitute) to be, at ways of making an ethnography is written meaning in the world.)So, processes of meaning by making meaning out of others' Preface to and making. The task I faced in the writing Mama Lola was, in practice, researching that. During my field research, I more complicated than Edition Second Diaspora was engaged in learning about people) Haitians whose ancestors removed from Africa by slave were forcibly were forced to leave Haiti traders, and who more recently if that were not by poverty and political upheaval. As enough, these culturally also actively engaged in trying to make complex people were at the same time and in the sense of my own culture sense of theirs. This last same places that I was trying to make layer of more or less namic, reciprocal continuous, dyinterpretation gets us closer to what pens these days when an really hapmulticultural urban ethnographer is doing research in overly centers, and it also reveals the static and simple way field research in general is In the classic ethnographic research usually configured. gist is the one who crosses the culture situation, the anthropololearns the local borders (such as they are), language, and manages to figure out system works by interpreting local how the ing research for this book, Mama practices. Yet when I was dowas, only she called it Lola was doing all the things I "surviving in New York There is a regrettable history in academic City." erasing colonial presence and influence from anthropology of so-called traditional peoples. The ethnographies of thought, in some back-handed resulting "purity" was once the way, to add to the merit of the studyIn same vein, it is still the case that, when characters emerge in ethnographic individual ways depicted as talented and/or writing, they are almost alown culture contexts, and accomplished within their formant" has at least only there. By definition, every "inone intensely crosscultural there is seldom much attention paid to the experience, yet in making sense of the informant's talent I were to anthropologist and his or her culture. If with represent Alourdes in the context of her me in such a passive way, it would be relationship veritable survival artist. She is grossly unfair. She is a that is, in gifted in the art of cultural making use of whatever cultural elements bricolage, port her and her family, regardless of whether serve to supthey are Haitian or one intensely crosscultural there is seldom much attention paid to the experience, yet in making sense of the informant's talent I were to anthropologist and his or her culture. If with represent Alourdes in the context of her me in such a passive way, it would be relationship veritable survival artist. She is grossly unfair. She is a that is, in gifted in the art of cultural making use of whatever cultural elements bricolage, port her and her family, regardless of whether serve to supthey are Haitian or --- Page 16 --- xii "American" Or come from any of the other peoples and cultures she routinely encounters in New York City. Her current religious commitments include Haitian Vodou and Puerto Rican Santeria, as well as Vatican II Catholicism as interpreted by Preface to first-generation Irish immigrant priests. Alourdes's the 2001 people-sense functions, with remarkably few translation Edition problems, across multiple cultural divides,Her sensitivity and her skill at working with people are, at minimum, transnational talents. They have had to be because Lola, the Vodou Priestess, lives in the midst of religious and cultural pluralism, This is apparent in both her healing work and her day-to-day life. Al life as culturally dynamic, flexible, and responsive to change as Alourdes's evades neat ethnographic description. This has made me especially aware of the role my choices have played in shaping her overall story. I do not pretend to have been merely a midwife to this book, one who stepped aside and let others speak. While many people's voices are heard at length there, I take the responsibility for being the author of the book. Iam the one who chose those voices and the one who orchestrated and analyzed their particular articulations. Alourdes's is a complex life and I acknowledge the many paths not followed in my text. Thus, I take responsibility for the book's silences, as well as for what it says. It took Alourdes and me years to sort out these issues of authorship and responsibility. When she began to call Mama Lola "my book, 11 I was happy to hear it. When she introduced me as "her writer," I was amused. When she went further and said: "This is Karen. She the one who take my stories and put them in that book, 1 I began to worry. It appeared that her concept of the book was that it was something like a cardboard box into which I dumped her life stories, one-by-one, as she handed them over to me. Lola does read, but not easily or at length, and she almost certainly has not read much of Mama Lola (Maggie reviewed it before publication). For a long time I said nothing to her about my concern. Then, one day I realized that, if she knew what was on my mind, she would probably be critical of me for not speaking up. This thought gave me the nudge I needed. So, one evening, when I was driving her to a dinner engagement, I reminded her that I had spent twelve years working on Mama Lola and therefore had a substantial investment in it. I suggested that its success was probably due to both her stories and my way of has not read much of Mama Lola (Maggie reviewed it before publication). For a long time I said nothing to her about my concern. Then, one day I realized that, if she knew what was on my mind, she would probably be critical of me for not speaking up. This thought gave me the nudge I needed. So, one evening, when I was driving her to a dinner engagement, I reminded her that I had spent twelve years working on Mama Lola and therefore had a substantial investment in it. I suggested that its success was probably due to both her stories and my way of --- Page 17 --- telling them. "Since we both have a part in it," Isaid, "why don't xiii we both call it 'our book'?" Lola got my point instantly and has not missed a beat since. The ancestral oral histories included in our book are good illustrations of the role differences between storytellers and writers. Preface to Several people have asked me why I fictionalized the ancestral the Edition 2001 the stories as Lola told them. tales rather than simply quoting Such queries often have a wistful quality about them. Behind their implied challenge to the integrity of my presentation lurks of an African griot-a wise old man who a stereotypic image amount of drapasses on narratives that have an appropriate matic tension and also a clear beginning, middle, and end. This image probably owes more to popular culture, to sources such as the television production of Alex Haley's Roots, than it does to most fieldwork situations. Mama Lola handed me no such well shaped narratives. Not only are the accounts of her ancestral history quite frequently joint family 'performances/ 11 and therefore as I describe them in the book noisy, contested, and repetitive (18), the dialogue also changes from one telling to the next. Each time Lola tells one of the ancestral tales, she supplies dialogue that makes it come alive and this dialogue is never quite the same from one telling to the next. Yet, even with this fluidity, the stories have a remarkable consistency. In her community, there is on the old stories down word-forno premium placed getting word. There was, therefore, no official version I could have reproduced in the text of Mama Lola. It may well be that their labile character is one of the reasons Alourdes's family stories have managed to survive. The way Lola performs her family history is only one dimension of the challenge of settling on a way to render her stories in book. her family's oral history is never rehearsed for ena (Since well known tertainment alone, it is also the case that these stories, within her extended family, rarely need to be told in their entirety. with the evocation beMost of the time they are simply evoked, ing aimed at a particular existential knot in the family's life.For example, on a day when Lola was feeling beaten down by problems, she evoked for Maggie and me her great-grandfather, a spiritual man born in Africa. "Remember when Mauvant ask Mommie [Alourdes's mother] to swallow that stone. Mommie 'No.' That was his power! If he ask me today, you know I say, do it!" In the immediate crisis, and I no longer remember gonna . with the evocation beMost of the time they are simply evoked, ing aimed at a particular existential knot in the family's life.For example, on a day when Lola was feeling beaten down by problems, she evoked for Maggie and me her great-grandfather, a spiritual man born in Africa. "Remember when Mauvant ask Mommie [Alourdes's mother] to swallow that stone. Mommie 'No.' That was his power! If he ask me today, you know I say, do it!" In the immediate crisis, and I no longer remember gonna --- Page 18 --- rule OT A1 - SCUl6 G4 € Tate Srallsleps rebins nSre 504 ST Tobelc 4, Ble. De diklos 80s A PaeNt revehs, xiv what it was, Alourdes apparently felt she needed more spiritual power than she had at her fingertips. She articulated that feeling by calling up a fragment ofl her family history. I chose to lightly fictionalize the ancestral stories for several Preface to reasons already laid out in the the 2001 original introduction. At that Edition time, however, I did not articulate yet another reason that was probably more influential in determining the format of the book than the others were. The specific type of book I had in mind called for these short stories. I wanted to write a book with strong narrative drive, one that could communicate a lot of information relatively painlessly. The timing of the book was the de- A terminative issue for me. Most of_Mama_Lola was written in_the two to three years after/ean-Claude Duvalier's departure from Haiti. Haiti and Vodou were frequentlyin the news during that period. This was a precarious and often violent time in Haiti and the upheaval there had given life to an all too familiar maneuver. U.S. news reporters and television commentators during that time frequently referred, albeit obliquely, to Vodou as the dimension of Haitian culture that encapsulated, and perhaps even explained, the country's violence. This is an old racist argument that has actually been around since the Haitian Revolution (17911804). From then up to the present, whenever Haiti emerged in the news, the damning caricature of Vodou emerged as well. Usually simply putting the two together was enough to condemn Haiti. I wanted Mama Lola to speak indirectly but forcefully to this racist rhetoric by showing how Vodou is actually lived, rather than imagined. I wanted to write a book that would plant images of quotidian Vodou practice in the minds of thinking people, images that would linger and soften the formulaic association of Vodou with the superstitious and the satanic. I do not know what it would mean to claim success for such a huge project, yet I do think the book has planted a seed here and there. If there is one thing I regret about the 1991 version of Mama Lola, it is that I did not make a clearer statement about what the book is and what it is not. Mama Lola is an ethnographic spiritual biography. It is ethnographic because, although I focus on one person, Mama Lola, I also provide considerable Haitian and U.S. cultural context for her life. This does not mean that her life is representative of the lives of all Haitian immigrants, or even of all Vodou priestesses living in the United States. It is a spiritual biography because it focuses on Lola's religious practices. It is version of Mama Lola, it is that I did not make a clearer statement about what the book is and what it is not. Mama Lola is an ethnographic spiritual biography. It is ethnographic because, although I focus on one person, Mama Lola, I also provide considerable Haitian and U.S. cultural context for her life. This does not mean that her life is representative of the lives of all Haitian immigrants, or even of all Vodou priestesses living in the United States. It is a spiritual biography because it focuses on Lola's religious practices. It is --- Page 19 --- not spiritual in the sense that its primary subject matter opposes XV itself to embodied, everyday experience in the material world. The Vodou that Alourdes practices is firmly rooted in the here and now. Her religious practice is a conversation with energies "the who through her body, as Preface to she calls spirits" speak eloquently existhe 2001 they address the problems and suffering of ordinary human Edition tence. Like Lola, her spirits are polyglots. They speak French, Creole, English, and occasionally they use old African words. Although I included in the text five chapters on Mama Lola's ancestors, this is not a book about history, SO much as it is about I believe to be an important historical consciouenessemehing dimension of daily life. The latter is especially true in Alourdes's case. My goal was to describe as fully and accurately as I could of Haitian Vodou. In doing SO I Alourdes's day-to-day practice could hardly avoid the oral history preserved in her family, because her ancestors are among her most important sources for insight. Her mother appears in her dreams when she spiritual assistance a troubled client. Joseph Binbin Mauneeds remembered helping relative, remains a distant but funcvant, the oldest tional model of what is fran Gine, truly African. Inever intended to analyze the historical veracity of her ancestral stories. That is a reasonable scholarly task, but it was not mine in this book. In a chapter titled "The Baka Made from Jealousy," I tell one of Lola's stories about her maternal grandmother. This story encompasses another about a very wealthy, married couple named Fouchard. They set but also very stingy, in northern Haiti, sometime in the up a business in Port-de-Paix, driven late nineteenth century. The Fouchards were eventually out of town by an evil spirit, one said to be the creation of the town jealousy. Late one windy night, this baka menaced them people's at their own door. The baka in the story is repreby appearing horse that stands straight like a man. sented as a two-legged up I would to the About that particular piece of oral history, say historian: just because I pass that story along uncritically, Ido not two-legged horses to show up at your door or mine. They expect the historian would do do not exist in our world. Nevertheless, well to attend to the ancestral stories in Mama Lola. They reveal a wealth of interesting information, when they are positioned in the right way. "The Baka Made from Jealousy' for example, reconnections and tensions between the classes in Portflects both In fact, without the class de-Paix in the late nineteenth century. of oral history, say historian: just because I pass that story along uncritically, Ido not two-legged horses to show up at your door or mine. They expect the historian would do do not exist in our world. Nevertheless, well to attend to the ancestral stories in Mama Lola. They reveal a wealth of interesting information, when they are positioned in the right way. "The Baka Made from Jealousy' for example, reconnections and tensions between the classes in Portflects both In fact, without the class de-Paix in the late nineteenth century. --- Page 20 --- xvi dimension the story of the baka would make little sense. Class tension does exist in the world of the historian and in mine. : I want to thank Laura Cerutti and Naomi Schneider of the University of California Press for giving me this Preface to add a new preface and an afterword to Mama opportunity to the 2001 Lola. I am also grateful for the chance to the a Edition give book more substantial bibliography, and to be able this time around to introduce Lola and her family to readers through photographs (see the new photo section following page 192), something no one wanted to risk in 1991. Nothing in the original text of the book has been changed and the original preface also remains in place. Lola and I dedicate this updated edition of Mama Lola to Theodore Buteau, the person who first brought me to her door. Theodore, also my first guide to Haiti's Vodou temples and later an immigrant living in New York City, could never quite find a foothold in the American dream. He died early and alone. We miss him. Karen McCarthy Brown Tribeca New York City January 2001 --- Page 21 --- PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION of a Vodou priestess Mama Lola is an intimate spiritual biography misand her family.Haitian Vodou is not only one of the most understood religions in the world; it is also one of the most maligned. In New York City, where Mama Lola lives, prejudice is common.] Because of this reality, I against Vodou practitioners some names in the text have acceded to her request to change of her or her family. Given their unand to use no photographs for the derstandable fears, I am all the more grateful courage thatl Mama Lola and her daughter, Maggie, have shownin agreeto the publication of this book. They do not need to read ing these lines to know that, in addition to my gratitude, they have my love and my respect. of research and writThis book is the result of a dozen years have either read poring. Over such a long period many people tions of the manuscript or heard me deliver lectures drawn from to thank all those who have had a hand in it. It is impossible In fact, I do not even know the names shaping the final product. of the who have been most helpful. For exof some persons at Amherst College, where I did the first public reading ample, a black student who thanked me for carfrom the manuscript, to tell her and for the "reing enough about this woman story spectful" way I told it helped me to let go of some lingering uneasiness about questions of tone and style. And there was the who challenged me to look yet more student at Mount Holyoke carefully at Mama Lola's network of women friends. I have taught courses on women in Caribbean religions at Harvard, Barnard, and my own institution, Drew University, andIhave also given a series of lectures from the book at Princeton. Students at these institutions have had more sustained contact with the material. Their candor and their difficult questions as well as their enthusiasm have been more important to me than they know. AcaI also have colleagues to thank. Two women's groups, xvii tone and style. And there was the who challenged me to look yet more student at Mount Holyoke carefully at Mama Lola's network of women friends. I have taught courses on women in Caribbean religions at Harvard, Barnard, and my own institution, Drew University, andIhave also given a series of lectures from the book at Princeton. Students at these institutions have had more sustained contact with the material. Their candor and their difficult questions as well as their enthusiasm have been more important to me than they know. AcaI also have colleagues to thank. Two women's groups, xvii --- Page 22 --- xviii demic Women at Drew and the New York Area Feminist Scholars, provided the safe space in which I first spoke about Mama Lola and in which the idea for the book took shape. In I want to thank especially Carol addition, Preface to Christ, Paolo Cucchi, William the First Doty, Christine Downing, Catherine Keller, Florence Miale, Gail Edition Pellett, Judith Plaskow, Arthur Pressley, and Delores each of whom read and responded thoughtfully to Williams, the manuscript. Mama Lola is also a better book because portions of the of patient support of Naomi Schneider and Amy Klatzkin, editors at the University of California Press, and the careful my and respectful copyediting of Mary Renaud. Thanks are also due to Jerry Gordon and Judith Gleason for permission to use their photographs. Early research for the book was funded in 1979 by a summer stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Support for writing came from two grants administered the Women's Studies Program at Harvard Divinity School. In by 84 I was visiting lecturer and research associate in women's 1983studies in religion at the Divinity School, and in the of 1986 I was the Philips scholar in the same spring program. Constance Buchanan, the director of the women's studies program and associate dean of the Divinity School, deserves special thanks for her enthusiastic support of this project. Ialso want to thank the Board of Trustees of Drew University. On three occasions I have been given leave to work on the book. Thomas Ogletree, dean of the Theological School at Drew, must be thanked for his unflagging support of faculty research and writing and for the creative ways in which he makes those things possible. I want to thank Leary Murphy and Martha Dyson for their Finally, technical assistance in preparing the manuscript. Haitian Creole is not a written language. The the Creole used in this book follows the official orthography of adopted by the Haitian government in 1979 and interpreted orthography and applied by Albert Valdman in the Haitian Croke-Exgish-Frendhe Dictionary (Bloomington: Indiana University, Creole Institute, 1981). --- Page 23 --- INTRODUCTION I met Mama Lola in the summer of 1978 while working for the Brooklyn Museum on an ethnographic survey of the local Haitian immigrant community, a project that included photographing altars in the homes of Vodou priests and priestesses. Theodore B., a recent arrival to the United States who had befriended first research to Haiti in 1973, offered to inme during my trip The home troduce me to Haitian spiritual leaders in Brooklyn. of Marie Thérèse Alourdes Macena Margaux Kowalski, also known as Mama Lola, was to be our first stop. I had already made several research trips to Haiti, but the brief drive to Mama Lola's house was my introduction to the Brooklyn outpost of the Caribbean. As Theodore and I inched through the traffic cogging Nostrand Avenue on an intensely hot July afternoon, our nostrils filled with the smells of charcoal and roasting meat and our ears with overlapping episodes of salsa, reggae, and the bouncy monotony of what Haitians call Animated conversations could be heard in Haitian French jazz. Creole, Spanish, and more than one lyrical dialect of English. of Chicka-Licka, the Ashanti The street was a crazy quilt shops: Bazaar, a storefront Christian church with an improbably long and specific name, a Haitian restaurant, and Botanica Shangoone of the apothecaries of New World African religions offering fast-luck and get-rich-quick powders, High John the Conqueror and votive candles marked for the Seven African Powers. ony of what Haitians call Animated conversations could be heard in Haitian French jazz. Creole, Spanish, and more than one lyrical dialect of English. of Chicka-Licka, the Ashanti The street was a crazy quilt shops: Bazaar, a storefront Christian church with an improbably long and specific name, a Haitian restaurant, and Botanica Shangoone of the apothecaries of New World African religions offering fast-luck and get-rich-quick powders, High John the Conqueror and votive candles marked for the Seven African Powers. I root, few miles from home in lower Manhatwas no more than a my tan, but I felt as if I had taken a wrong turn, slipped through a crack between worlds, and emerged on the main street of a tropical city. section of By the time we reached Fort Greene, a nondescript Brooklyn near the naval yard, the illusion had receded. Mama Lola owns a narrow, three-story row house there, in the shadow of the elevated Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. As I parked my that hot and I noticed that it was the only car on muggy day, --- Page 24 --- the block with all the blinds down, the doors closed, house on the house is a Ca2 and no one sitting on the stoop. Closing up heat. Ishould have ribbean technique for staving off the midday living that this was the home of the only Haitian family guessed Introduction in this North American black neighborhood. the name Alourdes ("Ah-lood" is the Creole pronunciation), came to address Mama Lola, took a long by which I eventually Theodore and I were about to leave time coming to the door. a when the door opened a crack and we were scrutinized by thick-jowled face the color of coffee ice cream. heavy-lidded, into a stream of nervous "Humph, 11 she said as Theodore burst how imporCreole telling her who I was, why we were there, work was, and how she was the perfect person to help tant our sucked her teeth and shook her head in disgust at us. Alourdes for six monthTheodore. "You coming here afterldon'tseeyou I don't see you don't even say, no, almost a year Lola?' you-and Right away you telling me 'Hello, how are you, Mommie the door and motioned what I got to do for you!" She opened eyes were inside the musty, cool interior of her home. My us to the dim light when she turned abruptly and still adjusting basement. As her head was about to disappear headed for the running along the stairbeneath the level of the banister posts well, she said simply, "You coming?" room outside Moments later, standing in the makeshift living the door of her altar room (a door which remained resolutely that initial I my first good look at a person closed on visit), got life for years to come. Alourdes, who was to be central in my Lola, is a big who also responds to the nickname Lola or Mama a tall, but round and solid. That day she wore woman-not cotton housecoat. Her hair was covered by a loose, sleeveless around her head. Floppy bedroom slippers scarf knotted tightly and ankles. Even though Alourdes was revealed swollen feet her skin looked as fresh and smooth as then in her mid-forties, but a child to me;in fact, a child's. Yet she seemed like anything light in the uncomfortable. my Lola, is a big who also responds to the nickname Lola or Mama a tall, but round and solid. That day she wore woman-not cotton housecoat. Her hair was covered by a loose, sleeveless around her head. Floppy bedroom slippers scarf knotted tightly and ankles. Even though Alourdes was revealed swollen feet her skin looked as fresh and smooth as then in her mid-forties, but a child to me;in fact, a child's. Yet she seemed like anything light in the uncomfortable. The fluorescent she made me quite of her face and basement accentuated the broad fleshy planes either the expression she wore, one Iinterpreted as exaggerated decided we were intruding. "Perhaps anger or fatigue. I quickly another time, 11 I said, smiling politely at we could come back back toward the stairs. Alourdes while nudging Theodore --- Page 25 --- Alourdes looked confused. "You don't want no dore is my friend. Long time I don't coffee? Theogoing make him before see him. Long time. You Theodore go we even got a chance to talk? like my child! Even I don't see him, I know he Ehhh? thinking about me. Right, Theodore?" smile, she enfolded Theodore Breaking into a dazzling Introduction in her enormous two of them did a little dance round and arms, and the their mutual laughter. The thick round to the music of graceful; the sullen face body was suddenly light and accept these mercurial warm, even beautiful. I have come to changes in Alourdes, and sometimes enjoy them. But I never know what I will find when I and I still feel vaguely guilty when she is I visit her, moods. The observation in one of her dour of an "That look, 11 she remarked after anthropologist friend helped: "is the psychic's a joint visit some months later, torpor. I went back to see Alourdes several times before for the Brooklyn Museum was the project photograph her completed. She finally let me amazing altars: crowded tabletops with flickering flames; stones sitting in oil baths; a tiny bottles of roots and herbs steeped in alcohol; crucifix; murky of rum, scotch, gin, perfume, and shiny new bottles side was an altar arranged in three almond-sugar syrup. On one and black contact steps and covered in gold paper. On the top step an terless Pall Malls lay next to a cracked and open pack of filshape of a skull. A walking stick with its head dusty candle in the huge erect penis leaned against the wall carved to depict a posite side of the room was a small beside it. On the opvials of cabinet, its top littered with powders and herbs. On the ceiling and room were baskets, bunches of leaves walls of the darkened color hung to dry, and smokelithographs of the saints. The lithographs included several different images of the gin Mary and one each of Saint Patrick with snakes VirSaint Gerard at his feet; contemplating a skull; Saint James, the on his rearing horse; and Saint Isidore, the crusader pray by a freshly plowed field. These I pilgrim kneeling to the Vodou spirits. Each of these recognized as images of an African spirits has both a Catholic and name: Mary is Ezili, the Vodou love rick is the serpent spirit, Danbala; Saint spirit; Saint Patof the cemetery; Saint Gerard is Gede, master James is the warrior the peasant farmer Azaka. Ogou; and Isidore is Vodou, the new religion that emerged and Saint Isidore, the crusader pray by a freshly plowed field. These I pilgrim kneeling to the Vodou spirits. Each of these recognized as images of an African spirits has both a Catholic and name: Mary is Ezili, the Vodou love rick is the serpent spirit, Danbala; Saint spirit; Saint Patof the cemetery; Saint Gerard is Gede, master James is the warrior the peasant farmer Azaka. Ogou; and Isidore is Vodou, the new religion that emerged --- Page 26 --- from the social chaos and agony of Haiti's cightoenth-century with distinct African religions slave plantations blended several Vodoucolonial Catholicism. Dozens of the resulting French continue to thrive in the twentieth century, Catholic spirits troublesome area of huIntroduction where they reign over one or another and endeavor and act as mediators between God (Bondye) man "the living." Alourdes a healing craft that has In this altar room, practices of her been passed down through at least three generations tradition. family. She is al priestess (manbo) in the Haitian Vodou of As such, she is not unique or even rare. Rather, she is one who minister to the approxihundreds of similar professionals living in New York City:" mately 450,000 Haitian immigrants on a much Many other Vodou leaders- mostly men-operate who rents grander scale. For example, I know a priest (oungan) house on one of the main arthe basement of a large apartment and drumming teries in Brooklyn, where he stages dancing attended by two to three hundred people. In contrast, events of Haitian healers in New Alourdes, like the great majority is consulting York, works in her home. Much of her time spent holds with clients, one or two at a time, and the spirit feasts she She several times a year rarely draw more than thirty people. have drummers; they are expensive, and, more does not usually to attract the attention of her to the point, she does not want Vodou has in the United neighbors. Given the negative image Vodou "families" operStates, many devotees prefer that their ate on a small scale. however. She has Alourdes does have an enviable reputation, trustof steady followers who appreciate her for being a group as effective. Itis also widely known worthy and discreet as well making large that she adheres to a tradition that discourages word of from healing work. Her reputation, spread by profits has led to invitations to perform "treatments" throughmouth, United States and Canada and in several places out the eastern Central America. In these respects, there in the Caribbean and are not many like Mama Lola. that African slaves be- (Healing is at the heart of the religions American Odyssey: Haitians in New York City (Ithaca, N.Y.: 'Michel S. Laguerre, Cornell University Press, 1984), 31. that she adheres to a tradition that discourages word of from healing work. Her reputation, spread by profits has led to invitations to perform "treatments" throughmouth, United States and Canada and in several places out the eastern Central America. In these respects, there in the Caribbean and are not many like Mama Lola. that African slaves be- (Healing is at the heart of the religions American Odyssey: Haitians in New York City (Ithaca, N.Y.: 'Michel S. Laguerre, Cornell University Press, 1984), 31. --- Page 27 --- queathed to their descendants,) Jand Alourdes's is no exception. She deals both with health Vodou practice full range of love, work, and problems and with a related traditions found family difficulties. Like healers in America, Alourdes throughout the Caribbean and South combines the skills of a medical doctor, a Introduction psychotherapist, a social worker, and a priest. It can be argued that Haitians are more from many of the other former slave religious than people tian Vodou is closer to its African colonies and also that HaiNew World African roots than most other forms of religion. Vodou's closer ties to its origins are primarily a result of Haiti's virtual African rest of the world for isolation from the slave revolution nearly a century following its successful (1791-1804). The strength of Haiti can be accounted for, in religious belief in oppression that have part, by the poverty and political characterized life for most Haitians from independence to the present. Haiti is currently the country in the Western poorest tants are beset by Hemisphere, a country whose inhabidisease and malnutrition. The Haiti is that its people seem to have wonder of throughout history by responded to suffering spiritual riches. augmenting their stores of aesthetic and A well-worn joke claims, with some truth, that of million people 85 percent are Catholic, Haiti's six tant, and 100 15 percent are Protespercent serve the Vodou spirits.] living in the United States, the few who have Among Haitians themselves in the middle class have made a place for hind in tended to leave Vodou be- -except times of crisis. But the vast majority of Haitian immigrants are poor, and these people maintain the habit turning to healers like Alourdes for help with of lives. their stressful Half a dozen times a year, on Or around the the Catholic calendar, Alourdes holds saints' days set by favored "birthday parties" for her spirits, or lwa, as they are also called. and relatives gather around a decorated Clients, friends, "niche," piece is a table laden with food. Here whose centeruntil the crowd is sufficiently they pray, clap, and sing spirit to join the "heated up" to entice a Vodou which party, to "ride" Alourdes. In a trance state she will later emerge with little or no from has transpired, her body becomes the "horse" memory of what voice the spirit's voice, her words and of the spirit, her spirit. behavior those of the are also called. and relatives gather around a decorated Clients, friends, "niche," piece is a table laden with food. Here whose centeruntil the crowd is sufficiently they pray, clap, and sing spirit to join the "heated up" to entice a Vodou which party, to "ride" Alourdes. In a trance state she will later emerge with little or no from has transpired, her body becomes the "horse" memory of what voice the spirit's voice, her words and of the spirit, her spirit. behavior those of the --- Page 28 --- which blend pro forma acThese poswecsisnypentomance to the immediate tions and attitudes with those responsive The spirits talk situation, are the heart of a Vodou ceremony.? chashug them, hold them, feed them, with the faithful. They inindividual are aired through Introduction tise them. Group and problems teraction with the spirits. Strife is healed and misunderstanding ceremonies, crucial community bonds are rerectified. At these of food and enterinforced through the process of giving gifts tainment to the Vodou spirits. from underHaitians, like their African forebears, operate difof the divine and the virtuous that are markedly standings Catholicism. Bondye does not ferent from those of mainstream affairs of human beings. getinvolved in the personal, day-to-day Instead, it is the spirits "He is too busy," Alourdes told me. neither referred to as gods-who and the ancestorsproperly and who, if necessary, mediate behandle day-to-day problems tween the living and God. Alourdes sare often called sen-yo Although the lva who possess Christian (saints), they are not saintly types in the traditional For in stories about the soldierspirit Ogou/Saint sense. example, liberates his people but also betrays them. James, he not only cradles and cares for Ezili Dantô/Mater Salvatoris, the mother, in The her children but also sometimes lashes out at them rage. are not models of the well-lived life; rather, they Vodou spirits inherent in the particular mirror the full range of possibilities Failure to understand this slice of life over which they preside. as demonic or has led observers to portray the Vodou spirits to conclude that Vodou is a religion without morality-a even serious misconception. than life but not other than life. VirVodou spirits are larger who serve them is less an inhertue for both the lwa and those of being that demands ent character trait than a dynamic state maintaining attention and care.) Virtue is achieved by ongoing relationships characterized by approresponsible relationships, shelter, money) and intangibles priate gifts of tangibles (food, as they should, deference, love). When things go (respect, interconnected circles among the these gifts flow in continuous, not to indicate that possession is playacting 21 use the term the posesion-peformance theatrical quality of visits from the Vodou spirits. but to emphasize an inhertue for both the lwa and those of being that demands ent character trait than a dynamic state maintaining attention and care.) Virtue is achieved by ongoing relationships characterized by approresponsible relationships, shelter, money) and intangibles priate gifts of tangibles (food, as they should, deference, love). When things go (respect, interconnected circles among the these gifts flow in continuous, not to indicate that possession is playacting 21 use the term the posesion-peformance theatrical quality of visits from the Vodou spirits. but to emphasize --- Page 29 --- living and between the living and the ongoing cycle of prestation and spirits or ancestors. In the and receives in counter-prestation, each gives ways appropriate to his or her place in the social hierarchy-an overarching, relentless hierarchy that neither the young child nor the most aged and exempts Introduction Moral persons are thus those who give what austere spirit. fined by who theyare. they should, as deThese days, the little room Alourdes calls her "altar" bigger to me than it did when I first saw it. It has become feels iar, its contents no longer confusing. familDuring ceremonies living room outside, I am sometimes sent into the in the fetch a particular bottle, altar room to in image, Or implement. on diagnostic card readings and ritual Occasionally I sit in the altar room itself. treatments performed the room have Furthermore, some of the contents of changed because I have entered Alourdes's exchange network. The room still contains the rock that giftto Marie Noelsine Joseph, Alourdes's whistled she walked near her home in the remote maternal grandmother, as of Haiti; but now it also contains things I have mountainous interior The dingy skull candle on top of Gede's altar has given Alourdes. by one I bought in the New Orleans been replaced white one with bright red wax-blood airport gift shop, a clean Next to Ogou's altar dripping over the face. while she hangs a photograph I took of Alourdes was possessed by this spirit. It was neither an easy nor a direct path that such familiarity. During the fall and winter brought me to visited Alourdes after I first met her, I every few weeks. I usually some gift, often her favorite bread from brought small home. During this early an Italian bakery near my period, neither of us was was there, and, although Alourdes sure why I seemed especially was hospitable, she never for hours while happy to see me. More than once, I waited she talked on the phone or worked with only to be told that she did not feel like clients, For the first year or two, my visits to Alourdes's talking that day. presence at her ritual events were met with home and my members ofher Vodou family. suspicion by some ally keep such Fortunately for me, Haitians usujudgments to themselves, and the drama that surrounded tension and known my entry into the community to me only later. Maggie, Alourdes's became one story. "You know, they had a bet on 11 daughter, told me mie won a lot of money!" In you, she said. "Momresponse to my confused expres- Alourdes's talking that day. presence at her ritual events were met with home and my members ofher Vodou family. suspicion by some ally keep such Fortunately for me, Haitians usujudgments to themselves, and the drama that surrounded tension and known my entry into the community to me only later. Maggie, Alourdes's became one story. "You know, they had a bet on 11 daughter, told me mie won a lot of money!" In you, she said. "Momresponse to my confused expres- --- Page 30 --- "You remember that day I made a manje sion, Maggie explained: Marasa [a feast for the Vodou twin child spirits]? Everybody and eat to take off their shoes and sit on the floor was suppose Some people tell Mommie, Karen never with their hands, right? White don't do that.' Introduction going to do that; she is too proud. people tell her who can be But you know my mother, nobody gonna too to sit on the her friend. So when they say, 'Karen proud on 1 she say, 'You wanna bet?' She won a lot of money floor, just don't tell 11 Maggie laughed. "She ever you?" you." Alourdes and her family are all either citizens or legal resiof the United States, but many of the people she works dents is tightly knit, protecting its with are not. Such a community with outsiders. During the own and sharing few intimacies I felt their resisearly years of my contact with its members, no furtance; at the birthday parties for the spirits, I ventured ther than the edge of the crowd. few still But things are different these days. Although a keep I now have many friends among the people who their distance, under Alourdes's tutelage. Today, Alourdes "serve the spirits" of the ritual action at her ceremonies, seats me near the center change in and I often assist in saluting the Vodou spirits. My of result of the initiation I underwent in the summer status is a of Alourdes, I entered the initia1981. Under the watchful eyes south and west ace tion chamber in a small temple on the coast road on of Port-au-Prince. I am now one of the "little leaves" (ti-fey) - Vodou family tree, and she introduces me as her Alourdes's decision to accept "daughter." 11 Her offer of initiation and my marked the culmination of two inseparable processes. One was with her. The other was a shift in the growth of my friendship the way I understood my professional work. and not always The friendship grew despite our early halting successful efforts to trust each other and to share the contents lives. Alourdes and I went through a great deal, singly of our the three between the July day in 1978 and together, in years - Theodore took me to her door and the July day in 1981 when the taxing initiation rituals. We when she guided me through on traveled to Haiti together once before the initiation, sleeping talking late into the night, and discussing our the same pallet, We also faced serious problems during dreams in the mornings. divorce; was I went through a Maggie that three-year period: trouble; and Alourdes's son William hospitalized with stomach the three between the July day in 1978 and together, in years - Theodore took me to her door and the July day in 1981 when the taxing initiation rituals. We when she guided me through on traveled to Haiti together once before the initiation, sleeping talking late into the night, and discussing our the same pallet, We also faced serious problems during dreams in the mornings. divorce; was I went through a Maggie that three-year period: trouble; and Alourdes's son William hospitalized with stomach --- Page 31 --- was arrested for purse snatching. Each of us other when and how we could. sought to help the Like her altar room, Alourdes herself exotic to me. As the shape of her character gradually became less feel considerable admiration forl her. emerged, I began to who provides the main financial Alourdesis a strong woman Introduction hard-pressed family. She is also and emotional support for a had a hard life but a fighter, a survivor who has from her nevertheless shows little trace of bitterness suffering. She is a presence to be reckoned one who commands the respect of others. And with, someis palpable. But Alourdes is her self-respect person who takes also a giver, a caring and empathic has become pleasure in helping others. By necessity, she the adept at balancing this desire to need to care for herself. help others with Alourdes lives with her daughter, her who is mentally retarded and Maggie; son William, is an adult; and three requires monitoring, although he young children: her own son Maggie's two small ones, Michael and Kumar and others Betty. Often there are temporarily living in the house: new arrivals tended family in Haiti, clients from her from the exfamily members or friends down healing practice, and early, quiet hours when the on their luck. Except for the dren are at adults are at work, the older chilschool, and Alourdes is with house hums with activity. babysitting Betty, the and early During my visits in the late afternoon evening, children clamber over me. pours from the radio, and the television Haitian music time. The doorbell may be on at the same ing the level rings frequently, with each new arrival raisenergy in the house. Holidays and occasions fill the tables with food and the house other special dozen times a year. I enjoy being part of this with people a treats me like family. group; Alourdes As Alourdes and I became friends, I found it difficult to maintain an uncluttered increasingly and researcher in her image of myself as scholar presence. This difficulty change in the research I was doing. As brought about a got closer to Vodou. The Vodou Igot closer to Alourdes, I and intense, and I soon found that Alourdes I practices is intimate her Vodou family and remain could not claim a place in a detached observer. Participating in the ceremonies in her Brooklyn home cally brought me close to a form of Vodou older than ironihad been studying in urban Haiti. It the form I brought me closer to the as scholar presence. This difficulty change in the research I was doing. As brought about a got closer to Vodou. The Vodou Igot closer to Alourdes, I and intense, and I soon found that Alourdes I practices is intimate her Vodou family and remain could not claim a place in a detached observer. Participating in the ceremonies in her Brooklyn home cally brought me close to a form of Vodou older than ironihad been studying in urban Haiti. It the form I brought me closer to the --- Page 32 --- where the patriarch of family-style Vodou of the countryside, and all those who serve the extended family functions as priest under his tutelage are either blood kin or honorary the spirits In rural Haiti and in Alourdes's Brooklyn members of the family. the content and drama of Introduction living room, the group itself provides than it does in Vodou ceremonies in much more obvious ways common in Port-au-Prince. the large-scale ritualizing Vodou world brought other inMy presence in Alourdes's Vodou and priestesses sights. Il had long been aware that priests and divination, administered herbal treatments, performed and amulets, but I had initially seen their manufactured charms functions, one distinct healing work as one of several priestly with I ritualizing. After some time Alourdes, from communal was off the mark, thatlthere is no realized that this perception which is Vodou ritual, small or large, individual or communal, not a healing rite. that Haitians believe that living It is no exaggeration to say (Vodou is the system they have and suffering are inseparable. that is life, a system whose devised)to deal with the suffering cushion loss, and is to minimize pain, avoid disaster, purpose The drama ofVodou strengthen survivors and survivalinstincts. the rituals themselves as in therefore occurs not SO much within troubled lives of the between the rituals and the the junction the burdens and pains of their lives to devotees. People bring of healed. I realized that this religious system in the hope being with less to this Vodou world, I would come away ifI brought Vodou objectively, the heart of less.Tf I persisted in studying would remain closed to me. The the system, its ability to heal, of Vodou hope to understand the psychodrama only wayIcould life to the ministrations of Alourdes) was to open my own Alourdes's invitations to salute Ientered gradually. I accepted for them. On occasion I brought the spirits and pour libations Sometimes I requested her dreams and asked forinterpretation. she At one difficult point in my life, suggested card readings. to two of the Vodou spirits, that I undergo a ritual "marriage" And in 1981 I went through the Ogou and Danbala. I did that. rituals of initiation. ever asked me No Haitian-and certainly not Alourdes-has comin Vodou or if I have set aside the religious if I "believe" that come from my childhood mitments and understandings the spirits and pour libations Sometimes I requested her dreams and asked forinterpretation. she At one difficult point in my life, suggested card readings. to two of the Vodou spirits, that I undergo a ritual "marriage" And in 1981 I went through the Ogou and Danbala. I did that. rituals of initiation. ever asked me No Haitian-and certainly not Alourdes-has comin Vodou or if I have set aside the religious if I "believe" that come from my childhood mitments and understandings --- Page 33 --- and culture. Alourdes's approach is, instead, just got to try. See if it work for you. I1 The pragmatic "You ing my worldview or adopting choice of relinquish11 fore never been at issue. another in its entirety has thereNevertheless, I soon realized that my Vodou represented both gains and risks pesonalinvolvementin in Introduction The potential gains were in depth of relation to my work. major risks involved losing the understanding. One of the Vodou interacting with the life of important a Haitian distinction between ing with my own very different blend of and Vodou interactdream, and fantasy/My experience, memory, experiences with are not like those of Haitians. The Vodou both are and riences have authority stories I tell about these expeonly in the territory have attempted to stay clear on this point and between cultures. I stories quite even to use these self-consciously as for whom will be more like bridges my readers, most of me than like Alourdes. My increasing participation in Vodou also changes in research necessitated with Alourdes. In the techniquesjinitilly I used a tape recorder tended beginning, she submitted to answer my questions about her life reluctantly and were somewhat idealized, with portraits that light, however, she though fairly accurate. To my dewas far too spirited a cautious for long. Soon she began to storyteller to remain her early days in New York, about the unfold rich stories about had forced her to difficult life in Haiti that emigrate, and about her who had preceded her. ancestors, the healers Ieventually had to stop relying on a was unsuited to the casual tape recorder, because it Alourdes would rhythms of our growing often give me the best friendship. were working together to information when we were riding in prepare a ritual meal or when we my car. So Ibegan to work in another speaking on the phone with way. After drinking coffee at her kitchen her, or spending an afternoon at one of her birthday table, or passing most of the night desk parties for the spirits, I would sit my to write. It seemed down at she said but also how she said important to capture not only what monic it. I found I could use her mnedevices, the repeated refrains of her stories, and my own memory tools-such as especially some of ages. Beginning with these condensation poignant visual immyselfinto the rhythm of her speech, I could points and working construct a record coffee at her kitchen her, or spending an afternoon at one of her birthday table, or passing most of the night desk parties for the spirits, I would sit my to write. It seemed down at she said but also how she said important to capture not only what monic it. I found I could use her mnedevices, the repeated refrains of her stories, and my own memory tools-such as especially some of ages. Beginning with these condensation poignant visual immyselfinto the rhythm of her speech, I could points and working construct a record --- Page 34 --- both backward and forward and in this way reproby moving of conversations that had duce accurate, if selective, accounts taken place hours earlier. I added contextual descripTo these records of conversations traditional contents of an ethIntroduction tions as well as some of the more more of myself nographic journal Unavoidably, as I brought into my with Vodou, I put more of myself into conversation Sometime in the early 1980s, I stopped editing out field journal. affection and gratitude, guilt and my reactions to Alourdes. My in her story, at least impatience began to appear as ingredients hospitality, infecresponsible for evoking her expansive partly sullen withdrawal. Paying attention to myself tious humor, or (had I not in relation to her became both a learning-device I would never brought some of my own dreams to Alourdes, in Vodou) and a have learned as much about dream analysis own honest (when my field notes included my way of staying I was more likely to take account of my moods and motivations, to those notes in the filters and interventions when I returned and putting myself on the line in my field journal future).JYet, with Alourdes and with Vodou was, in the end, in my relations that ethnoeven more than that. It was an acknowledgment form of human relaresearch, whatever else it is, is a graphic When the lines long drawn in anthropology between tionship. and informant break down, then the only partiapant-observer in between; and anthropology. becomes sometruth is the one to both aesthetic and thing closer to a social art form, open intelThis situation is riskier, but it does bring moral judgment. lectual labor and life into closer relation. for world has cultivated in me a healthy respect The academic of other people and other culthe limits of the intelligibility in Haiti or visittures. Most of the time, whether I am working of this stance the wisdom ing Alourdes in Brooklyn, Iappreciate because Ia assume that I and try to operate from it. For example, tolerance levels do not always understand what is going on, my with, for when I am with Haitians than when I am are higher colleagues. Because reaction always example, my university I will sit and wait longer, put up presupposes interpretation, and bend more when I with more delay and chaos, generally with my own Alourdes and her family than I would am with times that academics family. Nevertheless, I have thought many appreciate because Ia assume that I and try to operate from it. For example, tolerance levels do not always understand what is going on, my with, for when I am with Haitians than when I am are higher colleagues. Because reaction always example, my university I will sit and wait longer, put up presupposes interpretation, and bend more when I with more delay and chaos, generally with my own Alourdes and her family than I would am with times that academics family. Nevertheless, I have thought many --- Page 35 --- have overemphasized those things that and cultures from one another. separate individuals For Haitians, one of life's major challenges lies in ing themselves as individuals in the context of an distinguishily. The extended family tends to take extended famtrolling assets, and over, defining status, con- Introduction human apportioning time. As a result, in Haiti, connection is the assumption,it is quires both effort and explanation. That separation that requiz a beggar on the street in Port-au-Prince is why a Haitian may What family is it that does not before giving alms. of its own? provide food and shelter for one To: a great extent, Alourdes is a product ofher culture. She operates on the assumption of connection. Because too she is not afraid to of this trait, into her incorporate elements from other own worldview. When a woman from the cultures speaking Caribbean came to her for helpin Englishin which "Mister Bones, 11 a death interpreting a dream did not spirit, had appeared, Alourdes miss a beat: "Oh, Mister Bone- that's Alourdes's universe Papa Gede!" expanded, and she now to Gede as Mister Bone. A friend of mine frequently refers with me. In her once visited Alourdes handbag were of the deities Krishna and Kali, "Let chromolithographs Hindu me see!" cried bing the images. "You going to Alourdes, grabAlourdes did ask get me some for my altar?" knew questions (why Krishna was blue), but she instantly what category she was with. In her whole life is about movement dealing a sense, between cultures and about understanding and coping with cultural difference. not waste much time wondering if and how such She does theoretically possible; she connection is gets on with it because she has to. Irecognize that there is a difference between the ing and skill required to live in a culture other than understandand the understanding and skill one's own culture. I therefore do required to write about such a not want to throw away the insights of anthropologists into the limits of hard-won the reality of diversity. But I do want to balance intelligibility and own experiences. I want to give full them with my with Alourdes. It is one of respect to my friendship example the kind of connection and understanding that is possible across cultural lines. And I to avoid substituting a theoretical picture of Haitian want with firm boundaries, for the culture, one experiences I have had both in culture. I therefore do required to write about such a not want to throw away the insights of anthropologists into the limits of hard-won the reality of diversity. But I do want to balance intelligibility and own experiences. I want to give full them with my with Alourdes. It is one of respect to my friendship example the kind of connection and understanding that is possible across cultural lines. And I to avoid substituting a theoretical picture of Haitian want with firm boundaries, for the culture, one experiences I have had both in --- Page 36 --- Haiti and in New York, experiences thatattest to a constant overlapping of cultures and a good deal of routine culture The methods used in researching and writing this book mixing. have roots in the work of other scholars. I think Introduction within of myself as a working tradition of interpretive anthropology. to Clifford Geertz, humans are "suspended in webs According of cance" they themselves have created.3 3 We can speak of culture signifiin a general sense (that is, I can talk about Haitian culture) because/human beings in relation, over time, tend to evolve shared styles of web-spinning. The individual life- -Alourdes's life, for instance -while open to infinite variation, is nevertheless recognizable as a version of one or more of these traditional webspinning styles we call cultures. Even more to the point, such view makes interpretation both the subject matter and the end a product of ethnographic work. What the ethnographer studies is how people create meaning or significance in their lives, how they interpret objects and events. An ethnographic as Mama Lola is thus an exercise in bridge study such building. Itis an interpretation within one web-spinning tradition (in this case, own) of the interpretations of people who follow a dif- my ferent aesthetic in their spinning (in this case, Haitians). largely A corollary of this position is that the people who are studied should be allowed to speak for themselves whenever being possible, for they are the only true experts on themselves. That is why I quote Alourdes frequently and, often, at length. In passing her stories along, I also reproduce her way of speaking-English, wedded to the structure, rhythm, and cadence of Haitian Creole-to bring the reader a fuller sense of her and the creative cultural mix in which she lives. of In Mama Lola, I am most interested in telling rich, textured stories that bring Alourdes and her religion alive. Rather than simply trying to refute the negative stereotypes often associated with Vodou, I have chosen to enter the public discussion of Vodou by another route: constructing a portrait of this as it is lived by Alourdes and the people closest to her. religion is to create an intimate portrait of three-dimensional My aim who are not stand-ins for an abstraction such as "the Haitian people PClifford Geertz, "Thick Description: Toward an in his The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Interpretive Books, Theory of Culture," 1973), 5. simply trying to refute the negative stereotypes often associated with Vodou, I have chosen to enter the public discussion of Vodou by another route: constructing a portrait of this as it is lived by Alourdes and the people closest to her. religion is to create an intimate portrait of three-dimensional My aim who are not stand-ins for an abstraction such as "the Haitian people PClifford Geertz, "Thick Description: Toward an in his The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Interpretive Books, Theory of Culture," 1973), 5. --- Page 37 --- people" but rather are deeply religious individuals lar histories and rich interior lives, individuals with particuout their religion in who do not live struggle with it, become unreflective, formulaic ways but instead dict themselves. In other confused, and sometimes even contraVodou embedded words, my aim is to create a portrait of Introduction in the vicissitudes of particular lives. aware hue Iam that my material connects with , going on in the academic world, discussions larger discussions motres as immigrant about such things CRa7m economics. experience, Third World women, and even I have chosen, however, not to make microtions explicit. I am also aware that several of the these connec26E describe have Vodou I Praig archetypal dimensions and spirits in other places. But, because I want Vodou appearin similar forms terms, I have also avoided to speak on its own drawing these Yet this book has in fact been motivated parallels. concerns. I have deep interests in how Haitian by some theoretical in relation to family, gender roles, and social Vodou functions issues weave their way in and out of the entire change. These the most part, I have left book, but, for do this, I my theorizing embedded in stories. To developed a style of narrative analysis in flow of the text is determined by which the time evoke an story lines that from time to analytic voice. This voice most often asides designed not to break the momentum of speaks in with Geertz that ethnographic a story. Iagree when it stays close to the small writing has its greatest integrity slices of social interaction provide its data: "Only short flights of ratiocination that effective in anthropology; tend to be cal dreams, longer ones tend to drift off into academic bemusements with formal logi- 114 Another sort of theoretical argument is symmetry. ture of the book, a structure implicit in the strucabout the creative role that designed to make its own point tradictory, spirit voices Alourdes's multiple, and often conplay in orchestrating her life. The chapters, those with even numbers, are longer major Vodou spirits who organized to reflect the possess Alourdes. These preside over particular life spirits, who order and definition to the different domains, serve admirably to give of her life has unfolded. levels on which the drama Chapter 2 deals with the Vodou Azaka, a peasant farmer who reminds Alourdes of her spirit roots *Ibid., 24. tradictory, spirit voices Alourdes's multiple, and often conplay in orchestrating her life. The chapters, those with even numbers, are longer major Vodou spirits who organized to reflect the possess Alourdes. These preside over particular life spirits, who order and definition to the different domains, serve admirably to give of her life has unfolded. levels on which the drama Chapter 2 deals with the Vodou Azaka, a peasant farmer who reminds Alourdes of her spirit roots *Ibid., 24. --- Page 38 --- therefore of her connections to, and need for, family. With and the focus of Chapter 4, the themes of risk taking, asserOgou, the stories of Alourdes's tion, and anger are explored through there with various offimove to New York and her interactions a rural Introduction cials and bureaucracies. Chapter 6 deals with Kouzinn, this section reviews the economic dimensions market woman; of Alourdes's life. of 8, provides the The Vodou spirit Ezili, the subject Chapter relationcontext and language in which the stories of Alourdes's with men and her role as a mother are told. Chapter 10 foships the serpent spirit. As the most ancient and cuses on Danbala, he the context most conservative of the Vodou spirits, provides for stories about the efforts of Alourdes and Maggie to preserve heritage. Papa Gede, the trickster spirit, the mastheir spiritual of sexuality and protector of ter of the cemetery, the guardian which concerns healsmall children, presides over Chapter 12, ing and other transformational arts. When I began to diaIalso have debts to feminist scholarship. workAlourdes's family tree, nearly a year after I started gram I realized that what she had traced for me with her ing with her, True, the most distant anfamily stories was a matrilineage. cestor she acknowledges was a man, her great-grandfather, Binbin Mauvant. After him, however, all of her stories Joseph from mother to daughter. After Mauvant, men apfollow a line who enter the lineage as separate pear as husbands and lovers in Alourdes's memory individuals. No stories seem to exist or of these men. Memories of sons about the parents siblings born to the central women have also faded. result Instead of dismissing this as an accident of memory or a of a "broken" family (after all, such sudden of the vicissitudes family disappearances routinely befall women on patrilinear I chose to follow the/feminist maxim that when gender is trees), of analysis it reveals levels of meantaken as a primary category the case of Alourdes's family ing otherwise unsuspected.]In a women's history tree, this direction proved wise. I discovered beneath the official verand a parallel kinship structure buried following sions. It is "buried," because children in the family, Haitian law and custom, were usually given their father's name, the family tree that lives in Alourdes's mind quite differmaking from the one documented in such things as birth certificates. ent of Alourdes's family tree As a result of aligning my picture it reveals levels of meantaken as a primary category the case of Alourdes's family ing otherwise unsuspected.]In a women's history tree, this direction proved wise. I discovered beneath the official verand a parallel kinship structure buried following sions. It is "buried," because children in the family, Haitian law and custom, were usually given their father's name, the family tree that lives in Alourdes's mind quite differmaking from the one documented in such things as birth certificates. ent of Alourdes's family tree As a result of aligning my picture --- Page 39 --- with the stories she told, I also discovered remarkable between her family and larger processes at work in Haitian parallels his17 tory. Her ancestral stories track a cycle of social to the past century of Haiti's history.) Her change central Joseph Binbin Mauvant, was a rural patriarch who great-grandfather, Introduction a large extended family of the sort Haitian slaves presided over after they gained freedom. When Alourdes's reconstituted her family land, a sizable rural grandmother left pleted soil, outmigration, caused by deoverpopulation, and corrupt politics, was just beginning. Alourdes's mother, Philomise, was sold into a domestic servitude in Port-au-Prince form of displaced at a time when the flow of peasant farmers into Haiti's urban areas was ing. In her late teens, Philomise escalatpublic, only to return a decade escaped to the Dominican Relater to live in one of the growing pockets of Haiti's urban poor. And in rapidly followed the first large wave of 1963 Alourdes stage of this cycle has carried emigrants to New York. Each with it shifts in as well as changes in the way men and gender roles other and to their children. Attention women relate to each Alourdes's to the gender dynamics in family stories yields considerable insight. Alourdes's matrilineal family tree provides a tional scheme for the book. Short second organizanumbers, tell the family stories chapters, those with odd through five ning with Joseph Binbin Mauvant and generations, begindaughter, Maggie. I debated for a time ending with Alourdes's ate form in which to tell these long about the appropriancestral tales. Alourdes is a superb storyteller, but her stories, as she them, do not lend themselves to tells Each story has a reproduction in a written text. theme-better, a refrain-with which opens and to which she returns time and time she is woven, never in a again as the story Each time the refrain is simple logical or chronological fashion. the story. Each repeated, it signals a new attempt to tell attempt seeks to capture that none succeeds, because the story whole. Yet layers of possible connections, the meanings, and the single interpretation are too dense to be caught in a telling. Thus Alourdes moves in a spiral fashion over the same ground when telling an over and Each pass overfamiliarturf, creates important ancestral story. out some additional redundancy, but ita also brings relax nuance or detail. To listen, it is with the rhythm and to trust that it will necessary to her around to fill in the eventually bring gaps. Questions about details or at- Yet layers of possible connections, the meanings, and the single interpretation are too dense to be caught in a telling. Thus Alourdes moves in a spiral fashion over the same ground when telling an over and Each pass overfamiliarturf, creates important ancestral story. out some additional redundancy, but ita also brings relax nuance or detail. To listen, it is with the rhythm and to trust that it will necessary to her around to fill in the eventually bring gaps. Questions about details or at- --- Page 40 --- locate the action in time and space only detempts to precisely rail the process and produce long digressions. add their own When other family members are present, they around ofthe stories, twisting their word spirals in and versions is there, and especially if we are Introduction those of Alourdes. If Maggie simultaneabout the recent past, the two of them speak talking and on of each other like voices in a fugue. ously, around top know Family memories are held collectively; some persons than but no one knows it all. The full story, much more others, cannot be written down. The full or, Is should say, the real story, with each story can only be performed by a noisy family group, versions. real story exists only member adding his or her The and in which the family takes pleasure for the transitory period their past alive. finds meaning together in bringing tend to be full and detailed, Stories about the recent past almost mythic whereas stories from the distant past are sparse, and in feel. Yet in all the stories the material of dream, vision, and with the drama of politics, jobs faith holds equal ground illness, death, love, birth, housing, food and hunger, suffering, In Alourdes's and luck. Nor are these strands kept separate. as neglected spirits often bring on illness, just family stories, lottery numbers through dreams. spirits send cures or winning to the lwa, and thus none can be Virtually no story is unrelated told without including the role they play. of If the full stories exist only in the transitory context family how could I render them? One day in 1984 I sat performance, one of these stories in three or four down to try to reproduce from word prowell-honed paragraphs. When I got up my short hours later, I had written a twenty-page cessor several tale ofJoseph Binbin Mauvant's mysstory based on Alourdes's The story was true to Alourdes's telling, terious disappearance. characters, and but I had also invented dialogue, supporting details of location. short stoTurning Alourdes's family history into fictionalized knowlries allows me to tap a reservoir of casual and imagistic but do which all people who have done fieldwork have edge, to use. As Alourdes's people sit together connot ordinarily get do SO in the tributing shards of memory to a larger mosaic, they context of a great deal of shared but unarticulated information. when they talk about Joseph Binbin Mauvant, For example, the sound and smell of an early morning in the they remember but I had also invented dialogue, supporting details of location. short stoTurning Alourdes's family history into fictionalized knowlries allows me to tap a reservoir of casual and imagistic but do which all people who have done fieldwork have edge, to use. As Alourdes's people sit together connot ordinarily get do SO in the tributing shards of memory to a larger mosaic, they context of a great deal of shared but unarticulated information. when they talk about Joseph Binbin Mauvant, For example, the sound and smell of an early morning in the they remember --- Page 41 --- mountains of Haiti, the way a cooking fire is ful dance of bathing with kindled, the graceonly a few cups of water. some of this contextual information, I too have shareit. and I want my readers to Some of the fabrication in these short stories has Introduction than merely creating ambiance. For larger goals vented sour, example, if I had not inknow scrawny, ageless Jepete, how would the reader that, as poor as Joseph Binbin Mauvant and his were, there was surely someone with even fewer family served as their bôn (maid)?I have resources who in rural Haiti, and she seems seen many versions of Jepete ers will have to judge for somehow deeply true to me. Readdeference to the themselves what they think of her. In problematic character of such vention, I have kept these fictionalized ethnographic inare discrete, short chapters that alternate stories separate. They cused onindividual Vodou with thelonger ones fospirits in which I do adhere to more standard methods of noinventing and In Great Atlantic culture (that is, ethnographic white reporting. ture), we expect history to be written with Euro-American culpossible. We are very concerned with "what as much accuracy as and we are anxious that stories of our ancestors really happened," and "verifiable." Yet, as current feminist be both "true" canons of historiography have criticism shows, the not prevented the omission or misrepresentation of women in most accounts written about virtually any period of Western works for those who do the civilizationMemory. apparently sional remembering, even for the profesrememberers, in ways more self-serving than admitted. generally Haitians acknowledge this quality of Whereas we are anxious that our memory more directly. ety centers on the history not be false, their anxipossibility that their history lifeless or be forgotten. Whereas in might become paramount virtue of our eyes truthfulness is the ters most is relevance any historical account, in theirs what matand liveliness. We write remember our ancestors, and the Haitians history books to playful trickster who is the spirit of the dead. call on Gede, the appears in many forms and speaks Mercurial Gede special talent lies in viewing the facts through of life many voices. His new perspectives. from refreshing Iam part of a culture that seeks to capture cal and otherwise, in books. So I write a book experience, about historiMama Lola. --- Page 42 --- But in doing SO, I try to remember that she is part of a culture that serves Gede. Therefore I have tried to make up true stories, ones that are faithful to both Gede and Alourdes. I have tried to Introduction create her story through a chorus of voices, much as she creates herself through a chorus of moods and spirit energies. One of the voices that speaks in the book is hers, as carefully recorded and respectfully edited as I could manage. Yet another is my scholarly voice, distanced enough to discern patterns and relationships but not SO distant as to create the impression of overall logical coherence. No person's life or culture is, in the final analysis, logical. A third voice is also my own, but this one risks a more intimate and whole self-revelation. The fourth voice is perhaps that of Gede-the one who tells the ancestral tales in the form of fictionalized short stories and in SO doing plays with truth, seeking to bring it alive for its immediate audience. as carefully recorded and respectfully edited as I could manage. Yet another is my scholarly voice, distanced enough to discern patterns and relationships but not SO distant as to create the impression of overall logical coherence. No person's life or culture is, in the final analysis, logical. A third voice is also my own, but this one risks a more intimate and whole self-revelation. The fourth voice is perhaps that of Gede-the one who tells the ancestral tales in the form of fictionalized short stories and in SO doing plays with truth, seeking to bring it alive for its immediate audience. --- Page 43 --- LIN CHAPTER ONE --- Page 44 --- Josepb Binbin Mauvant oseph Binbin Mauvant did not die. Not him . . . no. He simply disappeared. They would still be searching for him if he had not come to his wife in a dream. He said to her, "Don't try to look for me. You are never to find me. I have gone back to Ginen, to Africa, where I going came from." It was early morning in Jean Rabel in the mountainous northwestern corner of Haiti. Deep shadows clung to the feet of the mapou, mango, and sour orange trees, while it was still night on the narrow footpath running through the dense canebrake behind the Mauvant family compound. The woman called Manman Marasa, mother of twins, had breakfast on her mind. There was water to boil for coffee. "The cassava that's left is a little piece, real little, 11 she thought. "What are we going to give those boys? They're clearing land today. They need food. Oh, well," she sighed, answering her own question, "we have coffee. We have sugar for that coffee. We have kleren [rum]. That will do. We are cooking later, God willing. 11 It was not unusual for men who worked in the fields to start the day with nothing in their stomachs but heavily sugared coffee or a shot of sugarcane rum with salt added or perhaps some sowosi leaves, but Manman Marasa still worried about them from habit. The last thing she wanted to hear was the babbling of a crazy husband. Emerging from the door of the hut in which she had borne and reared her "little people, 1 Manman Marasa threw around her shoulders to ward off the morning chill. She did a rag not even break stride to respond to the old man reclining on the mat inside. With a disdain common to women accustomed to hard work and childish men, she dismissed Joseph Binbin Mauvant: - Ar ritual beggar dressed as Azaka in blue denim and a straw hat, of a peasant farmer. Saut d'Eau, Haiti, 1981. Photograph by Jerry Gordon. clothing typical --- Page 45 --- "You are going today? Well, good! I will see back. "1 Hunkering down beside the you when you are she blew on splinters of charcoal brazier in her yard, "He pine kindling and muttered to says he is going today. Humph! Where herself, that going to go? That man has lost his is an old man like Inside, Joseph Binbin Mauvant head, truly." Joseph Seventy-nine rose slowly from his pallet. Binbin did years of living had put a stiffness in his Mauvant not leave him until the sun was legs that chickens' beaks high-no, not until the drooped all the way to the the donkey ceased to twitch when black ground in sleep and lids. When the heat of midday flies grazed on its eyedescended like a blanket to muffle the yelping and heavy woolen when this diverse crowing of the early morning, community of animals and duced to a drowsy murmur people was remangy dog interrupted only by the squeal of a caught pilfering or the cry of a child Mauvant was at his best. But at dawn, the needing solace, would warm his old bones intense heat that was a long way off. Joseph Binbin Mauvant slid the wooden bar from window in the one-room hut where Manman the only hind his back, 11 displacing the Marasa "slept bein the space beneath the gunnysack that had been tucked rotting shutters. y murmur people was remangy dog interrupted only by the squeal of a caught pilfering or the cry of a child Mauvant was at his best. But at dawn, the needing solace, would warm his old bones intense heat that was a long way off. Joseph Binbin Mauvant slid the wooden bar from window in the one-room hut where Manman the only hind his back, 11 displacing the Marasa "slept bein the space beneath the gunnysack that had been tucked rotting shutters. Because of stance tilt of the wall, the shutters the happencord, letting in the grey-pink dawn swung open of their own acIn the remote and the sharp smell ofs smoke. mountain villages of Haiti, night is taken ously. People treat it with respect. No one wants to serichance that bad air or, worse, bad spirits take the knows, wander freely at night) could find (which, their as everyone doors and windows are barred and, where way inside. So cracks are stuffed with possible, chinks and rags. Mauvant had slept in his clothes, as he did nights could be cold in the mountains. Most habitually, for rising sun found Mauvant sitting in the mornings, the legged chair with the woven sisal courtyard on the shortsmelling of the day before, seat, rumpled from sleep and waiting to receive the drinking his thick, sweet coffee, and this morning he behaved respectful greetings of his family. But on like a different man. This he ignored the polite queries directed toward the window morning house: "And the night, Papa?" "You're of his Papa?" In short, instead of not any worse today, triarch to the playing his accustomed role of paragtag crew, Joseph Binbin Mauvant pare for a bath. woven sisal courtyard on the shortsmelling of the day before, seat, rumpled from sleep and waiting to receive the drinking his thick, sweet coffee, and this morning he behaved respectful greetings of his family. But on like a different man. This he ignored the polite queries directed toward the window morning house: "And the night, Papa?" "You're of his Papa?" In short, instead of not any worse today, triarch to the playing his accustomed role of paragtag crew, Joseph Binbin Mauvant pare for a bath. began to pre- --- Page 46 --- [Eyeless Onel,/ 11 he called out the window toa scrawny, "Jepete Marasa, "fetch water for ageless woman who stood by Manman to bathe. II Jepete, who had an angry pink hole me. I'm going should have been, showed no sign of having where her left eye and continued to feed a sugarcane stalk Joseph heard the command voice came from Binbin slowly into her mouth. Time passed. A sharp the Mauvant vit [speed it up]!" With a shrug, within the hut: "Jepete, fe the cane fibers eyeless one bent to one side to spit depleted a from her mouth and, in the same sideways motion, swept up with a corncob plug that sat on the ground near large gourd Manman Marasa's fire. foot-dragging Itwas a ten-minute walk to the well, andJ Jepete's cries from scavenging fowl all the way across step raised angry formed the circle of small thatch and wattlethe courtyard by the Mauvant family compound. and-daub houses that made up to the well, she had to To get to the narrow, rutted path leading the far side of the yard. behind Marie Claire's house, on pass ran for a short distance through the canebrake before The path almost treeless field, part of which served as opening onto an the cemetery. the family cemetery. The well was just beyond Jepete would never have let on, her foot dragging Although from more than the lethargy that is the constant compancame above the horizon, and ion of the hungry. The sun was barely in-between she did not like to go near the cemetery at these that But that was not the worst ofit. The worst was times of day. she had to go by Marie Claire's house. Marasa's favorite Everyone said Marie Claire was Manman child. Whether or not Manman Marasa actually loved her more than she loved her other children, one thing was certain: that she wanted. Jepete's marginal position in the girl got everything from the of Manfamily-a foundling who ate meagerly pots Marasa in return for meager labor-made her suspicious. man did not have to be sour old Jepete to wonder if But a person not afraid to say no to Marie Manman Marasa was simply Claire had "eaten" her twin sister Claire. Everyone knew Marie while they were still in their mother's belly. During more than as Jepete slept on the porch of this or that perone long night, sure she heard strange noises coming son's house, she was Whatever that woman did at night, Jepete from Marie Claire's. Mauvant sent her did not want to know about it. And, as Papa that she was not sure there was yet for water early morning, afraid to say no to Marie Manman Marasa was simply Claire had "eaten" her twin sister Claire. Everyone knew Marie while they were still in their mother's belly. During more than as Jepete slept on the porch of this or that perone long night, sure she heard strange noises coming son's house, she was Whatever that woman did at night, Jepete from Marie Claire's. Mauvant sent her did not want to know about it. And, as Papa that she was not sure there was yet for water early morning, --- Page 47 --- enough light for the awful events of the night to be over. Her fears made Jepete appear sullen. It was nearly half an hour before Jepete's skinny body with its distended belly came around the corner of Marie Claire's house. Joseph Straight-backed and curiously graceful, she carried the heavy Binbin container of water balanced on her head. Drops of moisture Mauvant condensed on the outer surface of the gourd and, in spite of the chill in the air, fine beads ofsweat showed on Jepete's upper lip. Mauvant had spent the time staring absently out the window at the dawn, humming to himself, and watching the earlymorning flurry of fowl and family as if from a great distance. Jepete placed the tin basin, which was the family's prized possession, in an open area dappled by the morning sun, just behind the little house where Mauvant stood lost in thought. She in two inches of cool well water. Then she shoved the poured into the gourd and left it on the ground beside the stopper back tol Manman Marasa and the warm breakbasin. Onher way fast fire, she passed the window where Mauvant stood and, without raising her eyes, she said in a small voice, "The water "I'm Mauvant said. But he said it too has come." going today," softly and too late for Jepete to hear. under water, Mauvant reached into a sack Like a man moving of that stood in the corner of the hut and retrieved a pair pants made from coarse blue cotton. He located a shirt of the same fabric and pulled it out as well. Mauvant stood for a moment with the shirt dangling from his fingertips. "M'ap prale jodi-a, I'm He had just m'ap prale, wi (I'm going today, going, yes)." picked up a ball of dense yellow soap when Manman Marasa came back inside. he "Im going today, Manman," Mauvant repeated. Though her husband and the father of her children, he still called was her "Mother. 11 "Crazy man, I1 she said, not looking up as her hands struggled with a knot in the piece of cloth where busy of cassava bread. "Fool,' 1! Jepete had she had hidden a fragment the bath murmured when she returned to the fire after pouring water, "he takes a bath when there is dew everywhere. That fall sick.' 1 "He does what he wants," Manman man is going to Marasa had replied. nevertheless Shivering in the cool morning air, Mauvant bathed slowly, rubbing the stiff soap into a rich lather before adhis life-scarred, work-scarred body. When he was dressing busy of cassava bread. "Fool,' 1! Jepete had she had hidden a fragment the bath murmured when she returned to the fire after pouring water, "he takes a bath when there is dew everywhere. That fall sick.' 1 "He does what he wants," Manman man is going to Marasa had replied. nevertheless Shivering in the cool morning air, Mauvant bathed slowly, rubbing the stiff soap into a rich lather before adhis life-scarred, work-scarred body. When he was dressing --- Page 48 --- with he called Manman Marasa. Using gestures coated soap, hand and water centuries old, she cupped her right poured rivulets across his shoulders and down his back, deftly in tiny his Each trickle of clear then across his chest and down thighs. which took Joseph water was followed by a quick pass of her free hand, Binbin the last traces of soapsuds. Then with sudden gentleMauvant away mountain women could treat their children or their ness-these as could dismiss them men with such gentleness as easily they amount of fresh Marasa took a small with disdain-Manman circular motion wiped the water in her hand and in a single, soap from the old face she knew SO well. his As Mauvant's eyes blinked open, her hand still cupped She his face close to hers and asked softly: "How chin. pulled Papa?" Her tendency to call him "Papa" are you feeling today, his for addressing her as was even more fitting than preference father of her children, he "Mother, 11 for even though he was the In the of more than three decades older than she was. way was Manman Marasa had always understood and acrural women, somehow the child of her husband, as were cepted that she was "Im today," all the people who lived in his compound. going said, "Im 11 Apparently still in the gentle mood Mauvant going. Marasa simply nodded her head and of the moment, Manman she did not hear him. Her smiled. But if the truth be known, had turned back to the cooking and to the grandmind already children who were in her charge that day. wife Nicole's little one. Nicole was the There was Georges, was old of her son Didi. According to local custom, Georges and his tenenough to work with the men. But his gimpy leg refusal to let it slow him down made him accidentyear-old the machetes and heavy prone. When the men were wielding deemed better to leave him hoes they used to clear land, it was And there was under the watchful eye of Manman Marasa. had had Clairice, Marie Claire's last born. The poor thing baby for three months out of the five she had passed on this diarrhea and earth. And there were Keke's twin toddlers, Alphonse Those boys were hard to tell apart, SO both were simply Joseph. there were Marie Noelsine's called ma moun (my man). Finally, little girls, Gloria and Philomise. but everyMarie Claire may have been the favored daughter, that Marie Noelsine, her sister, was the great beauty one agreed flat, long hair-and, of the family. She had "good hair"-flat, poor thing baby for three months out of the five she had passed on this diarrhea and earth. And there were Keke's twin toddlers, Alphonse Those boys were hard to tell apart, SO both were simply Joseph. there were Marie Noelsine's called ma moun (my man). Finally, little girls, Gloria and Philomise. but everyMarie Claire may have been the favored daughter, that Marie Noelsine, her sister, was the great beauty one agreed flat, long hair-and, of the family. She had "good hair"-flat, --- Page 49 --- most amazing, green eyes. Philomise, her inherited traces of Marie Noelsine's youngest child, had external signs, there beauty. Along with these were also marks of that set Philo apart from the other children. another, deeper legacy worried about the Manman Marasa personality traits that made ent, and she showed her Philomise differJoseph her "Madame concern by teasing the child, Binbin Adult" and "Lady Serious." All calling Mauvant small lives, and probably several these particular could be more as well, if the full known, were in the hands of Manman Marasa story early Wednesday morning in the last year of the nineteenth that century. Wednesday was market day in Port-de-Paix, down tain from Jean Rabel. The mothers of these the mounMarie Claire, who was still sound children (all save of the night, asleep) had left in the middle balancing oversized baskets of on their heads. Manman vegetables and fruit Marasa had not made this a long time, although when she was she trip in the most canny of market younger had been one of the women. How well she remembered feeling of strength and energy with which the down mountain began, the fast pace and the quiet banter trip the women, which held at bay the time further down the among trail the feet slowed, loads became heavier, and the when their backs. It would be late afternoon sun rode hot on ing legs carried the market the next day before achwith loads of oil, salt, women back up the mountain path cloth, and whatever other immediate families needed. provisions their In the crowded cacophony of the town to have an eagle market, a woman had cheated eye-and a sharp mind, tool-to avoid by her customers. By the time the women being some would have spent every penny they had earned returned, long, hot day's work. Others would for a grimy double-knotted carry away a few coins in small sacks kerchiefs tucked into their bosoms or in pinned to petticoats beneath their Food, tools, and labor were shared ragged skirts. members, but freely among the family money was different. The woman to earn a little beyond what she had to who managed silence and magic. "Never tell spend protected it by have! a person how much money Jealousy makes people do you kill.' 11 Even the husbands of these terrible things. Jealousy can much money they had. women rarely knew how The women from his compound were only minutes away their bosoms or in pinned to petticoats beneath their Food, tools, and labor were shared ragged skirts. members, but freely among the family money was different. The woman to earn a little beyond what she had to who managed silence and magic. "Never tell spend protected it by have! a person how much money Jealousy makes people do you kill.' 11 Even the husbands of these terrible things. Jealousy can much money they had. women rarely knew how The women from his compound were only minutes away --- Page 50 --- market in Port-de-Paix when Joseph Binbin Mauvant from the He took a scarf-also on his blue pants and his blue shirt. put the wall the door. He had worn this blue-from a peg on by let of scarf around his neck for SO long that it could no longer go had learned from his body. He had worn it every Joseph the creases it a difficult birth Binbin time he healed a member of his family or eased of Mauvant away the bad luck attached to a parcel for a neighbor or took broad-brimmed straw hat. land. On his head Mauvant placed a what He always wore such a hat, as did every farmer who knew from the hard earth when the sun was it was like to pry cassava high and hot. his chair from its place just outside the The old man picked up old, Maudoor, where he left it at night. Since he had grown chair in the vant spent the entire day, most days, sitting on that of the (cottonsilk) tree in the center shade of the giant mapou between two mascourtyard. Always choosing the same spot his chair just a sive roots of the tree, Mauvant would position back to from the trunk. That way, if he had to lean few inches the tree would assert his authority or laugh at a timely joke, over. One hand rested on a carved keep him from toppling with a cigarette. walking stick; the other was usually occupied smoked handMost mountain men used snuff, but Mauvant of the two Like his exclusive claim to one rolled cigarettes. cigarette smoking was a sign of chairs in the family compound, with it. When he was his prestige and of the leisure that came men ofl his Mauvant was drinking. Most mountain not smoking, earthenware as their constant companstation in life had an jug Mauvant a recipe he would share with no one, ion. Following mixture of leaves and hot filled his jug with an extravagant Male friends and clibefore topping it up with kleren. peppers offered a from the jug as a gesture of hospitality, ents were swig cousin had his manhood tested by the way and many a country brew. he reacted to his first taste of Mauvant's on endless hot afternoons began when someEndless laughs red in the face and started to choke after drinking one turned The joke continued long after from Mauvant's legendary jug. visitor was gone, for Mauvant was an excellent the unfortunate loved those evenings when he would mimic. The whole family the small dramas of the day or, entertain them by recreating them tales of life in Africa. On very speeven better, by telling African words. cial occasions, he taught them powerful country brew. he reacted to his first taste of Mauvant's on endless hot afternoons began when someEndless laughs red in the face and started to choke after drinking one turned The joke continued long after from Mauvant's legendary jug. visitor was gone, for Mauvant was an excellent the unfortunate loved those evenings when he would mimic. The whole family the small dramas of the day or, entertain them by recreating them tales of life in Africa. On very speeven better, by telling African words. cial occasions, he taught them powerful --- Page 51 --- Most days passed the same way, with holding court from his private office Joseph Binbin Mauvant mapou tree. There he was between the roots of the plant and when to harvest. consulted about what and when to taught the Sitting on the short-legged chair, he allocated younger men in his family how to land for new projects to repair tools. He Joseph law and settled disputes enterprising sons and sons-inBinbin same shady spot, he worked among family members. And, in the Mauvant as a healer. Everyone knew that Joseph Binbin Mauvant man. He was franginen, as they said, was no ordinary had healing work to do, he had a true African. When he others did, no need to call the using drums, candles, and other spirits as nalia. Joseph Binbin Mauvant ritual parapherrican, and he had the was franginen nêt, completely Afspirits. When he treated spirits "on him" all the time, all kinds of out what was He someone, he did not read cards to find wrong. could look ata a person and significant, he did not work with know. Most priests use in the south of Haiti an ason, the beaded rattle spirit realm. Papa Mauvant to give them leverage in the Nothing. He cured needed nothing at all in his hand. natural power. And people he using only fèy (leaves) and his own penny. He did things the never old took money for what he did, not a way. Joseph Binbin Mauvant way. The old way was the simple do it. Mauvant said that in Africa everyone could said, and everyone agreed, that a many Haitians could doit too, but this long time ago had lost the was no longer true. knowledge. But there were stories They among the mountain folk who, like about one or two enough to heal the natural Mauvant, were powerful as living a long way. They were always described met them. way off, and no one seemed to have actually Not a single person gave the old man much when he picked up his chair and carried thought that day tion from the ancient iti in the opposite direcother mapou tree. They were too things to pay attention to an addled busy with "I'm going today. Hear! I'm old man muttering: generations of going. Their blood was diluted had living an ocean away from Africa. by been born there. He was a real But Mauvant mountain people brought him African, which to these being could get. Even as close to the spirits as a so, the family sometimes living calling him blan (whitey). The truth teased him by Mauvant's father had been white, was that Joseph Binbin a Frenchman. His motherhad busy with "I'm going today. Hear! I'm old man muttering: generations of going. Their blood was diluted had living an ocean away from Africa. by been born there. He was a real But Mauvant mountain people brought him African, which to these being could get. Even as close to the spirits as a so, the family sometimes living calling him blan (whitey). The truth teased him by Mauvant's father had been white, was that Joseph Binbin a Frenchman. His motherhad --- Page 52 --- had "come out white," as the counbeen black, but little Joseph Mauvant was held in high try folk put it. Despite the teasing, combination of being regard for his light skin, and the unlikely wherever he went. a blan from Africa ensured his authority is unclear. Some say she Joseph The identity of Mauvant's mother Wherothers she was Haitian. Binbin was a North American black; say in the early nineMauvant she came from, she traveled to Africa ever where she met and married her Frenchman. teenth century, Binbin Mauvant was born. The family There, in Africa, Joseph whereJoseph grew to young later moved to France, to Bordeaux, France after a narrow escape in manhood. But the youth left to the northern port "the war" and eventually made his way Rabels-Jean of Jean Rabel in Haiti. There are two Jean town Rabel in the mountains. It was in the Rabel on the sea and Jean settled down and lived out latter that Joseph Binbin Mauvant his full life right up to its miraculous end. behind his house, Settling his chair in the semi-private space earlier in the morning, in the same spot where he had bathed small fire. The fire Binbin Mauvant set about kindling a Joseph the smoke was gone, and it burned caught easily. Before long, into the flames with his clean and bright. Mauvant sat gazing his knees. 11 Bon!" back straight and his hands resting lightly on no. 11 Then he said, at noon we won't be seeing you anymore, he began to sing: O Manman Ginen, O Papa Ginen, M'kri, ago! O Manman Ginen, O Papa Ginen, M'kri, ago! M'ape rele Bondye nan syèl. M'ape rele Jezi, Mari, Jozef. O Manman Ginen, O Papa Ginen, Mwen kri, ago! O Manman Ginen, O Papa Ginen, Mwen kri, ago! M'ape rele Jezi, Mari, Jozef. M'ape rele lasent Vyèj Mari. O, mwen kri ago! O Manman Ginen, O Papa Ginen, M'kri, ago! O Manman Ginen, O Papa Ginen, M'kri, ago! M'ape rele Bondye nan syèl. M'ape rele Jezi, Mari, Jozef. O Manman Ginen, O Papa Ginen, Mwen kri, ago! O Manman Ginen, O Papa Ginen, Mwen kri, ago! M'ape rele Jezi, Mari, Jozef. M'ape rele lasent Vyèj Mari. O, mwen kri ago! --- Page 53 --- O Mother Africa, O Father Africa, I cry ago!" O Mother Africa, O Father Africa, I cry ago! I am calling God in heaven. Joseph I am calling Jesus, Mary, Joseph. Mauvant Binbin O Mother Africa, O Father Africa, Icry ago! O Mother Africa, O Father Africa, I cry ago! I am calling Jesus, Mary, Joseph. I am calling the holy Virgin Mary. O, Icry ago! From eight o'clock in the morning until Mauvant sang. He sat looking at the fire, and noon, he Joseph Binbin and sang. For the most part, those in the sang and sang him. Manman Marasa and Jepete shelled courtyard ignored corn in a mortar that stood beans. Jepete pounded than her arm. In spite of herself, waist-high, with a pestle thicker down to the rhythm of Mauvant's she moved the pestle up and and hot song. Salt, parsley, peppers were thrown into a much shallots, man Marasa held between her smaller mortar Manthem to a fragrant pulp, she knees, and, as she pounded the old man's song. unconsciously hummed along with The older children collected shallow holes in the pebbles and dug two rows of packed earth of the one of the twins settled down to courtyard, Georges and hung over his brother's a game of kay. The other twin every move. Mercifully, shoulder, telling him what to do on had baby Clairice slept. Manman placed a mat beneath the breadfruit tree at Marasa yard, and the baby lay there, one side of the dreams, while little Philomise bobbing on waves of heat and sat motionless though the sun rose higher and beside her. Alhigher and the heat became 'Agois a word from the Fon of used specific African origins of such words Dahomey, are not to mean Hey! or Hey, you! The who serve the spirits. common knowledge among those , shoulder, telling him what to do on had baby Clairice slept. Manman placed a mat beneath the breadfruit tree at Marasa yard, and the baby lay there, one side of the dreams, while little Philomise bobbing on waves of heat and sat motionless though the sun rose higher and beside her. Alhigher and the heat became 'Agois a word from the Fon of used specific African origins of such words Dahomey, are not to mean Hey! or Hey, you! The who serve the spirits. common knowledge among those --- Page 54 --- even of sitting in the more and more intense, no one thought deep, cool shade of the old mapou. the pot of beans Distracted for a moment as she stirred huge notice Phithe fire, Manman Marasa failed to bubbling over the corner of Didi's house Joseph lomise slip away. Philo went around back route to a place where Binbin and made her way quietly by the and the fire. For a Mauvant she had a good view of Granpapa Mauvant mountain child of no time she simply watched- l-a scruffy little Without taking than three or four, with dusty brown legs. more Philo raised her faded calico her eyes from her grandfather, and began to chew thoughtdress, the only garment she wore, Mauvant sat straight in his chair, fully on its hem. Joseph Binbin His was neither with a hand on each knee, and he sang. voice singing rose and fell it simply was. His casual nor energetic; him, no choice of his own. The song poured through through singing itself. the old man looked up and beckReaching the end of a verse, there all along? After oned to Philo. Had he known she was said nothing. the child approached. Mauvant some hesitation, through his body, and then another A slight convulsion passed hand to his mouth and vomited up and another. He moved one out his hand toward the smooth stone. He stretched a small, little one. Eat this." Philo's dark eyes child and said, "Here, black stone in the palm of the outtraveled from the moist and back again. stretched hand to the face of her grandfather like the child she was, she cried, Yuk!" and, pressing Then, her mouth, she ran away. When Philo was one both hands over she would tell her daughter how much of the ancients herself, swallowed the stone. "That was his she regretted not having his But I was just a little power. He wanted to give me power. girl. I didn't know anything. 11 and the mat under the When the sun stood directly overhead when the bean breadfruit tree was filled with sleeping children, to needed a constant watchful eye, it occurred pot no longer quiet. She rose Manman Marasa that it was quiet- completely brow with the same wearily and wiped the moisture from her she had used to cover her shoulders in the early morning rag the piece of cloth loosely around her hips chill. Then, knotting Marasa walked with the soft slapand under her belly, Manman earth. She walked around ping sound of bare feet on hard --- Page 55 --- her house to the yard behind. The next sound was her cry: "Woy! . : : Woy-zooy-woy!" There was no fire. No chair. No blue kerchief. No Joseph Binbin Mauvant! People say that if he had not come to Manman Marasa in a dream that very night and told her he had gone back to Africa, the Mauvant family would Joseph Binbin be looking for him to this day. Mauvant --- Page 56 --- --- Page 57 --- CHAPTER T W --- Page 58 --- Azaka ne of the Vodou spirits cenlife and religious work is a mountain man, a tral to Alourdes's Joseph Binbin peasant farmer like her own great-grandfather, dresses in blue denim, wears Mauvant. People say that if he had not come to Manman Marasa in a dream that very night and told her he had gone back to Africa, the Mauvant family would Joseph Binbin be looking for him to this day. Mauvant --- Page 56 --- --- Page 57 --- CHAPTER T W --- Page 58 --- Azaka ne of the Vodou spirits cenlife and religious work is a mountain man, a tral to Alourdes's Joseph Binbin peasant farmer like her own great-grandfather, dresses in blue denim, wears Mauvant. Like Mauvant, the spirit of rum laced with straw hat, and keeps a jug a broad-brimmed humble demeanor, that of an ilherbs at his elbow. This spirit's he functions to actually reveals his importance: literate peasant, of their roots, of their need for family (a group remind devotees and the spirits), and of their connecthat includes the ancestors him Azaka Mède or Papa Zaka. tion to the land. Haitians call they refer to him as Kouzen (Cousin). More frequently, former slave colonies in the New In Haiti, in contrast to other work, and they bury World, many farmers own the land they inheriting their family dead on that land. In the countryside, with the spirits land thus also means inheriting relationships Vodou the ancestors buried there. In a traditional served by and the spirits are, in a way, one and view, the land, the family, Haitians the three legs of the same. But for many contemporary rests have been wrenched this tripod on which their world have Poverty, drought, soil erosion, and overpopulation apart. of in a position similar to that of placed large numbers people have been forced away from their their slave forebears. They families that sustain life and land and away from the extended swell the urban identity. Refugees from the countryside give Haiti. Alourdes's story is typical of this recent chapter centers of for she is a member of the first urban-born in Haitian history, generation of her family. worked the giant plantations of Like the African slaves who the loss of Haiti, Haitians today experience cighteenth-century crisis, and, like their African anland and family as a spiritual 4 A rural family. Gros Morne, Haiti, 1980. --- Page 59 --- relic T fUlUS NPC UPes hudships (Aun) cestors, they turn to religion to bind up the this loss. Vodou temples in urban Haiti wounds caused by ally in touch with the earth. No keep worshippers ritu37 temple, it has an earthen floor matter how prosperous the for the spirits. But ready to receive libations even this symbolic comfort poured many Haitians (Alourdes is denied the Azaka ligion alive in the modern now among them) who keep their recities of North America." Despite this attachment to the land, cities tral role in the preservation and have played a cenin the New World from the enrichment of African religion ent. Haiti, with earliest days of slavery to the an extensive peasant culture that preslowing its early independence in developed folcase; but, in the final analysis, 1804, is a somewhat special the urban milieu is clear. even in Haiti the importance of Vodou Thus it would be a as an agrarian religion that becomes mistake to see transported to a city. Although the Vodou precarious when the importance of roots in the land, other spirit Azaka points to ample) make the long urban spirits (Ogou, for exent. with earliest days of slavery to the an extensive peasant culture that preslowing its early independence in developed folcase; but, in the final analysis, 1804, is a somewhat special the urban milieu is clear. even in Haiti the importance of Vodou Thus it would be a as an agrarian religion that becomes mistake to see transported to a city. Although the Vodou precarious when the importance of roots in the land, other spirit Azaka points to ample) make the long urban spirits (Ogou, for exent. Itis probably history of the religion more more accurate to view apparan age-old and creative Azaka's as one voice in toward the elaboration dialogue> He places urban tendencies erarchies in of ritual and the creation of tension with a viewpoint that most religious hisimplicity and immediacy. And he also strongly values cial bonds in an urban context where reinforces enduring SOdency to break old there is an inevitable tenprofitable relationships and seek out new and ones. more - Urban Vodou may have retained earth, but it has been both only a symbolic tie to the in providing families for more successful and more practical manbo rural migrants In urban the (priestess) is called manman and the temples, called papa. Those initiated in the oungan (priest) is or "children of the house. 11 temple are called "little leaves, 11 privileges and Along with these titles go all the responsibilities of family tiates are obligated to contribute membership. Urban initemples, and in turn money, time, and energy to the they can draw on practical assistance as well as spiritual temple resources for are obligated to give children of the house comfort. Temple leaders help with such probland 'The in particular--is importance of the land --both the earth in general and the Haitian homeexplored further in Chapters 6 and 12. . 11 temple are called "little leaves, 11 privileges and Along with these titles go all the responsibilities of family tiates are obligated to contribute membership. Urban initemples, and in turn money, time, and energy to the they can draw on practical assistance as well as spiritual temple resources for are obligated to give children of the house comfort. Temple leaders help with such probland 'The in particular--is importance of the land --both the earth in general and the Haitian homeexplored further in Chapters 6 and 12. --- Page 60 --- landlords, difficult employers, and errant lems as unscrupulous child care, food, and spouses. In a pinch, they even provide and maintenance Similar processes of family creation lodging. Vodou temples in New York, are now at work in makeshift other North American Azaka Miami, Montreal, Boston, and a dozen communities. This cities with less populous Haitian immigrant Zaka who, in under the watchful eye of a Kouzen work goes on fashion of the Vodou loa, has adjusted quite well the adaptable cousin of far-flung city folk. to his role as the country title kouzen is liberally applied. A In Haiti, as elsewhere, the of an aunt or uncle but cousin is not only the son or daughter connection. with whom there is a familylike also any person contemporary Haitians such as Kouzen Zaka thus reminds of the of holding the family togetherAlourdes importance For urban Haitians, the even ifitis, by default, an ersatz family. cousin to whom a Vodou spirit Azaka is more than a country like other sentimental debt is owed. He is a lwa, a Vodou spirit in the a model for a particular way of being and acting spirits, character in the social drama, both rural and world, a typical urban. AZAKA'S BIRTHDAY PARTY, 1984 the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, I On May 26, 1984, Volvo along the found myself nursing my fourteen-year-old Massachucogged interstate highways between Cambridge, Binbin The of Joseph setts, and Brooklyn. great-granddaughter to celebrate MeMauvant had commanded my presence-not for that understandably has little meaning morial Day, a holiday in the "birthday but to party"of Haitianimmigrants, participate netVodou Azaka. As a member of the fictive kinship the spirit onto Alourdes's family tree, it work, a "little leaf" (ti-fèy) grafted was important that I be there. My loft in I was exhausted by the time I reached Brooklyn. Fort Greene are lower Manhattan and Alourdes's row house in it took minutes apart, and ordinarily I had only the time twenty across the Brooklyn Bridge to accomplish to make the quick trip movement the considerable shift in worldview necessitated by these two centers. In contrast, the trip in May 1984 between to Alourdes's telephone took six tedious hours. Responding tree, it work, a "little leaf" (ti-fèy) grafted was important that I be there. My loft in I was exhausted by the time I reached Brooklyn. Fort Greene are lower Manhattan and Alourdes's row house in it took minutes apart, and ordinarily I had only the time twenty across the Brooklyn Bridge to accomplish to make the quick trip movement the considerable shift in worldview necessitated by these two centers. In contrast, the trip in May 1984 between to Alourdes's telephone took six tedious hours. Responding --- Page 61 --- summons ("We going to have a birthday for You coming? You got to come!") had party Kouzen Zaka. than usual. I was on sabbatical taken a lot more energy tion and had sublet New leave from my teaching posiCambridge. my York apartment and moved to "You know I'd love to come," I had said Azaka called, "but that's a holiday, and there will when Alourdes the highways. 11 "Yes," Alourdes be a lot of traffic on lot'a car . 11 had replied in a small voice, "a Uncomfortable in the silence that followed and please this momentous force in ever eager to breath and committed my life, I had taken a deep "Good!" she myself: "But of course I'll come anyway. responded. Then, forgetting which cupying at the moment, Iasked, worldI was OCshe cried. "How come "CanIstay at your-""Karent" what's the matter with you ask me that? Aw, come on! Karen, Why you? You always asking me can you got to do that? This is your house. You you stay. you want. Karen, what's the matter with stay any time me! Okay?" you? Don't do that to "Well, Alourdes, 11 I replied, in the tone of a child cused, "Ijust thought you unjustly acmight have a lot of ing there since . 11 "I don't care!" She other people staythis time with warmth in her voice. cut me off again, but to sleep on the "I don't care. Even you floor, even I got to make a bed got closet. : . Ialways find a place for on top of my worry!" you, sweetheart. Don't you Kumar and Michael, Alourdes's and were jumping around the car before I even Maggie's young sons, gine. Betty, Maggie's in turned off the endifferent colored baby, a pink sunsuit and with a dozen bobbed barrettes at the ends of as in concert from her safe many tiny braids, his head into the place on the curb. Kumar poked open window on the me on the cheek, a standard driver's side and kissed child, an instance of Old World polite greeting from a Haitian to the first generation born manners that have carried over Karen? in this country. "How you Maggie said you was comin'. We been waitin' for doin', Alourdes's daughter, Maggie, was you." open front door, leaning on one arm in the failed in its effort to wearing a sundress with an elastic top that cover the bra neath. In spite of the makeshift full-support she wore underbeautiful. "Hi, baby. I attire, she looked sassy and thought you was never going to come. I a Haitian to the first generation born manners that have carried over Karen? in this country. "How you Maggie said you was comin'. We been waitin' for doin', Alourdes's daughter, Maggie, was you." open front door, leaning on one arm in the failed in its effort to wearing a sundress with an elastic top that cover the bra neath. In spite of the makeshift full-support she wore underbeautiful. "Hi, baby. I attire, she looked sassy and thought you was never going to come. I --- Page 62 --- worried about you. Come on inside. Ijust got home was getting to make the altar yet. Come on. You myself. We don't even start Mommie's downstairs." 11 Baskcan help. Give me that suitcase. from the in the warmth of their greetings and still spinning ing the dark staircase to the basement level, the Azaka road, I went down center of family operations. like a string of The rooms in Alourdes's home are arranged window looking out railroad cars. Her kitchen, with one small and her "almodest is in the back of the basement, on a yard, reads cards, tar, I the tiny room in which she does consultations, A herbal treatments, is in the front. combination and prepares fills the space between kitchen and altar. living and dining room table and chairs, a glass-front china A new dining-room set-a up every foot of space cabinet, and a massive sideboard-takes Shelves holding shiny in front of the door to the altar room. beads sepatrinkets and floor-to-ceiling strings of multicolored collecformal dining area from the random rate this surprisingly the social center of the tion of chairs and tables that defines turned off and basement floor. A large color television, rarely to human adjusted to remove the green hue it imparts rarely this section of the room where the family skin, presides over and where clients wait their gathers, where guests are received, This is also the room where turn in Alourdes's inner sanctum. birthday parties for the spirits are held. slumped at a Downstairs, I found Alourdes looking morose, arrival table, her chin cupped in her hand. She noted my small when I walked between her and the television only by blinking the cheek and offered a standard Creole set. I kissed her on Give me news of yourgreeting: "Long time I don't see you. shoulders and let them self." Alourdes raised her great round drop with a sigh. in barely audible English. "I'm okay," she responded "what's the mat- "Alourdes,"1 said, also switching to English, Then, "Karen!" she snapped, "I don't feel good! Okay?" ter?" I eat too silence, she added, "Maggie say after an awkward taste it, but she tell me I put too much salt in much salt. I don't salt. That's what I got. Look!" She my food. So I got too much its usual girth. displayed her right ankle, swollen beyond of Not until ten o'clock in the evening did the construction for Kouzen Zaka begin. A low cabinet pushed against the altar and a smaller table placed next to ita ata a one wall was cleared off, ! Okay?" ter?" I eat too silence, she added, "Maggie say after an awkward taste it, but she tell me I put too much salt in much salt. I don't salt. That's what I got. Look!" She my food. So I got too much its usual girth. displayed her right ankle, swollen beyond of Not until ten o'clock in the evening did the construction for Kouzen Zaka begin. A low cabinet pushed against the altar and a smaller table placed next to ita ata a one wall was cleared off, --- Page 63 --- right angle. These two "altars" were then sheets. Wielding a heavy staple covered in white white sheets to the walls behind gun, Maggie attached more above. Someone the tables and the ceiling just the backyard, brought in an armful of leafy branches and the branches were from to the sheets behind and above stapled in small bunches Azaka feast for an agricultural the altars. Because this was a powers of leaves and spirit, one closely tied to the curative roots, it was were decorated with appropriate that his tables greenery. Next, familiar battered suitcases were SO Maggie and I could search dragged out of storage many colors, among their contents- scarves of paper streamers, tons, bells, balls, and shamrocks-for candboardleprechauns, and skeleplease Kouzen Zaka. We selected decorations that would favorite colors, blue and white, and accordion streamersin Azaka's crisscrossing arcs across the draped them in graceful, out a dozen ceiling of the niche. Then we scarves in the colors of Alourdes's pulled its, those who were also likely to make other major spirning, and pinned the scarves to the front an appearance that eveFrom meager materials of the altar cloths. of dense we had begun to create the opulence, the mood of Vodou altars. impression Bottles of Haitian cola and liquor were lined up across the back of the tables. (rum, gin, tequila, scotch) candy were added, and a few Plates of cookies and strewn across the tables. pieces of wrapped candy were Bananas, grapes, formed a mound around a apples, and cherries largest table. Three plump pineapple in the corner of the also fancy cakes from a Brooklyn placed on the altars. One was frosted bakery were the message "Happy in blue and carried sion of Papa Azaka's Birthday P. Azaka." The abbreviated vername did not The action soon shifted to the kitchen. entirely please Alourdes. and mixed with freshly shelled Corn was dry popped and a few hard candies. This peanuts, pieces of cassava bread, flat basket, the kind Haitian mixture was gathered in a large and placed on another white peasants use for winnowing grain, table where Azaka's cloth beneath the smaller altar special food was kept. Several puddings were prepared and given time to cool. It simple is boiled nothing hot can be placed on a spirit's altar. a rule that Vodou altars are texts, there for the wealth of information about the reading. They contain a nature of a spirits, as indicated in food spirit or group of preferences.JAt the simplest level, , flat basket, the kind Haitian mixture was gathered in a large and placed on another white peasants use for winnowing grain, table where Azaka's cloth beneath the smaller altar special food was kept. Several puddings were prepared and given time to cool. It simple is boiled nothing hot can be placed on a spirit's altar. a rule that Vodou altars are texts, there for the wealth of information about the reading. They contain a nature of a spirits, as indicated in food spirit or group of preferences.JAt the simplest level, --- Page 64 --- Azakn home, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, 1979. A meal for the spirits. Alourdes's others consume only like their food very spicy, whereas do not. The central theme some Some drink liquor, some the favorite foods of the sweet things. from Azaka's table was composed Azaka loves sugarfor farmer: among other things, Haitian peasant bread. Haitians in cane and cassava table of humble foods for Azaka, when the fIn assembling a the cuisine of a simpler time, as New York seek to evoke life and were readily accessiblej New York, spirits pervaded everyday Binbin Mauvant. Ironically, in dethey were to Joseph bread used as mnemonic stalks and cassava immigrants' the sugarcane difficult to find and expensiverihe of a simple vices are both in the concrete details food lanattempt to ground memory led to the creation of an arcane of the economy has actually Michael, was given a piece he was guage] When Maggie's son, it out. At five years of age, sake, prized kasau, he quickly spit to the arcane for its own of to be attracted of the magic not old enough bread contained nothing for the poand the taste of cassava a tasteless substitute memory for him. It was simply earlier. and tato chips he had been munching one of rice and black beans on Before long, two large pots, beans, were bubbling away and black dish another of cornmeal of chaka-a thick, delicious peasant top of the stove. A pot son, it out. At five years of age, sake, prized kasau, he quickly spit to the arcane for its own of to be attracted of the magic not old enough bread contained nothing for the poand the taste of cassava a tasteless substitute memory for him. It was simply earlier. and tato chips he had been munching one of rice and black beans on Before long, two large pots, beans, were bubbling away and black dish another of cornmeal of chaka-a thick, delicious peasant top of the stove. A pot --- Page 65 --- made from large-kernel and coconut-had been corn, kidney beans, pig's knuckles, the pot lid to look at this made earlier in the day. When I lifted Maggie cautioned favorite dish of Kouzen's and me: "The thing about mine, never say, Mmm, that look good, and chaka . . you don't to eat some, Or the whole look at it like you going Azaka Kouzen, he pot turn sour. After can give you some and then you give it to But if you taste it first or you eat it. No problem! that,' then the first time say, 'Oh, boy, Im going to eat some of taste awful! The whole you put it in your mouth it going to thing going to be spoiled. 1 Food, Feeding, and Family Service Craving food that is not actually on your mouth-is risky business. It your plate e-or, better, in happen. The first time Alourdes can cause all sorts of things to she surmised that when saw the birthmark on my back, have thought about liver my mother was pregnant she must as she scratched herself spot. Alourdes went on to tell me that her on that very dessert called krèm kay during her own craving for a be born with a faint mark on the left pregnancy caused Maggie to Jean-Pierre was born with his shoulder and that her son chicken because, penis looking like the head of a during that she crotch while smacking her pregnancy, had scratched her cooking next door. lips over some chicken she smelled Food there for the eating is another matter the major marker of the success of altogether. Food is neys, the passage of time and of life. parties, the length of jourtant events in the near or distant Few stories about imporwhat was eaten. I once watched past do not include catalogs of Alourdes, a television an episode in which a couple, soap opera with table, discussed the imminent seated at the dinner ing?" Alourdes asked, death of their child. "They eateating?" leaning closer to the set. "What they Eating is more than a practical, the means of identifying the life-sustaining activity. It is Alourdes said, introducing in-group. "She eat in my house," means of me to people in Haiti. And it is the maintaining the same "You eat you always have food," Alourdes group. with people, you don't have 11 On says. "You eat by yourself, being poisoned nothing." the other side of the coin, fear of by taking food from the hand of strangers or ateating?" leaning closer to the set. "What they Eating is more than a practical, the means of identifying the life-sustaining activity. It is Alourdes said, introducing in-group. "She eat in my house," means of me to people in Haiti. And it is the maintaining the same "You eat you always have food," Alourdes group. with people, you don't have 11 On says. "You eat by yourself, being poisoned nothing." the other side of the coin, fear of by taking food from the hand of strangers or --- Page 66 --- who harbor ill will is a pervasive theme, especially persons among rural Haitians. without knowing Few people in Haiti grow to adulthood The and Alourdes is not in that minority. hunger intimately, small influence in shaping Haitian Azaka fact of hunger has had no Thus it is not surculture in general and her life in particular. and that food has become a metaphor for happiness anprising to realize that when Alourdes well-being. It took me years meant that she was upset or denounced, "I don't eat today,"it the half-loaf of French pressed and not that she had forgotten When I with I had just seen her consume. bread margarine it is easier to see the connection between travel with Alourdes, but home, Alourdes food and anxiety. When she is anywhere hungry and obsesses about food. She seems to be constantly When food is proworried that no one will feed her. constantly her meal and rarely admits that she enjoysit. vided, she picks at how Alourdes relates to her spirits. Food is also an issue in scale once a year at their indiShe feeds her spirits on a grand lesser scale, daily with libavidual birthday parties and, on a this nourishment, the tions and other small offerings. Without work for her. Providspirits would not, and perhaps could not, contexts in which that food and creating the elaborate ritual ing the most important food is presented to the spirits constitutes work Alourdes does for them. Spiritual Labor [work, oh, work]" is the single, repeated line "Travay, travay-o Alourdes's birthday parties for the spirits of one Vodou song. of time, are hard work, requiring a considerable expenditure life of New and effort. In the midst of the high-pressure money, of Alourdes and her family deYork City, where the survival ritual duties pends on a constant juggling of scarce resources, Kouzen Zaka in 1984 sometimes become onerous. The party for York came when the demands of life in New was one occasion of the Vodou spirits. In into direct conflict with the demands of salt in the diet, was evenfact, this conflict, and not an excess illness. tually revealed as the source of Alourdes's had been called to diSunday afternoon, after Kouzen Zaka after the floor had been rect the dismantling of his festive table, where the survival ritual duties pends on a constant juggling of scarce resources, Kouzen Zaka in 1984 sometimes become onerous. The party for York came when the demands of life in New was one occasion of the Vodou spirits. In into direct conflict with the demands of salt in the diet, was evenfact, this conflict, and not an excess illness. tually revealed as the source of Alourdes's had been called to diSunday afternoon, after Kouzen Zaka after the floor had been rect the dismantling of his festive table, --- Page 67 --- swept clean of the last trace of from the and every pot in the kitchen had ritualizing been night before Maggie and I relaxed with washed and put away, a cup of coffee. She told me: Kouzen made Mommie sick because he think we not give him no party. going to Azaka Because now I'm I time to be running around working, don't got no the spirit. buying thing for birthday party for Before, when I wasn't working, we start three days before. We buying, two . all kind'a thing for the buying, buying: fruit, candy, party. But now I work, we didn't nothing 'til I get back this afternoon, and buy we not going to do nothing for him Kouzen just think Mommie sick. this year. So he made "What he think she gonna do?" Maggie continued, anger in her voice. with real "Taking care of those kids all can't even go outside!" Then, with day long, she shoulders, a smile and a shrug of her Maggie added, "When we build the altar zen see what we do for him, then Mommie and Kouright away. But it was him that made her sick!" start feeling okay More than two years earlier, at another Vodou had made an impromptu feast, Alourdes food-laden speech. Standing in front of elaborate, tables, she began by noting how tired she how much work these parties was and nally decided were. She said that she had not to have a birthday party for origiof honor that evening, Ogou, the guest thinking that it would be range for a mass to be said for Saint enough to aridentified with James, the Catholic saint Ogou. In fact, she had planned to parties in New York altogether and to hold stop having the spirits one large feast forall every three, or maybe every seven, That was what she had decided, but the years in Haiti. a table." And SO- -once spirits said, "No! Make too much! again!-here she was. And it was just Ceremonies for the spirits do require a deal it is also true that those who great of work. Yet interestin stage Vodou parties have a vested broadcasting and sometimes of effort and exaggerating the amount money involved, for the size of the determines the value of the gift being offered the undertaking aware of this tendency, and it was lwa. I was ognize the genuine frustration initially difficult for me to recfrom which Alourdes spoke. ! Make too much! again!-here she was. And it was just Ceremonies for the spirits do require a deal it is also true that those who great of work. Yet interestin stage Vodou parties have a vested broadcasting and sometimes of effort and exaggerating the amount money involved, for the size of the determines the value of the gift being offered the undertaking aware of this tendency, and it was lwa. I was ognize the genuine frustration initially difficult for me to recfrom which Alourdes spoke. --- Page 68 --- Her soliloquy that night moved into a somewhat romantic version of how much easier things were in Haiti: New York is not Haiti. When you have a Azaka party for the spirit in Haiti, you have people to help. I just sit. Someone say to me, "Mommie Lola, can I get you a Coca-Cola?" You send him out to get ice. He keep the five santim left over, but that don't make no difference. You got somebody who sweep up after make everything nice. All you got to do is give that son something to eat. You don't even got to pay. You can per- find whatever you need, things not SO expensive, and you always got people to help. Here, I got to make the table, make the food, then clean it myself. Here, somebody say, "Can I have some soda?" They take the glass and just put it under the chair. And they say again, "Give me some soda." No, I don't like that! In addition to "sending the point" to thoughtless guests and advertising her own efforts, Alourdes was speaking to a real tension in her life. A crisis that same evening in 1982 underlined the way she was caught between opposing forces. Preparations for Ogou's party had gone on amid more chaos than usual. Maggie was pregnant with Betty and was having difficulty with the pregnancy. The summer day had been hot and sticky. With no school, the children had been constantly underfoot. In the hubbub, no one had remembered Legba, the guardian of doorways and barriers. A small statue of Saint Lazarus, representing Legba, stands near the door at the end of the narrow hallway leading from the foot of the basement stairs to the front of the house. In tion for ceremonies, this door is opened to allow prepara- for the spirits. A candle is lighted, and small for passage at the threshold. But all this had been offerings Legba are left forgotten. When Alourdes and her ritual assistants processed to the Legba shrine, singing, "Papa Legba, ouvribaryè [Papa Legba, open the gate]," as do at the beginning of every such event, they found a dark they and a closed and locked door. hallway Alourdes retreated into stony silence. Tension quickly spread through the group and, before anyone knew what was ing, Legba had possessed Alourdes. Her tremendous happen- frame plunked itself down in the middle of the narrow hallway, and ba are left forgotten. When Alourdes and her ritual assistants processed to the Legba shrine, singing, "Papa Legba, ouvribaryè [Papa Legba, open the gate]," as do at the beginning of every such event, they found a dark they and a closed and locked door. hallway Alourdes retreated into stony silence. Tension quickly spread through the group and, before anyone knew what was ing, Legba had possessed Alourdes. Her tremendous happen- frame plunked itself down in the middle of the narrow hallway, and --- Page 69 --- the venerable spirit riding her cried and whined about treatment in the thin, cracked voice of his missprang to Maggie's one of the ancients. Tears eyes, too, but she quickly covered a brusque take-charge attitude. With them with pering Legba, one arm around the whimMaggie sent people scurrying to fetch needed. the things Azaka In short order, the large votive candle beside lighted; the door was opened; gin and molasses Lazarus was the threshold; and an egg was broken there. were poured at to sniffling and Legba was reduced trembling as he watched these to recover from an inauspicious frantic attempts before the small beginning. It took some time group of ritualizers returned to the area around the tables and continued with the crowded mally greeting the spirits, one by one. It took business of forthe ominous feelings even longer before brative mood that generated there gave way to the more celein spite of her desire usually characterizes these events. After this, to simplify, Alourdes her efforts around the individual actually redoubled One of the spirit feasts. problems she confronts is enough group to serve the spirits assembling a large amount of energy and anxiety is involved properly. An enormous taining the core group that attends these in building and mainconstitutes Alourdes's Vodou ceremonies and thus that ritualizes family./ În rural Haiti, the group together generally also lives and on the land. There, family is a given. In New works together family ties must be earned and York, however, pressures, distance, the carefully maintained. Work York problems of late-night travel in City, even a different sense of time, now calibrated New money in order to be spent wisely-all these like difficult to maintain the elements make it Vodou rituals group necessary for effective rituals. are events that cement in New York bombards the Haitian community, but daily life that counsel self-interest and immigrant with messages blood relatives self-reliance. Alourdes has several living in New York, but even the these persons are not as durable as they would be in bonds Haiti. with /To balance the centrifugal force North American cise on the Haitian values exertions at once. community, Alourdes moves in two direcThrough her service to the spirits, she retraces the pathways back home in order to shore up blood and friendship. But at the weakening bonds of new people such as same time she reaches out to myself She uses her spiritual skills to pull - -reliance. Alourdes has several living in New York, but even the these persons are not as durable as they would be in bonds Haiti. with /To balance the centrifugal force North American cise on the Haitian values exertions at once. community, Alourdes moves in two direcThrough her service to the spirits, she retraces the pathways back home in order to shore up blood and friendship. But at the weakening bonds of new people such as same time she reaches out to myself She uses her spiritual skills to pull - --- Page 70 --- us into the family, into the network of gifts and obligations that constitutes her survival strategy. "New York is not Haiti," as she said. Events must be planned far ahead of time, and still no Azaka more than a handful of people may show up to and their hands for the spirits. sing clap Having enough participants is not the only problem. Some of the foods necessary for the Vodou feasts can be obtained with considerable effort. For example, the Puerto Rican markets only in the Bronx are among the few reliable sources for live and a trip to the Bronx from Brooklyn can easily take four poultry, hours. Alourdes is constantly or five juggling debts and favors the members of her Vodou family in New York-those she among has healed, those she has initiated, and those friends and members who regularly enjoy her parties for the spirits. family Who can bring flowers? Who can bring rum? Who has a car and can drive to the Bronx? "You can't carry no live rooster on the subway!" Such difficulties had prompted Alourdes's decision to reduce her ritual labor. But the spirits said, "No!" She knew they were saying no, because as soon as she made the decision to cut back, everything she put her hand to went wrong. Bad luck is understood as an expression of the displeasure of the spirits. Bad can be anything from a serious illness to problems with luck love, or work. A string of bad luck means money, something serious is wrong. Until the situation is clarified and steps are taken to remedy it, everything feels threatening. In the final analysis there is one major threat, one overwhelming fear-that of being alone, of being without family. For Alourdes, family is a continuum running from the disparate group who attends Vodou parties at her home to the most elemental family, that of the ancestors and the spirits.)When nection to the latter groupis threatened, the conaccelerates. Alourdes accompanying fear keeps altars for the Vodou in her home and expends considerable effort in feeding and spirits them because she needs their love and nurturing daily. protection around her Relationships with spiritual families, however, are not any easier or less complicated than those with human families. As long as persons live and breathe, they stand in the tion of children in relation to the spirits. In this, Alourdes, posithough a manbo, is no different from anyone else. In Haiti, small children are extravagantly loved and indulged. But this indul- fear keeps altars for the Vodou in her home and expends considerable effort in feeding and spirits them because she needs their love and nurturing daily. protection around her Relationships with spiritual families, however, are not any easier or less complicated than those with human families. As long as persons live and breathe, they stand in the tion of children in relation to the spirits. In this, Alourdes, posithough a manbo, is no different from anyone else. In Haiti, small children are extravagantly loved and indulged. But this indul- --- Page 71 --- ends when the child is old enough to make a contribution gence life of the family. Children's work soon becomes to the ongoing to the family, and disobedient children are discinecessary plined. In many families, children are beaten, at times severely. Azaka Showing respect for the elders and complying with their will are the only ways a Haitian child can remain in good standing within the family. In an illustration of the negative side of food symbolism, unruly children are threatened with destruction by "The to eat you!" Chilevil spirits: lougawou [werewolf] going dren are deemed more likely than adults to "catch" a malevolent spirit sent against a family; only the continued spiritual vigilance of the elders protects them from such a fate. Because the work Alourdes performs for the spirits is as essential to their well-being as the contribution of Haitian children is to the well-being of their families, the spirits also deal with her through dire threat and severe punishment. The same standards of respect and obedience that define the relation of Haitian children to their elders dictate the terms on which Alourdes must relate to the spirits. She never talks about "worshipping" the spirits; rarely does she speak of "believing" in them. Existence and essence are the theological preoccupations of Great Atlantic culture. Alourdes speaks about the spirits in the Haitian "I serve the spirit," 11 she says. way common to people: Gathering to Call the Spirits On that Memorial Day weekend in 1984, it was nearly midwhen the cooking was finally done and the food for Kounight Zaka in several kwi (calabash shell bowls). The zen with arranged beans was into one and left to congeal to cornmeal A mound poured of rice and beans filled another. A a hard-crusted top. third held large chunks of firm white yam and golden sweet potato topped with wedges of avocado. The chaka was poured into a fourth, and into the last went another stew, this one made from meat and several kinds of vegetables cooked to a fragrant mush. Once these were cool, they were placed beneath rosy Azaka's altar, where they stayed until early the next mornwhen most of the ritualizing was over. Only then were the ing people slumped in chairs in Alourdes's basementbleary-eyed turned-temple fed from Azaka's ample stores. At eleven-thirty, Maggie and I were still clattering around the topped with wedges of avocado. The chaka was poured into a fourth, and into the last went another stew, this one made from meat and several kinds of vegetables cooked to a fragrant mush. Once these were cool, they were placed beneath rosy Azaka's altar, where they stayed until early the next mornwhen most of the ritualizing was over. Only then were the ing people slumped in chairs in Alourdes's basementbleary-eyed turned-temple fed from Azaka's ample stores. At eleven-thirty, Maggie and I were still clattering around the --- Page 72 --- kitchen. The early arrivals for Kouzen's feast were quietly watching television with Alourdes. An outside observer of this domestic scene might have thought it the end of an uneventful sleepy Azaka evening rather than the beginning of an all-night ritual drama. But around midnight, things began to happen and ten minutes after the hour, every chair was full, quickly, the television by was turned off, and events were under way. Maggie was checking and rechecking the tables, the altar room, the to sure kitchen, be nothing had been forgotten. Twenty-five ing, laughing, people were talkgreeting one another, and on news of their lives. catching up the About two dozen people took part in this feast. The first arrive were other manbo, Alourdes's older to whom she routinely women friends with exchanges support and assistance in ritual activities. Madame François and Gladys are regulars at her ties, and as usual they arrived laden with contributions: parof basil leaves, a cake, flowers, a package of a bunch sava bread. Robert and his candles, more casfamily are the other most participants. Robert is a North American black man in frequent his midthirties, for whom Alourdes performed a initiation in the summer of 1981, at the same time preliminary and through other stages of the initiation Maggie I went continued to function process. After this, Maggie as Alourdes's main ritual and Robert became a regular second-level assistant, the entire day before a helper, often spending and ceremony running errands for Alourdes lending a hand wherever he was needed. Other guests at. Azaka's 1984 birthday party included and her boyfriend, Kevin. Kevin is a counselor Marjorie school. Marjorie, who has the drug at a high is a native of Grenada in her late primary connection to Alourdes, thirties who works for the York City public school system as a teacher for New turbed children. An attractive emotionally disthat suits her woman with a hefty, solid body forceful personality, Marj first came to know Alourdes when she turned to her for help. Marj's husband left her and had taken their two children back to his had Ghana against her will. It took Alourdes two of native as well as spiritual labor to see that the children years practical to their mother. were returned Gertrude, or Mrs. LeGrand, as she is almostalways arrived soon after Marj and Kevin. A woman in her addressed, late she has a middle-management forties, position in one of the city social forceful personality, Marj first came to know Alourdes when she turned to her for help. Marj's husband left her and had taken their two children back to his had Ghana against her will. It took Alourdes two of native as well as spiritual labor to see that the children years practical to their mother. were returned Gertrude, or Mrs. LeGrand, as she is almostalways arrived soon after Marj and Kevin. A woman in her addressed, late she has a middle-management forties, position in one of the city social --- Page 73 --- service agencies and is thus held in high with the exaggerated diction of the regard. She speaks dresses upwardly mobile, and she conservatively and with great care; shoes and always match, and she sometimes carries handbag color. Gertrude, who gloves of the same was born in the United Mrs. LeGrand by States, became Azaka who introduced marrying a Haitian, and it was her husband her to Alourdes. Mrs. LeGrand, friend of Alourdes's is still a cose family, now divorced. I knew this woman for quite a long time before she was to talk proper about her growing involvement in Vodou. willing to me Soeurette, a friend of Alourdes's from Haiti, after Mrs. LeGrand. Soeurette is came not long shy.She isa also a Protestant. chunky, good-humored, and 971 have Theoretically, this affiliation should prevented her from attending a Vodou In Chvic tice, however, such rules, laid down by most ceremony. prac- / active in Protestant Teoy Haiti, are not always observed!) Soeurette groups English, yet Iimagine that she speaks little less. She copes wall in New York nonetheprobably handles landlords, clerks, and bus well as her co-workers in the nursing home, with drivers, as termined pleasantness that marks her the same deSoeurette brought along her presence in this group. shyer than his mother, Michel ten-year-old son. Heavier and even spent most of the quietly in a chair by the refrigerator, his hands folded evening sitting Jean-Pierre, Alourdes's oldest in his lap. their apartment in Lefrack child, drove his family in from Pierre City, Queens. Just over is a handsome man, more Americanized thirty, JeanAlourdes's other children. He wore than any of dark red, with an Yves St. Laurent shirt in lused from tight-fitting jeans. His knuckles are heavily calyears of karate. Defying a pattern of dead-end jobs that has been pervasive in the Haitian short-term, nity, "Johnny" has worked at the same place for commudry goods at a shop on Manhattan's Lower years, selling family guests included Frank, Alourdes's East Side. Other ing retirement from his maintenance oldest brother, nearFrank's Haitian wife. job at a high school, and Two teenagers, American black women, also were magnificently tall, dressed in blue attended. Both hair in a wealth of bead-encrusted jeans, and wearing their Haitian woman with a flirtatious braids. Poupette, a young She had just arrived in the United personality, joined the group. work. On this cool May States and was looking for evening, she wore two sweaters over a des's East Side. Other ing retirement from his maintenance oldest brother, nearFrank's Haitian wife. job at a high school, and Two teenagers, American black women, also were magnificently tall, dressed in blue attended. Both hair in a wealth of bead-encrusted jeans, and wearing their Haitian woman with a flirtatious braids. Poupette, a young She had just arrived in the United personality, joined the group. work. On this cool May States and was looking for evening, she wore two sweaters over a --- Page 74 --- light cotton dress and had heavy wool socks on her feet. woman Aileen, a to whom Alourdes rented a small was top-floorapartment, present also. Scrawny and defiant, with a gift for sudden flashes of ironic wit, Aileen Azaka is an American and a welfare mother. Alourdes wanted to help her, but there had been several arguments about unpaid rent and wine bottles that had disappeared from the basement refrigerator, and Alourdes's tience was wearing thin. paBig Daddy was a late arrival for Azaka's birthday Fritz, his proper name but one by which he is rarely addressed, party. is big, balding bear of a man who loves women-or at least loves a to talk about them. Big Daddy works in a warehouse in Island City. Alourdes said about him, "I know him long, Long time, since we little children. We grow long up together in Haiti. We good, good friend. It like we come from the same place, . you know. . : the same belly. We not have the same mother, no. But sometime it feel like that." Just after midnight, and without calling attention to herself, Alourdes plunked down on the low stool by Kouzen's table and abruptly launched into the series of Catholic prayers and that opens these Vodou ceremonies. People took a while hymns to realize what was happening. Talk died out it by dribbles, some of continuing after the ceremony had begun. Then, midway through a hymn, Alourdes interrupted herself: "Maggie, don't forget Kouzen's hat!" Maggie hollered the length of the basement: "Robert, get the hat out of the altar room!" And then Alourdes quickly returned to the hymn. The Catholic prologue to Vodou ceremonies is the same virtually no matter which spirit is the guest of honor. It begins with standard songs and chants. One of the first calls on Saint Peter (like Lazarus, a Catholic counterpart of Legba) to the door, the door to Paradise." Others beg Mary, Jesus, "open and various saints for grace and forgiveness. New arrivals from Haiti, such as Poupette, often become the vehicle for learning new songs and recalling old ones, Catholic and Vodou. Alourdes's frequent trips to Haiti also the same kind of liturgical checking and enriching. accomplish One of the songs sung for the Virgin Mary at this party was an example of this process. Alourdes had heard the song in a friend's on her last visit home; she had sung it as a child but had temple since forgotten it. When Alourdes returned from that trip, she imme- saints for grace and forgiveness. New arrivals from Haiti, such as Poupette, often become the vehicle for learning new songs and recalling old ones, Catholic and Vodou. Alourdes's frequent trips to Haiti also the same kind of liturgical checking and enriching. accomplish One of the songs sung for the Virgin Mary at this party was an example of this process. Alourdes had heard the song in a friend's on her last visit home; she had sung it as a child but had temple since forgotten it. When Alourdes returned from that trip, she imme- --- Page 75 --- diately introduced it into the Catholic prologue to her own cere53 monies.She especially liked its ritual details. At a certain point in the hymn, everyone was supposed to drop to their knees, facing the altar. Azaka The palm tree thumps, the palm tree knocks. Virgin Mary, pray for us. We are on our knees at your feet. . That night, Alourdes noticed that I had missed the signal and was not on my knees with the rest, and she abruptly stopped the singing. "Come on, Karen, come on, come on, come on! On your knees! Oh-oh, no excuse!" Then, without even taking a breath, she finished the song: On the ground, on the ground, To pray to you. As the last line died away, Alourdes continued to question lax behavior: "How come you don't know that song?" "I my know that song," I anwered defensively. I am never at ease when Alourdes publicly exhibits her authority as my Vodou mother, although I know that such displays are a routine part of the discipline for any initiate in a Vodou family. Perhaps catching my discomfort, Alourdes softened. "You was singing?" she asked. "I was singing,"Ireplied. "You singing, but I don't heard you," she observed. I laughed selfconsciously and latched on to the first excuse that presented itself: "I don't have a good voice, sO I don't sing loud." n In a more natural tone, I added: "Alourdes, you don't want me to sing loud!" Ag great guffaw exploded from her, and, with one hand planted on each thigh, she threw her head back: "Karen, you too smart for me!" There was laughter all around. Our little contretemps (one of several that added informality to the otherwise staid prologue) made a natural transition between the Catholic segment of the ceremony and the part with a distinct African flavor. Picking up the ason (the beaded rattle that is the emblem of the Vodou priesthood) lying at her feet, Alourdes began to , you don't want me to sing loud!" Ag great guffaw exploded from her, and, with one hand planted on each thigh, she threw her head back: "Karen, you too smart for me!" There was laughter all around. Our little contretemps (one of several that added informality to the otherwise staid prologue) made a natural transition between the Catholic segment of the ceremony and the part with a distinct African flavor. Picking up the ason (the beaded rattle that is the emblem of the Vodou priesthood) lying at her feet, Alourdes began to --- Page 76 --- shake it softly. The Creole songs that followed were also introductory. Taken collectively, these two standard opening sequences- one European in flavor, the other African- -are called the Priyè Dey, the Outside Azaka Prayers.The Priyè Deyô usually last from forty-five minutes to an hour. Whent these Outside Prayers were completed, the mood eased, the social and ritual tempo picked up, and the main part of the ceremony commenced, the part in which the most important Vodou spirits are saluted, individually and in strict ritual order. The first to be greeted is always Legba, guardian of crossroads and doorways. Standing in front of the food-laden tables, Alourdes held her ason in one hand; in the other she had a white enamel cup of a sort common in Haiti. On either side large of her were ritual assistants, one holding a candle and a bottle of gin, the other a bottle of molasses. These elements were lifted up to each of the cardinal directions in turn. Alourdes shook the ason sharply each time the group dipped at the knees and changed direction. Then, facing the larger of the altar tables, all three stepped to the right, bent their knees in a movement quick like a curtsey, stepped to the left, and turned all the around, then repeated the same gestures in reverse, with an way initial step to the left. A third time, again starting with a step to the right, the small band ofritualizers dipped and twirled. Then headed out the door and down the narrow hallway to the they shrine. Throughout the salutation, all the people present Legba sang: Papa Legba, ouvri bàryè-a. Ouori bàryè Atibon, Pou nou pase la. Papa Legba, open the gate. Open the gate Atibon, To let us come in. The next greeting was addressed to Ayizan, the ancient femalespirit who is theg guardianofritual purity within was thetemple. Ayizan saluted in much the same manner as Legba, al2The Priyè Deyô are discussed in detail in Chapter 10. all the people present Legba sang: Papa Legba, ouvri bàryè-a. Ouori bàryè Atibon, Pou nou pase la. Papa Legba, open the gate. Open the gate Atibon, To let us come in. The next greeting was addressed to Ayizan, the ancient femalespirit who is theg guardianofritual purity within was thetemple. Ayizan saluted in much the same manner as Legba, al2The Priyè Deyô are discussed in detail in Chapter 10. --- Page 77 --- though gin was not used (Ayizan drinks no tire salutation took place in front of the altar alcohol) and the enoffered to tables. Libations in front of Ayizan were poured into an enamel basin on the one of the tables, a North American floor to the fact that ceremonies can no longer take accommodation with beaten earth floors place in temples Azaka thirsty for the its. After Alourdes and her gifts offered to the spiraltar, kissed the assistants had each knelt before the ground, and poured water three times dollops into the basin, the cup was to two in small SO they too might honor passed or three guests are usually chosen to Ayizan. Other priests and priestesses pour libations, but individuals who personal bond with the spirit being saluted have a priate choices. may also be approAt all ceremonies, each spirit called must be three or seven songs, which must follow offered either tated by the type of drum a definite order dicrhythm that would pany them. The verses of each are ordinarily accomjudges that the spirit has been repeated until Alourdes sphere is informal. For properly honored. The atmosongs for the example, at Alourdes's Vodou spirits are sometimes aborted by a parties, guest's comment: "That's a Zepol (a rhythmic knowledgeable introduce that one yet.' " Before type]. You can't often checks with the "sending" a new song, Alourdes That second gathered faithful: "How many we song, or third?" At times, she cannot sing? other song for the spirit being think of angreeted and will turn usually one of the older women, and to a guest, François, send a say: "Come on, Madame song for Kouzen for me. 1 Together, the possess a memory more complete than that of people Consultative ritualizing, like the constant flow of any individual. tion between New York and Haiti, ritual informaagainst forgetting. helps the community guard After the third of Ayizan's songs ended with the ason, the Marasa, the sacred sound of the was time to turn to Loko, twins, were saluted, and then it patron of the Vodou however, came a short interlude devoted priesthood. First, table, a moment in which Catholicism to "baptizing" the circumstances, reasserted itself. In ideal baptizing the table is the job of the type of ritual functionary who prètsavann, a riod following the revolution appeared in Haiti during the pepriests to the new black when the Vatican refused to send Haitian republic. A prètsavann, who is used in temples as a stand-in for a Catholic priest in the por- ou however, came a short interlude devoted priesthood. First, table, a moment in which Catholicism to "baptizing" the circumstances, reasserted itself. In ideal baptizing the table is the job of the type of ritual functionary who prètsavann, a riod following the revolution appeared in Haiti during the pepriests to the new black when the Vatican refused to send Haitian republic. A prètsavann, who is used in temples as a stand-in for a Catholic priest in the por- --- Page 78 --- tions of the ritualizing that reiterate Catholic rites, is only infrequently involved in Alourdes's New York ceremonies. But the shadow of his presence persists in the rule that only men can perform rituals such as Azaka baptisms. Usually a oungan in the crowd is asked to fill this role, although any other man can be into service when needed. pressed There was no priest at Azaka's 1984 birthday party, and the responsibility fell to Robert, who is an enthusiastic and faithful supporter during Alourdes's rituals. He speaks but he is uninhibited about only English, imitating the sounds of French, Latin, or Haitian Creole in the ritual context. Standing in front of Azaka's niche, Alourdes coached him in the proper formula for baptizing the table. Handing him a shot glass filled with holy water taken from a local Catholic church and a leaf from one of the bouquets on the altar, she instructed him plucked to the leafin the water and sprinkle it over the tables while dip "Je te baptise au nom de Kouzen Zaka Mede. Credo, credo, abonoche saying, baptize you in the name of Kouzen Zaka Mede. I believe, I be- [I lieve, abonoche]. 113 Everyone mumbled several quick Hail before moving on to sing three hymns for Mary. During the Marys last one, actually addressed to Mary Magdalene, Robert was rected to pass a collection plate. Moving from dihe held out a plate, and each of us in person to person, dropped a few coins. This money was placed beneath Azaka's table. The group then launched into salutations for Papa Loko, chief Vodou priest. At these ceremonies, it is rare that anyone other than Alourdes is "ridden" by a lva. But this evening was an exception. Irma, Alourdes's half-sister (they have the same is a regular participant. On this occasion, she had father) her mother, a strikingly beautiful, come with even regal, woman, who was visiting from Haiti. Loko was the eighty-year-old first arrive that night, and he possessed Irma's mother. As the spirit third to and final song for Loko was sung, the spirit announced his ence in the old woman's head through long presAlourdes laughed out loud, obviously trembling moans. delighted that Loko, and especially this particular woman's Loko, had chosen to come her feast. to As Alourdes protectively circled her arm around the body of Abonoche is apparently a transformation of a Latin no lic liturgical context. None of the scholars of Latin I have word, consulted doubt from a Cathorecognize the word, however. has been able to and final song for Loko was sung, the spirit announced his ence in the old woman's head through long presAlourdes laughed out loud, obviously trembling moans. delighted that Loko, and especially this particular woman's Loko, had chosen to come her feast. to As Alourdes protectively circled her arm around the body of Abonoche is apparently a transformation of a Latin no lic liturgical context. None of the scholars of Latin I have word, consulted doubt from a Cathorecognize the word, however. has been able to --- Page 79 --- Irma's mother, she said with real conviction, "M'kontan anpil ou vini. Gwo, gwo Loko (I'm very happy you come. Great, great "The house Loko]." 1 Opening her arms wide, Alourdes added, is for 11 Then, dropping her voice to the tone of a child begyou. she murmured: Papa Loko, my dear, pass Azaka ging from a parent, The hand over my body. Life is not good for me." spirit your responded to her in a breathy, cracked voice indicative ofLoko's advanced age: "I don't give luck.' 11 "II know you don't give luck, Papa. I know that not your way," 11 Alourdes said, sounding only a little disappointed. She recovered quickly and began to introduce the people standing nearby. Pointing to Robert, she said, "This person a child of the house. He never desert the house. Never." Indicating a woman who had gone through the Vodou "marriage" to Loko, she proclaimed, "This woman your wife.' 11 Then, sweeping her arm across the room, Alourdes announced, "All the here wife!" in his whispery old voice, women your Speaking not catch. Alourdes Loko asked for someone whose name I did responded, "She could not come. She got nobody to watch her kids. I going tell her you ask about her. 11 11 Alourdes crooned, stroking the "You are family spirit, gently side of Loko's face. "Me, I'm going do everything you want me to do. When you tell me work, I'm going work. When you tell I'm sit. When tell me run, I'm going run. me sit, going you stand. house is for When you tell me stand, I'm going My you!" like most in Vodou, was a comThis posesion-perfomanes, to one of the most plex event. Alourdes was not only relating venerable Vodou spirits; she was also relating to an elderly woman who had once saved her life. Just after Alourdes's birth, when her mother was suffering from "black fever" and unable to breastfeed her, Irma's mother, who had just had a baby, in as Alourdes's wet nurse. Alourdes feels she owes stepped debt. The social drama is never far from the this woman a great of Vodou. Furthermore, in a small surface in the religious drama Vodou family such as this one, people know one another well even enough to grasp, without words, themultiple meaningsof what is happening. as After Loko's short visit and the saluting of such key spirits Danbala and Ezili, the main events of the evening began with the calling of the guest of honor, Azaka. To entice him to come after song was sung for the shy and to his birthday party, song Kouzen Zaka. There was a song awkward country bumpkin in a small surface in the religious drama Vodou family such as this one, people know one another well even enough to grasp, without words, themultiple meaningsof what is happening. as After Loko's short visit and the saluting of such key spirits Danbala and Ezili, the main events of the evening began with the calling of the guest of honor, Azaka. To entice him to come after song was sung for the shy and to his birthday party, song Kouzen Zaka. There was a song awkward country bumpkin --- Page 80 --- based on his title, "Minister of Agriculture," and character, "timid man." Another one on his song laid out the basic rules of family functioning, on one level, while on another it that poor country cousins would suggested Azaka do better financially by not marrying one of their own kind: Kouzen pa pran kouzinn, 0, Kouzinn, 0, Kouzinn, 0. Senkann santim pa lajan; De goud pa dola. A male cousin doesn't take a female cousin, oh, Cousin, oh, Cousin, oh. Fifty cents is not money; Two gourd not a dollar. Another of Kouzen Zaka's songs was a sort of riddle, a form of oral literature loved by country people. tener would have realized Only a careful listhat it was the ravaged earth who spoke in this song: M'malere, m'malere vre; Se defom m'genyen. M'konnen m'malere, ore; Se defom m'genyen M'malere, m'malere. Se pa achte m'achte; Se Bondye kreye-m malere. Moun-yo bale sou do mwen. I'm unfortunate, I'm truly unfortunate; It's crippled I am. 'Two gourd are the equivalent of forty cents of U.S. one of the few in the world kept at a fixed official rate currency. of Haitian currencyi is dollar. The exchange rate, five gourd to one dollar, is exchange with the U.S. Black-market exchange rates, however, often devalue the printed on the gourd note. dollar. gourd in relation to the --- Page 81 --- I know I'm unfortunate, truly; It's crippled I am. I'm unfortunate, I'm unfortunate. It's not something I brought on myself; Azaka God created me unlucky. People sweep on my back. That song must have had a special poignancy for many in the for a number of them had been driven toward room, significant in New York the devastation of the land in their new life by and Haiti. Today the border between the Dominican Republic Haiti is actually visible from the air, because of the widespread deforestation and soil erosion on the Haitian end of the island of Hispaniola. Poverty, the ravaged earth, and the peasant life wedded in the figure of Azaka, who also exare indissolubly resignation to life's tragedies. hibits the peasant's characteristic As Alourdes pushed the energy in the room to new heights in effort to sufficiently to bring the spirit an echofe (heat things up) into our midst, she introduced a new song: Kouzen Zaka, M'pral prepare mwen, Pou regle zafè mwen. Nèg-yo pa Bondye. Zaka, li pa vle wè mwen. Lie di ou etranje, Li di ou etranje. Fanmi pa vle wè mwen. Cousin Zaka, I'm going to prepare myself, To set my affairs in order. People aren't God. Zaka, he does not want to see me. He says you are a stranger, He says you are a stranger. The family does not want to see me. --- Page 82 --- Azaka M Goats to be sacrificed to Azaka. au-Prince, Haiti, 1989. The temple behind Alourdes's mother's home, PortThis song, whose point to its somber uplifting, almost joyous sound not want to see me," ambiguity 11 (is it Kouzen plays counterfamily has or am I seeking his himself who "does louder. rejected me?) was sung help because a human Alourdesjumped to her feet and over and over, louder and began to dance, ason in --- Page 82 --- Azaka M Goats to be sacrificed to Azaka. au-Prince, Haiti, 1989. The temple behind Alourdes's mother's home, PortThis song, whose point to its somber uplifting, almost joyous sound not want to see me," ambiguity 11 (is it Kouzen plays counterfamily has or am I seeking his himself who "does louder. rejected me?) was sung help because a human Alourdesjumped to her feet and over and over, louder and began to dance, ason in --- Page 83 --- hand. She was playing on our cal instrument. energies as if we were her musiSensing the moment was ripe for rival, she was stirring the room into a Azaka's arinstant just before our collective spiraling intensity. In the headed downward to energy would have peaked and salutations to refuel, Alourdes began a second round of Azaka Azaka. She was only and turns that preceded the moment halfway through the dips herself before the altar when when she would prostrate Her body shuddered Azaka arrived. then jerked and jerked, went lax for a moment, and again rapidly. These movements mark the between the lwa and Alourdes's struggle who ordinarily 8wo bônanj (big guardian presides "in her head." 11 When the angel), contest (it almost always does), the spirit wins the body to wander, as it does gwo bonanj is sent from the routinely becomes the chwal (horse) of the during sleep, and Alourdes around Alourdes to spirit. Several people moved help her, but there was no in movements; no one thought she was in urgency their people in the room seemed to take danger. "Indeed, many the events were in no no special note of her, as if Tone Her shoes way unusual or remarkable. 22 her were removed, and, with one under each arm, Azaka's blue scarf person supporting neck. The first sign that Azaka was tied around her was his high-pitched nasal was seated firmly on his horse chirp: "Whooooo, whooooo . . whoooop!" Maggie reached for the whooooo blue denim shirt made especially for Azaka voluminous put it on him. Then she put his straw hat and struggled to his makout (straw on his head and hung satchel) over one shoulder. Pants and shirt made from karabel, a blue in Haiti; a makout; and a broad-brimmed sturdy denim woven up the standard costume of straw hat these make garb of the Azaka, as well as the traditional peasant farmer in Haiti. It is partly because of similarities in clothing that Azaka came to be identified such Catholic Saint Isidore. In a with the uted in Haiti, chromolithograph widely distribIsidoreappears: in blue; pants and over one shoulder. The two are also cape, a sack slung tural theme: in the lithograph, connected by the agriculbehind Isidore kneels in him, an angel plows the land with a pair of prayer white while, "Bonswa, Kompè. Bonswa, ti Kouzinn [Good oxen. Good evening, little Cousin], 11 Azaka said, evening, Brother. nasal voice characteristic of speaking in thel highly timidly about the room from peasant speech. Then he looked beneath the brim of his straw Maggie was the first to address him. She whined: hat. "Mezanmi! agriculbehind Isidore kneels in him, an angel plows the land with a pair of prayer white while, "Bonswa, Kompè. Bonswa, ti Kouzinn [Good oxen. Good evening, little Cousin], 11 Azaka said, evening, Brother. nasal voice characteristic of speaking in thel highly timidly about the room from peasant speech. Then he looked beneath the brim of his straw Maggie was the first to address him. She whined: hat. "Mezanmi! --- Page 84 --- Woy! Ti Kouzen, m'pa bon . malad [My friend! Oh! Little Cousin, I'm not well. . sick Eh, Kouzinn, 11 Azaka replied, cocking his head in a manner that communicated both sullenness and studied "I Azaka timidity, think I'm going to go now." "No! Oh, no, Kouzen," Maggie broke in, quickly to a changing placating tone. "I'm going to give you food.' 1 Other voices joined Maggie's in pleading for the bounty of the table: Didn't he want to stay? Didn't he want to have something to eat? Kouzen replied truculently, "I didn't come all this for a banana way : : . no!" "Kouzen, don't go!" Maggie begged, with a touch of her voice. Kouzen continued to pout: "Not panic in an avocado." "Because-let fora yam . . - not for me tell you," Maggie sputtered, "you don't see all the work I do for you!" It had been an exhausting day for Maggie, and she was on edge. She had left for work at seven that morning, and when she got home, after five that afternoon, she had begun preparations for Kouzen's just feast immediately. Furthermore, she had been on her feet all night, singing enthusiastically for each spirit. "I know you come a long way, Kouzen dear,' 11 Maggie croaked. "You don't hear voice? You don't come 'til I got no voice!" my Kouzen responded like a stereotypic peasant to efforts to placate him. His body language communicated Maggie's stubborn passivity. His objections came out as whining complaints, the thin voice rising and falling, first a little screech, then a whisper. "Manman o1 dwe'm [Your mother owes me, Kouzen pouty said, crossing his arms and staring at his feet. To this picture of wronged innocence, Kouzen added a definitive and turned his back on Maggie. "Humph!" Maggie walked around in front of him to continue pleading. Anger rising in her voice along with desperation, plained the financial difficulties of the moment: Maggie exdon't understand. Mommie has not paid the "Kouzen, you month. She has telephone bill. mortgage in two They shut off her HBO. She tried to turn on a movie for the kids, and it was gone!" "All my business is written down," Kouzen said with a trace of smugness, adding another "Humph!" for good This statement was met by snickers from the crowd, and measure. laughed out loud. Kouzen became defensive: "You some cheat me because you know I don't know how are trying to know how to write, and cheat to write. You you me!" month. She has telephone bill. mortgage in two They shut off her HBO. She tried to turn on a movie for the kids, and it was gone!" "All my business is written down," Kouzen said with a trace of smugness, adding another "Humph!" for good This statement was met by snickers from the crowd, and measure. laughed out loud. Kouzen became defensive: "You some cheat me because you know I don't know how are trying to know how to write, and cheat to write. You you me!" --- Page 85 --- "How many tree leaves does your mother demanded of Maggie, using his owe me?" Kouzen paper money. "Find my list!" he characteristic whined. expression for written down. I told you that! I "All my business is writes for me." 11 always find somebody who Maggie sent Robert searching Azaka grubby little denim sack with deep in Azaka's makout for a Maggie pulled out a rumpled drawstrings. When it was located, chair near Kouzen, she smoothed scrap of paper. Sitting down in a to read: "Fanm it out on her knee and Alourdes . five dollar, began Robert, five tree leaves. Ti Bobfifty cent. Gason Azaka interrupted the reading: that tree leaves from my hand. A lot! A "Listen, lot! man took a lot of acre of land. How much does he He was going to buy an Maggie responded and then owe me?" "Sixty dollars," added looking for him, but she don't find him. quickly, "My mother is number, but it was no good. I1 "Im He give her a telephone year, you hear?" Kouzen going to get my money this announced with "Get my purse,' 11 said to unusual force. Maggie Robert. "Im my mother." Money was going to pay for to Papa Zaka, most of them appearing all over the room as debts accumulated at last party, were paid. It was unusual for Azaka year's birthday own financial affairs. This role is to be conducting his country cousin who "walks usually filled by the female with him," Kouzinn years earlier, Kouzinn had come to Alourdes's Zaka. Three Azaka's debt collection, and feast to handle zinn is his secretary, his Maggie had explained to me: "Koubusiness, deal in banker, whatever. She the one who have on the plantation. money. Azaka don'thave no business; he work This version of Whatever the money he make, he give it to her." 11 zinn reflects traditional relationship between Kouzen and Kouwhere, gender arrangements in rural following a West African pattern, market Haiti, only ones who handle money. women are the neurial class of men has been Recently, however, an entrepreside.Itis made up off farmers who steadily have growing in the countrypolitical managed, often machinations, to amass large tracts of through salers who buy such land and wholesell them to products as coffee from small farmers and large exporting companies. Perhaps change was sparked by this social shift, Azaka's role likely that his behavior that although it seems more Alourdes's fatigue night in 1984 was a result of either (one possession is easier than two) or the neurial class of men has been Recently, however, an entrepreside.Itis made up off farmers who steadily have growing in the countrypolitical managed, often machinations, to amass large tracts of through salers who buy such land and wholesell them to products as coffee from small farmers and large exporting companies. Perhaps change was sparked by this social shift, Azaka's role likely that his behavior that although it seems more Alourdes's fatigue night in 1984 was a result of either (one possession is easier than two) or the --- Page 86 --- financial needs of her family. What followed was even pressing for Alourdes's Azaka also took over more surprising, however, Kouzinn's market role. loans, Azaka deContent that he had settled his outstanding animated Azaka cided to sell the items on his altar tables. Suddenly he called and sounding like a true machann (market woman), Cousin. Look at out to people: "Come on, Brother. Come on, choose. Pick it up. the big market! Come, come, come. You can out. Hehhhhh! You don't have to be afraid! Go on, pull it right a real little Gason Didi, you going to buy a little thing, just children? You thing, yes? Fanm Linda, you going to buy for the come!" don't want to! Come on! Come, come, can't tell me you the table as KouThe young man called Didi approached Cousin? on: "What do you want in the market, zen pattered "How much for that cake?" Didi What are you going to buy?" frosted in blue. "Two hundred tree asked, pointing to the one gasped, and then leaves," Kouzen responded. First, people That's too much, 11 Didi said, laughing himself. they laughed. and he pointed to an unfrosted sheet "How about that one?" for Kouzen's altar. cake that Irma and her mother had brought Kouzen said "Myself with you, we are going to negotiate!" about with real relish in his voice, and he broke into a little song he loved to gather around him. He abruptly how much people and announced that the bargainended the song in mid-phrase tree leaves!" Didi laughed ing session was open: "How "Forty-seven much of it will you give me for five again and came back, Kouzen then dollars?" "Half for seven tree leaves," replied, his answer: "The half of a half." Didi agreed, quickly qualified balanced the sheet cake on his knees, cutting it and Papa Zaka Lifting the chunk of cake in his in half and then in half again. it, it and down as if weighing hand and moving slowly up eh?" Kouzen looked to the crowd: "Bon mache [A good buy), murmurs of agreement, and Azaka nodded There were polite with himself. Then he lopped off about a his head, well pleased and hid it in the corner of the cake plate bethird of the piece his other hand toward a hind his free hand, while he extended than an ordichagrined Didi with a piece of cake in it no larger with The entire cake was sold in this fashion, nary serving. slicing off a corner of the piece just Kouzen at the last moment of chunks and crumbs sold. Finally, he sold the resulting pile Azaka said to the for two dollars. "Put another tree leaf on it," amused buyer, "and you can take a piece of candy, too." the corner of the cake plate bethird of the piece his other hand toward a hind his free hand, while he extended than an ordichagrined Didi with a piece of cake in it no larger with The entire cake was sold in this fashion, nary serving. slicing off a corner of the piece just Kouzen at the last moment of chunks and crumbs sold. Finally, he sold the resulting pile Azaka said to the for two dollars. "Put another tree leaf on it," amused buyer, "and you can take a piece of candy, too." --- Page 87 --- With no more cake to sell, Azaka turned to fruit and candy, bottles of cola, and small hawking pieces of sava bread. He leaned hard fragments of cas65 on the unfortunate was pressured into buying for his three children Robert, who himself. "You going to buy, Cousin?" as well as "Chwazi [Choose]!" "Yes," replied Robert. Azaka urged Kouzen. "Wi," said poule anpil, wi Kompè? Se pa pou Robert. "Ou a lot, yes, Brother? It's not to poule-chavazi bougay [You talk talk-choose sponded Azaka, using the distortions of Creole something]!" respeech of the spirits, distortions in which common to the comes poule, and bagay pale (to speak) be- (thing) becomes bougay. banana, some cookies, and some hard Robert chose a the banana, but Kouzen candy. He began to peel Finish stopped him short: "Don't eat bargaining first!" Despite language barriers, yet. nally got the message and handed the Robert fiEarlier, Kouzen had spirit seven dollars. appointed Robert out the evening he handed over treasurer, and throughfrom debts money to him whether it came repaid or from the sale of items from his Every now and then, he ordered Robert to count "market." out loud. On the first count, Azaka had the proceeds collected dollars; on the second, the total rose to seventy-one the third, it was one hundred ten. Not eighty dollars; and on tired of these games. "Now I'm finished long after, even Azaka nounced and directed Robert with business!" he anand divide it into three to count the money one last time ent places, for piles, being sure to hide them in differsafety. "No matter what vivan (living money, you may give to them. You person] don't comes who needs Azaka declared. Then, in have to call me, no, 11 he cut his one last demonstration of eyes at Robert: "What about the character, on some?" "Cousin, 11 Azaka pennies? You sitting me. What's he got in that hand?" whispered to Maggie, "check for The market was closed at last, and white cloth at Azaka's feet, in Maggie spread a clean tables. She front of the now-depleted altar pulled the brimming bowls of food Azaka's altar and placed them before him. It from beneath the morning as was nearly four in large portions of chaka, rice and meal, avocado, yam, and sweet beans, cornhomely calabash bowls and potato were scooped out of the onto plates for each was allowed to refuse, and we were all guest. No one hands-the child's expected to eat with our the way of eating, the only vivan, who are all children in relation appropriate way for to the spirits. No the brimming bowls of food Azaka's altar and placed them before him. It from beneath the morning as was nearly four in large portions of chaka, rice and meal, avocado, yam, and sweet beans, cornhomely calabash bowls and potato were scooped out of the onto plates for each was allowed to refuse, and we were all guest. No one hands-the child's expected to eat with our the way of eating, the only vivan, who are all children in relation appropriate way for to the spirits. No --- Page 88 --- in the dangerous territory of finances where longer operating are but use66 competitiveness, guile, and suspicion unappealing ful character traits, Azaka became the generous host, urging do all his "You going to eat, Brother?" "What food on guests: chaka; it's Azaka want, Cousin?" "Take some good!" you is characteristic of Haitian peasants. An Expansive hospitality who lived for several years in the Haitian counAmerican friend in their house, they tryside put it this way: "Ify you are a guest Even if they will break their backs to feed and entertain you. of rice left, you will get half. Haitian peasants have only a cup They will give you anything, as long as are incredibly generous. ask for. You can't even ask questions about it's not money you nature of this contrast between hospimoney!" The problematic businessman showed itselfi in a table family patriarch and canny of Alourdes's birthday surprising way during the remainder party for Kouzen Zaka. Alourdes's major spirit, made his exWhen Azaka left, Ogou, his were inThe first words out of mouth pected appearance. with Azaka: "Did he ask for quiries about what had transpired him? You, too?" Receivmoney? Did you buy? Do you owe the warrior affirmative responses all around, Ogou, loyal ing sighed with disgust and shook his head, known for his integrity, that.' 11 Then he consigned Azaka to "No, no, no, no. I don'tlike colorful epithet: "Kaka his place with an uncharacteristically bandit!" Just The conflict was not resolved with Ogou's appearance. that as the last of the guests were making after seven morning, door, Alourdes collapsed in a their way out Legba's still-open of First it fatigued by the succession spirits. chair, completely and finally Gede, the trickster had been Azaka, then Ogou, his comic perspirit whose habit is to come last and stay long, outside formance serving as a buffer between Vodou and the over, barely able to keep her eyes open, world. Sitting slumped She also thanked them proAlourdes bid her guests good-bye. the spirits. In the course of sevfusely for their help in serving that she did not aperal parting conversations, she mentioned prove of Azaka's behavior. Robert and his family, and I fell into our Alourdes and Maggie, the sofa bed in Alourdes's respective beds. (I had been assigned amid a menagerie of ceramic tigers, rarely used upstairs parlor, We slept until noon, when the noise dolls, and stuffed animals.) Sitting slumped She also thanked them proAlourdes bid her guests good-bye. the spirits. In the course of sevfusely for their help in serving that she did not aperal parting conversations, she mentioned prove of Azaka's behavior. Robert and his family, and I fell into our Alourdes and Maggie, the sofa bed in Alourdes's respective beds. (I had been assigned amid a menagerie of ceramic tigers, rarely used upstairs parlor, We slept until noon, when the noise dolls, and stuffed animals.) --- Page 89 --- of a Brooklyn street in early summer made sible. After cups of good strong Café further rest imposherself to call Kouzen Rebo, Alourdes settled one last time, SO that he could dismantling of his tables. For this direct the Deyo were shortened to two Hail truncated ritual, the Priyè quick pass through the Marys, and there was one Azaka After the third Vodou song calling on Legba to open the song for Kouzen, the gate. rived. He was mountain man arcomplaining as usual. Where was his karabel shirt? Where did not want to use them; he was his bottle of gin? He put away properly. Kouzen just wanted to be sure they were the remaining also told Maggie what to do with food-some was to be shared was "for the house." 11 His directions with friends, some by a commotion at the basement were suddenly interrupted police!" shrieked Kouzen Zaka. door. "What's going on? The One of the neighborhood children had a police officer was about to ticket come to warn me that Azaka and went out to my car. I made excuses to really expired but that I had explain that my registration had not sticker. After simply neglected to attach the new his assuring himself that I sufficiently authority, the officer proved to be acknowledged five minutes I was back inside, reasonable, and within don't like police! You only to find Azaka cowering. "I spent too much time see in police, you run! They beat people! I've voices soothed: jail; I'm going now." All around "You don't need to go, little him, gone, he's gone." Cousin." "He's After making a small private loan to one of the participants, Azaka now had past night's sizable handful of ninety-eight dollars in bills and a times he ordered change left in his three small sacks. it counted in front of Three he said, was to be distributed him. The loose change, spirits' altars in Alourdes's among the boxes on the various in our small altar room. Then he asked if group wanted to borrow the "tree 11 anyone first attempt, he found nol leaves." On the Maggie said she would borrowers; but the second time around take it. That was the signal to begin Maggie repeatedly referred to the bargaining over interest rates. borrow, and Azaka ninety-eight dollars she would After several persisted in calling it one hundred dollars. to pay back one exchanges, hundred Maggie suggested that she was willing year. "One hundred fifty dollars on the first of May next fifty-seven!" Kouzen countered, and again if group wanted to borrow the "tree 11 anyone first attempt, he found nol leaves." On the Maggie said she would borrowers; but the second time around take it. That was the signal to begin Maggie repeatedly referred to the bargaining over interest rates. borrow, and Azaka ninety-eight dollars she would After several persisted in calling it one hundred dollars. to pay back one exchanges, hundred Maggie suggested that she was willing year. "One hundred fifty dollars on the first of May next fifty-seven!" Kouzen countered, and again --- Page 90 --- "I don't Maggie agreed. In an aside to me, Maggie explained: twelve I can go to the bank, pay ten percent, maybe care. Iknow but why should I let some stranger come here percent interest, borrow the money and just go out, never come back! and then Ti Bob? Humph! He owe Kouzen Azaka Remember that guy last year? find him. Besides, this sixty dollars. Now Mommie cannot even this money This is special. Anything you put is not just money. luck. I need some luck!" in going to have good it's to climb to three hun- "If you don't pay May first, going said Maggie, "one dred dollars!" Kouzen warned. "Okay," from now until the thing only I got to say-I better be working for me!" Kouzen refirst of May 1985. You take care of that works. nonchalantly, "You are going to find my money sponded Don't you worry." affairs finally laid to rest for another year, With his financial member of our small Azaka gave a personal message to each continue to come to him in He told Robert that he would group. He assured me that he was going to give my book his dreams. from an an- "a little push. 1I Robert's wife was suffering project skin rash, and she was given a bottle of medikaman (medinoying Azaka's herb-laced gin and cornstarch. After cine) made from held the medicine bottle up to each of mixing the brew, Kouzen across its open mouth. He the four directions and blew sharply Robert's then set it on the floor in front of him and instructed it with both hands-but only after leaving seven wife to pick up to her: "Some cents on the floor beside it. Maggie explained that don't can't just take. Even you just put a penny, thing you matter. You got to pay, or it don't work." "YOU IN, YOU IN. YOU OUT, YOU STAY OUT." Haitian Vodou spirits, in his or her own way, is a Each of the He fed his character defined by conflict. Azaka is no exception. after from the feast laid beneath his altar table, but only children and coerced them into buying the items on top of he had cajoled and business. The it.Kouzen Zaka straddles two worlds: family different in these two worlds. Within the family, currencies are extension into all that feeds and-nurfood and its metaphorical Relationships last a lifetime, tures is the means of exchange. strict acis expected, no one keeps and although reciprocity a Each of the He fed his character defined by conflict. Azaka is no exception. after from the feast laid beneath his altar table, but only children and coerced them into buying the items on top of he had cajoled and business. The it.Kouzen Zaka straddles two worlds: family different in these two worlds. Within the family, currencies are extension into all that feeds and-nurfood and its metaphorical Relationships last a lifetime, tures is the means of exchange. strict acis expected, no one keeps and although reciprocity --- Page 91 --- counts. In the business sphere) the means of Money is for counting; it lends itself exchange is money. like ongoing family relations, to precise reckoning. Un69 changes with, business deals are abbreviated more often than not, a loser and exare worlds in tension, a tension a winner. These tian peasant who endemic to the life of the HaiAzaka and the city. Iti is also moves between farm and market, the a tension easily translated country New York immigrant. into the life of a InVodou, the tension between these the very different values and behaviors antithetical worlds, and is commented on and transformed that each engenders, in money on the bed!" Alourdes many ways. "Don't put dump out the contents of yelled at me once as I started to token. "Why?" I wondered my change purse to look for a subway few hard and fast rules and then remembered one of the the ason on the bed. to emerge from my initiation: is Never, never, never. 11 The "Don'tput an instrument of coercive ason, like money, spirits, who are power. It exercises control over the thought to be and go, more or less at the will compelled of the by its sound to come money nor the ason can be manbo or oungan. Neither ing placed on the bed, for such power implements do not belong in the distancdren are made and born, the place where chilAzaka straddles these place where family begins. he also mediates worlds in tension, and, to some them, reconciling the extent, of money is ordinarily equal to its irreconcilable. The value is as good as another. But in quantity. One five-gourd note on Papa Zaka's hands, quality as well as quantity. Robert's wife had money takes medicine, but the payment was to pay for her knew she could borrow only symbolic. And Maggie from a bank more Kouzen, but she borrowed from him cheaply than from money. This is special. 11 Azaka's anyway: "This is not just Kouzen Zaka money brings luck. portrays the generosity and within a family group, but he also concern that prevail paranoia, that characterizes the portrays the suspicion, even group toward all those who fall attitude of such a tightly knit Participants in the dense drama outside the protective circle. of a Vodou on both sides. Outsiders by definition ceremony play roles are cheated and suspected of at Kouzen's market, they family table, they are fed and pilfering his profits. Insiders at the rehearsal lofand for life, and the given boons. Such role playing is a the lessons learned ricochet community. The challenge lies in learning these roles through well anoia, that characterizes the portrays the suspicion, even group toward all those who fall attitude of such a tightly knit Participants in the dense drama outside the protective circle. of a Vodou on both sides. Outsiders by definition ceremony play roles are cheated and suspected of at Kouzen's market, they family table, they are fed and pilfering his profits. Insiders at the rehearsal lofand for life, and the given boons. Such role playing is a the lessons learned ricochet community. The challenge lies in learning these roles through well --- Page 92 --- the characters, values, and behaviors that enough to recognize clearly belong to each realm. and those who between those who are inside Distinguishing is far easier in the rural world of are outside the family group for Haitian immigrant living Azaka Kouzen Zaka than it will ever be a of one of in New York. This task highlights the significance on part to his of Joseph Binbin Mauvant. When he passed the legacy medicine he had, the medicine was children the most effective boundary beAfrican words that cast a clear and indisputable salawu these realms: "Sim salalam, sa salawu. Pa salam, pa tween [You in, you in. You out, you stay out)."S Alourdes cites her matrilinIn discussing her healing work, and more frequently than her patrilineage. eage more readily in Alourdes's family have been Over the generations, the men and are less less constant and less caring than the women, they Their models in her day-to-day operations as a healer. dlearly however, will not be denied. When every other genuine power, client, Alourdes turns to the legacy of Joseph skill fails to heal a left and down and slapBinbin Mauvant. Pumping her leg up her mother her thigh each timeit rises, Alourdes shouts, as ping did before her: "Tonnè [Thunder]! Sim salaand grandmother lam, sa salawu. Pa salam, pa salawu." have to. "And that person get well, baby!" she tells me. "They that word. who left They have to! That was my great-grandfather and I that word, It from Africa. Sometime I'm in trouble, repeat Pa salam, pa salawu. 1 And everything okay! 'Sim salalam, sa salawu. out.' 111 That word mean, You in, you in. You out, you stay AZAKA'S CALL TO REMEMBER Alourdes was in her twenties, she had three children and When the largest city in Haiti and lived on her own in Port-au-Prince, than she cares to its capital. Life was hard, and on more days So she remember she and her children went to bed hungry. when her brother suggested she join him jumped at the chance of Joseph Binbin in New York. Philomise, the granddaughter to track down a specific African origin or a more precise 51 have not attempted "word from Africa.' " Rather, I have chosen to let it stand here as translation for this it exists in Alourdes's memory. When the largest city in Haiti and lived on her own in Port-au-Prince, than she cares to its capital. Life was hard, and on more days So she remember she and her children went to bed hungry. when her brother suggested she join him jumped at the chance of Joseph Binbin in New York. Philomise, the granddaughter to track down a specific African origin or a more precise 51 have not attempted "word from Africa.' " Rather, I have chosen to let it stand here as translation for this it exists in Alourdes's memory. --- Page 93 --- her daughter'sp plan. Philo hated Mauvant, reluctantly supported but she was too well versed in the to see her favorite child leave, Alourdes this chance. So Philo sufferings of life in Haiti to deny to send her daughter did what a mother could do: she sought Azaka by the protection of the spirits. on her way surrounded for her own daughter, Maggie, Alourdes frequently recounts and the subsequent the story of this momentous departure problems in New York. That day I go to New York, my Let me tell you something. to the We got a car, a with me airport. whole family going in that car. Then my mother taxi, you know, and everybody in that car too, and she say, come out, and she start to get come inside." AndI "Oh, boy!I forgot something. Alourdes, in that car, and "Why, Mommie?" 'cause everybody say, saying, "Come on, let's go, let's go!" everybody things was different. You going on an You know, that time, and had to dress nice. Ihad airplane, everybody nervous, red hat. you AndIv was nervous too, a new dress, red dress, and a want me to do inside?" so I say, "Why, Mommie? What you in front of the altar." She say, "Come in, make some prayer "You don't want to do it? And I say, "No." My mother say, and she go inside Let me do it for you. 11 I say, Thank you," into the car. I say, the house, she pray for me, and she come for you.' 11 She say, "Yes, I pray good "You pray good?" 'cause I tell my mother, "Im going to Idon't want to do it, I don't think I'm star! Beautiful! Oh, boy! that city-lot'a in New York." going to need no spirit And I was wrong! holds in her Alourdes came to Brooklyn in 1962, a date she die." Her that it was "before Kennedy mind by remembering difficulties in the United States presented greater serious early years The first sign of than anyone could have expected. illness. trouble was a sudden and frightening before Christmas. I feel That happen in 1963, December 1963, can't sit down. I can't sick-my stomach, my chest. Oh, boy!I also. I feel I'm going lay down. I can't stand up. Ican't breathe what happen to "God please save me! Oh, God, to die. I say, three children in Haiti - . . my me?" Then I think about my mother . . my family. early years The first sign of than anyone could have expected. illness. trouble was a sudden and frightening before Christmas. I feel That happen in 1963, December 1963, can't sit down. I can't sick-my stomach, my chest. Oh, boy!I also. I feel I'm going lay down. I can't stand up. Ican't breathe what happen to "God please save me! Oh, God, to die. I say, three children in Haiti - . . my me?" Then I think about my mother . . my family. --- Page 94 --- They bring me in Jewish Hospital, in Prospect Avenue. I got fever one hundred and six, and they put me in room. You know what they do for me? They ice emergency me! comein with bucket, alcohol. They Azaka ice, They take off all my clothes, and they rub me. They rub me with the sheet. It was SO cold! Like they put me in the freezer. I yell! - cry! Icry! After I cool down, I get hot. Just when I was quiet, sleepy, then they unwrap me, take another sheet, and wrap me again. I was SO sick, and I don't get better. January eight, I see priest coming. He ask me, "Are Catholic?" I say, "Yes," and he give me last rite. Oh, you One o'clock, I see three men coming in. They take me to yeah! the operate room. Doctor say I got infection in my intestine. They operate me, and when I wake up I was SO scared. I ask that doctor, "Did you put a thing in me?"'cause somebody tell me when they operate you : . . down there, you know . . . they put a thing in you, and you don't do it natural no more. Then I don't speak English too good, but I try, and I just say to him, "Please, can you tell me, did you put that thing in me?" And finally he understand, and he say, "No." I pass almost one month in the hospital. Yeah! Then I feel all right, and me out. they put You know, when you come from the hospital, you to go back for treatment. But I don't go back, because suppose they ask me, "Bring your passport and alien card." They ask me, "Where your family live in Haiti?" They ask me that! Uh-huh, they ask me that. And I give the address, but when I tell friend Carmen, she say, "Oh, yeah, if you go with alien my card and your passport, they going write the government your in Haiti, make them pay."' 'Cause when you operate is very expensive, and I don't have no money to pay. She say, going send you back to Haiti. "1 I get scared. I never go "They back. That time I don't know what is welfare. I don't know about welfare at all, and nobody don't tell me. No, nobody don't tell me, if you sick, you not working, you can go someplace, can help you. Nobody tell me that. But everybody' friend they help me. You see me, you give me two dollar, three dollar. IfI come in your house, you give me plate of food, you know. That's the way I survive! The communities that surround newly arrived Haitian immigrants today are much larger and more experienced than they They back. That time I don't know what is welfare. I don't know about welfare at all, and nobody don't tell me. No, nobody don't tell me, if you sick, you not working, you can go someplace, can help you. Nobody tell me that. But everybody' friend they help me. You see me, you give me two dollar, three dollar. IfI come in your house, you give me plate of food, you know. That's the way I survive! The communities that surround newly arrived Haitian immigrants today are much larger and more experienced than they --- Page 95 --- were in the early 1960s when Alourdes come effective clearinghouses came. They have befor as for more tangible forms of practical information as well and shelter. Now, assistance such as food, as before, however, the clothing, process rumor. Lacking both access to accurate communities also a feeling of entitlement that would information and Azaka thority, Haitian immigrants allow them to question auabout what works and what rely instead on countless anecdotes what is not, what will does not work, what is legal and thorities arouse the attention of the (a fear deep in the bones of those who dreaded auDuvalier family rule) and what will allow lived under the noticed. Many, unlike a person to slip by unwhom living Alourdes, are illegal immigrants, for discreetly is an essential survival strategy. When I leave Jewish Hospital, I'm strength back. That time, I back okay. I eat until I got my after, I get sick again. I go to work. But three months time, they get sick again! Same system! Second bring me to WycoffHospital. They call They give me last rite again. That's twice I priest again. This time they tell me I got bad got last rite. Twice! But that not true. heart, I got all kind'a sickness. When I come from Wycoff Hospital, I because I don'thave no got no place to live, lady in the street. Yvonne money. I can't pay no rent. So I meet a Haiti. She say, "How Constant. She know my family in Come into my house. 11 come That you SO skinny? Oh, poor girl! when I reach her house. lady give me a big plate of food boiled plantain-I eat, Woy! Rice and bean, a big fish, a sweetheart! She me place to live. I sleep in her give me food, she give Butidon'tknow what house, and she give me food. One day happen. Ialways sleeping. Ican'twork. Beatrice somebody tell me, "Beatrice want to see my sister-in-law. Sunday I you." me, and I go there. When I first afternoon, got clothes on her house. But we don't come to New York, I live in her for a long time. get along too good, and I don't see to people I know to ask Long time. You know me, I don't go just say, "Aunt Bebe, or beg for nothing! So I see her, I What people tell me you was for . asking happen . my mother? . . Something me. family?" happen in my She say, "No, nothing don't happen in to see you because I got a dream about your family. I want It very serious?" She say, "I don't you. "Is say, "Oh, yeah? know if it serious or not." people I know to ask Long time. You know me, I don't go just say, "Aunt Bebe, or beg for nothing! So I see her, I What people tell me you was for . asking happen . my mother? . . Something me. family?" happen in my She say, "No, nothing don't happen in to see you because I got a dream about your family. I want It very serious?" She say, "I don't you. "Is say, "Oh, yeah? know if it serious or not." --- Page 96 --- She say, "I dream I see a mountain man on Street. I1 She say, in that dream, she have to cross Forty-second that street, and everybody standing, just waiting for the light. She look at that man. She say, Azaka "They got mountain man in New York, too?" When they give the green light, she just walk. And one lady walking behind her say, "Hey, Madame! Madame! Madame! That man call you. 11 Bebe say, "What man?" When she turn her head, she see the mountain man. She went to the mountain man, and she tell the mountain man, "Hi," and he say, "Hi, Cousin." And Bebe "You want to speak to me?" And he say, "Yes, Cousin." And say, he tell Bebe, "Did you know Philo?" Bebe say, "Philo? Yeah." "Did you know Alourdes?" Bebe say, "Yes, I know Alourdes. She my sister-in-law." And that man say: "When she come into New York, she don't dress like me, jean pants and jean shirt? Ifshe dress why like me, she was well dressed, right?" And Bebe say, "Idon't know." And the mountain man say, "Tell Alourdesi ifshe dress like me, everything going to be beautiful!" Bebe say, and that man walk maybe three or four step, and Bebe "Really?" don't see him no more, and boom! the docd-immmmr-and she say, "What time is it?" It was six-thirty in the morning, and when she wake Bebe say, "Ahhhh! I understand that dream. I understand. up, I have to see Alourdes to explain her that.' 11 Because she know my mother have spirit, you know, SO she say maybe Alourdes's mother' spirit come and talk to me. Maybe that man maybe that Kouzen Zaka. : When Alourdes heard her sister-in-law's dream, she understood what she had to do. She had to go back to Haiti for the kind of treatment no hospital in the United States could vide. But going back to Haiti, even for a short trip, required promoney, and Alourdes had none. For a time, she continued to live with Yvonne Constant, her family friend, and gradually the proud Alourdes took that woman into her confidence. Alourdes told her she did not think she had the strength to work even she found a job. She told of her conviction thati it was the if who were troubling her. She needed to go back to Haiti, spirits and she worried day and night about how she would find the to do that. money But going back to Haiti, even for a short trip, required promoney, and Alourdes had none. For a time, she continued to live with Yvonne Constant, her family friend, and gradually the proud Alourdes took that woman into her confidence. Alourdes told her she did not think she had the strength to work even she found a job. She told of her conviction thati it was the if who were troubling her. She needed to go back to Haiti, spirits and she worried day and night about how she would find the to do that. money --- Page 97 --- Yvonne listened, day by day, until the then she promised to help. She told full story was out, and use a credit card to buy her Alourdes that she would also loan her the a plane ticket and that she would give Alourdes three necessary hundred pocket money. Yvonne promised to came around in "Hands.' 11 dollars in cash as soon as her turn Azaka When Alourdes story, she had to explain: "You don't first told me this Spanish call it 'Blood." I Say know what is Hands? The each person give you got ten people. Then every week thirty dollar. So three hundred dollar! That is Hands!" every week somebody got Alourdes returned to Haiti with no advance mother. In fact, she had not written notice to her know, Igot nothing to put in that home for months. "You for myself! And I don't like letter; I don'teven got money account of me." When my mother worry all the time on Alourdes little yard on Avenue Oswald swung open the gate to the fainted. Durand in Port-au-Prince, Philo Alourdes told her mother about Kouzen Philo said that even though she had not Zaka's message, and she had known heard from Alourdes, portant dream. In something Philo's was wrong. She also had had an imherarmi ina cast, asifit had dream, Alourdes came back home with entered the house been broken. In the dream, Alourdes went and, without saying a word to her straight to the altar to pray. After mother, turned her back on her mother, some time, she arose, door. Philo had this dream and, still silent, walked out the turn to Haiti, and it bothered about a month before Alourdes's recussed it with the her SO much that she even disneighbors. On one of the first days Alourdes spirit Ogou possessed her was home, the warrior ered was not one Alourdes mother, and the message he delivin wanted to hear. my mother' head, and he tell "Papa Ogou come card, you me I'm to see know : . do spirit work suppose with like!" Although Alourdes's . - help people. That) I don't a reputation as a manbo in mother was very poor, she had quite Philo had even served Port-au-Prince. For a short as a counselor to period, fore he became president of Haiti and François Duvalier, beacter revealed themselves. the ugly parts of his charlittle ofher mother's Nevertheless, Alourdes believed that on her. "I say, 'Oh, boy! healing How knowledge or talent had rubbed off help I'm going to do that?' Because people you got to know a lot'a thing. I say, 'How I to going to as a manbo in mother was very poor, she had quite Philo had even served Port-au-Prince. For a short as a counselor to period, fore he became president of Haiti and François Duvalier, beacter revealed themselves. the ugly parts of his charlittle ofher mother's Nevertheless, Alourdes believed that on her. "I say, 'Oh, boy! healing How knowledge or talent had rubbed off help I'm going to do that?' Because people you got to know a lot'a thing. I say, 'How I to going to --- Page 98 --- all that in my head?' My mother tell me, 'You'll manage; put don't you worry!" involves an elaborate set Initiation into the Vodou priesthood of seclusion in of rituals, the core of which is a long period to kouche to lie down or go Azaka which a person is said to (literally, the These rituals are commonly referred to as "taking sleep). rattle that is said to give ason, I1 that is, taking up the beaded in working and priestesses a certain amount of leverage priests with the spirits. in mother' head say I have to take the ason. Papa Ogou my mother don't have no ason. But Papa Ogou say You know, my father' family serve with the ason, SO I I have to, because my I serve two kind of spirit, have to take the ason for protection. from my father' family and from my mother' family. initiation rituals for Alourdes could not take place right The Money had to be saved for drummers, sacrificial animals, away. for the Several sets of ritual clothing had food and drink spirits. ritual called a to be sewn. Thus on this first visit only a simple was performed. The headwashing was lave tèt (a headwashing) Alourdes made to the spirits, indicating that a pwomès (promise). and intended to honor it. The ritual she had heard their request Alourdes's head and "fed" also "cooled" the restive spirits in she returned to New and strengthened them. After two weeks, that she York. But before she left, she promised the spirits hunwould return to Haiti to kouche as soon as she had seven dred dollars. and, although life in New The spirits eased their discipline, turn in York continued to be demanding, there was a noticeable "luck" after this first trip back to Haiti. Before she left New her Alourdes had been unable to find employment. But on York, after her return, she found a job in the laundry at the the day Home, a she held for two years. Brooklyn Hebrew position Alourdes also moved step by step During this interim period, into the role of healer. know, little by little, start to do I start to help people, you know, anything thing. You my friend, you got trouble-you a little bit. I try to come to me, Ihelp . : . love, sickness-you Ido for them is good. No complaint. People help. Everything . But on York, after her return, she found a job in the laundry at the the day Home, a she held for two years. Brooklyn Hebrew position Alourdes also moved step by step During this interim period, into the role of healer. know, little by little, start to do I start to help people, you know, anything thing. You my friend, you got trouble-you a little bit. I try to come to me, Ihelp . : . love, sickness-you Ido for them is good. No complaint. People help. Everything --- Page 99 --- know, five dollar, ten dollar, be77 start to give me money, you to "I don't have So one day I say myself, cause they grateful. work in to that 11 SoI quit that job and I just no time to go job. house. I read card. I help people. Azaka my this time Alourdes drew on skills acquired during the During her mother, on her awakening memory, and on short visit with who began to speak to her more directly the help of the spirits, through her dreams. She show me how to read My mother teach me a lot'a thing. then, after that, I dream card. My mother start to show me; to read card finish show me how and the spirit finish . . they know, herb. in that dream. She teach me about semmp- whole you lot! Also, I begin My mother know a lot about herb, a and now I rememremember. Since I little girl, I watch her, to ber a lot'a thing. to see the real person. My mother tell me, "Now you going know, Somebody come in your house, they happy-you to see if drinking -even they do that, you going dancing, bad inside them, you going to they sad. If they got something see that.' 11 Alourdes had saved seven hundred dollars, she Finally, when returned to Haiti to take the ason. time I go back to Haiti, my life was not good. Not real Second but not good. Second time I go, I pass one bad like before, inside that little room where they month in Haiti. . . nine day back to New York, kouche me. Then I a manbo. When I come I make them pouring all over me! People who lose job, people who sick, I treat them. Their husband or wife find job. People come back. After I come back leave them, I make that person have to work outside again. from Haiti second time, I did not woman and a strong manbo, Alourdes's reputation as a good has grown fair to her clients and effective in her treatments, steadily since then. to do never do bad in your My mother show me how good, that return to you, life. Because when you do bad to people, --- Page 100 --- that return right on your back. I remember every single thing she tell me, because that's in my family!My great-grandmother serve spirit, and my grandmother, then my mother, then me. Azaka "Some people got spirit in their family," Alourdes concluded, "but when they grow up, they think they too big-shot to serve thatspirit. They too ashame about that. ButI'm not ashameatall, because I love spirit, because they help me. That's my belief!" --- Page 101 --- CHAPTER THREE --- Page 102 --- Raise That Womans Petticoat about him Macena had an air Apiome that made people painfully self-conscious. A grimo (light-skinned man), tall and lean, with the grace of a cat-and SO well dressed! Children became suddenly shy around and women patted down their Mother Hubbards and him, their headrags when they saw him coming. When tugged at Macena came to the northern town of Port-de-Paix and Alphonse took room in the only pension there, people talked. Not to his a of course. face, "What's this handsome man doing here? Surveyor, You are not going to find a single person who saw him you say? doing any surveying work around here. inned man), tall and lean, with the grace of a cat-and SO well dressed! Children became suddenly shy around and women patted down their Mother Hubbards and him, their headrags when they saw him coming. When tugged at Macena came to the northern town of Port-de-Paix and Alphonse took room in the only pension there, people talked. Not to his a of course. face, "What's this handsome man doing here? Surveyor, You are not going to find a single person who saw him you say? doing any surveying work around here. 11 Macena's the only thing that kept tongues wagging in Port-de-Paix. inactivity was not Some people wondered what he was doing on his own, SO far from family. The maid in the pension was heard to that away knew someone who knew someone who say she was certain he had left a wife and children down south. The mysterious stranger from Jacmel (a bustling neocolonial coffee port on Haiti's southern peninsula) stayed in Port-de-Paix for the long enough rumormongers to fall silent, but the people in town never did learn much about him. The who talked to Alphonse Macena only ones were his drinking During the long evenings he spent on the balcony of the partners. ful-if shoddy- pension in the center of town, a small gracethe town's hard drinkers gathered around him. Even group of styled these selfgwo nèg (important men) were realistic to know that most of what passed as conversation enough among them was swagger. Yet some stories were told more often than others. pure There was the story Macena told of being forced off the land in Jacmel by an unscrupulous older family brother, a story that A A machann selling herbs. Saut d'Eau, Haiti, 1981. Photograph by Jerry Gordon. --- Page 103 --- changed only in the details of how Macena even. Many years after the would one day get brother's event, he still smarted from his parting words: "If you ask me for that going to kill you!" And there land again, I am Port-au-Prince was the story of the who took on an apprentice surveyor in ily. There were hints that rejected by his famRaise saved Macena's life, even this relationship, which had That Macena did went sour in the end. But, in this Woman's not speak of revenge; he just called the old case, Petticoat "donkey." man a Macena liked to be thought of as an educated nings before the sun set, he could be man. Many eveof Pension Hubert seen sitting on the balcony ostentatiously flipping the paper, shaking his head, and pages of a newspowerful. Hubert, the bemoaning the stupidity of the drinking innkeeper and one of Macena's constant companions, knew this to be a sham, SO. The only time that old déclassé but he never said ment of his own was at the bottom mulatto ventured any judgMacena, and at such times of a jug of rum shared with wife than to ridicule he was far more likely to ridicule his Macena. Time passed. No one remembers how much or 1889 when the dapper time. It was 1888 sharp eyes-at times seductive young Alphonse Macena with the Port-de-Paix. and at times At least a year passed before cruel-arrived in surveyor in the mountain Macena got a job as a that he worked there village of Jean Rabel, and it is for a while before he met Marie likely Joseph. But mcet her he did. Noelsine Marie Noclsine, daughter of Manman Marasa, Joseph Binbin Mauvant and was fifteen years old when saw each other for the first time. The she and Macena mutual. Years later, when Macena attraction was sudden and rather than drunk and grew drunk and sentimental say that when he first mean (his more common state), he would "She saw her he thought she was real little and real black, but she was an Indian. long, too . . and green had flat, flat hair . did. Noelsine Marie Noclsine, daughter of Manman Marasa, Joseph Binbin Mauvant and was fifteen years old when saw each other for the first time. The she and Macena mutual. Years later, when Macena attraction was sudden and rather than drunk and grew drunk and sentimental say that when he first mean (his more common state), he would "She saw her he thought she was real little and real black, but she was an Indian. long, too . . and green had flat, flat hair . most fainted. That is what eyes!" She was SO beautiful Macena alhe said. A small part of Macena was a this part of himself he hopeless romantic, and it was only time in his life, when brought he into full play, perhaps for the man of the world who was courting his "Sina.' " He was a Prince. She wore a panama hat purchased in was a protected child who had Port-auof shoes and who never never owned a pair thought that meant anything until she --- Page 104 --- Macena. At one and the same time, Macena met Alphonse of the world in robbed Marie Noelsine of a child's acceptance into the life of which she lived and brought more excitement to mountain girl than she had ever thought hope this pubescent Macena's ambition coincided with her Raise for. The rising tides of into a of That tides, carrying the young girl place proown biological Woman's and discontent. It seemed to happen overnight. Petticoat found agitation Sina had been a dutiful daughter. Before Macena's arrival, dawn without to She had risen from her bed before complaint, the bestacks of crisp, round cassava bread, baked day carry the roadside market her family ran at their front gate. fore, to in the small talk of her peasant She had taken simple pleasure from her each morning. It was neighbors who stopped to buy to in bed only after she met the stranger that she preferred stay On those in the morning, dreaming wistful, indefinite dreams. and Manman Marasa had to call her more than once mornings, - "malelve (badly by more than one name: "lazy, "ungrateful," reared]." all in the months after Sina met Alphonse Life was intrigue each task was evaluated solely in terms of Macena. Each errand, with him. More whether or not it could produce a meeting Sina knew or would have thought possible, times than anyone of cool well water or a plump avocado managed to bring a gourd to the place where Macena was working. On those hot afternoons, which never came frequently for either of them, even the trees cooperated, casting a enough circle of shadow for the lovers. Macena would push welcoming hat back on his head and begin to talk. At first, talk his panama in which the two were was slow and punctuated by pauses than of what was being more conscious of each other's presence and his But Macena would warm to his subject, said. gradually to dance through the air, shaping dreams hands would begin to call "things I have seen with my and fantasies he preferred himself things he 11 Sometimes he would hear saying own eyes. and he would think to himself, That's did not know he knew, with Sina. She was like a right! That's good!" Macena liked being reflection. mountain lake-a good place to gaze at his own quiet from these clandestine meetings full of reMacena came away The he directed at the solve, and impatience as well. impatience level. laborer who held the stick he eyed through his surveyor's And thus it was that passion grew out of words. Both Alphonse Sometimes he would hear saying own eyes. and he would think to himself, That's did not know he knew, with Sina. She was like a right! That's good!" Macena liked being reflection. mountain lake-a good place to gaze at his own quiet from these clandestine meetings full of reMacena came away The he directed at the solve, and impatience as well. impatience level. laborer who held the stick he eyed through his surveyor's And thus it was that passion grew out of words. Both Alphonse --- Page 105 --- Macena and Marie Noelsine Joseph they did not possess and, furthermore, desperately wanted worlds came to believe knew little about. Each the other. escape was buried somewhere in the body of Mountain girls do not dream of dred has a legal marriage. weddings; only one in a hunRaise thest reach of her Sina was no exception. At the furThat dreams, she had an of a Woman's someone who would protect the children image he "good man," Petticoat woman who bore them for him. A fathered and the a house for his family, cleared good man built and repaired vesting. Sina the land, and even did the haraccepted that the rest was women's work: planting, routine gardening. Women also cooking, and small. They sold the ran the markets, big along with goods made with excess produce from the family land herb teas, cooked food. In the their own hands: bread, candy, access was oneofthe most economy of mountain life, sexual Late one afternoon, valuable commodities women traded. Macena walked during the early days of their hand in hand with Sina courtship, through the canebrake behind the along a tunnel-like path As they walked, Macena talked Mauvant family compound. tiful, fat guinea hen a about a guinea hen-a beauing. woman had offered to sell him that They talked of other things while they mornversation kept coming back to the hen. When walked, but the conearly evening forced them back to the the failing light of to the rickety old open road and eventually gate leading into Mauvant's guinea hen was still being discussed. With property, the Noelsine traced lazy circles in the soft her big toe, Marie gate. Without raising her brown dust beneath the [You eyes, she said quietly, "Ou met achte may buy]." Macena knew what she meant. He away from her that day toward a vermilion walked country road, with his sky at the end of the Before panama hat pulled down over one long, Sina was pregnant. For weeks eye. found out, the mere mention of Macena's after her father throw Joseph Binbin name was sufficient to alike-and Mauvantinto: a fit. These men were different enough-to thoroughly dislike enough with integrity and with reason. Then each other daughter's swelling belly and one day Mauvant saw his her lower back as she watched her absentmindedly rub That rose from squatting the was the moment when reality by cooking fire. vant's stubborn pride and came hard up against MauMacena had made love refused to surrender. It was not that to his daughter that bothered Joseph father throw Joseph Binbin name was sufficient to alike-and Mauvantinto: a fit. These men were different enough-to thoroughly dislike enough with integrity and with reason. Then each other daughter's swelling belly and one day Mauvant saw his her lower back as she watched her absentmindedly rub That rose from squatting the was the moment when reality by cooking fire. vant's stubborn pride and came hard up against MauMacena had made love refused to surrender. It was not that to his daughter that bothered Joseph --- Page 106 --- Binbin Mauvant. What bothered him was that she had gotten pregnant, forcing Mauvant into a lasting bond, a family bond, with a man he did not trust. The old African feared that Macena Raise was an opportunist who would soon forget that he had to That give-and a lot more than guinea hens!-if he expected Marie Woman's Noelsine to tend to his needs. This fear proved well founded. Petticoat Not long after his grandson Mèdelice was born, Papa Mauvant sent word that he wanted to talk with Macena. The two sat for most of the day in the shade of the giant mapou in the center of the yard. Mauvant sat on his short-legged chair, tilted back against the solid, ancient tree. At first, Alphonse Macena hunkered in front of him, his panama hat resting on one knee, circles of perspiration forming under his arms. dark other chair had appeared, and the two By noon, anfrom Mauvant's men were trading drinks jug of kleren. The next morning, word went out to the neighbors that a kombit (a cooperative work would be called together one week hence to pound the earth group) floor and thatch the roof of a new house on Mauvant's Sina never knew which of the men in her life had to property. convince the other of the wisdom of this arrangement. Romance died quickly between Marie Noelsine Joseph and Alphonse Macena. Within months of the time they began to live together, the daily routine included at least one between them and, for her, hard work from before good sunrise fight after dark. Macena stopped surveying, and, he until to form any attachment to the land in Jean Rabel. worse, He refused days drinking with his buddies, spent his and betting on the fighting cocks, bitterly complaining about the far superior land in that rightfully belonged to him. Their third child, Jacmel was born in 1896. By then Sina had Philomise, given up hope. The pleasure in her life during that period came from the only of the market women in Port-de-Paix. company Each Wednesday, Sina and a handful of other women from the family made the long walk down the mountain to sell in the town market. They rose in the middle oft the night and gathered, whispering, in the yard. When the first among them heaved a sigh and moved toward her basket, the others quickly followed her lead. Each woman placed a circle of braided leaves on her head to cushion the weight of enormous baskets overloaded with fruits and vegetables. The first steps were the hardest. As the band of six or seven headed down always the dark path to ix. company Each Wednesday, Sina and a handful of other women from the family made the long walk down the mountain to sell in the town market. They rose in the middle oft the night and gathered, whispering, in the yard. When the first among them heaved a sigh and moved toward her basket, the others quickly followed her lead. Each woman placed a circle of braided leaves on her head to cushion the weight of enormous baskets overloaded with fruits and vegetables. The first steps were the hardest. As the band of six or seven headed down always the dark path to --- Page 107 --- the compound gate, a hand went out here and cousin's load. Yet, by the time there to steady a each had become familiar they were out on the main road, enough with the and burden to find the compensating pitch roll of her provided rhythms in her own that balance on the long trek down the body Sina said she thought her luck mountain. Raise far end of the Port-de-Paix was best when she sold at the That and their odorous market, near the crafty old herbalists Woman's wares. The other women from the Petticoat family feared these women and their Mauvant revenge. But they let Sina go where she awesome reputations for Sina did not fear the old market wanted. by them and loved women. She was fascinated The time she liked nothing more than listening to their best came after sunset when she gossip. spend the night with them under the wide settled in to the flickering light of a small fire, she could market portico. By wrinkled, toothless faces see only their found this floating in a sea of blackness. Sina strange disembodied company conducive listening and deep thought. She could attend to careful after story without for hours to story Noelsine saying a word. The old women liked from Marie of her. She never bontsehindewumam had to and they took care worry about on market days. They gave her soft having something to eat mush with hot peppers. On those juicy mangoes and cornmeal market closed down, nights after the Port-de-Paix dom with the they shared their lives and hard-won wisA hand would young daughter of Joseph Binbin Mauvant. under emerge from the darkness to an oil tin in which they brewed poke the fire with the tea helped to soothe lettuce-leaf tea. (Gargling the pipes they all smoked.) sore spots in the mouth caused by This was the signal that a new slight movement or one like it quick with story was about to be launched. dip a metal cup; a quick swish and a A liquid directed toward the gargle; a jet of gutter in front of the Poverty and suffering were the threads of the portico-a story. but these women never whined tales they wove, their stories came from or complained. The spice in children told to reports of lovers told to move on and shape up or expect no food. owners, greedy market Exploitative landmanagers, and the real human (garbage), the soldiers who collected fatra ket women-all were threatened spurious taxes from marthe women's with the dire consequences of magic. Sina let these stories brew in time had to pass-years, in fact-and her heart. But many things had to hap- story. but these women never whined tales they wove, their stories came from or complained. The spice in children told to reports of lovers told to move on and shape up or expect no food. owners, greedy market Exploitative landmanagers, and the real human (garbage), the soldiers who collected fatra ket women-all were threatened spurious taxes from marthe women's with the dire consequences of magic. Sina let these stories brew in time had to pass-years, in fact-and her heart. But many things had to hap- --- Page 108 --- of Joseph Binbin pen, including the mysterious disappearance the of Mauvant, before the morning Sina rose from company firm in hags and climbed the mountain to Jean Rabel, sleeping that, if Alphonse Macena could not be pried her conviction she would simply leave. Raise from the house on her family land, to Gros Morne, That Sina moved herself and her daughter Gloria the Woman's miles south and east of Jean Rabel. Mèdelice, Petticoat about fifty she left behind under the watcholdest child and the only son, Philomise, ful of Manman Marasa. She had already given eyes into the care of the child's godparents, the Fouher youngest, Sina departed before dawn chards, storekeepers in Port-de-Paix. The end of the first without waking Macena to say good-bye. riverbeds of day found her traveling on muleback along the dry Gloria the flat northwestern coastal plain with seven-year-old the mule's behind her, perched on a lumpy bundle strapped to shadebroad haunches. For long stretches, the trip was hot and forced to to beg drinks of water less. Sina was stop frequently whose huts dotted from a succession of peasants like herself, komè road. She addressed them respectfully as (sisthe always More than once, these gentle folk inter) or kouzen (cousin). about the nature of her trip, quired in a polite and friendly way who had no and she left them shaking their heads over a man respect for his family. three and a half days. On the last and longThe journey took hand the mule's rope and est leg, Sina walked with one holding shoulder. The road to Gros the other resting lightly on Gloria's the Morne seemed to go straight up in places as it paralleled cascade ofLes Trois Rivières. The mule stumbled along, reckless from ropes securing the sack that conexhausted and bleeding and her modest bag of silver, actained Sina's iron cooking pot marcumulated during years of Wednesdays in the Port-de-Paix and died shortly after their arrival ket. That old mule collapsed in Gros Morne. at the home of the cousin Sina sought land across Marie Noelsine purchased a few acres of marginal the stream from the town center. With her own hands and the of her cousin's family, Sina built a one-room occasional help chill, the rain, and the wind. house, tight to the night's damp and began to And then she built a brick oven in her backyard make French bread from refined flour. Gradually, lifeimproved, and before long Sina and Gloria were making regular trips to the big market on the bay of Gonaïves. They carried baskets ina sought land across Marie Noelsine purchased a few acres of marginal the stream from the town center. With her own hands and the of her cousin's family, Sina built a one-room occasional help chill, the rain, and the wind. house, tight to the night's damp and began to And then she built a brick oven in her backyard make French bread from refined flour. Gradually, lifeimproved, and before long Sina and Gloria were making regular trips to the big market on the bay of Gonaïves. They carried baskets --- Page 109 --- brimming with sweet-smelling bread and heavier loads of oranges they had harvested from trees on their land. sour things began to go well, Alphonse Macena Just when end, it was simply a question of showed up. In the ther of her children; what else family loyalty. He was the faAlphonse Macena could Sina do but let him stay? Raise area for soon gained a reputation in the Gros Morne That being rude, stingy, and malevolent and for Woman's meanest and luckiest fighting cocks having the Petticoat roosters he ever on the mountain. Of all the Fanm-nan owned, his favorite was named Leve (Raise That Woman's Petticoat). Jipon that rooster died was the only time in his life People say the day He even gave it a real funeral, which Macena ever cried. loved the rooster more than was fitting because he Six days out of any human being. knew seven, if anyone wanted to find where to look: under the thatched Macena, they of town where the pavilion on the far side oblivious cockfights took place. Down on his to the circle of denim-clad, haunches, pressing in on him, Macena would sweating male bodies crooning voice of a lover. At the speak to his rooster in the bird's tense body same time, he would hold the firmly between his hands and thrust him peatedly toward the opponent on the far side of the retiful cock. . ring. "Beaume. Ayeee! . . Strong cock . : : Haaaaa! . . . Yesssssss . for me! For me!" Then, . . Earn for luck gesture, Macena would in a final goodput the whole head of Leve Fanm-nan into his mouth and draw it out Jipon ing the bird into the quick and violent slowly before throwand feathers. flurry of razor-sharp People said that ifl Macena's bird ever spurs to lose, all he had to do was shout, "Leve seemed about within seconds the other cock Jipon Fanm-nan!". and was a bloody, dying bird flesh. Some said Macena twitching mass of used magic. always won because he Although Leve Jipon Fanm-nan won Macena never made money at consistently, Alphonse high stakes recklessly cockfighting, for he wagered on other men's battles. Some clever farmers from Gros Morne understood of the more to challenge his courage to lure Macena that they had only But they had to be careful because into a foolish side bet. the kind of man who could everyone knew Macena was carry a grudge. Shortly after his arrival in Gros Morne, Macena house for the spirits some built a little his wife's twenty yards from the back edge of property, where the land fell away, fast and steep, to high stakes recklessly cockfighting, for he wagered on other men's battles. Some clever farmers from Gros Morne understood of the more to challenge his courage to lure Macena that they had only But they had to be careful because into a foolish side bet. the kind of man who could everyone knew Macena was carry a grudge. Shortly after his arrival in Gros Morne, Macena house for the spirits some built a little his wife's twenty yards from the back edge of property, where the land fell away, fast and steep, to --- Page 110 --- the river below. He builtit under the labapen tree where the twoheaded serpent lived. The spirit house and the gildio (rum distillery) were the only tangible contributions Macena ever made to the Gros Morne homestead. He Raise members allowed no one, not even That of the family, to go in the spirit house. In fact, if the Woman's 's truth be told, he rarely went in himself. Macena went to see the Petticoat spirits only when he needed something. One day the unexpected happened: Leve Jipon Fanm-nan died in battle. Rumor held that somebody had "done something" against Macena. Alphonse Macena strode back from the cockfighting ring that day with the legs of the old fighter clenched his fist, the bird's milky eyes fixed in a blank stare on the road in churning inches beneath its lax beak. Macena drank in silence until midnight and then took the dead rooster to his house. For a long time he sat unmoving. The in spirit hut came from a candle stub only light the burning on one arm of a red wooden cross planted in the earth floor. Thick large here and there extended from the ceiling and ropes knotted corners of the room, binding the cross like an animal caught in a snare. The flickering candle flame multiplied the ropes through sevenfold shadows until it would have appeared to an observer-had there been one-that Macena was a spider lying in wait in the center of his web. That was July, the last week of the month. For five months, Macena did nothing and said nothing against any of his bors. He had never been a big eater, but, after the death of neigh- Leve Jipon Fanm-nan, he consumed SO little food and SO much rum that the skin on his face began to sag like an old shirt a peg in the middle of his forehead. Only the hung from intensity of his eyes betrayed the inner man. Some people said he looked as he had the spirits on him all the time. During these if one of the neighbors saw Macena months, accidentally drop his tobacco pouch down the well. The oath that exploded from his mouth was still ringing in the air as Macena's body willed itselfinto the shape of a crab, which then scuttled down the well to retrieve the lost pouch. Late at night, on the last day of December of the Leve Jipon Fanm-nan died, Macena walked a half mile down year the road. Without knocking, he entered a little house where a family of ten sat laughing and spinning tales. A hush fell on the group when they saw Macena's hard face. "This year was yours. the well. The oath that exploded from his mouth was still ringing in the air as Macena's body willed itselfinto the shape of a crab, which then scuttled down the well to retrieve the lost pouch. Late at night, on the last day of December of the Leve Jipon Fanm-nan died, Macena walked a half mile down year the road. Without knocking, he entered a little house where a family of ten sat laughing and spinning tales. A hush fell on the group when they saw Macena's hard face. "This year was yours. --- Page 111 --- The next one is mine. 11 That was all he and walked home, said. He turned his back Back at his own house, Macena took 8g and shook it up. Bam! It a bottle of ginger beer ing and spattering exploded, shooting its cork at the ceilfollowed. drops on all four walls. One second ofs Raise Then the soft chirping of the mountain silence That open once more, this time by a long, night was split Woman's down the road: piercing cry from the house that. The wail "Ayeccecceeeet Bad medicine is Petticoat was heard at midnight. By the simple like from that house were sawing wood for next morning, men After that, no one in Gros Morne a tiny coffin. sharp-eyed surveyor from Jacmel. In tried the anything against the who did himselfin. Macena had end, it was Macena he had been given the access to the spirits. In Jacmel, man with a lot of ason and taught how to heal. He was a dead. What power; some said he could even raise the Alphonse Macena lacked was good neighbor came by when food was manners. Ifa saw to it that the lids stayed cooking on the fire, Macena did not like to feed the on the pots until the visitor left. He ward-he had spirits, either. Macena had come to believe that the things backwere there to serve him. spirits, like his wife, One day, the family of a very sick man last resort. Every other healer in the came to Macena as a man back to health and had failed. area had tried to bring the Macena nothing to do with other usually would have too much of a challenge to people's problems, but this case was stuck in the earth floor of his refuse. He yanked up the machete straw sack filled with dried spirit house, grabbed a dusty old sick man's house, Macena herbs, and went straightaway to the him to do nothing. summoned the spirits, but they told When Macena They said, "This one is supposed to die." heard the emerged from the deep waters of trance and message the spirits had left for him, rage and whacked his machete he flew into a that his patient screamed SO hard against the door frame face pale with in fright and jumped from bed. His anger, Macena "I its. What do I need those proclaimed: don't need the spirAnd Alphonse spirits for? I am going to do it Macena did just that. He healed myself." cena was the one who died. The first that man. Masickness that took sharp pains of the awful Alphonse Macena's life belly that very day, before he began deep in his As for Sina, she continued was halfway home. to work from before sunrise to long with in fright and jumped from bed. His anger, Macena "I its. What do I need those proclaimed: don't need the spirAnd Alphonse spirits for? I am going to do it Macena did just that. He healed myself." cena was the one who died. The first that man. Masickness that took sharp pains of the awful Alphonse Macena's life belly that very day, before he began deep in his As for Sina, she continued was halfway home. to work from before sunrise to long --- Page 112 --- With Macena no longer around, the neighbors beafter sunset. and after a while some ofthe men gan tostopby more frequently, offered to fix her leaking roof, another started to court her. One their labor for her to clear a new field. Both meant to exchange But it soon became Raise company at night, and Sina was tempted. That that the spirits had another plan for her life. Woman's apparent Macena's death, the water in Sina's well took on Petticoat The day after foul odor. More than a year passed before a strange taste and a that time Sina was forced the water was drinkable again. During river and water back up to descend the steep bank to the carry afternoon to her house. A strange thing happened one cloudy bucket balanced returned from the river with a heavy as she the bank when she heard a on her head. She was halfway up II whistle: "Wheeeeeee : . . ou. Wheeeeeee . 00000000001 from far away, At first it seemed that the sound was coming in the next moment, it was right next to her. The whistling but, and whipped round and round in her pierced Sina's eardrums to cover her ears, and before she realbrain. Her hands flew up and it tumbled down ized it, she dropped the bucket of water, Sina listened the embankment. A profound silence followed. and looked all around, but she could hear nothing, carefully one. After a minute or two, she simply shook and she saw no back to the river to refill her bucket. On her head and trudged Sina reached the same spot, she heard the second trip, when the whistle again. This time she fainted. for became alarmed that her mother had been gone Gloria time, and she set out to look for her. She found Sina such a long the river embankment. Gloria panicked. lying unconscious on she cried as she shook "Manman. : . . Manman : . . Manman!" Sina's fluttered open. her mother and slapped her cheeks. eyes She gestured weakly to one side. Wha "You see that rock, Gloria?" she asked. "What rock?. about?" Gloria stuttered. wha . what are you talking rock inches from her Then she noticed a large, round, shiny Ezili Danto mounted mother's head. And at that very moment Her Noelsine Sina's body snapped upright. eyes Marie Joseph. in harsh The spirit reached bulged, and her breath came Gloria. gasps. Then she gestured out for the rock and shoved it toward urgently toward the house. the house and returned in minGloria understood. She ran to candle. She lit the candle utes with a plate of cornmeal and a are you talking rock inches from her Then she noticed a large, round, shiny Ezili Danto mounted mother's head. And at that very moment Her Noelsine Sina's body snapped upright. eyes Marie Joseph. in harsh The spirit reached bulged, and her breath came Gloria. gasps. Then she gestured out for the rock and shoved it toward urgently toward the house. the house and returned in minGloria understood. She ran to candle. She lit the candle utes with a plate of cornmeal and a --- Page 113 --- and set it on the ground. Then she took small pinches of corn91 meal between her thumb and finger and traced a delicate heart around the rock. She put scallops around its edges and a cluster its Ezili Danto watched this of arcane signs around perimeter. Raise process carefully. When it was done, she opened her arms wide That as if she wished to gather up the beautiful drawing, and she Woman's smiled broadly. Then Sina's head fell forward onto her chest. Petticoat Danto was gone. When Sina felt strong enough to walk, she and Gloria picked up the rock and carried it back to the house. They placed it in one corner, and that night they surrounded it with tiny oil lamps flickering in twenty-one fragments of coconut shell. Throughout the night, the lamps burned, their light dancing over the walls of the hut. Sina and Gloria lay side by side on their mats. Neither one could sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night, Sina spoke. "Iti is better this way," she said. "I know the spirits want me. Before, I always said no. Now everything has changed. Now I will serve the spirits. They will take care of me. I do not need a man." --- Page 114 --- --- Page 115 --- CHAPTER FOUR --- Page 116 --- Ogou n July 21, 1979, Alourdes Margaux, the granddaughter of Alphonse Macena, held a feast for Ogou, the proud and powerful warrior who is her chief counselor from the spirit world. To protect herself from proving neighbors, Alourdes ordinarily keeps her doors disap- and windows closed during Vodou events, but this proved sible on that muggy summer evening. Vodou impossongs spread like soothing syrup, covering over the noise of restless rats in the ceiling and restive neighbors on their front stoops. Around two o'clock in the morning, Papa Ogou was presented with fat, red rooster. Before a fine, Ogou wrung the neck of the arrogant beast, it was given a "point name," I as is the custom in Vodou ceremonies. Ogou's rooster was solemnly baptized as "Leve Jipon Fanm-nan : Tonnè (Raise That Woman's Thunder]." Petticoat : When Ogou came to ride Alourdes, he was outfitted in an impressive, red velvet military jacket with gold buttons and gold epaulets. Ogou's poscsion-performancd began with a series familiar gestures. Taking his ritual sword in hand and of the air in broad aggressive strokes, Ogou first attacked slicing ible enemy. Then he took more controlled, an invismenacing jabs at 'In the Vodou context, the word pwen (point) refers to a A proen may consist of words, gestures, ritual charm or talisman. cut in a person's skin. In all cases, the point objects, or herbs rubbed into a small priation of spiritual powers. During Vodou represents the condensation and approanimals, as well as persons, are baptized. These baptisms, sacred objects and sacrificial densations of powerful truths. Ogou's rooster is baptismal therefore endowed "point names" are conAlphonse Macena's considerable spiritual power but also with not only with against its misuse. a cautionary coda A manbo offers a rooster to Ogou. Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, 1979. --- Page 117 --- those members of Alourdes's Vodou him. Finally, in a gesture full of bravado family standing nearest wounding, that also hinted at self95 Ogou turned the sword on himself. , sacred objects and sacrificial densations of powerful truths. Ogou's rooster is baptismal therefore endowed "point names" are conAlphonse Macena's considerable spiritual power but also with not only with against its misuse. a cautionary coda A manbo offers a rooster to Ogou. Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, 1979. --- Page 117 --- those members of Alourdes's Vodou him. Finally, in a gesture full of bravado family standing nearest wounding, that also hinted at self95 Ogou turned the sword on himself. point in one hip, he bent the rapierlike blade Lodging the performs his dance with the sword into an arc. Ogou at nearly sion on which he makes an every public OccaOgou to body language what appearance. Its elegant gestures are densation proverbs are to spoken a conpoint for complex truths: language, trays, power turns on those who wield power liberates, power beit. Ogou, the warrior, condenses and Haitian history. Haiti's re-presents the lessons of than that of military heritage is more convoluted many nations. Although there is one tarnished hero, Toussaint grand and uncessful slave L'Ouverture, the leader of the sucrevolution that began in 1791, Haitians are customed to military liberators and also acon them. In an to political advocates who turn for attempt restore economic and social example, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the first Haitian stability, state, forced people back into a life of servitude head of from the slavery they had just little different 1806, after escaped. He was assassinated in only two years in office.This story of betrayal has been acted out many times in Haitian promise and occupation of the country by U.S. Marines history, IThe and the continuing influence of the from 1915 to 1934 litical affairs provide United States in Haitian pomaterial for many such stories. In some ways, the most poignant morality tale of power gone awry is that of François Duvalier. popular sented himself as a man of the and Duvalier prephilosophy of people a proponent of the negritude. He was, among other a priest, and the grassroots political things, Vodou office was built partly organization that put him in through Vodou networks. After became president, however, he used Vodou Duvalier and control them. 2 He also continued the tointimidate people of utilizing the army as a domestic police force. longstanding To practice check the po2Stories are told about Vodou ceremonies in the National Duvalier was possessed by his gwo Baron Palace during which the cemetery and the head of all the Gede, (big Baron). of (BaronSamdi is the keeper of him, Duvalier made a great show of spirits the dead.) With his Gede riding those who worked closely with knowing intimate details about the lives of work of spies. them. 2 He also continued the tointimidate people of utilizing the army as a domestic police force. longstanding To practice check the po2Stories are told about Vodou ceremonies in the National Duvalier was possessed by his gwo Baron Palace during which the cemetery and the head of all the Gede, (big Baron). of (BaronSamdi is the keeper of him, Duvalier made a great show of spirits the dead.) With his Gede riding those who worked closely with knowing intimate details about the lives of work of spies. him--information that had in fact come from a net- --- Page 118 --- ambitions of military leaders, he further compounded the litical by community lead96 forces of tyranny and oppression form arming the civilian militia that ofthem Vodou priests, to ers, many the dreaded Tonton Makout. became that Ogou Through the countless Ogou posesion-periomanere communities each year, occur in Haiti and in Haitian immigrant Haitians remember around Ogou's feast day in late July, many military and political history. They preserve their paradoxical and them to the places in their and analyze its lessons apply these issues as lives where is the issue. To explore own power has subdivided. As Sen Jak Majè (Saint fully as possible, Ogou "man of war" who fights for what is James the Elder), Ogou is a As Panama, he is a pèsènaj (an important right and just. Ogou with ceremony and deferperson) who demands to be treated As As Feray, he is fierce and uncompromising. ence. Ogou handsome, brave, and loyal. Yet, as Ogou Badagri, he is shy, drunkard who finds power in Ogou Yamson, he is an unreliable he is a liar and a booze and swaggering talk; and, as Agéou, Achade or And when Ogou is called by the names beggar. conflated into one character), he Shango (the two are sometimes is said to be a sorcerer. all of them At times, Alourdes says there are seven Ogou, In fact, brothers. At other times, she says there are twenty-one. of encountered more than twenty-one in the temples I have tendency to subdivide indicates Haiti and New York. Ogou's traditional religion. the pivotal position he occupies in Haitian of of history and the small events everyday The grand episodes to bear on Ogou that he has had life have brought such pressure Haitians have loaded to multiply in order to carry the weight. a small him with SO much life experience that Ogou has cloned and to sort the lessons of that experience, package them, army them to the people. Only one other Vodou spirit, re-present and arbiter of death, has Gede, master of the cemetery grand of Chapsubdivided to such an extent. (Gede is the subject ter12.) 3For a full discussion of the Vodou spirit Ogou, see Karen McCarthy in Brown, Ogun: Remembering, Systematic Forgetting: Ogou in Haiti," Africa's "Systematic Old World and New, ed. Sandra T. Barnes (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989), 65-89. y them to the people. Only one other Vodou spirit, re-present and arbiter of death, has Gede, master of the cemetery grand of Chapsubdivided to such an extent. (Gede is the subject ter12.) 3For a full discussion of the Vodou spirit Ogou, see Karen McCarthy in Brown, Ogun: Remembering, Systematic Forgetting: Ogou in Haiti," Africa's "Systematic Old World and New, ed. Sandra T. Barnes (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989), 65-89. --- Page 119 --- Of the various Ogou, Panama is a particularly ample of how history is taken up in the Vodou interesting exshaped into lessons for the lives of the faithful. temple and takes his name from the fashionable Ogou Panama trademark of President Florvil panama hat that was the out from Port-au-Prince Hippolyte. In 1896 Hippolyte set Ogou on a punitive to quell resistancemilitary mission designed the especially that of a certain town of Jacmel. He vowed to burn the Vodou Priest-in inhabitants town and kill all the except one man and one woman, to repopulate the region. As who would be left leave, his panama hat fell off. The Hippolyte mounted his horse to a bad omen and pleaded with him president's family took this as sisted. Before he not to go, but Hippolyte was out of Port-au-Prince, he fell perhorse, unconscious, and never recovered. 4 In Vodou from his day, people sing: "Papa Ogou se nèg panama temples topanama man]." In songs of secular ye (Papa Ogou is a panama hat has also become political satire, the falling destroys the one who misuses a it. cryptic reference to power that Through such "deep play" with character and tian Vodou brings the lessons of context, Haieveryday life. Ogou teaches politics and war to bear on that to live one must endurance, self-assertion, fight. Pride, justice are discipline, and a firm commitment to qualities that bring success. But in one turn screw, pride can become lying braggadocio, of the come stubbornness, self-assertion endurance can befades into mere discipline is transformed into bullying, and tyranny. An sense of justice, one that is tempered neither overly developed. graceful resignation, by humor nor by can lead to suicidal rage, people whose life circumstances especially for tians. In the Ogou who are as difficult as those of Haiare alcoholic and see the fierce soldiers who indigent, one can still thought themselves cause they knew their cause was just. invulnerable beBecause the constructive and destructive acter are SO close parts of Ogou's chartogether, none of the various or evil, right or wrong, in a simple, Ogou is good tains his own paradoxes of unqualified way. Each conpersonality, which are teased out in *See Harold Courlander, The Drum and the Hoe: and Lore (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Life of the Haitian People Press, 1960), 150-52. , one can still thought themselves cause they knew their cause was just. invulnerable beBecause the constructive and destructive acter are SO close parts of Ogou's chartogether, none of the various or evil, right or wrong, in a simple, Ogou is good tains his own paradoxes of unqualified way. Each conpersonality, which are teased out in *See Harold Courlander, The Drum and the Hoe: and Lore (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Life of the Haitian People Press, 1960), 150-52. --- Page 120 --- and in song. In July of 1979, for exposesionpetfomane a lively song for all the ample, Alourdes's community sang Ogou: Ogou Ki-ki-li-ki, o-ewa! Papa Ogou, tou pitikon sa. Papa Ogou, anraje. Cock-a-doodle doo! Papa Ogou, all children are like that. Papa Ogou, enraged. replete with double and triple entendre, is Such lean phrasing, is characteristic of Vodou songs. From one perspective, Ogou counseled in this song to show forbearance toward his children, followers. From another, Ogou himself is a strutting banty his childish tantrums when he cannot have rooster who throws his way. unlike the Catholic saints whose names they Vodou spirits, contradiction. The Vodou borrow, are characters defined by human life. The represent the powers at work in and on spirits ability to contain conflicting emowholeness ofthe spirits-their of being in the world-gives tions and to model opposing ways Vodou its integrity as a religion. and the Haitian Vodou is not a religion of the empowered Haitians have not had the choice of living with comprivileged. about the forces that structure their lives and forting fantasies of finitude, determine their fate. An open-eyed acceptance which is central to the religion, is one reason the Vodou spirits characters. The ophave emerged as whole, three-dimensional of human character and pressed are the most practiced analysts is the repository for behavior, and Haitian traditional religion slavwisdom accumulated by a people who have lived through corruption, and violence-all ery, hunger, disease, repression, in excess. their with them, reliThe African slaves brought religions levels in whose wisdom and insight operated on many gions and the natural worlds. Slaves were drawn from both the social therefore had selective specific population subgroups, and they odou spirits characters. The ophave emerged as whole, three-dimensional of human character and pressed are the most practiced analysts is the repository for behavior, and Haitian traditional religion slavwisdom accumulated by a people who have lived through corruption, and violence-all ery, hunger, disease, repression, in excess. their with them, reliThe African slaves brought religions levels in whose wisdom and insight operated on many gions and the natural worlds. Slaves were drawn from both the social therefore had selective specific population subgroups, and they --- Page 121 --- of Ogou's sword and the chromolithograph Detail from an altar for Ogou showing Fort Greene, Brooklyn, 1980. Alourdes's home, Saint James. --- Page 122 --- memory. But, once on the other side of the ocean, they also had selective needs. Slaves in the New World reground the lens of their religion to allow it to focus in exquisite detail on the social Ogou arena, the most problematic one in their lives.The spirits they brought with them from Africa shifted and realigned in response to their needs. Some were forgotten; others were given a centrality they never had in the homeland. As a result of this shift, the cosmos became < cialized. Ancient African spirits thoroughly SOsubmerged their connections to the natural world and elaborated their social a good example. This Yoruba spirit's association messages. Ogou is with ironsmithing and his roles as the protector of hunters and clearer of forest paths are barely detectable in the Haitian Ogou. In Haiti, his connection to soldiering has come to define his because character, this is the role in which Haitian slaves and their descendants have needed him most. Few arenas of life are as atic for Haitians as the military, and few Vodou receive problemmuch emphasis in spirits as contemporary urban Vodou as In some parts of the Haitian countryside, distinct Ogou. "nations"of Vodou spirits can still be found. These nations names generally have indicating their African origins: Ibo, Nago (Ketu Yoruba), Mandang (Mandingo), Kongo, Wangol (Angola), and Rada (probably for the Dahomean principality of Allada). In Port-au-Prince, however, two pantheons have come to dominate, generally by absorbing the others. These two are Rada and Petwo.5 Ogou is an exception to this binary scheme for the Vodou spirits, and his altars and his rites are kept distinct ordering in urban Vodou temples. A look at the contrasting moods ofthe Rada and Petwo helps to explain why Ogou cannot be easily classified as one spirits the other. The Rada spirits are or sweet-tempered and dependable; their power resides in their wisdom. Ifa promised sacrifice cannot be offered to them now, they can easily be convinced wait until later. The Rada spirits are called lwa rasin to root (root lva, spirits). They are intimate, familial spirits who are given SThe latter is a name of uncertain origin, but its a discussion of the Kongo origins of Petwo ritual iconography is clearly Kongo. For Thompson, Flash of the Spirit: African and vocabulary, see Robert Farris York: Random House, 1983), 179-84. Afro-American Art and Philosophy (New Ifa promised sacrifice cannot be offered to them now, they can easily be convinced wait until later. The Rada spirits are called lwa rasin to root (root lva, spirits). They are intimate, familial spirits who are given SThe latter is a name of uncertain origin, but its a discussion of the Kongo origins of Petwo ritual iconography is clearly Kongo. For Thompson, Flash of the Spirit: African and vocabulary, see Robert Farris York: Random House, 1983), 179-84. Afro-American Art and Philosophy (New --- Page 123 --- family titles such as Papa and Kouzen. tions of water, sweet liqueurs, They are offered libaThe Petwo spirits, in herb-laced rum, and perfume. contrast, are They must be handled with hot-tempered and volatile. paid and promises care and precision. Debts must be who kept, or they will serve them. The power of the badger and harass those Ogou effectivity, their ability to make Petwo spirits resides in their cially good at dealing with things happen. They are esperum mixed with ingredients money matters. They are offered and gunpowder. such as coffee, hot Small charges of pepper, blood, temples for the Petwo gunpowder are set off in the whips and spirits, and they are served with shrieking police whistles. Theirs cracking of slavery. Whereas Rada drum is the iconography and playful, those for the Petwo rhythms are sensual, elegant, exciting. spirits are harsh, rapid, and A case can be made that the contrast is that between two between Rada and Petwo and foreigners, insiders archetypal social groups: family members and outsiders, the oppressors.*( Ogou cannot be easilya oppressed and their assimilated because, as a soldier, he must into either group fending the one from the other. necessarily be in between, dePetwo He carries swords and implements; but he does SO in the name of guns, Ogou can be both merciless and Rada values. tween family members and righteous. His location beOgou the ideal champion of the foreigners, furthermore, makes tian communities, he immigrant. In New York's Haiseems to be served more lavishly than any other Vodou more frequently and exception of Gede. It is therefore spirit, with the possible Alourdes's main spirit. no surprise that Ogou is Ogou's rich and complex lessons about abuses wove in and out of the power and its uses and Alourdes and the many stories exchanged between scholar Wande internationally known Nigerian Abimbola during a (Yoruba) years after the July evening when late-night visit nearly two with a rooster named for Ogou had been presented Alphonse Macena's fighting cock. I *For a full discussion of the Rada and Petwo archetypal "The social groupings of insiders and pantheons as representatives of the Vévè of Haitian Vodou: A Structural outsiders, see Karen McCarthy Brown, sertation, Temple University, 1976), 80-112. Analysis of Visual Imagery" (Ph.D. dis- Abimbola during a (Yoruba) years after the July evening when late-night visit nearly two with a rooster named for Ogou had been presented Alphonse Macena's fighting cock. I *For a full discussion of the Rada and Petwo archetypal "The social groupings of insiders and pantheons as representatives of the Vévè of Haitian Vodou: A Structural outsiders, see Karen McCarthy Brown, sertation, Temple University, 1976), 80-112. Analysis of Visual Imagery" (Ph.D. dis- --- Page 124 --- Abimbola at Amherst College in the fall of 1980, had met Wande attended a lecture I gave when he was a visiting professor. He an interest on Vodou in Brooklyn, and he expressed at Amherst in the lecture. Alourdes, whom I frequently quoted in meeting York the following spring, I offered Ogou When he came to New City to take him to her home for a visit. A VISIT FROM THE AFRICAN OGOU in New York to give a talk at the staid and proper Abimbola was Park West in Manhattan. The event Liederkranz Club on Central when we arrived at ended late, and it was almost midnight guest, Alourdes'sdoorin) Fort Greene. Anticipating an important unlocked the seldom-used sitting room on the Alourdes had Plates of crackers and bottles of various first floor of her house. coffee table, amid the usual array drinks had been set out on the stiff animals and plaster nymphs. At first, we were of stuffed the of Alourdes's plastic slipand formal, perched on edge with the respect due a covers. Yet Abimbola treated Alourdes began to exof his own tradition. And when they priestess and stories, Abimbola's tales were as honest, poignant, change those Alourdes told. Wande Abimbola seemed self-revealing as and she seemed to draw energy to find relief in her presence, from his. tired when we arrived, but in Alourdes was understandably she was wide awake and in top story-telling less than an hour history, she jumped from form. To enact events from her family Sometimes she her place on the couch next to the professor. Abimbola him lightly on the knee to emphasize a point. slapped for story. Both Alourdes and Maggie matched Alourdes story and trusted Wande Abimbola. would later say that they liked business. He don't have to tell As Alourdes put it: "That family him: These us that stuff. 1 Maggie had her own way ofaffirming I've met them before. They are good men : African priests, tell from him that he was.' 11 not always. . : but I can the fatal hubris of AlOne of Alourdes's first tales concerned the Macena, which led him to undertake a cure spirits phonse Abimbola jumped in eagerly when her story had forbidden. to my father!" he was finished. "The very same thing happened of and cried. And he told a story about his father, a priest Ogou Maggie had her own way ofaffirming I've met them before. They are good men : African priests, tell from him that he was.' 11 not always. . : but I can the fatal hubris of AlOne of Alourdes's first tales concerned the Macena, which led him to undertake a cure spirits phonse Abimbola jumped in eagerly when her story had forbidden. to my father!" he was finished. "The very same thing happened of and cried. And he told a story about his father, a priest Ogou --- Page 125 --- an excellent midwife. When the wife of a difficulty giving birth, Abimbola's family member had wishes of the spirits. Her father intervened, against the baby was delivered way home the old Ogou priest safely, but on his the onset of a long and contracted a fever that marked Alourdes murmured painful illness. "I know, I know," Ogou said, several times. "Your father a 11 she "my mother, too." priest, "I know you have too Ogou Ogou, : . Abimbola my husband!" Alourdes cried. "I love him began. "Papa very, very special. He always help very much. He family, too. He help everybody!" me-and my family : my "I am a priest of Ogou," Abimbola said, was. Even the people who live in the "because my father to the university, their cities, even those who go That is still the deep connections are to a rural place we call our home. No village. can be made without going back to consult important decision the way we are. Also, in our elders. That is has his own my country it is a little different. priests. And Ogou is not Ogou one who clears the He just a soldier. He is the you know." way. opens a path through the forest, Abimbola took a sip of his 7-Up and continued: works with iron. So all the "Ogou also those people who work with young men who work in the big oil fields, iron, even Ogou, too. Ogou is important to us because he they follow to handle the modern world teaches us how Without -arms, machines, trucks, all that. Ogou, we could forget that the turn on him, even destroy him. In things man creates can is very important to the people. 11 Nigeria, in my country, Ogou Wande Abimbola was warming to his became more and more animated. subject, and his voice duced to almost nothing if "Why, crime could be repeople were made to swear They go to a court of law and have to on iron! they think, 'Well, what does it matter swear on the Bible, and just another book.' But if what I say? This is a book, Ogou, that would be they had to swear on the sword of another thing!" The mention of Ogou's role in other story from Abimbola. "For ensuring justice triggered anhead of all the Ogou a long time my father was sibility of priests. The Ogou priests had the guarding the cities. One night, responThe priests killed a cook. They had there was an accident. the city gates late at night and had seen him wandering outside mistaken him for a robber. book.' But if what I say? This is a book, Ogou, that would be they had to swear on the sword of another thing!" The mention of Ogou's role in other story from Abimbola. "For ensuring justice triggered anhead of all the Ogou a long time my father was sibility of priests. The Ogou priests had the guarding the cities. One night, responThe priests killed a cook. They had there was an accident. the city gates late at night and had seen him wandering outside mistaken him for a robber. --- Page 126 --- They were charged with murder and set for trial. By accident, my father had not been on guard that night and SO was not charged. Butmy fathertold the court that he ought to be instead of the others, because it was on charged Ogou his order that they had been sent to guard the town." "Your father a good man," Alourdes quietly observed. Abimbola acknowledged her comment with a smile. "When the authorities would not listen, my father summoned all the priests from a wide, wide area to come and surround the court. Ogou He told them, 'Go ahead and convict these people, and priests will destroy this town! The men who had been my were charged given light sentences and probation.' Alourdes suddenly rose from the couch and spun around to face Abimbola. She moved her feet in a light and lively spread out her arms, and sang, full voice: step, Aye, Aye, Lapolis a rete mwen, Jij pa kondane mwen. Aye, Aye, The police will arrest me, The judge will not condemn me. Her burst of song passed like a summer shower. In another ment, she was seated next to a smiling Abimbola. mowe "Sometime sing that for Papa Ogou,' 11 she explained. "It mean even even the police arrest me, the judge can't do nothing; the : can't, . judge you know, . kondane me." "Condemn, 11 Maggie whispered, "the judge will not condemn me.' 11 "My family don't have nothing to do with the court. Not in Haiti, not my family. Only one time my mother have to fore that judge. But that not her fault. That not because of go bething she do." With that preface, Alourdes somebegan her story. "My mother have a friend, a good friend, name Carline. line" mother very sick. My mother don't have no Carher, but she say, Igoing to give you the deed to money to help can borrow some money and take my house. You your mother to the clinic.' 111 A long time passed, Alourdes said, and when Philo asked for family. Only one time my mother have to fore that judge. But that not her fault. That not because of go bething she do." With that preface, Alourdes somebegan her story. "My mother have a friend, a good friend, name Carline. line" mother very sick. My mother don't have no Carher, but she say, Igoing to give you the deed to money to help can borrow some money and take my house. You your mother to the clinic.' 111 A long time passed, Alourdes said, and when Philo asked for --- Page 127 --- the deed, Carline at first claimed she had lost it. while, she said she never had it in the first Then, after a Carline took Philo to court, place. Eventually, Bribes were made to the claiming the house belonged to her. case-and her home. lawyer and to the judge. Philo lost the Philo she would have Adding insult to injury, the judge told Ogou had to pay for the court costs. no money, they put her in jail. Because she Alourdes jumped to her feet again, her mother's misfortune. "Before acting out the drama of just turn"--Alourdes they put her in that jail, she turned toward that lawyer, she tell that judge: Abimbola-"and she tell jail, but I going to see both 'Okay, go ahead and put me in going to dead. Ifit you dead. In three day you both in forty-eight happen tomorrow, that not me! Ifit hour, that not me! In three that happen Philo spent the weekend in jail, day, me!" Papa Ogou paid her a visit. "He where, Alourdes told us, Let's go! That lawyer, thatj say to my mother, 'Come on! to make a charm from two judge-they dead!" Ogou told Philo veritab (truthful) tree. She bricks, parsley, and a leaf from the the leaves was to bind the bricks between. On the top, she was to together with bit of twisted cotton soaked in oil. fasten a wick from a light the wick and the Then she was supposed to drop whole into as Philo was released from thing a latrine. As soon what she did. jail on Monday, that was exactly That same day, she also went to the Church the nearby town of Leogane, and there of Saint Andre in the divine court. she laid her case before "My mother don't voice rising. "She tell those beg, said Alourdes, her yer got to dead now! That spirit what to do. She say, That lawjudge keeled over in his judge too!"" And that very day, the lawyer, he had a kriz (an courtroom, vomiting blood. As for the later the same afternoon. attack) while walking down the street to die in his own bed. After his collapse, he was taken home After a few moments of silence, Abimbola Philo was "righteous" and that commented that the powers of the was why she could call down spirits and command them the "But," he added, "you have to be way she did. the truth very honest and - even to yourself. That is what makes it always tell ways telling the truth.' 11 hard, al- "My mother teach me how to stop the rain," sponded, SO quickly she seemed to have missed Alourdes reAbimbola's his collapse, he was taken home After a few moments of silence, Abimbola Philo was "righteous" and that commented that the powers of the was why she could call down spirits and command them the "But," he added, "you have to be way she did. the truth very honest and - even to yourself. That is what makes it always tell ways telling the truth.' 11 hard, al- "My mother teach me how to stop the rain," sponded, SO quickly she seemed to have missed Alourdes reAbimbola's --- Page 128 --- I would have welthoughtful comment. I was disappointed.) but Alourdes comed a discussion of the philosophy of magic, little confidence in such abstract talk. Her attitude is typiplaces the Vodou seldom halts its kincal of those who serve spirits. wisdom into concept or Ogou esthetic and sensory drama to force its are the anecdotes, ancestral tales, and songs precept; proverbs, to cradle the messages only vehicles subtle and flexible enough when the truths of Vodou are put into words.I Abimbola Alourdes had in fact caught the conversational ball tossed to her, but, rather than playing at a philosophical game, she chose to run with it through her own experiential terrain. do mother teach me how to stop the rain. You can't just "My all the time. But it very simple. If you only know, it SO easy. that reason. I But not suppose to just do that : . . for just any only you do it once, when I just a little girl-for my birthday party. going to come, and it raining, raining all day long. Everybody and Ijust do that thing, and the rain stop. The cloud Solgo out, and the rain stop. Later, I tell my mother what I do, separate do that thing for such a silly and she mad! She say, 'Why you if do that reason?' You can do it once, twice, but it no good you all the time and not for good reason-just because you having a who do that, you have birthday party or something. Anybody Alourdes added that it is also to die by water. You have to!" possible to stop the wind; again, the magic is very simple. mediAbimbola responded to Alourdes by talking about good cine and bad medicine. Good medicine is a complicated thing, But "bad medicine is he said. It must be carefully prepared. Abimbola simple. 11 "In my country, do you know-?" very Yoruba word and then thought better of it and started to use a made from maize or millet. You started anew. "This is a thing is in make it into a thick paste, and then that paste wrapped eats that all the time, especially for breakfast. leaves. Everyone if want to harm someone, is get the All you have to do, you has eaten. You put some things wrapping from one that person said, raisinside. You puti it under your foot like this," Abimbola the toe of his left foot. "You step down a little bit, and they ing in their intestine." 11 The toe of Abimbola's fashionable feel pain halfway to the floor, and then his foot ankle-high boot moved down hard, and they will die went all the way down. "You step because their intestine will rupture." harm someone, is get the All you have to do, you has eaten. You put some things wrapping from one that person said, raisinside. You puti it under your foot like this," Abimbola the toe of his left foot. "You step down a little bit, and they ing in their intestine." 11 The toe of Abimbola's fashionable feel pain halfway to the floor, and then his foot ankle-high boot moved down hard, and they will die went all the way down. "You step because their intestine will rupture." --- Page 129 --- The conversation between Alourdes and lasted for more than two hours. From Wande Abimbola clear that Maggie and I were meant the beginning, it was dren, there to learn from the to listen. We were the chilelders. As if our names were occasionally to underline this role, know that, right?" injected into a story: "Karen, you Ogou that. 11 Such stories "Maggie, you remember I always are never told idly. telling you amount of verbal instruction that Surprisingly, the small ceremonies pales in accompanies Vodou initiation tions such comparison to what is articulated as this. in situaIt was late, and I drifted away from the ment. My eyes moved conversation for a mosleepily over the walls of ting room. Shelves Alourdes's sitfrom her clients: covering one wall were filled with souvenirs ashtrays, dolls, feather dishes. On the opposite wall flowers, miniature and Alourdes's oldest were color photographs of Maggie movie stars and Catholic child, Johnny, along with pictures of to protect the house saints. Over the door a Vodou charm Palm hung next to a horseshoe entwined with Sunday cross. Dominating the room was a a cut-out of the word love. Vodou and colorful plastic Haitian-the elements Catholic, American and unified. The homes were disparate, but the aesthetic was share of Haitian immigrants in New a common style. They are crowded but York City places, sending the message that there is deeply hospitable more: one more guest to spend the always room for one stay until things get night; one more relative to better; one more the message it carries in another pretty object, regardless of view on a complex world. context-one more point of When I turned back to the conversation, Abimbola about the little black stone Alourdes was telling vomited up and offered to the child Philo. Joseph Binbin Mauvant to this story made me think that Abimbola's response comfortable in a pluralistic world perhaps Alourdes was more professor from the than was the distinguished University of Ife. "I know," Abimbola said, "I know. Il have with my very own eyes. It is sometimes seen these things things that I saw as a child.1 11 He told difficult to believe the he had seen several times a story about an Egungun Yoruba masking cult.) "This during his childhood. (Egungun is a the others. He had a mask was a hunter's Egungun, not like with just two horns sticking up from ourdes was more professor from the than was the distinguished University of Ife. "I know," Abimbola said, "I know. Il have with my very own eyes. It is sometimes seen these things things that I saw as a child.1 11 He told difficult to believe the he had seen several times a story about an Egungun Yoruba masking cult.) "This during his childhood. (Egungun is a the others. He had a mask was a hunter's Egungun, not like with just two horns sticking up from --- Page 130 --- of the head. And the man who danced that mask came the top he would come and dance, and from another town. Every year three little iron pots, the then he brought up from his stomach the I kind with three legs, and they would dance on ground. Ogou that! Before he brought them up, he would move this way saw could hear them clanking inside of him. And and that, and you and take one out, and r-uthen he would go r-u-uuuuuup until there were three, and he uuuuuup and then another, would dance by themwould put them on the ground, and they about Sometimes it is difficult to know how to think selves. that. " For the first time Alourdes looked at Abimbola with genuine puzzlement. Alourdes invited Abimbola to see her alAs we rose to leave, stood aside to let Maggie tars downstairs. The African professor he asked her if through the living-room door. As she passed, go all these things from her mother. It was the she was learning her all evening. There was a first time he addressed directly in his voice. concern, and even sadness Magtouching urgency, that she was indeed learngie assured him with equal sincerity and that she had learned a lot ing many things from her mother from her grandmother as well. an American A year earlier, I had taken another professor, Alourdes. We interest in Haiti, to meet with a longstanding and then went to a Vodou ceremony at the picked up Alourdes manbo. When the event was over and the two home of another the fussed and of us were driving back to Manhattan, professor in the evening, fumed about the "uselessness of it all." Early the before the rituals began, the group had briefly discussed national elections. The year was 1980 and Ronald upcoming his first bid for the U.S. presidency. EveryReagan was making about the cuts in social services they knew one was concerned elected. "Lot'a to sufwould come if Reagan were people going fer," Alourdes observed. too uncomfortBut a substantive political discussion proved with two blan (whites) able for this group to sustain-especially alin the room. So the group quickly moved to a ritualistic, head argument about Haiti's first though not entirely unrelated, acknowledged that of state, Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Everyone back into servitude in an athe had forced recently freed slaves But he had also exacted tempt to restore the country's economy. one was concerned elected. "Lot'a to sufwould come if Reagan were people going fer," Alourdes observed. too uncomfortBut a substantive political discussion proved with two blan (whites) able for this group to sustain-especially alin the room. So the group quickly moved to a ritualistic, head argument about Haiti's first though not entirely unrelated, acknowledged that of state, Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Everyone back into servitude in an athe had forced recently freed slaves But he had also exacted tempt to restore the country's economy. --- Page 131 --- swift and demon or satisfying revenge on the whites left in a savior? Some saw it one Haiti. Was he a men postured and yelled and acted way, some another. The threw her arm over the back of the out. Before long, Alourdes eyes on the ceiling with studied chair next to her and set her quickly followed her into disdain. The rest of the women Ogou "Why do these superior silence. fessor friend asked, people spend their time doing this?" my referring to both the proparty we had just seen and the homemade little Vodou ceded it. "What would pretend politics that had he said, you have them do?"Ishot back. pre- "they could get together and "Well," lotov cocktails." 11 learn how to make MoVODOU AND POLITICS People often ask if I think Vodou and oppressed. I keeps the people of Haiti respond that although poor religion, has sometimes been Vodou, like every other drels alike, guns and misused by tyrants and scounating the money have far more to do with suffering of Haitians than perpetuments on and shapes life, but it religion does. Vodou comHaitian army were not hardly creates it ex nihilo. Ift the not in the backyard of one thoroughly of the corrupt, if little Haiti were in New York were not world superpowers, if Haitians fears that they have AIDS regularly losing jobs because someone haps a question could be Or practice "black magic, then tive force in Haiti. raised as to whether Vodou is a perBut if those posiwould also be different. things were different, Vodou Vodou possible and practical. works.within.the. realm_of the At times in the distant past, and lutionary change seemed once in the recent past, revoliberated the Haitian possible. In the war that slaves, traditional religion eventually ganizational role. It also played a key orclear how played a role, it is large a one, in the freedom although not yet Jean Claude Duvalier's ouster in movements surrounding of Haitians, their 1986. Yet, for the great abroad have been experiences far of repression at home and majority too tangible, racism nurture revolutionary ideas. When persistent, and effective to cidal, Vodou introduces the use of force seems suiOgou Badagri to teach the lessons of aves, traditional religion eventually ganizational role. It also played a key orclear how played a role, it is large a one, in the freedom although not yet Jean Claude Duvalier's ouster in movements surrounding of Haitians, their 1986. Yet, for the great abroad have been experiences far of repression at home and majority too tangible, racism nurture revolutionary ideas. When persistent, and effective to cidal, Vodou introduces the use of force seems suiOgou Badagri to teach the lessons of --- Page 132 --- And there is also Agéou, the liar, who pride and endurance. to bob and feint. These are teaches people how to duck, how of their lives. survival skills Haitians use every day the practical naturally to adults who have lived Bobbing and feinting come of Duvalierist Haiti. For Ogou under the severe political repression in New York use a variety of example, even legal immigrants another for co-workers, names for themselves- -one for family, Secretiveness is a lesyet another for the telephone company. that children learn early. Alexample and one son taught by in Alourdes's household were born though the young children firsthand of Haiti's in the United States and have no experience the climate, they too have come to recognize repressive political No one has to remind usefulness of Ogou's skillful deception. within them that the drama of Vodou that goes on regularly their home is not to be discussed outside. are convinced that their well-being, Alourdes and Maggie service to the spirits. The depth even their survival, depends on fierce with which they of their commitment explains the pride Maggie once their controversial religious practice. hold on to moved in the neighborhood, my told this story: "When we just mother does Vodou brother William told his friends that my have in their mind and stuff like that. And then all these people Vodou lady, she is bad. Most of the neighborhood that she is a I don't care about don't bother talking to us : : : which people ourself to ourself." anyway! We just keep Alourdes successfully treats reSometimes even the people come alone and at night; main ambivalent about Vodou. They have been to see her. they ask her not to tell anyone they and neighbors withthe attitudes of her clients Alourdes accepts to some extent, she adjusts her out agreeing with them. And, She does her healbehavior to take account of such prejudice. be locked work in a small basement room that can against ing When I first met her, the altars in the prying eyes of strangers. Over the years, the tables that room were on tables, in the eopen. cabinets with doors that can have gradually been exchanged for Vodou ritube closed. Reactions to prejudice have also shaped They als in New York. "Here, you just invite couple people. "But in Haiti, the hand,". Alourdes said. come in, sit down, clap lot'a They beat the they have big yard. You can invite a people. cannot do that because of the neighbor." drum. Here, you dwells on images of Vodou's maAmerican popular culture years, the tables that room were on tables, in the eopen. cabinets with doors that can have gradually been exchanged for Vodou ritube closed. Reactions to prejudice have also shaped They als in New York. "Here, you just invite couple people. "But in Haiti, the hand,". Alourdes said. come in, sit down, clap lot'a They beat the they have big yard. You can invite a people. cannot do that because of the neighbor." drum. Here, you dwells on images of Vodou's maAmerican popular culture --- Page 133 --- an attitude as nonsensical as equating Catholicism levolence, most North Americans have with Satanism. The understanding in novels, films, of Vodou is derived mainly from its portrayal snakes, blood, and television, where images of sorcerers, zonbi, word voodoo is Ogou and violence abound. In the United States, the on a used in a casual and derogatory way to indicate evil. anything If it were from the deceptive to the downright be spectrum racism underlies these distortions, it would not SO clear that this kind of stereotyping is tolerated hard to understand why when it would not be tolerated for for an African-based religion other religions. of Vodou in the press, in novels, and The negative portrayal after the Haitian in earnest shortly Part in travelers' accounts began in which slavery was still slaves won their freedom, a period colonies. RCG in the United States and in many European practiced made that the barbarism of The argument was often explicitly that Haitians were incapable their religion clearly demonstrated used by the United of governing themselves-an argument to justify their refusal to States and several countries in Europe Racism is more covert recognize the fledgling black republic. of Vodou these days, but the same stereotypes and convoluted One of the central ways such propastill serve its purposes. the Vodou as in every way opganda works is bylcharacterizing of This descripposite of "true" religion, that is, Christianity) consider tion is ironic, for people who serve the Vodou spirits. themselves good Christians. Catholicism and Haitians see no conflict between practicing deities. "They the spirits, whom they never refer to as serving and I think everybody love have only one God for everybody, I confidence in God," Alourdes said. "I love God plenty. got IfGod don't God. ButIlove my spirit, too, because they help me. J that can do that for you. give that help, strength-spirit in Haitian Vodou. He Bondye (God) is singular and supreme as well as in the SOwith roots in the Christian god is a deity West Africa. Yet in the Haitian view of called high gods of models, rarely gets involved things, Bondye, like his African the drama human lives. Attention to everyday with individual 11 the Vodou spirits. Of course, of life is the work of his "angels/ and calling the Vodou equating Bondye and the Christian god that have roots spirits his angels are also political strategies going back to the time of slavery. ) is singular and supreme as well as in the SOwith roots in the Christian god is a deity West Africa. Yet in the Haitian view of called high gods of models, rarely gets involved things, Bondye, like his African the drama human lives. Attention to everyday with individual 11 the Vodou spirits. Of course, of life is the work of his "angels/ and calling the Vodou equating Bondye and the Christian god that have roots spirits his angels are also political strategies going back to the time of slavery. --- Page 134 --- "OGOU BADAGRI, WHAT ARE YOU DOING THERE?" with it, Vodou is different for each person who deeply engages concentrates on his or her own particular because each person honors all the major spirOgou spirits. Although Alourdes routinely she focuses most of her ritual its, she has half a dozen on whom Vodou that the spirits select activity. IIt is understood within The spirits Alourdes their special devotees, not the reverse. "chosen" her, who "love" concentrates on are those who have from earlier genher, and whose "protection" she has inherited featured on her erations within her familyThey are the ones called on for assistance in her healing pracaltars and routinely these spirits, who give their names tice. Singly and in relation, and guide her professional to the chapters in this book, shape and personal life. decision without consulting one or Alourdes makes no major events are filtered through more of these spirits. All significant and their character traits and the sieve of their personalities, choices. But the spirits are not patterns of behavior frame her what she is to do, moral exemplars. Nor do they dictate exactly advice. More although from time to time some of the spirits give exthe spirits commonly, through poscmdonperomaneys and destructive, in a plore all the potentialities, constructive the images that given life situation. In this way they provide and to make her own allow Alourdes to reflect on problems of dealchoices about the most appropriate and effective ways ing with them. D one stands out. He Within Alourdes's group of special spirits, Badagri. But the is her mêt tèt (the master of her head), Ogou character does dominance of Ogou Badagri in her life and in her close unchecked. The other spirits with whom she has a not go Ogou Badagri's weight. For exrelationship counterbalance has called out the aggression of the ample, even if a situation her and put the matter in Ogou in Alourdes, Gede can possess humor. Thus different light through his iconoclastic an entirely world and the moral choices she makes within it her view off the her spirits. from the chemistry of the interaction among emerge of the mêt têt and that of the devotee tend to The personality tie hinted at in the occasional identificoincide, an intimate angel" (gwo bonanj), one dimension cation of the "big guardian soul, with the Vodou spirit of what might be called a person's Ogou in Alourdes, Gede can possess humor. Thus different light through his iconoclastic an entirely world and the moral choices she makes within it her view off the her spirits. from the chemistry of the interaction among emerge of the mêt têt and that of the devotee tend to The personality tie hinted at in the occasional identificoincide, an intimate angel" (gwo bonanj), one dimension cation of the "big guardian soul, with the Vodou spirit of what might be called a person's --- Page 135 --- her mêt tèt. Diagnosing which spirit is a person's who is his or inheritance alone, mêt tèt, something that is not determined by with amounts to a kind of personality typing. Thus, someone and SO Ogou as a mêt tèt is expected to be brave, assertive, loyal, of the head Ogou forth. The specific Ogou identified as the master For example, all the Ogou adds nuance to this general portrait. stiff to ofare quick to anger, and some mete out punishment been known fenders. Alourdes once said that Ogou Feray has of his his sword on his own head-that is, on the head to bang had made him mad. But Badagri, horse-when that horse in another way: he withAlourdes's Ogou, handles his anger don't see him. draws and withholds. "When he angry, you just 11 Alourdes said. You feel it, but you call him : . . he don't come," "in she herself deals with anger reflects the Badagri The way life, she is never frivolous with this poher head." Tempered by and withdraw many times, tent emotion. I have seen her sulk but I have never seen her rant and rave. than any Ogou Badagri possesses Alourdes more frequently Gede. He is almost other spirit, with the possible exception of her clients bring to always involved in treating the problems Vodou to her. Because Alourdes has gone through the marriage she calls him her "husband. 117 She sets aside one Ogou Badagri, week for him. On this night, she receives the handsome night a lover shares her bed. On soldier in dreams, and no human wears his color, red. Wednesday, Ogou's day, Alourdes always could well be describing In describing Ogou Badagri, Alourdes To illustrate this trait, herself. Badagri will not tolerate injustice. people e-you Alourdes gives a homely example: "If you nagging mad when don't do nothing, he can get know, teasing - they "If do someabout that.' 11 Disloyalty is equally intolerable: you it for no thing, like, you make money for him and you spend reason-that make him very angry." is also known for his good looks, his generosity ("he Badagri he he give; he like to spoil people"), love to give- - even angry, ("he just father for his expertise in treating people's problems and his penchant for everybody; he love to make treatment"), of work ("he love hard work"). But the most striking part hard candidate for marriage. Alourdes, for ex7The mèt tèt is not the only appropriate Danbala. ample, has also married Kouzen and and you spend reason-that make him very angry." is also known for his good looks, his generosity ("he Badagri he he give; he like to spoil people"), love to give- - even angry, ("he just father for his expertise in treating people's problems and his penchant for everybody; he love to make treatment"), of work ("he love hard work"). But the most striking part hard candidate for marriage. Alourdes, for ex7The mèt tèt is not the only appropriate Danbala. ample, has also married Kouzen and --- Page 136 --- character is his ability to endure in the face of Ogou Badagri's others. This quality is portrayed in trials that would break many befavorite song for him, depicting a conversation Alourdes's head of the army, and Badagri, the loyal soltween Ogou Feray, Ogou dier who stands guard: Ogou Badagri, sa ou ap fè la? Ou sèviye; m'ap reveye. M'ta dômi, Feray; m'envi domi, 0. M'ta dômi, Feray; m 'pase dômi, 0. Se nan lagè mwen ye! Ou mêt m'reveye! O Feray, 0. Gason lagè mwen ye! Yo mêt m'reveye! Ogou Badagri, what are you doing there? You are on watch; I am going to wake you. I would sleep, Feray; I need to sleep, oh. I would sleep, Feray; I am beyond sleep, oh. There is a war going on! You must wake me! O Feray, oh. I am a soldier! They must wake me! Alourdes, like Badagri, chooses watchfulForsaking attack, around her like a cloak, holding it ness. She draws her power dream of extending herself outclose to her body. She does not she controls what exward and conquering the world. Rather, As it has taught her she is able to control-herself. perience Alourdes's fighting spirit comes to a does in Ogou Badagri, Her current life stratkeen focus in her pride and self-respect. and conis to follow the rules, conserve her energy, practice egy This strategy has gotten her through both shortstant vigilance. hardship. Like Badagri, Alourdes term crises and long-term endures. "THE POLICE WILL ARREST ME" Alourdes's strategy was challenged. Her son In March of 1981, Her first response William was arrested for purse snatching. erself. perience Alourdes's fighting spirit comes to a does in Ogou Badagri, Her current life stratkeen focus in her pride and self-respect. and conis to follow the rules, conserve her energy, practice egy This strategy has gotten her through both shortstant vigilance. hardship. Like Badagri, Alourdes term crises and long-term endures. "THE POLICE WILL ARREST ME" Alourdes's strategy was challenged. Her son In March of 1981, Her first response William was arrested for purse snatching. --- Page 137 --- disbelief that anyone in her family could do such a thing. was which gave way to fear, as she was Then came anger, quickly and the courts, institutions she forced to deal with the police deeply distrusted. three of whom were born in Ogou Alourdes has four children, these three. William suffered Haiti; William is the youngest of Years later, brain damage from a bout of meningitis in infancy. indicated testing by the New York City public school system of Haitian that his IQ was between 55 and 57. In the tradition William in families, there has never been any thought of putting institution. His place in Alourdes's household is guaranteed; an of Alourdes's death, Maggie would assume the and in the event this stance is an unarticulated same commitment. Underlying endangers the care belief that ignoring family responsibilities the considerable care and protection of the spirits. In providing consider themAlourdes and Maggie do not William requires, infantilize William. He can be selves martyrs. Neither do they him when they difficult, and Maggie and Alourdes do not spare are annoyed. when he was arrested. He had the William was twenty-one his mind and heart were tall, strong body of a man, although cloying eagerness to still those of a child. He vacillated between Entrusted with two and stubborn resistance to rules. please for lunch, William made his own subway tokens and money he attended in Greenwich Vilway each day to the trade school because he gave his lage. If he got in trouble, it was usually home. William lunch money away or got sidetracked on his way if it would could not say no. He would do anything for anyone of friendor a moment to bask in the glow earn him a thank-you was not known at first, this need ship. Although the full story Anhad led to his involvement in the purse snatching. to please from the trade school had actually taken the other young man William to hold, and William had compurse. He had given it to to face criminal plied. Because the other boy was too young ofjail William went through the frightening experience charges, and court appearances alone. and Alourdes to be at the courtThe police advised Maggie after William's arrest. I arhouse at ten o'clock on the morning Snow was ranged to pick them up in Brooklyn at nine-thirty. down fast and thick that day. The roads were slippery coming answered the door, looking and the driving difficult. Maggie and had done nothing with her dreadful. She wore no makeup compurse. He had given it to to face criminal plied. Because the other boy was too young ofjail William went through the frightening experience charges, and court appearances alone. and Alourdes to be at the courtThe police advised Maggie after William's arrest. I arhouse at ten o'clock on the morning Snow was ranged to pick them up in Brooklyn at nine-thirty. down fast and thick that day. The roads were slippery coming answered the door, looking and the driving difficult. Maggie and had done nothing with her dreadful. She wore no makeup --- Page 138 --- stand-off. She paced the hallway in her hair but comb it to a not "I am too nervous, overcoat, shaking. Maggie had slept. I do it. We she said. "You got to get those name for me. cannot officer' name : . the judge' name . . got to know the police the If we got those Ogou the name of that woman with pocketbook. name, my mother can fix it." television. AlI found Alourdes sitting on her bed watching could not leave until though we were running late, she said we itself, friend Socurette arrived. Insecurity had generalized her had been called to watch the empty house while and Soeurette With her back to me, Alourdes kept a dispaswe were gone. television. After a time, she began to talk in a sionate eye on the small, tired voice. mother is here "I hope, 11 she said (meaning "I wish"), "my I just eat and I just a little girl, and I don't have no responsibility. I 'Oh, boy, When I was little girl, say, . . I sleep . . . I play. Now I am sorry. You give thém when I am going to grow up?" in, food to eat. If they need they want, a bed to sleep everything they want. . . them shoes, clothes, everything shoes, you give mother is here. When I little girl, she give Oh, boy, I hope my if I could not get shoes right me everything : . . well, maybe now, I get them next year! Same thing. "Why tone, Alourdes continued: Then, in a more desperate William is dead? Just tell me come they not call me and tell me dead people and get him. down to that place where they keep Then it's finish. Karen. You help me. We sad. Then I call you, at Alourdes's back, unWhy he not just dead?" I stood staring sense of compaswhether these words had offended my sure sion or my sense of propriety. after ten. Alourdes Socurette bustled in the door shortly accusations. Like a her with a sullen stare, followed by greeted Socurette responded, "It not my fault, nervous, clucking hen, and we had to drive slow." 11 Excuses cheri. The car had no heat, that have any logic. it is not mandatory they are mandatory; flakes. The wind The snow continued to fall in huge feathery and sideBridge blew the snow up, down, on the Brooklyn tension inside the car mounted. Alourdes ways all at once. The in the front passenger seat, she withdrew into herself. Sitting at her finhunched her shoulders and hung her head, staring wool scarf. she braided and unbraided the fringe on her gers as anxious than depressed, talking nonstop. She Maggie was more that have any logic. it is not mandatory they are mandatory; flakes. The wind The snow continued to fall in huge feathery and sideBridge blew the snow up, down, on the Brooklyn tension inside the car mounted. Alourdes ways all at once. The in the front passenger seat, she withdrew into herself. Sitting at her finhunched her shoulders and hung her head, staring wool scarf. she braided and unbraided the fringe on her gers as anxious than depressed, talking nonstop. She Maggie was more --- Page 139 --- brave attempts at light conversation, but more made occasional either William or herself for the crioften she fell into blaming scrambled around the back sis. Throughout the short trip, she off the windows. of my station wagon using her mittens to wipe of the criminal Ogou We soon confronted the imperial architecture Street. The courts building in lower Manhattan, at 100 Centre ten revolving door could have accommodated a person heavy the marble was cold and endless. Feet wet with feet tall. Inside, This was purgatory, snow made us feel even more precarious. seemed wider than the ultimate in liminal places. The hallways hollow the offices that clung along their edges, yet these huge not waiting rooms. There were no chairs or benches, spaces were smoked furtively, getting away with someno ashtrays. People on the floor. Purgatory thing each time they put out a cigarette directions, nerestrooms. We had to get did not provide public ask to use a toilet that gotiate a maze, and then permission overwhelmed seemed to be there for someone else. The building cranAlourdes. "Oh, boy, this building solid - . . yes!" she said, marble "Look at that staircaseing her neck at a massive pillar. brass iron!" "Tel-e-phone, 11 she read, tracing her finger over in there? Oh, boy, this buildletters set in marble. Telephone I . : beautiful : . . yes. ing : . everywhere gold learned, helped us sort out the SOA few basic rules, quickly of the building. The accial parade moving through the halls Lawyers cused were black or Hispanic and wore scruffy clothes. suits. dressed like the Marlboro were white and wore Anyone offiin a flannel shirt, and a down vest was a police man jeans, Although we had been told that in 90 percer waiting to testify. members showed up, dozens of cent of the cases no family slender Puerto Rican woman them were roaming the halls. A her daughter's with tight jeans and red, brimming eyes yanked arm and screamed: "You better behave or-!" backed off when Officer Reese flinched and instinctively "You the man who arAlourdes greeted him with the question: and puffyrest son?" Reese was short and kind, paunchy my on, the smell of alcohol came on his eyed. As the day wore only tired. He told us what breath, yet he never seemed drunk, outside the to do to move things along, and he waited patiently bother me, 1 he said, doors of the crime bureaucracy. "It doesn't "I've for it." Later, he offered an indirect apology: "I get paid I didn't know if Wilseen too many things. I'm suspicious. Alourdes greeted him with the question: and puffyrest son?" Reese was short and kind, paunchy my on, the smell of alcohol came on his eyed. As the day wore only tired. He told us what breath, yet he never seemed drunk, outside the to do to move things along, and he waited patiently bother me, 1 he said, doors of the crime bureaucracy. "It doesn't "I've for it." Later, he offered an indirect apology: "I get paid I didn't know if Wilseen too many things. I'm suspicious. --- Page 140 --- retarded or just putting me on. I liam-that's his name?-is fun of me. That happens, you thought maybe he was making Matthews, black man named know. 11 Reese's partner was a tall and uncover his innowho took the time to talk with William "hurt a night in the He described William as by Ogou cence of spirit. pens. 11 slammer" and a long day in the "holding office checking on Hours passed as we moved from office to from the of William's case. We made the rounds the progress where are compiled, to the room on the second floor papers a number, to the little docket room where each case is assigned of the next cases window with bars on the first floor where a list and be heard is available. My white face, my polite requests, to old rabbit the right clothes (I was wearing my grandmother's could pass for somecoat, which, if not inspected too closely, than finer) got me quicker and more courteous responses thing The face behind the barred winothers seemed to be receiving. dow asked: "Are you the attorney?" to do but wait, I looked at When there was nothing more warm? Don't you want to untie Alourdes and said, "Aren't you "Yes," she replied but made no coat?" your scarf. : : open your and unfastened the top button of her her scarf move, soluntied attentions in an unprotesting, even gratecoat. She suffered my Alourdes gave herself over to me ful, way, as a child might. trusting that she much as she surrendered to the legal system, would be told the right way to do things. from the moment Maggie, however, was filled with venom "You found ourselves dwarfed by the pillars of justice. we first to do? I am going to beat him with a reknow what I am going In Haiti they siyôl. Resiyôl is a thing like . . . a. . a : whip. too!" And mothat on animals. They use that on people, use know whatIam going to do? I'm going to kick ments later: "You her knee up sharply. him in the knockers," she said, jerking "You see how I am going to do it?" she also blamed When Alourdes talked, which was not often, bring no he got to do that? He know he can't William. "Why house." 11 But she also questioned: "Wilpocketbook back to my Karen. All the time, I just leave liam not like that. You know me, full of dime and quarter. Also I got two big jar my pocketbook. 11 In her mind, William's major offense He never take nothing. like this, he not just do "When he do something was disloyalty. behind him. We got to come down here. it hisself. He got family often, bring no he got to do that? He know he can't William. "Why house." 11 But she also questioned: "Wilpocketbook back to my Karen. All the time, I just leave liam not like that. You know me, full of dime and quarter. Also I got two big jar my pocketbook. 11 In her mind, William's major offense He never take nothing. like this, he not just do "When he do something was disloyalty. behind him. We got to come down here. it hisself. He got family --- Page 141 --- We got to talk to policeman. When I little but not like this. I never do girl, sometime I badmother nothing serious. I . . my father to think about. 11 know I got my It had already been a long day, and I was think of anything to say to Alourdes. finding it difficult to I searched encouraging word: "You know, lamely for an Ogou of this. It will be funny." someday we will laugh about all day, Alourdes, who had been began to cry. Her crying was more dry-eyed all she bent over and covered her movement than sound; mountain about to face, and her body quaked like a erupt. Eventually we learned that William would be night court, which did not convene for several arraigned in would have stood in hours. Alourdes turn. Maggie, however, purgatory and waited patiently for her children, do the wanted to go back home, the laundry." " Given the chill inside and "pick up outside, neither idea seemed the weather into going out to eat. Snow and practical to me, SO I talked them as we walked toward Baxter wind were driving in our faces cuisine. Alourdes, like Street and Forlini's northern Italian peaked hood, bent into an oversized elf in her brown coat and the wind and cried: walk! Help me!" "Woy! Woy! I can't It was early, and Forlini's was virtually were spread on all the tables empty. White cloths of the restaurant, closest except one, the booth in the back to the kitchen. her pulse to seat us there, the hostess directed Stifling initial imfront of it. Alourdes tucked her us to the booth in don't get no food fall on napkin /1 under her chin, "so I her. We each had my clothes," and told me to order for a glass of red wine. Alourdes and I split an order of stuffed Maggie had soup, and salad. shells with a green Alourdes commented on her inability to drink: glass of wine and my head begin to spin. 11 "One little glass and swaying from side to side, she Picking up her wine cohol affects her. (I had a brief but demonstrated how almove Alourdes's unconscious alarming fantasy of having to which waiters carried body the length of a restaurant in "But what I don't folded linen napkins over their arms.) understand," Alourdes straight and looking chipper for the first time said, sitting up the spirit can drink. Papa all day, "is how drink but Ogou come, he drink a lot of rum. . : when he gone, I don't feel He smell no alcohol on your breath, nothing. "You don't nothing!" Maggie added in an strated how almove Alourdes's unconscious alarming fantasy of having to which waiters carried body the length of a restaurant in "But what I don't folded linen napkins over their arms.) understand," Alourdes straight and looking chipper for the first time said, sitting up the spirit can drink. Papa all day, "is how drink but Ogou come, he drink a lot of rum. . : when he gone, I don't feel He smell no alcohol on your breath, nothing. "You don't nothing!" Maggie added in an --- Page 142 --- accounts at the booth beanimated voice. The waiter checking Switching from hind us turned to look at us over the banquette. the conversation in our private English to Creole, we continued language. Alourdes seemed grateful for a moment in which Ogou Maggie and around the corner. But beto act as if tragedy were not lurking of conversation. So fore long William was once again the topic with him, and no one far, there had been no opportunity to talk about what had haphad been able to give us any answers that we assumed pened. (Later, we would all be surprised William took the purse.) fumed. "Dummy," Mag- "Why he got to do that?" Alourdes the fray. "I don't want to interjected. Hesitantly, I entered gie 1I I Simultaneous prointerfere in your family life : . began. "Don't that! You are from and Alourdes: say tests came Maggie fear that William would close family." And SO I talked about my that maybe that down if they were too hard on him. I suggested tomorrow should simply tell him they loved him; night they him that what he had done was wrong. "He has they could tell lesson for I concluded. The already had enough of a today," aware that the wine had made us earnest, and I was vaguely mid-sentence rhythms of our speech (often shifting into English were and then back to Creole before the thought was complete) careening around the restaurant. self-reflective. "You know, you are Maggie became painfully I call William right. Just now I am thinking about some things. and I am busy 'dummy/' and all the time he wanting to kiss me, 11 More 'Don't do that.'Is should not be like that. andIs say to him, does when talking quietly and using English, as she usually "You know I am about her life in New York, Maggie continued: associate's degree in sitting here with my college degree [an College), and I take early childhood education from Brooklyn Maybe ifI could just all these classes, and I don't know nothing. If I could read, maybe, Piagetgo back and get my books. : : remember that name- ifl and there was another book, I cannot set a I could understand. Icould up program could read, maybe to help William. I am his sister!" too. "I am always saying to William, 'Why Alourdes reflected, and leave me alone?" And I mean that." don't you just get out between William and the We finally settled on a comparison William was like a child who children, Kumar and Michael. and I don't know nothing. If I could read, maybe, Piagetgo back and get my books. : : remember that name- ifl and there was another book, I cannot set a I could understand. Icould up program could read, maybe to help William. I am his sister!" too. "I am always saying to William, 'Why Alourdes reflected, and leave me alone?" And I mean that." don't you just get out between William and the We finally settled on a comparison William was like a child who children, Kumar and Michael. --- Page 143 --- needed both punishment and love. The important, and things seemed clearer. conversation seemed tain both impressions. The wine helped to sus121 While we were in the restaurant, darkness stopped. Alourdes was more relaxed fell and the snow courthouse, and, after two on the walk back to the Ogou were even looser. glasses of wine apiece, Maggie and I trunk of a car, into Impulsively, I leaned over backward on a virgin crust of snow with two the powder beneath. Flapping inches of I made a snow angel for my arms up and down several times, Alourdes and seen one. Maggie. They had never The arraignment happened quickly. The had appointed an attorney who Legal Aid Society ested in was soothing but not giving or receiving information. He very intercourtroom only minutes before William's rushed into the shaking hands all case was called. After hasty consultation. around, the attorney drew us outside for a When Maggie launched into a planations and questions, he hushed her stream of exown: "Did any of you know the with a question of his stolen?" woman whose purse was "What was her name again?" I asked, and winking. "Pointer," he said, catching Maggie's eye courtroom, I took out the "Laura Pointer. 11 Back in the ceived that morning. I wrote envelope from a telephone bill reof the judge and the "Laura Pointer" beneath the names handed it to arresting officers, folded the envelope, and Maggie. Accessory to magic! William came through the door beside the formed officer holding his left arm. The judge's bench,a uniin largely inaudible tones at the front official of procedure passed only comment from the lawyer that drifted the courtroom. The the other boy taking the bag and our way was about date was set, March 26, and handing it to William. A court Outside the William was released without bail. courtroom, the attorney been an offer of a misdemeanor explained that there had William not to plead charge, but he had advised guilty to anything. said, handing me his card, and then he "Stay in touch," he courtroom and another ran off toward another for case. We stood in the way several minutes more: William, now-familiar hallself, and the two arresting officers. The Alourdes, Maggie, myrelease was palpable. relief we feltat William's Everyone was thanking everyone else fusely-everyone except William, who looked dazed. pro- an offer of a misdemeanor explained that there had William not to plead charge, but he had advised guilty to anything. said, handing me his card, and then he "Stay in touch," he courtroom and another ran off toward another for case. We stood in the way several minutes more: William, now-familiar hallself, and the two arresting officers. The Alourdes, Maggie, myrelease was palpable. relief we feltat William's Everyone was thanking everyone else fusely-everyone except William, who looked dazed. pro- --- Page 144 --- midst of the hubbub, Maggie grabbed the lawyer's card In the "See! See, I will show from my hand and said to Officer Reese: Here, William. if I was lying. I was not lying, you will see. you Read this line!" The line on the card read "Associate Read this! he said. OffiII William made a good guess. "Lawyer," Ogou Attorney. aside the awkward moment with a comcer Matthews shoved "I used to have trouble with ment as unrealistic asit was caring: do it, William. Don't you reading, too. I understand. You can have to work at it." ever believe that you can't. You just until the moment it was Maggie had not cried all day, not bail. Then she had clear that William would be released without out of here!" Her turned to me with a hoarse whisper: "Get me courtroom. In the muffled sobs had accompanied us out of the The talk came Maggie's emotional spin began again. hallway, were said too many times and too loudly. faster and faster; things intended to exercise with William Whatever restraint Maggie cleared the door and felt the cold air in was gone by the time we our faces. Maggie snapped. William "Did you take that pocketbook?" Then Maggie linked her started to protest, but no one listened. William's and struck up another tune. "Anything you arm with come to me. I will give it to you. You know ever want, you just sister. 1I William said nothing. you always got your "THE JUDGE WILL NOT CONDEMN ME" after that first day in court. She kept track Maggie took charge making regular telephone calls of the details of William's case, returned. In to the Legal Aid office. Her calls were not always it became the date of March 26 approached, fact, as hearing there to speak with her. more and more difficult to get anyone in court, the lawyer The evening before William was to appear attorney incalled. He did not know how the district finally with the case; the prognosis was "anybody's tended to proceed to show at ten o'clock guess." 11 The family was nevertheless would not up be able to be the next morning. And, oh, yes, he to the case would have a there, but the new attorney assigned complete set of his notes. and Maggie this time, the When I went to pick up Alourdes dressed and looking mood was different. They were both up the door, all both wearing new wigs. Alourdes met me at good, district finally with the case; the prognosis was "anybody's tended to proceed to show at ten o'clock guess." 11 The family was nevertheless would not up be able to be the next morning. And, oh, yes, he to the case would have a there, but the new attorney assigned complete set of his notes. and Maggie this time, the When I went to pick up Alourdes dressed and looking mood was different. They were both up the door, all both wearing new wigs. Alourdes met me at good, --- Page 145 --- sugar: "Karen, ba'm nouvèl ou Igive me news of you dream about me last night?" Her yourself]. Did guard: "Well . . er. . : uh. question caught me off lot last night, but tIcan'ti Ireally don't know. I dreamed a literally. In fact, her remember." 1 Itend to take Alourdes too question was me about her own dream. She simply the prelude to telling Ogou I was in the door. launched into the account before "I dream my mother last In that dream, it like night . . like Ijust forget she dead. and hear me my mother sleeping, and she just wake up Isay I don't talking. My mother say to me, 'What that say nothing. Ijust sitting here.' She you say?' you talking with? I don't believe say, 'Who that shine it all around, and she you!' She take a flashlight and say, I see . . I see that!" you talking to somebody Alourdes's dream made me smile. If in succeeded in only sleep, she had ity. I had heard becoming a young girl again, with no responsibilmany stories about her as a young woman, and I also knew clandestine courtships tricity in the poor sections of that, with little or no elecwould be one sure way for anxious Port-au-Prince, using a flashlight was going on in the yards that mothers to ascertain what areas. "Whenever I serve as living rooms in these dream my mother, 11 know everything going to be She Alourdes concluded, "I I know. 11 Although okay. come to me like that and hedged her bets good luck was clearly in the air, Alourdes with by stopping in her altar room to splash herself specially prepared perfumes. This time, we waited in the wide marble Street for only two hours. halls of 100 Centre William's case had been Just after noon, we learned that judge had excused William postponed until April 20 and that the yer told us that he hoped to from have appearing then. The new lawhearing date. He the matter resolved before the definite until the last explained that we might not know minute. anything "Is anybody listening to me?" he hollered with "You are going to get a letter. It will look good humor. 'If you do not show in court very official. It will say: issued for your arrest.' up You on April 20, a warrant will be judge has excused can ignore that letter because the send out the letter William. The computer will go ahead and anyway. But you do not have you understand?" Without a moment's to come. Do sponded, "I get a letter like that, hesitation, Alourdes reme, put me in jail, I going to come!" say they going to come arrest letter. It will look good humor. 'If you do not show in court very official. It will say: issued for your arrest.' up You on April 20, a warrant will be judge has excused can ignore that letter because the send out the letter William. The computer will go ahead and anyway. But you do not have you understand?" Without a moment's to come. Do sponded, "I get a letter like that, hesitation, Alourdes reme, put me in jail, I going to come!" say they going to come arrest --- Page 146 --- different. "Iam tired ofall this trouble!" Maggie's attitude was the revolving door of the she shouted as we pushed through "This stuff going to be finish! courthouse into a clear sunny day. Danbala! He is It better be, or I am going to kill them. Papa I am tired of list. Then come Papa Ogou. Ogou number one on my Karen, 11 she said, moving her trouble. All the time, trouble! But, low, "I really think everyspeech rapidly from high notes to for the first time, I sleep. You thing going to be okay. Last night, want to sit down know I don't sleep. I don't eat. And now Ijust angel is quiet, So now I know my guardian and relaaaaaaaax! You know, before, when we and everything going to be okay. turned around), and tèt mwen boulvèse (my head was was here, Then I don't sleep. No dream. I could my angel got no peace. IfI sleep enough, I will not even think. Now I am coming along. that. You know the world! But I don't got to tell you conquer that, right?" shouted: "You know too much, Karen!" SeeMaggie suddenly and continued in an ordiing my startled response, she laughed friend and you around a lot, conversational tone, "You my hear nary I just tell you things. You see thing, you and sometimes 'Karen know too much.' It is like thing. I think those spirit say, then to Christian know too much, they got the Mafia a-once you to have to go to Haiti like me, get [baptize] you. I think you going 11 She mischievously. know.' grinned your head washed . . . you turned to WilIn another lightning change of mood, Maggie we got liam: "When we get home, I got to callthe police. They if say don't them informed, what you are doing. 'Cause you to keep in She gave me an exagbehave, they going to put you jail." to scare him wink and whispered: "I am just trying gerated lately." the telephone call came. No one Sometime in mid-April, made much ofit. With the help seemed surprised, and no one by Maggie, the disof school records and test scores procured that William was retrict attorney had finally been convinced tarded. All charges against him were dropped. DIFFERENT KINDS OF OGOU POWER have each carved out a place in the New Alourdes and Maggie differ, in part beWorld, in New York. Their roles and attitudes scare him wink and whispered: "I am just trying gerated lately." the telephone call came. No one Sometime in mid-April, made much ofit. With the help seemed surprised, and no one by Maggie, the disof school records and test scores procured that William was retrict attorney had finally been convinced tarded. All charges against him were dropped. DIFFERENT KINDS OF OGOU POWER have each carved out a place in the New Alourdes and Maggie differ, in part beWorld, in New York. Their roles and attitudes --- Page 147 --- cause they have lived different lives. One difference would be to say that Alourdes way to capture this in the United States, whereas is a Haitian who lives spent the first twelve her daughteris an American who years of her life in Haiti. One afternoon in 1983, Alourdes was going back to Haiti. dreaming aloud about Ogou money, Ibe "Nobody don't like New York! If I of gone right back to my country. I take the front got my mother' house, open a little boutique. room just a little place. I sell hat. . Nothing big : "You do that! Not . : dress." me," was care what anybody Maggie's quick retort. "I don't say about New York. It is am staying. You can have better here. I Tonton Makout. your Baby Doc, your Duvalier, Not me!" "Tonton Makout don't your Alourdes said simply. "I just mind bother me," nothing to do with them." my business. I don't have Alourdes avoids all public authority structures in the States, as she did in Haiti. When William United police, there was no question that got in trouble with the frontline Maggie would be the family's representative. Once was clear actual role in the incident, she Maggie took about William's spirit rooted in the on this task in a fighting and that, assumption that a mistake had been made about furthermore, she was not powerless to do it. It would not have occurred to Alourdes that something call the police and the courts to account she could or law. In her mind, they on a matter of principle itself. She represent a force as irrational as nature challenged them instead through the the spirits, just as Philo had when the courts intervention of home. It was Alourdes who would took away her until she visited her altar not leave for the courthouse for the room, and it was she who first names of the people involved in the case. asked want to harm them, but she did want She did not not harm her. to ensure that they could Alourdes's attitude toward those who have in experiences that go far back in her life. One authority is based cerned her older brother Jean, who had early lesson conwas nineteen. A colonel in the to leave Haiti when he Jean's girlfriend. Philo heard Haitian army had his eye on ents that soldiers through her network of loyal clithe colonel's were plotting to kill her son to get him out of way. By calling in favors wherever she could, Philo managed to short-circuit and however tion process, and she had the lengthy emigraJean out of the country in days. experiences that go far back in her life. One authority is based cerned her older brother Jean, who had early lesson conwas nineteen. A colonel in the to leave Haiti when he Jean's girlfriend. Philo heard Haitian army had his eye on ents that soldiers through her network of loyal clithe colonel's were plotting to kill her son to get him out of way. By calling in favors wherever she could, Philo managed to short-circuit and however tion process, and she had the lengthy emigraJean out of the country in days. --- Page 148 --- said to me on one of his rare visits to "That's the way it is," Jean official. Get a Alourdes's home in Brooklyn. "Any government Whatever they build her a house, give her a BMW. mistress, what want, they do it." have to do to get they has functioned Ogou Since the days of Dessalines, the Haitian army violence erupts with few checks on its power. Around soldiers, often their own and shocking ways, sparked as by in arbitrary crime or political dissent. Anyone greed or fragile pride as by the streets of Port-au-Prince who has spent much time walking Alourdes's world until These streets were has seen examples. has led her to conclude she was in her late twenties. Experience the cracks in the systhat survival depends on slipping through around it is necessary to cultivate invisibility tem. Specifically, Alourdes credits her Vodou anyone who may be threatening. "All my life, I'm walkspirits with granting her this invisibility: and healthy and : . ing in the street : I'm walking very proud don't make no difprotected. Even : : I.. . . la woman-that those they ference! They cannot talk to me. I pass near people, Because I protection, I got a gad (guard, a prodon't see me. got that gad in me for protection. I got tective charm]. Spirit put [envious] people, vioprotection from awful people, ennviyon lent people.' . that this spiritual gift has limitaYet Alourdes acknowledges protection don't mean you tions. "Let me tell you something, Protection No, no, no, no, no. That not protection. can go fight. harm for no reason, just because you mean people can't you too. You got don't do nothing. But you got to protect yourself, in front of to look. If a car coming, Inot going stand up two eye No. IfI stand up in front that car just SO I see ifl got protection. of that car, that car going hit me." to exhibit a conserAlourdes has begun Now middle-aged, not have been possible for her as a young vatism that would to make a place for herwoman, when she was still struggling manbo enables her to confine self in the world. Her work as a where she is in control. herself largely to her house, a place does out, careful Alourdes seldom leaves home. When she go that the ensures that her transit will be smooth and planning will be consonant with her wellreception at her destination self-esteem. The sources of Alourdes's conservatism, developed to make a fortress of her home, could be her current tendency teaches. One of his songs examined in terms of a lesson Ogou bo enables her to confine self in the world. Her work as a where she is in control. herself largely to her house, a place does out, careful Alourdes seldom leaves home. When she go that the ensures that her transit will be smooth and planning will be consonant with her wellreception at her destination self-esteem. The sources of Alourdes's conservatism, developed to make a fortress of her home, could be her current tendency teaches. One of his songs examined in terms of a lesson Ogou --- Page 149 --- seems to describe the wounds to the heart and can result from too much life to the will that struggle. This experience, too much pain and song, addressed to the the Ogou, Sen Jak Majè, consists of the battle-seasoned chief of one other line: "M'blese, name of the spirit and don't m'pa wè san mwen (I'm see my blood]." wounded, but I Ogou The early part of Alourdes's life was a constant is still bruised and has reason to be struggle. She a brief period when she wary of the larger world. For spirited, was a teenager, beautiful and Alourdes thought she had escaped forever from high- the hungerand demeaning poverty ofher childhood. She motherinto letting her audition fora talked her lorique, and, to the surprise of placein Haiti'sTroupe Folkeveryone but the self-confident fifteen-year-old, she was successful. In no time, lead singer with this group, which she became the traditional religious music and performed both popular and dance. But the excitement and glamour of her career did the brief marriage that followed it. soon ended, as found herself on her own and Before long, Alourdes responsible for three children. It wasimpossible to find steady work, and there was nevere money. At times, she fed her children salt enough mother had done with water, as her own her, SO they would feel had thing in their bellies. "That time was awful for they somehave to pay my rent. When me. My mother if she don't have my mother don't have nothing . . money, she don't These hard times cook-nobody eat that day." Haiti. And eventually made Alourdes decide to leave yet, during her first years in New not much easier. It was difficult to find York, things were failed, and it took a time a good job, her health her children from long to save enough money to Haiti. Then, not long after the bring united, another crisis hit, in 1965. family was reAlourdes was getting ready to make the trip home initiation into the Vodou to undergo apartment she priesthood. It was winter, and the was renting had no central heat. Her tiny provided an electric space heater, butits defective landlord a fire in the middle of the night. The fire took wiring started refrigerator, a new television, even the hundred everything- --her a friend had given her to take to his dollars in cash family in Halfasleep and scrambling to get his pants on, Port-au-Prince. fifteen, sustained burns on his back and neck Jean-Pierre, then curtain. He was sent to the from a flaming hospital, while Alourdes, Maggie, was renting had no central heat. Her tiny provided an electric space heater, butits defective landlord a fire in the middle of the night. The fire took wiring started refrigerator, a new television, even the hundred everything- --her a friend had given her to take to his dollars in cash family in Halfasleep and scrambling to get his pants on, Port-au-Prince. fifteen, sustained burns on his back and neck Jean-Pierre, then curtain. He was sent to the from a flaming hospital, while Alourdes, Maggie, --- Page 150 --- William were taken in by friends. The Red Cross gave and little for food. them new shoes, warm clothing, and coupons that she owns her own These days, Alourdes can say proudly and clothe her famhome and requires no outside help to feed a Ogou ily. In the row house in Fort Greene, she and Maggie support her chief household. Alourdes credits lively, three-generation with the security she now enjoys, and protector, Ogou Badagri, her early life as well. she can detect his presence throughout Alourdes once offered. "Let me give you a story about me," I "Wednesday is Papa Ogou' day, right? I born on Wednesday. Maggie born on Wednesday. Jeanmarried on Wednesday. I come to New York on Wednesday. Pierre born on Wednesday. I have to do any busiIfI got an appointment with somebody, I ness, I have to go out for any reason-I go on Wednesday. don't have no luck on Monday." and poverty as a Maggie's story is different. She knew hunger wont to do. child, but she simply accepted them as children are to the the real struggles began when she came For Maggie, in New York that she learned to fight. United States. It was about her first few months in school When Maggie tells stories self more frightin New York City, she reveals a twelve-year-old wise and resilient ened and more aggressive than the worldly mother of two who is now my friend. had come to that school, and they look at me, they "I just think I'm ugly. And I don't speak think, That black girl!l" They white, black, We got all kind'a people in that school: no English. Rican. Each one have some kind'a gang. These white Puerto and beat me I did not even start it, and girls jump on me should up. of seen me, Karen; I was they expel me for that! But you "I was then." Maggie's solemn face broke into a huge grin. big and took big. She planted her feet wide apart big S000000000 the room. walk like this. My stomthumping steps across "Ijust stick out like this." ach stick out to here, and my rear end just took In a matter-of-fact tone, she completed the story. "They to the I cut her here and here," Maggie said, that girl hospital. toward her face and upper arm. "When I first vaguely gesturing here. 11 come, I always carry a little knife, like a penknife- right white the waistband on her skirt. "When all them She snapped cut one. So they put me out for three girls jump on me, I just like me! I was the weeks. But when I come back, everybody Puerto Rican. I leader, the leader of everybody-black, white, was S000000 big!" I cut her here and here," Maggie said, that girl hospital. toward her face and upper arm. "When I first vaguely gesturing here. 11 come, I always carry a little knife, like a penknife- right white the waistband on her skirt. "When all them She snapped cut one. So they put me out for three girls jump on me, I just like me! I was the weeks. But when I come back, everybody Puerto Rican. I leader, the leader of everybody-black, white, was S000000 big!" --- Page 151 --- One day, when Alourdes was singing Ogou tape recorder, we came to one for Ogou Achade: songs for my Baton pase nan men mwen, Achade, Pou chyen raje mode mwen. Ogou The club passes into my hand, Achade, For the mad dog bites me. When she finished singing, Alourdes exclaimed: That's my protection. Nobody can't touch me." "That's me! have made the same point and meant it Maggie could the adult Maggie would more literally, although As never wear a knife in her an adult, Maggie, like Alourdes, has learned the waistband. knowing how to slip by unnoticed. Like value of spirits as the source of this talent: "When Alourdes, she cites the like people don't see me. Or if I'm I'm on the street, it's me. I'm like the wind talking, they don't hear . : : just passing by!" But Alourdes, and she will still take on a good verbal Maggie is not collectors and Vodou spirits alike. fight with bill Maggie's first Fighting with the spirits was response to the arrival of serious trouble ary of 1981. in JanuFor several months before this, Maggie had been with financial problems. She and Alourdes preoccupied thousand dollars in debt, and were nearly ten much more than five thousand Maggie's annual salary was not dollars. She was scheming and juggling scarce resources. constantly in mid-January, she conceived Lying awake one night ing, she and Alourdes a plan. Early the following mornmade a trip to the bank. to borrow a thousand dollars on her Visa card to Maggie intended due fuel bill, but the bank teller informed pay their overnew credit rules. She could have her that there were lars. "Why is that?" only three hundred fifty dolcredit line, and Maggie demanded. "Igot a two-thousand card." once before I got seven hundred on that Visa With indignation rising in her voice, her reaction: "I got SO mad, cause I don't Maggie know later described no new rules! When I hear anything about lars!-I that-only three hundred dolget SO upset. I'm SO mad. I just go. fifty walk and walk. We left the house, it My mother and I morning, and by the time was nine o'clock in the we get back, it was one-thirty. We just Igot a two-thousand card." once before I got seven hundred on that Visa With indignation rising in her voice, her reaction: "I got SO mad, cause I don't Maggie know later described no new rules! When I hear anything about lars!-I that-only three hundred dolget SO upset. I'm SO mad. I just go. fifty walk and walk. We left the house, it My mother and I morning, and by the time was nine o'clock in the we get back, it was one-thirty. We just --- Page 152 --- freeze to death And then when I get walk and walk. We nearly and hat, and go out home, I come in, put another sweater my to do! I was and walk. We don't know what we doing again head ache, my body ache. I take two Sinutab gone all day. My Ogou and go to bed." down late that afternoon, Alourdes While Maggie was lying found the entire lower floor filled went to the basement. She and I hear that with steam. Maggie said later, "Im upstairs, who have heart was the kind'a person scream. . . . If Mommie The fuel tank for their furnace had attack, she would be dead!" had refused that morning, and the suppliers been nearly empty to deliver more oil until the bill was paid- - prompting Maggie's During the long, troubled walk, the fuel rush to borrow money. went off. The froze and tank had gone dry, and the heat pipes with and Maggie and Alourdes were now faced expenburst, sive furnace repairs. recounted the story for me over Late the same day, Maggie silence. Then the phone. When she finished, there was a long "You know what I did, Karen? I talk to my she said defiantly: I tell him, Im going to give you people. I talk to Papa Ogou. two month from one month! I need one thousand dollar. By I'm tired I'm to need two thousand. I want it now! now, going borrowing money from this one . : . Visa of waiting! We always else. I'm tired of that! I've or something . : : to pay someone I'm going had enough!I want my own money!' I tell Papa Ogou to him one month, and then I'm going to go downstairs to give I tell him, 'You better shape it the altar and break everything up. 'cause Iam it! That's right! You better shape it or ship it, or ship tired of waiting. III continued: "I Sounding more depressed than angry, Maggie Karen. Mommie say to me, 'Look, you know everydon'tknow, to be all right. ! But I don't know, sometime I just thing think going there is any God up there. I1 I had never heard Magdon't like that, and I could think of nothing to sayin gie say anything the long silence on the telephone, I could response. Through and ironic humor. feel her groping for her customary strength At last, she laughed. thing, buying thing. "You know, all this time, I'm just buying I1 She and asked ifI All the time buying.' giggled conspiratorially before. "Some man come knew what she had done just the day for the kids. Just a to the house, and I bought an encyclopedia I had never heard Magdon't like that, and I could think of nothing to sayin gie say anything the long silence on the telephone, I could response. Through and ironic humor. feel her groping for her customary strength At last, she laughed. thing, buying thing. "You know, all this time, I'm just buying I1 She and asked ifI All the time buying.' giggled conspiratorially before. "Some man come knew what she had done just the day for the kids. Just a to the house, and I bought an encyclopedia --- Page 153 --- little encyclopedia, but two hundred and fifty dollars! I give him a check for fifty dollars, and now I'm going to have to call him and tell him to hold that check until next Tuesday. I want my own money, Karen. I'm tired of just having other people's Ogou money. Those spirit got to help me! But all the time they just giving me trouble. Iam tired ofit, Karen. I am tired!" The broken furnace was only the first in a long list of things that went wrong in Maggie's life throughout the opening months of 1981. She contracted chicken pox; she lost her job; William was arrested; and, just a few days after that, Maggie's floor of their home in Brooklyn was robbed. "Now that robber! All my jewelry! My camera-I just buy that camera! I don't even make one payment to Mastercard yet." 11 Maggie decided the spirits were harassing her, as they had done before, because they wanted her to become a manbo like her mother. By the time William's problem with the court was resolved, the other crises had receded into the past, and Maggie had become philosophical: "This bad luck, it begin with me when I get chicken pox, and it end with me, with that robber. That's it! Now those spirit know I know what they want.' 11 Ogou provides the weapon to fight mad dogs. But at times the source of trouble is Ogou himself. Sen Jak pa la. Se chyen ki la. Saint James's not there. It's a dog who's there. When I first met her, in 1978, Maggie said, "Work with the my mother. People spirit run in my family-my grandmother, coming in here to see my mother all hour of the day and night. She never too tired to see people. She just like my grandmother, always helping people. Maggie hesitated before she continued with this train of thought. "My mother, my grandmother-they don't ever have no money. They just giving . always giving. I don't want to be like them!" But then, with resignation in her voice, Maggie added, "Seem to be each time I say I don't want to be like them, something pulling me back . . saying, 'You can't do that!" family-my grandmother, coming in here to see my mother all hour of the day and night. She never too tired to see people. She just like my grandmother, always helping people. Maggie hesitated before she continued with this train of thought. "My mother, my grandmother-they don't ever have no money. They just giving . always giving. I don't want to be like them!" But then, with resignation in her voice, Maggie added, "Seem to be each time I say I don't want to be like them, something pulling me back . . saying, 'You can't do that!" --- Page 154 --- finally gave in to the will of In the summer of 1981, Maggie of a much as her mother had done a quarter century the spirits, to take the ason. She did not do SO earlier. She went to Haiti went out of the convicwith dreams of wealth and success.She bonds with her family Ogou tion that initiation would reinforce her her that with family, living and dead, represented and bonding best hope for peace and security) of Vodou does reinforce family ties. In the presence Ogou, this statement must be qualified. Alourdes and Maghowever, warmth and feeling; there is no gie discuss family with great to each other and to their question of their deep commitment of the extended family, children. And they both speak lovingly although they of it still in Haiti. Nevertheless, a good part nurturing family roots, both acexpend considerable energy sustain them the way they knowledge that these links no longer should. in discussions of what they Their fears are often apparent serious illness or a death would do in the case of a real crisis-a Maggie once in the household. With characteristic Even exaggeration, if mother die. . . I said to me, "I don'thave no friend. my and after that the could call Madame François. I could call her, to ask. 11 next person I call would be you. I don'tgot nobody very is not very different: "I use to got SO many Alourdes's complaint to Haiti, happy, . everybody friendin Haiti. Now . : nobody!Igo sister. Then what I happy, happy. I see my daddy. I see my along todo? You know, me and my father never get going tired with you. Where my friend? gether. After one week, they New York. AndIeven They in Miami. They in Chicago. Theyin don't see them." and Alourdes seem more When this mood sets in, Maggie of hanwilling to lay their bets on new friends and new ways the challenges of life than to count on family. Such judgdling that have rejected their family any ments do not mean they their Vodou roots. But both more than that they have rejected Relative newcomers in family and religion have been redefined. titlestheir lives, people such as myself, carry fictive kinship her sister. Alourdes calls me her daughter, and Maggie calls me of has been rearranged as well. Azaka, And the family spirits honored once a year, but the rural country cousin, is faithfully is the most frehe is seldom called at other times. Papa Ogou who clears a path spirit guest in their home. Heis the one quent they their Vodou roots. But both more than that they have rejected Relative newcomers in family and religion have been redefined. titlestheir lives, people such as myself, carry fictive kinship her sister. Alourdes calls me her daughter, and Maggie calls me of has been rearranged as well. Azaka, And the family spirits honored once a year, but the rural country cousin, is faithfully is the most frehe is seldom called at other times. Papa Ogou who clears a path spirit guest in their home. Heis the one quent --- Page 155 --- through the social forest and challenges of the new. generally assists in taking on the "PAPA OGOU, DO YOU TAKE THIS WOMAN? Ogou Earlyin the summer of 1980, she does from time to time. Alourdes read the cards for me, as whether or not I should That day we were Ogou. My first undergo the Vodou considering trip to Haiti had been in marriage to Starting with that trip, the summer of Papa make a diagnosis told every priest or priestess 1973. me that who chose to 1977 a manbo I had never met Papa Ogou was my mêt tèt. In crowded temple dance floor before made her way across a Papa Ogou "around just to tell me that she A my head." could see often person's mêt têt can be identified in possession. through divination or consultation several ways, most Manbo or oungan with the with the spirits during intuitive powers called house. A ceremony Crown for Ogou in a temple located in the Heights, Brooklyn, 1979 basement of a large apartment 7 a manbo I had never met Papa Ogou was my mêt tèt. In crowded temple dance floor before made her way across a Papa Ogou "around just to tell me that she A my head." could see often person's mêt têt can be identified in possession. through divination or consultation several ways, most Manbo or oungan with the with the spirits during intuitive powers called house. A ceremony Crown for Ogou in a temple located in the Heights, Brooklyn, 1979 basement of a large apartment --- Page 156 --- of are said to see protective spirits directly. Diag- "the gift eyes" is more than a surface labeling of per134 nosing someone's mêt tèt level, where it zeros in sonality types. It often works at a deeper the diagnosis latent characteristics. Even though on significant mêt tèt did not fit easily with my own self-image, Ogou of Ogou as my I could see the wisdom ofit. and been Although I had witnessed many Vodou marriages of them, I originally had no intention going fascinated by Then, one day in 1980 when I was through the ritual myself. had some things to be alone in my apartment and full of rage (I muttering, about in that period of my life), I found myself angry to make the anger go away. It only makes it worse. "Stop trying the phone and called Alourdes. It's yours. Marry it!" I picked up relation decision marked a new stage in my This spontaneous Vodou. It also brought new and deeper understandto Haitian works in the lives ofindividuals. The ings ofl how Vodou actually healing consultations contents of Vodou rituals-from private - are composed to public dances and posecsion-perdormane them.Whenl from the lives of the particular people performing to own life to the system for healing, Ibegan began to bring my of what it meant for Haitians to do that. But understand more risks. In a I was setting out to do fieldthere were also new way, convinced that this was the work on my own psychel1 remain and the way for me to move my understandbest perhaps only external description into the deep places ing of Vodou beyond dreams and fears, hope and pain of an where it takes up the caution in not claiming more auactual life. I try to exercise bear. What I have for than it can gained thority my experience that exists in from participating in Vodou is a kind ofknowledge strands of between two cultures, where the various the seam the fabric can never be disentangled. we talked. She As Alourdes laid out the cards for my reading, thing said to me, "Karen, you very intelligent person. Only where don't push yourself. You just stay right about you, you her hands framed a small, tight you are."In two quick gestures, 11 In Vodou, there is a perbox. "You could push faster : : : yes. and blocked and havvasive contrast between being immobile is life of energy and flow. The goal of all Vodou ritualizing ing a that and situations shift and to echofe (heat things up) SO people Heating things move, and healing transformations can occur. in the brings down the barriers, clears the impediments up yourself. You just stay right about you, you her hands framed a small, tight you are."In two quick gestures, 11 In Vodou, there is a perbox. "You could push faster : : : yes. and blocked and havvasive contrast between being immobile is life of energy and flow. The goal of all Vodou ritualizing ing a that and situations shift and to echofe (heat things up) SO people Heating things move, and healing transformations can occur. in the brings down the barriers, clears the impediments up --- Page 157 --- path, and allows life to move as it should. When cussed Maggie's initiation with her, he used Ogou disfor energy and movement, another metaphor the telling her that if she would commitment to take the ason, then "dlo kle va koule make [clear water will flow in front of you]." devan ou The opposite oft this openness, heat, and flow Ogou ing arrested or stopped is the state of beCharms and amulets (rete) or, worse, of being bound made by every Vodou healer, (mare). designed to control the behavior of others in which are mare, bound or tied, round and round with limited ways, are rope. Slave chains are even kept in some thread, wire, or are part of the iconography of temples, where they Vodou ritualizing directed at much "left-hand work," a type of trol. When Alourdes said, "You more extreme forms of conshe was not that just stay right where you are," suggesting I was the victim of instead, she was suggesting that left-hand work; After Alourdes delivered my own behavior boxed me in. this verdict, the save for the tapping noise her middle room was quiet scended two or three times in finger made as it deand there in the four neat quick succession on a card here "Karen, rows of eight cards in front of you got to fight. You got to be a her. silence and tapping followed. fighter, she said. More marry Papa Ogou, "Look, if you decide you you got to do it for going ing for me. Do it for yourself." yourself. Don't do noth- "Karen, More silence. More you think too much!" "What?" I asked. tapping. much?" Alourdes laughed. She told "Drink too Wednesday and she would call me to come back the next It was Papa Ogou for me. eight-thirty on a hot summer evening when I Maggie was in the living room. All the lights returned. tiny one on the portable were off except a ing. The door between the sewing machine where she was workwas living room and Alourdes's open. Alourdes lay on her stomach on the bed. I bedroom edge of the bed, and we talked. The sat on the and starts, focusing conversation moved in fits lems. Alourdes mainly on a familiar topic, money probhours of labored yawned repeatedly. So did I. After almost two talk and long silences, I Alourdes had forgotten her began to think that she had concluded that it promise to call Ogou. Or perhaps I decided was too hot to work. not to press the issue, to wait for when she was more in the mood. But I was another occasion eled from Manhattan at the end of a annoyed. I had travbusy day and in weather conversation moved in fits lems. Alourdes mainly on a familiar topic, money probhours of labored yawned repeatedly. So did I. After almost two talk and long silences, I Alourdes had forgotten her began to think that she had concluded that it promise to call Ogou. Or perhaps I decided was too hot to work. not to press the issue, to wait for when she was more in the mood. But I was another occasion eled from Manhattan at the end of a annoyed. I had travbusy day and in weather --- Page 158 --- energy and fogged my mind. Ending an espethat sapped my I stood up and said I thought it cially long silence between us, was time to be on my way. look Alourdes rolled over slowly onto her back, a questioning she Ogou her face. "You don't want to talk with Papa Ogou?" on This is often how it works: Alourdes pulls through just asked. frustrated and ready to give up. Our attiwhen Iam thoroughly different. Ihoard it and spend it like tudes toward time are very of the day like a surfer. She lets a miser; she rides the rhythms for them to happen. things happen when the time is right her. the right moment only when it tis upon Alourdes recognizes the basement. Alourdes knocked three Together, we went to and we went in. She struck times on the door to the altar room, stub into the flame. match and the wick of a candle a pushed small white candle on the edge of her work She anchored the low stool next to the table. I was table and settled herself on a of rum. She asked to reach into Ogou's altar cabinet for a bottle metal or two of the amber liquid onto a red poured a dollop matches on the thin film of rum until it plate and then dropped into the fire while tipping the plate ignited. Alourdes sat staring across its surfrom side to side to keep the blue flames dancing sunshade, face. Her free hand was held to her forehead like a the light in rather than shutting it out. which paradoxically kept the focused state of mind Narrowing her eyes, Alourdes sought consciousness which ordinary that creates a portal through slips away. the struggle that For a manbo as accomplished as Alourdes, commumarks the onset of trance is usually pro forma. During and hand-clapping bring on nity rituals, when energetic singing her bonanj and the spirit possession, the struggle between minutes. gwo First, her eyes narwho seeks to possess her is overin on the Then her head bends forward as if she had a weight row. are said to ride on the back of the back of her neck (the spirits slack. She often loses her balneck), and her facial features go Assistants remove ance and requires support from bystanders. Soon, the her shoes and take the ason from her hand. person- When of the lwa is in full control of her body and voice. ality does not have the energy and support of a crowd to Alourdes this process can be slower, asit was on this night. push heralong, the blue flame, a light tremor As she concentrated on slippery and she through her body from time to time, squeezed passed loses her balneck), and her facial features go Assistants remove ance and requires support from bystanders. Soon, the her shoes and take the ason from her hand. person- When of the lwa is in full control of her body and voice. ality does not have the energy and support of a crowd to Alourdes this process can be slower, asit was on this night. push heralong, the blue flame, a light tremor As she concentrated on slippery and she through her body from time to time, squeezed passed --- Page 159 --- her eyes shut. Once, she jerked her left hand forehead and shook it away from her like vigorously as if it had gone numb. a restless sleeper, Alourdes seemed to wake But, each time she dipped below the surface of with a start sciousness. At one point, her body shook the waters of conthe spirit had come. But the crisis SO much I was sure Ogou Alourdes sighed and reached for passed. the small fire. Again, there rum bottle to refuel her was intense it worked. Barely concentration, and this time and then perceptible tremors became intense the energy shot out her arms and shaking, do a stiff staccato dance in the air. When legs, making them the Alourdes's body was drawn shaking stopped, up straight, and keen were staring at me with interest. black eyes Bonjou, bèl ti fi Papa Ogou had arrived. (Hello, pretty little the nasal speech of the girl), Papa Ogou said in spirits. "Ba'm nouvèl ou. Sa ou Kouman ou ye, pitit? [Give me news of yourself. What's genyen? with you? How are you, little one?]" Ogou asked with going on concern. Then, without waiting for answers, he paternal red scarf and his shouga, spirit talk for requested his scarf tightly around his head and siga (cigar). He tied the back and lit the cigar. Then he leaned eyed me from head to toe. When I asked if he thought I should tinued staring and did not marry him, Ogou conother form, and respond. I put the question in anOgou still said nothing. I about the things that made began to tell him me angry-my marriage up, packing, moving, too much work, tension breaking nodded on the job. Ogou sympathetically but without comment. like this for a long time. I felt like a chicken Things went on its wings, unable to take off. The room was senselessly full of flapping He was as unmoveable and silent as a mountain. my clucking. When I was close to the end of my patience, asked quietly: "What can I do for you?" "Tell Ogou spoke. He sputtered. "Should I do the me what to do," I marriage or not?" Ogou's snapped forward, and a thick cloud of cigar smoke shot into body face along with his forceful reply: "Pran tèt ou [Get ahold of my head]! Do what you want! Do you want to me?" I your tried to get Ogou to tell me what to do, and he marry had had for me to say what I wanted. In the end, I said I wanted been waiting the ceremony. I had made the to have decision, and I it through. intended to carry "Bon!" Ogou said and sat back, puffing contentedly on his cloud of cigar smoke shot into body face along with his forceful reply: "Pran tèt ou [Get ahold of my head]! Do what you want! Do you want to me?" I your tried to get Ogou to tell me what to do, and he marry had had for me to say what I wanted. In the end, I said I wanted been waiting the ceremony. I had made the to have decision, and I it through. intended to carry "Bon!" Ogou said and sat back, puffing contentedly on his --- Page 160 --- the all around you, 11 he observed. "Did cigar. "You have spirit white You don't know the Ginen spirit can love a person? you know that? I think you have a rasin Ginen [an African root] in too! You are a very intelliyou : : . an Indian root : . : Jewish, Butno, you choose Ogou gent woman. You could be a doctor, a lawyer. this. You don't have to come here. But you are searching . . did choose this? Because searching. You are digging. Why you understand whatIam have an African root in you! Do you you saying to you?" the next month at Ogou's regularly The marriage took place Around two o'clock in the mornscheduled July birthday party. Ogou began, I excused myself ing, when the songs summoning around Alourdes's from the twenty-five or SO people gathered into wedsumptuous altar tables. I went upstairs to change my for ding clothes-a bright red sundress purchased especially occasion and, on my head, a red satin scarf. When I came the oohed and aahed down the stairs half an hour later, everyone fine attire. Everyone, that is, except Papa Ogou. over my Alourdes in absence, and I found him He had mounted my with decked out in his own finery, his red velvet military jacket But Ogou ignored me. I stood by patiently the gold epaulets. after another without even acwhile he talked to one person he alNo matter how I maneuvered, knowledging my presence. ways managed to keep his back to me. nervous. One woman said, "Papa Ogou, Everyone was getting behind Don't you want to talk your beautiful bride is here, you. in to her?" Ogou ignored the question. Then a man whispered The "Go on!" and gave me a shove in front of Ogou. my ear, looked me over with a cold eye. "What do you want?"he spirit asked. I found my voice: "I am here to marry you. You promwould me. You have made me wait a long ised me you marry threw back his head and laughed. time. Iam ready." Papa Ogou he shouted, It was a deep, rich laugh. "Begin the ceremony!" the of the and, taking my arm, he propelled me toward largest warrior's altar tables. Once again, Ogou had taught me the lesson: know what you want and fight forit. and I Two chairs were placed in front of the table. Papa Ogou and the four people who were "godparents" for the wedsat, behind us. Willy, functioning as prètsavann, stood ding gathered he began, reading in front of us. "Liberté, égalité, fraternité," of Haiti. the official stamp of the Republic from a paper bearing taking my arm, he propelled me toward largest warrior's altar tables. Once again, Ogou had taught me the lesson: know what you want and fight forit. and I Two chairs were placed in front of the table. Papa Ogou and the four people who were "godparents" for the wedsat, behind us. Willy, functioning as prètsavann, stood ding gathered he began, reading in front of us. "Liberté, égalité, fraternité," of Haiti. the official stamp of the Republic from a paper bearing --- Page 161 --- (Blank forms are available near the big Iron Market in Port-au139 Prince for four cents apiece; my Acte de Mariage had been written out in ballpoint pen on the first page of the folio sheet.) "In the one thousand nine hundred and eighty in the state of year Ogou New York . 1I Willy continued in French. "Make it fast!" Ogou snapped. Willy laughed, put the paper down, and began to ad lib in Creole. "Do you, Ogou Badagri, take this woman, Karine . - uh . uh . Brown, as your wife? And do you promise to give her protection?" "Yes!" answered Ogou, thumping his sword on the floor for emphasis. "Do you take Monsieur Ogou Badagri as husband?" Willy asked me. "To be faithful. . . to give him one night each week?Yes!" Isaid. From the altar Ogou took a saucer holding the ring with a small red stone that I had purchased earlier in the week. He doused the ring in Florida Water and rum and set it on fire. While the ring was still warm, he slid it over the middle finger of left hand. He held my hand up to each of the four direcmy tions. Four times he blew a fine mist of rum over my hand and the ring. Then Papa Ogou plucked a red carnation from a bouquet on the table and doused it in the mixture of rum, perfume, and cool blue fire. He handed me the flaming flower, as Willy intoned the final words in French: "Maître Ogou Badagri and Mademoiselle Karine are united by marriage!" People cheered. A champagne cork popped. Ogou refused champagne, preferring a long swig from his rum bottle. He also refused to eat any of the wedding cake, but he did cut it. With his sword, he removed a circular piece from the center of the cake and instructed me to take it home to feed friends, family, the marriage document, and spirits. Everyone present signed Ogou Badagri, who scratched a big "O.B." with a red including felt-tip pen. --- Page 162 --- --- Page 163 --- - A altuit LTNINDT UHRT AR VABANLDN a -M CHAPTER FIVE --- Page 164 --- The Baka Made from Jealousy Around the turn of the century, Binbin Mauvant sang his way back to Afnot long after Joseph occurred in Port-de-Paix that dramatirica, a mysterious event Philomise Macena. cally changed the life of his granddaughter unlikely in the middle of the night when a wild, It happened streets of the small port city. The wind roamed the broad, dusty doors of the closed shops and wind shook the massive wooden huddled beneath their wide, rattled the bones of mongrel dogs whistle. deserted porches. The wind gave off a high-pitched bared to escape the hold of iron bars. Dogs Doors struggled their teeth and snarled. her husband in their comfortMadame Fouchard lay beside of Foubehind the well-stocked shelves Magasin able quarters she had been sleeping lightly and chard. Because of the wind, voice called out: awake when a perfectly ordinary was instantly An old man has died. shops and wind shook the massive wooden huddled beneath their wide, rattled the bones of mongrel dogs whistle. deserted porches. The wind gave off a high-pitched bared to escape the hold of iron bars. Dogs Doors struggled their teeth and snarled. her husband in their comfortMadame Fouchard lay beside of Foubehind the well-stocked shelves Magasin able quarters she had been sleeping lightly and chard. Because of the wind, voice called out: awake when a perfectly ordinary was instantly An old man has died. I need sugar, cin- "Wake up! Wake up! leaves.' 11 Even the urgent pounding namon, black cloth, malfète crisis, another on the door seemed common enough-another chance to turn a profit. without alarm or reElsa Fouchard answered the summons to her sentment. It was not unusual for the shopkeeper open Fouchard was the bigdoor in the middle of the night. Magasin and townsstore in Port-de-Paix, and mountain people gest alike came to her when there was an emergency. There people could have known what waited behind the was no way she who could no longer door: a baka called into being by a neighbor They were bear the jealousy he felt toward the Fouchard family. Elsa and, more to the point, too self-sufficient. too prosperous Fouchard asked for no charity, and they gave none. and Claude It was unnatural. Machann in front of a gingerbread house. Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 1973. --- Page 165 --- When the baka made from Fouchard's door, she knew it jealousy turned up at Madame leave town. Baka are evil was time to close up shop and incarnate. son (combinations), Sometimes called they bring things together that kombinaykept apart. The baka Madame Fouchard ought to be fore the first light of confronted, hours beThe Baka standing dawn, was a two-legged horse-a horse Made from straight up like a man! She before she slammed and caught just a glimpse of it Jealousy her kerosene lantern barred the door. The wind had sent to reveal swinging. It took only one bulging black eyes the size of upward swing snout resting on a hairless chest, lemons, a heavy wet dling a velvet ear. Only later did a gnarled human hand fonbreath that had she remember the rotten-sweet the odor enveloped her. When Elsa Fouchard recalled years later and many miles from stomach churned. Port-de-Paix, her The Fouchards had been in Port-de-Paix for fore the baka appeared. Yet, behind fifteen years becalled etranje (foreigners). their backs, they were still opened the magasin They moved into town in 1886 and like a good idea. There shortly thereafter. At the time, it seemed in this isolated were fewer than two thousand residents port on Haiti's dry and ern coast, but Port-de-Paix had the inhospitable northwestmiles around. only sizable market for Every Wednesday, the mountain many in to sell vegetables, tobacco, and coffee people flooded as cloth, tools, and kerosene. and to buy supplies such Before the store, finding such Fouchards opened their they supplies was a matter of chance. But came, those who had money or goods to trade could after anything they needed. While Claude find ness deals from his favorite table pursued ephemeral busiminded wife did the real work. at the local bistro, his toughNo matter how hot it She ran the store. woman, wore a corset beneath was, Elsa Fouchard, a substantial It was her neatly pressed cotton impossible to enter the store without first frock. supplies such Before the store, finding such Fouchards opened their they supplies was a matter of chance. But came, those who had money or goods to trade could after anything they needed. While Claude find ness deals from his favorite table pursued ephemeral busiminded wife did the real work. at the local bistro, his toughNo matter how hot it She ran the store. woman, wore a corset beneath was, Elsa Fouchard, a substantial It was her neatly pressed cotton impossible to enter the store without first frock. her, sitting ramrod straight at her desk beneath encountering leather-bound ledger open before her. She the portico, a ence, but she was also capable of considerable was a daunting preskeen business sense told her charm could charm when her Not long after the shop be profitable. hastul-tin-fheMlountane opened, Marie Noelsine Joseph from Fouchard's attention. became the object of Madame Paix market The produce Sina carried to the Port-de- (especially the tobacco leaves-some as long as --- Page 166 --- So Elsa Fouchard made it your arm!) was of superior quality. "When you come to town, pass her business to befriend Sina. for you," 1 Elsa said by here first. You will find coffee waiting into Sina welcomed the chance to rest before plunging warmly. she knew the value of a connecThe Baka the chaos of the market. And Made from tion with such an important, wealthy woman. Sina's hand along Jealousy One day, Elsa pressed a piece of bread into of thick, sweet coffee. "You must eat, my with the usual cup in dear," she crooned. "I can see you have a baby your belly." herself, responded: "I'm going to give Sina, a businesswoman You are going to be the godmother." my baby to you to baptize. over more than congo Elsa Fouchard knew she was bartering smiled. It would and tobacco, but for the moment she only peas She simply watched while the not do to appear overly eager. with the long hair and strikingly beautiful mountain woman them in an enoreyes tied up her bundles and replaced green which she then hoisted and settled on her head. mous basket, the door when Elsa called after her: "Don't Sina was already out forget, I'm going to baptize that baby!" when Madame Five years later, on the night the baka came, rostill around like a panicked Fouchard's heart was jumping her dent, her first coherent thought concerned she goddaughter, said to herPhilomise. "I'll need a maid in Port-au-Prince,": self. "It would be nice ifI did not have to pay her." Magasin Fouchard was never again After the baka appeared, decision to move was made in an inopen for business. The was packed in stant, and within days most of the merchandise the baskets and sent to the harbor to await barrels and giant On the following Wednesnext boat bound for Port-au-Prince. she found the shop day, when Sina made her customary stop, charclosed. She was about to leave when a snaggle-toothed Fouchard coal merchant seated near the door hissed: Madame wait for She needs you. Knock three times on asked me to you. the back door." the floor at one end of the nearly Marie Noelsine squatted on around her, talking shop, and Madame Fouchard paced empty in a supple, sweet voice. Sina lisof things of little consequence did not look at this woman whose fatened carefully, but she She knew her debts were vors she had come to depend on. what Madame about to be called in, and she could not imagine could ask of her that would fill her with such forebodFouchard ing as she felt at that moment. me to you. the back door." the floor at one end of the nearly Marie Noelsine squatted on around her, talking shop, and Madame Fouchard paced empty in a supple, sweet voice. Sina lisof things of little consequence did not look at this woman whose fatened carefully, but she She knew her debts were vors she had come to depend on. what Madame about to be called in, and she could not imagine could ask of her that would fill her with such forebodFouchard ing as she felt at that moment. --- Page 167 --- Finally, Elsa Fouchard came to the point. She Philomise to Port-au-Prince. Sina said wanted to take look up. Behind her stoic nothing; she did not even raging. Not long before, mountain woman's face a storm was her ne'er-do-well Sina had reached a decision to leave Fouchard's husband and move from Jean Rabel. Madame The Baka plan would make this easier. But Made price! She knew that . oh, what a from dren would be starting a new life with three small chilJealousy more than she could handle, and she ready decided that Mèdelice, her had alin Jean Rabel. But Philo, her son and firstborn, could be left self to think they baby! Sina had never allowed hermight be separated. The next morning, on the long, hot trek Sina consoled herself with up the mountain, images of Philomise as the goddaughter of a wealthy family, beloved city, schoolbooks in her walking the streets of a big tion could take arms, shoes on her feet. Sina's her no further, but she felt imaginaPhilo found there, it would be better certain that whatever vide. By the time Sina reached than what she could proland, the sun the gate of the Mauvant was gone and with it the family tasy. She dragged her meager comfort of fanthe rhythm of a muttered protesting feet the last quarter of a mile to kinds of apology: "Women have got to do things . . . all kinds of all When Sina lay down things . : . all kinds of on her sleeping mat and curled things. ing body around her tiny her achdaughter, she was good-bye. already saying Philomise Macena became a restavèk the Fouchard family. The fortunes (literally, a stay-with) in of these borrowed vary greatly, and Philo was among the least children came a servant who was treated like fortunate. She beshe fetched water and a slave. In the early ran small errands for the days, time she was eleven, Philo was cook. By the and laundry in the responsible for all the cleaning owned in the Bois Verna rambling gingerbread house the Fouchards section of most of the marketing. Port-au-Prince. She also did Philo slept on a thin mat in the servants' house. She shared a room, six feet quarters behind the people. Her clothes by ten feet, with four other were tattered never given a pair of shoes. hand-me-downs, and she was Although the own children to expensive Fouchards sent their Philo to school at private schools, they did not send held late all, not even to the public school for in the afternoon. maids, Perhaps the worst of the evils of Elsa and Claude Fouchard Port-au-Prince. She also did Philo slept on a thin mat in the servants' house. She shared a room, six feet quarters behind the people. Her clothes by ten feet, with four other were tattered never given a pair of shoes. hand-me-downs, and she was Although the own children to expensive Fouchards sent their Philo to school at private schools, they did not send held late all, not even to the public school for in the afternoon. maids, Perhaps the worst of the evils of Elsa and Claude Fouchard --- Page 168 --- refusal to talk to the little girlabout her own family. At was their became evasive. Then first, whenever the topic came up, they Madame Fouchard sought to end the annoying quesone day, are dead. They are all dead," she tions once and for all. "They to have someone to give The Baka said. "Fresh little girl! You are lucky in!" Vast need and deep Made from you food and a little corner to sleep words. Philo hugged Jealousy knowing made the child doubt these cruel mother to herself a distant memory of a beautiful, green-eyed there was an indelwith gentle loving hands. In her mind's eye down of Sina heading off to market, her hair falling ible image balanced on her head. In her back, a basket filled to overflowing to her mother. her memories, Philo was always saying good-bye different. Philo vowed In her fantasies, the situation was quite and would find her that one day she would have lots of money and shower her with love and wonderful gifts. mother when Philo was seventeen, she told MaEarly one morning soap. Baredame Fouchard she was going out to buy laundry of her faded cotfoot and with only twenty cents in the pocket Once out of Philo walked away and never returned. ton dress, Philo turned her back to the sea sight of the Fouchard house, and headed and to the busy commercial center of Port-au-Prince four hours on a She walked steadily for nearly up the mountain. thick forests before it broke steep road that curved through churches, and the to the wide paved streets, the steepled open with their red tile roofs and deep wealthy homes of Petion-Ville breezes. Keeping her porches designed to catch the mountain Petionhead down and her step firm, she walked on through Ville. of the road narrowed to a dirt track, On the other side town, to the edge of the road. and thick stands of pine came right up and the cool Energized by her sudden freedom, the altitude, Kenscoff near the air, Philo hurried to the big rural market at she met a siztop of the mountain. Here, by prearrangement, like herself, able group of friends, discontented young people across in escape. They planned to walk together her companions over three high mountain ranges, Haiti's southern peninsula, worn by the bare feet of marfollowing a narrow, slippery path Kenscoff to Marigot on the far ket women, a path that ran from follow the coast across shore. Then they would turn east and to the fabled the border of the Dominican Republic and beyond city of Santo Domingo. market at she met a siztop of the mountain. Here, by prearrangement, like herself, able group of friends, discontented young people across in escape. They planned to walk together her companions over three high mountain ranges, Haiti's southern peninsula, worn by the bare feet of marfollowing a narrow, slippery path Kenscoff to Marigot on the far ket women, a path that ran from follow the coast across shore. Then they would turn east and to the fabled the border of the Dominican Republic and beyond city of Santo Domingo. --- Page 169 --- And that is what they did. The thirty long days. During the journey took one monthformed small jobs for local daylight hours, they slept and per147 they people in exchange for food. walked, a short distance inland, At night ocean on their right and keeping the sound of the guides. The area around using the moon as light and the stars as The Baka tiate. For two days the border proved the hardest to Made from walked they slept in the forest, and at nego- jealousy softly and spoke in whispers to avoid night they tention of patrolling soldiers. attracting the atthe time they crossed the Twenty had started out, but by the group had shrunk to border, several had turned back, and a dozen. Eight women and four men made it to Santo ragtag band of adventurers wandered Domingo. The streets for nearly a day before they through busy urban ing park in the center of the discovered a cool and invithomely bundles, sat city. Here they put down their selves: "Where on the grass, and talked themare we?" "Look at that among "Cars! So many cars!" "Look at that building! Beautiful!" clothes like that? She must be woman! Did you ever see son]." "Im SO hungry!" "Where a pèsônaj [a very important perthink this is Santo do you think we are? Do you In time, Domingo?" "I'm scared!" "Me too!" lent and fatigue took its toll, and Philo and her friends waited. An hour passed, and fell sithe air was suddenly filled with then, just before sunset, black finches Haitians the mad chattering of the small hyperactive call madansara. A dense cloud of these creatures landed in the royal gees. Philo craned her neck to look with palm above the refuthat made a small piece of this gratitude on a scene and safe. strange new world seem familiar Throughout the afternoon, on the group of Haitians passersby had cast a curious politan SO clearly out of place in the eye center, but no one said anything. Even metrohappened by pretended not to understand Haitians who Haitians resided in Santo their Creole. Many tieth century, but Domingo in the early part of the twenthey lived and moved were happy to have Haitians around cautiously. Dominicans they gave them little respect. In to do menial labor, but Haitian woman was assumed to Santo be Domingoin 1913, a young tian man was a candidate for what a prostitute, and a poor Haithe vast sugar plantations amounted to slave labor on to time, the police in Santo along the Haitian border. From time Domingo rounded up Haitians and Santo their Creole. Many tieth century, but Domingo in the early part of the twenthey lived and moved were happy to have Haitians around cautiously. Dominicans they gave them little respect. In to do menial labor, but Haitian woman was assumed to Santo be Domingoin 1913, a young tian man was a candidate for what a prostitute, and a poor Haithe vast sugar plantations amounted to slave labor on to time, the police in Santo along the Haitian border. From time Domingo rounded up Haitians and --- Page 170 --- sending them back to Haiti or, if imprisoned them, eventually work in the cane fields. Philo and they were in good health, to her friends were in a precarious position. to their rescue. Sylvia, a Luckily, a good-hearted woman came into the Haitian woman came striding The Baka tall, thin, no-nonsense she called out in Made from park just after sundown. "My little friends," "don't know you Jealousy Creole while she was still ten yards away, Come you with me. You cannot sit here? The police will arrest you. are going to my house." Haitians from a friend who had Sylvia had heard about the their naïveté into an amusing seen them and had sought to turn She had removed her story. Sylvia did not think it was funny. and set off for the hands from the wash tub, wiped them travelers dry, to her modest park. Soon, she was leading the weary two friends to prohome, where she fed them and convinced three other women vide extra places for them to sleep. Philo and taken to the home of Madame Victoir Suffrant. were machamn (a market woman) who sold Madame Victoir was a in the big covered market combs, mirrors, and costume jewelry woman took an inin Santo Domingo. This practical, generous her a job. It soon stant liking to Philomise Macena and offered Victoir to rise at two became the pattern for Philo and Madame chaotic and make their way to the torch-lit, in the morning cloths on the ground Santo Domingo market. Here they spread fashioned from COW and artfully arranged their baubles, most mirrors with scalhorn by Haitian artisans: delicate little combs, market at bracelets, and necklaces. The opened loped frames, in the It was both the wholethree and ran until ten morning. and the sale market for the city's boutiques and restaurants be found in this people's shopping center. Anything could poor knew where to look and how to sprawling market, if a person HaiEntire sections of the market were run by expatriate barter. but managed nevertheless to tians who spoke little Spanish customers. strike hard bargains with their Dominican with her eyes, A successful market woman communicated actress. No matter her hands, her body. She had to be a superb too or needy she was, she could never appear how hungry She had to strike just the right posture between eager to sell. and outright disdain for her customreasonable self-confidence buyers and flatter ers. The trick was to intimidate prospective them at the same time. HaiEntire sections of the market were run by expatriate barter. but managed nevertheless to tians who spoke little Spanish customers. strike hard bargains with their Dominican with her eyes, A successful market woman communicated actress. No matter her hands, her body. She had to be a superb too or needy she was, she could never appear how hungry She had to strike just the right posture between eager to sell. and outright disdain for her customreasonable self-confidence buyers and flatter ers. The trick was to intimidate prospective them at the same time. --- Page 171 --- Timing was crucial. A machann began When the customer offered by quoting a high price. difference. But then she had half, she responded by splitting the that to hold her even a small reduction in price felt like ground long enough buyer. A talented machann knew a triumph for the mixture of Creole and when to deliver an insult, in a The Baka away. When Spanish, and when to let customers walk Made from them. they came back a half hour later, she Jealousy But a clever machann did not rub it knew she had cluded a sale by in. She often concomplaining in a good-natured every customer were as sharp as this way that if out of business. one, she would soon be Philo had these talents in her blood. She a long line of rural market was descended from she had carefully women, and for more than a decade observed the Port-au-Prince when she shopped for the Fouchard market women little business family. Madame Victoir's prospered under Philo's hand, began to notice the and, when men tered with her young girl with the intense eyes, she barsexuality in the same sure-footed Thinty-two-year-old Luc Charles was a Haitian way. in Santo Domingo since the of who had lived Philo, when she age twelve. The first time he saw Like was barely eighteen, he knew he SO many poor Haitian women accustomed wanted her. labor, Philo's body was lean and to hard physical an unstudied graceful, and she moved with crowd because economy of gesture. She stood out from she was a grimèl (a the because her hair was longer and light-skinned woman) and haps the most compelling straighter than most. But perMacena thing about the was her pride. young Philomise Luc Charles was the head chefin a big restaurant mingo, but he did not care for the bland in Santo Doprepared on his job. When Luc was upper-class cuisine he would drop by the home of his friend hungry for Haitian food, he such visit he discovered Philo. Victoir Suffrant. On one he asked. "She is beautiful!" "Where did you find that girl?" "Luc Charles says he loves you, 11 Madame Philo. "I don't know that man, 11 Philo Victoir later told hello to him." "But he doesn't have responded. "I only said persisted, "and he's a wife," Madame Victoir healthy, and he has problem," responded Philo. "I didn't money.' "That's his here for work." come here for love. I came Luc Charles staged a six-month campaign to win Philomise . "She is beautiful!" "Where did you find that girl?" "Luc Charles says he loves you, 11 Madame Philo. "I don't know that man, 11 Philo Victoir later told hello to him." "But he doesn't have responded. "I only said persisted, "and he's a wife," Madame Victoir healthy, and he has problem," responded Philo. "I didn't money.' "That's his here for work." come here for love. I came Luc Charles staged a six-month campaign to win Philomise --- Page 172 --- became his habit to show up late at night after the Macena. It the two women left for the market. restaurant closed and before cloth for pastries from the restaurant, He usually brought gifts: bottle of real French perfume. a new dress, and, one day, a friends. Good friends. The Baka Philo warmed up slowly. They became he promised to rent a Made from The day Philo told him she was pregnant, Jealousy place where they could live together. Philo's life. Luc Charles This was a secure and happy period in she wanted, and treated her like a queen. She had everything Frank was born on she no longer had to work SO hard. Their son head and the next year, a fat cherub with a big large January 19 and fat everyone referred to him as wide feet. He was SO big Sometimes they Toto. The child's appetite was also legendary. Six Cakes. Philo and called him Toto Six Eggs, sometimes Toto the their child. When he padded through Luc cheerfully spoiled reach his arms up and streets behind Philo, he would suddenly Philomise would lift "Toto bouke (Toto is tired)," and tiny say, child and carry him. "Your grandmother should see her chunky I1 Philo cooed and nuzzled him afhow you are big and strong, the Haitian community in Santo fectionately. Older women in Domingo shook their heads at such parental folly. After The good times were undercut only by Luc's jealousy. with for two years, the trouble began they had been together lover, and it escalated to playful accusations about an imagined violent. The neigharguments, which at times grew protracted the at least once. The tension grew much bors called police back into the jewelry business. When worse when Philo went small like MaFrank was two years old, she began a operation natural business dame Victoir's. With Luc's backing and her Soon Philo was taking acumen, the enterprise f quickly expanded. and silver the boat to Kingston once a month to purchase gold She began to baubles, which she then sold in Santo Domingo. dresses and shoes, and occasionally she gave buy her own money to friends. threatened Luc. One day they had a Philo's independence violent that Philo announced her intention quarrel about it, SO Luc Charles countered by to leave him. A desperate, frightened he knew would offering his precious Philomise the one thing have not seen win back her affection. "Even though you surely were five old, you talk about her your mother since you years he said. "Im day. You dream about her every night," every to go and find her." Luc put four hungoing to give you money to friends. threatened Luc. One day they had a Philo's independence violent that Philo announced her intention quarrel about it, SO Luc Charles countered by to leave him. A desperate, frightened he knew would offering his precious Philomise the one thing have not seen win back her affection. "Even though you surely were five old, you talk about her your mother since you years he said. "Im day. You dream about her every night," every to go and find her." Luc put four hungoing to give you money --- Page 173 --- dred dollars in Philo's hand and put her and little cargo boat bound for the northern Frank on a Philo and Frank ports of Haiti. Port-de-Paix disembarked in the hot and smelly and headed harbor of mation hub of every Haitian immediately for the market, the inforof her family had left town. Here Philo learned that most The Baka membered Jean Rabel long ago. Mountain Made from Marie Noelsine Joseph, and people rehad moved somewhere they were certain she Jealousy near Gonaïives, All was that it must have been they could tell Philo daughter Gloria had been a long time ago, because Sina's Philo hired only six or seven at the time. a local guide, and, sitting astride horse with Frank strapped behind his scrawny her mother had taken her, she retraced the path Philo arrived in more than fifteen years earlier. When then went Gonaïves, she checked into a small to the police station. The police pension and is a big seksyon [section]. We cannot be were no help. "This everybody," they told her. Philo expected to keep track of (ten gave the police chief dollars), an enormous sum of at the fifty gourd no good. He said only that he would money time, but it did soon as he finished his "research." get in touch with her as The Gonaïves market was one of the in erated full-tilt six days of the week. All biggest Haiti, anditopand Thursday, Philo wandered day' Tuesday, Wednesday, tioning through the market stalls, everyone she met and peering queseach passing stranger. No intently into the face of end of the third one had news of her family. By the day, Philo was ready to at one end of the market, between give up. She sat down neat mountains of rice. Seated piles of plum tomatoes and in her lap, Frank tentedly with a new wooden top. Philo played conpressed. No longer able to attend was tired and very dewithdrew into herself. to the chaos around her, she The business day was almost over. Those sell were gathering up their wares and who had come to searching out a comfortable either heading home or bed down for the place to prepare a little food and machann night. Dusty-footed burros and streamed past the place where Philo dusty-footed even notice when one of the market sat. She did not up to steady her basket, and looked women pivoted, put a hand uncommonly fat child. Then the hard at the woman and her back, and kept machann shook herhead, turned walking. But after four or five she again reversed direction, and steps, once "Se pa sè-a mwen [Isn't that approached Philo. my sister]?" she queried in the night. Dusty-footed burros and streamed past the place where Philo dusty-footed even notice when one of the market sat. She did not up to steady her basket, and looked women pivoted, put a hand uncommonly fat child. Then the hard at the woman and her back, and kept machann shook herhead, turned walking. But after four or five she again reversed direction, and steps, once "Se pa sè-a mwen [Isn't that approached Philo. my sister]?" she queried in the --- Page 174 --- nasal voice of a mountain woman. Philo looked up high-pitched name?" she asked. "My name is in disbelief. "What is your Philo asked in a Gloria," the woman said. "Gloria Macena?" "Take voice. "That's me!" was the robust reply. small, hopeful Gloria, and the clean, soft foot of The Baka off your shoe," commanded next to the dirty, Made from the Santo Domingo jewelry trader was placed from Gros Morne. Jealousy callused foot of the sour-orange merchant toe!" Gloria screeched. "It's the same! My grand- "Look at that foot like that, you know that father always told me, if you see a person is family!" and Philomise packed two burros with The next day, Gloria and the chubby toddler and market baskets, citified suitcases, Morne. Sina, now a nearly headed up the mountain to Gros coffee beans in the toothless old woman of forty, was grilling brazier, her front yard. She sat on a small chair before a charcoal a her long grey hair tied up in a bit of rag. Using knees akimbo, the beans with small wooden paddle, she was slowly coating and then black in the center of her pan, viscous sugar, pooled sides. Sina was SO spreading them out along its broad, sloping in her task that she glanced up only for a moment absorbed when the two women entered the yard. mwen said Philo quietly. "Bonswa, pitit "Bonswa, Madan," Sina responded with a po- (Good evening, my little onel," to address lite greeting mountain folk commonly use answered. younger "You people. "But I am your little one, truly," Philo don't remember me?" time 11 Sina responded, "I had a little girl who died a long ago, is Phithat's not 11 "Oh, yes," came the answer, "it me, "but you.' lomise. II Sina fainted. She her mother Philo stayed in Gros Morne for a month. gave Sina had beautiful bracelet and a wristwatch (the first one a gold than three hundred dollars. When she left, ever seen) and more would be back before long to build her Philo promised that she would her safe and dry for many mother a new house that keep had been shed, tears of years. During her short stay, many tears stories had been passed on joyand of sadness, and many family father and his famous fightto Philomise. She learned about her stubborn cocks and about how he died because of his pride. ing candle and before the whistling rock And Philo also lit a prayed that held the spirit of Ezili Dantô. Philo woke in a Not many years later, back in Santo Domingo, her safe and dry for many mother a new house that keep had been shed, tears of years. During her short stay, many tears stories had been passed on joyand of sadness, and many family father and his famous fightto Philomise. She learned about her stubborn cocks and about how he died because of his pride. ing candle and before the whistling rock And Philo also lit a prayed that held the spirit of Ezili Dantô. Philo woke in a Not many years later, back in Santo Domingo, --- Page 175 --- cold sweat. She had had a nightmare. In her mother's face. It did not look dream, she saw her a harsh grimace that showed right -the lips were pulled back in way that chilled Philo's all her teeth, and she laughed in a Philo told Luc Charles. blood. "My mother is dead. I know it, 11 not hide his Luc, who was only half-awake, could The Baka find annoyance. "Go back to sleep! I give you Made from your mother, and now that you find money to leave the Women her, you still can't Jealousy worrying. are all loco, 11 too agitated to sleep, he got up and left the Luc pronounced. Now week, Philo was on a boat headed for room. In less than a reached Gros Morne was the Gonaïves. The day she the death of Marie Noelsine ninth, and final, day of prayers for Two weeks earlier, Philo's Joseph. mother stomach pains. On the day Sina had taken to her bed with and spit up blood-a died, she foamed at the mouth sign of had done it. Alphonse Macena poisoning. Everyone knew who other had had twin woman before he met Sina. Sina had daughters by anthese stepchildren until after she not known about Macena followed her there. But moved to Gros Morne and opened her heart and her home when she found out, Sina had one was bad; one loved her to the twins. One was good and The bad twin, with the very much, and the other hated her. and carried help of her own mother, had out the plan to poison Sina. Both conceived daughter were jealous of Sina's beauty and of mother and held for Alphonse Macena until the the attraction she And SO it was that Philo twice day he died. jealousy. The visit of the baka lost her mother on account of sioned their separation when made from jealousy had Occashe was now jealousy, the most destructive only five years old. And mother away a second and final of emotions, had taken her ceased to feel safe in the world. time. This was too much! Philo orphan. She knew she For the first time, she felt like an ordinary good luck to could no longer count on hard work and sustain her. This realization led Philomise to out hesitation. Gloria told her that accept her inheritance withthat the whistling rock and Sina had expressed the wish the other on pass to Philo. Such a legacy things her spirit altar sibilities. Philo had brings with it heavy family never served the responnot sure how she would spirits before, and she was mother's death, she knew manage. But, in anguish over her Before she must try. leaving Gros Morne, Philo gave the family enough --- Page 176 --- money to cover the funeral expenses, and she built her mother a fine concrete tomb. On the last day, Philo struck a deal with the spirits. Lacking the habit of prayer or easy access to its ancient ritual forms, Philo could say only what was in her heart: The Baka "Take care of my mother. Protect me and I will serve Made from my family. Jealousy you well. I promise.' 1 It would be many years before Philo felt the full weight of that bargain. Family spirits can be patient, but they never forget a promise. --- money to cover the funeral expenses, and she built her mother a fine concrete tomb. On the last day, Philo struck a deal with the spirits. Lacking the habit of prayer or easy access to its ancient ritual forms, Philo could say only what was in her heart: The Baka "Take care of my mother. Protect me and I will serve Made from my family. Jealousy you well. I promise.' 1 It would be many years before Philo felt the full weight of that bargain. Family spirits can be patient, but they never forget a promise. --- Page 177 --- CHAPTER SIX --- Page 178 --- Kouzinn Kowamn, the female counteris different from the other spirits described in the part of Azaka, book. Alourdes cites no Catholic counmain chapters of this feast and does not hold an annual espeterpart for Kouzinn Kouzinn usually makes an appearcially for this female spirit. but she does not possess ance at Azaka's May birthday Unlike party, Ezili Dantô and Ezili Freda, Alourdes on other occasions. Kouzinn is always paired Alourdes's primary female spirits, context, she is clearly anwith her man, and, in the ceremonial cillary to him.' Alourdes's work and her supportHer minimal place in spirit given role on the ritual stage are all the more surprising ing of Ezili Danto, who focuses on childthat, with the exception other deals with issues as bearing and child-rearing, no spirit the lives of the women close to the center of Alourdes's life or Alourdes's make the majority ofher clients. Like grandwho up Noelsine Joseph, Kouzinn is a market woman, a mother, Marie business sense that is part of the popularimmachann. The keen survival skill for poor Haitian women. age of the machann is a key of the countryside, the In the patriarchal extended families is often the only market woman on whom Kouzinn is modeled who deals with money. A machann must buy family properson but whatever is left over is hers. A visions with her earnings, she hasin othermarket woman's capital gives her whatleverage imfamilies. This leverage is especially wise male-dominated have more than one commonportant because rural men can Wedo, the wife of the rainbow serpent Danbala, is another spirit whose Ayida tends to be subsumed in that of her mate. There are very few of these wifely identity types in the Vodou pantheons. machann selling chickens. The road to Saut d'Eau, Haiti, 1981. Photo4 A young graph by Jerry Gordon. --- Page 179 --- disaster, a market law wife. In times of natural or personal that of her children. In woman's savings ensure her survival and tension with and to men's power is thus in the countryside, modulated by that of women. Kouzinn some degree different in the city and in immigrant The situation is very families are either absent or in communities, where extended In New York, as in Port-au-Prince, some state oftransformation. mirrored in the families are headed by women, a situation many Vodou "families" headed by manbo. In large number of urban labor available to the poor is urban settings, much of the wage women service, and, on average, either piecework or domestic market. The resulting indepenfare better than men in this job But it also threatens dence of women threatens Haitian men. situation more as an onerwomen, who tend to experience the than as liberation. ous responsibility with the rise in women's power in the cities Ironically, along the of romantic love, inhas come a new emphasis on ideology should be in charge. cluding reassertion of the belief that men and for and women, each in their own way Thus urban men that male dominance is both tratheir own reasons, often argue and Maggie have expressed ditional and ideal. men in this job But it also threatens dence of women threatens Haitian men. situation more as an onerwomen, who tend to experience the than as liberation. ous responsibility with the rise in women's power in the cities Ironically, along the of romantic love, inhas come a new emphasis on ideology should be in charge. cluding reassertion of the belief that men and for and women, each in their own way Thus urban men that male dominance is both tratheir own reasons, often argue and Maggie have expressed ditional and ideal. Both Alourdes with irony. although their statements are tinged this view, Kouzinn's deference to In Alourdes's Brooklyn community, In this to take on the flavor of gender politics. Azaka appears be the need to soothe male egos and context, its raison d'être may of women's roles. Repto blunt the threat posed by the centrality assertive market women, resenting the notoriously strong and of their abitasyon (rural who nevertheless defer to the men is well suited to convey homestead), the Vodou spirit Kouzinn In Chapter8, quessuch complex and contradictory messages. through will be explored more directly tions of sexual politics Freda. Here, in Kouzinn's chapter, the the two Ezili, Danto and lives. emphasis is on the economics of women's HAITI'S MADAN SARA called Madan Sara, after the raucous and Market women are Haiti. 2 The nickname busy little black finches found throughout used to refer more specifically to women who travel from 2The term is often fairly large-scale wholesale trade. place to place conducting --- Page 180 --- caricature of market women's loud is usually understood as a Yet there is another, voices and aggressive sales techniques. of the label. Some say the even more revealing, interpretation madansara bird because the female of machann is named after the exhaustion hunting for food for Kouzinn the species will work herself to her young. men and women have difIn Brooklyn and in Port-au-Prinee, labor, and these ferent ideas about what constitutes dignified roles. Whereas differences affect their economic and social of earning a draw on the Madan Sara model for a style women constant work, high energy, and the living that depends on and often erratic sources of inability to exploit several small find it demeaning to emulate men usually come simultaneously, have less flexibility in the Madan Sara, and they consequently do. safety net than women weaving an economic forced to be Madan Sara in one Virtually all poor women are Marie or another. For years, Alourdes's grandmother, way which she had also planted Noelsine Joseph, carried produce, Rabel to the market of and harvested, from the fields of Jean forced her to Port-de-Paix. When her irresponsible husband family, she Rabel and the security of her extended leave Jean and a small piece of land with moved to Gros Morne purchased and from her market money. She planted vegetables the savings and other fruits, all of harvested them along with sour oranges Gonaïves. With the profits, which she sold in the big market in brick the ingredients to bake bread in a backyard Sina bought she made from selling this bread was oven. Some of the money from which she made candy. reinvested in sugar and peanuts, Noelsine did not make the trek On those days when Marie she sat by the down the mountain to the Gonaïves market, road, at the gate to her land, selling sweets to passersby. from There is a line that stretches through three generations, of peathe board across Marie Noelsine's knees holding dollops she once laid to Alourdes's bed in Brooklyn, where nut candy in various out for my inspection a dozen pretty client nightgowns of her healing praccolors that had been given to her by a line between these two makeshift markets runs through tice. The commerce that women in the endless varieties of small-scale survive. Alourdes's family have pursued in order to and in markets, both in the countryside The large open-air exclusively the province of women; Port-au-Prince, are almost board across Marie Noelsine's knees holding dollops she once laid to Alourdes's bed in Brooklyn, where nut candy in various out for my inspection a dozen pretty client nightgowns of her healing praccolors that had been given to her by a line between these two makeshift markets runs through tice. The commerce that women in the endless varieties of small-scale survive. Alourdes's family have pursued in order to and in markets, both in the countryside The large open-air exclusively the province of women; Port-au-Prince, are almost --- Page 181 --- only butchering, woodcarving, and a handful tions are under male control. Women of other occupaselling from baskets carried also walk the city streets Chiclets and on their heads: bread and mints, cigarettes singly and by the eggs, carry yards of cloth folded on their heads pack. Some play across outstretched and draped for disKouzinn minum arms. Others balance pots and pans three feet above their Pyramids of aluIn the center of Port-au-Prince, heads. merchants, mostly many corners are filled with hot oil in which they women. Women crouch by pots of stew or Beneath the fry plantain, fritters, and chunks of meat. porticos of downtown entire blocks and taking most buildings, stretching along tables displaying shoes, up of the sidewalk, are small graphs of Catholic powder, soap, underwear, chromolithonot all, of these saints, nail clippers, and mirrors. Many, but the merchandise merchants are women. Whenever the value of (and the size of the profits) percentage of men doing the rises, SO does the Poor Haitian women who have selling. relatives or Canada introduce rich in the United States merce. If ten yards of fabric variations into the themes of comcan be passed or a dozen pairs of children's shoes through customs without come the seed for another business paying duty, they bemerce) goes on everywhere, not enterprise. Komès (comstreets. A casual visit to a friend's only in the markets or on the a toaster, a lacy half-slip, and six home may include examining sale. A woman friend packages of Bisquick-all for small plastic stopping by to deliver a message carries a bag containing red and black men's pairs of scissors, and a few infant T-shirts. socks, two the T-shirts, perhaps you will "If you don't need them. She just had a baby." remember to tell Carline about ergy and an eye for a good Successful machann, those with ensmall shop. price, may save enough to open a Such was the case with Madame with Alourdes's father when I met Alphonse, who was living hard as a young him, in 1980. She had worked woman and had boutik. But success can be eventually opened her own dangerous, spawning venge. Madame Alphonse lost her business jealousy andreSomeone sprinkled powder at the threshold of her through magic. when she stepped on it, she house, and, her feet. Her illness forced developed a debilitating swelling in Alourdes's father, her her to retire, which in turn forced estranged husband, to provide a place for Alourdes's father when I met Alphonse, who was living hard as a young him, in 1980. She had worked woman and had boutik. But success can be eventually opened her own dangerous, spawning venge. Madame Alphonse lost her business jealousy andreSomeone sprinkled powder at the threshold of her through magic. when she stepped on it, she house, and, her feet. Her illness forced developed a debilitating swelling in Alourdes's father, her her to retire, which in turn forced estranged husband, to provide a place for --- Page 182 --- she was in her her to live. When I met Madame Alphonse, s-angina, dizzi160 eighties and had numerous physical problems- But she still carried on in her feet, ankles, and legs. ness, pains a bit of kômès on the side. which was the necesKouzinn Alourdes's father owned a refrigerator, Madame Alphonse saryand sufficient cause of the little business Haitian soda for in his side yard. She sold ran from a shady spot cents, and corn muffins for thirteen cents, Coca-Cola for twenty who knew For those in the neighborhood two cents apiece. down the narrow alley, she was the enough to make their way bottles filled with cold water. source of tin cans of ice and rum was kept Money from each enterprise She also sold cigarettes. all of which had fallen apart and in its own ancient cigar box, needle, and precise stitches. been repaired with string, a large Madame Alphonse From her chair beneath the grenadine tree, walked off with on customers to be sure no one kept a sharp eye not clear whether the profits belonged a bottle or a can. It was shared with Alourdes's entirely to Madame Alphonse or were business sense. Whatfather, who was also known for his keen have enthe case, like most Haitian men, he would never ever selling himself. gaged in such small-scale character in Haitian jokes, The Madan Sara is a well-known she is known to drive hard stories, and folktales. Like Kouzinn, Alourdes has inherited this bargains and keep careful accounts. In Alourdes and sensibility and uses it well when she can. 1980 New York, to Haiti. On the plane from I traveled together she had to get in Haiti. On Alourdes showed me a list of things remains the her list were items such as plants and herbs. (Haiti Most of the medicine chest of healers operating in New York.) and however. Some were for herself items had to be purchased, used in Haiti, but most would some for friends; some were to be with carried back to the United States. The list began soap, be for a ritual feeding of the poor coffee, and Klerer--ingredients toward the end of our stay in Port-authat would take place needed for her work in Prince- and moved on to items two spirit bottles of alNew York, including gourd rattles, a whip, the center of the marmond extract, three pinches of earth from from in front ofthe ket, three more from the cemetery and three altars, baskets, small chairs for the dolls that sit on her church, supplement), tobacco leaves, and glycerin-phosphate (a dietary afiba (dried beef tripe). Alourdes began to carefully inFrom the moment we arrived, stay in Port-authat would take place needed for her work in Prince- and moved on to items two spirit bottles of alNew York, including gourd rattles, a whip, the center of the marmond extract, three pinches of earth from from in front ofthe ket, three more from the cemetery and three altars, baskets, small chairs for the dolls that sit on her church, supplement), tobacco leaves, and glycerin-phosphate (a dietary afiba (dried beef tripe). Alourdes began to carefully inFrom the moment we arrived, --- Page 183 --- V Kouzimn a A machann selling fruit juice on a main street in Port-au-Prince, 1980. quire about the going prices and the needed. When she decided what best places to find what wrote it on her list. constituted a good she the item for her, she Then, when she asked price, she purchase told that someone to and handed over person exactly where to make buy the spend. exactly the sum she had decided to --- Page 184 --- amount of financial control is possible in Port-au-Prince, This town where most prices are which is, after all, a relatively small matter Financial dealings are a different still open to bargaining. small income and lack of moin New York, where Alourdes's for substandard Kouzinn bility often force her to pay premium prices street in Myrtle Avenue, for example, a main shopping goods. is notorious for the high prices charged for poorFort Greene, Or, to give another sort of exquality meats and vegetables. a small freezer on ample, Alourdes and Maggie once purchased after three the installment plan. The freezer stopped working take it back. Then weeks, but the store owner refused to fix it or intimidated he harassed them with bill collectors and eventually is rife to make payments. Haiti's economy them into continuing but itis nevertheless easier for a poor with graft and corruption, Haiti, caution woman to be a good Madan Sara in exercising York. than it is in New and control in spending money, in New York, a lesson Money falls through one's fingers in the Alourdes learned the hard way during her early years woman in an art United States. Her first job was as a cleaning due to reShe was fired just before she was school in Brooklyn. the firing, her boss accused ceive health care benefits. To justify went to his office Alourdes of sleeping on the job. Alourdes but her friend fell co-worker to refute the charge, with a Haitian mute in the face of authority. Alourdes turned to an employAfter leaving the art school, domestic workers ment agency in Brighton Beach, which placed for Alourdes, basis. This work was quite an adventure on a daily three words of English: mop, pail, and who at first knew only but other problems vacuum. Her English rapidly improved, occasion in 1963, she plagued her career as a domestic. On one the ten dolhad to ask the police to intervene in order to collect hours cents for carfare) she had earned for eight lars (plus thirty scrubbed, dusted, Alourdes had vacuumed, of housecleaning. with its own bathroom) of a and polished three floors (each Side. the conditownhouse on Manhattan's Upper East Finding of the tion of one of the bathrooms less than perfect, the owner was that Alourdes had to stay until the job house announced leave without her money. "I got my children done correctly or 11 Alourdes objected. The woman at home. They waiting for me, Haitians. She "knew all then began to rant about Haiti and in Haiti, about them. I1 She had once taken a cruise that stopped in the street-beggars everywhere! and there were beggars (each Side. the conditownhouse on Manhattan's Upper East Finding of the tion of one of the bathrooms less than perfect, the owner was that Alourdes had to stay until the job house announced leave without her money. "I got my children done correctly or 11 Alourdes objected. The woman at home. They waiting for me, Haitians. She "knew all then began to rant about Haiti and in Haiti, about them. I1 She had once taken a cruise that stopped in the street-beggars everywhere! and there were beggars --- Page 185 --- "Maybe you were one of them, 11 the woman Alourdes responded, "I don't concluded. "Lady," with you. I come here to come here to discuss my country me. clean. Eight hours for ten My children waiting. 11 dollars. Pay For a short time, Alourdes also did industry, first as a trimmer and later piecework in the garment Kouzinn pressing machine. She as the operator of a was not large she hated the happy with this job. Most of all, pressure of having her speed with which she worked, wages depend on the large commercial SO she soon found a position in a laundry. This was a better fit. Her perience enabled Alourdes, shortly after her laundry exHaiti, to obtain steady work at the first trip back to stayed there two years, the Brooklyn Hebrew Home. She other than that of manbo. longest she has held any position a laundry for nearly Although Alourdes has not worked in twenty years, she still lists occupation on travel documents. "I love "laundry" as her "Laundry is good work!" laundry," she says. Maggie's job history is somewhat different. holds a two-year college Even though she mained closed to her. But degree she in education, that field has reginally more has held jobs that are at least marthan those responsible, more long-term, and Alourdes held in her early better-paying When I first met Maggie in years in New York City. counter in a fast-food 1978, she was working behind the short restaurant in Newark, New period after that, she worked Jersey. For a lic rectory. Things as a receptionist at a Cathoimproved when she moved work, a field that employs into health care many Haitian came an assistant in a gynecological women. First she beEast Side. Now she works clinic on Manhattan's is as a nurse's aide at a Upper taking a course in city hospital and ing. But there is little emergency of the medicine to advance her standMadan Sara in 1987 Christmas season, the Maggie. During the vision enticed her to shopping channel on cable telespend most of one month's salary. BARTERING WITH SEX In the spirit of the madansara, ever they have to in order to poor Haitian women sell whattheir children. A machann survive and to feed and care for Haiti's southern I encountered on a 1987 trek across peninsula had her own irreverent scribing her assets. "Where are way of deyou going?"Iasked her. "To the 1987 Christmas season, the Maggie. During the vision enticed her to shopping channel on cable telespend most of one month's salary. BARTERING WITH SEX In the spirit of the madansara, ever they have to in order to poor Haitian women sell whattheir children. A machann survive and to feed and care for Haiti's southern I encountered on a 1987 trek across peninsula had her own irreverent scribing her assets. "Where are way of deyou going?"Iasked her. "To the --- Page 186 --- she replied. "What do you have to sell?" I market in Kenscoff," A few she said, "and my "Beautiful tomatoes. beans," queried. to sell land in the market?"I Iasked, land." "You are going your "Wil" she hooted and uncertain I had heard her correctly. ouzinn grabbed her crotch. "I can sell my land anywhere!" February Claude Duvalier was forced into exile in After Jean demonstration was a wom1986, the first well-organized public in part proen's march through the streets of Port-au-Prince, forced to exthe widespread practice of women being testing a difficult period when Alourdes change sex for jobs. During for supporting was still in Port-au-Prince and solely responsible she sought and eventually obtained employment two children, tobacco industry. Many as an inspector in the government-run experience in this later, she described her job-hunting years When you go to the office and way: "Let me tell you something. the one in the head ofask for job, that man-the inspector, that job,' you have to fice-if he say, 'Yes, I'm going give you make love first!" no?" I responded naïvely. "What happens when you say don't have no Alourdes quickly shot back: "You say no, you then she added, "Sometime they make love to you, job!" And just want to make and after, you still don't have no job. They about being love to you. For nothing!" "Don't you get avoid angry the harsh contreated that way?"Iasked, still wishing to for those who clusion that some types of self-respect are only "Sometime afford them. "Sometime," Alourdes sighed. can back, I angry. But that's life! I can't help it. when I think get That's life." sixteen, was as a singer in Haiti's Alourdes's first job, at age for her and for that Troupe Folklorique. She earned what was, dollars a month. Her singing time, an enormous sum: sixty-two From the time this brief marcareer ended when she married. Alourdes's riage broke up until she came to the United States, she lost her job financial situation deteriorated steadily. When she was driven to sell sexual favors more as a tobacco inspector, There was no other way to buy directly and more frequently. her children's school fees. food, pay her rent, and manage 1 a method of Alourdes began to work as a "Marie-Jacques, above the one's "land" that is considered several steps selling At first, she dressed up occupation of bouzen (street prostitute). Port-au-Prince. in her best clothes and visited offices throughout of the male workers She flirted and made small talk until one situation deteriorated steadily. When she was driven to sell sexual favors more as a tobacco inspector, There was no other way to buy directly and more frequently. her children's school fees. food, pay her rent, and manage 1 a method of Alourdes began to work as a "Marie-Jacques, above the one's "land" that is considered several steps selling At first, she dressed up occupation of bouzen (street prostitute). Port-au-Prince. in her best clothes and visited offices throughout of the male workers She flirted and made small talk until one --- Page 187 --- asked her for a "date." It was understood with him after going that she would sleep have been a major dancing or to the movies, but it would mentioned breach of etiquette for either to a price. At the end of the party have cepted whatever the man evening, Alourdes acwith them, and they gave her. "I don't charge. I go bed Kouzinn give me whatever no courage to charge. They they want. I don't have give ten . five dollar sometime. 11 dollar, fifteen . . . twelve After several years of this, Alourdes feur to refer tourists to her when arranged with a chauf- . not a public lady who have they asked for "a good person plained, some kind'a disease. 11 She "They was exto private tourist. . . . Haiti - . they want a good lady. You Businessman have who come you going to a wedding. I meet them. to dress up like you know. 11 Alourdes Igo to club with them . laughed: "Lot'a paused in her painful story and time, he don'tspeak French. suddenly don't know what he talkin' about! I When we go bed, I more serious mood, she added: just say yes, yes, yes. 11 In a man, and they see you "Sometime you find a good fifty dollar, one hundred poor, you got children, they give you dollar. But you don't every day." find good man When I asked if she had any bad Marie-Jacques, Alourdes experiences working as a or psychological abuse responded not with stories of but with tales of those physical no money was forthcoming at the end of few times when night, and I go bed with him, and the an evening. "I party all money to feed my children! next day I don't have no body have Sure, I have bad bad experience. 11 When a man experience. Everyof their unspoken bargain, failed to keep his end say anything. She said Alourdes's pride forbade her to ing a friend" (the good-night she and went home from "visitdren) with way described her absences to her nothing in her hand to chilshe never stopped feeling. compensate for the shame Miraculously, Alourdes did not become these men. "When I say, 'I don't want pregnant by any of tell me: 'Don't get As to get pregnant, a friend and sit down in the lazy! soon as you finish make love, get up, aspirin, bathroom, on the toilet seat. You plus a glass of water, and you take that drink one finger] and you put it in your belly finger [the index while you drink that water with the button, and you press it coming. Nothing don't aspirin. And all the stay inside!" When I go to sperm got aspirin with me. Always!" work, Ialways tell me: 'Don't get As to get pregnant, a friend and sit down in the lazy! soon as you finish make love, get up, aspirin, bathroom, on the toilet seat. You plus a glass of water, and you take that drink one finger] and you put it in your belly finger [the index while you drink that water with the button, and you press it coming. Nothing don't aspirin. And all the stay inside!" When I go to sperm got aspirin with me. Always!" work, Ialways --- Page 188 --- become by a friend during this time, Alourdes did pregnant René was but their lovemaking was not a business arrangement. her when she cared for, and he hurt her badly, deserting a man to have their child. This third child he learned she was going from meningitis that Kouzinn was William, who suffered brain damage "When Wilbecause Alourdes had no money. went untreated sick. He get meningitis, and liam five month old, he get very that time. He Both of them. I have no penny then pneumonia. burn Middle of the night, I go to get SO hot, like he going to up. and I can't even buythe hospital, they give me a prescription that medicine. goud! Ten dollar, forty cent. I can't buy fifty-two and I don't even have gas to put in the They cut my electricity, William in my arm. 11 lamp. I just sit in the dark, Alourdes met and fell in love A short time after this trauma, this relationship provided with Gabriel. The economic security Gabriel was a taxi allowed Alourdes to stop dating for money. his income was not large, it was steady. driver, and although happily for nearly three years They had been living together letter written to her brother when Alourdes arranged to have a that would allow in New York, asking for one hundred dollars Gabriel's income. Her her to begin a little kômès to supplement He offered her a choice. He brother's response was surprising. letter stating he would send either the money or a notarized to the United would be her sponsor if she chose to emigrate States. "Poor don't have no true love. Alourdes once said: people Alourdes have affiliation. I1 Ever the good Madan Sara, They just with Gabriel and decided to go to the broke off her relationship time she at the U.S. embassy United States. But the first applied her. The American for her visa, her past came back to haunt there to work as consul said: "How dolknow you are not going brother, maybe Maybe this fellow Jean is not your a prostitute? full for Alourdes to convince he is your pimp." It took a year then was she allowed to him that Jean was her brother; only start the emigration process. THE MARKETPLACE OF THE SPIRITS the Madan Sara trade. For a few, Service is one of the things Serving the include the Vodou spirits. their trading partners . The American for her visa, her past came back to haunt there to work as consul said: "How dolknow you are not going brother, maybe Maybe this fellow Jean is not your a prostitute? full for Alourdes to convince he is your pimp." It took a year then was she allowed to him that Jean was her brother; only start the emigration process. THE MARKETPLACE OF THE SPIRITS the Madan Sara trade. For a few, Service is one of the things Serving the include the Vodou spirits. their trading partners --- Page 189 --- spirits is a lifelong commitment and a heavy decision to serve has never been made responsibility. The the women in Alourdes's quickly or easily by understand family. There are several to why a woman would make ways see it as an economic such a move; one is to particularly clear. strategy. For Philo and Alourdes, this is Kouzinn Their decisions to work as midst of financial crises, and both healers came in the come doing spirit work than eventually found steadier injob market. they were able to generate in the It is a truism that for poor Haitian and love cannot be separated. women issues of money the decision to work for the Thus another way to understand spirits is to seeitas an inadequate love relationships. Vodou alternative to protective, constant, spirits are ideal loverslent. From this powerful, and, if treated right, benevoperspective, a decision to comes a decision to serve the spirits behuman and divine, stop serving men. The fact that lovers, tile mix of love and are pitted against one another in the volaAlourdes's money is made plain by both Philo's and stories. Ageou, who eventually became Philo's main surprising appearance in her life when she spirit, made a lemma created in equal was caught in a dimeasure by love and way back from Gros Morne after by money.3 On her her mother's stopped in Port-au-Prince. She had death, Philo money, and she had to wire Luc spent or given away all her Santo Domingo. Luc Charles for funds to return to Charles, angry with her for SO long, sent nothing. Instead, it staying away Philo with a solution. was Agèou who presented Philo was staying with a friend in son suddenly Port-au-Prince. The friend's hospital. developed a high fever and was rushed to the Agèou appeared in Philo's head (the first time he had possessed her) and ordered the woman to retrieve the hospital. "Lady," the her son from spirit ordered, get him quickly! If you don't, that "go get your child. Go child is going to die tonight. 'Agéou, originally a Dominican spirit, should not be spirit Agàou. Alourdes says that, in Haiti, confused with the Vodou Philo's relationship with Agèou was a Agéou of is served only in her family. She brought him to Haiti and product her sojourn in Santo Domingo. known as Ogou. My impression subsequently is that the merged him with the group of spirits and Ogou is not made in the Spanish-speaking connection between Agèou (or Agaju) Caribbean. child. Go child is going to die tonight. 'Agéou, originally a Dominican spirit, should not be spirit Agàou. Alourdes says that, in Haiti, confused with the Vodou Philo's relationship with Agèou was a Agéou of is served only in her family. She brought him to Haiti and product her sojourn in Santo Domingo. known as Ogou. My impression subsequently is that the merged him with the group of spirits and Ogou is not made in the Spanish-speaking connection between Agèou (or Agaju) Caribbean. --- Page 190 --- Go now! I am waiting for you!" The doctors did not want to release the boy, but Philo's friend was convinced that the should be heeded. She brought the feverish spirit in the middle of the and found ten-year-old home Kouzinn night Agèou still there. The spirit directed the mother to go out in the yard and one penny at the foot of the vèvenn tree, shake the tree drop and collect three leaves. With the leaves, Agèou made hard, which he added a bit of salt and After a tea, to the boy fell into a deep sleep. sugar. drinking the tea, Ageou stayed in Philo's head and sat with the child throughout the night. The next morning, the boy opened his eyes, looked at his mother, and said, I'm hungry. Can you make me some soup?" A grateful "Mama, mother gave Philo the money for passage back to the Dominican Republic and back to Luc Charles. Philo's relationship with Luc Charles, however, was over in less than a year. Philo knew that performing healing work with Agéou as her spirit guide could bring financial security, but she resisted the loneliness, the heavy commitment of time and energy, and the change in lifestyle such a decision would necessitate. She young then, barely twenty, and she still dreamed of was good man to support her and her children. Instead of finding a ing her relationship with Agéou, Philo found a new pursu- lovercompanion and had two more children. But this man out to be more difficult than Luc Charles; he turned with another even had a child woman while he was living with Philo. His infidelity eventually drove Philo back to Port-au-Prince and, in time, into the arms of the spirits. Soon after Philo returned to Haiti, the spirits increased their pressure on her, and they did SO through a series of well-timed dreams. Philo was struggling to provide for three children had just discovered she was pregnant with a fourth, Alourdes. and In these crucial dreams, the spirits promised Philo what the ideal husband should offer: "I will precisely give support you. I will you everything. I'II give you drink; I'll give you food." Alourdes's story is similar. She decided to heed the call of the spirits and return to Haiti to be initiated when she hit rock bottom in New York. She was separated from her children, unable to find a job, and sick, dependent on the charity of a friend. After she came to the United States, Alourdes family longer willing to sell sexual favors. This time, she turned was no spirits. Perhaps not surprisingly, the word love is to the frequently . I will you everything. I'II give you drink; I'll give you food." Alourdes's story is similar. She decided to heed the call of the spirits and return to Haiti to be initiated when she hit rock bottom in New York. She was separated from her children, unable to find a job, and sick, dependent on the charity of a friend. After she came to the United States, Alourdes family longer willing to sell sexual favors. This time, she turned was no spirits. Perhaps not surprisingly, the word love is to the frequently --- Page 191 --- used in Alourdes's accounts of her want me to kouche [to be initiated] spiritual call. "Papa Ogou ically, it appears that the because he love me." Iron169 something in Marie-jacques and the manbo have om 2 common: neither charges for her nanbu depend, in theory at least, on unsolicited services; both clients. Alourdes has found this gifts from satisfied Kouzinn now that it is her spiritual way of making money easier rewarded. expertise that is being judged and Doing spirit work allows Alourdes to trade and services with a wide of a variety of goods tive, my friendship with range people. From one perspecShe Alourdes is also a barter accepted me into her world, in spite of relationship. tance from her community, because some initial resispay offin the she decided that it long run. This book has would tor in our exchange become an important facsmall patterns. I visit her gifts, and routinely assist at her frequently, bring her turn, Alourdes teaches me about spirit birthday parties. In pecially many things. She has been generous in discussing her life and esstories as I have worked on this sharing her family any profits of our project; in return, she will share enterprise. Soon after the idea of the book was born, I need to visit Gros Morne and Jean realized I would steads. I wanted to Rabel, her rural family homeI also wanted to develop a general sense of these places, and meet the heirs of the Kouzen Zaka types who appear in her ancestral and Kouzinn of 1979, I proposed a trip for the stories. In the summer that I would pay travel and certain following January, explaining could visit her family in Port-au-Prince other expenses. Alourdes ritual obligations, but the main and take care of some visit Gros Morne and Jean Rabel. purpose of our trip would be to Alourdes readily agreed. A TRIP TO THE PROVINCES Alourdes and I arrived in Haiti on was to leave for "the interior" January 18, 1980. The plan ary21. We would go to Gros Morne early on the morning of Janupush on north to the more remote and then, aftera short visit, trip into "the provinces" Jean Rabel. Preparing for a raises anxieties for spent most of one day laying in city folk, SO we discussing with provisions and most of another everyone we encountered the current condi- ourdes readily agreed. A TRIP TO THE PROVINCES Alourdes and I arrived in Haiti on was to leave for "the interior" January 18, 1980. The plan ary21. We would go to Gros Morne early on the morning of Janupush on north to the more remote and then, aftera short visit, trip into "the provinces" Jean Rabel. Preparing for a raises anxieties for spent most of one day laying in city folk, SO we discussing with provisions and most of another everyone we encountered the current condi- --- Page 192 --- roads and the most desirable routes. We also rented tion of the the driver approxi170 a minibus for the difficult trip, promising usual taxi service. His mately eighty dollars a day to forgo his a name that brightly painted bus was named "The Gamble," Rabel leg of on the trying Jean Kouzinn would be the source of many jokes our trip. due to arrive at five in the morning at the The Gamble was sister, who lived in Bizoton, just home of Chantal, Alourdes's In my experience in off the coast road south of Port-au-Prince. but this time the driver Haiti, plan and reality rarely match, houses where Chantal ascended the hill to the cluster of tiny out: before dawn, beeping his horn all the way and calling lived Albert! Look how I made the bus beautiful for "Look, Madame called Chantal "Madame Albert," Alyou today!" (Most people husband. This is a combert being the first name of a long-gone who has been mode of address for any woman mon, respectful married, no matter how briefly.) the next town south and Madame Rigaud, a manbo from friend of Alourdes's, was going with us, as was Justin, an old 11 The driver, who also owned Alourdes's current "boyfriend.' relief driver and another man to the minibus, brought along a that somehelp with flat tires and the more serious problems and fording times occur while ascending rocky mountain roads as we rivers in Haiti's interior. Nervous excitement prevailed fast and clambered onto the bus. For the first half hour, talk was the most of it about the adequacy of our supplies and noisy, wisdom of the routes we had chosen. with a Port-au-Prince and heading north is a journey Leaving the would hold on to you as distinctive rhythm. It is as if city intense self beand subject you to its most just long as possible the wide north road with its long visfore spewing you out onto mountains on the other. The congestas- ocean on one side, Iron Market at the far end of town. tion was thickest around the nicknamed and Many taptap (colorful buses like The Gamble, with with sacred and secular scenes) vied for space painted and the enormous lorries that carry people, burros, cars, jeeps, from the interior. In the chaotic traffic, produce and passengers brazen vehicles bullied their way forthe biggest and the most to shimmy ward, while the rest waited for a chance opening small, through. Together, we made up a passel of fish, largeand channel colored and drab, pushing through a narrow brightly out into the vast sea of the countryside. taptap (colorful buses like The Gamble, with with sacred and secular scenes) vied for space painted and the enormous lorries that carry people, burros, cars, jeeps, from the interior. In the chaotic traffic, produce and passengers brazen vehicles bullied their way forthe biggest and the most to shimmy ward, while the rest waited for a chance opening small, through. Together, we made up a passel of fish, largeand channel colored and drab, pushing through a narrow brightly out into the vast sea of the countryside. --- Page 193 --- The road from Port-au-Prince to lated terrain, but much less Croix-de-Mision was poputhe morning hours, the intensely SO than the city itself. In who had to walk because roadsides were sprinkled with those they had no other choice, heading toward the city market. As it is They were sell, it is mostly the heads of mostly women who Kouzinn commerce. When women that bear the weight of men do the toting and commandeer the backs of beasts and the hauling, they tend to roads have begun to open the interior bellies of machines. As to carry more of the loads. No of Haiti, men have begun man body or the back of a mule longer restricted by what the huas does the power of the can bear, the payloads increase, men who The French, who transport them. this social designed and built the new road, reinforced hierarchy. A beautiful, modern eventually run from the southern highway that will the north, it is the only road tip of Haiti to Cap Haitian in sible to go faster than outside the city on which it is a few miles an hour. It is also possigned for machines, not people. There is clearly delong stretches there is not no sidewalk, and for thousands who walk even a berm to accommodate the it every day. At some spots, ing heavy loads must scramble people carryonto the road. Truck drivers in up steep embankments to get brid, an elite cadre of Haiti have become a macho hyby barreling men who display their newfound along like angry bulls, terrorizing all power destrians and peasants who walk. Pe- (the two being no rights on the highway. virtually the same) have After the bridge at pitable, and the contest Croix-de-Mission, the road was more hoswho drove between those who walked and more episodic. The road followed the those Marc, winding past thatch-roof huts coast to St. ous-and, in this as well as the poor country, incongruAs the road cut inland on a obscene-Club Méditerranée. sat higher in the sky and the straight route to Gonaïves, the sun cool gold light of gone. Shadows on the mountains had morning was from bright patches of begun to sort themselves appeared in the coastal sunlight. At mid-morning, soft crevices and buttocks. The mountains, like those between breasts mountains in Haiti are not only about twenty-five hundred feet, but high, averaging soft beauty I have found nowhere else they have a special Such in the world. easy reveries ended abruptly we left the highway and started the just beyond Gonaïves as The Gamble rattled and long climb to Gros Morne. jarred. During the most precipitous morning was from bright patches of begun to sort themselves appeared in the coastal sunlight. At mid-morning, soft crevices and buttocks. The mountains, like those between breasts mountains in Haiti are not only about twenty-five hundred feet, but high, averaging soft beauty I have found nowhere else they have a special Such in the world. easy reveries ended abruptly we left the highway and started the just beyond Gonaïves as The Gamble rattled and long climb to Gros Morne. jarred. During the most precipitous --- Page 194 --- climb, 1 made the unpleasant discovery that ifl part of the uphill against the win172 relaxed even a little my head banged sharply hottest of the day dow. We scaled the mountain during the part cottonrocky road that ran through polka-dot on a narrow, the bushes and trees abutting the road Kouzim fields. Thick dust coated from our field of vision. and obliterated the last trace of green mouths to forced to tie handkerchiefs over our We were finally that into the bus in a keep from choking on the grit poured the rear tire. through a hole in the floor over right steady geyser companions, I had a quick fantasy of Looking at my traveling car with a group of bandits being in a hopelessly slow getaway gradually being turned into plaster statues. handkerchiefs Hours later, a cheer went up in the bus and The town removed as we entered the town of Gros Morne. were small market at one end of a street about two consisted of a houses leaned on one another blocks long on which tiny pastel picture-signs adat the edge of the road. Most had handpainted beer, tailoring, hair vertising goods and services for sale: bread, of Alourdes's Here we stopped to check on the location pressing. directed the bouk, as rural cousin's home. We were through filled with centers are called, and across a stream people town laundry. The driver of The bathing or sudsing and pounding backed up, and, Gamble stopped ten yards from the stream, charged through the water at high speed, without warning, children and causing women to rush toward dousing giggling rocks. colored patches of clothes drying on nearby we found A quarter of a mile on the other side of the stream, of arid land purchased by Marie Noelsine Joseph, the parcel daughter of Gloria Macena and now home to Marie Thérèse, Gamble a of Marie Noelsine. The stopped by granddaughter and Marie Thérèse came to the side window. low cactus hedge, skinny, and wore a ragged black She was barefoot, painfully her late thirties, but her face, stretched dress. She was then in could have been that of a woman tight over the skull beneath, There had been no anywhere between twenty-five and sixty. Thérèse showed way to let her know we were coming, yet Marie she or even recognition as spoke no sign of surprise, pleasure, to unload our ample cargo with Alourdes. Only when we began did she come to life. Thérèse had for this day were set aside. Whatever plans Marie her modest home were placed immeHer time, her energy, and ies, but her face, stretched dress. She was then in could have been that of a woman tight over the skull beneath, There had been no anywhere between twenty-five and sixty. Thérèse showed way to let her know we were coming, yet Marie she or even recognition as spoke no sign of surprise, pleasure, to unload our ample cargo with Alourdes. Only when we began did she come to life. Thérèse had for this day were set aside. Whatever plans Marie her modest home were placed immeHer time, her energy, and --- Page 195 --- diately and completely at our disposal. Her was meager: one small room, whose walls ti-kay (little house) from bits of wood, banana had been jury-rigged leaves, tin. Gaps a foot or more wide cardboard, and corrugated places. But the house did appeared in the walls in several Marie Thérèse have a brand-new door and frame. Kouzinn announced proudly that mennaj Alphonse, her new (over-companion), had hung it for her. She were sufficient reason to love said it as ifit Marie Thérèse any man. wore black because she was in Ilium, her husband of mourning for many years, then seven grave. Alourdes said that Ilium had been months in his good, good, good!" Dropping her voice, "a good man : she got now, he too young for her. I don't she added: "That man to take the land. I don't like that!" know, maybe he want ideal for Marie Thérèse, but Alphonse may not have been was the sole survivor of her she may have had no choice. She The only others in Gros Morne generation left on the family land. five children, the oldest with a claim to the land were her beans, millet, and barely a teenager. Marie Thérèse grew could not have handled bananas; she kept a COW and some goats. She the farm by herself. Inside the ti-kay sat a double bed and two to hold cooking utensils and food. rickety tables used were stored under the mattress. Clothes, such as they were, Thérèse, showed the The oldest daughter, like Marie effects of hunger: she had seven- or eight-year-old, the body of a full of secrecy and although she was twelve. This child, big plans, had her own mattress under which she stored special corner of the private treasures. Other possessions were kept in the rafters above the bed family artfully fashioned from in a suitcase scavenged tin. In its colorful, pattern could be seen the remnants of old crazy-quilt and powdered-milk cans. motor-oil, margarine, In front of the eight-by-ten-foot hut nèl-a broad thatched was the much larger tonroof, open to the air, corners and the center by irregular supported at four Family members poles of stripped sapling. spent their time here when were working in the fields or off to the market in they not the house and behind a second Gonaïves. In back of containing cactus fence was the lakou (yard) Alphonse Macena's broken-down ratus and remnants of the brick oven in which rum-making appahad baked bread. There was also a well, used Marie Noelsine Thérèse's family but also by several not only by Marie neighbors. Marie Thérèse supported at four Family members poles of stripped sapling. spent their time here when were working in the fields or off to the market in they not the house and behind a second Gonaïves. In back of containing cactus fence was the lakou (yard) Alphonse Macena's broken-down ratus and remnants of the brick oven in which rum-making appahad baked bread. There was also a well, used Marie Noelsine Thérèse's family but also by several not only by Marie neighbors. Marie Thérèse --- Page 196 --- Alourdes for the unkempt yard and for the condiapologized to "You will 11 she concluded in an eager tion of her house. see, to have a beautiful voice. "When you come back, I am going house, all closed!" Thérèse had a cactus corral Kouzimn On one side of her ti-kay, Marie wooden colfor goats. All but the kids wore ungainly triangular the other side of the lars that kept them inside the corral. On Marie of with the wooden paddle hut was a pile pitimi (millet), the when we arrived. Thérèse had been using to thresh grain of millet; Strenuous labor is needed to extract the edible portion consider it the last resort of the hungry. Marie Thérèse many when we arrived, and the millet pile abandoned her threshing that wandered and chewed by the baby goats was trampled final two days later, about freely. When we said our good-byes most of it was gone. But on the day we arrived, we replaced verito be a meal of millet gruel with a what promised scanty table banquet. unloaded and under the tonnèl, After our things were order placed of business was coffee. food preparation began. The first half coffeeAs we sat drinking the tiny cups-half sugar, the scent of people began to arrive, as if they had picked up Thérèse and money. Those who knew Marie food, possessions, distant cousins, came in under the tonnèl. well, including some the cactus fence and stared. Our presence Others stood outside hour-the time when people returned and the late afternoon stream along the road from the fields-soon produced a steady with straw hats and in front of the house: men in blue denim on women smoking pipes and riding sidesaddle straw satr'iels, and without comment, examinburros. aviost moved by slowly ing us closely as they passed. and Kouzinn Zakas were bands In between the silent Kouzen from school in the bouk, all of noisy, curious children returning with blue pants dressed in identical red-checkered shirts, navy Thérèse's for the boys and navy blue skirts for the girls. Marie children did not attend school and appeared to want little contact with those who did. (Even in the local church-run school, families had to purchase uniforms.) Her raggedy children hung heads and scratched in the dirt at our feet as a swarm of their examined The Gamble inch by inch and eyed checkered shirts children nudged one another our case of cola. These neighbor overheard voices about the in the ribs and speculated in easily tonnèl. A brave one called out blan sitting under Marie Thérèse's boys and navy blue skirts for the girls. Marie children did not attend school and appeared to want little contact with those who did. (Even in the local church-run school, families had to purchase uniforms.) Her raggedy children hung heads and scratched in the dirt at our feet as a swarm of their examined The Gamble inch by inch and eyed checkered shirts children nudged one another our case of cola. These neighbor overheard voices about the in the ribs and speculated in easily tonnèl. A brave one called out blan sitting under Marie Thérèse's --- Page 197 --- to me: "Eh, blan!" and Madame Albert and without hesitation. "Ti-moun reprimanded him sharply she snapped. "Call her malelve [Badly reared child]!" Madame." Alourdes had not visited Gros Morne in more As cousins and neighbors than a decade. by rehearsing family arrived, she reconnected with them Kouzinn early thirties whom history. Among them was a man in his everyone called Tonton (Uncle). He nephew of Marie Thérèse's dead husband. was the placed him, she launched into Once Alourdes had a song for the lwa that had composed by his father. Tonton's face, otherwise been pressionless beneath his worn straw flat and exthe familiar refrain, and he hat, lit up when he heard more charming than soon joined in the singing. No oneis mood, and she charmed Alourdes when she is in an expansive Tonton ended the this hardscrabble farmer. Alourdes and forth song locked in an embrace, to the rhythm of the chorus. rocking back and dozen locals had come beneath By that time, more than a people. Most sat the tonnèl to visit with the on their haunches around Alourdes's city legged wooden chair. She talked, laughed, shortentertained the folk of Gros Morne. sang, and generally All afternoon, a portable radio blared under Radios are essential lin mountain away the tonnèl. music, but occasionally the communities. We heard mostly in Creole: "Marie announcer broke in with Rose, who lives in Basin Bleu messages in touch with Olina right away. She has by the river, get your family." "Madame a message for you from hind Roger, who lives in the mountains bePort-de-Paix, come home right away. Your child is Dozens of times during the afternoon, the ill." the same song, one by a popular disk jockey played was a simple ditty with two group called Tabou Combo. It energizing beat: "New York repetitive lines sung to an insistent, City"; then, "Haiti, City, New York City, New York Haiti, Haiti." During the days we spent in Port-au-Prince, the song had been our constant lying forth from the doorways of countless companion, salthe city. It played shops in the heart of home in repeatedly on the radio in Madame Albert's Bizoton, and we rarely rode a York City, New York City" taptap without "New packed bus. When banging around the interior of the we had set out, early that had larded the anxious conversation morning, Alourdes Tabou Combo line: "New York about provisions with the City." But she City, New York City, New York never sang the second line. Alourdes was caught between New York and Haiti. For her, played shops in the heart of home in repeatedly on the radio in Madame Albert's Bizoton, and we rarely rode a York City, New York City" taptap without "New packed bus. When banging around the interior of the we had set out, early that had larded the anxious conversation morning, Alourdes Tabou Combo line: "New York about provisions with the City." But she City, New York City, New York never sang the second line. Alourdes was caught between New York and Haiti. For her, --- Page 198 --- a to her country, our trip was a sentimental journey, land. pilgrimage She made the journey to her family, and her ancestral York and Haiti. But, strengthen the bonds between New City the two. she also needed to put distance between paradoxically, far had come in the world and Kouzim She wanted to affirm how she existence how different her current life was from the meager in the she had left behind. A desire to distance herself showed sister's she made. Sitting around her constant comparisons for she commented to no one in particular, house, example, little. Houses in Haiti real little. In New "Everything in Haiti SO for whatever you want.' 11 York, houses got plenty room, room herself I became another means for Alourdes to distinguish When she introduced me to her father, from the local people. a book about her. she mentioned right away that I was writing three demonstrated how thick the book would be (a good She "After she finish, they going to mount inches!) and announced: a film on that book!" self-definition. In Language was also an important area of between HaiNew York, Alourdes and I switch back and forth tian Creole and English as the topic demands. We routinely and tend to fall into Creole when we discuss spirspeak English (Creole is far better for itual matters or human relationships. is ordinarily talking about people.) Although Alourdes's I noticed English that she was quite good, after only a few days in Haiti becoming less and less facile, stumbling over the most ordinary That seemed understandable, and SO words and expressions. other almost exclusively in during the trip we spoke to each Creole. notable to our use of Creole were public situaThe exceptions have been overheard. Boarding a taptap tions in which we might to Alourdes's sister's for the half-hour ride from Port-au-Prince Climbing onto the home in Bizoton signaled a switch to English. the Alourdes observed the Haitian custom of greeting bus, but she did SO in English. "How are you?" other passengers, smile. Then she started a conshe asked, with a big, lipsticked references to New versation with me in English, making many sometimes this game. Ihave York. I was a willing collaboratorin done the same thing on taptap rides, only in reverse; speaking is a to avoid being mistaken for a Creole with a companion ploy did not want to be mistaken for tourist. Alourdes, in contrast, woman in the next seat wearan ordinary Haitian. The market she did SO in English. "How are you?" other passengers, smile. Then she started a conshe asked, with a big, lipsticked references to New versation with me in English, making many sometimes this game. Ihave York. I was a willing collaboratorin done the same thing on taptap rides, only in reverse; speaking is a to avoid being mistaken for a Creole with a companion ploy did not want to be mistaken for tourist. Alourdes, in contrast, woman in the next seat wearan ordinary Haitian. The market --- Page 199 --- ing a headrag and dangling three live chickens knees seemed to me far removed from between her herself could not be SO Alourdes; but Alourdes too. Yet at times sanguine, and I could understand on that trip with her, empathy failed that, judgment intruded. me and One such time came early in the Kouzinn rived in Gros Morne. The evening of the day we arunder way. A sun had not set, and dinner was bouk had been good-sized chunk of goat mcat purchased in the transformed into and the smell was sizzling, bite-sized morsels, hungry and curious. attracting a growing crowd of Gros Morne's At this moment, Alourdes nounce that she could not eat until she had her chose to anit meant postponing the meal for bath. Although the status of a command in this everyone, Alourdes's wish had from the well, and, when all group. Water was hauled up behind the house with was ready, Alourdes took herself several of Marie tow, After some time, I got up and followed. Thérèse's children in When I rounded the corner of the ti-kay, I backdrop of a crimson and ocher saw, against the ing for all the world like the sky, a naked Alourdes, lookher skin glistening with Venus of Willendorf come to life, apart, and her moisture. Her legs were planted wide child arms were held straight out from her was working on each limb, sides. One bottle of lotion, which smoothing in the contents ofa ("Queen bee!" I they passed from hand to hand. she smiled thought.) "Have a good bath?" Iasked. "Yes!" lazily. "That feel good!" The Dance of Reciprocity In time, I would better understand the subtleties in that scene, and I would come to see her of exchange judgmental eye. The lesson behavior with a less piece of the puzzle came in stages, with an important returned falling into my hands two to Gros Morne after days later. We had Rabel. It was an abortive attempt to get to Jean to Port-au-Prince. mid-afternoon, and we were preparing to go back Ihad little to pack and walk. By the time I sauntered back decided to take a short The into Marie Thérèse's Gamble was loaded, and the driver yard, horn, anxious to get back to Port-au-Prince was leaning on the on the coast road after sunset is before dark. Driving animals appear in the headlights dangerous; pedestrians and without warning, and truck later. We had Rabel. It was an abortive attempt to get to Jean to Port-au-Prince. mid-afternoon, and we were preparing to go back Ihad little to pack and walk. By the time I sauntered back decided to take a short The into Marie Thérèse's Gamble was loaded, and the driver yard, horn, anxious to get back to Port-au-Prince was leaning on the on the coast road after sunset is before dark. Driving animals appear in the headlights dangerous; pedestrians and without warning, and truck --- Page 200 --- often turn off their lights when they stop along the road. drivers me on, I ran toward the ti-kay to With The Gamble's horn urging fetch my things. Marie Thérèse froze. My duffle bag was Aslopened the door, bottle of Ammens Medicated Kouzinn open on her bed, and she had my its contents into a Powder in her hand. She had been shaking small round box with a fluffy purple powder puff, an incongru- in in this spare setting. Her matchstick arm stopped ous object dribbled from the half-open holes in the mid-air, and powder communicated shame at being caught in lid. Her whole body this act of pilfering. in awkward moDiscussing logistics is sometimes helpful "You have to open it all the way, 11 I said in a matter-ofments. I took the bottle from her, twisted the cap open, and fact tone. into her powder box. (I held some back poured half its contents is one of the few things I find essenbecause Ammens powder Haiti. It eases insect bites and, in a pinch, tial when traveling in Marie Thérèse responded is a reasonable substitute fora bath.) "Don't half-gift with embarrassingly genuine gratitude. to my her a 11 she whispered like a child. I gave money, tell Alourdes, skirt, and a purple T-shirt. Then I ran. discomfiting The Gamble, 1 was awashin Asltook my placein cold night when we, the guests, memories of the surprisingly while Marie Thérèse had been given the only bed in her ti-kay, the floor. One of curled up with her children on a pile of rags on throughher girls had a hacking cough that erupted periodically all her children had red and brittle hair, indicating out the night; Standing beside the bus as we pulled advanced malnutrition. mouthed the words: "Manman, don't foraway, Marie Thérèse me." "How could I ever forget?"1 thought. get to enough in Haiti. Gifts of money are Itis never possible give needed, but what I have like water in the desert. They are badly difference. I have been to give is not enough to make a real made an unto Haiti since 1973, and over the years I have going with the more orl less constant guilt and inadequacyl easy peace there. But this trip taught me how my own befeel when 1 am the United States, havior exacerbated the situation. 1 grew up in and founded rebels against peerage and privilege, a country by (the Lam well schooled in what constitutes pretension "queen for example) and what is sappropriately humble, bee" syndrome, behavior. In Gros Morne, I cheerfully Imjustoacofibe-fike and amiably turned aside Marie attended to my own luggage orl less constant guilt and inadequacyl easy peace there. But this trip taught me how my own befeel when 1 am the United States, havior exacerbated the situation. 1 grew up in and founded rebels against peerage and privilege, a country by (the Lam well schooled in what constitutes pretension "queen for example) and what is sappropriately humble, bee" syndrome, behavior. In Gros Morne, I cheerfully Imjustoacofibe-fike and amiably turned aside Marie attended to my own luggage --- Page 201 --- Thérèse's inquiries about favorite foods and the cooked. By doing this, I also way Ilike things out of the realm of unwittingly moved my gifts to her forced her to take from reciprocity and into that of charity. I also but craved me what she could not justify for nonetheless. A dollop of the asking woman? A sprinkling of mystique of a foreign Kouzinn femininity? It was such a small thing, that bit of old truth concrete. powder, but it made an Charity breeds and flawed human exchanges because thievery, both are deeply Thérèse pointed to such a lack of balance both lack reciprocity. Marie woman of her own age, "manman. 11 As when she called me, a along the mountain road, I The Gamble clattered bath in a new light. With four began to see Alourdes's predinner lotion, Alourdes limbs to be dried and rubbed with Marie had placed herself four times in the debt Thérèse's family, balancing at least of a case of cola, sacks of vegetables, partially the gift of of a goat. and the left hindquarter Alourdes works hard to keep her relations arena of reciprocity. It is not with family in the even the appearance of balance. always easy, however, to achieve in Haiti, Marie Carmelle, The morning after we arrived visit. She sat on the pallet Madame where Albert's daughter, came to rummaged eagerly Alourdes and I had slept and through Alourdes's suitcase, present of this white dress!" she said. "No, 11 "Make me a and then softened a little: "When Alourdes replied, you. 11 By scaling down her I finish wearing it, I give it to slip from me and another from demands, Marie Carmelle got a halfof deodorant and Alourdes. She then found a bar soap claimed it without she tried again for the object she coveted: protest. Before long, that dress!" "I give it to "You got to give me Marie Carmelle you tomorrow," Alourdes said. dug further in the suitcase and found age of Rolaids. "I'm going to take these a pack- "That not mint," Alourdes mints, she announced. medicine!" cried Marie retorted, "that medicine. 11 "Oh, brusquely: Carmelle, "I need that." Alourdes said "Organize that suitcase for me. mess!" Everything inside a Marie Carmelle would meet this demand later, moment something else caught her attention. but for the Alourdes's other suitcase, she Raising the lid of Look at the little market! I'm whooped in delight: "Oh, look! going to take this towel. perfume for? Oh, what a beautiful blouse!" Who's this "I pay six dollar for that!" Alourdes said, grabbing the blouse 11 "Oh, brusquely: Carmelle, "I need that." Alourdes said "Organize that suitcase for me. mess!" Everything inside a Marie Carmelle would meet this demand later, moment something else caught her attention. but for the Alourdes's other suitcase, she Raising the lid of Look at the little market! I'm whooped in delight: "Oh, look! going to take this towel. perfume for? Oh, what a beautiful blouse!" Who's this "I pay six dollar for that!" Alourdes said, grabbing the blouse --- Page 202 --- her hand. "You hear me? Six dollar!" Then Alourdes infrom even a button. the garment and added, "But it don't got spected What you say? Can you put a button for me?" left Haiti, Marie Carmelle had the white dress, sevBefore we and some cash, all of which Kouzim eral other articles of clothing, Alourdes doled out in careful installments over our three-week went on with half a dozen other relastay. A similar process the suitcasesand sewed tives. Marie Carmelle carefully repacked the trips a button on the blouse. Madame Albert organized ritual Gros Morne and Jean Rabel and supervised the feedto Such services in return for gifts maintained the ing of the poor. but, in truth, the atmosphere appearance of family exchange, treated like children from was strained. Family members were and time to time, and Alourdes sometimes became petulant demanding. of and the complex pull toward its orbit The deep love family as well as being the are natural to Alourdes's temperament, Given these stressful conproducts of her religion and culture. clearer about that love from a ditions, however, she tends to feel became distance. On our Haitian sojourn, Alourdes periodically left behind in depressed about missing Maggie and the children call New York. She called home four times, the last a lengthy less than a day before our return. "There SO many people placed asking for at my house! I had to talk to everybody. Everybody "I miss miss me SO much!" Alourdes pouted: me. bed. Everybody I miss my house. I miss my children. 11 my But the airplane was not thirty minutes out of Port-au-Prince to talk about going back to Haiti to live. It was when she began she would need more money. Pernot possible now, of course; she would return to Haiti. Then haps when she was sixty-five, she would tear down Alourdes got lost in a frequent fantasy: and build a better her mother's old house on Oswald Durand skirts and a little in the front : : . sell beautiful one. : . put shop blouses. to the United States when she was an adolesMaggie came cent, and her ties to Haiti, though deep, are largely spiritual of But Alourdes's commitments to the family and sentimental. in commitments to a human family, most spirits are still grounded live in Haiti. And SO her hunger for family perof whom that escalate every time she sists, in spite of the frustrations from their poverty deals with her family, frustrations arising Oswald Durand skirts and a little in the front : : . sell beautiful one. : . put shop blouses. to the United States when she was an adolesMaggie came cent, and her ties to Haiti, though deep, are largely spiritual of But Alourdes's commitments to the family and sentimental. in commitments to a human family, most spirits are still grounded live in Haiti. And SO her hunger for family perof whom that escalate every time she sists, in spite of the frustrations from their poverty deals with her family, frustrations arising --- Page 203 --- and the high expectations they have attached to her. of Alourdes's life in New York My picture includes the over my foot in her downstairs afternoon the rat ran of her family in Haiti bathroom. But when members picture her in New York, wealth, ease. Neither of us is more correct than they see food, simply start from different the other; we Kouzinn With places. progress in life comes responsibility. When a emigrates, the family back home is full ofe Haitian one of their number abroad is a expectations. Sending everyone who can contributes to cooperative the sizable fund family enterprise; someone out of the country. Sometimes the needed to get borrow from freelance family is forced to (In 1980 their annual interest moneylenders who prey on poor people. Alourdes rates hovered around 30 came to the United States legally in the percent.) but in the 1970S and 198os large numbers of early 1960s, illegally, with considerably Haitians have come tourist visa, the most higher expenses. A black-market popular means of escape for tians, cost two thousand dollars in 1980. Add to this urban Haia roundtripa airplane ticketand several the price of money, both of which may have to be hundred dollars in pocket tion agents at the airport. shown to U.S. immigrarightly Family members who stay behind expect to benefit from such a substantial Many do-in fact, a significant investment. goods that circulate in Haiti each percentage of the money and ing abroad. year comes from Haitians livUnfortunately, people on both sides of this a vested interest in preserving fanciful arrangement have ties available in New York. For those stories of the opportunithe good life in the United States who stay behind, stories of who emigrate do not justify their sacrifice. Those parity between challenge these stories, for fear the diseffort dream and reality will be attributed to a lack or caring on their part. Caught in a rhythm of of low-paying, short-term jobs alternating with abusive, ployment, many immigrants become periods of unemstop communicating with their SO depressed that they did at first. During her families in Haiti, as Alourdes New York, she broke off long illness shortly after her arrival in all contact with her mother. was especially hurt when a letter from her mother And she cusing her of being SO busy having a good time that she arrived had acgotten her family back home. forAs a rule, Haitian immigrants do not push their families away Caught in a rhythm of of low-paying, short-term jobs alternating with abusive, ployment, many immigrants become periods of unemstop communicating with their SO depressed that they did at first. During her families in Haiti, as Alourdes New York, she broke off long illness shortly after her arrival in all contact with her mother. was especially hurt when a letter from her mother And she cusing her of being SO busy having a good time that she arrived had acgotten her family back home. forAs a rule, Haitian immigrants do not push their families away --- Page 204 --- out of a simple desire to shed the responsibility of having relatives in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. do SO because they are ashamed. Their They emigration puts them in Kouzinn a place of privilege, one from which it is not acceptable to ask for help or even understanding from those who have less. A letter home accurately describing the struggles of a Haitian immigrant in New York City threatens definitions of reality and worth on both sides. In most cases, such truthful letters selfnever written. A web of lies, promises, and rationalizations are is required to explain a letter or telephone call that maintains the fiction but is not accompanied by a money order through Hatrexco, the funds-transferring agency whose main business is handling the flow of expatriate money to Haiti. Many try this approach, but if they do not find steady and initially work, the strain of such posturing quickly becomes too profitable The slender threads on which communication and the great. of hope responsibility rest snap. Alourdes managed to avoid a rupture with her family because her early problems in New York were largely spiritual ones and remedied in spiritual terms. Once interpreted her illness as was defined as spirit-caused and her ties to family and were reframed (and thus reinforced) as spiritual country obligations, the pressure was relieved and the door opened for a creative renegotiation of debts. The burden of reciprocity shifted from the living family to a broader arena, one including the ancestors and the spirits. A penniless and bedraggled Alourdes could then present herself at the gate to her mother's house in Portau-Prince. Both she and her mother understood that she was in this condition because the spirits were after her. If her mother could help her meet their demands, in time they would both benefit. And this, in fact, is what happened. "I got to go back to Haiti," Alourdes said not too long ago. "Two year since I Haiti. Two year! Who me? But you can't go back with go to in your hand. I need one thousand dollar, then I to no Haiti money January. I tell Papa Ogou, 'You give me that go in back to Haiti 111 money, then I going Storytelling In 1980, I was the vehicle the spirits had apparently chosen to finance a trip to Haiti. That was how Alourdes, and freshly bathed creamed, came to be in Gros Morne under Marie Thérèse's I Haiti. Two year! Who me? But you can't go back with go to in your hand. I need one thousand dollar, then I to no Haiti money January. I tell Papa Ogou, 'You give me that go in back to Haiti 111 money, then I going Storytelling In 1980, I was the vehicle the spirits had apparently chosen to finance a trip to Haiti. That was how Alourdes, and freshly bathed creamed, came to be in Gros Morne under Marie Thérèse's --- Page 205 --- tonnèl that first day. She and I sat with her and around an oil lamp made from an ancient family friends ant Right Guard deodor183 can, watching the last of the color disappear from the ning sky. We were eating spicy goat, boiled evewith a delicious, thick black bean plantain, and rice kered on the sauce. Marie Thérèse hunKouzinn ground, her long skinny legs folded like those of grasshopper. She ate with her hands from a bowl a had mixed the of in which she ingredients our meal. Whether from the habit of her personality, the of years of hunger and dulling effects the social distance hardship, or the strains ofthe momentin this group being too great for her to verse-Marie Thérèse withdrew into herself. Her traand her eyes unfocused as she took small face was blank tossed them toward her mouth. A few handfuls of food and into the dish with each grains of rice fell back Alourdes motion. When the meal was convinced Marie Thérèse to sit with me and over, recorder for an interview on family history. my tape In anticipating this trip, I had imagined an of listening to story after story about Manman evening Mauvant, and Marie Noelsine Marasa, Joseph Binbin Joseph. I was bound to be at least one traditional Surely, thought, there Alourdes's country relatives. That raconteur storyteller among voices with characters, jump up to enact dramatic would change weave the story together by circling back episodes, and single memorable line that would again and again to the motif. This night, emerge as its lesson and leitIn Gros however, was not to be such an occasion. Morne, Marie Thérèse was my only source for history. She told bare-bones stories with few details family them alive, and she spoke in a small, to bring outi inflection. "A time quiet voice almost withthe road." long ago, it rained. The water came up to ("My god!" I thought. "That would rose more than two hundred feet mean the river above its current "People put chairs on top of tables. They put children level!") chairs. One family watched the river take on top of children. 11 tables . : - chairs . Ironically, it was Alourdes who told the best stories that in the mountain. She told one about Gloria, Marie night est child and Marie Thérèse's mother. The theme Noelsine's oldstory ("Gloria-that woman of Alourdes's got a lot'a a repeated tribute to a mountain courage. Oh, boy!") was woman whose heroism surviving a life of continuous hardship lay in enal bad luck. Gloria's husband died punctuated by phenomand her house burned children. 11 tables . : - chairs . Ironically, it was Alourdes who told the best stories that in the mountain. She told one about Gloria, Marie night est child and Marie Thérèse's mother. The theme Noelsine's oldstory ("Gloria-that woman of Alourdes's got a lot'a a repeated tribute to a mountain courage. Oh, boy!") was woman whose heroism surviving a life of continuous hardship lay in enal bad luck. Gloria's husband died punctuated by phenomand her house burned --- Page 206 --- down, all on the same day. Shortly after these tragedies, Gloria converted to Protestantism, in a fit of pique with the Vodou spirits. She died in her forties after a long illness, which she repeatedly refused Philo's during Kouzinn plea to come to Port-au-Prince for help. Like most mountain people, Gloria was deeply of hospitals, and by then she wanted nothing to do suspicious with the Vodou healing arts. Marie Thérèse had not followed her mother into the Protestant church, but neither did she serve the spirits. She said simply, "Ift they want me to serve them, they have to give me to do it." Traditional religion nevertheless money pervades Marie Thérèse's life, as it does for everyone in the mountains. For example, she told me she had a gad on her house. She offered no further information about this protective charm, but before the sun went down, I thought I saw it: suspended from a roofbeam in the tonnèl, only partially visible through the fringe of thatch, was a banana soda bottle with a small muslin bag bound to its neck. Marie Thérèse said she also had a gad in her a charm that would have been created by a healer rubbing body, herbal medicines into a small cut in her skin. such traditional Although Vodou elements are very much a part of Marie Thérèse's life, she does not think of herself as serving the The issue is not whether Marie Thérèse believes in the spirits. are a fact of her life. The issue is that spirits. They they are not her exchange partners. She cannot make demands on the spirits, because cannot afford to feed them on the regular basis they she After an interview of less than an hour, Marie Thérèse require. fell into a silence from which neither Alourdes nor I could extricate her. The three of us sat around the flickering oil lamp, and the long-ignored sounds of a night in the mountains of Haiti came alive around us: the rustle of trees when a stray breeze dered through, the clip-clop of a donkey going down the wanin front of the house, the thunking and road wooden collars as the goats settled in for the scritch-scratching night, the of ofa rooster a mile away, the loud whine of a crowing mosquito careening past my ear. The Bôkô and the Tonton Makout "Ki moun malad, Kouzimn [Who is sick, Cousin]?" Cesaire asked, appearing suddenly in our small circle of light. "No- dered through, the clip-clop of a donkey going down the wanin front of the house, the thunking and road wooden collars as the goats settled in for the scritch-scratching night, the of ofa rooster a mile away, the loud whine of a crowing mosquito careening past my ear. The Bôkô and the Tonton Makout "Ki moun malad, Kouzimn [Who is sick, Cousin]?" Cesaire asked, appearing suddenly in our small circle of light. "No- --- Page 207 --- body," Marie Thérèse said, rising to fetch a chair for you sent for me! I ran all the way!" him. "But me, 11 Marie Thérèse Cesaire snarled. "It was not replied in her soft voice. "Alourdes sent you. for Earlier in the day, Alourdes had indeed asked the word that she wanted to Tonton to pass Kouzinn tive who speak with Cesaire, a distant relafarmed a piece of land several miles In his youth he had lived in Jean from Gros Morne. not been there since she Rabel, and Alourdes, who had was seven years old, wanted our guide on the trip. Cesaire him to be the message that he was a oungan, and when he got was needed at Marie Thérèse's assumed someone was sick or in trouble. He home, he little annoyed when he realized there was more than a Cesaire wore an airplane was no emergency. visor, a red scarf knotted pilot's cap with a patent-leather trousers around his neck, dark blue with a wide belt, and a denim shirt. His denim were more carefully tailored than the pants and shirt usual denim peasant ing-a signal that Cesaire was not clothton Makout. His clothes only a oungan but also a Tonwere the uniform of the started by François Duvalier after he took civilian militia cause the history of politics in Haiti power in 1957.3 Becoups, Duvalier armed the Tonton was replete with military ofthe army and also to Makout to check the power Tonton strengthen his control over the Makout (Uncle Strawsack) is the name of provinces. in Haitian children's stories. More to the a bogeyman the uniform, inevitably evokes point, the name, like farmer and therefore of the the image of a simple peasant Vodou spirit Kouzen Zaka. creating his private army, Papa Doc, a Thus, in used Vodou to oungan himself, subtly play on the deepest loyalties of the Haitian people-loyalties to land, family, and ancestors. The corruption, intimidation, and violence that stories of make heavy irony of their surround the Makout identification with Kouzen gentle spirit whose power resides mainly in herbal Zaka, a knowledge. *In February 1986, after the fall of Jean Claude François Duvalier, the Tonton Makout were Duvalier, the son and successor of among them were hunted down and killed supposedly disbanded. The most hated taken into the army. More recent events, by groups of vigilantes; others were to some extent a cohesive and effective however, indicate that the Makout are still Just as Duvalier dressed his ingredient in Haitian politics. appeared in the garb of another henchmen Vodou to look like Kouzen Zaka, SO he himself glasses, mimicking Baron Samdi, chief of spirit: the he often wore a black suit and dark spirits of the dead. Duvalier, the son and successor of among them were hunted down and killed supposedly disbanded. The most hated taken into the army. More recent events, by groups of vigilantes; others were to some extent a cohesive and effective however, indicate that the Makout are still Just as Duvalier dressed his ingredient in Haitian politics. appeared in the garb of another henchmen Vodou to look like Kouzen Zaka, SO he himself glasses, mimicking Baron Samdi, chief of spirit: the he often wore a black suit and dark spirits of the dead. --- Page 208 --- In the countryside, those who became Makout were often established local leaders, heads of large families, Vodou The Oungan-Makout thus priests. emerged as a distinct and familiar type on Haiti's political Kouzinn stage." These priest-soldiers, rural and urban, ran the gamut from assassins for hire to local leaders who used the added power of the Makout network to promote the interests of their people. Alourdes's distant cousin Cesaire, who carried no gun while we were with him, probably fell somewhere in the middle of this spectrum. In fact, Cesaire peared to be little more than a con artist, a type not unknown ap- in Haitian religious and political circles. It gradually became clear that the presence of a white face in this group had piqued his curiosity and stirred the scent of profit. It was also clear that he was willing to make a show of his religion for the city folk, whatever their color. The card reading Cesaire prescribed was a good example of his modus operandi. He announced that a reading was necessary to determine the will of the spirits concerning our trip to Jean Rabel. Before beginning, Cesaire asked Alourdes if she served the spirits. "No," she said, "I do not serve.1 11 Relieved of the threat that she might see through him, Cesaire set out to impress us with his power and arcane knowledge. The first splash from a fresh bottle of rum was poured on the ground as a libation for the spirits. (The rest was for Cesaire, who punctuated his ritualizing with frequent gulps from the bottle.) First, he requested that the oil lamp be extinguished. Then, lighting a single white candle, he made a great show of marking it with cabalistic signs. Slowly, he drew his thumbnail three times around the candle and intersected those lines with deep vertical grooves. Cesaire's opening prayers, standard Catholic ones, were accompanied by dramatic hand gestures and more mumbo-jumbo with the candle. Then he took two packs of cards, limp and dog-eared, from his back pockets. He shuffled the cards by taking a few from the bottom of the stack and slapping them onto the top. Slap, slap, slap pause- slap, slap, slap. The shuffling took a long time, and his severe manner quickly let us know that he would allow The term Oungan-Makout is also used to refer to a priest who has no altar, and no following. He operates out of his makout, his straw temple, no tents are his only ritual paraphernalia. satchel, whose.con- and dog-eared, from his back pockets. He shuffled the cards by taking a few from the bottom of the stack and slapping them onto the top. Slap, slap, slap pause- slap, slap, slap. The shuffling took a long time, and his severe manner quickly let us know that he would allow The term Oungan-Makout is also used to refer to a priest who has no altar, and no following. He operates out of his makout, his straw temple, no tents are his only ritual paraphernalia. satchel, whose.con- --- Page 209 --- no casual conversation while it was Alourdes to cut the cards. He going on. Finally, he asked with great care, examined the six bottom ones staring at them, folding and grunting meaningfully, and nodding his head. unfolding them, lent tangible drama to the scene. Each of The candlelight a miniature candle flame Cesaire's eyes reflected Kouzimn as he locked them on began to question her. Alourdes and The question-and-answer part of a be a delicate diagnostic tool. Vodou card reading can changed before Little specific information is exfrom the readings begin. Taking his or her cards, the reader asks various inspiration a description of the situation under questions that lead to saire might have asked: "Did review. (For example, Ceyou have an night? Someone told you not to important dream last The one for whom the go on this trip. Is that right?") scriptions and reading is being done accepts some derejects others. The card reader then path indicated by the responses and, follows the deeper and deeper levels, working on the issue at Working in this poses new diagnoses, and SO on. manner, both parties can truths. discover surprising Given Cesaire's elaborate pointment when his scene-setting, it was a great disaptrian. "What did questions turned out to be quite pedeslive?" "Who is that you white say your name was?" "Where do you exchange, Alourdes person with you?" In the midst of this assumed the was outwardly respectful with Cesaire. She position of the junior member of the she was; but she also lied, telling Cesaire family, which not serve the spirits but also that not only that she did Whenhe had my name was Carmen. gathered all theinformation he took a big slug of rum and announced wanted, Cesaire mony that the spirits saw no without further cereAlourdes turned to problem with our proposed me and whispered in English that trip. thought Cesaire was "full of shit." This she language for Alourdes. was uncharacteristic Although I tended to agree with suspected we had reached our conclusions for her, I sons. After wheedling two dollars out of her for the different card reaing, Cesaire had then asked for an additional ten readus to Jean Rabel. The attempt to charge for to accompany stood to be family business something she underAs soon as we could angered Alourdes. circle, Alourdes and I headed gracefully excuse ourselves from the for bed. As I walked away, Ce- full of shit." This she language for Alourdes. was uncharacteristic Although I tended to agree with suspected we had reached our conclusions for her, I sons. After wheedling two dollars out of her for the different card reaing, Cesaire had then asked for an additional ten readus to Jean Rabel. The attempt to charge for to accompany stood to be family business something she underAs soon as we could angered Alourdes. circle, Alourdes and I headed gracefully excuse ourselves from the for bed. As I walked away, Ce- --- Page 210 --- "Before leave, I am going to do a treatsaire called after me: you At the urging of ment for you-a thing! You know, magic!" kon sèvi avèk bagay konn sa [I Marie Thérèse, I responded: "M'pa I1 The offer was probadon't getinvolved with that sort oft thingl. titillate a calculated attempt to Kouzinn bly more of Cesaire's bravado, I held. Yet such of Vodou he assumed me with every stereotype not have been a sham. an offer, in another context, might and and work with fèy (leaves), Vodou priests priestesses of Kouzen and Kouzinn Zaka, herbal knowledge, the domain Each has a choice as can be used to harm as well as heal.? person of the this and therein lies the morality to how to use power, she has been told how to matter. Alourdes, for example, says from the comseveral simple and deadly poisons, one prepare leaf. "They told me how to make that mon kowosôl (soursop) attention. I hear about it, and I poison, but I don't pay no just "When forget it.' 1 Her position is grounded in self-preservation: back!" do bad to people, that return-right on your you is quite flexible. It is often used, for exThe term maji (magic) characterize the practices of an outample, by an in-group to about the ofthe ArPeople in Port-au-Prince talk religion group. and in one rural extended-family tibonite Valley as maji, people of those compound in the south describe the religious practices people with whom they have a in a neighboring compound, the word is even history of land disputes, as maji. Sometimes, the Petwo rites ala slang term for used self-descriptively-as between Christmas and The period most everyone practices. Haiti. New Year's is known as the season of maji throughout Vodou ceremonies are rife with Petwo imagDuring this time, of and from the eighteenthery drawn from the days slavery French culture that dominated then. Most acknowledge century with these "magical" powers is somewhat dangerthat working which persist in contemporary ous, but ignoring such powers, reinforces a point about con7The history of the word dechoukaj In the (uprooting) the term used to be common only in structive and destructive medicine. referred to a means city, of collecting fey with roots still atVodou contexts, where it control of the full power of the plant, but tached. This method gave the be practitioner Coins had to be left at the spot from which the it also required that a price paid. Claude Duvalier's departure, dechoukaj was the term plant was removed. After Jean brutal also costly) kind of "social weedHaitians adopted to describe a tracked (and down perhaps and murdered the worst of the Tonton ing" in which bands of people Duvalier regime who had abused their power. Makout and others in the still atVodou contexts, where it control of the full power of the plant, but tached. This method gave the be practitioner Coins had to be left at the spot from which the it also required that a price paid. Claude Duvalier's departure, dechoukaj was the term plant was removed. After Jean brutal also costly) kind of "social weedHaitians adopted to describe a tracked (and down perhaps and murdered the worst of the Tonton ing" in which bands of people Duvalier regime who had abused their power. Makout and others in the --- Page 211 --- Haiti in new and subtler forms, would of a risk. appear to be even more There is an important difference monial maji and the kind of between such public, cereThe latter takes place in the maji Cesaire seemed to offer me. practitioner who "works with interaction between a client and a Kouzinn know how much of this both hands." It is impossible to ticed in Haiti, but it is much so-called black magic is actually pracmon understandings about it discussed, and some of the comWomen involved are instructive. cerned with love in magic are believed to be primarily conwhich magic, an especially ambiguous moral realm helping one person inevitably in will of another. Bokô involves controlling the 71 usually understood to (professional be magicians), however, are Io that men. One must have provided by ancestral Power ndel traditions in beyond kind of maji. By default, order to practice this Cey vidual effort. The building such power is largely an indi- Semi SO are the risks; and potential rewards are thought to be great, but with their spiritual groups are not prone to gamble in this way well-being. Reaching for means, to some extent, leaving the magical power thus spirits. protective web of family and Furthermore, the actual powers used in not inherited family spirits but this kind of maji are points). One common of pwen achte (purchased power which a type pwven achte is a rock or bottle in died wandering soul is captured, the soul of without family or proper burial. someone who rect the energy of souls back Rites for the dead ditoward the surviving free-floating souls are up for grabs. They become family, but troublesome, demanding, and in minor spirits, relationship with an inherited many ways powerful. Unlike a has with his spirit, the relationship a power point is inflexible and magician fails to provide faithful and unforgiving. When he copious service, the immediately and severely punitive, often spirit becomes est or most vulnerable member of the targeting the youngusually intensely enmeshed in bokô's family. Women are take these risks. family and thus less likely to The power of the Tonton Makout is like that and, for similar reasons, there of the magician, dame Max, head of the Makout are few female Makout. (Main ous exception to this rule.) Makout Port-au-Prince, was a notorities but in political networks poweris not rooted in blood that override and often conflict immediately and severely punitive, often spirit becomes est or most vulnerable member of the targeting the youngusually intensely enmeshed in bokô's family. Women are take these risks. family and thus less likely to The power of the Tonton Makout is like that and, for similar reasons, there of the magician, dame Max, head of the Makout are few female Makout. (Main ous exception to this rule.) Makout Port-au-Prince, was a notorities but in political networks poweris not rooted in blood that override and often conflict --- Page 212 --- Makout borrow the image with family loyalties and obligations. filter out and exaggerate the of a familial Vodou spirit, but they The Makout forms of Kouzen Zaka's potency. most alienating exercising power over their patriarchs are extended-family within it for the good Kouzimn group, rather than seeking empowerment the boko, the average Tonton of the whole community. Like stuck in the Makout, with a swaggering walk and a gun casually the trousers, has purchased his prestige on open front of denim bidder. market and sells his talents to the highest Fecding the Family Spirits that took place the following mornThe gentle little ceremony values that the family land in Gros Morne represented ing on of those of the bôko and the Tonton Makout. were the opposite in full swing in Gros Morne. Cocks By six o'clock, the day was and farmers on the way to their were crowing, donkeys braying, where neither the sun's fields. Inside Marie Thérèse's ti-kay, on Alourdes was squatting heat nori its light had yet penetrated, crude cotton wicks in as many the floor arranging twenty-one each she a little of the fragments of coconut shell. Into poured the wick. oil called maskriti and then lighted thick, dark yellow mixed of grilled corn, popcorn, Next she put together a plate candies, and one-inch fragments of cookies and cassava bread, of the she placed a of a white candle. On the top pile segments this manje-sek (a dry meal, one raw egg. Alourdes was preparing been for the spirits who for which no animal blood had shed) who had been reside on her family land. She turned to Cesaire, little before dawn, and asked him to "say a prayer there since for us." bowl of water, dipped in a few basil Cesaire picked up a holy know this little and the offerings. "God, you leaves, baptized know what mother she 11 he began awkwardly. "You one : of Philomise . . the has. This is Alourdes . . . the daughter has come to visit." 11 granddaughter of Marie Noelsine : who of the before had become the family priest, The magician night that, except for the setting, uttering a halting but sincere prayer sounded quite Protestant. crumbs from the manje-sèk were In a large white metal cup, Alourdes, and Mamixed with molasses-water, and Cesaire, four directions of the dame Albert took turns orienting it to the "You one : of Philomise . . the has. This is Alourdes . . . the daughter has come to visit." 11 granddaughter of Marie Noelsine : who of the before had become the family priest, The magician night that, except for the setting, uttering a halting but sincere prayer sounded quite Protestant. crumbs from the manje-sèk were In a large white metal cup, Alourdes, and Mamixed with molasses-water, and Cesaire, four directions of the dame Albert took turns orienting it to the --- Page 213 --- sacred crossroads. Then the tree by the front gate. This plate was carried out to a which the Vodou was Legba's repozwva, the tree calabash Libations guardian of within were poured at the doorways and entrances was broken foot of the lodged. coconut-shell among its tangled roots, calabash, and the egg For lamp was already near the spot where a Kouzinn the first time in a burning. awakened La and called to the decade, Alourdes's family gan to pray at the table, She and her sister spirits were words barely same time, their lips Chantal betheir faces. audible, Before long, tears moving rapidly, their Alourdes rarely were me a quick stab of cries, and her tears on coursing this down insight into the depth of day gave Eventually, we turned from her family with offerings, made Legba's calabash tree feeling. pausing just inside our way to the lakou and, laden that the cactus fence behind the house, was also a Legba at a small bnondôm, a tree honor a spirit called repozwa. Next we stopped at the well candle stub were Danzweyzo. A coconut-shell to and a bottle of placed in crevices in the inner wall lamp and a little one!" Cesaire banana soda emptied into its of the well in this ritual. Alourdes urged, obviously enjoying depths. his "Speak, perched on the edge of the paternal role well and in Ancestral offerings at the well on Alourdes's family's land. Gros Morne, Haiti, 1980. , a tree honor a spirit called repozwa. Next we stopped at the well candle stub were Danzweyzo. A coconut-shell to and a bottle of placed in crevices in the inner wall lamp and a little one!" Cesaire banana soda emptied into its of the well in this ritual. Alourdes urged, obviously enjoying depths. his "Speak, perched on the edge of the paternal role well and in Ancestral offerings at the well on Alourdes's family's land. Gros Morne, Haiti, 1980. --- Page 214 --- with the ancestors for the simple and direct language pleaded immediate family. Nearby, at well-being of each member of her the foot of a small sitwon (a type of citrus tree), we left offerings associated with Simbi, the mercurial for Sen Jan Batist, a spirit Macena's Kouzinn water-dwelling crab who once took over Alphonse tobacco down the well to retrieve a lost body and went scuttling pouch. then moved to the back of the property, The whole group of about two hundred feet to where there was a sudden drop to the precipice the rushing Grande Rivière du Nord. Clinging trees bursting with dark red, umbrella-shaped were two sabliye dedicated to Metrès Manbo, medicinal fruits. These trees were whale) and said to "serve with" Labalenn (the a priestess spirit Moving back toward the house, we Lasyrenn (the mermaid). each of three trees standing in a row. The performed rituals at Labalenn. The middle one was first was a banana, dedicated to Although no one had a tall labapen (breadfruit), Ezili's repozwa. serpent seen it for a very long time, I was told that a two-headed for Lalived in the top of this tree. The last was a small mango and KouWe moved on to a syrol tree, home for Kouzen syrenn. mango that dominated the lakou. zinn Zaka, and to an enormous As we made a In this simple ritual, space and time coincided. around Alourdes's family land, we were rehearsing wide loop The rites at each repozwa quickened the her ancestral history. the lva who shaped their spirits of the ancestors by nourishing of SO many characters and guided their lives. The presence female spirits among those we fed was no accident, given strong at the center of Alourdes's family stories. The the strong women was the home of a queen of all the repozwa, the giant mango, of ChilVodou spirit aptly named Manman Zenfan (Mother over all the other trees in the lakou, she seemed dren). Towering arms all the strong about to gather up in her wide-reaching and humans, all women in Alourdes's extended family, spirits careof them good Madan Sara and, as a result, all indefatigable takers and consummate survival artists. at a Before we left the yard, brief rites were also performed Sen thick-skinned mango), the repozwa for both mango gwo po (a sacred twins). Our last stops were Jak Majè and the Marasa (the dedicated to at an almond tree for Lenglessou and an orange Agàou. --- Page 215 --- Alourdes at fourteen, in For-au-Prince, Haiti, 1946. Photographer unknown. Alphonse On the back afeper.Champagne is written "To Alourdes in French: Champagne my daughter, this 20 Sept. a photoat 32 years, A. Cham- 1970, pagne. " Most likely shot in a photographic studio. --- Page 216 --- mother, Alourdes on the day she left for the who were Philomise, and her two sons, United States, with her August to stay in Haiti until their Jean-Pierre and William, 1963. Photographer unknown. mother got settled, Alourdes with her two older first brothers and her children. The photo taken after the was reunited in the United family States. Brooklyn, 1967. hired a professional They pher, whose photograto come to their name is unknown, this picture. home to make shot in a photographic studio. --- Page 216 --- mother, Alourdes on the day she left for the who were Philomise, and her two sons, United States, with her August to stay in Haiti until their Jean-Pierre and William, 1963. Photographer unknown. mother got settled, Alourdes with her two older first brothers and her children. The photo taken after the was reunited in the United family States. Brooklyn, 1967. hired a professional They pher, whose photograto come to their name is unknown, this picture. home to make --- Page 217 --- A classic First Communion of Mimose, shot in a photograph studio. On the back, photographic in ragged Mimose writes of her French, for her Aunt Alourdes. "deepaffection" Haiti, 12 July 1966. Port-au-Prince, Maggie, Alourdes's daughter, at age three. Fort-au-Prince, Haiti, C. 1955. Photographer unknown. --- Page 218 --- Alourdes Fort Greene, possessed by Ogou Badagri, July McCarthy Brown. Brooklyn. Photograph by Karen 1978. Alourdes possessed by. temple, August 1989. Azaka, in her mother's Photograph by Karen Port-au-Prince McCarthy Haiti, Brown. --- Page 219 --- by Danbala, in her mother's Alourdes possessed Haiti, August 1989. possessed by Ezili Dantô, in her August temple. Port-au-Prince Karen McCarthy Brown. Alourdes Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Photograph by mother'st temple, by Karen McCarthy Brown. 1989. Photograph --- Page 220 --- % ro Karen McCarthy Brown greets the Gede who fill the streets and cemeteries on All Soul's Day. November 1981. Photographer unknown. Alourdes points out Papa Gede's altar toMaggie's son Michael. Fort Greene, Brooklyn, August, 1979. Photograph by Karen McCarthy Brown. Alourdes and her Rada Altars. Flatbush, Brooklyn. April 1994 Photograph by Martha Cooper. --- Page 221 --- in their living room Flatbush, Brooklyn, Alourdes and Maggie by Donald Cosentino. January 2000. Photograph Alourdes reads cards for a client of her healing practice. Fort Greene, Brooklyn, Photograph' by August 1979. Brown. Karen McCarthy --- Page 222 --- Lola, and Maggie meet with Daagbo known primarily as Mama Vodun in Benin. " Ouidah, People's Alourdes, by now whom some call "The Pope of Brown. Hounnon, a priest Photograph by Karen McCarthy Republic of Benin, February 1993. Statue of a bound female slave, part end of the slave monument at the of Route del'Esclace. Ouidah, People's Republic of Benin, February 1993- Photograph by Karen McCarthy Brown. . Brown. Karen McCarthy --- Page 222 --- Lola, and Maggie meet with Daagbo known primarily as Mama Vodun in Benin. " Ouidah, People's Alourdes, by now whom some call "The Pope of Brown. Hounnon, a priest Photograph by Karen McCarthy Republic of Benin, February 1993. Statue of a bound female slave, part end of the slave monument at the of Route del'Esclace. Ouidah, People's Republic of Benin, February 1993- Photograph by Karen McCarthy Brown. --- Page 223 --- - - altar, Flatbush, Brooklyn, April 1994 Alourdes's Petwo Martha Cooper. Photograph by - Portrait of Alourdes, Photograph September 1979. Brown. by Karen McCarthy --- Page 224 --- Portrait of Mama Lola, at her home in Flatbush, Brooklyn, September 1998. Photograph by Karen McCarthy Brown Cosentino at New Year's. Flatbush, Family portrait with Donald Photograph by Karen McCarthy Brown Brooklyn, January 2000. --- Page 225 --- Going to Jean Rabel By mid-morning of the same Marie Thérèse and the day, we were off to Jean Rabel. door, Cesaire and his young man who had hung her new Tonton wife, and the distant cousin nicknamed Kouzinn joined our traveling party, our teen. On the way to Port-de-Paix, bringing number to thirtrip, the river cut deep into the a relatively easy four-hour one spectacular vista afteranother. mountain on our left, providing Wel bounced ern side of the mountain down the northtowns-Basin through tobacco fields and small Bleu, Champagne, little wooden houses Chansolm-with picturesque small cinema in painted in primary colors. There was a one town and an army in none of the towns was either sizable post another, but Our arrival in Port-de-Paix or prosperous. journey. Starting there, marked the turning point of our could not find everything began to go wrong. First, we gasoline. Repeated consultations with brought us no closer to locating fuel. Our crew sat passersby parked van for two hours, during the hottest inside the noisily arguing about whether the part of the day, same as the gazoyl The Gamble gaz sold in the shops was the used. This inconclusive debate quickly got mixed up with another, pointless one: the wrong route? Should we have backtracked Had we taken taken the coast road, where to Gonaïves and We gas is always available? were all hot and tired. Alourdes, who had talked taking the shorter route through us into turn around and go back to Gros Morne. Port-de-Paix, She now wanted to ject with me: "Jean Rabel is far, far broached the subThe chauffeur can't away. Too many problem! get no gas. So what you say, Karen?" Because I very much wanted to get to Jean Rabel and certain how real the impediments were, I decided was unself. "Malheureusement, 11 I said to the driver, to assert myHaitians tend to throw a little French into their remembering that they want to appear authoritative, "I can't Creole when here all day in the sun. I hired you to take pay you for sitting I can't pay you for what you did not do. 11 I us had to Jean Rabel, and my power. In five minutes, gas appeared, and underestimated we were way to Jean Rabel. From that point on, the driver on our a reckless determination that persisted with It was four o'clock in the afternoon frightened us all. when we left Port-de-Paix tend to throw a little French into their remembering that they want to appear authoritative, "I can't Creole when here all day in the sun. I hired you to take pay you for sitting I can't pay you for what you did not do. 11 I us had to Jean Rabel, and my power. In five minutes, gas appeared, and underestimated we were way to Jean Rabel. From that point on, the driver on our a reckless determination that persisted with It was four o'clock in the afternoon frightened us all. when we left Port-de-Paix --- Page 226 --- and headed west. A half hour later, a farmer on the road said we could reach Jean Rabel by six o'clock. But another thirty minutes further down the road, said it would be person, adding comfortingly that we could seven, Kouzinn doit "fasil, fasil [easy, We probably could have if we had been on easy]." muleback, as he was. Traveling in The Gamble was another matter. The mountains flattened out as lush, green tobacco fields mixed with stands of bwapen, the slender, resinous pine trees grown for kindling. Banana plantations began to appear, sending out thick umbrella leaves to brush along the sides and of The Gamble. For two hours, we jounced top along a rutted track through tunnels of green and patches of without ing another vehicle or even a peasant farmer. sunlight seelight of late When, in the long afternoon, we broke through the last of the banana groves onto a wide, dry plain, anxiety had reached fever The driver stopped the bus. From a flurry of talk, pitch. somehow emerged. Most of us a plan thought we stood a better chance of eating and sleeping that if slightly The driver threw night we pushed on. the van into gear. The road stretched in front of us, little more than a ribbon of jagged rocks headed toward the horizon. Because the plain was both flat and we decided to "baptize" our own road and took a wide dry, loop to the left, raising a great cloud of dust. A consensus was growing that this rapidly calamwas ity all my fault. People were "sending the developing me thick and fast. One favored method point" around was to rehearse endlessly my conversation with the driver in Port-de-Paix, how I had insisted on continuing and threatened to cut off his Alourdes had her own way of making me feel money. I know when I was in New York this responsible: "If trip going to be like never come. No, not me! Not for all the this, I me. My life worth more than that! I have four money anybody give children. love me. What they going to do without me? When They all Jean Rabel, what we going to do? After we get to walk long, we get there, we got to long way up the mountain. We not even know if we going to find nobody. It going to be dark. They assassins the road. Oh! Oh! Ohhhhh! I'm got on hungry, and there is to eat." nothing In the meantime, Alourdes was shoving bread with preserves into her mouth, her manbo friend Madame grapefruit had her hand deep in the candy bag, and Marie Thérèse Rigaud and we going to do? After we get to walk long, we get there, we got to long way up the mountain. We not even know if we going to find nobody. It going to be dark. They assassins the road. Oh! Oh! Ohhhhh! I'm got on hungry, and there is to eat." nothing In the meantime, Alourdes was shoving bread with preserves into her mouth, her manbo friend Madame grapefruit had her hand deep in the candy bag, and Marie Thérèse Rigaud and --- Page 227 --- Alphonse were chewing sugarcane. No one offered "God save us!" I thought, unsure whether me a thing. simply a statement of this was a prayer or of the packs I always exasperation. I took a cigarette from one in years. carry in Haiti and lit up for the first time We came over the top of a mountain Kouzinn exterior peace and serenity-the just as the sun set. Amid the warm gold of the soft green of the mountains, already visiblesetting sun, the moon and the -our garishly painted bus evening star interior bobbled lights on, its radio blaring, and all along with its at once, except the one its passengers hunched in a corner talking quickly, and the feeble lights of The Gamble smoking. Night fell anxiety as we hurtled forward did little to dispel tangible. into a darkness SO thick it seemed Shortly after ten o'clock, we entered a ret. A young girl, the only tiny town called Cabatold us that Jean Rabel person on its deserted main street, sulted later showed was the very next town. (A map conde-Paix Cabaret only about and Jean Rabel; halfway between Port- "Pa lwen, pa lwen mercifully, we did not know that [Not far, not far], 11 the then.) mile out of Cabaret, we came to girl told us. About a With the a river some twenty yards wide. engineracing and The Gamble tail of water behind throwing a great roosterstreams that us, we had forded a dozen such rivers day, half of them larger than and we stuck fast in the mud. this. But in this one, The driver could do nothing. the bus sent us further into the Gunning the engine and rocking yards in front of us, and muck. The shore was only a few get out of the bus. SO it was decided that everyone should Following the faint we jumped from rock to rock path of the headlights, slogged where we could and otherwise crisis. through water and viscous mud. The. air was thick People gathered on the shore in with what we could do. I stood alone, tight knots, discussing and rationalizing it by smoking my third cigarette effective mosquito concluding that cigarette smoke was an repellant. After a long time, a local farmer He had a quick conversation emerged from the darkness. with the driver and returning in less than an hour with half a dozen disappeared, machetes. Small trees were felled and men carrying banana leaves, and large rocks stray bits of wood, dry table, and expendable collected. Everything solid, was placed under the bus's rear tires. por- Fi- . I stood alone, tight knots, discussing and rationalizing it by smoking my third cigarette effective mosquito concluding that cigarette smoke was an repellant. After a long time, a local farmer He had a quick conversation emerged from the darkness. with the driver and returning in less than an hour with half a dozen disappeared, machetes. Small trees were felled and men carrying banana leaves, and large rocks stray bits of wood, dry table, and expendable collected. Everything solid, was placed under the bus's rear tires. por- Fi- --- Page 228 --- The Gamble lurched free nally, with a great slurp and a gurgle, back to the far bank. It of the mud hole and, in reverse, shot over to the too dark and the water too deep for us to cross was and the driver bus. So, amid cries of concern encouragement, put The into the stream-and Kouzinn gunned the engine, charged mud hole. No one said a word as the Gamble back into the same of wood and rocks. This local farmers looked for new supplies board. time, the bus was retrieved with all of us safely on sardine After two hours of fitful sleep wedged like a muddy of the seats of the bus, which the driver had parked on into one Cabaret, I awoke with the taste of cigarettes in the main street of face, and the vision of a my mouth, the feel of sun on my the window. toothless farmer staring at me through grizzled, and the trip back to Gros Morne was a We were all exhausted, Alourdes said nothing, but I could somber, mostly silent affair. I am content to treat tell she was still angry with me. Usually wishes, and let Vodou "mother," defer to her Alourdes as my we have trouble keeping our her be in charge. But sometimes had shown. I had roles straight, as the scene in Port-de-Paix by reconstructed roles into confusion thrown our carefully driver that I was the one paying his salary. After minding the Alourdes nor I knew how to act. that, neither Alourdes alternated between ignoring Back in Port-au-Prince, situations to assert her authority over me. me and looking for for me to fetch She became especially inventive at finding things whenever people were around to bear witness. Things and carry the third back at her sister's home in came to a head on day in Madame Albert's Bizoton. About a dozen of us were sitting brazier used to cook yard around the dying embers of a charcoal been as if I T dinner. Alourdes, who had acting that evening's and without even looking at me: were not present, said abruptly "Karen, I need my purse. Go get it for me." that I was SO instantly beside myself my Something snapped. and down. "Sa se pa bourik ou Creole came out backward upside and then strode m'ye (That is not your donkey I am]!"Isnarled field to pace, stare away from the circle of light out into a nearby of life. In at the star-filled sky, and contemplate the muddle my now I could hear animated conversation. Every the distance, se pa bourik ou m'yel"- and then, a clear phrase emerged-"Sa When I returned to the and everyone laughed uproariously. sore and vulnerable, group a half hour later, I was still feeling ou Creole came out backward upside and then strode m'ye (That is not your donkey I am]!"Isnarled field to pace, stare away from the circle of light out into a nearby of life. In at the star-filled sky, and contemplate the muddle my now I could hear animated conversation. Every the distance, se pa bourik ou m'yel"- and then, a clear phrase emerged-"Sa When I returned to the and everyone laughed uproariously. sore and vulnerable, group a half hour later, I was still feeling --- Page 229 --- but Madame Albert was merciless. She wanted to demonstrate her imitation of me, complete with garbled Creole, flat American accent, and dramatic exit. I had to admit she was good. Although it took some time, she eventually had me laughing too. Kouzinn That night Alourdes and I exchanged apologies. "You my daughter," she said, settling all questions about roles. And then she added, "You know I love you. 11 "I love you, too, 11 I replied, Life in Haiti is a and we both began to laugh. poverty-stricken tinderbox of emotion. Each day is stressful, and the stakes are high. Haitians, accustomed to living on the edge, know that husurvival skill. loves a and a mor is an important Everyone joke, good one spreads like a brush fire. Two days later, as I walked through the main market in Port-au-Prince, a dozen miles from the town of Bizoton, I heard one of the machann whisper: 11 Sa se pa bourik ou m'ye. 11 FEEDING THE POOR Just before we left Haiti, on a Friday, the day of the week dedicated to the spirits of the dead, Alourdes staged a manje pôo (a ritual feeding of the poor). Alourdes believed that this ceremony, intended to bring blessing to her entire extended family, overdue. Like the rites in Gros Morne, this ritual obliwas long virtue of her and ecogation had fallen to Alourdes by spiritual nomic ascendancy in the family. Early in the morning, at the main gate to the big cemetery in the center of Port-au-Prince, Alourdes, her boyfriend Justin, and I met the two women who had been hired to help with the ritual. We converged under a wide archway bearing a legend in eloquent French (which could be read by 10 percent of the population at most) stating that we were all dust and would return to dust. One assistant carried a large bucket of coffee and another of white bread, cassava bread, and small hunks of the a basket and bathing. strong yellow soap Haitians use for both laundry Before entering the cemetery, we stopped to consult with the prètsavann who congregate around the main entrance to the cemetery, along with the limbless, eyeless beggars and the tattered machann selling flowers. Prètsavann specialize in saying Catholic in French and Latin. One of them, instantly reading the prayers Alourdes. "A beautiful little idiom of the group, approached large bucket of coffee and another of white bread, cassava bread, and small hunks of the a basket and bathing. strong yellow soap Haitians use for both laundry Before entering the cemetery, we stopped to consult with the prètsavann who congregate around the main entrance to the cemetery, along with the limbless, eyeless beggars and the tattered machann selling flowers. Prètsavann specialize in saying Catholic in French and Latin. One of them, instantly reading the prayers Alourdes. "A beautiful little idiom of the group, approached --- Page 230 --- prayer for the poor?" he queried in overarticulated French. Alourdes hired him on the spot for three dollars. Dressed in her best New York City clothes, with her hair coiffed and freshly applied, Alourdes led the makeup Kouzinn way into the vast city of the dead, with the rest of us following like baby ducks in a row. Like the city itself, the cemetery of Port-au-Prince is an urban sprawl ordered by a logic of class and privilege. Toward the edges of the cemetery, where we were heading, were densely packed neighborhoods of simple above-ground tombs made of concrete and painted in pastel colors, many bearing wreaths of garish metal flowers. Our first stop, in a 'middle-class" borhood in the northwestern corner of the neighkavo (grave) of Alourdes's cemetery, was at the mother, Philomise Macena. Alourdes is very proud of this family tomb, which can accommodate coffins. She had it built shortly after her mother's death in four The day after we arrived in Haiti, Alourdes and I had visited 1973. the cemetery to tend Philo's tomb and perform more elaborate rites there, SO this stop was perfunctory. The prètsavann French and Latin and sprinkled the tomb with prayed in our simple ritual ended with a Catholic holy water, and Vodou hymn often heard in temples. Its concluding line pleads with the saints "bless the suffering poor.' to Then we moved to the kwa Baron, the large white CroSs in center of the cemetery dedicated to Baron Samdi, the the the cemetery and the head of all the Gede (spirits of the keeper of Libations of coffee and rum were poured at the base dead). of the cross, and small bits of bread and cassava were scattered While Alourdes's boyfriend performed these rituals, she there. stood in the shadow cast by the large, white, tile-covered Duvalier family tomb and handed out bread, coffee, soap, and small change to the beggars who were gradually her. Along with these small collecting around later that afternoon gifts came an invitation to a feast at her sister's home. Alourdes told the gars how they could find the taptap she had hired to begto Bizoton. After arranging with the bring them tional two prètsavann, for an addidollars, to come on the same bus to bless the pov, our group headed back toward the main cemetery manje Several hours later when we arrived in Bizoton, gate. tions for the manje poo, which had been preparaunder Madame Albert's going on all morning dame Albert's direction, were almost complete. Mahome was one of eight small cinderblock houses gars how they could find the taptap she had hired to begto Bizoton. After arranging with the bring them tional two prètsavann, for an addidollars, to come on the same bus to bless the pov, our group headed back toward the main cemetery manje Several hours later when we arrived in Bizoton, gate. tions for the manje poo, which had been preparaunder Madame Albert's going on all morning dame Albert's direction, were almost complete. Mahome was one of eight small cinderblock houses --- Page 231 --- gathered around a yard, about half of which was thatched roof open on all sides. The covered by a was covered with ground under this tonnèl rice with black huge containers of food: rice with red beans, beans, cornmeal with beans, mush, white rice, red bean sauce, militon plain cornmeal squash) mixed with (a sweet, small green Kouzinn made from vegetables and bits of beef, a white bread and herring, a plate of boiled soup plantains, a mixture of chicken with okra and potatoes and and chaka, the favored dish of black mushrooms, Kouzen and center was a huge pot of Kouzinn Zaka. In the leaves from the sweet pumpkin soup with noodles. Seven front of the food. Each orange tree in the yard lay in a row in There held a cotton wick and a was also a bottle of holy water and a bunch ofi dollop of oil. A few of the destitute, drawn by the basil leaves. ready arrived. rumor of food, had aland sat They were careful to stay out of the ritual arena quietly on the dusty knoll just behind the man was stretched out on his back, lakou. One child of two or three, bloated asleep in the hot sun. A by hunger, also resting on the man's knee. A slept, his head posed, hunkered down woman in rags, her left breast exlittle and smoked. A terribly boy sat beside her on the thin, frantic lect his food. He teased her paint can he had brought to coland poking her. Then his constantly, face grabbing at her cigarette laughter, and he threw suddenly contorted in silent his face. "Look up arms thin as broomstraws to cover at the good little poor people," Alourdes warmly. "They stay outside, on the hill." said The prètsavann began by sprinkling holy water Then he prayed. "Voici ce on the food. moun, a Creole term inserted grand moun . he began. (Gran into his French this context, both to an adult and prayer, referred, in this important an important person.) "See another person, Alourdes, who came here today from country to make this generous feast, SO she and ily might be blessed. 11 Alourdes her famchanged into was in her element. She had a flowing orange caftan and bound a colorful print scarf. She stood in the her hair in of her bounty, midst of the evidence singing, in her strong and same hymn we had sung at the beautiful voice, the cemetery: "Bless the poor. suffering The bus arrived, bringing the number of the forty. Alourdes, Madame poor close to Albert, and Madame among them, collecting their food containers. Rigaud moved Plastic bowls, her famchanged into was in her element. She had a flowing orange caftan and bound a colorful print scarf. She stood in the her hair in of her bounty, midst of the evidence singing, in her strong and same hymn we had sung at the beautiful voice, the cemetery: "Bless the poor. suffering The bus arrived, bringing the number of the forty. Alourdes, Madame poor close to Albert, and Madame among them, collecting their food containers. Rigaud moved Plastic bowls, --- Page 232 --- Kouzinn Bizoton, Children of the poor eating during outside Forb-au-fvrince, Haiti, the opening rituals of Alourdes's 1980. manje pon. motor-oil cans, and calabash nèl. Then the children of shells were placed vulnerability the poor, a beneath the tonto sit under put them at the center group whose double social the tonnèl of this ritual, tions of water, while songs were were invited trance to rum, and sung for Legba and the lakou. A pumpkin soup were libawas laid in front of large banana leaf, poured at the enpot in which the children. A wiped clean of the various dishes dollop of food, taken dust, placed before each child. had been mixed from a comfortable with their The beggars' children together, was dly limbs, and fearful role, They were all swollen were cearly unious to find some eyes that darted bellies, spinchildren clue as to how around the crowd, were finally they should act. anxmade the food given the signal to eat, When the formal part of disappear into quick, dirty the ritual was hungry mouths in fingers Amid confusion over. seconds. The food were then and good humor, each container, passed out to all the poor. generous amounts of and a bit of Soup was poured into everything else was piled on top. , They were all swollen were cearly unious to find some eyes that darted bellies, spinchildren clue as to how around the crowd, were finally they should act. anxmade the food given the signal to eat, When the formal part of disappear into quick, dirty the ritual was hungry mouths in fingers Amid confusion over. seconds. The food were then and good humor, each container, passed out to all the poor. generous amounts of and a bit of Soup was poured into everything else was piled on top. --- Page 233 --- Alourdes's assistants carried the food to the continued to keep their distance. After poor people, who tobacco and rum were everyone had eaten, distributed, along with small Everyone was feeling good when the taptap driver change. plaining that after this job he would have to wash arrived, comrid of the smell. Alourdes his bus to get Kouzinn ners: "You reprimanded him for his bad mansay thing like that, you people.' 11 And then she going to hurt those poor the job. bargained him down to eight dollars for Just before the poor people left, all of them came tonnèl for the first and only time. under the hands in a basin of water to which They dipped their greasy as basil, twoapawôl, and rum had been added, as well kapab leaves. Then they clustered Alourdes and eagerly wiped their hands around arms, and clothing. As they climbed on her face, head, ing broadly and onto the bus, she was smilwaving good-bye, her face wet and wrinkled. Thus was the dripping, her gown blessing only the can passed on to Alourdes and her family. When the poor give corded this special power to the poor, they spirits aca ticket to the dance of social placed in their hands logic of Vodou, only beggars reciprocity. By the inversionary if they had family to cushion (those who would not be beggars stave off misfortune for their suffering and bad luck) can intact families. When the crowd was gone, a small plate of leftover food prepared, covered, and set aside. Later it would be taken to was cemetery and placed at the foot of the Baron Cross. the was mellow and Alourdes expansive as she sat the the manje pôv and passed out among remnants of helped her and to gourd notes to those who had family members who had problems. To Mimose, Marie Carmelle's special money youngest of Madame Albert's sister and the second lars for a children, went nearly twenty dolprescription for her sick child, Manouchka. dered, as Alourdes handed Mimose the I wonof the time she sat in a dark house with her money, if she thought arms, unable to afford the medicine feverish child in her that child SO badly needed. --- Page 234 --- --- Page 235 --- - MCHED ELLL a :E 2 - a AUNRENSEREL CHAPTER SEVEN --- Page 236 --- Dreams ano Promises - Rapelle's hand Vement fumbled at the top button of his starched white shirt, right while his left reached for the door of Pharmacie Bouc. He had thought the work day would never end, the time would never come for the pharmacy to close. Now he could barely keep from running. Rapelle, a handsome man in his mid-thirties, quickly settled into a long, loping stride through the crowded streets of Portau-Prince. Moving with the intensity and agility of a soccer player, he dodged black-suited businessmen and crisp khaki soldiers. He gave wide berth to elegant light-skinned women as well as to dark men, all sweat and sinew, straining against rumbling two-wheeled carts heavy with charcoal and sugarcane. Once free of the crowd, Rapelle moved in a straight line through the park beside the massive National Palace, fiercely white in the late afternoon sun. In a few minutes, he reached the maze ofnarrow, shadowed streets and closely packed houses behind the Old Cathedral. the intensity and agility of a soccer player, he dodged black-suited businessmen and crisp khaki soldiers. He gave wide berth to elegant light-skinned women as well as to dark men, all sweat and sinew, straining against rumbling two-wheeled carts heavy with charcoal and sugarcane. Once free of the crowd, Rapelle moved in a straight line through the park beside the massive National Palace, fiercely white in the late afternoon sun. In a few minutes, he reached the maze ofnarrow, shadowed streets and closely packed houses behind the Old Cathedral. But not until he got to the center of the Sans Fil district, a small open plaza with an incongruous little fountain, did he slow his pace. In fact, he stopped-F did not know where to go. Three times he turned around Rapelle slowly, inspecting the spiderweb of streets and alleyways from the fountain. He was trying to match reality with radiating directions he had been given in a dream, and at the moment the dream was receding. Fearing that he looked foolish, Rapelle abruptly sat down on the edge of the fountain and took out a cigarette. Before name floated to the surface, and Rapelle held on toit. "Madame, long, a good evening. Excuse me, please!" he called to a passerby. "Can you give me directions to the lakou people call Seven Stabs Temple wall painting of Ezili Dantô (Mater Salvatoris). 1980. Port-au-Prince, Haiti, --- Page 237 --- of the Knife?" "Good evening, monsieur, 11 she replied. "Yes, I can explain that for you. But you are almost there. Do you know Rue Tiremasse?" As instructed, Rapelle walked down Tiremasse for a distance Dreams and and then turned left into an alley SO narrow he could touch the Promises buildings on either side without fully extending his arms. He made his way with care, for a moment surrounded by barebottomed toddlers, here forced to straddle a gutter running with raw sewage, there to duck beneath a clothesline hung with long curls of drying orange and grapefruit peel. In front of each doorway along the alley, Rapelle offered a polite "Good open evening. 11 At the end of the passageway, he found himself in a lakou. Many of these homesteads, typical of the countryside, are hidden amid Port-au-Prince's urban sprawl; and many of them, like this one, have degenerated from well-kept extended-family compounds to hodgepodge rental housing for the urban poor. Seven Stabs of the Knife consisted ofa about a dozen small wattleand-daub houses gathered around a broad, dusty yard with a few stunted trees. "This is the place!" Rapelle realized with a shock of recognition, and good manners temporarily left him. He seized the arm of a young boy and cried: "Do you know a Philo? Does she live here? I need to talk to her!" woman Philo lived called in a small room in the back of one of the houses in Seven Stabs of the Knife. These were hard times, but of course Philo did not speak of such things with Rapelle. Instead, she offered her guest a glass of water and invited him to sit with her in a corner of the yard. "Are you from the north?" Rapelle asked her. "Yes," she replied, "I come from Jean Rabel, almost the last point in the north, near Môle Saint Nicolas." "I want to treat son, 11 Rapelle said abruptly. He rushed on: "He you my firstin his class. But now-oh! Now he has was a good student, have to lost his head. He cannot even remember his name. she offered her guest a glass of water and invited him to sit with her in a corner of the yard. "Are you from the north?" Rapelle asked her. "Yes," she replied, "I come from Jean Rabel, almost the last point in the north, near Môle Saint Nicolas." "I want to treat son, 11 Rapelle said abruptly. He rushed on: "He you my firstin his class. But now-oh! Now he has was a good student, have to lost his head. He cannot even remember his name. You help me!" "But I do not know how to treat him," Philo responded. "Why do you ask me to do this?" "I had a dream last night, an important dream. The spirits told me to come to this place. They told me to ask for a woman named Philo, a woman from the north." 11 Philo "Then read the cards "But I do not know : 1 began. for him-just read the cards," Rapelle urged. "How do you --- Page 238 --- know I read cards?" asked Philo. "They told me in my dream," Rapelle replied. "You read cards, is that not true?" to time, 11 Philo answered in a small voice and then "From stood time signal their conversation was up to Dreams and at an end. "I am she said. "I cannot sorry," Promises help you. "I will come back," declared a stubborn Rapelle. "I know I have found the person to treat my son." Clement Rapelle did come back. In fact, he visited often, and in time the two became friends. Yet whenever he his son's illness, Philo's brought up response was the same: "It would make me happy, Monsieur Rapelle, ifI could treat your child, but do not know how. 11 One day, Rapelle would not let the truly I drop: "But you treat other people. I have seen them when matter I come to visit you. They sit in the courtyard, and wait for you." "That is true, 11 admitted Philo, "but I treat they them when the spirits come in my dreams and tell me exactly what only to do. They have told me nothing about your son's situation. 11 "They will!" Rapelle insisted. "I have confidence in you. I have confidence in the spirits. 11 Graduaily Philo opened up to her new friend. "My life is hard," Philo said to him one day. "Iam not at ease working with the spirits. Itis difficult. Do you understand whatIam saying to you?" "Yes," Rapelle replied, "I can understand that. Give me the story, little Philo. Tell me how you started to treat "It was a long time I lived in Santo Domingo," 11 Philo people." "My three babies were made there. In Santo there began. a woman, a manbo. Madame Gilbert was her name, Domingo, and she hada was very strong spirit named Ageou. He worked, worked, worked. People came from all over the Dominicain to see Madame and her Agèou. Any problem-any problem! Gilbert treat it. Agèou could "But Agèou became angry with Madame Gilbert. She was you know . . a lesbian," Philo said, dropping her voice, : she was always buying things for women. She "and bought them clothes : . . perfume : : jewelry. All her money she on those women. She did not give Agèou even one candle! spent She pected him to work, but she gave him nothing! There exwas one day Ageou came in Madame Gilbert's head, and he SO he made her cut off her finger. He did that!" Philo got mad, for the first time since she began talking, she looked sighed, and, the eye. "That woman-so stupid!" Rapelle in Philo's voice quickly fell back to its somber cadence, and her clothes : . . perfume : : jewelry. All her money she on those women. She did not give Agèou even one candle! spent She pected him to work, but she gave him nothing! There exwas one day Ageou came in Madame Gilbert's head, and he SO he made her cut off her finger. He did that!" Philo got mad, for the first time since she began talking, she looked sighed, and, the eye. "That woman-so stupid!" Rapelle in Philo's voice quickly fell back to its somber cadence, and her --- Page 239 --- eyes locked on the cup of herbal tea she held in her "Madame Gilbert changed hand. buying, buying for all those nothing. She went right on buying, thing to Ageou. So he made women. She did not offer one little her sick. She got consumption. She started to vomit blood. tuberculosis . hospital. Finally she died-and They took her to the Dreams and Rapelle did not do you know what happened?" Promises attempt to answer, "Not one came to see her in the of those women Not one. 11 hospital. Not one came to her funeral. Philo stretched in her chair like a cat then swirled her finger waking from a nap and of leaves at the bottom absentmindedly of her tin through the thick mass she continued her cup. After a lengthy silence, story. "One night after Madame Gilbert died, Ihad I lighted the lamp. I went out to the to make pee-pee. inside, there it was! A rock-black yard. When I came back my house! On the floor, . . shiny . . . round . . . in not put it there; I did not by know my bed. That made me afraid! I did someone, how it got there. So I took it someone who works with that kind of to asked her, 'What is it?' She said that rock thing, and I I had to pay her seven hundred was a devil spirit and naïve! I paid her. dollars to get rid of it. I was SO "Then a handsome man came in my and a panama hat, and he had a beautiful dream. He wore khaki am Msye Agèou Hantor mustache. He said, T was him. And he Dahomey," and he told me that rock said it didn't was angry at me for giving him away, but he matter, because he loved me going to come to me now." anyway and he was "Agèou comes in your dreams and he tells how treatments?" you to make Rapelle asked. "He can,' 11 said he comes in your head, too?" her friend Philo quietly. "And Philo replied. "But that's fantastic!" persisted. "He can,' 11 "That's hard!" retorted cried Rapelle. Philo. "Too much children go to bed hungry. I don't have the responsibility. My to school. Now these money to send them to treat them. But the people come to me, and they tell me I have what I see in only thing I know about treatments is my dreams. How can I live like make money like that? How? And let that? How can I back from the Dominicain, me tell you, when I came jobs anywhere. I had four years ago, 1930, there were no SO much trouble, SO much day, I had a little problem with suffering. One my eyes; then after three days I school. Now these money to send them to treat them. But the people come to me, and they tell me I have what I see in only thing I know about treatments is my dreams. How can I live like make money like that? How? And let that? How can I back from the Dominicain, me tell you, when I came jobs anywhere. I had four years ago, 1930, there were no SO much trouble, SO much day, I had a little problem with suffering. One my eyes; then after three days I --- Page 240 --- I was blind! Yes. They made me blind. The spirits could not see. did that. I asked him to read the cards for me. "I went to a oungan. he told me what I had to do. When the spirit came in his head, spirits]. He Dreams and He said I had to ranmase espri mwen [gather up my where Rabel, your Promises told me like this: 'You must go back to Jean famnavel cord is buried. You must go back there and give your him. a big feast.' I 'How am I going to do that?'Iasked ily spirits The spirit said, 'Put on a karabel (blue denim] 'I have no money!" shoulder, and go out in the street dress, put a makout over your will find the money." and beg for charity. Beg! That is how you ever asked "Not me!' I said. 'Not me! Nobody in my family I the and I am not going to be the first.' Then spirit for charity, and he smiled. 'Sa va [so be it)/ he said. Sa just looked at me, then you will die-or one of your va. But if you do not do this, I will do it." children will die." I was afraid, SO I said, Okay, wicks "That night I went home, and I twisted seven cotton white I a little oil. I lighted them. and put them on a plate. put God. And I to the and I prayed to prayed I got on my knees, 'I am blind. You know that! You spirits, to Msye Agèou. I said, I to walk in the are the one who made me blind. How am going see?' and ask for money when I cannot Agèou street people and he told my son: Tell Philo to go to sleep. came in my head, And that is what happened. The next She will wake up seeing. see. Then I began to trust morning when I woke up, I could him . : . to trust a little. I took a makout, and I went out. "So I put on a karabel dress, and down. I went to I walked in the streets. Up and down, up Hah! Me! the the market, too. All day long, I begged. Me? By went to sleep, I had three hundred and eighty time the sun to to Jean Rabel and gourd in my hand. It was not enough go the a big the animals for the feast, too, but I gave spirits buy and I said to them, Okay, now I party here in Port-au-Prince to do. You have to will serve you, but you have to tell me what dreams and tell me what to do. You have tol"" come in my that?" asked, his voice full of "Things got better after Rapelle "Some not Philo sighed. concern. "Better? Yes . . . but good," come I know I dream, and when they people come. Sometimes Sometimes. Not always. When I already what to do for them. and have the dream first, the treatment is always successful, three. give me money-two dollars, then they are happy. They serve you, but you have to tell me what dreams and tell me what to do. You have tol"" come in my that?" asked, his voice full of "Things got better after Rapelle "Some not Philo sighed. concern. "Better? Yes . . . but good," come I know I dream, and when they people come. Sometimes Sometimes. Not always. When I already what to do for them. and have the dream first, the treatment is always successful, three. give me money-two dollars, then they are happy. They --- Page 241 --- Ten dollars if they are really happy. But let me seven dollars a month for this room and I have tell you, I pay in three months. 11 That not paid the rent run by expatriate evening, Rapelle, a clerk in a pharmacy had with Germans, left in Philo's hand all the he him, a little more than six dollars. money Philo hid five dollars in a secret place. The Dreams Promises and took one dollar and twenty cents into next morning, she near the bay. She had in mind town, to the Iron Market beans to feed her buying rice, oil, spices, and a few family, but she could have done ket closer to home. Her real that at a marmiddle of town was to visit the reason for making the trip to the in the city. She herbalists at the biggest market sought advice, If they had her, she could at least nothing new to tell leaves called buy more of the broad, prickly chapo kare. Several friends had told green kare tea would "put that baby down her that chapo ate. She had consumed . : . fast!" Philo was desperthree weeks, but its quantities of the bitter tea in the past her stomach only effects had been to increase the and the ache in her head, gas in been her constant discomforts that had companions since the after phonse Margaux had lain in her bed. morning Al- "Take a little beer," 11 one herbalist said. "Put in salt the size of an egg and boil it. Let it sit a handful of in the morning, before you eat overnight. First thing even a glass of water-drink that." anything or drink anything T bon (No good]." In fact, Philo "I tried it," said Philo. "Pa had tried to her. She had also jumped off every recipe suggested prayed until she had chairs, pummeled her stomach, calluses on her knees, and candles to light the homes in her entire lakou for burned enough of it had worked, and this day's a month. None ful. Philo left the market outing proved no more successkare. Then with a bit of food and a bunch of she trudged back up the hill to Seven Stabs of chapo Knife, feeling sicker than usual. the That night, Philo slept badly. Her three children heard groaning in her sleep. "And the her night?" a neighbor cheerily, as Philo headed for the outhouse called out "Not good," Philo the next morning. dream?" responded, "but I had a dream." "What queried the neighbor. "I dreamed an old woman, a white very, very old. The old lady called out: woman, Philo! very old-very, talk to me.' ' She asked me: 'You Vin pale ou [Come head are pregnant? And - down : . because I was ashamed I put my . and I said to her, night?" a neighbor cheerily, as Philo headed for the outhouse called out "Not good," Philo the next morning. dream?" responded, "but I had a dream." "What queried the neighbor. "I dreamed an old woman, a white very, very old. The old lady called out: woman, Philo! very old-very, talk to me.' ' She asked me: 'You Vin pale ou [Come head are pregnant? And - down : . because I was ashamed I put my . and I said to her, --- Page 242 --- 'Yes, Ia am pregnant. 1 The old lady asked me: 'Why do you drink things to put that baby down? Why do you do that? That baby is going to be born, and that baby is going to be a girl. 'How do you know?' Iasked. She Dreams and said, Iknow." Then the old lady said to Promises me: 'Stop what you are doing. Don't take anything more. I will support you. I will give you everything. M'ap ba Ou brwvè; ba ou manje (I'II give you drink; I'll give you food].' And m'ap I 'How are you going to do that?' And the old lady just turned said, and walked away." "Ehhhhh!" said the neighbor, stretching her neck like a cock about to crow. "You were sleeping hungry. That's you had that dream." Then she began to laugh: "Cawk! Cawk! why Cawk!" Philo grew hot with shame. The awful sound of her neighbor's laughter followed Philo into the outhouse. While she hunkered over the latrine, she muttered to herself: "That old in dream had on rags. All her clothes full of holes! She lady can't my port herself. How is she going to support me?" "She's a liar!" supPhilo said out loud as she slammed the outhouse door and marched off to prepare a batch of chapo kare tea. Weeks passed and little changed. Friends offered new and Philo tried them. No luck. Each time she relieved recipes, herself she searched for traces of blood, but none appeared, and the headaches got worse. Philo was often forced to stop what she was doing and lie down with a wet cloth over her eyes. When she was two, almost three months pregnant, Philo had another dream. In this dream she was standing on the corner of Rue Macajoux, near the Iron Market. The street was crowded, and she was hurrying to get home. In front of very her were two men, each holding one end of a rope around coffin suspended between them. Philo realized looped she would a to walk beneath the coffin to get across the street. "Excuse have please," she said to the men. "May I pass under me, get home. 11 One of the men curled his lip and snarled: there?Ihave to not going home. You are too evil. You are going in this "You coffin." are Philo said, "No!" Both men said, "Yes! Get in the coffin!" Philo said, "No!" They said, "Yes! Get in the coffin." Philo "No!" and she looked around for said, No desperately a way to place to run! Her legs felt like lead. escape. Then Philo raised her eyes to the sky and saw the old woman from her first dream. This time, she was wearing beautiful clothes-a wide-brimmed hat and a long white dress with a You are going in this "You coffin." are Philo said, "No!" Both men said, "Yes! Get in the coffin!" Philo said, "No!" They said, "Yes! Get in the coffin." Philo "No!" and she looked around for said, No desperately a way to place to run! Her legs felt like lead. escape. Then Philo raised her eyes to the sky and saw the old woman from her first dream. This time, she was wearing beautiful clothes-a wide-brimmed hat and a long white dress with a --- Page 243 --- beautiful blue belt. "Say Anmwe nèg,' 111 the old instructed Philo, and Philo 11 woman urgently old woman the quickly repeated, Anmave nèg. 11 The gave order again: "Say 'Anmwe 111 and shouted, "Anmave nèg!" Before the sound of the nèg,' Philo died away, Philo felt herself lifted password had the two men carrying the coffin. up, up, up, over the heads of Dreams and Philo wafted Promises were a piece of paper upward as if she slowly she settled onto drifting on currents of air, and then two of them flew the shoulders of the old woman. The Knife. through the sky back to Seven Stabs of the Philo spoke to no one about that dream. But she ing to abort her child. She decided to take did stop tryNeighbors occasionally shared their one day at a time. sometimes food, ando Iclientsand put a few dollars in her hand. When friends was in its fifth month, the the pregnancy again in a dream. As soon mysterious old woman appeared "You as she saw her, Philo got very again!" she yelled. "I don't want to see you!" upset. woman put up her hand and said, "Hush, But the old mouth. Listen. I have an child. Close your important sage?" Philo asked. "I have come to tell message." Do "What meshouse to have that baby. If you: not come to my going to die," the old you come to my house, you are asked. "Il live woman said. "Where do you live?" Philo in the hospital, 11 the old woman "Philo! Philo!" the old woman said. "It is all responded. going to have a baby. That baby is right. You are Alourdes." 11 In her going to be a girl. Call her dream, Philo sputtered and beat on the air in impotent fury: "You her hands me! Where is the to promised to take care of soothed money eat? Where is it?" the old "Philo, Philo, woman, "the money is coming." - "You money is coming! You say! Do you think I believe say the was just about to utter an oath when the old you?" Philo walked away. woman turned and When she woke up, Philo was still upset. But she more ridicule, and SO she shared the dream needed no her one good friend in the lakou, only with Ma'Nini, front of the house where a woman who lived in the Philo had her room. "Ahh! I understand. That was Our Ma'Nini said, to you. There is a chapel for Our Lady of Lourdes who came tal. That is why she said she lived Lady of Lourdes in the hospiIfI were you, I would not there. This is a serious dream. "But I do not have go to the hospital to have that baby." money for a fanm-saj (midwife], and you in the lakou, only with Ma'Nini, front of the house where a woman who lived in the Philo had her room. "Ahh! I understand. That was Our Ma'Nini said, to you. There is a chapel for Our Lady of Lourdes who came tal. That is why she said she lived Lady of Lourdes in the hospiIfI were you, I would not there. This is a serious dream. "But I do not have go to the hospital to have that baby." money for a fanm-saj (midwife], and you --- Page 244 --- do not have to pay in the hospital, '! Philo moaned. know you a license, 11 said Ma'Nini. "She does not have "I know a fanm-saj, her later. I will call her as soon but she is very good. You can pay to first 11 After that, Ma'Nini gave food as you have your pain.' Dreams and Philo every day and checked on her frequently. Philo was getting Promises Early one morning in her ninth month, the six to to mass. It had become her habit to go to ready go Philo was all dressed and on her way o'clock mass every day. need to urinate. She across the yard when she felt an urgent and went to the turned back to her house, unlocked the door, Philo felt basin she kept beside herbed. As she squatted over it, There was a sudden pressure in her stomach, odd . : . dizzy. a single and before she knew what was happening-without into the shallow pain-the baby slid out of her and plopped Philo was a woman from the countryside, a person metal pan. She believed that a woman who has just given of the old school. come inside her. So she birth should not speak. The wind might the umback the wall, the afterbirth still in place, fell against her to her child, and she pounded bilical cord still connecting with both fists. time. She snatched up a sheet and Ma'Nini was there in no she in the chamber wrapped the infant in it, right where lay Ma'Nini crooned pot. "How beautiful you are, little Alourdes," Then, in a flash, as she tucked the cover around the newborn. cut the umshe was gone to fetch the midwife. The fanm-saj afterbirth came bilical cord and massaged Philo's belly until the cleaned Philo and the baby and put them both to bed. out. She buried Alourdes's umbilical Together, Ma'Nini and the fanm-saj washed cord in the blaiye, the pile of smooth rocks where freshly clothes were left to whiten in the tropical sun. Little Alourdes was fine. But Philo was not. The morning she began to feel feverish and nauseated. after she gave birth, in Port-au-Prince; A black fever epidemic had spread rapidly week. people had died in the city hospital that very twenty-five Philo had it. She lay on herl bed day and night, soaked And now unable to eat or feed her infant. Luckily, in sweat, hallucinating, woman whose baby a wet nurse was found in the lakou, a crazy disheveled had died three weeks after it was born. This dirty, never sat still. She roamed the lakou talking endlessly, woman advice on how to make baby food, how to giving unsolicited cassava without water. Ma'Nini discipline children, how to grow in the city hospital that very twenty-five Philo had it. She lay on herl bed day and night, soaked And now unable to eat or feed her infant. Luckily, in sweat, hallucinating, woman whose baby a wet nurse was found in the lakou, a crazy disheveled had died three weeks after it was born. This dirty, never sat still. She roamed the lakou talking endlessly, woman advice on how to make baby food, how to giving unsolicited cassava without water. Ma'Nini discipline children, how to grow --- Page 245 --- put the deranged woman in her own clothes and food, and washed her house, gave her clean yellow soap. Then she laid swollen breasts with strong would survive. But what Philo'sinfant on herbosom. Alourdes to do for Philo? What to do? Help camein the person of Clement Rapelle. His Dreams German pharmacist, refused boss, the old and simply waited until the Rapelle's polite request, SO Rapelle Promises self in with his key and pharmacy was closed. Then he let himscribed diseases and "borrowed" the big black book that deneeded and their cures. Rapelle figured out what Philo bought the medicine for her. back to health. In less than a month she Ma'Nini nursed her she could not breastfeed her was out of danger. But was beginning to child, and by then the crazy woman who had push the infant away. So Philo asked a friend just had a baby if she would feed eral months, Alourdes lived in the home Alourdes. For sevand sucked of Madame Frederic contentedly at a breast that did not smell of soap. Alourdes was, for this short time at least, laundry how precarious the world was and how quite unaware of Philo slowly regained her fragile was her placeinit. to dream again. One strength, and eventually she began night, a tall and came riding into her dream. "I have handsome military man treat the son of Clement come to tell you how to Rapelle, Agèou announced. morning was the first day in a long, long time that That next ened feeling happy to be alive. Philo awak- "I do not want you to become Rapelle. "Your son's discouraged," she later told problem is serious. The a long time. II "I don't care how treatment will take sponded. "If you heal long it takes," Rapelle remy son, Ia am going to give money. When my father died, he left me you a lot of is my inheritance, but if a small piece of land. It you treat him to sell that land and successfully, I am going give you the need from you is one hundred money.' Philo replied, "All I treatment. 11 The next dollars to buy the things for the to Seven Stabs of the day Knife Rapelle brought his ten-year-old son for the first of Over the course of the many, many visits. Rapelle family that, treatment, Philo became SO close to the when Alourdes was Rapelle and his teenage daughter baptized, Clement The work for were named as godparents. When Philo Rapelle's son took more than a year to concluded it with a good-luck bath made complete. flowers, fruits, perfumes, and champagne, from word, gave her one thousand dollars. Rapelle, true to his This was more money elle brought his ten-year-old son for the first of Over the course of the many, many visits. Rapelle family that, treatment, Philo became SO close to the when Alourdes was Rapelle and his teenage daughter baptized, Clement The work for were named as godparents. When Philo Rapelle's son took more than a year to concluded it with a good-luck bath made complete. flowers, fruits, perfumes, and champagne, from word, gave her one thousand dollars. Rapelle, true to his This was more money --- Page 246 --- Philo had ever held in her hand, and it marked a turning than she did was a home in point in her life. The first thing purchase Seven Stabs of the Belair section of Port-au-Prince, not far from blue Knife. Philo and her children soon settled into her little Dreams and the house with three rooms and its own latrine. to Promises The that followed were good ones. Philo had money years her children to school. Clients were combuy food and to send And she now had enough ing to her in ever greater numbers. without specific self-confidence and experience to treat people from the Life was SO secure that an imporinstructions spirits. was forgotten -1 until the day something happened tant promise to make Philo remember. Alourdes was seven That day started in an ordinary way. adolescence. old, and her sister Chantal was just entering years had borrowed a hot comb from a neighbor. When she Chantal her hair, she gave the comb to her younger finished pressing Alourdes stopped sister and told her to return it to Marguerite. of Mardead in her tracks when she reached the front gate little home. There was a dog lying inside. "Come here, guerite's from her chair on the porch. "I'm afraid girl," called Marguerite come. I am sitting of the dog,' 11 said Alourdes. "Come, dear, bite here. Do you think I am going to let that dog you?" right and SO she reached through the Alourdes was not convinced, and it a hefty grabbed a handful of the dog's hair, gave gate, Alourdes pulled its hair again, and tug. The dog did nothing. child the jumped again the dog did nothing. So the opened gate, her hand out She still had over the dog, and ran to Marguerite. teeth sink into with the hot comb in it when she felt the dog's the back of her leg. "Manman, Manman, Alourdes dropped the comb and ran. Philo met her at the Manman!" she screamed all the way home. to "The bit me!" Alourdes sniffled, and she pointed door. dog down her left leg. Philo cleaned and wrapped blood running the child to bed. Exhausted from the trauma, her wound and put when she awoke two hours later, someAlourdes slept. But Her mother had told her to stay in thing was dreadfully wrong. her mother, but an awful anxiety was bed. She wanted to obey toward panic. She began to rushing through her body, building that she had to shake, and her head was spinning. Aware only walk. She Alourdes got up, left the house, and began to move, walked and walked. A frantic need to escape was walked and of this incident. the last thing Alourdes would ever remember when she awoke two hours later, someAlourdes slept. But Her mother had told her to stay in thing was dreadfully wrong. her mother, but an awful anxiety was bed. She wanted to obey toward panic. She began to rushing through her body, building that she had to shake, and her head was spinning. Aware only walk. She Alourdes got up, left the house, and began to move, walked and walked. A frantic need to escape was walked and of this incident. the last thing Alourdes would ever remember --- Page 247 --- Alourdes was lost for three days and three beside herself with worry the entire time. nights. Philo was day checking in every place she She spent the first the end of that day, she went to thought the Alourdes might go. At her daughter missing. On the second police station and reported sought help from friends. and the third days, Philo Dreams and his Rapelle took two Promises job at the pharmacy to search the afternoons off from and Sans Fil, which seemed to be northern areas of Belair luck. Madame Jacques read likely places, but he had no her fear that Alourdes the cards for Philo and expressed was dead. The his head spirit, who announced oungan Cesaire consulted with an older woman who that Alourdes had gone off her house. Philo's was now keeping the child hidden in friend Laline the sis and attempted to make misjudged extent of the crihave a joke of it all: the taken Alourdes below the water. "Perhaps spirits make her a manbo. 1 Maybe they want to Another friend, Madame Victoir, also read the was she who told Philo that Alourdes cards, and it police they will find was all right. "Tell the nothing if they look in the are going to find her only if they look in the north. They Victoir said. And then she Philo south," Madame "Was there gave a long, searching look: Did something you were supposed to do for the you promise something and then not do it?" spirits? jerked to attention. "Yes! There Philo's body long time ago. I told Ezili Dantô I was would something," she said, "a have not done that. 11 "Go kill a pig for her, and I don't have to do home, Madame Victoir said. "You anything more to find the police and tell them to look in the south. Alourdes. Just stop by candle, call Ezili, and tell But tonight light a her-promise make the feast right away." herl-you are going to As darkness fell that third night, Philo went to lit a candle, and she prayed hard. Then her altar. She wide open, and let the candle she lay in her bed, eyes that the moment the burn itself out. It seemed to her rise. Or perhaps she had candle sputtered out, the sun began to still trying to fallen asleep in between. Philo was figure out if she had slept when she at her door. It was a policeman with heard a knock been found. "Where did the news Alourdes had the south, you find her?" Philo demanded. as you said we would," the "In "near the reservoir in Carrefour Feuilles. policeman responded, some children. She had been there She was playing with knew her name or where she three days. None of them came from. No one could say , the sun began to still trying to fallen asleep in between. Philo was figure out if she had slept when she at her door. It was a policeman with heard a knock been found. "Where did the news Alourdes had the south, you find her?" Philo demanded. as you said we would," the "In "near the reservoir in Carrefour Feuilles. policeman responded, some children. She had been there She was playing with knew her name or where she three days. None of them came from. No one could say --- Page 248 --- what she ate. Come, your child is waiting for where she slept or the We are not We think you should take her to hospital. you. what have happened to her." sure might her mother come through the door of the When Alourdes saw and her waist SO hard Dreams and police station, she ran to her grabbed Not until Promises her breath, but the child said nothing. Philo caught finished their intimate poking and prodding the doctors had her leg did Alourdes and had given her a shot and rebandaged where she was, what had begin to speak. She wanted to know of the last three happened to her. She remembered nothing is "You don't have to remember," said Philo. "Everything days. okay now." coffee with That evening, Philo sat in her backyard drinking friend Clement Rapelle. "Thank you for your help, her good she said. "I know you don't get paid when Rapelle, my dear," off from work. 11 "It is not a problem, said Rapelle you take he added with real feeling: "I was SO happy when simply. Then Alourdes in the house." "I know you I came by today and saw and him a warm embrace. were. I know," smiled Philo gave tie this me I need a strong man to up "Now you can help again. Tomorrow Alourdes and I are bundle. It is for the journey. family to Jean Rabel. It is time for me to gather up my going It is time for me to kill a pig for Ezili Danto." spirits. it was that in the summer of 1942, on the land where And SO had tobacco leaves as long as his Joseph Binbin Mauvant grown of rocks in which Philo's umarm, just a few yards from the pile feast for her family bilical cord had been buried, she held a consider- spirits that lasted seven days and seven nights. For this still all the members of her extended family able undertaking, into service as well as many of living in Jean Rabel were pressed Dantô's one COW, two the neighbors. In addition to Ezili pig, famand six chickens were also offered to Philo's hungry goats, throughout the week, and people ily spirits. Drummers played dust cloud that could be seen a danced SO energetically that a mile away rose over the Mauvant land. of the days when the During the early morning hours of one Danto beaten from sunset until sunrise, Ezili posdrums were Philo's cousin, a woman known for her spiritual powers. sessed have made 11 Dantô said. "Look at the table we "Dey-dey-dey-dey, Philo "There is griyo (grilled for you, a proud responded. There is selebride [liqueur]. There is rapadou [brown-sugar pork]. ically that a mile away rose over the Mauvant land. of the days when the During the early morning hours of one Danto beaten from sunset until sunrise, Ezili posdrums were Philo's cousin, a woman known for her spiritual powers. sessed have made 11 Dantô said. "Look at the table we "Dey-dey-dey-dey, Philo "There is griyo (grilled for you, a proud responded. There is selebride [liqueur]. There is rapadou [brown-sugar pork]. --- Page 249 --- candy]. All kinds of fruit." "Dey-dey-dey/ 11 the spirit responded with satisfaction. In gratitude, Ezili Dantô tipped the bottle of selebride to Philo's mouth, and she also took some of the liin up her hand and wiped it over Alourdes's face. Then she Dreams and queur hugged the seven-year-old to her with a fierce and passionate Promises "dey-dey-dey-dey-dey. " "I know, mother, I know," said Philo, obviously moved by the spirit's show of affection for her child. Forgetting that she was exposing very private information, Philo continued: "You gave me this child. You kept me from getting rid of my baby. Thank you. Thank you.' 11 The Vodou spirit Ezili Dantô, who is also known as Our Lady of Lourdes, looked at Philo, and her eyes communicated an acceptance that was absolute and without illusions. Then, with a sudden urgency in her manner, Dantô pointed at Philoand then at Alourdes . . at Philo and at Alourdes. Back and forth, back and forth she went, appealing to the gath- 11 ered family for an interpretation of her earnest "dey-dey-dey. a wise old uncle said. "Phi- "Alourdes is going to replace you," lomise, Dantô is telling you that Alourdes is the one to take place, to serve the family spirits after you. I1 "That is okay," your said Philo. "That is good. 11 Then the wrinkled old farmer took his pipe out of his mouth and stared intently into Alourdes's face. "You are SO young, little girl. Already the spirits are choosing you. That is a big responsibility. You must never forget what Dantô has said to you understand?" The wide-eyed little girl with a this night. Do you left and a solemn look on her face simply bandage on her leg nodded. --- Page 250 --- --- Page 251 --- - CHAPTER EIGHT --- Page 252 --- Ezili Several female spirits belong called the Ezili. The three most important are to the group African senses of Lasyrenn, the mermaid who links ancient and water power; Ezili Danto, the hardworking, woman power mother; and Ezili Freda, the sensual solitary, sometimes raging frustrated one. This chapter focuses and elegant, flirtatious and in turn; all three are on each of these powerful women spirits, because each is more understandable discussed in one chapter they give a remarkably in relation to the others. Taken together, women's and detailed portrait of the forces that shape accurate Haiti and in Haitian immigrant comlives both in contemporary Alourdes lives.' 1 munities such as the one in which of male Haitian culture is a misogynist culture. The ideology is fierce. Haitian humor is rife with anti-woman supremacy violence is a frequent occurrence. Vodou jokes, and domestic influence of this attitude. Certain oungan, has not escaped the in various ways, the for example, are notorious for mistreating, their temples. and detailed portrait of the forces that shape accurate Haiti and in Haitian immigrant comlives both in contemporary Alourdes lives.' 1 munities such as the one in which of male Haitian culture is a misogynist culture. The ideology is fierce. Haitian humor is rife with anti-woman supremacy violence is a frequent occurrence. Vodou jokes, and domestic influence of this attitude. Certain oungan, has not escaped the in various ways, the for example, are notorious for mistreating, their temples. women who become ounsi (ritual assistants) in extent in spite of this, Vodou empowers women to a larger Yet, traditions. As than the great majority of the world's religious and after to survive and adapt both during Haitians struggled social and economic power, gains that slavery, women gained within Vodou. are mirrored in the influence of women there has been The role of women in Vodou is greatest where herbalists Rural women can gain respect as the greatest change. central ideas presented in this chapter first appeared in Karen Mc1Some of the Lola and the Ezilis: Themes of Mothering and Loving in HaiCarthy Brown, "Mama Worlds: Women's Religious Lives, ed. Nancy Auer Falk and tian Vodou," in Unspoken Calif.: Wadsworth, 1989), 235-45. Rita M. Gross (Belmont, Mother combing her daughter's hair. Gros Morne, Haiti, 1980. --- Page 253 --- and fanm-saj (midwives), and in certain places in the country221 side they can even be initiated as priestesses; but nowhere the hegemony of the rural male. In do they challenge religious the cities, however, the picture is quite different. There are no Ezili statistics, but my strong impression is that at least half of the urban Vodou leaders are women. Furthermore, the mood of the women's temples is markedly different from the atmosphere in temples headed by men. Generally speaking, the issue is flexibility. The ethos within a woman's temple is like that inside the home, where the mother moves in and out of her role as an authority figure as the situation demands; whereas a man's temple usually reflects the more rigid role definitions of the public arena. The question of women and Vodou is broader than the queshowever. Consideration of the three Ezili tion of leadership, this larger dimension./The adaptability of Vodou over opens up to other cultures and religions; the time, and its responsiveness of its fact that it has no canon, creed, or pope; the multiplicity spirits; and the intimate detail in which those spirits reflect the lives of the faithful-all these characteristics make women's lives visible within Vodou in ways they are notin other religious those of the African homeland. |This visitraditions, including and creability can give women a way of working realistically tively with the forces that define and confine them. Lasyrenn, Ezili Dantô, and Ezili Freda are each conflated with manifestations of the Virgin Mary: Nuestra Senora de la particular Caridad del Cobre, Mater Salvatoris, and Maria Dolorosa. But unlike the Mary of mainstream Catholicism, who offers an impossible ideal of perfectly submissive (and virginal) motherhood for emulation, the Ezili are much closer to the human drama. In addition to providing examples of love, care, and hard work, they model anger-righteous and raging--power sensuality, fear, frustration, need, and effectivity, sexuality, mirrors that oband loneliness. In SO doing, they become give reality to what would otherwise remain, as it does in SO jective cultures, women's silent pain and unhonored power. many These female spirits are both mirrors and maps, making the comprehensible and offering direction for the future. In present the caricaturelike clarity of Vodou posessionpertiomanees the Ezili sort out, by acting out, the conflicting feelings and vallife situation. raging--power sensuality, fear, frustration, need, and effectivity, sexuality, mirrors that oband loneliness. In SO doing, they become give reality to what would otherwise remain, as it does in SO jective cultures, women's silent pain and unhonored power. many These female spirits are both mirrors and maps, making the comprehensible and offering direction for the future. In present the caricaturelike clarity of Vodou posessionpertiomanees the Ezili sort out, by acting out, the conflicting feelings and vallife situation. interacting with the faithful as ues in a given By --- Page 254 --- and all the Vodou spirits clarify the options individuals groups, well for women. in people's lives; and the Ezili do this especially she When Alourdes says that Ezili Danto is her "mother," circumstances of her life and identifies some both describes key in her house, Lasyrenn is Ezili of her most important values. Yet, Ezili Freda is even more also saluted from time to time, and the attention honored, although neither is given frequently Danto receives. Thus although Ezili Danto is and service that female spirit, her life as a woman is actually Alourdes's major of the three. choreographed through a dynamic balancing that indiThe individual and the spirits who love and protect relationship. The three Ezili, vidual are in a mutually responsive a template individually and in relation to one another, provide life. But the circumstances of her life also cause for Alourdes's Danto, and Freda to emerge in the personalities of Lasyrenn, create one another, a particular ways. Alourdes and her spirits recognized within her Vodou family, where somerelationship about "Alourdes's Dantô" as about Ezili one is as likely to speak Dantô in general. heterosexual woman, in mid-life, who grew up Alourdes is a and has lived in the United States for twentyin Port-au-Prince to the three Ezili is five years. Her situation as a woman relating mother and different from that of a man relating to naturally the acknowledged lover figures. Her heterosexuality suppresses of the hwa's characlesbian dimension of Ezili Danto, a part be for other women. Her age ter that could very important but cercrystalizes an Ezili Freda who may act like an ingenue immitainly is not one. And her life in the New York Haitian in community and earlier in Por-au-Prince-both places grant if not most, families are headed by womenwhich many, serpent mutes Dantô's identity as the mysterious tree-dwelling These urban and brings her status as single mother to the fore. also dimensions of Alourdes's life are most likely and immigrant retreat even further into the responsible for making Lasyrenn depths than she usually does. LASYRENN Lasyrenn, Labalenn, Chapo'm tonbe nan lanmè. M'ap fe karès ak Lasyrenn, Por-au-Prince-both places grant if not most, families are headed by womenwhich many, serpent mutes Dantô's identity as the mysterious tree-dwelling These urban and brings her status as single mother to the fore. also dimensions of Alourdes's life are most likely and immigrant retreat even further into the responsible for making Lasyrenn depths than she usually does. LASYRENN Lasyrenn, Labalenn, Chapo'm tonbe nan lanmè. M'ap fe karès ak Lasyrenn, --- Page 255 --- Chapo'm tonbe nan lanmè. M'ap fè dodo ak Lasyrenn, Chapo'm tonbe nan lanmè. Ezili The mermaid, the whale, My hat falls into the sea. Ic caress the mermaid, My hat falls into the sea. I lie down with the mermaid, My hat falls into the sea. Thus goes one of Alourdes's favorite songs for this watery Ezili sister. As both mermaid and whale (the two sometimes apshe is an elusive creature of the deep pear as separate spirits), at sea. She is a fleeting presence, never fully seen, hinting monumental--huge deep, sudden, and powerful. something of beneath the water, When people catch a glimpse Lasyrenn feel her beckoning them to come with her back to Ginen, to they the ancestral home and the dwelling place of the lwa, Africa, the water). She hovers large and dark and sianba dlo (beneath Haitians call lent just below the surface of the water, a place "the back of the mirror. 11 Gazing at her is like gazing at your reflection. It is seductive because she gives a deeper and own of self than is likely to be found in the mirrors of truer picture to to too close or everyday life. But it is also dangerous try get too to the vision. A who reaches out to hold on tightly person side stroke her or tries to lie close by her broad and comforting simply, drown. First the hat falls into the sea, and may, quite the person follows quickly after. deLasyrenn's elusive character is captured in Alourdes's "She's black, not white. Black, black. Her hair go scription: shiny, shiny, long hair! Somedown to her feet. Shiny, shiny, hair. If you see time you see her a blonde . long, long, long her with your eyes in the sea, she's white; when you dream her, she's black, because they say she got one side white, one side black. A big fish with two color. Lasyrenn, Labalenn. . always got a comb, to comb her hair. 11 Lasyrenn is connected to Mammy Water, whose shrines are found throughout West Africa. Some suggest that the mermaid also common for Mammy Water, was derived from the persona, , hair. If you see time you see her a blonde . long, long, long her with your eyes in the sea, she's white; when you dream her, she's black, because they say she got one side white, one side black. A big fish with two color. Lasyrenn, Labalenn. . always got a comb, to comb her hair. 11 Lasyrenn is connected to Mammy Water, whose shrines are found throughout West Africa. Some suggest that the mermaid also common for Mammy Water, was derived from the persona, --- Page 256 --- on the bows of the ships of European traders and carved figures have roots that con224 slavers. Thus the Vodou lwa Lasyrenn may of the like nerves, to the deepest and most painful parts nect, homeland and the trauma of slavery. It is therefore fitloss of to Africa and its wisdom. Ezili ting that she also reconnects people and pulled are captured by Lasyrenn In many stories, people Sometimes these stories are under the water, down to Ginen. suicides. But as often as descriptions of tragic drownings or of disnot such tales are strategies used by the poor and otherwise enfranchised to gain access to the prestigious role of healer. A usually a The stories have a common pattern. person, three disappears for a time-three days, three months, woman, Her skin has When she returns, she is a changed person. years. become fairer, her hair longer and straighter. Most important, Immediately after her return, she has gained sacred knowledge. and does not remember what she is disoriented, does not talk, a story of to her. But gradually a story emerges, happened "below the water, 11 where the spirits instructed living for a time A person who can her in the arts of diagnosis and healing.? in the priestly make a convincing claim to receiving instruction initiation arts "below the water" need not go through expensive met I once ceremonies or a time-consuming apprenticeship. nickname rural She was called Sansami, a such a priestess. friends. When I asked who had initiated her, meaning without she said simply, she responded that no one had. Herinstruction, had come anba dlo. Because her AlAlourdes makes no such claim. grandfather, Macena, came from the south of Haiti where people go phonse initiation ceremonies to attain the through formal and expensive obligations to Macena's role of healer, and because sheinherited the rituals to take the ason. spirits, Alourdes also went through demanded it, and she was the first woman in her family Ogou This initiation gives her an official and widely recogto do SO. Alourdes says, hownized right to claim the role of priestess. her that she serves both her grandfather's and grandever, mother'sspirits. Her fidelity to theline ofXlarieNoeduneloerph, daughter of the old African Joseph Binbin Mauvant, brings des eaux," " Bulletin du Bureau d'ethnologie (Port-au2See Max Benoit, "Symbi-loi 1959): 12-22. Prince) 3, nos. 20-22 (june-December official and widely recogto do SO. Alourdes says, hownized right to claim the role of priestess. her that she serves both her grandfather's and grandever, mother'sspirits. Her fidelity to theline ofXlarieNoeduneloerph, daughter of the old African Joseph Binbin Mauvant, brings des eaux," " Bulletin du Bureau d'ethnologie (Port-au2See Max Benoit, "Symbi-loi 1959): 12-22. Prince) 3, nos. 20-22 (june-December --- Page 257 --- claims to other sources of wisdom- -Mauvant had "on him" all the time, and he healed the natural the spirits way, without ason or elaborate way, the simple Quite unconsciously, Alourdes ritualizing. describes anba dlo when she connects her call to the a time ofinstruction time she was lost at priesthood with the Ezili age seven. The object that occasioned adventure was a borrowed comb, and the comb is her most common accoutrement. It was Ezili Danto, Lasyrenn's sister, who caused the Lasyrenn's dark when Alourdes disappearance. And it was Danto who, was found, made an appearance to message that Alourdes was to inherit her mother's convey the tice. Alourdes was gone for three days (the ritual healing pracfound next to the city reservoir (an urban number), was sea), and, when found, was disoriented transformation of the nothing of what had and could remember transpired. Alourdes's the pattern only in that she still claims story deviates from curred during those three amnesia about what OCdays. The events of Alourdes's life gravitated like barnacles back of the whale-Labalenn, to the Lasyrenn. Myth template for life. Yet when Alourdes tells that provided the says that she received religious story, she never elusive whale, the instruction anba dlo. Like the interpretive framework of her childhood perience hovers seductively just below thesurface exof consciousness. of the waters EZILI DANTO In 1965 Alourdes was finally able to bring her three childrenJean-Pierre, Maggie, and William-to New York. They arrived during midsummer's heat, two months before school this time, Alourdes thought of herself began. By and her primarily as a healer, practice was growing rapidly. taken an outside job to cover the Nevertheless, she had ily, working from four in the expense of reuniting her famafternoon until laundry at the Hotel National on Seventh midnight doing second Street in Manhattan. While Avenue and Fortydren fended for themselves she was at work, the chilin Brooklyn. Maggie was twelve years old, about to turn thirteen. Some ternoons when Alourdes had gone to work, afon the front stoop watching the Maggie would sit neighborhood children. She a healer, practice was growing rapidly. taken an outside job to cover the Nevertheless, she had ily, working from four in the expense of reuniting her famafternoon until laundry at the Hotel National on Seventh midnight doing second Street in Manhattan. While Avenue and Fortydren fended for themselves she was at work, the chilin Brooklyn. Maggie was twelve years old, about to turn thirteen. Some ternoons when Alourdes had gone to work, afon the front stoop watching the Maggie would sit neighborhood children. She --- Page 258 --- sometimes ventured, in her halting English, to join games of or skip-rope, but, in the beginning, she was not often success- tag ful. Her first weeks in New York were hard and lonely. On most days, like a dutiful Haitian Ezili girl-child, she did housework. One day when Mommie went to work, you know, in the house, the only girl, I work a lot, right? So what being I did, I wash all those clothes, Jean' clothes, William' clothes, clothes, sheets-everything in the house, I wash by hand. my And then when I finish (I don't know . : . I must'a I was thought in Haiti. . : .), I put my iron board and my iron. I start ironing, and I iron everything. Then I took a bath and from there-I got sick! I had trembling, fever, and the next morning Mommie took me to the doctor, and the doctor say that I was real sick! The emergency-room physician suspected Maggie had tuberculosis, a disease common among Haitians, or perhaps monia; but he could not be sure and wanted to pneu- her for further testing. Maggie was afraid to be separated hospitalize from her family and begged to go home. The doctor said that would be all right if she promised to come back the next day for more tests, and Maggie went home to bed. When Alourdes returned from work that night, Maggie got up, and the family ate, talked, and watched television together. It was after two in the when they turned off the lights. Maggie's bed was in the morning living room, and, when she lay down, the light from the at the corner of Utica Avenue and Jane Street fell streetlamp her pillow. directly across We just went to bed, and then I saw, like a shadow, coming to the light. . . . Next minute, I actually saw a lady in front of me. ButIcould not see her face real clear. I standing saw a lady standing in front of me with a blue dress, and she have a veil covering her head and her face. I wasn't scared of that and I was saying, "Who are you? Who are you?" And lady, then she said, "You don't know who I am?" I said, "I don't know who you are." And then she pull up the veil, and I could see it was her with the two mark. Ezili Danto with the two mark on her in front of me. ButIcould not see her face real clear. I standing saw a lady standing in front of me with a blue dress, and she have a veil covering her head and her face. I wasn't scared of that and I was saying, "Who are you? Who are you?" And lady, then she said, "You don't know who I am?" I said, "I don't know who you are." And then she pull up the veil, and I could see it was her with the two mark. Ezili Danto with the two mark on her --- Page 259 --- then I start to get scared. She Whooooo! Yeah! And mother." à cheek. "Don't get scared, I'm your she was going to told me, she told me to turn my back around, more. She turned me Ezili Then wasn't going to be sick no and everyheal me; I back. She rubbed my lungs what to around. She rubbed my she said, "Now you know thing; she rub it, and then and thank me.' 11 Isay, "Okay," light up: a candle 1! and I say, "Let do for me. Just "I'm going now, I'm going," 11 It's strange : . and then she say, tell my mother you here." to visit. I me call my mother, like a visitor : : . somebody come Let me call-" know, just Wait! you "Let me call my mother-Don't have to come." said, mother don't She said, "No, no, your times. When family story many When that I have heard this important emerges antiphonally. did Alourdes is present, the story breaks in at this point, as she call, Alourdes invariably When Maggie happens, recorder was running: once when my tape à Alourdes's home, Fort Greene, for Ezili Dantè's birthday party. Altar constructed Brooklyn, 1980. Wait! you "Let me call my mother-Don't have to come." said, mother don't She said, "No, no, your times. When family story many When that I have heard this important emerges antiphonally. did Alourdes is present, the story breaks in at this point, as she call, Alourdes invariably When Maggie happens, recorder was running: once when my tape à Alourdes's home, Fort Greene, for Ezili Dantè's birthday party. Altar constructed Brooklyn, 1980. --- Page 260 --- come, come! Did you see?' And I see she say, Mommie, come, over the of voice came in top the veil going. . . Maggie's house.Ispoke to her Alourdes's: "I saw her! She come into my black, just like I'm talking to you now. She was pretty-and "I see the Ezili black, black. I1 Alourdes's voice folded into Maggie's: Alourbut I don't saw the lady." And then Maggie's into veil, back to the doctor, and the doctor say, What's des's: "I went Alourdes with you? I thought you was sick!"" Maggieand wrong after the visit from Ezili Danto Maggie was no longer agreed that without incident, and in the ill. The rest of the summer passed to school. fall Maggie and the other children started to Haitians most often use represent The chromolithograph manifestation of Mater Salvatoris: a Ezili Danto is a particular of Czestochowa. On her Polish black Virgin known as Our Lady Haitians, perright cheek are two parallel vertical scars. (Many refer to projecting from an African ancestral memory, haps Her head is draped with a goldDantô's twa màk (three scars].) holds the Christ child. In this edged blue veil. In her arms she The child is the most Haitians identify her child as a girl. image, detail, for Ezili Danto is above all else important iconographic This why certhe mother, the one who bears children. explains Our Lady with children, especially tain white Virgins depicted of Mount Carmel, are also said to be of Lourdes and Our Lady Ezili Dantô. known to be Dantô's lovers and Several of the male spirits are children. Ogou is the the fathers of one or more of her seven lover. But when people most frequently as her one mentioned way, they point to Ti-Jan are talking in an intimate, gossipy lover. It is well known that Petwo (her own son) as her favorite who are her sexual Ezili Dantô has not married any of the spirits children on her own partners. Being a single mother who raises however, a freof her identity. Danto is, is an important part with vivan-yo (the living). In quent participant in marriages service, and even sexthese rituals, individuals pledge loyalty, with no human on ual fidelity for one night each week (sleeping in their dreams) in that night and waiting to receive the spirit And again, return for the spirit's increased care and protection. community adwhen gossip is the mode, people in Alourdes's Thus the pormit that some of these marriages are with women. with an childbearing woman trait emerges of an independent, , a freof her identity. Danto is, is an important part with vivan-yo (the living). In quent participant in marriages service, and even sexthese rituals, individuals pledge loyalty, with no human on ual fidelity for one night each week (sleeping in their dreams) in that night and waiting to receive the spirit And again, return for the spirit's increased care and protection. community adwhen gossip is the mode, people in Alourdes's Thus the pormit that some of these marriages are with women. with an childbearing woman trait emerges of an independent, --- Page 261 --- unconventional sexuality that, on several counts, flouts thority of the patriarchal family. the auAlourdes describes Ezili Danto heavy." She has dark black skin as substantial, "not fat, but hair. Her and, like Lasyrenn, eyes are "big, white, and shiny," the long, shiny Ezili eyes of the mother. Maggie claims that when ever-watchful Danto in Alourdes's altar she talks with the room she can see the beautiful eyes in elegant," chromolithograph Alourdes moving. "Dantô is elegant, but not too told me once, not too proud to work-in explaining that Ezili Danto is hard, and she fact, "she love to work. 11 She works fast. If someone is in trouble works emergency, Alourdes said, Dantô is the kind Or there is an will forget about herself and her of woman who clothes, and rush to the side of the appearance, throw on her also connects her to crisis situations: person in trouble. Maggie gonna be sick, ifit's "It seem like each time I'm the something bad going to one coming to tell me." Both happen, she always quently refer to Ezili Danto Maggie and Alourdes freas "my mother." sponsive, present in times of trouble, Hardworking, rethese are the qualities of the ideal pretty but not vainEzili Danto fought mother. fiercely beside her tian slave revolution. In "children" in the HaiMaggie's words: "That rica, and during the time we had slave lady is from Afing the back home in Haiti, durshe eighteen-hundred . . . or the was the one that help my country seventeen-hundred to fight with . people. She helped them to win that war. 11 She the white Haitians say, and they point to the scars was wounded, stochowa's right cheek on Our Lady of Czeas evidence. But those scars Danto bears. Again, in are not the only was going to talk, to tell Maggie's words: "In that war, she cut out her something, and then they go over and tongue because they don't want her seems that Danto was rendered to talk." It people speechless by her own fighting on the same side, people who could people, her to guard their secrets. When Ezili Danto not trust these days, she cannot speak. The possesses someone utter is a uniform "dey-dey-dey." only sound the spirit can Alourdes and Maggie claim that the Ezili who dey" comes from Jean Rabel and that she says "dey-deyOther Ezili Dantô make a sound that belongs to their family. repeated "kuh" or a sound produced, Alourdes describes as a ironically, by sucking the fighting on the same side, people who could people, her to guard their secrets. When Ezili Danto not trust these days, she cannot speak. The possesses someone utter is a uniform "dey-dey-dey." only sound the spirit can Alourdes and Maggie claim that the Ezili who dey" comes from Jean Rabel and that she says "dey-deyOther Ezili Dantô make a sound that belongs to their family. repeated "kuh" or a sound produced, Alourdes describes as a ironically, by sucking the --- Page 262 --- the roof of the mouth, a kind of "thwap." 11 tongue up against inarticulate sounds gain meaning in Whatever the form, Dantô's language and the ina Vodou ceremony only through her body Her appearance terpretive efforts of the gathered community. toinherit her mother's Ezili in Jean Rabel toindicate that Alourdes was of charades practice was typical of the somber games healing that surround her visits. something that is true Dantô's inability to speak emphasizes Terse, of all the Vodou spirits: their messag ages are enigmatic. other language works in similar ways with spirmultireferential uses articulate speech or not, the its. Whether a given spirit interpret and apply individually and collectively, participants, Vodou do not often make authoritative prowhat is said. spirits in the thick social weave of a ritnouncements. Their presence wisdom and group resources. ual is a catalyst activating group described as group healing Vodou ceremonies are accurately collective sursessions in which both individual and problems both the The community is therefore face and are addressed. subject and the product of Vodou ritualizing. and specific hot in 1987, I saw how practical On a July night earlier, Alourdes had taken this process can be. Some months Haiti, and they had been in a family of recent immigrants from about the She was concerned living in her basement apartment. were listless and three children in this family because they Alourdes from challenging scrawny. Good manners prohibited the children were receiving - but the quality of parental care restricted. "Dey-deywhen Ezili Danto arrived, she was not SO was said Danto over and over. Eventually, the family dey-dey," ritual, and Danto put the children in the center called to join the wrists with thumb and finger of the group. She circled skinny Then she called in healthy chiland tugged at baggy clothes. and had them stand todren of approximately the same ages gether for comparison. action. Older women in the group The community went into health of her children and queried the mother about the general for dinner that evening. then asked what she had fed them clucked "Hot several older women When she replied, dogs," "She them American their tongues and sucked their teeth. gives turned to one another, and they food, 1! they repeated knowingly for a watercress back to the mother with a step-by-step recipe lectured the that is both cheap and nutritious. The women soup same ages gether for comparison. action. Older women in the group The community went into health of her children and queried the mother about the general for dinner that evening. then asked what she had fed them clucked "Hot several older women When she replied, dogs," "She them American their tongues and sucked their teeth. gives turned to one another, and they food, 1! they repeated knowingly for a watercress back to the mother with a step-by-step recipe lectured the that is both cheap and nutritious. The women soup --- Page 263 --- children's mother on the importance of and effort to make "real food." putting in the extra time Ezili Dantô see that her children are well spares no effort to But anger and even cared-for. mother's self-sacrifice, rage are often found on the flip side of a Petwo and these emotions also Ezili spirit Ezili Dantô. The maternal appear in the play when a mother must defend anger that is called into into a woman warrior her children turned Dantô of during the slave revolution. anger turns against the children Another sort Alourdes, who serve Dantô, become themselves. Those such as Dantô is my mother, but she her "children." "Ezili "Oh, boy, she's very tough lady," Alourdes said. know tough! You have to treat her what you suppose to do. You know what very nice. You pose to do. Ezili Dantô-when you don't supDantô's you got her, she strict with anger can exceed what is for you.' At times, it explodes from her with required strict discipline. Ezili Dantô, like an irrational, violent force. rainfall Lasyrenn, has connections with water. A during the festivities at Saut d'Eau, a gentle age site for Ezili Dantô (Our Lady of Mount mountain pilgriminterpreted as a sign of her presence; but Carmel), is readily resulting in mudslides, traffic SO is a sudden deluge of Alourdes's favorite accidents, and even deaths. One Danto songs for Danto has the line: pase, ou di se loray-o [When "Lè ou wè it is a thunderstorm)." Thus you see Dantô pass by, you say elemental force ofa a torrential Dantô's rage can emerge with the rain, which unjust alike. This aspect of Ezili Dantô sweeps away just and infant's-eye view of the might be described as an Some omnipotent mother. people call Danto a baka (evil spirit). But plains that some people have a good Dantô and Alourdes exevil one. The evil ones are never inherited others have an they are powers "purchased" by the in families; rather, Yet even a good Danto, such envious and the greedy. her mother, has the as the one Alourdes inherited from least to behave like potential if not to become a baka then at one. "Some people have said, "they have good Danto, but if kill Dantô, Alourdes of you her. . . she see blood . : she might turn.' any 11 animal in front killing an animal for a feast, Among Haitians, meal as Vodou or otherwise, marks the prestigious. When the spirits are usually do the killing. But not Dantô! She being honored, they do that. At the sight of blood, Dantô cannot be allowed to goes wild. "Dantô can be evil, too," Maggie said. "She kills a lot. If you if kill Dantô, Alourdes of you her. . . she see blood . : she might turn.' any 11 animal in front killing an animal for a feast, Among Haitians, meal as Vodou or otherwise, marks the prestigious. When the spirits are usually do the killing. But not Dantô! She being honored, they do that. At the sight of blood, Dantô cannot be allowed to goes wild. "Dantô can be evil, too," Maggie said. "She kills a lot. If you --- Page 264 --- down, you tell her to go and get somebody, she put her upside don'twant to come, she willgoand; get that person. Ifthat person to II "Lot'a break that person neck and bring that person you. Alourdes scared of her!" people scared of her-most people "But I love her, even she tough. Ezili said and then quickly added, nothing can attack you. When she's behind you, sweetheart, Nothing!" in working with Ezili Danto is to treat Alourdes's philosophy to Ezili Dantôher well and with caution. Any gift presented right on clothing, dolls (which the spirit loves) stays money, used any member of the family. With her altar and is never by of Dantô's anger and care and respect, the constructive parts parts kept in can be put to good use and the destructive energy believes that if she were to take the large tawny check. Alourdes Dantô on her altar and turn it upside down doll that represents on an enemy, the energy unin an attempt to take vengeance her. She leaves leashed would eventually come back to destroy and lets the part of Danto that is sometimes the doll upright the shadows where it serves a function. called a baka slumber rin mother who must It fuels the engine of the hardworking single and provide sometimes turn the world upside down to protect for her children. Alourdes sings for Danto every time The following song, one disobedient children are not she calls the spirit, indicates that Relationships with men the only source of Dantô's problems. takes blood, the trigger for can be equally disturbing. This song of the violence in Danto, and transforms it into an image spirit's own fierce suffering. Di ye! Set kou'd kouto, set kou'd ponya. Prete'm terinn-nan, m'al vomi san ye. Set kou'd kouto, set kou'd ponya. Prete'm terinn-nan, m'al vomi san ye. [repeat] Men san màke pou li. Set kou'd kouto, set kou'd ponya. Prete'n terinn-nan, m'al vomi san ye. Mwen di ye, m'pral vomi san, se vre. Set kou'd kouto, set kou'd ponya. outo, set kou'd ponya. Prete'm terinn-nan, m'al vomi san ye. Set kou'd kouto, set kou'd ponya. Prete'm terinn-nan, m'al vomi san ye. [repeat] Men san màke pou li. Set kou'd kouto, set kou'd ponya. Prete'n terinn-nan, m'al vomi san ye. Mwen di ye, m'pral vomi san, se vre. Set kou'd kouto, set kou'd ponya. --- Page 265 --- Prete'm terinn-nan, m'al vomi san ye. [repeat] San m'ape koule, Dantô, m'pral vomi san San ye. m'ape koule, Ezili, m'pral vomi san ye. San mwen ape koule, Je Wouj, ou pral vomi san ye. Ezili Say hey! Seven stabs of the knife, seven stabs of the sword. Hand me that basin, I'm going to vomit blood. Seven stabs of the knife, seven stabs of the sword. Hand me that basin, I'm going to vomit blood. But the blood is marked for him. [repeat] Seven stabs of the knife, seven stabs of the sword. Hand me that basin, I'm going to vomit blood. I say hey! I'm going to vomit blood, it's true. Seven stabs of the knife, seven stabs of the sword. Hand me that basin, I'm going to vomit blood. My blood is flowing, Danto, I'm (repeat] going to vomit blood. My blood is flowing, Ezili, I'm going to vomit blood. My blood is flowing, Red-Eyes, you're going to vomit blood. Haitians have a talent for capturing Seven Stabs of the Knife was the history in terse images. au-Prince where Philomise name of the compound in PortIt was named after lived at the time Alourdes was born. an infamous event that occurred long before Philo moved in. A fight there not with words between began in the a man and his female compound escalated, and the man rushed into the partner. Their anger front of their neighbors, he killed house for a knife. In the seven times. People woman by stabbing her too hard to realize that probably did not have to think too long or Ezili Je Wouj (Ezili of the this Red event belonged in the domain of Ezili Danto is a woman Eyes), another name for Dantô. dent. But the brutalh on her own. She is fiercely indepenwho follows in Dantô's honesty ofVodou does notallowany woman entirely path to claim that she does SO by choice. Danto is easily or connections with independent, but she also craves men for the new life need lies her greatest they produce. In this vulnerability. Danto rages and destroys, ili of the this Red event belonged in the domain of Ezili Danto is a woman Eyes), another name for Dantô. dent. But the brutalh on her own. She is fiercely indepenwho follows in Dantô's honesty ofVodou does notallowany woman entirely path to claim that she does SO by choice. Danto is easily or connections with independent, but she also craves men for the new life need lies her greatest they produce. In this vulnerability. Danto rages and destroys, --- Page 266 --- suffers. She vomits blood. In 1985, when Dantô apbut she also birthday party for her, she peared at Alourdes's annual July blood. I did not attend the party, asked for a basin and vomited called the next day but Maggie, who was moved by the event, and I still do not know Ezili to tell me about it. I did not know then Dantô's horse-that (how would I phrase the question?) how more to to vomit blood. Or, perhaps is, Alourdes-managed what was on in Alourdes's life or the point, I do not know going this extreme gesture the life of her community that provoked from Ezili Dantô. and women in urban Haiti Relationships between poor men After the slave revolution are often troubled and transitory. multigenera- (and in many rural areas today), the patriarchal, Men who had suffitional extended family held sway in Haiti. than one could form relationships with more cient resources households in which they bore woman. Women had their own moving among and raised their children. Men followed a circuit, of wives and girlfriends, while often continuing the households well as their women to feed and to rely on their mothers as families began to break up lodge them. When the big extended of depleted soil, overpopulation, under the combined pressures numbers of rural people moved to and corrupt politics, large the cities. fared better than men in the shift from Haitian women have the family has shrunk to the size rural to urban life. În the cities, in which women have traof the individual household, an arena women's skill at smallditionally been in charge. Furthermore, of on through generations scale commerce, an aptitude allowed passed them to adapt to life in urban rural market women, has usually must be patched Haiti, where the income ofa a household cities have often been together. In contrast, men living in the of income, even to small and erratic sources too proud exploit are slim. when their chances of finding a full-time job males hovers unemployment among young urban Currently, men in the city follow the old around 80 percent. Many young households of their girlfriends pattern, circulating among the intimacy, and get their launand families to be fed, enjoy some With the land dry done. But life is hard and resources scarce. men are to it is no longer clear how essential particular gone, women and children. As a result, relathe survival of particular have become brittle tionships between urban men and women and, too often, violent. of finding a full-time job males hovers unemployment among young urban Currently, men in the city follow the old around 80 percent. Many young households of their girlfriends pattern, circulating among the intimacy, and get their launand families to be fed, enjoy some With the land dry done. But life is hard and resources scarce. men are to it is no longer clear how essential particular gone, women and children. As a result, relathe survival of particular have become brittle tionships between urban men and women and, too often, violent. --- Page 267 --- Men are caught in a double bind. pect to exercise power and They are still reared to exresources with which to do authority, although they have few SO. When their against a wall of social expectations run up productive directions. impossibility, men often veer off in unThe least harmful is tional preoccupation with manifested in a naEzili the soccer. The most military, the domestic police force of damaging involve plicated, many-headed male Haiti, and a vast, comthe one road to upward patronage system that provides socialmobility for men. Drinking and gambling fall desperate, poor young this spectrum. Alcoholism somewhere in the middle of and is a big problem an even bigger problem in Port-au-Prince, throughout Haiti Johnny Walker is thought to be where a bottle of indispensable to the young man who likes to flannen (hang image of a Gambling is also out) with his buddies. teries, large and small, pervasive among poor men. The many lotPrince that can be played offer one outlet for the fever. Rue du every day in Port-auartery that skirts the city Dr. Dehoux, a main bling concessions, cemetery, is clogged with rickety roulette wheels, and dice gampear only after dark, garishly lighted games, which apMany of the players are men by Coleman lanterns. clothes ragged. SO poor their feet are bare and their Ezili Dantô's lover Ogou is a warrior a breathtakingly handsome and spirit pictured as a hero, often, Ogou is dedicated soldier. But, just as portrayed as vain and swaggering, thy, wantonly violent, and self-destructive. In untrustworfestations, Ogou is a drunk. Ezili Dantô one of his maniher bed, but she knows she will take this man into would never dream of cannot depend on him, and she Ezili Dantô and marrying him. The relationship between the actual life Ogou thus takes up and comments on much of experience of Haitian women. Ezili Dantô also mirrors many of the own life and the lives of other specifics of Alourdes's Noelsine women in her family. Marie Joseph and Alphonse Macena, Alourdes's maternal grandparents, fought constantly. Alourdes's knew her own father only when she mother, Philo, remembered most was a child, and what Philo Philo's life clearly about Macena was her fear of was also full of problems with lovers. him. she was involved with, Luc Charles, The first man and violent. The second, like Charles was jealous, possessive, Domingo, fathered a Haitian residing in Santo a child with another woman with Philo. Philo left each of them in turn and while living moved on, but a fought constantly. Alourdes's knew her own father only when she mother, Philo, remembered most was a child, and what Philo Philo's life clearly about Macena was her fear of was also full of problems with lovers. him. she was involved with, Luc Charles, The first man and violent. The second, like Charles was jealous, possessive, Domingo, fathered a Haitian residing in Santo a child with another woman with Philo. Philo left each of them in turn and while living moved on, but a --- Page 268 --- did not change her luck. Alourdes's fareturn to Port-au-Prince from Philo's life be236 ther was a brief presence who disappeared coming by as soon as Philo fore Alourdes was born. He stopped contribution to the family. And asked him fora minimal financial said, "That's enough!" Ezili then, according to Alourdes, the spirits forty, and stopped before she turned Philo's menstrual periods had a sexual relationship with after Alourdes's father, she never They want no "The spirit make my mother stop. a man again. interference.' 11 Maggie, Alourdes, In one intimate, late-night like conversation, to be women on our own, an and I discussed what it was with real energy: "My experience we shared. Maggie spoke You don't need taught us to be strong as woman. grandmother father of this, the father of that. Like . . . we man, to be the Like Wonderwoman!" (Like woman . . we could do everything! Alourdes, as sheso often does, Ezili Danto, she might have said.) Maggie's with a more nuanced view that qualified responded to me clothes-I don't need man fantasy: "To give me food, give can't for that. I can work!" But, Alourdes said, "Some thing love you to You need a man to love. : . to make you. do for yourself. Alourdes is certain she is not cut out for a Now in mid-life, and strongtraditional marriage. She is far too independent clean and take willed. "I can't do that for nobody- -cook and casual relationof him. Not me!" But neither is she open to care "I don't like boyfriend. When you deeply in ships with men. come! Ilike one man." The problem trouble, it not his day to my Alourdes is finding that one man. "You want company, right?" to make love? If "You want somebody to talk, asked one day. man. If you not SO lucky, you find a you lucky, you find a good You play it, you win or you bad man. Man is a lottery, right? lose. If you don't lose, you win. 11 I know, Alourdes Like SO many of the older Haitian women the sting from irreverent humor about men that steals has an situations. For more than a year, there was a otherwise painful household about a mythical man running joke in Alourdes's food in the refrigerator, it was named Joe. When there was no for breakfast and ate because Joe got there first. He came by of butter, and three dozen eggs, two loaves of bread, a pound forth. As the list got longer and longer, the laughter got SO louder. When a child misbehaved, he or she was louder and by Joe, who would ask no threatened with being punished . For more than a year, there was a otherwise painful household about a mythical man running joke in Alourdes's food in the refrigerator, it was named Joe. When there was no for breakfast and ate because Joe got there first. He came by of butter, and three dozen eggs, two loaves of bread, a pound forth. As the list got longer and longer, the laughter got SO louder. When a child misbehaved, he or she was louder and by Joe, who would ask no threatened with being punished --- Page 269 --- questions before throwing the child out on the street. characterized him this way: "Joe say, I Maggie kill them.' 111 When Alourdes could beat a child until I around in several was miffed because I had not come her weeks, she told all her friends that and gone off with me and now I Joe had left and visit. was "too busy" to come Ezili Alourdes did not always have a sense of humor about good part of her life was spent searching for men. A rescue her if not from who she a man who would was then at was. But Alourdes was not able to form least from where she man. At fourteen, she fell in love with a lasting union with a struggling but not Abner, the only son of a desperately poor was sixteen and beginning his studies Port-au-Prince family. He met the vibrant at the university when he young Alourdes. When Abner's Alourdes was pregnant, they acted family learned one day to find a large suitcase swiftly. He arrived home on the front case is that?" he asked. "Never porch. "Whose suitgoing for a ride." And with that mind, said his father. "We are and sent to Chicago. He did Abner was taken to the airport bye. Some months later, not even have time to say goodborn. For a while, letters Jean-Pierre, Alourdes's first child, was arrived from Chicago, some ing a little money. But soon the mail containheartbroken and quite stopped. Alourdes was depressed for sized emotions of adolescence many months. The outnomic constraints that magnified the real social and ecoher first child, began to shape her life with the birth of at age fourteen. When Alourdes was fifteen, she got her job with the Folklorique, and things began to improve. She Troupe naturally sensual, and I suspect that was beautiful, and compelling even then she had a strong personality. When the was Cuba, she got to know Charles group on tour in worked for the Haitian Desinor, a photographer who Troupe tourist bureau and traveled with the ried, he Folklorique. courted Although he was forty years old and marAlourdes with and At first, Philo was reluctant to energy allow great perseverance. him to their home, but in the end Charles Alourdes even to invite may have had something to do with his won out. His success day when Alourdes and Philo considerable style. One arrived at the house were sitting at home, a big truck on Oswald Durand, bringing complete sets for a living room, dining room, and furniturelo's three-room wooden house could bedroom. Phinot have accommodated ed Although he was forty years old and marAlourdes with and At first, Philo was reluctant to energy allow great perseverance. him to their home, but in the end Charles Alourdes even to invite may have had something to do with his won out. His success day when Alourdes and Philo considerable style. One arrived at the house were sitting at home, a big truck on Oswald Durand, bringing complete sets for a living room, dining room, and furniturelo's three-room wooden house could bedroom. Phinot have accommodated --- Page 270 --- furniture even if she had intended to do nothing this much Charles soon arrived to announce that he was more than store it. where she could put the going to rent a big house for Alourdes, at least they furniture. In no time, they were living together-or life allowed. otherwise full Ezili were together as often as Charles's who turned out to be This man was Maggie's father, a man Alourdes's life. To than many of the men in more responsible his old telephone number, 2002, at this day, she can remember because that number in my the Office National du Tourisme, if somemind all the time. I have to call that number Maggie got -de mil de [two thousand two). IfI need something, if she sickmil de. I got problem-de mil de." Antoine thing-de time Alourdes was with Charles, she met During the of Mount Carmel in PortKowalski in the Church of Our Lady and Kowalski was thirty-four. au-Prince. She was eighteen, of the Virgin, and when Alourdes went to pray before the statue her. As to her pew, Antoine came and sat beside she returned Alourdes that he was the one who an opening line, he told from Our Lady of Mount could give her what she had requested how he knew what Carmel (Ezili Dantô). When Alourdes asked of Kowalski countered with a proposal her prayer had been, said a dozen words to Antoine marriage. Alourdes had not yet Kowalski. connected with a father who had Alourdes had only recently denied her existence, and previously ignored her and had even this newfound anxious to win the approval of she was quite fastidious man who was "daddy." Alphonse Margaux, a small, of in Haiti's tax office, did not hide his disapproval a lawyer with Charles. Here was his daughter, Alourdes's arrangement with a man who was not her husband. with two children, living decided to marry Kowalski, It made him ashamed. So Alourdes Alourdes and she sent her suitor to her fathertoask forherhand. to knew she was not in love, but she nevertheless felt compelled to her father's upper-class premarry by a teenage sensitivity in Haiti. They can be traced to the sizable PolPolish names are not uncommon sent in 1802 to quell the slave ish legion included in the force Napoleon Polish soldiers, Bonaparte some of whom had been freedom revolt in Saint Domingue. These been into military service against their fighters in their own country, had Poles pressed sided with the rebels and eventually rewill. Once in Saint Domingue, leaders. many See Laurore St. Juste and Frère Enel Clérismé, ceived protection from rebel n.p., 1983). Présence polonaise en Haiti (Port-au-Prince: sizable PolPolish names are not uncommon sent in 1802 to quell the slave ish legion included in the force Napoleon Polish soldiers, Bonaparte some of whom had been freedom revolt in Saint Domingue. These been into military service against their fighters in their own country, had Poles pressed sided with the rebels and eventually rewill. Once in Saint Domingue, leaders. many See Laurore St. Juste and Frère Enel Clérismé, ceived protection from rebel n.p., 1983). Présence polonaise en Haiti (Port-au-Prince: --- Page 271 --- tensions. Describing her feelings at the did that to save my time, Alourdes said, "I family name. Kowalski, a bachelor who hads ing for the one woman he could spent more than a decade waitonly one), set out to win Alourdes's love (knowing he could love He tried hard, heart as well as her hand. Ezili perhaps too hard. At one point gagement, Kowalski won the during their enworth twenty thousand lottery. With a ticket in his hand door. He gave her the dollars, he showed up at Alourdes's "Rip it up! Do winning ticket and told her dramatically, ticket. I1 Alourdes anything with it. I love you. I don't love that and he did. asked him to buy her a house with the money, Alourdes Margaux (she had recently taken and Antoine Kowalski her father's name) were married at ten ing on December 30, 1954, in the Church o'clock in the morndowntown Port-au-Prince. of the Sacred Heart in wore a traditional Alourdes was nineteen, and she wedding dress. Her children, Maggie, sat in their stiff new clothes in the front Jean-Pierre and ernous church. Pèpe, as Alourdes's pew of the cavfriends, sat contentedly beside father was known to his them. came to visit his newly married Afterthewedding, he even Alourdes's husband had daughter from time to time. her up in their new house a shoemaking business, and he set not as luxurious with two servants. This situation is as it sounds; there are thousands of ately poor people in Port-au-Prince who desperlucky to get a job as a maid or consider themselves house guardian," - wages are little more than food and even if their Alourdes, who had often been a place to sleep. But for its accoutrements hungry as a child, this union and were, for a while, the The fantasy did not last long. Kowalski realization ofa fantasy. a husband than he had been was more obsessive as quit singing with the as a suitor. He demanded that she she spoke to another Troupe Folklorique. He threw a jealous fitif He was SO man, even someone passing on the street. ited her possessive he sent spies to follow her when she mother in the little house on Oswald visbegan to chafe under his control. "He Durand. Alourdes wife, he need too selfish. He slave . . . not wife," I1 she told her don'tneed soned with herself: "He's not tied the friends. She reaTensions between them escalated. way I'm tied. Right?" retorted, "Shut up, old man. You talk Kowalskil lectured. Alourdes One day, he came home from work too much." early. Alourdes, five mother in the little house on Oswald visbegan to chafe under his control. "He Durand. Alourdes wife, he need too selfish. He slave . . . not wife," I1 she told her don'tneed soned with herself: "He's not tied the friends. She reaTensions between them escalated. way I'm tied. Right?" retorted, "Shut up, old man. You talk Kowalskil lectured. Alourdes One day, he came home from work too much." early. Alourdes, five --- Page 272 --- for raw meat, and, like a selfmonths pregnant, had a craving her arm on the shoul240 conscious, naughty child, she had placed dinner, and begged der of the maid, who was busy preparing the two women touchfor a bite of raw steak. Kowalski saw only the Alourdes fired the maid on spot. Ezili ing. He flewi into a rage and madder. Alourdes's volatile objected loudly, and Kowalski got him. He kicked emotions erupted like a volcano. She slapped from the Not long after, she moved away her, and she lost baby. with his lottery winnings, tellthe house Kowalski had bought but her freedom. ing him to keep it. She wanted nothing indeed. Soon she could no Freedom proved to be very hard month it cost to keep her longer afford even the few dollars a her own. Then faithful maid. For some months, she lived on furious forced to move back with her mother. Philo was she was the security that the relationwith Alourdes for throwing away and the two were barely ship with Kowalski had represented, Alourdes found a job that paid on speaking terms. Eventually, and established her own home once almost enough to survive during this There were men and there were relationships again. but none of them sustained Alourdes long and difficult period, economically or emotionally. she became pregnant a third time. With a man named René, the relationship quickly Butwhen René learned a baby was due, herself and Alourdes feared that she could not support ended. this pregnancy, and she reluctantly conher children during have to abort the child. She did just what cluded that she would hermother had done-ran up and down stairs, punched her from a table to the floor, selfin the stomach, jumped repeatedly she had ever heard menand drank teas, potions, and anything And, just as the spirits had tioned as a possible abortifacient. to warn her. In intervened to stop her mother, SO they appeared in efforts, Alourdes had a dream the midst of these desperate in front of her house. taptap stopped which a brightly painted (Ezili Dantô) emerged and handed Notre Dame du Mont Carmel that this dream was serious her a baby. Friends counseled her harm the baby. Alourdes perand that she should do nothing to did the fetus. Alourdes sisted nevertheless, but somehow SO second from the with William, her third child and son, had pain conceived until a year after his birth. time he was Alourdes was living with Gabriel (a Four years later, when she had a surgical abortion man who remains her close friend), painted (Ezili Dantô) emerged and handed Notre Dame du Mont Carmel that this dream was serious her a baby. Friends counseled her harm the baby. Alourdes perand that she should do nothing to did the fetus. Alourdes sisted nevertheless, but somehow SO second from the with William, her third child and son, had pain conceived until a year after his birth. time he was Alourdes was living with Gabriel (a Four years later, when she had a surgical abortion man who remains her close friend), --- Page 273 --- in a Port-au-Prince clinic. This time, Alourdes but felt compelled to have the abortion. wanted the child the United States had been Her visa to immigrate to Alourdes she would not be granted at last, and someone told ties knew she allowed to leave Haiti if the authoriwas going to have a baby. Haiti is a Catholic country. Ezili cluding those like Alourdes People who serve the spirits, insider themselves who. are priestesses and priests, congie's kitchen good Catholics. In 1984, I was seated at table, reading her copy of the New York Post Maglamenting the rhetoric of John Cardinal and "He doesn't have to use the word murder O'Connor all on abortion. is murder!" shouted Alourdes the time, n I said. "It In spite of this and Maggie with one voice. opinion, Alourdes knew about some extent, sympathized with Philo's and, at least to Alourdes herself had tried to attempt to abort her. succeeded in terminate one pregnancy and had discussion, doing SO with another. At the time we had this only be described Maggie was employed as a nurse's aide in what as an abortion mill on can East Side. Furthermore, the Vodou Manhattan's Upper stood to oppose abortion, spirit Ezili Danto is underdicated. "It as Alourdes's and Philo's dreams inreally make her mad!" Alourdes don't like abortion because she once said. "She know, human being do really love children. But, you everything. That's life! Right? something human created. Right?" Abortion Vodou morality is not a morality of rule or textual one. It is tailored not law but a conspecific only to the situation but also to person or group involved. A moral the one who lives in tune with his person, in Vodou, is fined by the or her character, a character despirits said to love that vided in the midst of moral dilemmas person. Flexibility is provorite spirits offer to different by the support these favalues. When Alourdes and sometimes contradictory was pregnant with urged her not to abort the child. In this William, Ezili Dantô lowing the will of the spirits has been case, the price for folbe able to support himself and will high: William will never until she dies. Yet, in be Alourdes's responsibility with Gabriel's contrast, when Alourdes was pregnant taker, baby, Ogou, the great survival artist won the day, and Dantô went silent. and risk abortion. In Ogou's honor, Alourdes Alourdes had the she boarded the plane for New donned a red dress when it is also the only choice to make York. Abortion "is murder," but in some situations. the price for folbe able to support himself and will high: William will never until she dies. Yet, in be Alourdes's responsibility with Gabriel's contrast, when Alourdes was pregnant taker, baby, Ogou, the great survival artist won the day, and Dantô went silent. and risk abortion. In Ogou's honor, Alourdes Alourdes had the she boarded the plane for New donned a red dress when it is also the only choice to make York. Abortion "is murder," but in some situations. --- Page 274 --- has a moral pull, but no one spirit prevails in every Each spirit is no Golden in the past and no situation. In Vodou, there Age value is higher than heaven in the future. Consequently, no but also, and more often, group survival-not only personal highly contextual. FurEzili survival. A survival ethic is necessarily a deus ex mathermore, Vodou is not a religion that promises is whatever persons want to happen, china. Whatever wrong, fix it or do it for them as much as emthe Vodou spirits do not Alourdes once said about them to do it for themselves. power What she do, she give you Ezili Dantô: "She don't give money. Yes." to help . yourself. opportunity . opportunity and for Alourdes, as for SO many poor Haitian For Ezili Dantô center of life, the main reason for being. women, children are the that Vodou does not Yet Dantô's anger and her suffering prove and unmixed, sentimental portrait of childbearing present an of Haiti, infant mortality is as high motherhood. In some parts available. Although a and birth control is rarely as 50 percent, contributes substantially and willingly responsible father who child is the ideal, this ideal is rarely to the upbringing of his both in Haiti and in the United achieved. Poor Haitian women, born to them belong to them States, assume that the children shoulder this responsibilAnd they and are their responsibility. ity in precarious circumstances. and economic risks of having Perhaps the physical, social, called pa-pale the occurrence of a condition children explain Although it can befall others who have (not-speaking disease). is said to be found most often reasons for depression, pa-pale birth. Such women take to women who have just given among do not speak, sometimes for months at a their beds and literally have had their voices time. Like the mute Ezili Danto, they Philo was known taken from them by the people closest to them. mental illness, Port-au-Prince for her ability to treat thoughout condition. This talent has passed to especially this intractable Haitian woman found wanAlourdes, who reported treating a Alourdes the streets of Brooklyn suffering from pa-pale. dering into her home and fed and clothed her. At the took the woman the souls of the dead continue to exist and to participate in human *Although notorious for complaining about the cold, hunger, and dampaffairs, they are also world. No living person would consider the "life" of an ness that characterize their ancestor superior to his or her own. out condition. This talent has passed to especially this intractable Haitian woman found wanAlourdes, who reported treating a Alourdes the streets of Brooklyn suffering from pa-pale. dering into her home and fed and clothed her. At the took the woman the souls of the dead continue to exist and to participate in human *Although notorious for complaining about the cold, hunger, and dampaffairs, they are also world. No living person would consider the "life" of an ness that characterize their ancestor superior to his or her own. --- Page 275 --- beginning, she even took the woman into her held her at night as if she were a child. bed, where she cured, her After the woman was story emerged. She had not when she stopped recently given birth to New York speaking, but she had just lost her children City's child welfare system. Through the Ezili illness, poor Haitian women wordlessly politics of and anger: dey-dey-dey-dey-dey articulate their pain Another condition common ing age is called pèdisyon among poor women of childbearperdition,' "' the child in her (perdition). When a woman "falls into womb is said to have been "tied" to prevent it from growing. "held" or Ifa woman misses (Sorcery is often implicated.) one or more periods and then to struate again, she assumes she is begins menperdition. In this state, the pregnant but has fallen into lieve is menstrual blood, which Haitians beordinarily retained in the womb to nourish the passes the fetus. But the baby does not die. baby, bya state of suspended Instead, it is held in "untie" growth. When a healer does the child, the blood flow stops, and the child something to "work" again and grow. Pregnancies begins to can go on for years. interrupted by perdition One advantage of this condition is that a woman anyone she has had relations with can claim over the course of years as the father of her child. The several an important of naming of a father is often part a mother's survival never fallen into perdition, but she did strategy. Alourdes has into he once try to trick a man believing was the father of the child she Her ruse failed, yet she shows was carrying. compassion ness of the difficult circumstances forherselfand. awarestory. "Women of her life when she tells the got to do all kind'a thing. I know, cause got William, I tell somebody, I pregnant for I but whenI true. What I going to do?I got to you,' that not Through the eat, or that baby going to die!" politics of illness, women increase the survival for themselves and for their children, chances of dies, pa-pale and These two malapèdisyon, can be treated only by Vodou They are diseases of that world. Their healers. with what they reveal about the stress of presence there, along for children in a bearing and providing poverty-stricken country, is part of the backSSee Gerald F. Murray, "Women in Perdition: Ritual in Culture, Natality, and Family Planning, ed. John F. Marshall Fertility Control in Haiti," (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, and Steven Polgar 1976), 59-78. pa-pale and These two malapèdisyon, can be treated only by Vodou They are diseases of that world. Their healers. with what they reveal about the stress of presence there, along for children in a bearing and providing poverty-stricken country, is part of the backSSee Gerald F. Murray, "Women in Perdition: Ritual in Culture, Natality, and Family Planning, ed. John F. Marshall Fertility Control in Haiti," (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, and Steven Polgar 1976), 59-78. --- Page 276 --- Danto stands with her infant in her ground against which Ezili of childbearing arms. In a real sense, the risks and the suffering mother sees and child-rearing are part of what every Haitian when she gazes at the image of Mater Salvatoris. howEzili Even greater risks are involved in not having children, friends shake their heads rueever, which makes my Haitian For Haitian women, even for fully when they hear I have none. the main those now living in New York, children represent viable household and the closest thing hope for a financially in old The mother-child relathere is to a guarantee of care and age. essential. In a not unretionship among Haitians is strong chillated way, it is also potentially volatile. In the countryside, Children dren's labor is necessary for the survival of the family. and physical is often an begin to work at early age, punishment Alswift and severe if they are irresponsible or disrespectful. contribute to though children stay in school longer and begin to childlater in the cities, similar attitudes toward the family rearing prevail in the urban environment. has its Dantô's strict discipline with those who serve her parallel in Alourdes's strong hand in her own household. Alourdes, will like Ezili Danto, is a proud and hardworking woman who or indolence in her children. Although not tolerate disrespect directed at who is now an her anger is almost never Maggie, the household, it can adult and Alourdes's partner in running off their feet. I have sometimes sweep the smaller children her disnever seen Alourdes strike a child, but she can express pleasure sharply and mete out severe punishments. bond between In woman-headed Haitian households, the endurmother and daughter is the most charged and the most form three- and sometimes ing. Women and their daughters circulate networks in which gifts and services four-generation needs and abilities. These tight female relational according to where is comsystems create a safety net in a society hunger on that she would eventually be dependent mon. Knowing fueled Philo's anger when her daughter Alourdes probably from her marriage to Kowalski. walked away empty-handed took her in. When Alourdes lay in a clinic, Nevertheless, Philo in the last weeks of her pregand in constant pain penniless Philo borrowed what she could- - twenty nancy with William, brought these things to her daughcents and some bread-and of life, Alourdes sent ter. In return, during Philo's last few years unger on that she would eventually be dependent mon. Knowing fueled Philo's anger when her daughter Alourdes probably from her marriage to Kowalski. walked away empty-handed took her in. When Alourdes lay in a clinic, Nevertheless, Philo in the last weeks of her pregand in constant pain penniless Philo borrowed what she could- - twenty nancy with William, brought these things to her daughcents and some bread-and of life, Alourdes sent ter. In return, during Philo's last few years --- Page 277 --- her mother the money that sustained her. The mother-daughter bond is one strength of the tify the child in Ezili Dantô's explanation of why Haitians iden245 portance and arms as a daughter. And the imprecariousness of that bond add tô's fiery temper. meaning to DanAlourdes and her daughter Ezili ally, spiritually, depend on each other emotionsocially, and economically. Without care Alourdes provides, could the child Maggie not work. Without money Maggie brings in every week, Alourdes would the the erratic income she draws from her have only Maggie's supporting role, Alourdes healing work. Without birthday parties for the could not stage elaborate to hold Maggie spirits. Alourdes does not use religion against her will, however. The tween them is genuine and affection befriend and most trusted strong; they are each other's best fortable when the ally. Each reports she feels most comother is present. When one is afraid, the other can alleviate the depressed or "When she not near me," Alourdes depression or calm the fear. side me disconnected said, "I feel something inWhen : . something missing in me." 11 either travels, they both become anxious, and at they appear to communicate telepathically. times about each other They dream for and constantly. When Maggie traveled 1988 for her father's funeral, she dreamed to Haiti in sick. When she called that her mother was home, she found that Alourdes was fering from a bad head cold. When sufin 1979, Alourdes dreamed Maggie was in the hospital about what her to heal herself. "It's more than a mother and daughter had to do child Maggie said. "We are like twin sister- Siamese twin!" relationship, admits that she sometimes forgets she is Alourdes agrees that it is more like Maggie's mother and having a sister. Maggie's greatest fear is that Alourdes will die. that the reverse is also true. Alourdes and And I suspect in an extended fantasy, Maggie once engaged complete with sound dying side by side in a big earthquake. Alourdes effects, about suddenly serious when she remembered then became the same dread about Philo's how she used to feel for a while Alourdes felt death. When Philo died in as if everything had 1973, she said, "I don't cry all the time. But I dream ended. "Now," mother come in my dream, a lot!" Philo her : my when Alourdes has serious comes in her dreams problems or when she is especially difficult case and cannot figure out what to treating do. And an in a big earthquake. Alourdes effects, about suddenly serious when she remembered then became the same dread about Philo's how she used to feel for a while Alourdes felt death. When Philo died in as if everything had 1973, she said, "I don't cry all the time. But I dream ended. "Now," mother come in my dream, a lot!" Philo her : my when Alourdes has serious comes in her dreams problems or when she is especially difficult case and cannot figure out what to treating do. And an --- Page 278 --- Alourdes's other mother, Ezili when Philo does not appear, Danto, does. in the house Although Maggie maintains her own apartment children. share, she rarely eats alone or only with her own they mix and and the eveEzili The children of the two women mingle, from kitchen one day to Alourdes's ning meal moves Maggie's social center to which they draw a the next. Their home is a friends. There is some divimultigenerational group of shared in sion of labor, however. Maggie is the family's representative where Alourdes is in charge inside the home, the outside world; themselves around her. persons and events tend to organize but they do have Maggie and Alourdes are not mirrori images, relationship, one not unlike the relationship a deeply symbiotic with her mother, Philo. In Ezili Dantô's Alourdes reports having Haitians call Anaïse. Every time a arms is the girl-child whom she sees there the poHaitian woman looks at Dantô's image, who will extend tential for a daughter who will stick by her, one her life and expand her world. EZILI FREDA of Maria Dolorosa del Monte Calvario The chromolithograph sword depicts the Virgin Mary with a jewel-encrusted plunged into her heart. Her arms, crossed over her breasts, are dripping with gold chains. Her fingers- even the thumbs-are covered On her head is a jeweled tiara, and she wears heavy in rings. necklaces. The wall begold earrings and half a dozen weighty obscured hind her and the table in front of her are almost by of and jeweled hearts. Haitians recognize scores gold, pearl, this image as Ezili Freda. Her skin color and herlove of Ezili Freda is a white woman. characterisfine clothes and jewelry are Freda's most distinctive Whereas Ezili Danto is a fierce Petwo spirit, Freda is a spirit tics. characterized by sweetness from the Rada pantheon, a group Danto is known for what she can and even tempers. Whereas alluring, desirdo, Freda is known for what she is-beautiful, from time able. Whereas Danto occasionally rages, Freda pouts and withdraws into herself. Whereas Dantô lives out to time mode, Freda concerns herwomen's sexuality in its childbearing self with love and romance. --- Page 279 --- Ezili Ezili Freda. Fort with a statue of the Virgin representing Maggie's bedroom altar, Greene, Brooklyn, 1978. like her light skin and connection to romance, Haitian women. As Ezili Freda's her with upper-class true love. They her jewelry, identifies "Poor people don't have no its wardAlourdes observed, its style, 11 Romance--itsl language, of the Haijust have affliation." to the top 10 percent Haiti's wealth. robe, and its dance-belongs the lion's share of that controls of the elite are the contempotian population the women of the slave era, the From one perspective, of the mulatto mistresses charm to the outsider's rary incarnations beauties who lent erotic famed Creole Freda's her with upper-class true love. They her jewelry, identifies "Poor people don't have no its wardAlourdes observed, its style, 11 Romance--itsl language, of the Haijust have affliation." to the top 10 percent Haiti's wealth. robe, and its dance-belongs the lion's share of that controls of the elite are the contempotian population the women of the slave era, the From one perspective, of the mulatto mistresses charm to the outsider's rary incarnations beauties who lent erotic famed Creole --- Page 280 --- image of colonial Haiti. Ezili Freda rides the current of this ticular ideology of female beauty and worth. parEzili Freda, Alourdes said, is "fancy, and she ous." Pink is Freda's favorite very glamorEzili color. Saturday is the that male devotees who have married her sleep alone and night wait for Freda to come in their dreams. In her pysassionpefiormances Freda is decked out in satin and lace. She is given powder, fume, sweet-smelling soaps, and rich creams. The one persessed by her moves through the gathered community, embrac- posing one and then another and another. In time, this sexuality begins to look driven, manic, like an unquenchable generous thirst. Something in her searches and is never satisfied. There is never enough love, never enough wealth, never enough honor. Her visits sometimes end in tears and frustration. Freda's turns inward, and her arms wrap protectively around gaze her own body." Ezili Freda takes her identity and her worth from her relationships with men. She is both married (to Ogou and to and eternally ripe for marriage. Although she is in fact Danbala) most often addressed with the respectful title of a married woman of means, Maitresse, Alourdes says that "you always to call her Mademoiselle. Freda like people to think she a got teenager. Conflicting stories are told about Freda and children. Some say she is barren; some say she had a child who died. Others say Ezili Freda has a child but wishes to hide that factin order to appear fresher, younger, and more desirable to men. Those who hold this view often point out that in the chromolithograph used to represent Freda a portrait of a young boy pears, nearly obscured by the left elbow of Maria Dolorosa. This apbiographical detail picks up a fragment from Alourdes's life that hints at her larger connections with Freda. When Alourdes ried Kowalski, she already had two children by two different marmen. She wanted a church wedding and, for her father's sake much as her own, a respectable life. So she hid the children as from her prospective in-laws. Not until the wedding, when toine Kowalski's parents asked about the little boy and Angirl Maya Deren has drawn a powerful portrait of this of Ezili Horsemen: The Voodoo Gods of Haiti (New York: Dell, aspect Freda in Divine Documentext, McPherson, 1983), 1970; reprint, New Paltz, N.Y.: 137-45. She wanted a church wedding and, for her father's sake much as her own, a respectable life. So she hid the children as from her prospective in-laws. Not until the wedding, when toine Kowalski's parents asked about the little boy and Angirl Maya Deren has drawn a powerful portrait of this of Ezili Horsemen: The Voodoo Gods of Haiti (New York: Dell, aspect Freda in Divine Documentext, McPherson, 1983), 1970; reprint, New Paltz, N.Y.: 137-45. --- Page 281 --- seated in the front pew, did they find out their son's bride already a mother. was When Alourdes married away from an Kowalski, she was only one step impoverished childhood and was still city where only a small fraction of the living in a poor. Women of the small elite class people are not alarmingly Ezili to structure her dreams. These nevertheless had the power women are are actually blonde and blue-eyed d-and light-skinned- -some dresses in big Catholic churches they marry in white bedroom sets and and return to homes that have dining-room furniture and servants. women never have to work. They spend their These visiting with friends; at night, days resting and men, dressed like they emerge on the arms of their haughty boredom. elegant peacocks and affecting an air of member of the Although Alourdes's husband was not a elite, he provided her with a facsimile dream. It stifled and confined of this let of the her, but she still has not go fantasy. entirely As a model, Ezili Freda is hard to follow, and cially SO for a Haitian living in the United States. perhaps espenoon of disjointed conversation In one afterthat she had been her in July 1979, Alourdes told me mother's favorite child because she was light-skinned and fat. (Chantal, Philo's only other and scrawny.) Alourdes also claimed girl, was dark tracted to her because she that Kowalski had been atwas "light and heavy." memories of the prestige of a well-rounded Drawing on country, she told me body in a starving proudly that she weighed two hundred forty pounds when she first came to New York. hour later, however, she announced Only about an that she was we watched television that on a diet. As day, she with the ad that sang along, full voice, proclaimed, "She's drinking Diet it shows." When I went into her Pepsi, and bathroom, I discovered someone had cut out magazine pictures of that in leotards and skinny white women pasted them around the mirror. It is not only hard for a woman of Alourdes's to look like Freda (or Freda's New color and girth Pepsi ad); it is also very difficult to World incarnation in the "When please this fastidious you have Freda," Alourdes said, spirit. be "you always got to clean-twenty-four hours a day! Perfume : : fancy!" She told me that once, when she called jewelry : refused to stay because Alourdes had Freda, the spirit day. This close connection not yet taken a bath that between hygiene and beauty speaks Alourdes's to look like Freda (or Freda's New color and girth Pepsi ad); it is also very difficult to World incarnation in the "When please this fastidious you have Freda," Alourdes said, spirit. be "you always got to clean-twenty-four hours a day! Perfume : : fancy!" She told me that once, when she called jewelry : refused to stay because Alourdes had Freda, the spirit day. This close connection not yet taken a bath that between hygiene and beauty speaks --- Page 282 --- more eloquently in a country where most people do hard cal labor and bathwater must be hauled from its physihouse with an earth floor. Even with modern source to a plumbing, Freda's Ezili concern with appearances is more than the life of a hardworking woman like Alourdes can support. There are too crises when Alourdes, like Dantô, has to throw on her clothes many and get right to work. Yet there are times when Freda's is cisely the image Alourdes wants to project. There is no sight pre- like Alourdes dressed for a party-vermilion lipstick, hair curled, and a flower behind one ear. Ezili Banda, Ezili Banda, Ezili Banda pase sa'l 00. Ezili Banda, Ezili Banda, Ezili Banda pase ko-li. This Freda song says worlds in a few words and a rapid pated beat. Its sparse, suggestive language makes it syncodifficult to translate, but a rather loose rendering would especially like this: go Pretentious Ezili, sexy Ezili, Sexy Ezili outdoes herself. Strutting Ezili, preening Ezili, Preening Ezili thinks she's something. Ezili Freda drapes herself in romance, wealth, and social status and at the same time reminds Haitians how precarious and superficial such things are. Another song for her the point: "Yo pran Ezili Freda, yo met'l anndan complicates tonbe, latè-a glise [They take Ezili Freda, kay. . Lapli they put her in the house. . The rain falls, the ground is slippery]." This reminds the listener that Freda is an Ezili, a song spirit from Africa, who would not content herself watery with woman ing the mere surface of things. Here is the paradox. The describcan be heard as saying that when Ezili Freda is inside the song when sensuality and love are in place in the family (or house, when money and status are secure), the people inside perhaps from the rain and slippery mud that surround are safe them. But it can apli they put her in the house. . The rain falls, the ground is slippery]." This reminds the listener that Freda is an Ezili, a song spirit from Africa, who would not content herself watery with woman ing the mere surface of things. Here is the paradox. The describcan be heard as saying that when Ezili Freda is inside the song when sensuality and love are in place in the family (or house, when money and status are secure), the people inside perhaps from the rain and slippery mud that surround are safe them. But it can --- Page 283 --- also be heard as a warning about the insinuate itself through and under ability of rainwater to the a Haitian house. When that wattle-and-daub walls of earth floor becomes happens, the glossy hard-packed dangerous. Hunger for romance can undermine the foundations wealth, status, or satiable hunger, the need of a family. Freda's inEzili to the irrational, that can never be met, is the parallel raging baka in Danto and the siren in Lasyrenn. But Freda cannot be death-dealing altara any more than Danto and expelled from Alourdes's of their deep shadows. Lasyrenn can be rejected because Alourdes does not have all of life's its tensions resolved. The tension questions answered or all Freda within her is one that is not between the Dantô and the Alourdes accepts her life and the resolved. For the most part, her to where she is choices she made that brought now. But there are also times longs for male when she Freda's companionship. She is therefore not immune to glamour or, for that matter, to the pull of the domesticity and nuclear families she images of sion. "Sometime I really, sees every day on televiin the late really, really get lonely, 11 said Alourdes spring of 1985. "Sometime I want to make I'm by myself. : and, let me tell you, I'm love, and four children. I can't take fifty years old. I have love. That's a shame. Yeah!" anybody to come : just to make Alourdes also gets tired of living at the of being in charge of such a big and edge of poverty, tired times, she thinks about her ungainly household. At Kowalski past with regret. "If I was now, we stay until.. death do we marry want to go back with him. He tell part. One time, I Let me tell you, when I me 'No, too much happen! understand. marry Antoine, I was too : . And he got I1 young, Idon't from Alourdes's voice is the money. . . Not entirely missing her "land, " her love, to sound of the poor woman selling of her children. But here guarantee her survival and the survival with the finances of love are wound round longing and dreams. A little more than two years after this fell in love. Her current man is conversation, Alourdes friend, and ally. Alourdes is a delightful and loyal lover, part of her comes out a deeply sensual woman, and this dresses strongly in the presence of Edner. She up, becomes coquettish, and caters to her man. describing his lovable traits, she always in When ond breath: "He says the first or sechelp me SO much. Every month, he pay the wound round longing and dreams. A little more than two years after this fell in love. Her current man is conversation, Alourdes friend, and ally. Alourdes is a delightful and loyal lover, part of her comes out a deeply sensual woman, and this dresses strongly in the presence of Edner. She up, becomes coquettish, and caters to her man. describing his lovable traits, she always in When ond breath: "He says the first or sechelp me SO much. Every month, he pay the --- Page 284 --- in Alourdes's home. electric bill.' 11 Edner is now a regular visitor Vodou birthday and on many He is present for all the parties of their marrying other occasions as well. There is no question with Alourdes and Edner are mature people or living together; those they have made Ezili their life patterns set. Yet within patterns room for one another. an Ezili Freda in her And Alourdes has made more room for who does a bit heart-not a frustrated and driven one, but one loves and preening from time to time. Alourdes of strutting wears four or five gold rings and as jewelry. She almost always chains around her neck. She loves nice clothes-colorful many dresses that swish and sparkle. Ezili Freda, you outdo fabrics, yourself. THE THREE EZILI when large numbers of Haitian refugees Several years ago, the U.S. Immigra- (dubbed "boat people.") were imprisoned by the Service, I was invited to visit facility tion and Naturalization detained. The visit conwhere unaccompanied minors were children had not been firmed my suspicion that many of these adults, alone but in fact had been accompanied by traveling even have raised them but were not necessarily adults who may aunts" or blood kin. Many children in Haiti are raised by but the INS did not recognize such ad hoc parentgodparents, had the children from ing, and agency bureaucrats separated them in a minimumand confined their traveling companions security camp in upstate New York. Several of them had reThese children were alone and afraid. chilto their fear by going into possession. In Haiti, sponded it tis considered too dangerous. When dren are rarely possessed; child during a ceremony, the a spirit threatens to possess a takes steps to send it priest or priestess in charge immediately there were no priests away. In the immigration detention center, and none to send them to call the spirits for the young people, Neverfrom those who could not bear the spirit's weight. away teenagers had tried to call on the spirtheless, some frightened with a different kind of its for help. The staff had responded them. I did two fear, and that was why I was called in to advise Amerithat the dormitory counselor, a North things:Tsuggested a spirit threatens to possess a takes steps to send it priest or priestess in charge immediately there were no priests away. In the immigration detention center, and none to send them to call the spirits for the young people, Neverfrom those who could not bear the spirit's weight. away teenagers had tried to call on the spirtheless, some frightened with a different kind of its for help. The staff had responded them. I did two fear, and that was why I was called in to advise Amerithat the dormitory counselor, a North things:Tsuggested --- Page 285 --- can black man, immediately stop his efforts rites in the mode of his own Protestant to perform exorcism ranged to take Alourdes to the Christianity. And I ar253 facility to counsel people, a visit that was quite successful. the young Months later, I realized that there be what I had seen among the might a parallel between Ezili behavior of slaves children of the boat people and the stinct, newly arrived in Haiti. It is a universal inIsuppose, to turn to religion in times of crisis. elders, the priests, the When the the institutions, the musical images, the altars, and the sacred instruments, do you turn for spiritual aid? In objects are absent, where session an African-based seems an obvious answer. In religion, postwo of the areas of origin for Haiti's Yorubaland and Dahomey, slave population, most Posesion-performanoes less were formulaic affairs with more predictable words and gestures. In the New or ever, in that early time when the World, howslaves' principal mnemonic body and the voice were the received much devices, possession could well have greater emphasis, and could have quickly become much Powecsion-performances pressive. In other words, cut loose more from extemporaneous and exinstitutional their African base and moorings, the spirits flower. 7 Times of crisis are often may well have burst into Whether it times of high creativity. happened this way or not, the African change their style when spirits did hunkered they came to the New World. down, got close to the ground. They the faces of those who served them They came right upin they saw and heard there. The and began to imitate what spirits took on more of the specifics Posecsion-perfomances of time of the of the intimate detail of life. and place and more tional theater. This High liturgy became was a happy occurrence, I think, improvisa- for it large part of what has enabled the Vodou is a Haitian people spirits to work for the through a great deal of hardship and change. rapid social Such flexibility and such responsiveness have enabled the lwa 7Further research is needed to confirm this The guignon, who has done an extensive study of hypothesis. work of Erika Bourworld, appears to support the point. In possession phenomena around the that of traditional West African cults, she comparing Haitian Vodou possession with less fixed and more innovative (Erika characterizes Vodou spirit possession as Chandler and Sharp, 1976], 18). Bourguignon, Possession (San Francisco: through a great deal of hardship and change. rapid social Such flexibility and such responsiveness have enabled the lwa 7Further research is needed to confirm this The guignon, who has done an extensive study of hypothesis. work of Erika Bourworld, appears to support the point. In possession phenomena around the that of traditional West African cults, she comparing Haitian Vodou possession with less fixed and more innovative (Erika characterizes Vodou spirit possession as Chandler and Sharp, 1976], 18). Bourguignon, Possession (San Francisco: --- Page 286 --- that chart the future and mirrors that reflect the to provide maps Ezili Dantô's mute "dey-dey254 past and the present. For example, and fearful dey" honors the mother of a new child, SO depressed her visDantô honors her by making that she stops talking. the woman murdered Ezili ible. Dantô also vomits blood alongside be called Seven by her partner in the compound that came to of the time Stabs of the Knife. Lasyrenn subtly shapes the story old. And Alourdes got lost when she was only seven years checks the time Alourdes prepares to meet Edner, she every last time to see if Freda would is, to one approve-that mirror matches the dominant norms of fesee how much her image the social world to those male beauty. Vodou spirits present through all its represenwho serve them. They present it fully tative types, male and female, empowered and disempowered. dimenboth the constructive and destructive And they explore sions of each type. to the social Because the Vodou spirits hover SO close ground, have also been useful in sorting out the moral dilemmas they first enslaved by the French, then oppressed faced by a people and finally shoved to the marand starved by their own leaders, the United States. gins in immigrant communities absolutes throughout is for those who have Talk of ethical norms or moral of and a wide range of choices, unlike the great majority power now or in the past. Haitians view life as a sea the Haitian people crosscurrents. You do well in Vodou if you turbulent with moral direcchoose to ride the currents that flow in the constructive basic character. The Vodou spirits help people tions set by your of their character and then to name the most important aspects Vodou is a to hold on to this vision when the ride gets rough. and it counsels what it must to ensure surreligion of survival, Alourdes to keep one baby, and Ogou vival. Danto counseled her sufficient reason to abort another. gave the do not fall on their knees and imThose who serve spirits A Vodou is to solve their problems for them. spirit plore a god who mobilizes the will and not a deus ex machina but a catalyst often deliver of human beings. Vodou spirits do not proenergy that call forth clamations. They speak in lean, enigmatic ways Ezili the voice of the community. "Dey-deyrdey-deyr-dey" says 11 Dantô, and the people say, "Yes, we will do it for you. Slavery broke the African family. Drought, corruption, and broke the patriarchal extended family that reconstipoverty plore a god who mobilizes the will and not a deus ex machina but a catalyst often deliver of human beings. Vodou spirits do not proenergy that call forth clamations. They speak in lean, enigmatic ways Ezili the voice of the community. "Dey-deyrdey-deyr-dey" says 11 Dantô, and the people say, "Yes, we will do it for you. Slavery broke the African family. Drought, corruption, and broke the patriarchal extended family that reconstipoverty --- Page 287 --- tuted itself after Haiti's slave revolution. From the women's previously muted voices wreckage, began to emerge. Women's "dey-dey-dey" is now becoming articulate in Haiti. Few places in the world rival Haiti in other recognizing women's leadership. In part, this is an inheritance of the religious Ezili land where women could be cult African homegious institutions with social leaders, even though the relithe public ceremonies. status were led by men, as were en's But the more significant source of womreligious power in Haiti is, Il believe, the recent shift in ily structure brought on by the movement of large numbers fampeople from the countryside to the cities. of When women's religious leadership is unfettered male trol, that religion begins to take account of the by conwomen's lives. Women become visible. In circumstances of spirits have begun to tell the stories of Vodou, the female point of view, in women's lives from their striking contrast to religious systems in which goddess figures function largely as the carriers of tions about women. male projecYet Haiti is a place in transition. Women's voices but they do not dominate. Perhaps are strong, they never will, and they never should. For example, when men perhaps Vodou spirits, the vision can still be serve the female a one. Alourdes's childhood friend thoroughly androcentric dream: "I saw this lady, this white Big Daddy once reported this come down to here. I1 He lady; and she have hair that traced a line below his she was tall, maybe six foot three. buttocks. "And and she was walking like this Inever 11 seen no lady like that, ing step combined with : Big Daddy imitated a minc- "And I'm a very sexy over-*the-shoulder thinking to myself, know glance. going to get that lady? You know you . . Oh, boy! How I'm was Ezili Freda! She : : . take her to bed. And that my wife, and I didn't even know. is real, let me tell you!" Ezili Freda imitates ideas The spirit have social power and of beauty that the target for dreams of prestige. For men, she can function as minds all people that these conquest. Speaking for women, she redangerous. values can be superficial and even Danto, in contrast, does not imitate the woman. She tells poor women's stories, socially empowered does it from their and, what is more, she perspective. Whatever her role hinted at by multiple, currently previous role-a her as a tree-dwelling unelaborated references to serpent-in contemporary urban Haiti The spirit have social power and of beauty that the target for dreams of prestige. For men, she can function as minds all people that these conquest. Speaking for women, she redangerous. values can be superficial and even Danto, in contrast, does not imitate the woman. She tells poor women's stories, socially empowered does it from their and, what is more, she perspective. Whatever her role hinted at by multiple, currently previous role-a her as a tree-dwelling unelaborated references to serpent-in contemporary urban Haiti --- Page 288 --- she is a prism focusing light on the single mother and head of household. Ezili Dantô functions these days to hidden lives and hidden truths to the surface. bring There is a story about conflict Ezili between Ezili Danto and Freda. Most people, most of the time, say that the scars Ezili Dantô's cheek come from wounds sustained in the slave revolt. on But there is an alternative explanation. Sometimesitis said because Danto was sleeping with her man, Maria Dolorosa that, (Ezili Freda) took the jeweled sword from her heart and slashed the face of her rival. In the tension between Freda and Dantô, Haitians questions of race as well as those of class and gender. Freda explore is a white woman and, as a result, a privileged woman who has the power to draw to herself both men and wealth. She and her status as wife and partner is legal and public. It marries, has financial and social solidity. Dantô is black, "black, black, black, 11 and, as a result, she is poor and must work hard. Danto does not marry. The men in her life are as poor as she is, and cannot be counted on. But Danto is fertile. Her best hope they for security and care in her old age lies with her children, her girl children. especially In Vodou, blackness and whiteness carry within them plete life scenarios, as they do on a wider social scale in comand in New York. In Port-au-Prince and in Haiti has wavered between these scenarios. Brooklyn, Alourdes She is which contributed to making her Philo's favorite child light-skinned, the object of desire for both Charles Desinor as well as walski. With these two and Antoine Komen, Alourdes played out parts of the Ezili Freda fantasy. She had a house, furniture, important servants. The circumstances of her life, however, and with her indomitable personality to push her much combined direction of Ezili Danto. There is another more in the urban Haiti and, way to say this. Life in probably to an even greater extent, life in York have pushed Alourdes to embrace who she is-a black New woman, born in poverty. Alourdes's strength lies in this rootedness and honesty. In a sense, Danto has won. She is the Alourdes calls "mother." one From another perspective, neither Danto nor Freda can entirely vanquish the other, because the tension between them speaks to a tension in women's lives. Women, especially women, are still being forced to make choices between poor essential , way to say this. Life in probably to an even greater extent, life in York have pushed Alourdes to embrace who she is-a black New woman, born in poverty. Alourdes's strength lies in this rootedness and honesty. In a sense, Danto has won. She is the Alourdes calls "mother." one From another perspective, neither Danto nor Freda can entirely vanquish the other, because the tension between them speaks to a tension in women's lives. Women, especially women, are still being forced to make choices between poor essential --- Page 289 --- of themselves. Freda's image of womanhood is powerful parts partly because it promises Haitian women who can meet its standards the social support that makes a stable union with a Until Danto finds her match and mate, Freda will man possible. Ezili continue to appear in the dreams of women like Alourdes. Only when reality is spiced with dreams, when survival skills are larded with sensuality and play does life move forward. Dreams alone lead to endless and fruitless searching. Freda acts that out. Yet a life geared entirely toward survival also has problems. It can become brittle and threatened by inner rage. Danto occasionally lets this rage escape into the open. Alourdes lives at the nexus of several spirit energies; Ezili Freda and Ezili Danto are only two. Lasyrenn, half black and half white, is a submerged third who hints at an elemental womanness in which what society now declares opposites can somehow come together. But Vodou allows no such easy syntheses, no neat or abstract resolution of the race, class, and gender politics of the Ezili sisters. It must be remembered that Lasyrenn is also the spirit who turns poor, ordinary women into community leaders and healers. She pulls them beneath the waters and gives them boons and spiritual instruction to which they would otherwise have no access. And, irony of ironies, lest the community miss the effectiveness of the transformation carried out below the water, Lasyrenn sends them back with longer, straighter hair and fairer skin. --- Page 290 --- --- Page 291 --- CHAPTER NINE --- Page 292 --- Sojème, Sojème A. nine o'clock in the morning Alourdes Margaux lay unmoving, eyes wide on July 16, 1979, headboard of her bed was draped with an open. The ornate of Santa Clara and an impasenormous plastic rosary. Images from the wall above. The noises of sive, pretty Jesus gazed out drifted into her darkened room. children playing in the hallway into the chamber pot She cleared her throat, rolled over, spat those children to beside the bed, and mumbled, "How come the got burst much noise?""Oh, Lawd!" she sighed, using make SO of breath to carry her body to a sitting position. of her bedIn a few minutes, she came padding out the door Alourdes and floppy slippers. room wearing a long nightgown children. "What turned a haggard face toward the offending 11 Mommie Lola, nine-year-old happen?" she asked. "Nothing, Batman!" Kumar chirped. "Michael and me was playing Alourdes de- "How come you still got pi'jama on you?" "Eleven o'clock, we to the hospital to see Maggie. manded. going when Karen come, you not You know that! If you not ready "I wanna see Michael, just a toddler, began to cry: going." Maggieeeeeel" Kumar, Mikey. You un- "So, go get clothes on you. you help as he took the derstand?" "Yes, Mommie Lola," Kumar replied child's hand and pulled him up the stairs. Alourdes watched landher son and grandson until they reached the second-floor and then she went down the staircase to the basement. ing, windows in the rear admitted only faint light to the Small with care, Alourdes made her way tobasement floor. Moving end of the house. In the dim ward her altar room at the opposite locating the right light, she fumbled with a ring of keys, finally drawing) for Danbala. he took the derstand?" "Yes, Mommie Lola," Kumar replied child's hand and pulled him up the stairs. Alourdes watched landher son and grandson until they reached the second-floor and then she went down the staircase to the basement. ing, windows in the rear admitted only faint light to the Small with care, Alourdes made her way tobasement floor. Moving end of the house. In the dim ward her altar room at the opposite locating the right light, she fumbled with a ring of keys, finally drawing) for Danbala. Port-au-Prince, A A manbo kisses a veve (cornmeal ground Haiti, 1989. --- Page 293 --- one and unlocking the door. Three times she she opened the door to the tiny knocked, and then to breathe in its room, pausing on the threshold comforting, familiar odors. Alourdes lighted a large votive candle on the ter of the room and then eased her table in the censtool between Gede's altar ample body down onto a low Sojème, the accoutrements and the tall metal cabinet that held Sojème of her Rada spirits. She lit and secured it in the coin slot of a stick of incense small, bright flame Papa Gede's money box. The quickly disappeared, and a began to climb the three steps of Gede's tendril of smoke grotesque wax skulls, a metal altar, curling around a huge crucifix, an old black top hat, and phallic cane. As the smoke diffused, Alourdes up, opened the Rada altar, and fanned clouds reached densely packed shelves. Her ofincense into its shadow. The light from family of Rada spirits rested in sional object: a white the candle picked out only an occacolored beads, porcelain cup with a lid and a of an image of Saint Patrick, a tiny bottle girdle perfume called Rêve d'Or. ofa French She offered libations to her ancestral bancourt rum activated the spirits. A splash of Baspirit of Papa Ogou; a ary ojat called to the slumbering dollop of sugfume enticed Ezili Freda serpent Danbala. A mist of perA to grace the company with her pungent bath of pepper-laced gin returned the presence. black rocks in a dish at the foot of shine to smooth Alourdes Papa Gede's altar. rose from her seat and into the closet on the opposite side of sprayed the perfume liberally Petwo spirits. The dark-skinned room, the home of her doll wore a faint smile, and Alourdes representing Ezili Danto odors of the room smiled back at her. As the them awoke, SO did its spirits, and Alourdes around her. She would need their drew day than on others. protection more on this settled back onto her Breathing deeply and slowly, Alourdes of the cross. stool, closed her eyes, and made the Putting her hands together as if she were sign delicate flower, she kissed her fingertips and bowed holding a prayer. her head in Maggie Sanchez had been awake since six o'clock nurses had come to take her when the and check the bottle into which temperature, her give her medication, The tube in her nose made her stomach tube was draining. need their drew day than on others. protection more on this settled back onto her Breathing deeply and slowly, Alourdes of the cross. stool, closed her eyes, and made the Putting her hands together as if she were sign delicate flower, she kissed her fingertips and bowed holding a prayer. her head in Maggie Sanchez had been awake since six o'clock nurses had come to take her when the and check the bottle into which temperature, her give her medication, The tube in her nose made her stomach tube was draining. but she was otherwise sound as if she had a bad cold, her usual exuberant self. plaining to her roommate, Mrs. Gonzales, Maggie was exthat she had to be out --- Page 294 --- Saturday because her new boyfriend had tickof the hospital by ets for the Bob Marley concert. dollar for those ticket, but "Somebody offer him two hundred You think Im want to hear Bob Marley. he say no. Everybody and let him take somebody else to that Sojème, going to stay in this bed Valente jeans, Sojème concert? No way José! I got me some new Sergio Besides, I think it just a little bit tight, but they look goooooood! know, I got hernia, is good to wear tight jean now, because, you tight, strangulated hernia, whatever. : : . IfI wear something move. Me and Barnett-he's Jamaican : : he that mean it don't to be like twin! We got some Sergio Valente, too-we going and to hear Marley and dance all night!" Maggie giggled going seductively beneath the hospital sheets. moved her hips across the sky and a surprisingly High clouds were scudding morning as Karen cool breeze was blowing on that Monday She Alourdes's door shortly after ten-thirty. Brown approached two ripe avocados in a paper bag. She carried a small offering, and then knocked more knocked, waited several minutes, she went down to the baseloudly. There was no response, SO she returned to the front ment door and kocked again. Finally, Alourdes apdoor to knock one last time, just as a puffy-eyed dressed in a twopeared, blinking in the sun. Alourdes was blue and white polka-dot outfit. The top had a flared piece, sleeves, and a Peter Pan collar. When she moved, waist, puffed between top and skirt. a glimpse of bare stomach appeared to Karen's solicitous Muttering only "Im all right" in response bedroom. Alourdes led the way down the hall to the query, television, and, without saying anyShe had been watching the two women sat side by thing, she returned to it. In silence, the last few minutes of a side on the end of the bed watching lurid documentary on plastic surgery. answered in a small, tired The phone rang. "Hello,". Alourdes "Why you voice. She listened for a long time before sputtering: do that? don't tell them? Why you don't tell me? How come he That not fair! Yes, we coming. Karen Nobody don't say nothing? the here. She going to drive us. Yes, we going to bring just get children. Okay. Okay." dress, sat in her This large woman, stuffed into a frilly girlish Her shadow-filled bedroom and curled into a ball of depression. her shoulders rounded over until her head features sagged, between them. She sat staring at looked like a boulder lodged a long time before sputtering: do that? don't tell them? Why you don't tell me? How come he That not fair! Yes, we coming. Karen Nobody don't say nothing? the here. She going to drive us. Yes, we going to bring just get children. Okay. Okay." dress, sat in her This large woman, stuffed into a frilly girlish Her shadow-filled bedroom and curled into a ball of depression. her shoulders rounded over until her head features sagged, between them. She sat staring at looked like a boulder lodged --- Page 295 --- the pink princess phone in her hand, idly buttons, sending it meaningless punching its lighted numbers. The phone messages, a random series of rup. The sound was began to protest: birrup. . . birrup. : . birAnd then from hypnotic, and it seemed to go on and on. beneath it another sound emerged: giggling and squealing. The television women Sojème, was the daytime version of "The program had changed. It Sojème the announcer Price Is Right." The voice of rose and fell in well-practiced, dulcet "Now, Sally, if you can guess the price of this showcase tones: going over, the whole thing is yours. The trip to the without islands, the waterbed, the home recreation Caribbean thing! Sally, how much do center, the whole worth?" you say this beautiful showcase is Birrup : . . birrup . . . birrup; the to signal distress. telephone continued Alourdes turned to Karen, her face fear fatigue. "How come showing as well as somebody do that? Doctor care of people. That not right! suppose to take tube in her and he Maggie say her doctor put that go on vacation. He to tell nobody what to do. So forget tell. . . he don't that tube inside her nobody don't do nothing. She have she one week- -more than one got some kind'a infection. They don't know week-and now to make that tube come out. Oh, how they going Maybe I love boy! Karen, I don't know. Maggie too much. I don't last know what happen. I don't sleep night. I don't sleep at all. I think about Maggie." 1 think too much . After a few minutes, Alourdes rallied. She ened her clothes, and began to stood up, straightnot ordinary sickness. Those apply lipstick. "You know, this gie got, not really. The doctor never figure out what Magspirit make Maggie sick. You know right? When they want you, there is no way that, "I imagine it's hard for you say no!" manbo, 11 Karen Maggie to think about becoming a She's suggested. "She has other things on her mind. young, she's in love, she wants to house of her get married, have a own. . Alourdes was quick to respond: "If she make me glad! That what I want for her-a get marry again, that husband who understand her. good life. She need That be good!" "Are you afraid of losing her?" Karen no, 11 Alourdes replied, "Ijust asked. "Mmmm . Karen asked worry about the sickness." one more question: "Is it important to Maggie serve the you that spirits : that she carry on for you?" "No, of her get married, have a own. . Alourdes was quick to respond: "If she make me glad! That what I want for her-a get marry again, that husband who understand her. good life. She need That be good!" "Are you afraid of losing her?" Karen no, 11 Alourdes replied, "Ijust asked. "Mmmm . Karen asked worry about the sickness." one more question: "Is it important to Maggie serve the you that spirits : that she carry on for you?" "No, --- Page 296 --- " Alourdes said. And then, almost as an afthat not important, after her." terthought, she added, "But I know they go back from visiting Maggie in the hospital, That evening, fed the children, and put them to bed. Alourdes cooked dinner, man who had Sojème, Then she worked with two clients, one a young Sojème lost his job, the other a woman trying to get a visa to bring just the States. When the clients had gone her grown son to United returned to her sanctuary. and the house was quiet, Alourdes the votive candle still The doors of the spirits' altars were open; and up her burned. Alourdes sat down on the low stool picked beads and snake vertebrae slithered across the surason. China Then they rustled. Fiface of the gourd. First they whispered. of the small room echoed nally they pounded until the walls a sound. With her free hand, Alourdes picked up with urgent and sprayed itin a fine mist over bottle of rum, took a mouthful, the Gede and Rada altars. pou mwen. Gede!" she called. "Ale! Ale nan pitit-mwen "Papa trètmen pou li Papa Gede! Ale jwen Maggie nan lopital-la. M'pral fe Gede! Go find Gede! Go! Go to my little one for me. Papa [Papa Iam to make a treatment for her]. Maggie in that hospital. going of While . ou tout [all youl!" Papa Danbala : : . Papa Ogou . Alourdes began to rap on shaking the ason with her right hand, the altars with her left. She was calling her spirits to action. "M'jete ti dlo pou Maggie [I am pouring a libation for Maggie)," into she said. "Kite baton pase nan men mwen [Let the club pass nan lopital [Go find my little one my hand]. Ale jwen pitit-mwen to knock harder on the altar in the hospital Alourdes began and faster. She badgered the walls and to shake the ason faster of Creole and Enspirits and pleaded with them in a jumble mistè-a Come on! Help pitit-mwen glish. "Come on, [spirits]! to that hospital). Come on, (my little one]. Ale nan lopital-la [Go Bring Danbala! Maggie se ti-moun ou [Maggie is your child]. Papa 11 In the ason fell silent and dangled from her li[her] to me." time, no more pleading. For limp hand. There was no more knocking, trying to discern while Alourdes sat, quiet and attentive, a long of the in the rushing of her own blood. the will spirits tethered by her stomMaggie lay restless in her hospital bed, intraach tube and a board strapped to her right arm holding an first needle in place. Her back ached. Her body itched, venous and then another. Her mind raced with images, in one place memories, plans. her li[her] to me." time, no more pleading. For limp hand. There was no more knocking, trying to discern while Alourdes sat, quiet and attentive, a long of the in the rushing of her own blood. the will spirits tethered by her stomMaggie lay restless in her hospital bed, intraach tube and a board strapped to her right arm holding an first needle in place. Her back ached. Her body itched, venous and then another. Her mind raced with images, in one place memories, plans. --- Page 297 --- "It all start when I lose that po-tèt. That is when start. I just finish kouche. all the trouble port-Puerto . Those stupid people in the air265 Rican! Hah! Take my suitcase. 'We call you when we find it.' I Hah! are going to know, maybe they think They don't even look! I don't shoes. It's they going to find jewelry, my fault. I should not put money, Sojème, my suitcase. I think sometimes something SO important in Sojème the reason I'm going crazy, and I think : because they took my po-tèt. Next that going to keep it right in my hand. Even if time, I am take that on the airplane they tell me I cannot even if they think that some kind'a bomb-nobody going to take that out of my hand. nobody. : . Il know it run in the family. In Nobody : . that. Not my family. In some family, men do Iknow my family, only women. That mean me! they want me, those spirit. It's a strain. push myself, saying no. Idon't want : . : I'm trying to to be like them mother - . : like my grandmother. Life is . : . like my different. SO hard. New : . . People here they don't York is damn! I can do it for special care, they don't give a people, people that I my children get sick, I know. . . If all hour of the can. . . butI don't want. : . They come day and night: 'Mommie I mie Lola, I got that; Lola, got this; Momlife. I could you got to help me.' Not me! I do it, kouche. I know got my own who kouche, they don't they want it. . . . Lot'a work as manbo. I won't be people manbo full-time. : . - I just go and do working as will leave me alone!" it. : . : Maybe then they Maggie's eyes snapped open. The room was eerie familiar. Stripes of light and unpulsated on the walls-street shining through venetian blinds. Her roommate lamps sleep. Maggie raised her groaned in her back legs, one after the other, and let drop onto the bed with a dull thud. She each rolled her head from side to side. heaved a sigh and Slowly, her eyes closed. 'A po-tèt (head pot) is the most important product of Usually a white porcelain cup with a lid, it Vodou initiation rituals. who would otherwise dwell in the heads of provides the initiates. an external home for the spirits, plete, the po-tèt becomes a focal point for personal After the initiation is comagitated or troubled, for example, he or she can bathe ritualizing. When an initiate feels spray it with perfume. Maggie went through the first the po-tèt in cool water and 1977, completing all of the rituals the final stages of initiation in Haiti in manbo with an ason. For her return except to New one that would have made her a suitcase and checked the bag at the Port-au-Prince York, Maggie packed her head pot in her Maggie arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where airport. When Alourdes and was nowhere to be found. they were to change planes, the bag bathe ritualizing. When an initiate feels spray it with perfume. Maggie went through the first the po-tèt in cool water and 1977, completing all of the rituals the final stages of initiation in Haiti in manbo with an ason. For her return except to New one that would have made her a suitcase and checked the bag at the Port-au-Prince York, Maggie packed her head pot in her Maggie arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where airport. When Alourdes and was nowhere to be found. they were to change planes, the bag --- Page 298 --- alone. The plumb- "It's just that I am tired of doing everything kitchen. Anything break, I fix it. I'm the one who paint my ing The children! I am tired. . happen, I'm the one responsible! Itis hard being alone. . It's just thatIam tired. I got to sleep. to happen, Sojème, The first time I see Barnett, I know something Nedick's. going He look at me Sojème when he interview me for that job at work?' You just hard, and then he say, 'How do I know you can the table. andI grab that rag and start to clean watch mel'I say, tell which part he watchAll the time he watching me-andIcan like this. . Heh, heh, heh. So I move like this : . . and ing! Barnett this big smile on his face. He When I turn around, got to out by Friday. Every- 'Okay, you got the job." I got get say, hear Bob Marley. I got to put a hem in those Serbody want to gio Valente. : 11 At last Maggie slept. that she stood by the In the middle of the night, she dreamed Morne, a place she labapen tree on her family property in Gros 11 the spirits called, had never visited. "Come, come, little one, beneath followed the sound of their voices to a spot and Maggie snakes, began to fall from its the tree. Then snakes, little green her! One fell down the front of branches. They were all around She began to scream her shirt and got caught in her brassiere. and jump and tear at her clothes. No, no, no! making its Alourdes lay on her back and stared at a cockroach and the It was three o'clock in the morning, way across ceiling. A small votive candle burned on she had yet to close her eyes. of Lourdes. She was her dresser before an image of Our Lady birth. Alourdes remembering her thinking about Maggie again, when her water broke. She stood up had been at a soccer match that the back of her to cheer for the home team and discovered father, left the stadress was soaked. She and Charles, Maggie's and they went dium right away. Her bag was already packed, in that clinic waitright to the clinic. For three long days, she lay to happen. There was no real pain, just presing for something ache in her back. The sure, awful pressure, and a throbbing doctor could not figure out what to do. third Philo Around six o'clock in the evening on the day, but of her Papa Ogou was riding Philo, came to see daughter. who knew that, and even she course Alourdes was the only one Papa Ogou dimly aware of what was happening. was only Alourdes-a bottle. He put it bebrought something to help the bottle explodedhind her bed before he left. At midnight, ing for something ache in her back. The sure, awful pressure, and a throbbing doctor could not figure out what to do. third Philo Around six o'clock in the evening on the day, but of her Papa Ogou was riding Philo, came to see daughter. who knew that, and even she course Alourdes was the only one Papa Ogou dimly aware of what was happening. was only Alourdes-a bottle. He put it bebrought something to help the bottle explodedhind her bed before he left. At midnight, --- Page 299 --- bwaaaaam! The night nurse jumped and urine she was dropped a beaker of carrying, and, at the same the first stab of pain. Labor moment, Alourdes felt day, the baby's head had began in earnest. By noon the next moved crowned. But hours later, the no further down the birth canal. baby had Her doctor was Sojème, out with becoming nervous. He tried to pull the Sojème forceps. He tried eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve baby Alourdes began to hemorrhage. The front of the times. was soaked in blood; Alourdes saw hands and doctor's coat blood. She was going in and out of clothing red with put her in the back of his car and took consciousness. her The doctor At ten o'clock that night, to the city hospital. Maggie was born by cesarean weighing an astonishing seventeen section, he cleaned out Alourdes's pounds and ten ounces. As womb, the doctor also removed partially formed fetus of a dead twin brother. the The pain was hard to recall in detail; Alourdes only that there had been a lot of it when remembered could accept this suffering. When Maggie was born. She it, she simply referred to the she made any effort to explain supposed to suffer in childbirth. biblical mandate that women are "That what God they got to have pain. Men work and say, "Women, got to have pain when sweat, 111 but women, they could they get a baby. The pain bring later in their lives was harder for Alourdes children plain and much harder for her to bear-what to excame with loving them, needing them, vulnerability This was what she could not make depending on them! sleepless night. "What if she die! peace with on that lonely, Barnett and leave? What What if? What if she marry tions. if . . .?" These were unaskable Alourdes blinked hard and decided to think of quesunrelated to pain. something She remembered staying in the hospital for weeks after Maggie was born. On more than two day in Haiti, the president of the September 14, a national holithe city hospital. When he country, Paul Magloire, visited twice as saw Maggie in the large as any other baby there), nursery (easily lungs and waving her little clenched yelling at the top of her thought to himself, "there is fists, he smiled, "Ah," " he some life left in the country. I will give the mother of youth of this Magloire this one a reward." President dollars. presented Alourdes with a check for three hundred More than a quarter of a century later, Alourdes lay in her rbed Paul Magloire, visited twice as saw Maggie in the large as any other baby there), nursery (easily lungs and waving her little clenched yelling at the top of her thought to himself, "there is fists, he smiled, "Ah," " he some life left in the country. I will give the mother of youth of this Magloire this one a reward." President dollars. presented Alourdes with a check for three hundred More than a quarter of a century later, Alourdes lay in her rbed --- Page 300 --- thinking about how good things sometimes can in Fort Greene, when she drifted briefly into come out of bad. She smiled. Yet to a new house, a Alourdes dreamed she had to move sleep, She had no money to hire professional movers, smaller one. too for her to carry by herself. She Sojème, and the furniture was big Sojème could find no one to help her carry it. the next The nurses arrived at Maggie's beside very early her a shot to make her drowsy and relaxed. morning. They gave her bed. They were Six men in white coats soon surrounded had become imbedded here to remove the tube that they feared remembered was in her stomach wall. The last thing Maggie to have your one of them whisper: "The chief is going hearing for this one!" Then she was deep in a dream. ass in a sling When she came in the front She had been away. Traveling. her. She sether suitdoor of her house, no one was there to greet 'Mommie, beside the door and went down to theb basement. case she called. Several women she did Mommie! Where are you?" what looked like not know were busy in the kitchen preparing white. The basement living room was all food for a banquet. from the ceiling. White sheets COVSheet canopies were draped had been arered the walls and the floor. A large sleeping pallet in the center of the floor, with space for several people. ranged dressed all in white, was shaking out a billowing Alourdes, white sheet and spreading it over the bed. why did you make a big bed like that?" Maggie "Mommie, Alourdes said nonchalantly, because asked. "I made it large,". to kouche. There is going it is not only one person who is going said, "Oh, to be more than one who is going to kouche. Maggie break for the And then she turned and tried to make a yeah?" doorway. she went in the wrong direction and ended up in Somehow, huge plates of food. Things the kitchen dodging women carrying around, skidded on the Maggie spun Hpped-spiled-woke back toward the door. She stumbled, linoleum floor, and ran then, she was SO panicked she her feet entangled in sheets. By "Excuse failed to notice the creature occupying the doorway. as if to I1 she said breathlessly and made a movement me, please, "Where do you think you are going?" the creashove it aside. ture said in a deep, resonating voice. to kouche. I do not "I am trying to save myself. I am not going skidded on the Maggie spun Hpped-spiled-woke back toward the door. She stumbled, linoleum floor, and ran then, she was SO panicked she her feet entangled in sheets. By "Excuse failed to notice the creature occupying the doorway. as if to I1 she said breathlessly and made a movement me, please, "Where do you think you are going?" the creashove it aside. ture said in a deep, resonating voice. to kouche. I do not "I am trying to save myself. I am not going --- Page 301 --- want to kouche, 1 Maggie panted. The creature the entire doorway, and expanded to fill was a giant cobra. Its head Maggie realized for the first time that it upper body swelled to reared up, its hood flared, and its away. The cobra began to gigantic proportions. Maggie backed fore she heard it. The floor speak again. Maggie felt its voice beSojème, traveling her was vibrating, and the vibration was Sojème up legs. It took a while before she words. could Everything was in slow motion decipher her ears, in her body. : the voice a roar in "Get on your knees! Right now! Swear three don't do it, I am going to swallow times! If you opened its mouth wider and you!" And then the cobra wider, until nothing but a huge cavern of moist, Maggie could see dropped to her knees and raised her pale white meat. Maggie she raised her hand, and three right hand. Three times times she said: sojème.2 I will do it. I will take the ason. 11 "Sojème, sojème, "Sojème, sojème, sojème . . 11 Maggie mumbled worked the tube loose and as the doctors "Miss Sanchez, pulled it up through her Miss Sanchez!" One of the doctors esophagus. gently. "It's all over now. You can sit shook her swear I will do it," Maggie up." "Sojème, sojème . : . I whispered. "You don't have to do anything more, Miss Sanchez. It's over.' 11 At approximately the same time, the pink by Alourdes's bed rang, waking her from the princess first telephone she had had in two days. Her voice sound sleep picked it up and collapsed back was thick and foggy as she cradled next to her onto the pillow with the ear. phone "No, that's all right, sweetheart. I got to Oh, Maggie going to be okay. No, I don't talk get up. Huh : - . ? got a dream about her. Just when to her today. ButI Gabriel. You don't remember you call, I was dream about Haiti, him? He my old you know. He my boyfriend boyfriend. In Gabriel come to see me. I 'Come long time . . . long time. can't. My girlfriend in the say, in, sit down.' He say, 'I 'Oh, hospital. I have to go see her.' I Gabby, you going to that girlfriend to say, say, 'You too old to let woman give me trouble?' mad. He say, Im not run you like that!' And then he going to pay you no mind. And he left. Sojème is an African word that has been preserved in employed for swearing serious oaths. Vodou langay, where it is --- Page 302 --- Everytime I dream Gabriel, I know that Papa Gede. 3 Papa Gede going to the hospital to see Maggie. When I dream that, I know everything going to be okay." Sojème, Sojème 3Saint Gabriel is one of the Catholic saints conflated with Gede, the spirit of humor, sex, and death and the protector of small children. This Vodou spirit is also the master of the healing arts. --- Page 303 --- : La TE N CHAPTER --- Page 304 --- Danbala In 1931, Melville Herskovits that the Fon of Dahomey (the modern West African renoted still mourned the loss ofl kin to the trans-Atlantic public of Benin) recorded this remarkable prayer, which slave trade. Sojème 3Saint Gabriel is one of the Catholic saints conflated with Gede, the spirit of humor, sex, and death and the protector of small children. This Vodou spirit is also the master of the healing arts. --- Page 303 --- : La TE N CHAPTER --- Page 304 --- Danbala In 1931, Melville Herskovits that the Fon of Dahomey (the modern West African renoted still mourned the loss ofl kin to the trans-Atlantic public of Benin) recorded this remarkable prayer, which slave trade. Herskovits over an altar to the unknown was chanted as blood was poured that princes and dead: "Oh, ancestors, do all in your power slaves to nobles who today rule never be sent away from here as the to do all in your power to punish Ame'ika, . . . We pray you whom we shall never see people who bought our kinsmen, again." sentiment is more than a historical grudge. Such long-held cult with deities recogAlthough there is in Dahomey a public life is ancestor nized by all, the heart of Dahomean religious lineveneration. These rites necessarily occur within specific their depend on the day-to-day protection of agesDahomeans and they fear the anger of any of their family lineage ancestors, also believe in a form of dead who might be neglected. They the loss of kin reincarnation. For all these reasons, intralineage slave trade diminished every family repreto the European This loss did not dissipate with time, sented on the slave ships. of the living on both and it continues to threaten the well-being of Haiti, a sides of the Atlantic. In the popular naïve painting off is a leafless tree whose branches have been lopped blighted, motif. Like the Dahomean prayer, it testifies to the recurrent slavery. persistent sense of loss occasioned by Herskovits, Dahomey: An Ancient West African Kingdom (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern 'Melville J. University Press, 1967), 2:64. wall of Saint Patrick (Danbala) and Saint Peter (Legba). Port-au4 Prince, Temple Haiti, 1980. painting Photograph by Judith Gleason. --- Page 305 --- from which many Haitian slaves were In Dahomey, an area the most ancient of the ancestral taken, Dambada Hwedo is dead who lived for the powerful spirits. He stands collectively those in the deep past, the Danbala too long ago to be remembered, who lived before the ancesmembers of any particular lineage before the mythic time of even tral cult was in place, perhaps each group. Thus Dambada ancestors claimed by the founding role in the elaborate and expensive ceremoHwedo has a key dead in their role as accessible, pronies to establish the lineage between these for the living." Decades may pass tective spirits but the name of each one of the enormous ritual undertakings, ceremonies must be performed to redead must be called, and firstinits own "house" trieve each soul and to enshrine each one Dambada Hwedo also and then in the family altar. In this ritual, lineage dead, those represents the more recent anonymous who were never known to such as the descendants of slaves, their African kin. the Dahomeans say-that repreDa is a spirit-or vody as force more accube called life or, perhaps sents what might movement that is life's movement. rately, the coiling, sinuous teachers: In the words of one of Herskovits's called Da, but all snakes are not respected. The All snakes are It is a living quality expressed vody Da is more than a snake. and moist; all things that in all things that are flexible, sinuous do not move on feet, though fold and refold and coil, and through the air. The sometimes those things that are Da go have the umthese and smoke, and SO rainbow has qualities, too. bilical cord, and some say the nerves, of other spirits who have similar Around Da is gathered a group Hwedo and Aido Hwedo. qualities. Among them are Dambada 2Ibid., 1:194-208. source of the name currently given to Haitian Vodou. that in all things that are flexible, sinuous do not move on feet, though fold and refold and coil, and through the air. The sometimes those things that are Da go have the umthese and smoke, and SO rainbow has qualities, too. bilical cord, and some say the nerves, of other spirits who have similar Around Da is gathered a group Hwedo and Aido Hwedo. qualities. Among them are Dambada 2Ibid., 1:194-208. source of the name currently given to Haitian Vodou. The Fon word vody is the outsiders to the whole of Haitian traditional religion. The name Vodou is applied by vodou more commonly refers to a particular drum In Haiti, however, the term referred to with a verb rather than a noun; Haitians rhythm. The religion is usually I1 talk of "serving the spirits. *Herskovits, Dahomey, 2: 248. --- Page 306 --- is sometimes depicted as a creature, both Aido Hwedo, a male, swallows its own tail. snake and rainbow, that rites and the public cultus In urban Haiti, where ancestral become Danbala Wèdo, Dambada Hwedo has have merged, the rank of the spirit hierarchy. He has Danbala and he has moved to top of all the Vodou lwa. become the oldest and the most respected the wife of Aido Hwedo has become Ayida Wèdo, In Haiti, are and rainbows) Danbala. Together, the two (both serpents and its rethe rainbow arch over the broad ocean. Alternately, into a circle. Some flection in the water below turn the serpent has one foot-that is, one end of the rainbow-on say Danbala moisture, which he then deposits the ocean where he draws up the other foot planted in the form of life-giving water through thus moves between firmly in the mountains of Haiti. Danbala them in of land and water, as snakes do, uniting the opposites generating life. Danbala also his coiling, uroboric movements, the land the earth, as snakes do, connecting tunnels through above with the waters below. on which The sacred center pole in Vodou temples, a pathway home, the lwa travel between Ginen, their watery subterranean the middle and the land of the living is called the poto-mitan, survive the Like a snake, which can doorway, or poto-Danbala. Danbala also modin even the hottest and most arid landscape, to an inhoswill to live that will not surrender els the persistent merciless and unrelenting sun is a pitable environment. The endured and recurring metaphor for all the sufferings powerful and their descendants in the New World. by African slaves do Danbala, m'pa ka sipôte solèy SOIL mrven"-this popular "Papa for Danbala's help because "I cannot Vodou song cries out Papa abide the sun on my back." Danbala receives all In the Vodou temple, the serpent spirit in Haiti, routinely accorded the elderly the care and respect his extreme and his status as magnified in his case to suit age lva. Papa Danbala is SO old that, in posesiowpestomancer "ke-ke-ke" sound. His horse hisses or makes a he cannot speak. and white. He is given ojat (a Danbala's food is natural, raw, uncracked and unblemthick almond and sugar syrup) and an of that has been balanced in a mound farin frans ished raw egg that he instinctively avoids (refined flour). Danbala is SO pure does direct anything dirty, and thus he never any touching va. Papa Danbala is SO old that, in posesiowpestomancer "ke-ke-ke" sound. His horse hisses or makes a he cannot speak. and white. He is given ojat (a Danbala's food is natural, raw, uncracked and unblemthick almond and sugar syrup) and an of that has been balanced in a mound farin frans ished raw egg that he instinctively avoids (refined flour). Danbala is SO pure does direct anything dirty, and thus he never any touching --- Page 307 --- healing work. He does not involve himself in the tred, and fear that lard the human drama jealousy, haSO much suffering. and are at the root of Instead, he stands above the war, shedding luck on all who come into his human tug-ofpropriate love and respect. presence with apTo let Danbala slither between Danbala walk his length straddling his your legs or, alternatively, to be reborn at the same time. writhing body is to give birth and a coiling, sinuous Danbala plays tricks with time. As force that serpent, he is a persistent, unites past and present and turns unquenchable life that is and is not different from the both into a future up its skin in order to recreate itself past. The serpent, who gives connects Haitians to their lost and thus remain what it is, African same time, shows them how to be flexible ancestors and, at the whatever the future brings. The enough to adapt to tity carries, in the most condensed serpent part of Danbala's identhis lwa's character, and it also form, the many messages of with Saint Patrick. In the accounts for his identification ferred by Haitians, he is chromolithograph shown of Saint Patrick premeets water, in a tangle of standing at a point where land writhing snakes. Alourdes's New York birthday parties for the like those celebrated in Haiti, have Vodou spirits, Priyè Deyô (Outside a prologue known as the named in this Prayers). Although Danbala is not directly in lists of the prologue la, he except where his name naturally occurs nevertheless insinuates text throughout this opening himself into the Priyè Deyo, whose form is segment the of Vodou ritualizing. The is the guest of honor, same no matter which spirit and begin with standard Catholic hymns. By their end, however, a prayers has gradually shed its skin and thoroughly Catholic ethos can one. emerged as a thoroughly AfriPRIYÈ DEYO There is no single, dramatic moment at which mony in Alourdes's home a Vodou cereing attention to begins. At some point, without callwooden herself, Alourdes sinks down onto stool in front of her elaborate altar the low sign of the cross, and begins. It tables, makes the usually takes a little time for all ymns. By their end, however, a prayers has gradually shed its skin and thoroughly Catholic ethos can one. emerged as a thoroughly AfriPRIYÈ DEYO There is no single, dramatic moment at which mony in Alourdes's home a Vodou cereing attention to begins. At some point, without callwooden herself, Alourdes sinks down onto stool in front of her elaborate altar the low sign of the cross, and begins. It tables, makes the usually takes a little time for all --- Page 308 --- to notice she has started. The Catholithe people in the room her home in Brooklyn is the Cathol276 cism Alourdes celebrates in more than that of and intonation icism of gesture, rhythm, in the Our Father, the Hail Mary, creed. She leads her people in a rapid, low murmur Danbala and the Apostles' Creed, all in French, mood. Yet the cona Catholic that quite accurately reproduces their emphatent of these prayers and songs-and, specifically, in the end be and incamation-cannot sis on sin, salvation, worldview. easily assimilated into a Vodou and most responsible of First, the older women, the steadiest Then the other Alourdes's ritual helpers, take up the singing. join in. "Come, my God, come; come, my guests gradually and the people join in: sweet Savior, 1 Alourdes sings in French, Come, my God, come; Come, my sweet Savior. Come reign within me, In the center of my heart. Come, my God, come. through a second song rapidly, sotto voce, Alourdes sings and the people pick it up: The angel of the Lord said to Mary That she would conceive Jesus Christ, The Trinity having chosen. And she conceived, by the Holy Spirit. the have been baptized and Many Haitians who serve spirits in the Catholic church. It have received their First Communion their nevertheless, that they have ever understood is doubtful, beliefs or concepts such as those conCatholicism to be about tained in these songs. into the Vodou attitude toward I gained an important insight in a VodouCatholicism in 1975, when I participated popular town northin Saut d'Eau, a small mountain Catholic pilgrimage Vodou ceremonies for Ezili Danto, which east of Port-au-Prince. baptized and Many Haitians who serve spirits in the Catholic church. It have received their First Communion their nevertheless, that they have ever understood is doubtful, beliefs or concepts such as those conCatholicism to be about tained in these songs. into the Vodou attitude toward I gained an important insight in a VodouCatholicism in 1975, when I participated popular town northin Saut d'Eau, a small mountain Catholic pilgrimage Vodou ceremonies for Ezili Danto, which east of Port-au-Prince. --- Page 309 --- drew large crowds, were held every a short the Church of Our Lady of Mount day distance from hosted the event. Each Carmel, which supposedly morning for a week day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, preceding the feast ceremonies, I attended before going to the Vodou mass at this church with Danbala companion, a woman who was both a manbo and my traveling Catholic. Toward the end of the week, when a baptized no longer contain itself, I asked her how my curiosity could Catholic priest's she felt about the repeated insistence that those Vodou spirits would go to hell. She who serve the "Oh, didn't you know, Karen? That's laughed at my question: I did not hear this as a sign of the way priests talk!" but rather, on one level, my friend'signorance or naïveté as a wonderful with which Haitians turn the example of the skill them. On a power of oppressors back against deeper level, I heard it as a cially claimlthativords, ideological ones, can appear frivolous and espeable when compared to the complex comment even expendgoes on in a full ritual context, on the world that other words, the including that of the mass. In less of what mass continued to be effective for her, was said during it - regardOnce Alourdes is well into the Priyè Deyo, her voice pick up momentum. The opening begins to mony tunnels slowly segment of a Vodou ceretian history. The first through the archaeological strata of HaiCatholic part comes from the most recent one derived largely from layer, the plantation society. But the eighteenth-century French increments of sound, ceremony quickly moves by gradual semble the energy, and rhythm toward songs that asgroup and summon the lwa in Creole the sacred language of Vodou and in langay, bered African words and composed of partially rememdisguised Creole. Things start to heat up before the Catholic pleted. Alourdes begins the first line of a segment is comlast line of the new song before the previous one has died away. When her rises, SO does that of the entire room. the energy duces songs for Saint By time she introPeter, a Catholic counterpart Lazarus) ofLegba, guardian of (along with is attentive and has found its full doorways and barriers, the group voice. Saint Peter, open the door. Saint Peter, open the door to grace. guised Creole. Things start to heat up before the Catholic pleted. Alourdes begins the first line of a segment is comlast line of the new song before the previous one has died away. When her rises, SO does that of the entire room. the energy duces songs for Saint By time she introPeter, a Catholic counterpart Lazarus) ofLegba, guardian of (along with is attentive and has found its full doorways and barriers, the group voice. Saint Peter, open the door. Saint Peter, open the door to grace. --- Page 310 --- Saint Peter, open the door, The door to Paradise. rise and fall, rise and fall as we move through one Danbala The rhythms hymn or chant after another. Grace, Mary, grace. Grace, Mary, grace. Grace, Mary, grace. Jesus, forgive us. At the end of the sequence of Catholic prayers and songs, usually signals a break in the Priyè Deyo. She may Alourdes heave a sigh, and reach for a drink of simply stop singing, small conversations begin to water. In response to her signal, Alourdes break out around the room. Someone makes a joke. minutes the The conversation picks up, and for a few guffaws. room is abuzz. as Alourdes picks Then suddenly the ritualizing begins again and shakes it which has been lying at her feet, up the ason, she begins to take the comsoftly. Once the ason is introduced, of the ceremony with a munity rapidly down into the firstlayers rustles over the distinct African flavor. The bead mesh gently for rattle. Yet the dominant sound, surface of the small gourd bell attached to the handle of the moment, is made by the small with a line in Alourdes begins a litany of the saints the ason. li mache, li malangay: "Zo li mache, li mache, li mache. . . Kouran che, li mache. . be translated by common folk. Theoretically, langay cannot and manbo do not know Alourdes says that even many oungan at least I can sometimes decipher what it means. Nevertheless, distortions of Creole. These disthose parts of it that are simple in which, for example, tortions follow some general patterns lines of the litany kouman (how) becomes kouran. The opening it walks. How for the saints appear to say: "The bone, it walks, be heard as it walks, it walks. 11 This translation, if accurate, can in the bones an arcane comment on the life energy that persists mesh of ancestors. Alourdes's ason is covered in a many of the means. Nevertheless, distortions of Creole. These disthose parts of it that are simple in which, for example, tortions follow some general patterns lines of the litany kouman (how) becomes kouran. The opening it walks. How for the saints appear to say: "The bone, it walks, be heard as it walks, it walks. 11 This translation, if accurate, can in the bones an arcane comment on the life energy that persists mesh of ancestors. Alourdes's ason is covered in a many of the --- Page 311 --- multicolored glass beads and a few snake common type these days. But some older vertebrae, the most Haiti have mesh covers made ones I have seen in brae. In these vertebrae entirely of delicate snake vertesleep the sparks of Danbala's life ergy, sparks that ignite when the bones dance enof the gourd rattle. over the surface Danbala The litany of the saints continues. "Zo li mache, li bone, it walks, it walks]," Alourdes mache [The people follow, from sings. And the voices of the for rising these first two lines in a moment on one in Creolelangay to rest [My life in the hands of God and "Lavi'm nan men Bondye e sen-yo the on to name, in French, each of the saints]"-before moving of the saints is sung midway important saints. The litany tinuous soft through the Priyè Deyo. The conshaking of the ason as well as the mixture guages hint at what is to come, for this is the of lanfrom the solemn Catholic first clear shift energizing beginnings of the Priyè Deyo to the cross-rhythms of Vodou with which The litany begins by each they end. male saints, invoking of the most starting with the great Eternal Father. In important Alourdes sings, "II y a le grand Père Éternel, -1 and the French, spond in langay, "Sen djo-e. 11 Alourdes people repeople respond again in repeats the line, and langay, "Sen djo, peats it a third and final time, and the dogou agwe. She re- "My life in the hands of God and people reply in Creole, Christ, Saint Anthony, Saint the saints." After calling others in similar Joseph, Saint Isidore, and a dozen fashion, Alourdes ends the first half litany: "There are all the sainted men in heaven and of the those I do not know and do not remember. 11 on earth, all repeated, and the people give the Three times this is in langay, once in Creole, Then the traditional responses, twice for the female saints, same process is carried out starting with the with "All those I do not know and Virgin Mary and ending tian do not remember. 11 Thus Haiimmigrants in Brooklyn begin their sacred lineage in a manner not unrelated ritualizing by reciting a priest must do at a to what the Dahomean that priest, ceremony to establish his lineage dead. Like Alourdes includes an extra not remembered or never known. invocation for all those At the conclusion of the litany ofthe female of the ason picks up to a feverish saints, the sound into line after line intensity as Alourdes breaks ofrapid langay, an urgent jumble of sounds in . 11 Thus Haiimmigrants in Brooklyn begin their sacred lineage in a manner not unrelated ritualizing by reciting a priest must do at a to what the Dahomean that priest, ceremony to establish his lineage dead. Like Alourdes includes an extra not remembered or never known. invocation for all those At the conclusion of the litany ofthe female of the ason picks up to a feverish saints, the sound into line after line intensity as Alourdes breaks ofrapid langay, an urgent jumble of sounds in --- Page 312 --- words and fragments of Creole tumble over each which African the of the ason. other as if drawn toward a climax by energy and "Lisa dole Zo, 115 she chants, and the people, clapping softly of zo." 11 Alourdes continues over the top rapidly, say, "Zo, ZO, ongansi, ila lele, 0 zoli Danbala their response: "Lisa dole ZO, kouran agwaysa mache, li mache, li mache." I1 the cereIn Haiti, where drums almost always accompany of the saints is the langay crescendo ending the litany monies, to begin. When the complex polythe signal for drumming in over the end of this rapid rhythms of the drums come rolling The drumming chanting, the effect is stunning and paradoxical. level dramatically and, at the same time, gives raises the energy and langay, each of order to the frenzy of ason, handclapping, chaos. Afterthe drums which had seemed about to dissolvei into action and never enter, the ason, which is used to direct ritual beat and instrument, slows to a steady simply as a musical finds its then, after a time, is silent. The handclapping gradually to enter into conversation with the cross-rhythms own rhythm transmutes into the familiar Creole of the drums, and the langay York, Alourdes has no of the first of the Vodou songs. In New raised the drums at her ceremonies. Here, the excess energy by slowly through social excrescendo of the litany dissipates and with lean back in their chairs, talk laugh change: people their friends. Alourdes begins the Creole After a short period of socializing, called and of the Priyè Deyô, in which the group is together reminded part of who they are and where they come from. Lafanmi sanble, Sanble nan. Se Kreyol nou ye, Pa genyen Ginen ankô. androgynous spirit called Mawu- *Dahomean religion contains an important spoken of as two separate entities, Mawu (a Lisa. This figure, who is sometimes of the world, the so-called high god. In female) and Lisa (a male), is the creator and Mawu-Lisa has been largely Haiti, Bondye has taken over the role of high in this god, line of langay ("Lisa gives bones") forgotten. The enigmatic reference to Lisa community retains even a shard seems to be the only instance in which Alourdes's of memory of the Dahomean creator spirit. omean religion contains an important spoken of as two separate entities, Mawu (a Lisa. This figure, who is sometimes of the world, the so-called high god. In female) and Lisa (a male), is the creator and Mawu-Lisa has been largely Haiti, Bondye has taken over the role of high in this god, line of langay ("Lisa gives bones") forgotten. The enigmatic reference to Lisa community retains even a shard seems to be the only instance in which Alourdes's of memory of the Dahomean creator spirit. --- Page 313 --- The family is assembled, Gathered in. We are Creoles, Who have Africa no longer. Danbala Haitians who serve the spirits seem to have they "have Africa no longer. 11 For those who accepted that New York, having Haiti-in the serve the spirits in ries of life in Haiti-is the sense of having actual memomore poignant issue. Haitians coming to the United States in large numbers after started valier came to power rin 1957, but most of the François Duwho live in the New York nearly half million fifteen area arrived within the past ten to years. Thus, among the group gathered in home, virtually every adult Haitian has active, Alourdes's of Haiti. And many have earlier rural living memories later urban ones. memories overlaid with As they participate in these New York rituals, back in their minds to touch memories of they can reach uals and dancing beneath candle-lit cemetery ritCreole, they an open-air tonnèl. When they in sing in their first language. With the sing memory, they can add the sound of drums to the power of that goes on in Alourdes's basement. When handclapping Vodou songs in New York, they gather to sing some with car keys in their wearing their new double-knits, still resonates with pockets, the imagery of these their deepest sense of who are. songs sugarcane and cassava bread on Azaka's they The bala's, the altar, the ojat on Danhot-pepper sauce on Ogou's are foods to the primal memories of childhood. with tastes tied This is not SO for the first generation born in this children such as Alourdes's son Kumar and her country, for chael, who prefer potato chips to cassava bread. grandson Mifor those of us with other cultural And it is not SO drawn into Alourdes's circle. backgrounds who have been life in her native Grenada Marj probably brings memories of with her to match, where and when they can, experience of the ceremonies in Alourdes's Robert brings even scantier memories of a home. rural Georgia. When taking his first ritual poor childhood in "This is just how we use'ta do it! I remember bath, he commented: baths out'a these little metal I we always takin' pans. know how to do it. you worry!" A small but steady stream of North American Don't blacks des's circle. backgrounds who have been life in her native Grenada Marj probably brings memories of with her to match, where and when they can, experience of the ceremonies in Alourdes's Robert brings even scantier memories of a home. rural Georgia. When taking his first ritual poor childhood in "This is just how we use'ta do it! I remember bath, he commented: baths out'a these little metal I we always takin' pans. know how to do it. you worry!" A small but steady stream of North American Don't blacks --- Page 314 --- moves in and out of Alourdes's world, most of them searching for roots that are even more idea and less memory than those Robert seeks to affirm through his connection to Haitian Vodou. And I am here, the anomalous Danbala white person, almost always the only white to attend Alourdes's Vodou parties.Lacking links of blood or memory, I challenge myself to take the risks of intellect, empathy, and imagination that enable me to weave, with Alourdes, a slender bridge over the chasm that separates childhood memories and hers, my current world and my The separation between those who have active memories hers, of Haiti and those who do not at times feels like a fault line running deep and dangerous beneath the united surface of New York Vodou families, threatening to divide them. The majority of participants have lived in Haiti, and they come to ceremonies to activate former parts of themselves. And yet, I remind self, they are also activating memories carried only in the mynetic" structure of their culture, memories of Africa "gepassed on through many generations of people who had no lived ence of that place. I remind myself of this when I start to experi- think that Vodou in New York might disappear when the ties of leadership pass to the generations born in this responsibiliThe group sings: country. Janmè, janmè, M'pa bliye Ginen ray-0. Janmè, janmè, M'pa bliye zenfan-la yo. Never, never, I'll not forget the ranks of Africa. Never, never, I'll not forget their children. The movement from French to Creole, from Catholicism to Vodou, from the soft sing-song of European Christian to the energetic contrapuntal clapping that liturgy accompanies African rhythms also marks a change in imagery. Images of transcendence are replaced by images of family. The distance between a Catholic heaven and earth transmutes awe-inspiring to an im- --- Page 315 --- age of a bloodline continuous throughout time, one running along the spine of Danbala and extending further back in time than memory can reach. The image of a single savior figure, at once human and divine, gives way to one of a family continuDanbala ally present in the form of the ancestors and the spirits inherited through them, spirits who, theoretically at least, can possess any human body they choose and make of that person the bridge between this world and Ginen, Africa, the home of the spirits. With steady rhythmic clapping, the New World family assembled in Alourdes's Brooklyn row house sings: Depi anwo, jouk anba, Nan Ginen, tande la. Mezanmi, tout sa m'ape fe-a Nan Ginen tande. Bo manman mwen, Bo papa mwen, Nan Ginen tande. Mezanmi, tout sa m'ape fe-a Nan Ginen tande. Bo marenn mwen, Bo parenn mwen, Nan Ginen tande. From on high, right down below, Africa listens. My friends, everything I am doing Is heard in Africa. The family of my mother, The family of my father, In Africa, they hear. My friends, everything I am doing Is heard in Ginen. The family of my godmother, The family of my godfather, In Ginen, they hear. Bo papa mwen, Nan Ginen tande. Mezanmi, tout sa m'ape fe-a Nan Ginen tande. Bo marenn mwen, Bo parenn mwen, Nan Ginen tande. From on high, right down below, Africa listens. My friends, everything I am doing Is heard in Africa. The family of my mother, The family of my father, In Africa, they hear. My friends, everything I am doing Is heard in Ginen. The family of my godmother, The family of my godfather, In Ginen, they hear. --- Page 316 --- of these introductory Creole songs are comAfter several that she will eventually trans284 pleted, Alourdes begins a song saints. This time, however, form into yet another litany of the she will call the "saints" by their African names. Danbala Anonse 0 zanj nan dlo, Bak odsu miwa. O, la wè, l'a wè. Nou pral nan Vil-o-Kan ye. Kreyôl mande chanjmen, vre. Alert the angels down in the water, Beneath the mirror. Oh, he will see, he will see. We're going to Ville-aux-Camps. Creoles ask for change, truly. The first lines of this song speak of the zanj (angels), or spirbelow the water, and call on the particiits, down in Ginen, them that the ceremonies are pants to sing Joudly to notify back side of the mirror about to begin. The spirits live on the used for divinasurface of the water. In Dahomey, mirrors are the wisdom of tion, and mirror gazing is thus one way to tap accoutrethe ancestors. In Vodou, the mirror is the principal ofit of the male sea spirit, although I am not aware ment Agwe, Vodou water-mirrors, however, can being used for divination. direct than divination to the wisbe seen as a route even more dom of those who have gone before. the home of the The connection of mirrors, water, and Ginen, into the water, spirits, makes a complex, uroboric point. Gazing simultanesees her own reflection, and through it, a woman on the faces of the lwa, ously, she sees the lwa. Superimposed returns she sees the faces of her ancestors, because an ancestor in the form of the lwa he or she revered most durto the living into the mirror surface of the ing life. Thus, Haitians gazing rethem from Africa see in intermingled ocean that separates and themselves. flections the la, the ancestors, to Ville-auxThe last two lines of the song talk about going point. Gazing simultanesees her own reflection, and through it, a woman on the faces of the lwa, ously, she sees the lwa. Superimposed returns she sees the faces of her ancestors, because an ancestor in the form of the lwa he or she revered most durto the living into the mirror surface of the ing life. Thus, Haitians gazing rethem from Africa see in intermingled ocean that separates and themselves. flections the la, the ancestors, to Ville-auxThe last two lines of the song talk about going --- Page 317 --- Camps. This town, located in the remote ment of Haiti, is an actual town with Northwest Departthought of as a sort of a mythic function. It is embassy for Ginen in the New place for the lwa to stop on their long World, a from Africa. Members of the journeys back and forth Vodou there to ask for changes in the community sing of going Danbala a remarkably clear and direct circumstances of their livesVodou statement of the intention of all ritualizing. It is a practical matter: call cestors and the lwa, give them people the anthem in order to better their gifts, and sing and dance for lives. After this song has been sung two or three times in a standard call-and-response format, Alourdes begins to anonse Papa Danbala Wèdo, improvise. "M'ape Danbala m'ape anonse [I am Wèdo, I am announcing], Alourdes announcing Papa people respond, "He will see, he will see." sings. And the sing: "We're going to Then, 11 together, all her Ville-aux-Camps. Alourdes statements in over the end of the moves faster and faster, at times naming two community responses or three lwa before people a chance to reply. giving Running rapidly through the list of the most male and then female, she continues important lva, ancestors: without a pause to her own "M'ape anonse moun Jean Rabel, m'ape anonse [I am nouncing Jean Rabel people, I am anmoun Gonaives, m'ape anonse. 11 announcing). M'ape anonse father, (Alourdes's maternal Joseph Binbin Mauvant, settled in Jean great-grandmaternal grandmother lived in Gros Rabel, and her litany of spirits thus moves seamlessly Morne-Gonaives.) The an extension that would not be into a litany of ancestors, of possiblein the two-story universe Catholicism, where the human and the divine do not When this litany is finished, the Outside mix. plete, and the group moves Prayers are comto open the door for all the immediately into the call to Legba control that spirits. The mood of solemnity and characterizes the Priyè is not allowed to smoke or drink Deyo dispelled. People are during the once they are completed, the opening prayers, but sive, tolerant, and atmosphere becomes more expanplayful. From this point on, the are frequently on their feet, turning, kissing the ritualizers offerings, lighting candles, ground, raising each of the lwa in turn. pouring libations, and dancing for cial exchange flow Conversation, in joking, and ordinary SOfreely and out of the ritualizing. the Priyè is not allowed to smoke or drink Deyo dispelled. People are during the once they are completed, the opening prayers, but sive, tolerant, and atmosphere becomes more expanplayful. From this point on, the are frequently on their feet, turning, kissing the ritualizers offerings, lighting candles, ground, raising each of the lwa in turn. pouring libations, and dancing for cial exchange flow Conversation, in joking, and ordinary SOfreely and out of the ritualizing. --- Page 318 --- BLOOD AND MEMORY: ALOURDES timeless body run the narrow veins Through Danbala's sinuous, of Azaka (Chapof blood and memory. In the earlier discussion slaves in the New Danbala ter 2), it became evident that just as African they called World were forced to redefine the group of people Haiti and "family," SO their descendants in contemporary urban crecommunities in New York employ a similar, in immigrant Discussing Danbala again raises the quesative survival strategy. not weaving a social safety net tion of family, but here theissueis Danbala operates from a collection of friends and neighbors. the are and memory, where questions from the territory ofblood sort: Who am I? Who are we?) of a deeper, more existential by naming The answer demanded by these questions begins whose dead. No one knows the stories of people the lineage And these stories are needed to names have been forgotten. of identity and meaning. provide answers to the root questions like the Round and round is the movement of time, serpentine and the coils of Danbala. It can be said that history repeats tend itself to be reancestors return, because their life experiences The wisdom of the ancestors peated in subsequent generations. lives easier. can make contemporary how Sina resisted the call of the spirits unAlourdes was told rock, and Alourdes til the day she encountered Ezili's whistling blinded her knew Philo's story of how the spirits temporarily made the illwhen at first she refused their call. These stories in New Alourdes shortly after she arrived ness that plagued And, coil upon coil, the spiritual York more comprehensible. Philo, and Alourdes provided the crises experienced by Sina, struggle. The lineage is a interpretive framework for Maggie's leaders in each generachain, each generation a link. Spiritual that chain. tion shoulder the heavy responsibility of maintaining to be broken, all future would be impoverIfit were stories generations and therefore their deepest ished, losing their ancestral connections to who they are. has had to work at mainFor her entire adult life, Alourdes the and ties with her blood kin. In the midst of poverty taining and Brooklyn, this has social fragmentation of Port-au-Prince for example, denot been easy. Her father, Alphonse Margaux, until Alourdes was in her late teens. nied paternity Spiritual that chain. tion shoulder the heavy responsibility of maintaining to be broken, all future would be impoverIfit were stories generations and therefore their deepest ished, losing their ancestral connections to who they are. has had to work at mainFor her entire adult life, Alourdes the and ties with her blood kin. In the midst of poverty taining and Brooklyn, this has social fragmentation of Port-au-Prince for example, denot been easy. Her father, Alphonse Margaux, until Alourdes was in her late teens. nied paternity --- Page 319 --- Alphonse Margaux The last time I saw Alphonse Margaux was in January Port-au-Prince, where he lived. 1984 in had been ill with liver Pèpe, as his friends called him, day before I was to leave problems and was confined to bed. The Danbala center of town to Haiti, I stopped by his house in the see how he was. I had also I would promised Alourdes pick up some papers and small gifts he had for arrived, damp and wrinkled, during the hottest her. I only to find Pèpe looking part of the day, his bed in freshly dry as a lizard, perched on the edge of pressed yellow pajamas. He was telephone, one of his prized possessions, holding the the mouthpiece, with one hand over listening in on a party-line call. With his eyes, which were always on alert, he beckoned active beside the bed. (Ifhe had not been ill, me to a chair never have entertained me in his Alphonse Margaux would The house Pèpe rented in Haiti bedroom.) was not several rooms and even a grand. True, he had shower and a flush toilet privilege in Haiti), but not one of his rooms (marks of The airy parlor that took up the whole was fully furnished. seemed the most finished, but street level of the house than reality. Three even that was more impression large, tinted photographs of hung on the wall, somber frontal shots. family members were two dinette Beneath the portraits chairs, a small sofa, and a covered in a dark plastic that boxy armchair, each spiration. In the middle of this stubbornly formal refused to absorb peron which sat a single object-a circle was a coffee table, of two cherubs in a creative "Gemini" ashtray with a picture Pèpe's powerful sexual embrace. It was a sign of presence that even in such a home nervously on the edge of their chairs for fear of visitors sat the unspoken rules of the house. breaking one of Alphonse Margaux had been retired from his with Haitian tax bureau for some time. job the he put on a business suit and starched Nevertheless, on most days these clothes had once fit him, but white shirt. Perhaps were much too large for his by the time I met him they tiny, frail, and wrinkled usually spent the cooler morning hours body. Pèpe with the air of someone who had bustling around the city act. What he actually did was important business to transanyone's guess. Although Pèpe was by then on the threshold of his tenth dec- with Haitian tax bureau for some time. job the he put on a business suit and starched Nevertheless, on most days these clothes had once fit him, but white shirt. Perhaps were much too large for his by the time I met him they tiny, frail, and wrinkled usually spent the cooler morning hours body. Pèpe with the air of someone who had bustling around the city act. What he actually did was important business to transanyone's guess. Although Pèpe was by then on the threshold of his tenth dec- --- Page 320 --- of the womanizer who had fathered twenty-five ade, something women When I children by almost as many different persisted. arms him for a while, he would put his skinny hadn't seen and to kiss me on the mouth. around me try for time before she said much Danbala I had known Alourdes a long first her father. She talked about him at length on our trip about We were staying at Pèpe's together to Haiti in January 1980. the floor of a room norhouse. He had made a pallet for us on clean white sheets and fluffy pilmally used for storage, placing blankets. We had just arrived lows on top of layers of mats and Haiti and were tired from traveling. The bed was comfortin burning a white able, and we slept well. The sun was already in the room, rectangle around the closed wooden shutters "You sleeping?" "No," I said, when I heard Alourdes whisper, "Im awake." Alourdes said. "We "We going to my sister' house today," there. I1 I was confused: "Why, Alourdes? We just going to sleep she replied. "I don't like to stay got here last night." "I know," asked Instead of at my father' house too long." Again I why. me with her usual "You ask too many question!" rebuking Alourdes began to talk. to love that family. I "You know, you got family : : : you got father because he my father, but . . - when I was grow love my when I just a little girl, I don't even know who up, you know, don't tell me. Sometime I ask my is my father. : . Nobody II After a short silence, mother, but she don't say nothing. in the street with Alourdes continued: "One day, I was walking mother' friend, and she say, 'Oh, here come your a lady, my 'Who? I don't know that man.' I don't redaddy.' And I say, member I ever see that man before." "Yeah, I talk "Did you talk to him?" Iasked, still whispering. what he do? He to him," I1 she whispered back. "And you know and he don't nothing. He just put the hand in the pocket, say know, ten cent-and he buy little thing. take fifty santim-you Yeah. He buy a little box of powder from a He give it to me. just machann on the street. That what he give me!" I "But did he admit he was your father?"I asked as gently as she sighed, "not that time. That time, he don'tsay could. "No," time I don't talk to my mother about that. nothing. : Long know what she tell me? She say, when I was But when I do, you the hand in the pocket, say know, ten cent-and he buy little thing. take fifty santim-you Yeah. He buy a little box of powder from a He give it to me. just machann on the street. That what he give me!" I "But did he admit he was your father?"I asked as gently as she sighed, "not that time. That time, he don'tsay could. "No," time I don't talk to my mother about that. nothing. : Long know what she tell me? She say, when I was But when I do, you --- Page 321 --- grow up, he don't give her one Not don't even see him. 11 penny. one penny! She Another silence followed, and then Alourdes again: "He use to come by her house, talk began to talk But she don't do nothing; she talk nice . . . you know. to the house and she just to him. One day, he come Danbala say to him, 'Can me to buy uniform for my children? you give some money Frank and Jean in school, and when 'Cause, you know, she got you got to wear uniform. If you go to school in Haiti, don't let you don't have no uniform, you come. Pèpe say, "Yes,' he going help her. So they she you know . . . they . they make love. One that's it! She pregnant for him. She time, and "But after that, he don't come back. got He me. just don't come And. . . you know . . : same time my mother back. another lady pregnant for him, too. And she pregnant live for him, mother' house. Not too far, no. That how close to my ing around that katye come he always walk- [quarter]. That how come he ing to my mother always talkbefore . . . you know. : I1 Alourdes seemed about to sink into her own and I was afraid of losing private thoughts, "Well, her, SO I risked one more when did it happen, Alourdes? When did question. to be, to have-I mean, when did you two start other?" you really get to know each "Long time that don't happen. Long time," Alourdes softly. "When Ireally, really, really get to know said already grow up. That time I was singer in my father, I was que-you know that, right?-and before I was Troupe Folkloriwe got lottery ticket. He marry Kowalski, know my father." got-he won that lottery. Then I get to Impulsively, I exclaimed, "Alourdes! You don't mitted he was your father just because mean he addon't say that, Karen. I don't you won I1 the lottery!" "I dark, one light, back say that. . Two heads, one battle lay on the pillows in a room fast to keep out the light and heat of a tropical losing its spiratorial day. Our conwhispering was silenced, and for a time was nothing the old man outside might overhear. long there The relationship between Alourdes and her father was plex. Alourdes tried to love him in her way, and comto make up for his earlier he, in his, tried neglect. But the not acknowledged her as his years when he had daughter had left bitterness and . Two heads, one battle lay on the pillows in a room fast to keep out the light and heat of a tropical losing its spiratorial day. Our conwhispering was silenced, and for a time was nothing the old man outside might overhear. long there The relationship between Alourdes and her father was plex. Alourdes tried to love him in her way, and comto make up for his earlier he, in his, tried neglect. But the not acknowledged her as his years when he had daughter had left bitterness and --- Page 322 --- Alourdes tended to hold him at arm's length. When hurt, and showed Pèpe died in the fall of1985, however, Alourdes'sactions went to Haiti for the none of this ambivalence. She immediately of the funeral and the wake and also paid a substantial portion is less Margaux Danbala funeral expenses. As an ancestor, Alphonse problematic than when he was among the living. Philomise Macena about her mother with ambivalence: Alourdes never speaks mother SO much! Up til now, my mother the one alIl love my Sometime somebody come . : . they ways coming to help me. know how I to help that pergot a problem, and I don't going and she tell me son. Then I sleep and I dream my mother, she the one that help me. She tell me do this, what to do. Yes, do that, and plop! The person just do that. Next day, I do this, comand gone. No more problem! She the one always get up to happen in my life, some ing to help me. Something going come. I dream my mother, kind'a problem, my mother always know, when I come to New and she tell me about that. You three children I left in York, I think about my children, my who the real headache. I Haiti, but my motherl-she the one That what make it think about her every day-every I'm day! afraid of ghost, but if I hard. Let me tell you something. open mother right now, standing up over there, just see my my arm! outside Alourdes's altar room, in the area where birthday Just are held, a blurry enlargement of a parties for the spirits hangs Philomise Macena. It shows up black-and-white photograph of of many photos I have taken of Alourdes's in the background the Whether the party is for Vodou ceremonies over years. over Azaka, Ezili, Ogou, or Danbala, there is Philo, watching the drama. I worked with Alourdes on her biograDuring the early years childhood with Philo emerged, a portrait phy, a portrait of her child who and manbo with a headstrong of a poor hardworking indulged. Alourdes claimed was perhaps spoiled and surely almost Yet that she could sweettalk her mother into anything. --- Page 323 --- Danbala created by Maggie and Alourdes on kitchen-cabinet altar for Philo Impromptu Day. Fort Greene, Brooklyn, 1978. Mother's ability to meet her to have set limits on Philo's times when she was poverty seemed Alourdes remembered many came home to find child's needs. breakfast and then considersent to school without But Philo must have instilled that when there was still no food. Alourdes also claimed "Oh, in her, because eaten, she would reply: able pride asked what she had school friends in . ham." chocolate : reputation bread - . healer earned her a substantial much money Philo's work as a though she did not make up, even that when she was growing Port-au-Prince, Alourdes said clients who came from this work. often overflowing with were being Philo's house was them lived there while they some help. Many of room indoors, seeking when there was not enough was legendcured; and yard. Philo's charitable spirit Once, when camped out in Philo's of stories. her by a multitude who was on ary and is illustrated she found a poor woman find the money Philo went to church, the saints to help her was about to knees, crying and begging overdue rent. Her landlord seven months of to pay from this work. often overflowing with were being Philo's house was them lived there while they some help. Many of room indoors, seeking when there was not enough was legendcured; and yard. Philo's charitable spirit Once, when camped out in Philo's of stories. her by a multitude who was on ary and is illustrated she found a poor woman find the money Philo went to church, the saints to help her was about to knees, crying and begging overdue rent. Her landlord seven months of to pay --- Page 324 --- evict her and her children. Philo befriended the her the rent money, and even added a little extra to woman, buy food gave for the children. How much Alourdes must Danbala have learned by having Philo as her role model, I often thought, and how much she must knowledge have gained by growing up in what amounted to a Vodou healing center. Alourdes resisted these images of mine, but she did soindirectly, claiming that as a young child she most of the ceremonies and that as a teenager she slept through ular dances to those for the spirits. When Philo called Preferred the secdrummers into her small backyard, Alourdes said, she would leave for an evening with her friends. She said that when she was adult living on her own, she sometimes asked her mother an to pray for her if she had problems, but she never engaged the spirits herself. "Sometime I say, Mommie, light a candle for me,but I don'tdo nothing for myself.' Something in the notion of Alourdes willfully holding herself apart from the center of her mother's life seemed unlikely to me, but by the time these doubts became clear, I knew better than to push with direct questions. In March of 1984, six years after we met, Alourdes the missing piece of the puzzle, the piece that caused gave all the me others to realign themselves. I had spent the night at her where I slept in the children's room, adjacent to hers. Alourdes home, called to me when she heard the first sounds of went and sat beside her on her big double bed. my I stirring. I blankets pulled the over my legs and leaned up against the headboard with the king-size rosary draped over one post. We had a intimate discussion, focusing at first on the dreams we had sleepy, had the night before. Then, in a very small voice preceded each big sigh, Alourdes said, "I don't ever tell by a raise me. I1 you my mommie don't The story that followed made me ache, as much for the shame its telling caused Alourdes as for the actual experience. I tell this story now because of an attitude I have come to know and admire in Alourdes. Earlier, when she first told me about the period when she worked as a Marie-Jacques, she had in the same small voice. But then she had added in spoken a much stronger tone: "You got to put that in the book. Because the truth. Right? Women got to do all kind'a thing. that's that to feed my children. I'm not ashame. Right? I do Right?" The story telling caused Alourdes as for the actual experience. I tell this story now because of an attitude I have come to know and admire in Alourdes. Earlier, when she first told me about the period when she worked as a Marie-Jacques, she had in the same small voice. But then she had added in spoken a much stronger tone: "You got to put that in the book. Because the truth. Right? Women got to do all kind'a thing. that's that to feed my children. I'm not ashame. Right? I do Right?" The story --- Page 325 --- she told it to me about her mother was longer in coming, yet just as purposefully. her It seems that the same manbo who would deplete savings overdue rent and feed children did not to help a stranger pay fourth child on her own. Danbala think she had the resources to raise a Alourdes had not participated in her mother's spirit work befor most of her childhood, she had observed it from a cause, distance. As a toddler, Alourdes was given into the care of a of childless woman friend who was an occasional recipient Philo's charity. Leah Clemence was delighted to have a child to Philo raise. When Alourdes was seven years old, however, Madame Cleheard rumors that she was being mistreated by and the mother reclaimed her daughter. I do not know mence, the Clemence household when Alourdes lived what went on in there, but I do know that Alourdes made a point of not inviting Leah to her wedding years later. in the Alourdes and her mother lived together for a year house in Belair, the one Philo eventually lost to a treacherous friend and the fraudulent legal system. It was during this time that Alourdes wandered off for three long days. After she was found, she and Philo traveled to Jean Rabel to kill a pig for Ezili Danto, and Danto announced that Alourdes would serve the family spirits after Philo. All this happened in one short year. Alourdes's eighth birthday, she was living with her older By brother Frank and his wife, Rita. There she stayed until she bewith her first child at the age of fourteen. came pregnant the Alourdes too much to Rita then declared precocious handle and sent her back home. For a second time, Alourdes for a brief Less were and Philo reunited-but again only period. Alourdes began to live with Charles, the than two years later, the man who eventually became Maggie's father. Furthermore, relationship between Alourdes and her mother was apparently smooth, whether or not Alourdes was living atl home. notalways have led me to conclude that Philo had a fearSmall comments it of Alourdes's status as a favored child, some temper; in spite in her direction. seems that this temper sometimes erupted Nevertheless, when Alourdes talks about her mother with love, it does not sound false. I can detect no underlying great "Women to do all kind'a thing, I1 Alourdes says, bitterness. got that this same attireferring to herself, and it seems applying tude to her mother has enabled her both to understand and to always have led me to conclude that Philo had a fearSmall comments it of Alourdes's status as a favored child, some temper; in spite in her direction. seems that this temper sometimes erupted Nevertheless, when Alourdes talks about her mother with love, it does not sound false. I can detect no underlying great "Women to do all kind'a thing, I1 Alourdes says, bitterness. got that this same attireferring to herself, and it seems applying tude to her mother has enabled her both to understand and to --- Page 326 --- forgive. Even if, in a manner of speaking, Philo gave Alourdes away, the bond between them seems to have been forged and strong. When Alourdes had difficulty giving birth to deep gie, Philo rushed to her side MagDanbala with spiritual help and comfort. And later, when Alourdes suffered motherly her SO much during pregnancy with William, Philo came to the clinic and her what little food and money she could gave often fed Alourdes's children scrape together. Philo during the difficult period she left Kowalski, and, when Alourdes went to the United after States, Philo kept the children for nearly two years. the time Alourdes was an adult, she and her mother were By connected that when communication SO psychically broke down between them, Philo's dreams informed her of her daughter's illness and hospitalization in New York. Alourdes's decision to serve the spirits after that illness was inseparable from her decision main tied to her mother. So it is fitting that her mother to reis the one who now appears in Alourdes's dreams to help her in her healing work. BLOOD AND MEMORY: MAGGIE Margaret Georgette Margaux Sanchez has different kinds of problems to face in maintaining the lines of blood and Maggie came to the United States before she had her first memory. strual period. In New York, she became an adult and learned menmost of what she knows about the world. Maggie has lot of her time outside the home, spent a going to school and working. Consequently, she has constructed a larger world than Alourdes and has developed more public skills. has This independence, which was more or less forced on gie, can create conflicts when she thinks about the future. Mag- In 1979, responding to a question about her hopes for the future, Maggie said, "Well, my future dream is- since I have that degree in dental technician-if I have enough I think I would open my own lab where I could be own money, my boss . : : you *Maggie was briefly married to a Puerto Rican man named Michael's father. In certain circumstances, Maggie still uses the Sanchez, who is name Sanchez. . has This independence, which was more or less forced on gie, can create conflicts when she thinks about the future. Mag- In 1979, responding to a question about her hopes for the future, Maggie said, "Well, my future dream is- since I have that degree in dental technician-if I have enough I think I would open my own lab where I could be own money, my boss . : : you *Maggie was briefly married to a Puerto Rican man named Michael's father. In certain circumstances, Maggie still uses the Sanchez, who is name Sanchez. --- Page 327 --- know, working whenever I feel like it. 117 But then she minute and added, "Or, ifI could thought a get a husband to enough . . : I could stay home, do a little support me him take care of me.' 11 housework, and let When Maggie was thinking of settling down can man named Barnett, that with the JamaiDanbala dreams. Since she has was how she spoke about her become a manbo, however, her mood changed. The Haitian man who is now her has and the father of her daughter frequent companion Maggie off to their Betty does not dream of own home or expect her to the carrying traditional wife. Maggie and Alourdes play role of a have the they are the heads of the house, and he knows primary bond; to exert his authority there. better than to try The Vodou spirits are an important of even after her initiation they have part Maggie's life. But large and complex world. remained only one part ofl her often be hidden. Furthermore, this is a part that must Maggie tells an amusing story about important lab exam at the technical school where taking an certificate in dental mechanics. she received a her some help with the Papa Gede showed up to give test, signaling his presence strong odor of cigar smoke. Maggie said to him, with the You going to get me in trouble!" "Who "Don't do that! asked her lab partner. "And what's are you talking to?" that awful one of the more benign stories smell?" This is often Maggie tells about the clash she experiences between her different worlds. A patient in the gynecologist's office where she once worked refused to gie touch her when she found out let Magthe hysterical she was Haitian. The reasons woman offered were "Vodou and AIDS. 11 rarely lets anyone outside her immediate Maggie important the Vodou spirits community know how actually are in her life. Maggie has been marked from early childhood inherit her mother's altar and, as the one to of along with it, the serving the family spirits. Prescient responsibility she was quite young, indicated that the dreams, starting when Alourdes also had such dreams, spirits favored her. beginning when she was little about "Maggie the vocational took vocational training to become a dental technician. She school through an found out was long and expensive, and when she advertisement on the subway. The program on its commitment to find her a job. completed the course, the school reneged from early childhood inherit her mother's altar and, as the one to of along with it, the serving the family spirits. Prescient responsibility she was quite young, indicated that the dreams, starting when Alourdes also had such dreams, spirits favored her. beginning when she was little about "Maggie the vocational took vocational training to become a dental technician. She school through an found out was long and expensive, and when she advertisement on the subway. The program on its commitment to find her a job. completed the course, the school reneged --- Page 328 --- toddler. For both of them, dreams continue to be more than a current situations significant life events, sometimes diagnosing and sometimes foretelling important future events. Danbala Dreams The story of the last stage of Maggie's struggle in taking on and of a manbo can be told through the identity responsibilities both interpretive and of such dreams. The dreams, a sequence the first six months of 1981, a time predictive, occurred during of when the family was beset by a serious and extended period bad luck. Bad luck, 8 the broadest diagnostic category in the lexiof the Vodou healing system, can be a one-time thing such con a lost job, or an illness; or it can be a shift in as a car accident, g-which was how the quality of life that affects everythingin 1981. their situation early Alourdes and Maggie diagnosed jammed Everything went wrong, small things (lost keys, mail that did not arrive) and big ones. The trouble started doors, froze and burst in January. Less than when the heating pipes her and contracted chicken two weeks later, Maggie lost job it known to do, to The bad luck then began to spread, as is pox. not who were vulnerable others (those spiritually protected) who connected to them. Gabriel, Alourdes's former boyfriend, with them at the time, was mugged. Alourdes's son was living William was arrested for purse snatching. attention to When bad luck is pervasive, "you got to pay Alourdes it. But in order to pay attention, a person that," as put to well, dream frehas to be centered and calm enough sleep March, the anxiquently, and remember those dreams. By early level in the house had risen SO high that when the spirits ety dream warning her about the next link in the sent Maggie a she did not remember it right away, and, chain of bad luck, element: when she did remember, she misinterpreted a key tell me about that. Ijust have too many They warn me. They been around thing in my head. 1 forget about it. Ijust running that I trying to do too many thing. But I dream. : : I dream speaking, Haitians refer to an absence of luck: "M'pa genyen chans [I *Strictly don't have any luck]." her about the next link in the sent Maggie a she did not remember it right away, and, chain of bad luck, element: when she did remember, she misinterpreted a key tell me about that. Ijust have too many They warn me. They been around thing in my head. 1 forget about it. Ijust running that I trying to do too many thing. But I dream. : : I dream speaking, Haitians refer to an absence of luck: "M'pa genyen chans [I *Strictly don't have any luck]." --- Page 329 --- come home one night and find my door open, and there and look, and there are four horses I go in from the fire looking at me right escape. They just standing there and then I hear something in the front of looking at me, know, in the bedroom, and I in my apartment, you You know Joe? go there . : . and there is Joe. Danbala Aileen's son. And I say to him, 'What doing in here? What you doing in my apartment?' you me he just come in looking for And he tell and just sock him, beat him something. And I get real mad up! And throw him out! In mid-March, a few days after this dream, the Fort Greene was robbed, the first row house in enced in nearly twenty burglary they had experithe second-floor years of living there. Maggie occupies and her apartment, below the one rented out to Aileen son, Joe. The burglar got onto the fire in back andcamein through Maggie's kitchen escape were standing in her dream. window, where the horses that Raphael Maggie lost the engagement Sanchez, Michael's father, had ring of quarters; a collection of given her; a jar full which she had yet to make foreign her money; and a new camera for After the robbery, first payment. to tell Maggie was hard on herself: me somebody going to break into "They trying no attention." 11 Iasked what difference my house. I don't pay had remembered the it would have made if she dream, and Maggie replied that the might have been telling her to confront the robber spirits with him. When the robbery and fight on the first floor in her mother's happened, Maggie had been She heard the thief leave her bedroom, tending a sick child. basement. apartment and descend to the "Ishould have just open that door and in his eye," Maggie said, spray something right cleanser. 11 She also criticized "perfume . . Lysol . Comet herself for the dream, for reading the initially misinterpreting a signal that the thief presence of Joe, a mulatto, merely as was a light-skinned man. (Skin color significant part of the message in any dream from the is a She soon learned through neighborhood spirits.) tually committed the gossip that Joe had acrobbery. Maggie had not realized rectly the spirits were speaking to her. how diThe robbery clinched Maggie's diagnosis about the period of bad luck. She decided it the cause of was definitely a result of herself for the dream, for reading the initially misinterpreting a signal that the thief presence of Joe, a mulatto, merely as was a light-skinned man. (Skin color significant part of the message in any dream from the is a She soon learned through neighborhood spirits.) tually committed the gossip that Joe had acrobbery. Maggie had not realized rectly the spirits were speaking to her. how diThe robbery clinched Maggie's diagnosis about the period of bad luck. She decided it the cause of was definitely a result of --- Page 330 --- the who were demanding that she stop harassment by initiation. spirits, It had been almost two years since postponing her dream in which she had sworn to Danbala that the important would return to Haiti to take the ason. Work and financial she from fulfilling her promDanbala troubles, she said, had prevented her their Now, she felt the spirits were increasing ise right away. what those spirit do. That's how they are! pressure. "That's just I'm just thankful they don't make me sick again." the It seems fair to speculate that Maggie's delay in making trip to Haiti was not entirely a result of external circumstances. of spirits do not often molest people who are the victims Family cannot control. In fact, during the two years since things they had been struggling her promise to Papa Danbala, Maggie with the consequences of taking on the responsibilities mightily of a manbo. her to board the plane that would In 1963 Alourdes, on way had said to Philo, "I don't think take her to the United States, York.' 11 Sixteen years later, in I'm going to need no spirit in New when I asked Maggie if she planned to become a manbo 1979, had said something similar: "I don't like her mother, Maggie because my mother is living. think I'll be working as a manbo, I don't think Ill need to Plus, I'm right here in the U.S., and so not live manbo. I1 had concluded that she could work as a Maggie here in New York. "New York the life of her manbo grandmother ever live. is much different than any place that my grandmother damn! Like here, people don't care. They just don't give a Because I came here when I was young, and I seen New York it's New York teach me a lot'a thing-New City. . . . I think that Ihave in New York York SO tough! That's the big experience " When I that make me realize I can't be like my grandmother.' in New pointed out to Maggie that Alourdes was also living York and working full-time as a manbo, Maggie said simply, "She grow up in different ways than me. 11 did reluctance about becoming a Yet at no point Maggie's Vodou itself. She has always manbo signal ambivalence about work and has been a staunch defender of her mother's appreci- if I ated what the spirits bring into her life. "You know, maybe Vodou, I would not know SO much about people. wasn't part of in it, I would be just, you know, just Maybe if I did not grow up else walklike ordinary people : : walking : : . like everybody than me. 11 did reluctance about becoming a Yet at no point Maggie's Vodou itself. She has always manbo signal ambivalence about work and has been a staunch defender of her mother's appreci- if I ated what the spirits bring into her life. "You know, maybe Vodou, I would not know SO much about people. wasn't part of in it, I would be just, you know, just Maybe if I did not grow up else walklike ordinary people : : walking : : . like everybody --- Page 331 --- ing on the streets, up and down : . . and wrong. 11 don't know right from In 1981, when the spirits increased their conflict Maggie felt about pressure on her, the sified. On the third becoming a professional healer intento hold her annual Saturday in March, Alourdes was scheduled Danbala birthday party for main spirit. On the Friday night before Papa Danbala, Maggie's had a terrifying dream, which woke the ceremony, Maggie the rest of the night. "I dream all her up and kept her up for these snakes everywhere, big ones, little ones-all coming from and chasing me. And I turn and green, coming after me I'm going to kill you. I'm say to them, Leave me alone. to 'If going to kill all of you!" And me, only you could. If you could just find they say This dream occurred when the streak of bad luck us." under way. Maggie had recovered from chicken was well did not yet have another job. The house pox, but she week before, and William had had been robbed the been in ous Wednesday. At the arraigned court the previceremony that Saturday Papa Danbala came to ride Alourdes, the usual night, when were observed. Danbala inched ritual forms a snake. When he arrived across the floor on his belly like at the foot of the altar sheet canopy held at the corners by four table, a white ered over him SO he could consume his participants was lowWilliam, whose raw egg in privacy. plight was by then known to many in the community, was the first one called up to greet the lwa under the canopy. William was directed to offer as he lay to Danbala in the discreet and his little fingers spirit prefers. Then he proper handshake this ancient bala's was told to bend over and straddle Danbody, under the protective cover of the walk its length. He emerged from the other sheet, and slowly nel looking dazed and end of the cloth tunaroused at the same time, This selection from my field notes picks the the ceremony after several other up description of and Danbala had people had greeted the spirit finally released his horse. Alourdes was helped to her feet when being all of a sudden, Maggie is down. Danbala has Her mounted her! body, prone on the floor, curls like the of lytic. Her hands knot up. She looks like body a paralying, an old, old person self-protectively, in a fetal position. She screams as if oused at the same time, This selection from my field notes picks the the ceremony after several other up description of and Danbala had people had greeted the spirit finally released his horse. Alourdes was helped to her feet when being all of a sudden, Maggie is down. Danbala has Her mounted her! body, prone on the floor, curls like the of lytic. Her hands knot up. She looks like body a paralying, an old, old person self-protectively, in a fetal position. She screams as if --- Page 332 --- Danbala A manbo possessed by Danbala. Fort-au-Prince, Haiti, 1989. in real pain, several people in the room times-unvilling move unable to let possession passes protectively around her. go. The ness. Before long, quickly, never emerging into Maggie's "Shit! That's just shit! Maggie jumps up, articulateKaka!" There is uttering obscenities. something both moving --- Page 333 --- and painful in this, and also something quite expressive of Maggie's ambivalence about the world of the spirits. She can't move away from it, but she can't quite get into it either. Danbala A few days later, when Maggie and I were talking on the I laughed and said, "Well! That was the first time I have phone, seen you get a lwa." "I don't want it "That was scary, Karen!" she replied quickly. I I to happen. I don't like that. I was flying. It's the fly I don't like! can't take that sensation. I have to be able to stand on my foot, to feel my legs. I don't like that flying. That's why I'm scared of heights. Like, Im up there, and my foot cannot touch the Like, I'm scared I'm going to fall." But then, without a ground. to about her initiation: "I know this is pause, she began speak will better. I'm what I have to do, and when I do it, things get not going to say no 'if' . . . not no more!" Maggie went on to say that there were still problems with the trip to Haiti, tentatively set for July, four months hence. Ogou had told her she had to go out and beg to raise money for the things she would need for her initiation. Ritual begging is a lesin often by the spirits. (They had forced son humility prescribed Haiti that the person begPhilo to beg.) In everyone recognizes ging in the market, the one who wears blue denim or clothing together from fabrics of different patterns, is such a ritpieced ual beggar. But, in New York, Maggie wailed, 'nobody gonna know why I do that thing!" Madame FranTwo weeks later, at a Danbala feast given by and counseled Maggie that çois, the serpent spirit appeared begging can mean different things in different contexts. Maggie had already approached friends for loans to meet the expenses of her initiation, and Danbala judged this sufficient to meet her spiritual obligations. Maggie was tremendously relieved. She also acknowledged that asking friends for loans had been quite a blow to her pride. dream that an end to In early April, Maggie had a signaled her bad luck and indicated that Danbala was content with the intentions of his devotee. In the dream, she was in some good "There were two men comein, one black and one sort of factory. cake with a lot of and I think white. And I was sharing people, Danbala," she one of them-at least one of them-was Papa laughed. "Because I say to him"-she laughed once more-I been quite a blow to her pride. dream that an end to In early April, Maggie had a signaled her bad luck and indicated that Danbala was content with the intentions of his devotee. In the dream, she was in some good "There were two men comein, one black and one sort of factory. cake with a lot of and I think white. And I was sharing people, Danbala," she one of them-at least one of them-was Papa laughed. "Because I say to him"-she laughed once more-I --- Page 334 --- tell Papa Danbala if he come to me looking like a snake I'm going to reject him!" Then Maggie added: - Any time again, dream you eating cake, that mean you going to have you throughout the success Danbala year. Fear and Protection A desire for personal safety -or "protection," as more often puts it-is perhaps the main reason she was Maggie finally willing to serve the spirits despite the toll in time and and despite the prejudice against Vodou she encounters outside energy her Haitian community. She once put it this way: I know New York City is hard. But, thank God, nothing ever happen to me. I don't have the fear. The reason why is that I know my spirit are around me, all the time, and if there should be danger, you know, somewhere I'm going, I have a feeling of something pulling me back not to go. I'm just not afraid to go to the store, say, at eleven o'clock at afraid to go to school, or afraid to go to work real early night, in the or morning. I don't have no fears, I just get and know that nothing will up go . . . and I happen to me. Maggie fears concrete situations, violence at the hands of people she does not know, whereas Alourdes fears less evils such as the ambition, jealousy, or general malevolence tangible of people she does know. Alourdes's fears almost always have a spiritual dimension. Maggie's are more rooted in the realities of everyday life in a tough Brooklyn neighborhood. The two women also handle their fears differently. After the both felt insecure, but each handled that robbery, insecurity in her own way. After the break-in, Maggie bought some rough lumber and built narrow, haphazard shelves over the window where had entered and the one in the basement where he had exited. Joe Alourdes constructed a gad. She submerged a doll, with ror bound to its breast, in a bottle filled with water. a mir- ("Alert the angels down in the water, Beneath the this mirror. . ") She placed protective charm on one of the shelves in the basement window, where it gazed out over the rear yard. In keeping with her tendency to fear the duplicity of known to her, Alourdes made her own diagnosis ofthe persons period of shelves over the window where had entered and the one in the basement where he had exited. Joe Alourdes constructed a gad. She submerged a doll, with ror bound to its breast, in a bottle filled with water. a mir- ("Alert the angels down in the water, Beneath the this mirror. . ") She placed protective charm on one of the shelves in the basement window, where it gazed out over the rear yard. In keeping with her tendency to fear the duplicity of known to her, Alourdes made her own diagnosis ofthe persons period of --- Page 335 --- bad luck in 1981, claiming that it was the work of a tive, one descended from her distant relaOn her last trip to Haiti, this grandfather, Alphonse Macena. and asked her to take man had approached Alourdes over his recently deceased father's and, along with it, the service of the altar Alourdes did not want to do this, because spirits housed there. Danbala ticed with both hands. 11 Some of the the oungan had "pracfamily spirits at all but spirits he served were not of those who had died "purchased spirits," free-floating souls that had without family or proper burial, souls subsequently been captured and "tied" stone. Alourdes wanted in a bottle or nothing to do with this sort work, and she avoided further contact with of spirit tended family. During the this part of her exlieve that these period of bad luck, she came to berelatives had been offended her had done "work" against her. by behavior and Somewhat surprisingly, Maggie did not disagree with reading. In fact, she talked about it as much as this the same time, however, Alourdes did. At nation Maggie held to her own about the spirits parallel explaAlourdes wanting her to become a manbo. did not disagree with Maggie's And seemed to be accurate theory, either. Both bad luck. explanations of their protracted of They knew both spell diagnoses were accurate spirits spoke to both scenarios in their dreams. because the bad luck had run its And when the course, more dreams signaled the good times. return of Just a few days after Maggie's dream about Danbala, Alourdes had a dream in which sharing cake with telling her that she had Ogou spoke to her, nothing to fear from the of Alphonse Macena. "The trouble over,' 11 the family "Everybody back to work!" And a spirit announced. had day or two after that Maggie one that also indicated that her mother's dream, with Macena's descendants were at an end. In Maggie's problems uncharacteristically, God himself intervened. dream, I don't think nothing more going to dream. Those people been happen, because I have a fix them. I dream like I was bothering Mommie, God going to big mountain, and walking up this mountain, like a something coming out of the fog : . . or cloud : . . like white smoke sky, like me. They tell me He going to lock them . and they talk to house-but it was not up. I was in this my house-like a Haitian house, and 's problems uncharacteristically, God himself intervened. dream, I don't think nothing more going to dream. Those people been happen, because I have a fix them. I dream like I was bothering Mommie, God going to big mountain, and walking up this mountain, like a something coming out of the fog : . . or cloud : . . like white smoke sky, like me. They tell me He going to lock them . and they talk to house-but it was not up. I was in this my house-like a Haitian house, and --- Page 336 --- clean it, to it ready, because God going to they tell me to get them had given bring them people there and lock up. They and I tell front room of that house to open up a store, me the There was a lot ofl leaf, a lot of dirt in that them I don't want it. 'Clean it. Get ready. We are going to Danbala house, and they just say, them Mommie tell me that was a good dream. lock up. and Alourdes breathed a mutual After these dreams, Maggie and they had emerged sigh of relief. Itl had been a time of testing, her and Maggie had strengthened her ties to kin, stronger. on her family tree. Alourdes had done some necessary pruning for a trip to Haiti After that, the two began serious planning from which would return a full-fledged in July, a trip Maggie of Danbala could continue to be manbo, with ason. The bones would flow shaken alive, and the veins of the serpent spirit stories with the bright red blood of another generation. The would not be forgotten. BEYOND BLOOD AND MEMORY made the events of the first half of 1981 SO poignant was What and Alourdes were confronted with the most that both Maggie discovered that basic of questions: who are my people? Maggie she could not slough off her family identity and responsibilities. the in doubt, her sense of security in With those connections Alourdes discovered that world had been placed in jeopardy. Family is blood ties are sometimes binding in the wrong ways. the would make it, espenever as clear-cut as ethnographers after cycle of cially for Haitians, who have been through cycle the ties of Although Alourdes seeks to honor social upheaval. Her argublood and memory, she insists on doing SO selectively. over the altar of Macena's descendant-that ment against taking understandhe served spirits who were not family spirits-was Techniable, but she does not apply this rule systematically. mother cally, Philo did not meet this standard, either. Alourdes's but her head spirit, Agéou, did not traffic in purchased spirits, rather, he was a Dominwas not inherited from her forebears; while she was living in Santo Domingo. ican spirit acquired official definitions of family when she Alourdes also flouts To some expresents the stories of her people as a matrilineage. ena's descendant-that ment against taking understandhe served spirits who were not family spirits-was Techniable, but she does not apply this rule systematically. mother cally, Philo did not meet this standard, either. Alourdes's but her head spirit, Agéou, did not traffic in purchased spirits, rather, he was a Dominwas not inherited from her forebears; while she was living in Santo Domingo. ican spirit acquired official definitions of family when she Alourdes also flouts To some expresents the stories of her people as a matrilineage. --- Page 337 --- tent, she rewrites history when she says, "In don'tserve no spirit; only women serve spirit. 11 my family, men this claim in spite of Joseph Binbin Alourdes makes Mauvant and cena, both of whom had Alphonse Malent, religious considerable, if not always benevobranches power. Alourdes chooses the women as the main Danbala on herfamily tree, and the the chain of generations for her. mother-daughterl link forges In refusing to assume the spiritual obligations of the Macena family, Alourdes in part revealed the extended which she defines family and makes the consistency with duty to family and religious duty. connections between spiritual power, but it was Marie Alphonse Macena had greater tained the family as best she could. Noelsine Thus Joseph who susrests on Alourdes's Sina's whistling rock Brooklyn altar, not Macena's sword. Alourdes's people, time and again, the women have Among the responsibility of the generations, shouldered old, and the ancestors. caring for the young, the the They have fed the spirits of the dead and hungry babies as well. Alourdes's religious devolve from this lineage of mothers who survived responsibilities tured as best they could. These are her and nurspirits she keeps alive with her ritual people, and it is their Alourdes's feeding. loyalty to family spirits is clear. But a pull toward working with a wider clientele. equally clear is if most of the who When I asked her people came to her for she responded, "All of them not Haitian. help were Haitians, Barbadian, Italian, Noooooo! Canadian, Jamaican-you know. I work for lot'a people. Chinese, too.' 11 Although it remains white most of her clients are Haitian, Alourdes my impression that work at a cultural crossroads. does do her healing between a non-Haitian But describing the relationship If the mutual client and the Vodou spirits is complex. obligations between the spirits and the inherited within families, how can a person who living are Vodou spirits in Alourdes's altar encounters the time, expect them to room, perhaps for the first respond to a request for help? Although I did not originally come to Alourdes as a attitude toward me is instructive client, her different on this issue. Alourdes takes approaches with me. One day, she looked me and asked, "What color closely at and she responded: "You your eyes?" "Blue," I answered, a real honky, aren't real honky." Yet, when you? Oh, boy! A talk about the black reading the cards for me, she began to ancestor somewhere in my past. "Even you request for help? Although I did not originally come to Alourdes as a attitude toward me is instructive client, her different on this issue. Alourdes takes approaches with me. One day, she looked me and asked, "What color closely at and she responded: "You your eyes?" "Blue," I answered, a real honky, aren't real honky." Yet, when you? Oh, boy! A talk about the black reading the cards for me, she began to ancestor somewhere in my past. "Even you --- Page 338 --- look like you, sometime they got that don't see that : : . people the same I in their family, 11 she explained. And, during period, also noticed thatshe used another, more comprehensive explanscheme. This theory, articulated by Alourdes several times atory that there is only one religion, one Danbala and in different ways, holds call God and the God, and one group of spirits. People simply attitude toward spirits by different names. Overall, Alourdes's it and see if involvement in Vodou has been pragmatic: "Try myi the summer of 1980, I decided to do just it work for you.Jin in Chapter 4). that, with my marriage to Ogou (described she When I told Alourdes that I was ready to marry Ogou, to Danbala, too. responded, "Okay, but . . . you got marry You to balance."' 11 I was familiar with the Ogou too hot. got balance, SO the new requirement Vodou principle of dynamic occasion much thought. I did not surprise me. It did not even to certain that the main event would be my marriage Ogou. was I thought about In the weeks before the two spirit weddings, mental the Danbala part of the rituals only when going over my two spirits meant I had to buy two complete checklist. Marrying Danbala, I needed a white dress with sleeves) sets of clothes (for had to be in the shape of and two wedding rings (Danbala's a snake). the marriage to Danbala turned out to Much to my surprise, behavior disappointed be the more powerful of the two. Ogou's his arms and and frustrated me. I had wanted Ogou to open teach welcome me as one of his own. Instead, he kept trying to lessons about self-assertion, and I ended up feeling rejected. me Danbala who fed the deeper hunger, the one beneath the It was wanted to "marry," to own up to, by marrying Ogou. angerIhad came on fast that July night. The The Danbala possession but rather on Andre, a spirit did not descend first on Alourdes, whom I knew pleasant young man and a relative of Alourdes's the floor like a only superficially. Andre fell and wiggled across sound he snake, his eyes wide, his tongue darting the only hiss. I was directed to lie beside Danbala, made was a quickly held in and the two of us were covered with a sheet canopy by several of the devotees. Someone put Danbala's egg place the canopy, along with a small the traditional offering--under white dish containing the wedding ring I had purchased. Florida Water was sprayed over the sheet, and Sweet-smelling lifted to allow each of us a drink of almondits edge was briefly iggled across sound he snake, his eyes wide, his tongue darting the only hiss. I was directed to lie beside Danbala, made was a quickly held in and the two of us were covered with a sheet canopy by several of the devotees. Someone put Danbala's egg place the canopy, along with a small the traditional offering--under white dish containing the wedding ring I had purchased. Florida Water was sprayed over the sheet, and Sweet-smelling lifted to allow each of us a drink of almondits edge was briefly --- Page 339 --- sugar syrup. Our translucent, private bower bloomed gent odors, and Danbala gently hissed his with punsurrounded us. Then, with his lips, Danbala gratitude. Singing a tiny coiled silver serpent. picked up the ring, the Holding it in his raw egg. Somehow, he maneuvered mouth, he bit into ring onto the first finger of the slippery, egg-coated Danbala with his darting my right hand. Next, Danbala traced, tongue, a trail of albumen the shoulder bone, and then he hissed up my right arm to A curiously asexual gently in my ear. Danbala sensuality overtook me. I was stopped time for me. He stopped the voice floating. mander in my head, the one who of the comlists, get things done-s set wanted to take charge, make was things right in life. MeN pure sensation-timeless, my His presence FoL of the ritual accomplished purposeless pleasure. This part but never quite managed something Alourdes had often tried even with her you think too much!" oft-repeated: "Karen, Then the singing intensified, and I heard ing a few feet from where Danbala scuffling and thumpsheet was whipped and I lay side by side. The being limp) and carried away, and hands picked me up (I remember me to lie beside Alourdes, by a second Danbala. Hers emitted now mounted When the marriage license an urgent "ke-ke-ke-ke-ke." with a big X and then was brought, this Danbala signed it crumpled the "Ke-ke-ke-ke, 11 he crooned. document against his heart: of Then he pressed the crumpled sheet paper against my heart: "Ke-ke-ke-ke." Back and paper went between us. Finally, Danbala forth the hugged me tightly to his breast. threw it aside and I had never seen two Danbala at and Alourdes later described it appear once. Both Maggie as unusual. you, the white one and the black "They both come for been the white Danbala, one. The first, they said, had black Saint Patrick. The second was one, Moses. Alourdes reminded the stick that could turn into me that Moses carried a a snake. During the last possession, Alourdes's Danbala leaned stage of the snake wound around its on a stick with a carved entire length. With hindsight, I understand the Danbala marked my acceptance: ein Alourdes's Vodou marriage to have in her community had been uncertain family. Some people ing a white person, and tense about includand a camera. After particularly the one who used a tape recorder July marriages in 1980, question was closed. It seems significant that it however, the was Danbala carried a a snake. During the last possession, Alourdes's Danbala leaned stage of the snake wound around its on a stick with a carved entire length. With hindsight, I understand the Danbala marked my acceptance: ein Alourdes's Vodou marriage to have in her community had been uncertain family. Some people ing a white person, and tense about includand a camera. After particularly the one who used a tape recorder July marriages in 1980, question was closed. It seems significant that it however, the was Danbala --- Page 340 --- Binbin Mauwho opened the family to me. I remembered Joseph out. 11 African "You in, you in. You out, you stay vant's legacy: of rural Haitians has Much of the social and religious energy other families. into defining their family over and against gone African words were probably Danbala In Mauvant's time, his powerful Haitians who were forced understood on that level. The many definitions of family. to migrate to the cities had to expand their shifted, but MauThe sense of the in-group and the out-group Alourdes's family vant's words persisted. In Port-au-Prince, who could be trusted used them to cast the line between those who could not. Imand called on in times of trouble and those but the to the United States caused further shifts, migrating that stands together against drive to define an inner core group a larger outside group remains. became involved in the plight of the In the early 1980s, whenIt who arrived on U.S. shores in Haitian boat people, refugees by the Immileaky vessels and were immediately imprisoned to my Service, Alourdes responded gration and Naturalization "Karen, you always talking talk about this effort by observing: I don't underabout the Haitian people, the Haitian people. to get stand. You don't know those boat people. Why you got She involve?" Abstractions do not provoke loyalty in Alourdes. of Binbin Mauvant, to locate continues, in the spirit Joseph because she those individuals who can be called her people knows them and because they have earned the title. she casts her net more widely, and the group But these days diverse. Alourdes has always shown she includes in it is more the new and the foreign. courage and creativity in taking on Danbala moved her Through her, at my marriage ceremony, Who to a broader response to the question, whole community This be the way of the future for Vodou in are my people? may But such a path leads to both gains the immigrant communities. share its wisdom and its healing techand losses. Vodou can varied but as the group of niques with a larger and more group; will also become more potential devotees expands, the spirits to those universalizable, the faces of the spirits less transparent of the and the stories that carry the wisdom of the ancestors, religion more abstract. Vodou alive dances along Danbala's The spark that keeps to to its new enbackbone. As the religion changes respond in March Danbala must change. On a trip to Haiti vironments, its wisdom and its healing techand losses. Vodou can varied but as the group of niques with a larger and more group; will also become more potential devotees expands, the spirits to those universalizable, the faces of the spirits less transparent of the and the stories that carry the wisdom of the ancestors, religion more abstract. Vodou alive dances along Danbala's The spark that keeps to to its new enbackbone. As the religion changes respond in March Danbala must change. On a trip to Haiti vironments, --- Page 341 --- 1988, I found a whole nation hated dictator Jean Claude suffering from depression. The 1986. Hope and Duvalier had departed in energy had risen among Haitians, February smashed when voters, lined up for the first only to be in several democratic election in Haitiless decades, than were machine-gunned on the spot. I arrived Danbala four months after this me was that several Vodou leaders tragedy. What intrigued suffering in terms of the of spoke about their current anger Danbala. Danbala used to stand with one foot on the the land, they said. But not now. Now water and one on he has withdrawn his foot from Danbala is SO angry that abuses of Duvalier and the land. He is angry about the about the Duvalierists, control. These are people who turn who remain in lies" for whom on their own, on the "famithey are father figures. As has withdrawn his foot from the punishment, Danbala and dying. Even members land, and Haiti is withering of the Haitian elite talked this though they would neveru use the name of Danbala. One way, light enough to be my sister, told me that when woman, usual morning walkin the woods near her she took her felt that all the spirits of the trees had mountain home, she Haiti was "losing its life force. 11 departed. In her words, Vodou has never included a notion of a Golden the past or the future. There is no heaven Age in either lypse is anticipated. At least, there or hell, and no apocasion-until had been no apocalyptic virecently. When such a vision forces itself people of Haiti, it is significant that feel upon the retreat of Danbala. What they it in terms of the he is doing in New York Danbala is doing in Haiti and what the future direction are good indices of the well-being and ofthe families who serve him in both places. --- Page 342 --- --- Page 343 --- CHAPTER ELEVEN --- Page 344 --- plenty Confibence April 24, 1981-3:00 P.M. Mimose sat in her home in Bizoton, a home that was really only had The concrete floor had been swept. The dishes a room. carefully on top of the bureau: two been washed and arranged The bowl, three glasses, and a cooking pot. plates, one had jelly been smoothed out, stretched tight, pretty flowered sheets around the edges of the bed. Mimose, and tucked in neatly lavender, sat on the edge of freshly bathed and dressed in pale mirror she held in her bed staring at an expressionless face in a Manouchka her right hand. On a mat beside the open door, little in her mouth. Mimose thought slept on her stomach, herthumb a small indecipherable noise . . maybe she heard something from the thatch. a baby's cough - maybe a spider dropping turned her head toward She glanced away from her reflection, back in the mirror. her child, and, seeing nothing, looked she told herself. But it was Mimose was bored; that was what withthan boredom she felt. This was a complex feeling more Earlier out a name. Call it dread. Deep hunger. Hopelessness. mat beside the open door, little in her mouth. Mimose thought slept on her stomach, herthumb a small indecipherable noise . . maybe she heard something from the thatch. a baby's cough - maybe a spider dropping turned her head toward She glanced away from her reflection, back in the mirror. her child, and, seeing nothing, looked she told herself. But it was Mimose was bored; that was what withthan boredom she felt. This was a complex feeling more Earlier out a name. Call it dread. Deep hunger. Hopelessness. to stir in in the day, when the all-too-familiar feeling had begun Then her, Mimose had written Jacques a passionate love note. and to the Carrefour road and waited on pins she ran down on one leg of its regular circuit. needles for his bus to appear Vie Belle" When she saw the brightly painted van with "La she written across the front in fat red letters and blinking lights, the note at Jacques through the driver's winraced to it, pushed forestall his and dow, put a hand on her lips to questions, pranced away, giggling. felt much worse. All day, the dread had After that, Mimose The author emerging from the initiation chamber. Outside of Port-au-Prince, 1981. Photograph by Jerry Gordon. --- Page 345 --- been growing steadily, like a boil. Her mind searched for some313 thing that could make her feel less precarious. "If we could get married L. ifIcould find a job and pay someone to take care of Mama doesn't even have a home now. - . . Manouchka. right Plenty She can't do it. If I could take the ason : . . start to work as a Confidence manbo . I1 Each attempt to find an escape route led herinto the same cul-de-sac, the one marked money. Well, if the problems could not be solved, it was at least time to make the fear go away. Her hand moved automatically toward Jacques's rum bottle. "Sa pa bon pou ou, ti cheri [That isn't good for you, dearie]," said Chantal as she walked through the door. Sitting down on the bed next to her daughter, Chantal withdrew a greasestained packet of fried pork from the pocket of her housedress and offered it to Mimose. Mimose shook her head; she preferred to let the fire burn in her belly pure and unadulterated. Methodically and in silence, Chantal ate the four nuggets of meat. Then, while picking her teeth with the nail on her little finger, she asked her daughter for a glass of water. Mimose pointed to a plastic jug on the edge of the bureau; but, catching her mother's disapproving look, she quickly rose to fetch the water herself. Chantal watched her beautiful young daughter and shook her head ruefully. In another minute, Mimose was standing before her, holding out a tray with a brimming glass of water balanced in the middle. Chantal took the glass, raised it to her lips, and emptied it down her throat. "Alourdes called last night," said Chantal. "She called at Madame Jesnair's, and by chance I was there. Italked with her. Maggie is going to kouche in July. Alourdes said you can go in, too. She is going to pay for everything. 1 Mimose's face lit up. She jumped from the bed and danced around the room. "Tant Alourdes! Tant Alourdes!Ilove you!" May 3, 1981-11:00 A.M. her lips, and emptied it down her throat. "Alourdes called last night," said Chantal. "She called at Madame Jesnair's, and by chance I was there. Italked with her. Maggie is going to kouche in July. Alourdes said you can go in, too. She is going to pay for everything. 1 Mimose's face lit up. She jumped from the bed and danced around the room. "Tant Alourdes! Tant Alourdes!Ilove you!" May 3, 1981-11:00 A.M. Karen Brown stood at the front door of her loft in lower Manhattan, giving it an appreciative look. It was a bright Sunday morning, and this was the day Alourdes would bless her new home. "Mine, all mine!" she thought to herself as she breathed in the odors of sawdust, fresh paint, and polyurethane. "Brace --- Page 346 --- she whispered to her brick walls and shiny yourself, friends," about to 11 Then wood floor, "our peace and quiet are disappear. battered Volvo and pointed it toward Brooklyn. she got into her household were dressed All five members of the Brooklyn friend Big Plenty and ready to go. And when Alourdes's gregarious leave, he was perConfidence Daddy arrived just as they were about to the to as well. Spirits were high on trip suaded to come along the laughter, and the teasing Manhattan. Karen let the stories, shouts swirl around her, paying no attention to the antiphonal "You of the two young boys in the back of her station wagon: cow!" "You horse!" "You truck!" "You airplane!" "You-youHaitian!" Karen was trying to plot the best route, through you construction, back to the area New Yorkers street fairs and road Below Canal Street. call TriBeCa, an acronym for the Triangle she thought and took a sudden "Ill cut through Chinatown," left on Mott Street. this had been a mistake. In less than two blocks, it was clear filled with the streets of Chinatown were Even on Sunday, Small-scale commerce-shoes people, and traffic inched along. ice in the back of a truckspread out on the sidewalk, fish on the congestion. As the Volvo came to a stop alongintensified Chinese woman in the passenger seat, side a car with a young the woman with a Alourdes leaned across Karen and greeted smile: "O wang gi nichi pi.' 11 Then she and the nod and a bright while Karen was left to other passengers burst into laughter, look and respond with a helpless face the woman's disgusted shrug of her shoulders. "Beauteeefull" cried Alourdes as the crowd finally pushed Karen's front door. Standing at the top of the staircase through to the lower level of the loft, Alourdes exclaimed: "Woy! leading fall." She picked her way carefully That stair too high. I going from side to side in a pair of blue jeans down the stairs, swaying be in and out of the car. Reaching SO tight she had had to helped wicker rocking chair Alourdes herselfi into a the bottom, plunked "IfIgot a place like this. : . SO and heaved a sigh of contentment. don't bother me. If quiet! I don't need nothing. I sleep. Nobody don't know I got party for spirit, nobody don't hear. Nobody smile. "You business.' I1 Then she turned to Karen with a sly my "No way!" Karen cried. "But going give me this apartment?" want." you can come and visit me whenever you asked Karen. "Where you born : Florida?" Big Daddy i into a the bottom, plunked "IfIgot a place like this. : . SO and heaved a sigh of contentment. don't bother me. If quiet! I don't need nothing. I sleep. Nobody don't know I got party for spirit, nobody don't hear. Nobody smile. "You business.' I1 Then she turned to Karen with a sly my "No way!" Karen cried. "But going give me this apartment?" want." you can come and visit me whenever you asked Karen. "Where you born : Florida?" Big Daddy --- Page 347 --- "No," she said, "I was born in - Jewish?" Big Daddy asked. Pennsylvania. "Your parents "No," 11 she laughed. "No," Karen replied. "Italian?" "Well, Big Daddy persisted: "What are my father's family is Irish, / said Karen. "Oh!" they?" exclaimed. "That explain why Big Daddy Saint Patrick is Irish. 11 Papa Danbala love you SO much. Plenty Alourdes, who had been Confidence would need for the house rummaging in herl bag for things she voice became suddenly blessing, continued to dig, but her earnest. "Some Karen got to marry spirit? She can't people say to me, 'Why Isay to them, 'What think have no spirit. She white!" you know.' 111 you Papa Ogou is? He a white man, She stopped searching through her purse, looked Big Daddy, and declared, "Those straight at people spend SO much time with Karen? I say, 'Why you have to I just do what I want. don't pay them no mind. Nobody don't tell me they mean? White people can't have my business! What body!" Having said her no spirit? Spirit for everyto the piece, Alourdes returned her attention handbag open on her lap. In a few trieved two white minutes, she had recandles, a small bottle of plastic sack containing bits of charcoal holy water, and a After Maggie and frankincense. kitchen managed to improvise an incense burner utensils, the group gathered from door of the loft. Karen was directed upstairs near the front side her door and to put a glass of water bethe bottle of light a candle next to it. Maggie was handed holy water and Big Daddy the pot. After Alourdes lighted the second smoking incense prayers were quickly recited. Then candle, a few Catholic handed her the candle, and told her Alourdes turned to Karen, Karen looked uncertain. to "talk." gie asked sharply. "What's the matter with you?" Alourdes stepped in to Magyou say you don't want no evil help: "Talk . . . like, Come on, Karen!" people coming in the door. "Okay, okay. I'm going to doit,' 11 clearing her throat. said Karen, "Let no unfriendly people come through this gan. "Good!" cried Alourdes. "But door," she beKaren continued let lots of friends come!" firmly. "And let me always feel coming through this door. And good about Everyone chimed in: "Make keep my home safe "No evil Karen' house safe!" shouted: "That's people - Alourdes started to say, and Maggie right! No burglar, no rapist, no murderer, , okay. I'm going to doit,' 11 clearing her throat. said Karen, "Let no unfriendly people come through this gan. "Good!" cried Alourdes. "But door," she beKaren continued let lots of friends come!" firmly. "And let me always feel coming through this door. And good about Everyone chimed in: "Make keep my home safe "No evil Karen' house safe!" shouted: "That's people - Alourdes started to say, and Maggie right! No burglar, no rapist, no murderer, --- Page 348 --- with no- " "That's enough!" broke in no thief, no man gun, holy water around Alourdes. She instructed Maggie to sprinkle all over the area. the door and told Big Daddy to pass incense want no that little corner, I1 Maggie urged. "I don't "Don'tf forget Plenty bad spirit hanging around." moved through the loft, stopping Confidence In this manner, the group the kitchen. As at the bathrooms, the bedroom, the windows, Standing in the Karen's tongue loosened. the rite continued, about food, about the imporkitchen, she waxed eloquent good about how she wanted tance of food in creating community, staunched people to gather around her table. . : : Maggie many wish: "And don't let that the flow of rhetoric with a practical stove explode!" Alourdes that Karen buy At the end of the ritual, suggested of doorways and a small statue of Lazarus (Legba, guardian a little one,' 11 she barriers) to put next to her front door. "Just three inches her thumb and middle finger about said, spreading they don't think nothing about it." apart. "Somebody see that, suggested an image of Ezili Dantô as well. Big Daddy after drinks and snacks, everyone but Karen An hour later, downstairs to watch television. The and Alourdes disappeared iced tea, which, two women sat at the round oak table, sipping Alourdes's case, was nearly half sugar. "I love your apartin thing I don'tlike ment, 11 Alourdes said. "Very, very pretty! Only somebody, here alone. It not good to be alone. You need is you to have a good time." "I know," replied and I don't mean just Karen. older. Right?" "Right, 1I Karen an- "Beside, Karen, you getting observed Alourdes swered glumly. "Nobody don'tget younger, do-something without a trace of humor. "What you going into that to you, you sick, you can't work? You going go happen Karen give me some food?" They don't store and say, T'm Brown, I1 "Well. . 1 carei if you Karen Brown!That don't mean nothing. 11 She said Karen, "it's not that bad. I've got some protection. insurance about the retirement fund and disability was thinking but Alourdes heard something else. her university provided, because those spirit love you. But "I know you got protection, to fight for that. Let you need somebody and : . you got from the time you me tell you, life is a war. You got to fight need!" belly. You got to fight for what you leave your mother' the conversation would end. "I know," Karen sighed, wishing !That don't mean nothing. 11 She said Karen, "it's not that bad. I've got some protection. insurance about the retirement fund and disability was thinking but Alourdes heard something else. her university provided, because those spirit love you. But "I know you got protection, to fight for that. Let you need somebody and : . you got from the time you me tell you, life is a war. You got to fight need!" belly. You got to fight for what you leave your mother' the conversation would end. "I know," Karen sighed, wishing --- Page 349 --- But Alourdes was not ready to drop the You can leave everything to God? topic: "What you think? out for you? God You think God going watch got too many problem for to take care of you. You hisself. He too busy hard to got to help yourself. 11 "Sometimes figure out how to do that, 11 Karen observed. it's Alourdes started to say something, hesitated, and Plenty a long, searching look. "If you find gave Karen Confidence and you love him-I mean somebody, he not married do really love don't want . him--you to something . . you know . . . fix him?" Karen vously. "No," she said, "I don't like to laughed nerbody, not like that. I want a man to choose use my will against anyhis own free will-not because to be with me, out of "Look, 11 said I did some 'work' against him.' 11 Alourdes, in a tone she might use "you too naïve. Nobody don't get hurt. 11 with a child, conspirator's whisper, she added, Lowering her voice to a somebody- -ifI I really love "Let me tell you, if I find bottom! I'm him, I'm going bind him from to going tie him right to the floor! That's top heart. You got to help yourself; not for right, sweetfor everything. 11 just man-for your job, "Maggie going kouche in July," Alourdes said, changing the subject. "In two month, we apparently coming?" Karen raised her going to Haiti. You ing. Alourdes eyebrows in surprise but said nothcontinued, "You could come inside. with Maggie - . . at the same time. That not kouche . . I going charge you just what that cost going cost you a lot. So, what you say, Karen? It's time me . . only a little more. yourself" you do something to protect "I don't know, Alourdes, 11 Karen not a responded Haitian : . and I'm not sure what it would cautiously. "Im be initiated. Do you really think I should mean for me to you," Alourdes said, with do it?" "That up to back in her chair and a impatient shrug. Then she leaned "Look opened her ample arms. at me, Karen," she said. "I got myself. You want some, too?" Karen nodded plenty confidence in a bemused smile. her head and gave "Yes. / she said slowly, "yes, I do." May 15, 1981-9:30. A.M. Robert Gerard had been at his workbench for SONY Walkman was on its fourth an hour. His trip through his favorite said, with do it?" "That up to back in her chair and a impatient shrug. Then she leaned "Look opened her ample arms. at me, Karen," she said. "I got myself. You want some, too?" Karen nodded plenty confidence in a bemused smile. her head and gave "Yes. / she said slowly, "yes, I do." May 15, 1981-9:30. A.M. Robert Gerard had been at his workbench for SONY Walkman was on its fourth an hour. His trip through his favorite --- Page 350 --- His left leg jiggled up and down, but he Aretha Franklin tape. time to the music. His body was following was not keeping shifted from the piece some other urgent rhythm. Robert's eyes brown Carmelita seated of equipment in front of him to sweet, blouse, and he Plenty two stations away. She had on a bright purple Confidence could see just the top of her cleavage. times seventy- "Plug in the calculator. Turn it on. Twenty-four the little green numbers flashed on display eight." Encouraging and more of her cleavage panel. Carmelita shifted position, three hunloomed into view. "Five hundred and eighty-six plus the caldred and five." Aretha picked up the beat. "Unplug 11 Putit over. Check the screws on the back panel." culator. Flip Carmelita's job. Robert's leg moved ting on the back panel was faster. Robert removed it with a clean white "Oops! A smudge." its sleeve, tucked in cloth. He slipped the calculator into plastic and it in of ("Inspected by No. 26"), replaced a small slip paper each in its own styrofoam a box with twenty other calculators, himself around slot. Then Robert removed his headset, spun men's room. Passonce on his swivel chair, and headed for the "Lookin' Carmelita, he bent and whispered in her ear: ing gooood!" She giggled. his thirties, has a short, muscled Robert, a black man in early in rural Georgia in a body with a firm pot belly. He grew up out on his own large family, and he was encouraged to strike older sister Robert followed an when he was barely a teenager. he married and began to New York City, where, at seventeen, all with names that his own family. He now has three children, are variations of his first name. look in the mirAlone in the bathroom, Robert risked a long His face went slack for a moment but quickly recomposed ror. be okay," he said out loud, giving himitself. "Everythin' gonna nod. "This is the right decision. No quesself an authoritative he wants, he got'a tion about that. When a man see somethin' nothin' gained. for it. Better believe it! Nothin' ventured, go nothin'. No, sir!" Bein' afraid never got nobody months earlier when he had But he had clearly felt fear two dreamed about a woman, a awakened from that dream. He had river. She beckbeautiful woman with long hair, standing by a "You have to come in the water. You have oned to him, saying, Even though he was trying to to!" Then came the strange part. wants, he got'a tion about that. When a man see somethin' nothin' gained. for it. Better believe it! Nothin' ventured, go nothin'. No, sir!" Bein' afraid never got nobody months earlier when he had But he had clearly felt fear two dreamed about a woman, a awakened from that dream. He had river. She beckbeautiful woman with long hair, standing by a "You have to come in the water. You have oned to him, saying, Even though he was trying to to!" Then came the strange part. --- Page 351 --- run away, he felt himself moving discussed the dream with Mama steadily toward her. Robert "Robert, Lola, and Alourdes said you not going to have no peace until simply, head. You know that, right? I going take you wash your Don't you worry. When care of that for you. you coming, too.' 11 Maggie go to Haiti, when she kouche, Plenty At first, Robert had worried about the Confidence ured out a way to handle the cost. But he soon figjob for the month ofJune. money problem, taking on a night Ordinarily, he could not have nights, because of school, but there was no worked The extra job would pay for his school this summer. had to buy for the initiation. airplane ticket and the things he What he owed come up with later. Alourdes, he could As for his other fears, Robert held them at practiced techniques of positive bay with wellcourse taken several thinking he had learned in a of years ago. In fact, he had taken a number cided self-improvement courses- -yoga, est, karate -before to get serious about earning his he dethree years earning his high school degrees. He had spent he was almost finished with equivalency certificate, and a two-year ness administration. college degree in busi- "This is the real thing! That lady know what Lola don't fool around!" Robert assured she doin'. through the men's room door. Back himself as he pushed the Aretha Franklin at his bench, he replaced had made tape with one that had a blank label. this tape from the radio, and no one else Robert allowed to listen to it. It began with the 1812 was ever long, Robert was lost in a clash of Overture. Before calculators. cymbals and another box of Only once did a fleeting memory of intrude. The night before, she had called to Maggie's "We voice July seven. I already make that reservation say, are going better get yourself ready. You hear for you. So you me, Mister Gerard?" June 12, 1981-6:30 P.M. Karen and Maggie sat in the little altar room in the the Fort Greene house, waiting for Robert basement of for their initiation was to to arrive. Instruction begin that night. Robert nearly an hour late, and, despite ambled in feel guilty, he refused to Maggie's efforts to make him apologize. "I was sleepin'. Everybody seven. I already make that reservation say, are going better get yourself ready. You hear for you. So you me, Mister Gerard?" June 12, 1981-6:30 P.M. Karen and Maggie sat in the little altar room in the the Fort Greene house, waiting for Robert basement of for their initiation was to to arrive. Instruction begin that night. Robert nearly an hour late, and, despite ambled in feel guilty, he refused to Maggie's efforts to make him apologize. "I was sleepin'. Everybody --- Page 352 --- Robert added, "Lola have to sleep some time, rightr-Besikdes,"E holdin' things is talkin' on the phone. I'm not the one "Mommie up." announced. "You are holding me up," Maggie time. Since I kouche once before, going to be on the phone a long before Mommie come." Plenty Ican just start and tell you some thing Gede's Confidence said Robert, settling onto the stool by Papa "All right," attention. 11 "We going July seven, 11 Maggie altar, "you got my We to be at the airport at six in began. "American Airline. got Robert Nobody better be late!" "Calm down," the morning. said, "nobody gonna be late." "We to write things Maggie passed out paper and pencils. got this is what down, SO nobody don't make no mistake! Karen, sleeve; to bring: three white scarf; two white dress, long you got one thimble 11 "Wait a minone white nightgown; one rosary; ute!" Karen cried, "I can't write that fast. ahead: "Robert got to bring the same thing Maggie plunged She "And, Robert, don't foras Karen-but no dress." giggled. "To "What for?" he asked. put your get a little plastic bag,." and then added with a koudok [penis] in!" Maggie shouted, to one. 11 snicker, "Maybe after you go in there you going get I1 "this Robert cautioned, is serious business." "Take it easy, "I don't want nobody to Maggie ignored him and continued: They a out of line, 'cause then they got to spank you. got get keep inside that room.' 11 "Don't you worry about switch they to be your mother, me, 11 Robert said truculently. "Mommie going added. "When you in SO you got to do what she say," Maggie There is the inside mother that little room, you got two mother. but and the outside mother. Mommie is going to stay outside, someone in there with us. When you go pee-pee, she is we got the bucket and bring it back. She give you the one who empty the too. Kouche is like a : : . like a food. She the one got whip, to be like baby smell rebirth 1. - . like you get reborn. We going like baby, too! heh, heh-so we got to behave.' at the "That's right!" said Alourdes, who had just appeared door of the altar room. I'm not going to spoil nobody!" She settled herself in the big, overstuffed armchair, and the instrucin earnest. "Thisis a very big step, tion of the candidates began don't think, when you do it, you not very big decision. But I can't do need nobody. Even me . . I need people. going myself. No! And don't think, when you finish, everything by sit down, wait for then everything going to be okay . . you just !" said Alourdes, who had just appeared door of the altar room. I'm not going to spoil nobody!" She settled herself in the big, overstuffed armchair, and the instrucin earnest. "Thisis a very big step, tion of the candidates began don't think, when you do it, you not very big decision. But I can't do need nobody. Even me . . I need people. going myself. No! And don't think, when you finish, everything by sit down, wait for then everything going to be okay . . you just --- Page 353 --- luck to come. I don'tgot no luck to give you. You still yourself. This one big, big, big, long step; but got to help that you still to every day after made got shuwa . shuwa : . . shuwa." a shuffling sound and moved her hands like feet Alourdes along a path. "Even me, I'm not finish. I got to walk stepping just like you . . . shuwa. . shuwa every day Plenty that going make : . . shuwa. And don't think Confidence you a wealthy person. Oh, no! Do I money?" got a lot'a "Everybody who go in together, they brother and Alourdes said. "I am your mother-not sister, you don't come from the stomach-but your real mother, I your . spirit . . by God. So after we finish, when I have mother : . . by spirit, I call you. a party for need Everybody come and help me. When Robert something, he call Karen. It like one hand hand. And when we finish, wash the other you say thank everybody got to make a mèsi-like you . : : like you a slave and those freedom." spirit give you "After you finish kouche, you keep the head day from the day you go inside," 11 she instructed. covered, forty nobody put the hands on your head! And "And don'tlet hear me? No chou-chou! I mean that. 11 "What's no chou-chou! You asked. Maggie jumped up from her chair. "You chou-chou?" Karen are together with your know . . you chou,' 11 she said, boyfriend, you two go chou-chou-chougiggling and pumping her Alourdes leaned forward in her chair and hips. looked Karen. "And don't tell nobody what directly at That your secret. Even go on when you in there. "Im not they give you money, don'tsay going to tell the secrets,' II Karen said defensively. nothing!" right!" said Alourdes, sitting back in her chair. "You do "That's you going die." thatJuly 7, 1981-7:45 P.M. In the long light of early evening, the mountains Port-au-Prince on three sides had flattened out surrounding In the cemetery, like stage sets. above-ground tombs cast OWS. The dead seemed to be long lavender shadas crowded as taptap. In the center of the cemetery, countless passengers on a individuals and families monuments to crete-the individual pushed up out of a single mass of conand the group, the one and the many, pe- do "That's you going die." thatJuly 7, 1981-7:45 P.M. In the long light of early evening, the mountains Port-au-Prince on three sides had flattened out surrounding In the cemetery, like stage sets. above-ground tombs cast OWS. The dead seemed to be long lavender shadas crowded as taptap. In the center of the cemetery, countless passengers on a individuals and families monuments to crete-the individual pushed up out of a single mass of conand the group, the one and the many, pe- --- Page 354 --- human dilemmas as unresolved in cemetery architec322 rennial were in the minds of four struggling initiates. ture as they were leading the way through the Alourdes and two helpers Trailing behind were Robert and Karen, Maggie vast necropolis. culottes, an off-the-shoulder Plenty and Mimose. Maggie was wearing the had Confidence blouse, and stiletto heels. From the moment group that morning, she had been resisting boarded the plane early inside the cemetery, the sharp her mother's authority. But once cleaner and chaotic energy had given way to a exprestongue whined and sniffled as she moved awksion of fear. Maggie between the tombs. Once wardly on the narrow, uneven paths she was at the tag end of the she stumbled and fell. Before long, parade, and she was crying. shrugged her shoulders in Alourdes glanced back at Maggie, After and pushed on with a rapid, determined step. disgust, blind and doubling back, Alourdes fitwice heading down alleys tomb. Libations of kleren were poured nally located her mother's lit in the niches at its base. by Philo's grave, and candles were the first of three baths for On the ground in front of the tomb, shell bowls were filled the initiates was prepared. Four calabash bundles of leaves, with kleren and water. Alourdes carried two other marigold leaves and the powone a bunch of glossy green helpers, Mimose's brother dery grey wormwood. Alourdes's into service mixing the Sonny and his friend Yves, were pressed mashed the baths. Plunging their hands into the bowls, they dark and them together until the liquid turned leaves rubbed reduced to a sodden pulp. Alourdes green and the herbs were behind Philo's tomb. then led one initiate after another Take off your clothes,' 11 she said to Karen. "We don't "Quick! Karen winced at the thought of her glaringly white got all day!" of the dead. Nevertheless, she body SO exposed in this busy city breath and began to peel off her dress."Oh, well," took a deep write about this It will be worth she said to herself, "I can part. function serve the same ( it." Karen's field journal had begun to she to clothing. In clinging to it, dung as Maggie's flamboyant would arrest a perilous slide an adult identity that she hoped his masculinity had been using toward helpless infancyRobert All day, he had been under Alourdes's in much the same way. unsolicited advice about that. feet, helping with this, giving the role of obedient child more gracefully Mimose was handling than any of them. she said to herself, "I can part. function serve the same ( it." Karen's field journal had begun to she to clothing. In clinging to it, dung as Maggie's flamboyant would arrest a perilous slide an adult identity that she hoped his masculinity had been using toward helpless infancyRobert All day, he had been under Alourdes's in much the same way. unsolicited advice about that. feet, helping with this, giving the role of obedient child more gracefully Mimose was handling than any of them. --- Page 355 --- "Take this," Alourdes said, shoving a lighted candle toward Karen, "and pray. Ask Philo to help you. Hurry up! Somebody coming. 11 Painfully aware of a man lingering in the shadow ofa tomb less than twenty yards away, and shivering despite the Plenty Karen to concentrate her mind on Philo for warm air, managed Confidence all of one minute. throw "Haven't you got nothing raggedy, something you can away?" demanded Alourdes. Karen picked up her red underpants, tugged at them until they ripped in two places, and handed them to Alourdes. Alourdes put them in the gourd containing the remnants of the herbal bath, and then she sent the whole thing sailing far from Philo's overgrown tomb, up in the air and away, into an intense mauve sky. In flight, the gourd turned slowly round and round like a saucer. It disappeared behind a glowing alabaster tomb without spilling any of its liquid contents. But the underpants, once free of the gourd, continued to fly away, a small red bird headed straight for the setting sun. It was almost dark by the time the four initiates left the cemetery. Damp clothing clung to their bodies. Maggie was walking barefoot, her high heels dangling from one hand. Bits of leaves and tiny twigs were visible on their cheeks and collarbones. Heady aromas filled their nostrils, making them light-headed and a little giddy. July 8, 1981-5:00 P.M. Karen was in her room at the Toussaint L'Ouverture Guest House, sleeping soundly for the first time in two days. Alourdes suddenly burst through the door. "The drums already start. Hurry up!" Alourdes threw a box of cotton balls and Hurry nail up! remover onto the bed. "Get that nail polish some polish nail inside." So sudoff-toes, too! You can't wear no polish heat, Karen felt denly awakened from a sleep padded by tropical refused to cooperate as she her heart pounding. Clumsy fingers Her blouse tried to remove the polish from her fingers and toes. was only half tucked into her skirt and perspiration trickled down her face as she climbed into the taxi that would carry them the short distance to Madame Rigaud's temple, where the ceremonies were to take place. the As the taxi edged into the dusty swarm of vehicles on ail inside." So sudoff-toes, too! You can't wear no polish heat, Karen felt denly awakened from a sleep padded by tropical refused to cooperate as she her heart pounding. Clumsy fingers Her blouse tried to remove the polish from her fingers and toes. was only half tucked into her skirt and perspiration trickled down her face as she climbed into the taxi that would carry them the short distance to Madame Rigaud's temple, where the ceremonies were to take place. the As the taxi edged into the dusty swarm of vehicles on --- Page 356 --- Carrefour road, Alourdes was still discussing price with the driver. He said four dollars; she said three. Thei initiates, into the back seat, talked in stage whispers. Alourdes, wedged that the group might appear to be fearing Plenty tourists, who would be Confidence charged more as a matter of course, tried a covert "Tada, de-da, la, la, la,' I1 she sang in her rich, full warning. voice, "don't speak Engleeesh!" Karen, sensing the possibility of a problem larger than the language they spoke, responded with a made up on the spot: song O, manman' 'm se mva, papa'm se nwa. Kouman yo sezi, lè'm sôti blan. Oh, my mother was black, my father was black. How surprised they were, when I came out white. Mimose and Maggie quickly picked up the song. Robert, who could not understand the words, nevertheless joined in, even adding a little syncopated thigh-slapping. Soon the taxi was rolling into the narrow rutted lane leading to Madame Rigaud's temple. Alourdes was still laughing as she handed the driver four dollars and waved him off. The mood in the temple was in stark contrast to their As they cleared the door, Madame Rigaud's assistant cracked frivolity. writhing bull whip within inches of their toes. The cracked a three times. The ritual called bat gè (fighting the whip war) was in full swing. From the drums at the far end of the peristil came urgent Petwo rhythms. (temple) A dozen people were clustered around the entrance to the Petwo altar room. Inside, four of Madame Rigaud's ounsi (ritual assistants) were seated on a white sheet. Each held a knife and a fork, and they kept time to the music by beating the utensils on metal plates. In their midst sat a curious animated bottle wrapped in red sequined cloth. A cork had been spindle emerging from the bottle. The tines of two impaled forks on had a been stuck into the cork; their handles sloped downward. of the ounsi kept the forks constantly like One spinning, a miniature airplane ride ata carnival. Two men with red scarves tied around their biceps stood in the center of the Petwo chamber, tightly . Each held a knife and a fork, and they kept time to the music by beating the utensils on metal plates. In their midst sat a curious animated bottle wrapped in red sequined cloth. A cork had been spindle emerging from the bottle. The tines of two impaled forks on had a been stuck into the cork; their handles sloped downward. of the ounsi kept the forks constantly like One spinning, a miniature airplane ride ata carnival. Two men with red scarves tied around their biceps stood in the center of the Petwo chamber, tightly --- Page 357 --- each wielding a sword. Their swords clanged together on every third beat of the knives and forks. Madame Rigaud leaned into the Petwo chamber and blew a fine mist of hot-pepper rum over the ritualizers. The ounsi Plenty squinted and ducked, trying to protect their eyes from its pun- Confidence fire. With lightning speed, the whip, a good ten feet long, gent the of the and delivered a loud slithered across floor peristil crack just in front of the drums. The hands of the lead drummer exploded in a burst of energy and sound. The war had begun, for and Mimose, Karen and and it was being fought Maggie Robert. July 9, 1981-11:00 P.M. The initiates, dressed in white, were sequestered in a back room of Madame Rigaud's temple. They were unable to participate in, or even see, the elaborate ritual called chire ayizan (shredding the ayizan), which was being performed in the peristil. But they could hear the drums and, beneath their sound, the soft slapof dancers' bare feet on a beaten earth floor. Outside, six ping ounsi, all in white, swirled around the sacred center pole, shredleaf as they danced. The final prodding a single, gigantic palm fringe uct of their ritual labors was the ayizan, a protective palm hung over the door to the initiation chamber. and Mimose, Karen and Robert Just before midnight, Maggie end of the before a were brought out and lined up at one temple Many of them approached the crowd of fifty or sixty people. four were about to initiates to say good-bye. It was as if these die. Family and friends hugged and kissed them. Tears were down the cheeks of many. Then the initiates were dirolling the words of a song, to swear allegiance seven rected, through mother. Alourdes stood before them, surveytimes before their Four hands were ing her children with a somber eye. right raised palm outward, seven times, and then darkness suddenly descended. From behind them, blindfolds were whipped out and bound tightly over their eyes. Karen was grabbed from behind by a woman whose bosom felt as wide and soft as a river delta. Mimose was grasped about the waist by someone with sinewy arms that felt like steel. the initiates were dirolling the words of a song, to swear allegiance seven rected, through mother. Alourdes stood before them, surveytimes before their Four hands were ing her children with a somber eye. right raised palm outward, seven times, and then darkness suddenly descended. From behind them, blindfolds were whipped out and bound tightly over their eyes. Karen was grabbed from behind by a woman whose bosom felt as wide and soft as a river delta. Mimose was grasped about the waist by someone with sinewy arms that felt like steel. --- Page 358 --- Maggie and Robert each had their doubles pressed hard against their backs. The drums quickened. Intricate, intoxicat- up ing Petwo rhythms were pounding in the ears of the initiates as Plenty each began to dance with his or her shadow. Mimose did not Confidence need to see in order to dance. Her slender body moved instinctively into the complex polyrhythms. Her feet, not touching but in perfect union with the feet of her shadow, moved ward and backward to a staccato beat, while her rapidly shoulders forpulsed to another beat, folding inward and stretching back as if they were attached to giant butterfly wings and she were to fly away. trying Karen was in a cold sweat. She knew she could not do this dance. She had tried many times, but she had always ended feeling like an elephant in its death throes. In the excitement up the moment, however, she forgot these failures, and of she was suddenly dancing . . : though not through her own efforts. Her body was like a rag doll bound to the body of her The woman's legs moved, hers moved. The woman's shoulders partner. moved, hers moved. "Not bad!" Karen thought. "But I had better pay attention." As soon as the thought entered her head, the two of them veered to one side, and Karen banged her shin chair. Karen understood the situation painfully on a perfectly. She knew exactly what she must do. "Let go! Let go! Let go!" the inner voice shouted, as she and her dancing partner hobbled and lurched around and around and around the center pole. After a long time, someone shouted in her ear: "Leve pye ou [Lift very feet]!" and she and the others were whisked into the your rock-hard, leaf-soft bower where they would kouche- lie aromatic sleep, make love, die-and be reborn. down, Sometime later that night . or perhaps it was the next early morning. . . It was hard to keep track of time when the drums kept pounding and candles provided the and night mixed only light. Day got up : . . and SO did dream and this occurrence seems likely reality. Still, enough. Karen her and saw a hairy black spider the width of a opened eyes way down the wall. teacup making its Suppressing a shudder, she tried to make a joke. "Look there," she whispered, poking in the arm. Maggie "Papa Gede has come for a visit!" "That is just a spider!" Maggie hissed. "You know Papa Gede cannot come in here! He is not allowed." got up : . . and SO did dream and this occurrence seems likely reality. Still, enough. Karen her and saw a hairy black spider the width of a opened eyes way down the wall. teacup making its Suppressing a shudder, she tried to make a joke. "Look there," she whispered, poking in the arm. Maggie "Papa Gede has come for a visit!" "That is just a spider!" Maggie hissed. "You know Papa Gede cannot come in here! He is not allowed." --- Page 359 --- July 12, 1981-8:00 A.M. The initiates, carrying red roses and dressed in white, with strings of multicolored beads crisscrossed on their chests like Plenty bandoliers, stepped backward out of the initiation chamber and Confidence then turned in confusing spirals as they made their way into the peristil. They were at once newborn babies and gangly adoto adulthood. Their heads were lescents on a too-rapid path vuldoubly covered in scarves and straw hats, as if to protect nerable soft spots on the top of the skull. Their faces, not yet ready for the full light of day, were obscured with palm fringe. Cheers and applause greeted them. They had survived their trials. They had faced the fire and learned that one could choose rather than hot. had drunk from the mouth to call it strong They had been of death. They had tasted the sword of justice. They changed. They were changing. The final forms that would were not yet clear. In other words, they had been reemerge born into the human family, this time better equipped to pit will and strength against fate. That was the most that could have been done. Life would go on, and, as always, fate remained the joker in the deck of cards. November 2, 1987-3:00 A.M. Fifteen people were gathered in Alourdes's basement in Brooklyn to honor Papa Gede. The walls were peppered with dancing skeletons, all Hallmark Halloween decorations. Orange and black crepe paper defined the niche. The altar table was draped Gede colors, and black. It looked like in more traditional purple funeral bunting. Alourdes's ritual assistants, Maggie, Karen, and Robert, were dipping and turning before the altars, pouring libations for Papa Gede. The group offered song after song in an attempt to draw Gede into their company. Then they launched for a Gede called Nan Mitan Kay (In the Midst of the a new song "Nan Mitan Home). It was a simple song with a haunting lyric: Kay, how are you? How are you? Nan Mitan Kay, I know you are there.'" 11 Robert and Karen instincSuddenly Maggie began to cry. tively moved toward her. "Im okay,' 11 she said, sniffing back her tears and giving her head a definitive shake. "I was just now song after song in an attempt to draw Gede into their company. Then they launched for a Gede called Nan Mitan Kay (In the Midst of the a new song "Nan Mitan Home). It was a simple song with a haunting lyric: Kay, how are you? How are you? Nan Mitan Kay, I know you are there.'" 11 Robert and Karen instincSuddenly Maggie began to cry. tively moved toward her. "Im okay,' 11 she said, sniffing back her tears and giving her head a definitive shake. "I was just now --- Page 360 --- thinking about Mimose. When we was little kids, playing together, me and Mimose, we used to make food for Nan Mitan Kay. Put some cookie on a plate, leave it for him. You know just kids playing. We thought we made . Plenty him up. Later, Confidence mother tell me someone way back in our family, they got a Gede my called Nan Mitan Kay." "I miss Mimose : . 11 said Maggie, tears again in her eyes. "Me too," said Karen. "Me too," said appearing Robert. The three stood, their arms around one another, "Nan Mitan Kay, I know you are there." singing, Gede, trickster and spirit of death, had no place in the initiation chamber in 1981, but four years later he dropped into the midst of Mimose's humble home and sent the stealthily reeling. In the fall of 1985, in the turbulent months place the downfall of Jean Claude Duvalier, Jacques, the preceding father of Mimose's child, had been arrested on a charge of anti-Duvalier distributing leaflets. It had taken six agonizing months for Mimose to learn that he had been killed within hours of his arrest. In the spring of 1987, when most Haitians were busy nourishing a flickering flame of hope for their country, a drunken Mimose stumbled onto the Carrefour road, directly into the path of an oncoming vehicle. Several days later, she died in her mother's arms. The family is still not certain whether it was internal injuries from the accident or the ravages of alcohol that killed this gentle, hungry priestess . - the best dancer of them all. --- Page 361 --- a CHAPTER TW EL VE --- Page 362 --- Gede asked to describe We Vodou spirit of death, Alourdes said, "Papa Gede is a Gede, man. He live in the cemetery, but that not mean he's cemetery bad. He very good man. He love children a lot. He love woman a lot. He a very sexy man. Sometime he say a bad word, but love everybody. He love to help people. When . . he kind'a people sick-all sickness-that's his job to help.' 1 Gede is Alourdes's main helper in the healing work she forms. All the Vodou spirits get involved in in perhealing one way oranother, but only Gede claims it as his main tion. And even when Gede job descripPapa does not make an appearance (through dream or trance) in the course of a particular treatment, his spirit pervades the situation. Two different chromolithographs are commonly used to resent Gede, one of Saint Gabriel and the other of Saint Gerard. repIn both, handsome young men in black clerical dress contemplate a human skull juxtaposed to a sprig of fresh flowers. But in Gabriel's image, the more popular of the two, the saint's actually falls just beside the skull, onto the framed picture of gaze an appealing young woman. Papa Gede, as Alourdes usually calls him, is a trickster spirit. Through his randy, playful, childish, and childlike Gede raises life energy and redefines the most personality tion-even death itself-as painful situaone worth a good laugh. Gede is a transformation artist, and this is the reason he is also the cipal healer among the Vodou lwa. prinThe Gede (there are many of them) are different from other Vodou spirits. They are neither Rada nor Petwo. In not even form a nanchon fact, they do (nation), as the other spirits do. ster spirit. Through his randy, playful, childish, and childlike Gede raises life energy and redefines the most personality tion-even death itself-as painful situaone worth a good laugh. Gede is a transformation artist, and this is the reason he is also the cipal healer among the Vodou lwa. prinThe Gede (there are many of them) are different from other Vodou spirits. They are neither Rada nor Petwo. In not even form a nanchon fact, they do (nation), as the other spirits do. Their aggregate is described by the more intimate term fanmi (family). Temple wall painting of Saint Gerard (Gede). Port-au-Prince, 1980. --- Page 363 --- No other group of spirits is described this way. Papa Gede sits at the center of the thick weave of relationships that make up a family- -an ideal place for a healer to be, because all Vodou healing is the healing of relationships." Gede This concluding chapter first discusses healing as Alourdes practices it within the Vodou system. In this section, Papa Gede's presence will be more implicit than explicit. In a paradoxical way, which Gede himself would relish, the appropriateness of his presiding over the healing arts emerges clearly in the second half of the chapter, where attention is actually focused on his other areas ofe fexpertise: sex, satire, children, and cemeteries. The discussion of healing begins, in Papa Gede's mode, with a story. JAMAICA the of 12, 1980, Alourdes and I met Early on morning January inside the international building at Kennedy Airport. We were together, first to Jamaica and then Haiti. We had been traveling the trip to Haiti-our visit to Alourdes's ancestral planning but had been added to ouritinhomes-for some time, Jamaica at the last moment. When the possibility first arose, a erary Alourdes seemed to assume that I week before our departure, would to Jamaica with her. She had been hired to do some healing go work for a woman who owned a dairy farm near Kingston. The farm was big, Alourdes said, and there was plenty of room for both of us to stay. The work would not take long, and after that we would fly directly to Port-au-Prince. Forty-eight Alourdes to hedge. She sughours before our departure, began gested it might be better if I met her in Haiti. I persisted, telling her I really wanted to see the "treatment" she was going to do. Alourdes finally agreed to my going, but with something short 'For further discussion of healing within the Haitian Vodou system, see two Case articles by Karen McCarthy Brown: "Afro-Caribbean Spirituality: A Haitian Study," in Healing and Restoring: Medicine and Health in the World's Religious Traditions, Power to ed. Alourdes to hedge. She sughours before our departure, began gested it might be better if I met her in Haiti. I persisted, telling her I really wanted to see the "treatment" she was going to do. Alourdes finally agreed to my going, but with something short 'For further discussion of healing within the Haitian Vodou system, see two Case articles by Karen McCarthy Brown: "Afro-Caribbean Spirituality: A Haitian Study," in Healing and Restoring: Medicine and Health in the World's Religious Traditions, Power to ed. Lawrence Sullivan (New York: Macmillan, 1989), 255-85; and "The New Vision: Heal: Reflections on Women, Religion, and Medicine,' in Shaping H. Gender and Values in American Culture, ed. Clarissa W. Atkinson, Constance Series Buchanan, and Margaret R. Miles, Harvard Women's Studies in Religion (Ann Arbor, Mich. : UMI Research Press, 1987), 123-41. --- Page 364 --- of full enthusiasm. We were in line at the check-in counter when the reason for her reluctance appeared on the scene. Mabel Wycliff, breathless and complaining, bustled the automatic doors under the through Gede sign marked Pan American Airways. She had enough distance on her husband, who was ging two overstuffed suitcases, for the doors to close and dragagain before he made it into the terminal. Mabel plunked down open two bulging handbags at our feet. Her greeting was a continuation of a rant apparently begun long before she arrived at the airport. "No cross, no crown, 11 Mabel announced in her Jamaican lilt. Ever SO quickly, her eye flicked over me, and she raised a quizzical brow but said nothing. Her verbal train was on a well-oiled track. running "Always doin' for me family. Up since four o'clock makin' chicken wings and rice, SO there be food in the refrigerator. That man just lay in bed, too lazy to get himself up and And him forget me little blue bag. It got all me things for help. the Haiti business in it, and that man forget! Lola, the white dress you tell me to buy, the sheet-all in that bag. That man is full'a dust! Full'a donkey dust." Her husband, Oswald, had joined the group by then, and from a jumble of opinions a decision somehow emerged that Oswald would race home for the grip. He might make it back before our plane left; if missing not, he would put the bag on the next Kingston flight, and we could collect it at the airport. Mabel is a toffee-colored woman in her early fifties. She has a short, squat body and a no-nonsense, Mabel high-energy personality. fancies herself the only pole in a one-pole tent. In tion to her family, at least, there is some truth to this. rela- Her husband always seems a little dazed; and, if Mabel is to be believed, her children generate one crisis after another to which she must apply her heroic and self-sacrificing energy. Her work life may be more rewarding, but it is not less demanding. Five days a week, she commutes from New Jersey to where she works in a hospital geriatric ward. Mabel Long Island, lively presence for the old people she talks about must be a with affection. genuine As we headed down the ramp to the plane, I whispered a torical question to Alourdes: "Mabel is going with us?" rhecourse Mabel going!" Alourdes responded, full voice. "Mabel "Of going to get her head wash' in Haiti. She got a lot of problem. rewarding, but it is not less demanding. Five days a week, she commutes from New Jersey to where she works in a hospital geriatric ward. Mabel Long Island, lively presence for the old people she talks about must be a with affection. genuine As we headed down the ramp to the plane, I whispered a torical question to Alourdes: "Mabel is going with us?" rhecourse Mabel going!" Alourdes responded, full voice. "Mabel "Of going to get her head wash' in Haiti. She got a lot of problem. --- Page 365 --- She got to do that SO she can help herself. But first Kingston, because I got a little thing to do for we going to about the woman with the her son." "What dairy farm?" I reason we going, but I just tell Mabel I do asked. "That the real her, too," Alourdes this little thing for responded. "Where are we going to stay?" I Gede stay with Mabel family. whispered. "We going. to "But did you tell Mabel I Okay, Karen?" She sounded annoyed. Alourdes answered was coming?"Ip persisted. "No . slowly, as if she had to think question. "I forget. But that don't matter. about the like that. You come to stay in their house, Caribbean people not glad to see you coming. Don't they always gonna be We sat three abreast in the you worry, sweetheart." Mabel kept their hats on smoking section. Alourdes and throughout the flight. Mabel through a copy of American Woman, and both leafed Tia Marias. Each ordered double into her slipped one small bottle of the sweet purse, along with packages of crackers liqueur the snack tray. "That Tia Maria for and cheese from ring to her nephew, who lives in Philo's Sonny,". Alourdes said, referPort-au-Prince. old house in downtown Inside the Kingston airport, Alourdes turned to Jamaicans not like us. They don't talk like me and said, nice like us. They the us. They don't dress biggest thief." "Un, de, twa, 11 she dropping into the privacy of Creole, vôlè added, three, they rob you]." Then, "yo ou [One, two, across the way, Alourdes seeing a man with dreadlocks "Rastas" do not take turned up her nose and observed that baths. Alourdes's anxiety at being away from home she had never visited before took and in a place chauvinism. On the the form of strong Haitian to various wayinto town from the airport, she trees. "Mango. We got mango in pointed mango. . Breadfruit. We got big breadfruit in Haiti, plenty only tree Alourdes had never seen Haiti." The was the ackee. The taxi stopped SO we could get out and inspect and driver ised that we would soon taste Jamaica's one, Mabel promcod fish. Alourdes looked national dish, ackee with at the hard red fruit Among the local plants, most were familiar suspiciously. though not by their Jamaican to Alourdes, names. An creeper that slowly kills the shrubs it orange spaghettilike in Jamaica. "In covers is called love bush Haiti, we call that lamitye / announced with a self-satisfied (friendship), Alourdes smile. I identified some plants driver ised that we would soon taste Jamaica's one, Mabel promcod fish. Alourdes looked national dish, ackee with at the hard red fruit Among the local plants, most were familiar suspiciously. though not by their Jamaican to Alourdes, names. An creeper that slowly kills the shrubs it orange spaghettilike in Jamaica. "In covers is called love bush Haiti, we call that lamitye / announced with a self-satisfied (friendship), Alourdes smile. I identified some plants --- Page 366 --- as African violets, but the Jamaican driver told me they were Russian violets; Alourdes responded that neither name was right, but she had forgotten the "real name." Gede Then the competition turned from nature to commerce. Alourdes asked: "In Jamaica, you have Bank of Nova You have Bank of Canada? You have Citibank?" The driver Scotia? sponded affirmatively to the first two but was uncertain about reCitibank. "In Haiti, we got big, big Citibank. New beautiful, 11 Alourdes said as she leaned back, contented building for while to let the striking scenery of the Kingston Bay mountain a range roll past. Not far from the airport, white sand beaches backed by soft lavender mountains began to oil eries: Esso, Texaco, Shell. I noticed that Esso sprout sold refingas for the equivalent of more than two dollars a gallon at a service within sight of the pier where the huge Esso tankers loaded station and unloaded. When we were finally settled in with Mabel's aunt in her tiny, neat-as-a-pin house in the Ligaunae section of Saint Andrew's parish outside Kingston, I mentioned my shock at the gasoline prices. That comment opened a conversational flood- high gate. Jamaicans-unlike Haitians, who are well schooled in the value of silence on any matter relating to the government--are habitually, persistently political. No conversation of duration is without its political dimension. any That evening, when we gathered in the parlor around a kerosene lamp (a blackout was in effect), Mabel's extended held forth on a wide variety of topics ranging from the family the World Bank in Jamaica's role of economy to the elections. Aunt Emma was unhappy with the socialist upcoming tendencies the current government led by Michael Manley; by of of test, she spoke warmly and often of the United States: way procans "Ameriare good people. Good Christian people. Them helpin' the poor. 1 In this crowd, most of whom lived with always won if precarious dignity, only Mabel's hardson, Edmund, sounded a different note: "Them hwenty-three-ycar-old the ists sabotagin' the economic reforms say capitallater said to Manley been tryin'. . Mabel me in confidence and, I suspect, as an to explain her son: "Edmund not a Rasta, but him Rasta-minded." attempt Aunt Emma, who had lived in Cuba for thirteen where she had cooked and cleaned for the American years, Guantânamo commander at Bay, was a vigorous eighty-three years old when 's hardson, Edmund, sounded a different note: "Them hwenty-three-ycar-old the ists sabotagin' the economic reforms say capitallater said to Manley been tryin'. . Mabel me in confidence and, I suspect, as an to explain her son: "Edmund not a Rasta, but him Rasta-minded." attempt Aunt Emma, who had lived in Cuba for thirteen where she had cooked and cleaned for the American years, Guantânamo commander at Bay, was a vigorous eighty-three years old when --- Page 367 --- Alourdes and IImetherin: 1980. She "a small man. 11 "Me can remembered Marcus Garvey, Road. just see the little man walkin' up Everybody was jumpin' and pushin', King Aunt Emma had even owned just to see Garvey." which shares in the Black Star Garvey started in the 1940S to take Line, In her old age, however, she had blacks back to Africa. Gede radical politics and did not apparently lost her taste for the care to analyze the larger causes of backbreaking inflation Jamaica was it had started with experiencing. She knew would Manley, and she wanted end. Manley out SO it If the truth be told, the core of Emma politics but religion, and George's life was not Aunt Emma (in deference perhaps this had always been the case. and I also called her to her age and experience, Alourdes Margaret's Aunt Emma) had sung in the choir of Saint Episcopal Church for decades. She white collar and her red cap fresh and kept her starched ings, she put them on before she left the ready; on Sunday mornthe first members of Saint house. She was one of met in a lean-to and sat Margaret's and remembers when on the floor while they an Englishman, led the service. She Reverend Gilmartin, niversary publication of the church proudly showed us an an1924 wedding. She wore a wonderful containing a picture of her dress (purchased in Havana, "in the French flapper-style wedding young husband wore a solemn store"), and her collar. face, a dark suit, and a high Aunt Emma lived in a turquoise and white hill end of a community that house at the downas it climbed the mountain became more and more slumlike crocheted doilies, behind. Her home was filled with starched to stand-up firmness, and lots of tures-pictures cut from greeting cards, picfamily portraits, pictures of Queen Elizabeth, wedding pictures, and Bustamante (Jamaica's first Robert Kennedy, gained its independence prime minister after the island filled with shiny from Britain). Her china cabinet was treasures that looked like silver or might as easily have been crystal but Emma's bed plastic or aluminum. Beneath was a rack of shoes. Three were Aunt with shoewhite, ready to pairs freshly coated At the time Imet her, church complete her Sunday-morning outfit. Aunt Emma was about the only thing that took away from Barbicon Road. And when she home, she listened to radio evangelists. She was at Graham: "If you do not send did not like Billy fifty dollars, forget it!" But she silver or might as easily have been crystal but Emma's bed plastic or aluminum. Beneath was a rack of shoes. Three were Aunt with shoewhite, ready to pairs freshly coated At the time Imet her, church complete her Sunday-morning outfit. Aunt Emma was about the only thing that took away from Barbicon Road. And when she home, she listened to radio evangelists. She was at Graham: "If you do not send did not like Billy fifty dollars, forget it!" But she --- Page 368 --- Oral Roberts was better: "Him good. Him always send thought you right to the Bible." Aunt Emma In deference to her religious beliefs, no one told that Alourdes was there to perform Vodou healing ceremonies Edmund, a member of her own Gede or that one of them was for Aunt When Alourdes asked her for milk one evening, family. assumed she wanted to drink it before retiring. Instead, Emma tin basin, added some cinAlourdes dumped it into a shallow When it and put the concoction on the stove to boil. namon, in most of a bottle of Florida Water. Aunt was hot, she poured Emma turned her back and went to bed. The milk bath was the second of three good-luck baths preAlourdes to help Edmund get a visa to travel to the scribed by mixed the baths in either the kitchen or United States. Alourdes them in a small wooden structhe bathroom and administered stall. On three ture in the side yard, which served as a shower Alourdes and Edmund went outdoors late at night occasions, and a large towel. A half hour later, carrying a candle, a basin, only the towel, his body Edmund came back inside wearing Nothing small bits of leaves still visible on his skin. glistening, hidden from Aunt Emma, but the treatments were was really that she did not have to acknowlcarried out discreetly enough The tension in the house grew neveredge what was going on. Alourdes realized she had theless. By our last night in Jamaica, some repair work to do. in There was another blackout, and we gathered candlelight the kitchen table. Alourdes looked wonderful that evearound a lavender caftan and large gold hoop ning. She was wearing scarf. Alourdes had earrings, with her hair tied in a colorful and turned on the charm. At first, the talk was dressed up she deftly turned the conversation to casual, but before long about religion. Soon Aunt Emma was talking enthusiastically of 11 She said that she had an instant sense her "strong spirit. the minute she set foot in a house if she people, that she knew there and if they were going to like was going to like the people and her. She claimed she could sleep alone, walk anywhere, never be afraid. told how her religion had always Her niece Mabel, a Catholic, to do with the African reliprevented her from having anything did admit to the gions still practiced in Jamaica. But she going Sundial once when she was a child. The Sundial, she explained, that went on for twenty-one days. The participants was a dance she set foot in a house if she people, that she knew there and if they were going to like was going to like the people and her. She claimed she could sleep alone, walk anywhere, never be afraid. told how her religion had always Her niece Mabel, a Catholic, to do with the African reliprevented her from having anything did admit to the gions still practiced in Jamaica. But she going Sundial once when she was a child. The Sundial, she explained, that went on for twenty-one days. The participants was a dance --- Page 369 --- did not eat for the entire time. til "them fall down. 11 Mabel They just danced and danced unsaid her attitude toward these nothing about having changed religions. Alourdes chose this moment to tell a tale of gic one that gave her the her own, a stratecredentials before Aunt Emma. opportunity to establish her Christian Gede had once been a She told of a potential client who ten," Alourdes dues-paying member of a satanic group. "Lisreported saying to the troubled "you going to pay 'til you die. Even young woman, you going pay. Satan more you don't send them money, I don't have powerful than me. I am a nothing to do with him." Alourdes Christian; story with a vehement: "I sent her home!" concluded her afterthought, she mentioned that the Book Then, almost as an tells how to identify the children of Daniel in the Bible Aunt Emma's of Satan. Bible. She ears perked up at the mention of her described her favorite little beloved "printed in America, 11 that she paperback of the psalms, went. It told her what the lines kept with her wherever she problems each addressed, of each psalm meant, what life and what time of reading each one. "You have to believe day was best for Aunt Emma said with real what you read, mon," keep on believin', You have feeling. "You have to believe and self," Alourdes to believe in God." "And in added. "And in yourself." yourAfter this conversation, the differences between spirituality and that of Alourdes Aunt Emma's parent. More than I were both less and more scribe once, have heard Alourdes and apthe protection afforded by the Vodou Maggie dethe same words Aunt Emma had used spirits in practically and Aunt Emma's use ofthe little book about her "strong spirit"; might be loosely called a of psalms suggested what But in other magical attitude toward the ways the gap between Aunt Emma's scriptures. and Alourdes's commitment to Vodou Anglican piety than ever. Aunt Emma lived yawned wider and deeper night humbly a scrupulously moral life and each surrendered herself into God's whatever hands, happened as "God's will." accepting been too polite to say SO that Although Alourdes had too busy to set the terms of each evening, she thought God was far tual labor was individual life. For her, only one kind of labor that all spirinot either foolish or lazy people who were families. Furthermore, performed for themselves and their Alourdes surrendered to no problem using her will in the no one and had Three days before this spiritual arena or in any other. conversation, when two of Edmund's whatever hands, happened as "God's will." accepting been too polite to say SO that Although Alourdes had too busy to set the terms of each evening, she thought God was far tual labor was individual life. For her, only one kind of labor that all spirinot either foolish or lazy people who were families. Furthermore, performed for themselves and their Alourdes surrendered to no problem using her will in the no one and had Three days before this spiritual arena or in any other. conversation, when two of Edmund's --- Page 370 --- Alourdes had turned to the three good-luck baths were finished, for our to Ja338 treatment that had been the original reason trip Cecile 16, we hired a taxi and headed out to maica. On January and mulatto Shepherd's dairy farm. Cecile, a shy appealing her Gede in her mid-thirties with a light scatter of freckles on woman was in the middle ofa crisis the day we nose and soft curly hair, Park, which she had inarrived. She ran a large farm in Bushy had been out in the herited from her parents. The electricity and Cecile had two hunarea for more than twenty-four hours, that somehow she dred COWS who needed milking. It appeared them hand-and even then she probably would have to milk by because she had no refrigwould have to throw the milk away, eration. In the midst of all this Alourdes arrived, clearly signalCecile to drop everything and extend her ing that she expected the hospitality due someone of her stature. ofl land Alourdes had been hired to "treat" a thirty-acre parcel which Cecile could find no buyer. Alourdes had been called for one ofl her own apprentices, a woman she had in on this case by the but had not been able to cominitiated, who had begun job had indicated that plete it. A card reading by the apprentice inhad done "work" against Cecile. That person's someone to be removed to clear the way for the sale. fluence needed the had deferred to her For such serious business, apprentice the land problem was "mother," Alourdes. As it turned out, of the deep trouble that beset only the most superficial layer Cecile Shepherd. Alourdes spent most of her time talking At their first meeting, card with Cecile. She did not perform the customary diagnostic done reading, I suspect, because her apprentice had already effort. and she did not want to appear to undercut that one, card reading to get people to Alourdes often uses a preliminary have to tell and begin to tell their life stories. ("They open up them.") With Cecile, she acme all those story if I going help of complished the same purpose with a few hours questions listening. When the time came to deal more diand empathic Alourdes offered Cecile strong assurances: rectly with business, sell that property- "When I do that work for you, you going bam! Just like that." instructed Cecile about the Before leaving, Alourdes carefully treatment of the land, includmaterials she would need for the several kinds of plants. Alourdes also used this opportunity ing open up them.") With Cecile, she acme all those story if I going help of complished the same purpose with a few hours questions listening. When the time came to deal more diand empathic Alourdes offered Cecile strong assurances: rectly with business, sell that property- "When I do that work for you, you going bam! Just like that." instructed Cecile about the Before leaving, Alourdes carefully treatment of the land, includmaterials she would need for the several kinds of plants. Alourdes also used this opportunity ing --- Page 371 --- to get "leaves" marigold (sowvosi) and for Edmund's last good-luck bath. congo bean-sheneeded plant for Cecile's But she wanted a particular treatment and could not Creole or the English name. Cecile remember either the who clearly lived on more familiar and Alourdes, two people than I could begin to terms with the plant world Gede comprehend, put their heads "Itjust a little thing. You don'teat it." Alourdes together. way to describe what she knew searched for a SO well. "Don't No, no tea. It grow on the make tea with it. ground. You walk even going see it. It little, real little, but right by it. You not leaf like that, 11 she said, you look, you see it got large mimosa pointing upward to the leaves of the we were sitting under. Cecile's face cried out eagerly: "And when lit up, and she beamed, you touchit, it curls up!" Alourdes "That the one!" "We call that with satisfaction, shimalady, Cecile said explaining that the name derived phrase "Shame, my lady." 'I saw some the from the the stream that cut across the back'a just other day by "Good!" said Alourdes. me land," Cecile added. As "You get that one, too." we stood by the taxi with its motor dropped her voice to a whisper and said to running, Alourdes help you with your man, too. I need that Cecile, "I going to way your husband going to be with plant 'cause that the head in front of you. He going to bow the you, just like that plant. 11 Then she cial instructions: "When added speAnd you pick it, you take it with the you got to leave something when you do that. root. to be a lot, but you got to leave It don't got penny." As we got into the taxi, something. Alourdes One penny . . two dow and said: "The leaned out the winThe plant-call it by his name. Don't next day, Alourdes, Mabel, and I arrived forget" provided a large pail of water, to which, after early. Cecile and prayers offered, seven candles were lit Water, and molasses limes, a handful of ashes, Florida ritually were added.2 After the pail of water treated, the remaining half-bottle of Florida was infused with indigo powder, which turned it Water was a deep blue. PLimes are valued for their prophylactic ample, to "clean" meat before marinating and properties; Haitians use them, for exlimes were included in the treatment to deal with cooking the it. Alourdes explained that siders. The ashes were those of a of malevolent influence of outintent concerning the land sale, had piece been paper written. on which a "prayer, " a statement of business deals and individuals, and Florida Water is Molasses is a sweetener of both the spirits. a libation frequently offered to turned it Water was a deep blue. PLimes are valued for their prophylactic ample, to "clean" meat before marinating and properties; Haitians use them, for exlimes were included in the treatment to deal with cooking the it. Alourdes explained that siders. The ashes were those of a of malevolent influence of outintent concerning the land sale, had piece been paper written. on which a "prayer, " a statement of business deals and individuals, and Florida Water is Molasses is a sweetener of both the spirits. a libation frequently offered to --- Page 372 --- the four of us loaded Cecile's truck with the maAfter lunch, and headed for the parcel of terials for the trètmen (treatment) buyers entered the land. We began at a spot where prospective and raised an Alourdes made the sign of the cross egg property. directions. She this with a cup of Gede to each of the four repeated into the field, molasses. Next, she broke the egg and, walking of the dribbled its contents in a line pointing toward the center A trail of thick molasses was laid on top of the egg. property. of the treated water was added on top And finally a dipper of that. walked to the furthest corner of the property. Then Alourdes to treat all four corners, but this proved The original plan was field. Vodou rituals, like all other too difficult in the overgrown of the moelements of Haitian life, easily bend to the exigencies center of ment. After treating one corner, we pushed on to the tangled up in plenty of devil's horsewhip on the field, getting Alourdes the way. As we waded through the undergrowth, the in a after dipper of the brew from pail tossed out dipper a path from the far corneat, straight line in front of her, tracing was waistner to the middle of the plot, where the vegetation water there, She scattered most of the rest of the treated high. with about half of the indigo Florida Water. "Let's go along the cap to the Florida Water. Alback," Alourdes said, dropping the teacher when in the company of budding apprentices, ways added: "See, I don't pick up nothing I drop." The dipper she in the middle of the field. was also discarded back to the road and were about to get We fought our way remembered that one more thing into the truck when Alourdes instructed to throw seven bright must be done. Cecile was "I this land and I pay pennies into the field, saying, buy copper Now I'm to sell it." With this action, Cecile defined for it. going transaction and therethe sale of the field as a purely monetary free and clear. When fore one from which she could walk away of all Vodou exercising the will, an action that lies at the heart and it is important that certain exchanges be clean treatments, that could pull a well defined, with no troubling entanglements Alourdes left beback to a prior state. This is also why person and used in her ritualizing and hind the containers implements Cecile to leave a few pennies why she had earlier instructed when she picked the shimalady. and drove down a narrow dirt We got back into the truck When fore one from which she could walk away of all Vodou exercising the will, an action that lies at the heart and it is important that certain exchanges be clean treatments, that could pull a well defined, with no troubling entanglements Alourdes left beback to a prior state. This is also why person and used in her ritualizing and hind the containers implements Cecile to leave a few pennies why she had earlier instructed when she picked the shimalady. and drove down a narrow dirt We got back into the truck --- Page 373 --- track to the property's water source, another spective buyers were taken. Here, place where propail and also dumped the last of we completely emptied the clear, shallow pool formed the blue Florida Water into a from rock. at the point where water Alourdes turned, threw the emerged bottle over her shoulder, and walked empty Florida Water Gede ing back. to the truck without lookAs Cecile talked about her problem that she had already begun to turn afternoon, I noticed matter of being unable to sell away from seeing it as a simple hand some land. I to, it just go wrong, she "Everything put my good," Alourdes said, "but don't complained. "Your luck no the source of that problem." you worry, we going to find Cecile mused aloud: "The business about don'tknow. : - . All of a sudden, me husband : . I ily. Now he like to spend all his hejust get bored with his famHe want to see time in Florida. He call, he us. When we get there, he doesn't call. thing to do with us." She volunteered that want anyswered the telephone several times a woman had anband in Miami. In when she called her husfact, she said, there were several women, but one in particular-a different source of her trouble. Somehow Cecile stewardess-was the likely ardess had gone to Haiti and hired had heard that the stewagainst her. someone to "do something" Alourdes smiled but said nothing when she cial bit of information. Other Caribbean received this crudown on impoverished and illiterate peoples tend to look widespread belief that Haitians, but there is alsoa ful medicines. you must go to Haiti for the most This attitude may explain not powerthe stewardess but also why Cecile only the action of healer. turned for help to a Haitian On the drive back to the main house, Iasked felt about other women Cecile how she staying at her husband's ment. She replied with remarkable Miami apartmove out when I come.' 11 Whenlasked equanimity, if "They always lovers, she she had ever had other husband admitted, "Yes, once.' 11 She also said she had told her about it afterward and then endured weeks anger. She said simply, "Ia am always honest, of his seemed to accept her husband's you know." Cecile standard that condemned infidelity and even the double hers. But she could not sence: "I want me family back accept his abtogether. With this conversa- out when I come.' 11 Whenlasked equanimity, if "They always lovers, she she had ever had other husband admitted, "Yes, once.' 11 She also said she had told her about it afterward and then endured weeks anger. She said simply, "Ia am always honest, of his seemed to accept her husband's you know." Cecile standard that condemned infidelity and even the double hers. But she could not sence: "I want me family back accept his abtogether. With this conversa- --- Page 374 --- with the plot of land was at last seen in its tion, the problem of a much deeper distur342 proper context. It was a by-product bance in Cecile Shepherd's family. the long shadows of When we returned to Cecile's house, into a cool haven. Alourdes, Gede afternoon had turned her yard the welts raised Mabel, and I rested under the trees. We treated with handfuls of Chivas Regal on our legs by devil's horsewhip while Cecile went to (the only alcohol Cecile had in the house), the things needed for the second, and by now clearly gather of the treatment. As we waited, Cecile's more important, stage around the shouting nursery two youngest children ran yard, and pie, kissed rhymes at each other: "Georgie Porgie, puddin' them 11 Their noise did not deter us the girls and made cry. from analyzing the situation. "Too naive, yes, mon!" "She too naive," Alourdes said softly. echoed loudly. "Cecile, she too trusting : . . too nice," Mabel her teeth. "That girl trust too much!" Alourdes said, sucking observed Alourdes. "She Mabel fairly shouted. "Look at her," house. She She no gad on the got got no gad on herself. got them! She too naïve." those little children. They got nothing on I1 announced Mabel as soon as "Look, girl, you too naive, said, "Never mind. We Cecile returned. But Alourdes simply to back thing to do. The sun almost gone. Soon, we got get got to Aunt Emma' house. I'm hungry." Cecile had produced a clay pot with earthinit, two shimalady would we tested to be sure they plants in wet paper (which and two candles. At curl up when touched), some pennies, of lined white paper Alourdes's direction, Cecile took a piece her school notebook and carefully wrote from her daughter's times, ten times on one side of the husband's name twenty-one was as she wroce in and eleven on the other. She shaking paper block letters that covered the sheet: Joseph Shepherd, large with the Joseph Shepherd, Joseph Shepherd. . : . Then, ingredients in hand, we all went inside to Cecile's bedroom. From a hubbub of activity, our small group slipped suddenly of calm. The low angle of the sun caused splotches into a pocket shadows of leaves to dance across the walls of light and fluttery bedroom. The voices of the children of the spacious and airy Alourdes plunged us into seemed far away and insignificant. of the croSS and lit a candle. the ritual action. She made the sign : Joseph Shepherd, large with the Joseph Shepherd, Joseph Shepherd. . : . Then, ingredients in hand, we all went inside to Cecile's bedroom. From a hubbub of activity, our small group slipped suddenly of calm. The low angle of the sun caused splotches into a pocket shadows of leaves to dance across the walls of light and fluttery bedroom. The voices of the children of the spacious and airy Alourdes plunged us into seemed far away and insignificant. of the croSS and lit a candle. the ritual action. She made the sign --- Page 375 --- With the candle in one hand and the pot and the other, she slowly and deliberately paper in the tions, ritually saluted each of the four direc343 tracing the shape that is both roads and thus a point of historic croSS and crosstianity and the religions of West confluence between Chrisserious. She held the Africa. Her face was very Gede at a level instruments of her cure out in front ofH her, considerably higher than her head. At each of the directions, her lips moved in inaudible, four well-being of Cecile Shepherd. sincere prayer for the When she finished, Alourdes folded the Shepherd's name on it and tore it slowly in half. paper with Joseph each of the halves in half Then she tore again. A third time, she pieces and tore them in half. Then she handed stacked the and directed hert to tear them three them to Cecile it, you talk. Say what 11 more times. "When you tear you want, Alourdes directed. girl!" Mabel coached from the sidelines. "Talk, rassed. Three times she mumbled Cecile was embarhim come back to me. Make him something like, "For make Alourdes come on home. 11 mixed the tiny pieces of paper into the ied a penny in the bottom of the soil and burto Cecile with pot. Then she handed the instructions to plant the pot was done, a candle was lit and shimalady. When that Cecile was told to take the pushed down into the soil. orient it, pot of shimalady in both hands and just as Alourdes had done earlier with the rials. "You hold it up to each side like this other matethis. And you talk!" Alourdes told . this : . . this. Cecile, an herin a firm but gentle voice, Anglican from birth, dug deep in herself duced a small voice that said, "Lord, and proto me." "Don't beg, 11 said please let him come back Alourdes. "Say what got to say, 'I want him come back. I Come you want. You it." "That girl too weak, 11 Mabel mumbled on now, you can do loud us to hear. enough for all of Cecile reverted to her earlier, make him come back to me.' 11 Her ambiguous lower formulation: "For and she was trying to hold the lip was trembling now, tively close to her pot up and hug her arms protecbody at the same time. With the pull of her elbows toward her waist, it looked downward potted plant weighed a hundred as if the little of the crossroads, pounds. On the third direction Cecile broke down and sobbed. Mabel exploded. She danced around the room as if fire ants for all of Cecile reverted to her earlier, make him come back to me.' 11 Her ambiguous lower formulation: "For and she was trying to hold the lip was trembling now, tively close to her pot up and hug her arms protecbody at the same time. With the pull of her elbows toward her waist, it looked downward potted plant weighed a hundred as if the little of the crossroads, pounds. On the third direction Cecile broke down and sobbed. Mabel exploded. She danced around the room as if fire ants --- Page 376 --- were climbing up her legs. "Her weak! Me knew it! That not only naive, her weak. Shiliiiiit, mon!" Alourdes had a differ- lady ent response. She moved in quickly, put an arm around Cecile, and said, "That's okay, sweetheart. 1 Gede Then she gently guided Cecile through the end of the ritual. When it was done, Alourdes took the plant and put it in a puddle of sun on Cecile's dresser. "You going leave it there. Nobody going know nothing. Even your husband come, he don't know. So you got a plant? So what? That nobody' business but you. But every day you got to 'work that point. I Light a candle. Talk. Okay, sweetheart? Don't you worry. Everything be all right. Ido that work for you. Iknow. Now going you can go and be peaceful." When Alourdes left the room, Mabel moved in for the kill. She was still jumping and sputtering: "Shit, girl, you weak! Listen, me speak straight. That crying don't do you no good. You got to be strong. Listen to me, girl! Some and . her in the ward lady her : geriatric . her say her goin' to leave me thousand dollars, and that woman's sister stand there, take fifty that money away from me. You think me cry? Not me, mon! That don't do no good, and look here : . . me tellin' you about it!" this time, there were tears in Mabel's By eyes. On the way home, Mabel slowly transformed tears into All the way back from Bushy Park to Barbicon Road and anger. Aunt Emma's prim little pastel house, Mabel muttered and mumbled. Every once in a while, she would turn full around in the front seat, look at Alourdes and me, and say something like: never did nobody no good! Shiitit!" Out the windows "Crying of the car, the sunset turned the parasitic creeper the Jamaicans call love bush and the Haitians call friendship to a glowing, pulsating orange. HEALING, THE VODOU WAY The healing work Alourdes performed in Jamaica is more understood when set within the context of the Vodou view easily of person and the Vodou philosophy of life. In the Vodou understanding of personhood, the individual is given identity, solidity, and safety in a precarious world by a thick weave of relationships with other human beings as well as with spirits and Out the windows "Crying of the car, the sunset turned the parasitic creeper the Jamaicans call love bush and the Haitians call friendship to a glowing, pulsating orange. HEALING, THE VODOU WAY The healing work Alourdes performed in Jamaica is more understood when set within the context of the Vodou view easily of person and the Vodou philosophy of life. In the Vodou understanding of personhood, the individual is given identity, solidity, and safety in a precarious world by a thick weave of relationships with other human beings as well as with spirits and --- Page 377 --- ancestors. That the world is precarious is the core of the philosophy of life. Vodou "Moun fêt pou mouri fond of [People are born to die]," Haitians are saying, usually with a casual of This proverb gives voice to both the shrug the shoulders. stricken Haiti and the stoic pain of life in povertyGede least, characterizes the Haitian acceptance that, on one level at (suffering, and, more attitude toward this life. Mizè precisely, the suffering of expected and recurrent condition. Haitians poverty) is an accept it. Neither experience face this, and they The notion of is nor religion gives them a way out. progress of no help in making sense of history, and they have seen little upward social their in their own lives Or in those of their children. mobility, either Haitians do not believe that the human condition Furthermore, ated from an ideal state any more than that it leads has degenerVodou, there is neither an Eden nor a heaven. to one; in great majority of Haitians, it is a given that life Because, is for the struggle and suffering, it is not inaccurate to filled with free periods are pervaded with say that problemjust around the an anxiety that anticipates crises characterized corner. Life, in the Vodou view of things, is thus relief from by alternating cycles of suffering and the transient suffering that is called "having luck. 11 Luck (chans) is, however, not entirely a matter Vodou philosophy. of chance in Maintaining and when enhancing good luck and, necessary, fending off and removing bad luck labor as necessary to life as the labor of the are forms of fields or the urban peasant farmerin his pieceworker at her who expects that life will run factory bench. A person is "naïve," the word Alourdes smoothly without spiritual effort healers such used to describe Cecile. as Alourdes are for-hire specialists in Vodou labor required to orchestrate luck. the spiritual Raising luck is the general rubric under which all Vodou healing can be grouped, and kinds of of all types of Vodou healing is the main purpose clients ritualizing. Whether Alourdes is one-on-one in her altar room, an activity that treating nearly every day in her Brooklyn goes on birthday parties for the Vodou home, or staging elaborate eight times a year, what she is spirits, which happens six to viduals and healing doing is healing-healing indigroups. Both in public rituals and in sessions, Alourdes heals by exercising, private mending relationships strengthening, and among the living, the dead, and the odou healing is the main purpose clients ritualizing. Whether Alourdes is one-on-one in her altar room, an activity that treating nearly every day in her Brooklyn goes on birthday parties for the Vodou home, or staging elaborate eight times a year, what she is spirits, which happens six to viduals and healing doing is healing-healing indigroups. Both in public rituals and in sessions, Alourdes heals by exercising, private mending relationships strengthening, and among the living, the dead, and the --- Page 378 --- In the final analysis, the only effective means of controlspirits. and of family, in the largest sense ling luck is the care feeding of that term. of are amenable to treatment Many different kinds problems work, and money probGede within the Vodou system-love, family, that maladies. The immediate problem lems as well as physical door, however, gives little indicabrings a "client" to Alourdes's for tion ofits true origin. A problem with a neighbor's jealousy, with be in boils, a lost job, or difficulty instance, can manifested does attention to the presenting one's children. Alourdes pay ailment For example, she may treat a minor physical problem. serious she may recommend that herbally. For a more problem, But the main focus of her healing the client see a medical doctor. uncovered in the course energy is directed to the deeper issues Alourdes treated the parof treatment. Cecile's case was typical. relacel of land, but she quickly moved to the more significant or tional issues in Cecile's life. The diagnosis of the underlying root problem often comes as a surprise to the client. the origins of her clients' probAlourdes invariably diagnoses of one sort or another. Belems as disturbances in relationships the living to include cause relational networks extend beyond a vast, the dead and the lwa, the Vodou healer must explore web of relations to find the troubled strand putting tangled whole fabric. And because the dead and, to some stress on the to destructive emotions as extent, the lwa are as susceptible Alourdes treats can be traced living persons are, the problems ancestors as well as to jealous, to neglected spirits or hungry angry, or malicious human beings. is ascerThe first thing Alourdes must do with new clients whether the problems they have are natural" or "supertain She usually does a card reading to determine natural" in origin. indicates that the malthis. The diagnosis of a natural problem Alourdes nor ady is "from God," and this means that neither Alourdes other Vodou healer can do anything about it. any to take those people' money sends such clients away. "WhyIgot them?" she asks. Virtually all natural problems if I can't help maladies. The reverse is not true, however; seem to be physical in oriafflictions are diagnosed as supernatural many physical and cure by scientific medicine is gin. Resistance to diagnosis Most that a is supernatural. probtaken as a sure sign problem and, because they fall into lems are diagnosed as supernatural, be done about them. the realm of the spirits, something can anything about it. any to take those people' money sends such clients away. "WhyIgot them?" she asks. Virtually all natural problems if I can't help maladies. The reverse is not true, however; seem to be physical in oriafflictions are diagnosed as supernatural many physical and cure by scientific medicine is gin. Resistance to diagnosis Most that a is supernatural. probtaken as a sure sign problem and, because they fall into lems are diagnosed as supernatural, be done about them. the realm of the spirits, something can --- Page 379 --- In spite of using such Vodou does not terminology as natural and supernatural, Both God and the assume the existence of a two-story universe. spirits operate in dimensions that ordinary human life, but the two operate in different permeate tween God and the spirit is two different ways. "Be- "You don't see God to talk to God. No. thing, Alourdes said. Gede the sky. You see the earth. You don't You are born. You see that's God. know who it . - God put there. But to church, you don'tsee. God you talk about. You they talk about God. You read the go about God. But spirit you don't read about. Bible, you read in people' head, and The spirit come help you.' 11 Alourdes you see them, you talk to them. can treat supernatural They within the spirits' purview, because the illnesses, which are able to her. The spirits have spirits are directly availcome to depend on just as she depends on theirs. She has Alourdes's care, is different. A problem that leverage with them. God rock, it simply is. You comes from God is natural; like a coerce it into another cannot plead with a rock to change or state of being. Relationships, the focus of Vodou and often fragile. The of healing rites, are complex reflects the range of difficulties range diagnostic categories in Vodou ships. On the mild end of the that can develop in relationspectrum lies the person is suffering from "eyes"-too diagnosis that a and talking about the client, and all the many others are thinking that person spiritually off balance. With attention has pushed the situation, Alourdes no prior knowledge of diagnosed me as during the time I was being considered for suffering from "eyes" sity. A slightly more serious version of tenure at my univerthis djôk, or "bad eyes, 11 in which the condition is called a has a negative tone, attention focused on the client involving, for example, nosis, however, does not indicate a conscious jealousy. This diagclient. intent to harm the Cecile's case, in which someone had "done work" her, falls toward the far end of the spectrum. Such against assumes that the damage is willful, and it a diagnosis another spiritual expert has been involved usually means that recting that ill will. The most extreme in focusing and diharm that is more than the cases involve deliberate own way; such malice mere by-product of getting one's crosses over into the territory of venge. Alourdes never initiates activity at this end of the pure retrum, which is the domain of the bôkô, a specthe left hand." specialist in "work of toward the far end of the spectrum. Such against assumes that the damage is willful, and it a diagnosis another spiritual expert has been involved usually means that recting that ill will. The most extreme in focusing and diharm that is more than the cases involve deliberate own way; such malice mere by-product of getting one's crosses over into the territory of venge. Alourdes never initiates activity at this end of the pure retrum, which is the domain of the bôkô, a specthe left hand." specialist in "work of --- Page 380 --- for "the science of the conVodou healing shows a penchant human rela348 crete."3 In her cures, Alourdes puts problematic can be external form, where they tionships into a tangible, transformed. When a love relationworked on and ultimately face-to-face. When the disGede ship is desired, she binds two dolls binds them back-tosolution of a relationship is sought, she a meal of back. For restive, "hungry" spirits, she prescribes makes their favorite foods. To treat a violent marriage, Alourdes charm for the wife by filling a jar with ice ("to cool him down") a make him sweet"). Then she wraps the charm and molasses ("to clothing and turns the whole in some article of the husband's within the Vodou science of thing upside down, a clear signal is desired. For Cecile, the concrete that a revolutionary change some conflict Jamaican woman experiencing an upper-class with Vodou, Alourdes fashioned the about her involvement These charms are called pwen unobtrusive potted shimalady. of complex social, psychologi- (points). They are condensations cal, and spiritual conditions. are also pwen Baths, a staple in Alourdes's healing repertoire, milk, alcohol, of a sort. These mixtures of herbs, perfumes, concretize fruits, and, in some situations, less agreeable things Smell troublesome as well as desired states in a variety of ways. instruments. After taking a ritual is among the most powerful for three days, leaving bath, the client is instructed not to wash the skin for the heady odors of Alourdes's medicine chest on waking and sleeping. Our sense of smell conthree long days, nonverbal self, and it nects with the limbic mind, a primordial, Alourdes's cures. is often this deeper self that is addressed by must Vodou healers do not believe they Unlike psychiatrists, the level of consciousness to work with them. bring problems to and bad-luck. In both There are two types of baths: good-luck Bad-luck baths cases, about two cups of viscous liquid are used. from the top of the body down, whereas good-luck are applied are treated baths proceed from the bottom up. Many problems when the series of three good-luck baths. But with a simple cleansing with a bath negativity is more palpable, a preliminary If a healer predesigned to remove the bad luck is required. is taken from Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Science of the Concrete," This phrase Mind (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966), 1-33. in his The Savage about two cups of viscous liquid are used. from the top of the body down, whereas good-luck are applied are treated baths proceed from the bottom up. Many problems when the series of three good-luck baths. But with a simple cleansing with a bath negativity is more palpable, a preliminary If a healer predesigned to remove the bad luck is required. is taken from Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Science of the Concrete," This phrase Mind (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966), 1-33. in his The Savage --- Page 381 --- scribes a bad-luck bath, it does not client has been the object of necessarily mean that the problem has been around malice. It may simply mean that the areas of the for a long time and has infected person's life. many Vodou healing operates according to traditional wisdom. Gede example, a great deal of solid herbal For healers such as Alourdes. knowledge is available to riety of noncritical They use it to treat successfully a varitual forms for physical ailments. There are also standard for treatments such as baths and standard concocting them. But there is room for recipes too. Alourdes told me that on several inspired innovation, unsure how to treat a client, she had occasions when she was the a dream in which one of spirits-or, more often, her mother- - -told her and such a leaf, mix it with this fruit and to "take such forth. At other times, she this perfume, 11 and SO simply has an impulse to thing new. Part of what a healer must learn to try sometrust what might be labeled doisi identify and most serious intuition, if this term is taken in its sense. Strengthening konesans edge) is one of the goals of Vodou initiation (intuitive knowlAlourdes never refers to the persons she ceremonies. works tients, and for good reason. In Vodou, the for as pamains active one being healed rethroughout the healing process-from the reading, in which the client is free to card diagnosis Alourdes agree or disagree with any which the suggests, to the manufacture of the client has a direct hand. It was Cecile who pwen, in planted the shimalady. With the point in hand, the picked and ticipation becomes crucial, for a point must be client's parmust be prayed over daily, candles must be lit before "worked": it ing water poured overit, sweet-smelling it, refreshIn the months perfume sprayed on it. several times if she following our trip to Jamaica, I asked Alourdes had heard from Cecile, but she to tell me until nearly a year later. "Yeah, I hear had nothing Alourdes said, in a matter-of-fact tone. from her," then she added with a touch of "Everything okay." And thing okay. I do that work for her, impatience: don't "Of course everysold?" I queried. "I forget to ask, 11 Alourdes I?" "The land was In the beginning of my association with responded. view her treatments as Alourdes, I tended to their suspense stories, and I eagerly awaited denouements. For Alourdes, however, the outcome of healing work is rarely cause for suspense, and, her value does not appear to furthermore, its depend on particular concrete results. okay." And thing okay. I do that work for her, impatience: don't "Of course everysold?" I queried. "I forget to ask, 11 Alourdes I?" "The land was In the beginning of my association with responded. view her treatments as Alourdes, I tended to their suspense stories, and I eagerly awaited denouements. For Alourdes, however, the outcome of healing work is rarely cause for suspense, and, her value does not appear to furthermore, its depend on particular concrete results. --- Page 382 --- some time to realize what motivated this attitude. It took me of her work, and Alourdes is confident in the effectiveness successful. In a nonshe knows intuitively when it has been is she also knows that the most she can do contradictory way, then the tools to Gede identify the root problems and place proper Itis with them in the hands of those who are in trouble. up deal these tools. Cecile had to learn to "talk." to the clients to use what she wanted. She alone She had to stop begging and say daily befor working the point, that is, talking was responsible until she understood that she posfore the potted shimalady errant will. From what sessed the power to bend her husband's Alourdes had to say, Cecile learned this lesson. Edmund's visa Mabel's problems were not SO easily resolved. suitcase but not for several years. The missing did come through and other things Mabel needed to containing the ritual clothing showed It was just as well, undergo initiation in Haiti never up. she sidebecause Mabel never made it to Haiti. Instead, got family problems. For the entire time we tracked into multiple motion, doing everyMabel was in constant were in Jamaica, and troubleshooting in one's laundry, running their errands, On the day Alourdes and I left for Port-au-Prince, their lives. as she bustled off to she hardly took time to wave good-bye town on yet one more mission. I asked "What do these people do when Mabel isn't around?"] she responded peevishly. "I think Alourdes. "How dolknow?" avoid her own, 11 I observed. "I supshe uses their problems to pose so," said Alourdes. makes I1 I mused. "She people depen- "She's a tough one, mad at them for it." "Humph," said dent on her and then gets She simply reAlourdes, who has little taste for psychologizing. "Mabel iterated the opinion she had expressed in the airport: She to wash her head . SO she can got a lot'a problem. got help herself." INITIATION AND THE SPIRITS IN THE HEAD levels of initiation into Vodou as it is practiced in There are four ritual headwashing aimed at the Port-au-Prince. The first is a these are the spirits lodged in the head. From one perspective, from anVodou spirits said to love that person. But, particular simply reAlourdes, who has little taste for psychologizing. "Mabel iterated the opinion she had expressed in the airport: She to wash her head . SO she can got a lot'a problem. got help herself." INITIATION AND THE SPIRITS IN THE HEAD levels of initiation into Vodou as it is practiced in There are four ritual headwashing aimed at the Port-au-Prince. The first is a these are the spirits lodged in the head. From one perspective, from anVodou spirits said to love that person. But, particular --- Page 383 --- other, the spirits in the head are the constituent self, principally the gwo bônanj (big guardian parts of the roughly equivalent to the angel), which is individual. When personality or consciousness of the someone is troubled, the becomes agitated, big guardian angel and, as a result, that person loses Gede dreams as well as the waking powers of access to and understanding. Like a boat without discrimination, insight, such a person bobs perilously a navigational system, currents. The through life at the mercy of the headwashing ceremony "refreshes" restive head spirits. Once placated, and "feeds" duits for the wisdom, ancestral they will function as conneeds to negotiate daily life. and spiritual, that every person Alourdes had ment for Mabel, and itis a prescribed this treatgo on to higher levels of required first step even for those who ceremonies. initiation during the same cycle of The second level of initiation is called kanzo, a term to a rite of fire designed to transform referring public, and therefore suffering into power. The boule discussable, part of kanzo is a zen (the burning of the pots), in which the ritual called briefly removed from the inner chamber of the initiates are they have been sequestered in order to temple where fire. Small clay undergo a sort of trial pots are placed in the center of by pared fires. Hard, hot specially prepots and dumplings are snatched from the pressed into the palm of the initiate's left boiling sole of the left foot. When this ritual is hand and the may be told, "Never say hot again; complete, the initiates To kouche-to lie down, sleep, make say strong!" love, give birth, and, frequently, to die-is the verbal form used for all levels less tion. To kouche sou pwen (to lie down on the point) is the ofinitialevel of induction into the arts of Vodou. In this third word point (pwen) refers to a ritualized phrase, the power of the Vodou spirit said to be the master concentration of the of the head, the mêt tèt. Through the kouche sou initiate's their relationship with their mêt têt and at the pwen, novices solidify recognize that spirit's same time come to ter. The power as a dimension of their own characgiving of the sacred rattle, the ason, is the final initiation. Possession of the ason level of do healing work. qualifies a person to begin to No one undertakes these various levels of out of pure curiosity. They are initiation idly or who take the ason do SO because expensive and taxing. Persons they have serious problems, 's their relationship with their mêt têt and at the pwen, novices solidify recognize that spirit's same time come to ter. The power as a dimension of their own characgiving of the sacred rattle, the ason, is the final initiation. Possession of the ason level of do healing work. qualifies a person to begin to No one undertakes these various levels of out of pure curiosity. They are initiation idly or who take the ason do SO because expensive and taxing. Persons they have serious problems, --- Page 384 --- that, by a sort of circular reasoning, are interpreted as problems who desire that to kouche. Ini352 the harassment of spirits person All those intense form of healing. tiation is thus an especially have received their trainwho are empowered to heal in Vodou who has Almost everyone Gede ing by first being healed themselves. and instinctive taken the ason has a story to tell about suffering the experiresistance to the call of the spirits. In this respect, ences of Alourdes and Maggie were not extreme. such People resist the call to be a healer because, although selfit also requires considerable a life may provide prestige, Alourdes's mother finally said yes sacrifice. For example, when with men. it the end of her relationships to the spirits, signaled with those in need of healing, and she no Philo's house filled up to raise her daughter longer had space, time, energy, or money who take on the most seAlourdes. Manbo and oungan, those for these rious obligations in relation to the spirits, are prepared to the initiation process itself. In a pattern common sacrifices by Vodou initiation rituals demand nothsuch rites the world over, less than a surrender of self. These rites force a rapid regresing of the initiate. They hammer a person back to a sion on the part and dependence. In this vulnerstate of childlike uncertainty revisited, Vodou teaches its potent able state of infancy, ritually lessons. levels ofi initiation, one of the central surrender For the higher Through ritual means, an atlessons has to do with possession. the and into the tempt is made to pull the initiate over edge bewaters of trance. Those who serve the Vodou spirits deep the bonanj leaves the body and lieve that, in possession, gwo consciousness floats loose in the world. No one easily gives up horse of and the control associated with it; even as practiced a she is as Alourdes still shows signs of struggle as the spirits fears the as mounted by a spirit. But she no longer experience her as most did when the spirits first sought to use she likely an ancient fetheir vehicle. When Alourdes was only thirteen, called Marienette 'passed" through her head, a type male spirit short of Alourdes's first of spirit contact that falls possession. full possession came at the age of nineteen. "When In 1980 Alourdes described possession in this way: to come in you head, you feel very light, light the spirit going in head. You feel dizzy like a piece of paper : . very light your the and in head. Then after, you pass out. But spirit come, your fetheir vehicle. When Alourdes was only thirteen, called Marienette 'passed" through her head, a type male spirit short of Alourdes's first of spirit contact that falls possession. full possession came at the age of nineteen. "When In 1980 Alourdes described possession in this way: to come in you head, you feel very light, light the spirit going in head. You feel dizzy like a piece of paper : . very light your the and in head. Then after, you pass out. But spirit come, your --- Page 385 --- he talk to people, and he look at the table make you know. Then he leaves and you for him : . very, very far. But when the : and you come from very, you don't know spirit in your body, in your head, say, what nothing. They have to tell you what the spirit message he leave for you." In the most clinical way Alourdes describes matter-of-fact, alGede sion, the unconsciousness the descent into posseslows during it, and the amnesia can be heard the voice of a manbo that folwith the Vodou spirits and secure in her relationship self back together after their trusting her own ability to pull herMaggie, who has absorbed temporarily fragmenting visits. lessons about the a heavier dose of New York's hard need for constant control, still the surrender demanded by trance states. And fights against ingly different language in she uses revealtold me about her first describing possession. When she in Haiti at age ten, possession experience, which occurred Maggie began with characteristic started to be Miss Invisible the Invisible bravado: "I switched to a different tone: "I'm Woman!" But she soon my arm : . losing and losing my foot. . : I'm losing much my body, it's just going. And I was younger then, and I start calling, 'Mommie, Mommie! and then my mother-she doesn't Mommie, know if she come or don't come. come. . . I don't that's it! It's black, and then I don't : Once it hits your head, While know nothing. Nothing!" describing a more recent brush with lwa, Maggie reiterated the possession by the count of that first language of loss that filled her acexperience, but she combined it with other threatening and paradoxical imagery: "It's the ing : . - like losing your toes. Your toes is funniest feelupa and someone is gone, like you stand head. pulling your blood out of you. You don't your . : . like something running through feel know . . like you taking a shower and the your body, you ning down all over you. You feel like thing just runthe ground. Your head is your feet is not touching are heavy. - . . Not heavy. It's like floating up, like high blood you Whether pressure . running down." Maggie can eventually trust to even to seek out-the unconsciousness enough welcomedetermined, but it is an of trance has yet to be Alourdes's important issue if she is to take over healing practice. In her role as healer, Alourdes must frequently, and more or less at will, go through the ego-exchange with the lwa that is at the center of perilous All persons who take the ason do not become possession. practicing heal- , like high blood you Whether pressure . running down." Maggie can eventually trust to even to seek out-the unconsciousness enough welcomedetermined, but it is an of trance has yet to be Alourdes's important issue if she is to take over healing practice. In her role as healer, Alourdes must frequently, and more or less at will, go through the ego-exchange with the lwa that is at the center of perilous All persons who take the ason do not become possession. practicing heal- --- Page 386 --- Some choose not to, and others never gain the needed asers. In urban contexts, those who function sent of the community. Vodou families can do SO because as priests or priestesses for of a horse for the their skills (including the skill being good Some of Gede spirits) have been recognized and repeatedly proven. but others are these skills are taught in the initiation chamber, inherited. healer in Alourdes's mother, Philomise, was a well-known with a substantial following. Everyone knows Port-au-Prince, her mother, that is, inherited her role. that Alourdes "replaced" from Philo is her altar, the agAlourdes's tangible inheritance with the Vodou spirits, made gregate of Philo's relationships ritual The tangible in stones and pots and other implements. and inheritance involves extraordinary diagnostic intangible known for her abilities, but curative skills. Philo was psychic "I'm Alourdes resists the claim that she has these same gifts. not psychic like my mother . . no," 11 she says. When She does, however, admit to having the 'gift of eyes." feel in-even three person come- I got the somebody come of need me.' 1! Whenla asked if calling this the gift eyes which one such as light or color, she remeant that she saw something the feel in my body. The blood sponded: "I don't see light. I got there that and my hair start to stand up if there a spirit goes up I feel something inside that mean danbothering somebody. she claims to know when a treatment has ger." 1 In a related way, of how she feels. "After you treat been successful, because feel happy. Then I feel in my people, you feel relieved, you Also, the face body that the people going to be all right. people' change. It not the same face any more.' Alourdes routinely attributes greater psychic powers Just as herself and ones still to her most to her mother than to greater Binbin ancestor, the old African Joseph distant remembered declares that she does not have her mother's Mauvant, soMaggie of abilities. But she does admit to some extraordinary ways I things. "Me and my ESP!" Maggie said. "Usually knowing I a funny feeling, like a pressure. When dream something. get when I know what I dream going to I feel that pressure, that happen. II Vodou healer focus on the social drama, on The skills of the the cracks between relational problems that often fall through techwho do the healing in Western, the various specialists remembered declares that she does not have her mother's Mauvant, soMaggie of abilities. But she does admit to some extraordinary ways I things. "Me and my ESP!" Maggie said. "Usually knowing I a funny feeling, like a pressure. When dream something. get when I know what I dream going to I feel that pressure, that happen. II Vodou healer focus on the social drama, on The skills of the the cracks between relational problems that often fall through techwho do the healing in Western, the various specialists --- Page 387 --- nological society. This focus may be not but also the most helpful for the only the most realistic any realistic expectation of majority of Haitians, who lack tually control the world-that gaining access to the powers that acstanding people, is, to guns and money. Undermaneuvering and even manipulating human Gede relationships--these are the of the survival skills of the weapons the disenfranchised, oppressed. Innumerable times I have heard Alourdes confidence in myself!" Emphasis say: "I got plenty tional and survival skill is on self-confidence as a relatraits. This confidence one of Alourdes's most distinctive of problems, enables her to take on the even those that involve thorniest that of another healer. And, pitting her will against Alourdes on many occasions, the treatment prescribes for a client includes son's need for more self-confidence. attention to that perfused Self-confidence, with the as Alourdes uses the term, is not to be conheroic "I can do I want ued in the United anything to" attitude valsaid Alourdes. States, or even with simple pride. "Pride never did "Pride?" confidence Alourdes fosters in nobody no good." The selfis not SO much a sense of herself and encourages in others respect. When Aunt Emma self-importance as it is basic selftalked about the lieving in God and in the Bible, Alourdes importance of be- "And in yourself. added emphatically, sults Self-respect is the antidote to the poor, urban Haitians experience when daily inbers of the elite live. they see how memthing to have with Self-respect is also the most important welfare office you when standing in line in a New or asking a white bureaucrat for a job. York Alourdes's challenge to imitate her in dence"i is probably most resonant for having "plenty confiing that women healers (I doubt women. It is not surprisquite sophisticated about the Alourdes is the only one) are to self-Mabel's frantic problems women face. Inattention for self-sacrifice in the service ofher example-is one of the greatest female family, and mothers, the self-caring Alourdes problems. For wives counterbalance to the push and pull of counsels is the necessary like mothers, define their life's family claims. Healers, Thus when work as the service of others. Alourdes, both a mother and a confidence in the women she treats, she healer, urges selfAlourdes works at speaks with authority. maintaining a large and diverse family around her, and as a result she sits at the Vodou confluence of example-is one of the greatest female family, and mothers, the self-caring Alourdes problems. For wives counterbalance to the push and pull of counsels is the necessary like mothers, define their life's family claims. Healers, Thus when work as the service of others. Alourdes, both a mother and a confidence in the women she treats, she healer, urges selfAlourdes works at speaks with authority. maintaining a large and diverse family around her, and as a result she sits at the Vodou confluence of --- Page 388 --- streams of human neediness. Her instinct dense and powerful make treatment. I love to help is to want to help. "I love to feel " But she feel that make me good." people. When they good, maintain her balance in the has to be constantly vigilant to and she does SO by insisting Gede midst of her big needy "family," of her clients. When that her own needs be met as well as those 1! she does Alourdes acting like a "queen bee,' something is I see to remember what a difficult role it from time to time, I try that she occupies. reside in konesans. This knowledge Priestly power is said to of eyes, empathy, or incould be called psychic power, the gift Above all, it is knowltuition. It is any and all of these things. and complex symbol about people. Vodou provides a vast edge Konesans is the ability to read system for thinking about people. and name their sufpeople, with or without cards; to diagnose not from God and suffering that Haitians know comes fering, chance but from others-the living, the dead, usually not from konesans is the ability to heal. and the spirits. Finally, oven in which sufferThe initiation chamber is the alchemical rooted into knowledge, into experientially ing is transformed the ritual arena I know of that priestly power. It is also only Ifan initiate has Gede as his or Papa Gede is forbidden to enter. the of Ogou, that person will kouche on point her head spirit, and Gede's temporary stand-in durthe patron of self-assertion the small room where initiates spend ing initiations. In the djèvo, for Gede and no several days in seclusion, no songs are sung in the initiation are offered to him. Gede's presence the prayers fearful that might snap chamber would be a redundancy rebirth which these rituals delicate balance between death and because he is SO orchestrate. Papa Gede must be excluded present. A BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR PAPA GEDE at Alourdes's home in About twenty-five of us were gathered October 1981. Gede was the predawn hours of a Sunday in late Gede," forth in the center of the crowd. "Papa with us, holding his attention. Gede drew himsomeone called out, trying to get down his black top hat with self up, erect and proud, pulled and stuck out his lower lip in an exaggerated pout. both hands, because he is SO orchestrate. Papa Gede must be excluded present. A BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR PAPA GEDE at Alourdes's home in About twenty-five of us were gathered October 1981. Gede was the predawn hours of a Sunday in late Gede," forth in the center of the crowd. "Papa with us, holding his attention. Gede drew himsomeone called out, trying to get down his black top hat with self up, erect and proud, pulled and stuck out his lower lip in an exaggerated pout. both hands, --- Page 389 --- Gede made for Gede's birthday party. BedfordDevotees gathered before a table Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, 1978. Rekonèt Mwen, Kache Bo Lakwa, Papa'm Te "Msye Gede, Ti Malis Gede, Little Mischief Hidden sil ou ple [Mister Cock . . . if Gwo Zozo : Father Acknowledged Me, Big I1 Near the Cross, My don't tremember my name, please]" he retorted. "If people And with that, he grabbed you "Im not going to stay!" look like a huge erect Gedewhined, stick-the one carved to Papa Gede, stay!" his walking headed for the door. "No, no, rush of words: penis-and and said in a cried. Then she giggled Maggie "I mean, . . - stay!" his RCHRRRREET wheeled around and planted out the door, Gede his to make the MEEEER Halfway on the floor. Spreading roll legs his hips in the walking stick firmly Gede began to other two points of a tripod, call the gouyad. "Little hole, little lascivious dance step Haitians hole, big hole, big hole." The little hole," he sang, "Big smiled. Soon everyhole, and the women roomwhistled and hooted, With the men into the simple, energetic song. three little wideone was swept full voice, Gede took ful of people singing until the wooden phallus protruded jumps forward jumped to a new level, legged from his crotch, and the song hole, little hole : . . II Just as directly beat: "Little hole, little with a faster dance step Haitians hole, big hole, big hole." The little hole," he sang, "Big smiled. Soon everyhole, and the women roomwhistled and hooted, With the men into the simple, energetic song. three little wideone was swept full voice, Gede took ful of people singing until the wooden phallus protruded jumps forward jumped to a new level, legged from his crotch, and the song hole, little hole : . . II Just as directly beat: "Little hole, little with a faster --- Page 390 --- Gede stopped singing. He marched abruptly as he had started, his cane smartly back into the center of the group, snapping at a woman and under his arm. Then he poked it mischievously a common asked her to hold his ZOZO (literally, bone-bone), Gede slang term for penis. lesson, Papa to begin an important Like a teacher poised the air. "When a is little, little, Gede held his finger up in hand within girl two feet of the little, like this"-Gede moved a flat does she have?" "Ti twou [A little hole]!" people floor-"what circle with the thumb and finger of shouted. Gede made a tight the first finger of his right in his left hand and began to push 11 Gede kept the rollickand out ofit. "Titzoou, ti twou, titwou, hands moved together and ing beat with his plunging finger. His his hips went together and apart, and in counterpoint of his apart, and round. After seemingly endless repetitions round the group by lifting his hand once childish ditty, Gede stopped adjusted his hat, and more. He assumed a serious expression, like this, and like this"- asked: "When she grows up, like this, from close to the floor to shoulder heighthe moved his palm twou!" a dozen voices shouted, and "what has she got?" "Gwo off "Gwo twou, gwo twou, gwo twou, : we were again: been late in arriving. Even though the party Papa Gede had until the early was for him, he had delayed his appearance situations that happen hours. It had been one of those morning Alourdes. She seemed tired and disfrom time to time with songs to "send" tracted, and she had a hard time remembering friends who often for the spirits. Her coterie of older women Madame the slack for her was not out in force that night. not pick up like Alourdes, she did François was the only one there, and, of the ceremony had a seem in the mood. Thus the early part but nothing desultory quality. We sang and sang, struggling, three times, Alourdes's body shudmuch happened. Two or libations for dered, and when she was on her feet pouring came of lost her balance, but nothing Gede, she temporarily these passes of the lwa. Gwo Woch-o" (Underneath Then we started to sing "Anba Gede, Ti Malis. the favorite song of her personal the Big Rock), evokes a group of Gede conThis lively song with a simple lyric and crawling nected with small pesky insects, little creeping Some that bite and sting and live in dark, hidden places. things and crevices of furniture and woven leaf matinhabit the cracks when she was on her feet pouring came of lost her balance, but nothing Gede, she temporarily these passes of the lwa. Gwo Woch-o" (Underneath Then we started to sing "Anba Gede, Ti Malis. the favorite song of her personal the Big Rock), evokes a group of Gede conThis lively song with a simple lyric and crawling nected with small pesky insects, little creeping Some that bite and sting and live in dark, hidden places. things and crevices of furniture and woven leaf matinhabit the cracks --- Page 391 --- tresses. These tiny living things secreted vide small but persistent reminders in lifeless objects proflesh. Defying human efforts of the vulnerability of the insinuate themselves to control our environment, Others into our homes, our they churn away in the earth just beneath beds, our persons. changing rock, a layer of life that the deceptively unGede wiggling animation when the can be suddenly revealed in surface of things, these "big rock" is moved. Beneath the communal, on constructive work hardworking creatures carry called destructive (aerating the soil) as well as what work (devouring the might be dition to Ti Malis, Ti Pis, a flesh of corpses). In adseats, and Gede biting insect found in woven chair "Underneath Nibo, the spider, also fall into this the Big Rock" always works category. Alourdes's Ti Malis. But that October to bring on and sang and sang, and Gede did night in 1981, we sang scended on the small not come. Depression depossible and I group. But then, just when it felt most thought I was about to imat Alourdes's home when the witness my first ceremony arrived. His animation spirits failed to respond, TiMalis Alourdes's mood, and his and energy were in stark contrast to a subtle spark ignited the crowd. Alourdes is choreographer of her own moods as those of a group. Rather than and energies as well habit is to sink into them, resisting negative feelings, her bound through the other side. plumb their depths, and then retional art form from She has learned this transformapoint of his Gede. It is the essence of his humor, the reason for message, the middle of the cemetery and in locating this trickster in the healing. the center of the practice of Toward the end of his visit, Gede asked who in kominyone the room had Communion (communioned), that is, gone their in the Catholic church. through First "I communioned," Gede Almost all hands went said earnestly. up. did that! I did that! I did that!" he Everyone laughed. "I "I, Mister Gede Little Mischief asserted, looking wounded. did that! And I took the Hidden Near the Cross, myself, I I "Oh, did examination, too!" you, Papa Gede?" Andre, "Tell us the story." Gede Alourdes's nephew, asked. tioner, and pulled up a stool in front of the everyone else gathered around quesdid the examination," Gede them. "The priest elbows on his knees and his face said, leaning forward with his kindofexamination?" close to Andre's face. "What Andreasked. And then Madame Arnold, , looking wounded. did that! And I took the Hidden Near the Cross, myself, I I "Oh, did examination, too!" you, Papa Gede?" Andre, "Tell us the story." Gede Alourdes's nephew, asked. tioner, and pulled up a stool in front of the everyone else gathered around quesdid the examination," Gede them. "The priest elbows on his knees and his face said, leaning forward with his kindofexamination?" close to Andre's face. "What Andreasked. And then Madame Arnold, --- Page 392 --- this routine many times before, interwho had been through Gede, dear?" vened: "What questions did he ask you, Papa M'te se M'te reponn se pa bagèt! Li di ZOZO. reponn "Li di langèt. statements and responses, kouto!" In this series of rhyming pa the one with the foul mouth. The priest Gede Gede casts the priest as Gede "It's not a and responded, said langèt (female genitalia), and Gede answered, loaf of bread.' 1! The priest said ZOZO (penis), than it knife.' 11 This exchange is more subtle appears. "It's not a of edible things, and, alVaginas are identified with a variety knife, the most common though the penis is rarely called a cut). term for sexual intercourse is to koupe (to slang catechetical examination went on Gede's report of this strange and snorts from the only by giggles for some time, punctuated Then Gede paused and, with a group gathered around him. asked: "When we finished, do you pensive look on his face, Gede, what did he do?" know what that priest did?" "No, Papa did a little fart. Not a "He turned his back and . : : and : : . he a little understand what I am saying to you?-just big one-you in eagerly, "I know, I know, Papa Gede, one.". Andre jumped the sound of a 11 and he bubbled his lips, making like this . no!" cried Papa Gede. Then motor boat starting. "No, no, no, audible stream of his lips and let a barely he delicately pursed "Like that! Just a little one." air hiss through them. SEX, DEATH, AND HUMOR who presides over the realms of sex, Gede is the Vodou spirit vary along a death, and humor. His posesiomperiormanore human life. He eats with his spectrum that tracks the path of a infant. Like a twohands and sometimes throws his food like an and words. He is horny year old, he delights in saying naughty with horwith women, like a young man raging faithful predatory favorite uncle, he hunkers down with the mones. Like a to the most homely of their comand listens with genuine care child, a car abscess on the buttocks, a disrespectful plaints-an heater. As Baron Samdi (Baron Saturwith a malfunctioning he arrives as a corpse; his body falls day), head of all the Gede, and sadness, the to the ground, stiff. In a mood of solemnity white cloth, stuff his surround him, bind his jaw with a people with cotton, and powder his face to reproduce nostrils and ears Baron Samdi possesses Alourdes, the pallor of a cadaver. When with genuine care child, a car abscess on the buttocks, a disrespectful plaints-an heater. As Baron Samdi (Baron Saturwith a malfunctioning he arrives as a corpse; his body falls day), head of all the Gede, and sadness, the to the ground, stiff. In a mood of solemnity white cloth, stuff his surround him, bind his jaw with a people with cotton, and powder his face to reproduce nostrils and ears Baron Samdi possesses Alourdes, the pallor of a cadaver. When --- Page 393 --- which he does ends infrequently, the tense only when time doubles back psychodrama of death places Baron and a childish on itself, when Ti Malis dis361 the corpse. Then, and giggle escapes from the mouth of fun begin. only then, does the tension snap and the Gede has license to break all the Gede that comes out of Gede's social rules. The mouth is language never use when not possessed language Alourdes would a discreet and by him. Haitians are, in general, strongly proper people. Lacking physical emphasize good manners. Itis, for privacy, they sulting to call a person malelve example, highly inspirit, he would be a prime candidate (badly reared); were Gede not a all the things that are forbidden for this insult. He can say impulses others must in polite company, act out the mediately suppress. When Ti Malis greets the women with big arrives, he imfavorites (as well as with the occasional puckering kisses. With his proper), he presses his pelvis woman who is a bit too hips. Gede steals food and up against them and rolls his other people's things with money, stuffing his pockets full of sure to catch the attention exaggerated of gestures of secretiveness satirize the powerful and the anyone half-awake. He alone can away with making fun of Catholic privileged; only Gede could get Sex, death, and humor: the priests. ence of Papa Gede (at birth, great social levelers. In the presare all stripped down to making love, and in our coffins), we our basic Alourdes to a Gede feast at the humanity. Once, I went with manbo in training. home of one of her protégés, a and he Alourdes's Ti Malis arrived to was still there when it was time for entertain us, saying good-bye, Papa Gede me to leave. AsIwas him two weeks hence. He reminded me of another party for swered and then added wanted me to come. "Ill come,"Iancould a polite question: "Is there bring?" All the way across a room full something met Gede shouted, of people I had just Gede "Bring a clean cunt!" shows up at virtually its. He comes late, and he every birthday party for the spirarrive, and his stays long. He is always the last to his gossipy informality, his sexual penchant for telling satire work high jinks, and mood of a Vodou family. alchemical changes on the his After a long night of deep presence entertains, eases tension, and spirit work, arrival in the predawn hours soothes pain. Gede's the deep drama of Vodou and facilitates the transition between New York City. Gede takes the everyday struggle of life in people on a journey through their arrive, and his stays long. He is always the last to his gossipy informality, his sexual penchant for telling satire work high jinks, and mood of a Vodou family. alchemical changes on the his After a long night of deep presence entertains, eases tension, and spirit work, arrival in the predawn hours soothes pain. Gede's the deep drama of Vodou and facilitates the transition between New York City. Gede takes the everyday struggle of life in people on a journey through their --- Page 394 --- them to selves and, in SO doing, prepares most out-of-control world where reserve and control move back into the ordinary should not be must reign. Yet Gede's poricasionpertontances mistaken for mere entertainment. connection between sexuality Gede Gede brings to the surface a All Vodou rituin Vodou spirituality. and life energy pervasive To raise heat, to raise luck, to als aim to echofe (heat things up). in the broadest senseraise life energy, to intensify sexuality The arrival of Gede these are all more or less the same process. intense dose at the end of a Vodou ceremony provides an extra, it and it, needed to conquer life, to use enjoy of the power rather than be conquered by it. the streets of PortDuring late October and early November, of Gede. Gede possesau-Prince are filled with roving bands and during than those of the other spirits, sions are lighter several days caught up in Gede season many devotees spend of Gede mill around in groups in the trickster spirit. The horses would never do. The something the other spirits public arenas, outfits sare purpleand black, dominant colors of their outrageous hats, bowler have faces. They wear top and they powdered wear two or three hats at a time, hats, airplane pilots' hats. They with one lens missing. (The and they often put on dark glasses observed. But another perpenis has only one eye, one oungan because he sees beson said Gede wears these strange glasses and that is also tween the worlds of the dead and the living, Around their necks the Gede hang why he jokes SO much.) their hands they carry wooden pacifiers and baby rattles; in bands of phalluses. With a coffin hoisted on their shoulders, the heart of the Gede stage mock funeral processions through by musicians, accity. Flocks of Gede, sometimes accompanied and not reWomen are surrounded cost innocent bystanders. the toll-a kiss on the lips for every leased until they have paid talked into five cents Gede. Awkward young boys are spending Barbie doll with to have a look at the secret in the cigar box-a real pubic hair. in a shed-like templein La SaDuring Gede season in 1980, big slums), five hundred line (arguably the worst of Port-au-Prince's The "Zozo, ZOZO, ZOZO, 11 until they were hoarse. people chanted, teetered on the edge of riot. Most of atmosphere of the crowd than half doing the gouyad the people were on their feet, more Gede's rhythm. In a Banda drumbeat, to the sexy, energetic road southwest of Port-au-Prince, temple in Waney, on the coast During Gede season in 1980, big slums), five hundred line (arguably the worst of Port-au-Prince's The "Zozo, ZOZO, ZOZO, 11 until they were hoarse. people chanted, teetered on the edge of riot. Most of atmosphere of the crowd than half doing the gouyad the people were on their feet, more Gede's rhythm. In a Banda drumbeat, to the sexy, energetic road southwest of Port-au-Prince, temple in Waney, on the coast --- Page 395 --- - (e Gede () because he sees into the lands of glasses with one lens missing devotee. Fort-au-Prince, Haiti, Gede, who wears and the dead, possesses a female both the living by Jerry Gordon. 1981. Photograph called The Inspecmanbo possessed by a Gede officious and a slender young of fifty or so, acting moved through a crowd purses, and tor the contents of pockets, the coast road, a insisting on examining a little further down wallets. In a larger temple the pretenses of the military. bunch of Gede mimicked and organized a dozen ragtag himself commander canes became fireOne appointed Penis-headed others into a dress parade. himself is rarely present during And, although Gede commenarms. Carnival season, Gede-style political and almost Haiti's popular that has known severe prevails. In a country Gede's ambiguous, many-layered tary constant political repression, avenue of protest. humor is often the only safe deal of charity from the has been the recipient of a great humor can provide Haiti world, but little respect. Gede's In in a peristil just outside commentary on this as well. 1980 Gede called Rubber trenchant Port-au-Prince, a man possessed bya He donned a outside took on the Protestant missionaries. his neck, and on the Cross of beads around In prim little dress, put a string in the crook of his elbow. pocketbook in the other, a hung a short-handled soft-backed Bible; one hand, he held an open, a great humor can provide Haiti world, but little respect. Gede's In in a peristil just outside commentary on this as well. 1980 Gede called Rubber trenchant Port-au-Prince, a man possessed bya He donned a outside took on the Protestant missionaries. his neck, and on the Cross of beads around In prim little dress, put a string in the crook of his elbow. pocketbook in the other, a hung a short-handled soft-backed Bible; one hand, he held an open, --- Page 396 --- drone and with great earpornographic picture. In a singsong nestness, Gede led the group in a hymn: O Lord, if you free me, Gede If it is you who sets me on my feet, Ordain the angels in the sky, To hold my hand, So my feet do not stumble, In the middle of the big rock. . the Cross winked at the crowd, switched to a syncoRubber on to transform the last line: "In the pated rhythm, and began In the middle of all the coconuts middle of the big rock. . I1 The of all the whores. . perfor- [vaginas). : . In the middle with one dissolved into chaos as young men competed mance another to shout out new endings for the hymn. THE DEAD RETURN of the dead are a far cry from the spirits of These raucous spirits to of hunger and neancestors who return complain specific their in the countryside. In many glect and to advise progeny few large, intact urban families, areasin ruralHaiti, and evenina individual ancestors return through Posscsion-perfomance family, she was not safely lodged in such a large Although mother, used to be possessed by her anPhilo, Alourdes's Marie Noelsine Joseph, appeared frecestors. Her own mother, rarely. Alourdes, howquently; her father, Alphonse Macena, does not consult the ancestors in this way. ever, other means. There Alourdes's family dead are accessible by regularly in Alourdes's are dreams; Philo, for example, appears through dreams. And the dead can also be ritually approached tomb is Alourdes says that visiting her mother's their graves. she does on her visits to Haiti. Petithe most important thing are believed to be especially tionary prayers said in the cemetery in Haiti in 1980, Alourdes effective. On the first day we were in Portto her mother's tombin the main cemetery went directly she hired had completed their au-Prince. When the prètsavann had swept French and Latin prayers and the cemetery guardian bottle of clear Alourdes took a around the tomb as instructed, also be ritually approached tomb is Alourdes says that visiting her mother's their graves. she does on her visits to Haiti. Petithe most important thing are believed to be especially tionary prayers said in the cemetery in Haiti in 1980, Alourdes effective. On the first day we were in Portto her mother's tombin the main cemetery went directly she hired had completed their au-Prince. When the prètsavann had swept French and Latin prayers and the cemetery guardian bottle of clear Alourdes took a around the tomb as instructed, --- Page 397 --- water and poured it around the perimeter of the knocked four times on her mother's tomb. Then she Alourdes. Mama. Philo! Mama!" grave: "Mama, it is me, spectful distance as Alourdes The others withdrew to a renews and mumbled her told her mother all the family earnest The dead also return in other requests. Gede the spirits in life can come back in ways. the An ancestor who served Understanding this makes it form of his or her mêt tèt. an unusual event that occurred easier to grasp the significance of parties. at one of Alourdes's New Year's Maggie and Alourdes ner. By the time I arrived stage that an annual New Year's Day dining. Alourdes and day in 1981, the house was of Maggie are happiest in the midst jumpguests, for this is noisy proof of their of a hubbub munity around them. Gregarious power to pull the comhospitality peak in the midst of good humor and expansive entered without chaos, when no room can be dislodging two Or three way and when each trip in or out ofthe persons from the doorone mock-angry exchange. This kitchen requires at least "Come on, Big one was initiated by Daddy, what you doin' Maggie: like some kind'a bum? What kind'a standin' there drinkin' Move your butt out'a place you think this is? a brimming my way, this plate is heavy." She lifted through, platter of spicy, roasted turkey bits and walked to swinging her hips in such a wide arc that she bump into people on both sides. Alourdes managed something like that, but there is would never do Maggie! always a little Gede at work in When the copious meal was at last on the without calling attention to herself, tables, Maggie, functory ritual. She fixed a plate of began a small and perand a bowl of left turkey with rice and beans Then she soup over from their New Year's Eve gestured with her head for me to follow. dinner. placed the food before the Legba shrine Together, we door. Even at non-Vodou near the basement Then the events, the spirits are not party began in earnest. Glasses forgotten. and Asti Spumanti of pink were offered to the champagne members and friends gathered that twenty or SO family by talk, laughter, kids day. We were surrounded Maggie, in high glow, screaming and haggling at our knees. yelled, "Okay, Shut up!" Shyly, her brother everybody, quiet! Shut up! lifted his glass and Jean-Pierre, the family spokesman, "Yes!" began a toast: "This is an annual Alourdes broke in before he finished eventone sentence. forgotten. and Asti Spumanti of pink were offered to the champagne members and friends gathered that twenty or SO family by talk, laughter, kids day. We were surrounded Maggie, in high glow, screaming and haggling at our knees. yelled, "Okay, Shut up!" Shyly, her brother everybody, quiet! Shut up! lifted his glass and Jean-Pierre, the family spokesman, "Yes!" began a toast: "This is an annual Alourdes broke in before he finished eventone sentence. --- Page 398 --- mother ask me to do that. "Every year we do that 'cause my want that. Every year we come, and he say my mother Agèou first, invite everybody. . . make a big party, January "This is a very important party : . . the Jean-Pierre continued: we have every year on January Gede family all together : . . which lots of and first. And we hope everybody, er : : . met happiness with cheers. in the coming year!" His words were prosperity to She singled out several people It was Maggie's turn speak. Gertrude LeGrand, their longincluding for special recognition, other mother! Everybody here know time family friend. "My here!" Next, Maggie raised other mother? Here she is, right boistermy and to a friend I had introduced to this her glass to me who have become such good ous family: "To my two sister, stopped, and, friends!" Then Maggie started to say something, it. went on: "Oh, well, I can say Everyafter a dramatic pause, body here is family." the altar room door. "To all those She raised her glass toward and Metrès Ezili, spirit in there: Kouzen Zaka, and Papa Ogou, I1 much luck this year. . . Everyone began who bring us SO good Alourdes cried, "And Papa Gede! to chime in their favorites. "And Papa Danbala." Gede!" And I added, Don't forgot Papa recently arrived from Haiti, Poupette, a playful young woman Danbalal" Poupette, both echoed: "And Papa and Big Daddy of the moment, executed a mock ritcarried away by the mood were possessed, she ual salutation. Acting as if Big Daddy in front of twirled, fell on her knees, and kissed the ground "Don't do half-seriously, Big Daddy said, him. Half-playfully, moment Agéou arrived. that!" And at that very shoulder, beneath the clatter of From somewhere over my left Frank, Alourdes's voices, I heard a strange, haunting sound. that day, and the oldest member of the family present brother strained and urgent voice. The song was well was singing in a of the head spirit of known in this house- the song Ageou, Grandmother deceased mother, Ti Gran Philo (Little Alourdes's which has a wonderful Philo). Many took up the Creole song, lilting melody. Agéou, ou o! Agèou, ou hantor! Agéou, ou nèg Dahomey. des's voices, I heard a strange, haunting sound. that day, and the oldest member of the family present brother strained and urgent voice. The song was well was singing in a of the head spirit of known in this house- the song Ageou, Grandmother deceased mother, Ti Gran Philo (Little Alourdes's which has a wonderful Philo). Many took up the Creole song, lilting melody. Agéou, ou o! Agèou, ou hantor! Agéou, ou nèg Dahomey. --- Page 399 --- Ou mande charite. Ou fè di-set an, Tape manje youn sèl zepi de mayi. Agèou, you, oh! Gede Agèou, you liar! Agèou, you Dahomey man. You beg for alms. You spent seventeen years, Eating only one ear of corn, The mood of the crowd shifted with the Frank's wrinkled old head. The arrival of Agéou in the noise level was just as people just as excited, but we were high, and gether by the song. We were welded suddenly brought tothat sang its way up through the three into one powerful voice small Brooklyn row house and stories of Alourdes's After the song died beyond into the dark winter sky. first to Alourdes, then away, Agèou offered the ritual handshake bers: his to Maggie, then to the other right hand to their right, his left family memwith the weight of the lwa to their left. Then, Alourdes, Ageou making his body lean heavily on embrace cheek wrapped his arms around her and to cheek, first on one side and offered an When Agéou had greeted all the then the other. family in this manner, he turned members of the immediate tended his hand. to the others present and exA bottle of rum appeared from the altar took a long drink, Big Daddy moved room. While Agèou turning steps Poupette had mimicked through the dipping and mal salutation used to honor a short time before, a forthe priestly hierarchies. the spirits as well as superiors in Not until Big Daddy executed moves, prostrating to kiss the ground in the final notice how moved he front oft the spirit, did I murmured: was. There were tears in his "You see, Philo has come.' 11 eyes. People that's her Agèou. 11 Frank, with "Alourdes's mama, to the altar room, and Agéou still in his head, was led Alourdes's we all moved hungrily toward the brother soon emerged, back to his old food. down to an enormous plate of food. self, and sat Agéou's appearance at this family event was SO welcome be- moved he front oft the spirit, did I murmured: was. There were tears in his "You see, Philo has come.' 11 eyes. People that's her Agèou. 11 Frank, with "Alourdes's mama, to the altar room, and Agéou still in his head, was led Alourdes's we all moved hungrily toward the brother soon emerged, back to his old food. down to an enormous plate of food. self, and sat Agéou's appearance at this family event was SO welcome be- --- Page 400 --- In one sense, it was an appearance cause it was SO appropriate. being visited by Agéou is of Philo herself. Yet, for Alourdes, Philo. When Agéou not the same thing as being visited by the like the other lwva, he can be summoned by is needed, ason. But Philo has slipped further away. Gede sound of the manbo's Philo once summoned her Alourdes cannot summon her as the most direct conMarie Noelsine. Dreams are own mother, but they cannot be commanded. tact left to Alourdes, Alourdes said. "Once, long time I don't dream my mother," that!" Alourdes said "Long time I don't see her. And I don't like and then one and prayed for her mother to come, she prayed "What's the matter with you?" Philo night Philo appeared. I'm Your sister sick. I got to scolded. "Don't you know busy? and allow Philo to take care of her first. II So Alourdes must wait needed. The loss of when, where, and how she is determine contact with the ancestors direct, and to some extent controlled, in which urban is a major way through porecoiomperdiemane communities differ from Vodou and Vodou in the immigrant that of the rural extended-family compounds. of Alourdes combines different senses family-one Just as blood ties, another gathered in by a wider family defined by strategies in relation to her annet-so she combines different heavily on her mother's cestors. On the one hand, she depends work, and she advice in her personal life and in her healing Philo. On the anxious when she does not dream about has come grows spirit of all the dead, other hand, Gede, a generalized that, in former to take over much of the day-to-day would caretaking be the domain of the times and still in many rural areas, One New Year's Eve, for exspirits of influential ancestors. but the immediate family, it ample, with no one in the house up the Gede, riding Alourdes, who came tripping was Papa at five minutes to twelve to give her stairs to Maggie's apartment a good-luck bath. CEMETERIES where the land of the living intersects Gede stands at the point which is also the crossroads, the land of the dead. The cross, And the cemetery, is the central symbol in his iconography. Vodou because it is the Gede's home, is a major ritual center in and direct incarnation of this same crossroads. most charged , with no one in the house up the Gede, riding Alourdes, who came tripping was Papa at five minutes to twelve to give her stairs to Maggie's apartment a good-luck bath. CEMETERIES where the land of the living intersects Gede stands at the point which is also the crossroads, the land of the dead. The cross, And the cemetery, is the central symbol in his iconography. Vodou because it is the Gede's home, is a major ritual center in and direct incarnation of this same crossroads. most charged --- Page 401 --- In the countryside, cemeteries family land and contain are family affairs. They are on small cult houses maintained family graves. Cemeteries, along with as the eritay on a part of the land referred to (inheritance), are the main places people serve the Vodou spirits. În the where country two paths intersect, the kaa cemetery, at a point where Gede cated. The kwa Baron and the Baron (Baron Samdi's cross) is lomale buried in the Baron grave (the grave of the first als. The cemetery) are focal points for ground around them is littered cemetery rituVodou ceremonies: dolls bound with the remnants of paper with magical imitations of together, crumpled pieces of mounds of peanuts sand cassava writing, clumps of candle wax, Prayers and offerings before bread, chicken feathers, flowers. in many healing rites in Haiti. the kwa Baron are incorporated visit to the For certain serious problems, cemetery is absolutely a when a family is threatened the ill mandatory. For example, ily member by will of can go before the kwa Baron and outsiders, any fam- (a spirit of one of the dead) be sent request that a mè nition, this powerful against their enemy. By defione family member spiritual resource can never be used by only in the name of against the another. Baron Samdi takes family united. revenge Urban cemeteries are quite different still a center for from rural ones. ritualizing, the main Though is a huge government-owned cemetery in Port-au-Prince partments for several city of the dead. Tombs, with combut the land coffins, are built and owned on which these tombs stand by families, the rent must be paid is often rented, and will be thrown into the regularly or the bones of the ancestors charnel house. The kwa Baron in the Port-au-Prince differently. It is not a point of cemetery also functions one's own family dead; access to the most powerful of representative instead, it is the main shrine for ofall the dead. When I first Gede, in the early 1970S, a large cement started going to Haiti the Catholic church to mark cross that had been erected by served for the burial of the section of the cemetery rekava Baron. Needless priests and nuns was being used as the to say, the church was not poor people gathered at this cross pleased to see to Baron Samdi and leaving behind whispering urgent messages several occasions, church small offerings for him. On but the officials put fences around this people scaled each new barrier and cross, them all down. eventually broke ished the Finally, just a few years ago, the church putative kwa Baron. These days, another demollarge cross, --- Page 402 --- Gede The kaa Baron in the Fort-au-Princed cemetery, 1980. Photograph by Judith Gleason. at some distance from over the function of the church's burial In the the kava Baron. ground, has taken Port-au-Prince and the modern world cemetery, a tug of war between with the Catholic goes on on several Vodou fication church levels, the of this representing only one. The dispute cemetery, for class stratiexample, is a condensed form of Gede The kaa Baron in the Fort-au-Princed cemetery, 1980. Photograph by Judith Gleason. at some distance from over the function of the church's burial In the the kava Baron. ground, has taken Port-au-Prince and the modern world cemetery, a tug of war between with the Catholic goes on on several Vodou fication church levels, the of this representing only one. The dispute cemetery, for class stratiexample, is a condensed form of --- Page 403 --- a much more pervasive conflict for urban streets, paved only in Haitians. Narrow upon row of aboveground prosperous sections, run between row houses. The kavo of elite tombs designed to look like small families have and arched windows. Some porches, interior altars, by elaborate are covered in tile and surrounded Gede wrought-iron fences. Most of the are densely packed cinderblock graves, however, colors. These have the look constructions, painted in pastel ban cemetery reiterates the oflow-income housing. Thus the urthrown together within city itself; all kinds of people are is its boundaries. Baron Samdi's help no longer available. If we take the partisan tery as a measure, then the answer to the Port-au-Prince cemetion, Who are my people? has become elusive all-important quesIn this regard, the most serious issue indeed. of cemetery land. The urban concerns the ownership Their poor are, by definition, inability to purchase a cemetery in the landless. dant of their general condition. The plot city is redunis a great number, cannot poorest of them, and that dead end up in the charnel even rent one. Many of their family the cemetery. On house, which sits off to one side in around this any given day, crowds of the poor gather who lie structure, trying to make contact with buried in a great anonymous heap of bones. ancestors Loss of land splits the tripartite root of Vodou: the land, and the spirits. Even in Alourdes's the ancestors, the system are endangered, because case, the roots of rest, at the the bones of her ancestors pleasure of the landlord, on rented land. To degree, maintaining her generational line some payment of rent on an eight-by-ten-foot depends on timely au-Prince, a hallowed spot she cemetery plot in Portor two. In spite of this, Alourdes manages to visit only every year wants to be returned to Haiti says that when she dies she to rest next to her mother. Not surprisingly, Maggie has different ideas. She wants to be cremated and have her ashes recently said she ocean. scattered over the Gede, a portable spirit of the collective dead, is Haitians in New York. He eases the important to and feelings of guilt, emotions that often immigrant's sense of loss the family land, and attach themselves to particularly to the ancestral hind on that land. Although graves left befocusing on him does meaning of relating to the dead, Gede nevertheless change the the sense that the dead are involved in preserves Gede not only is helpful in ongoing human life. dealing with ancestral links; he she ocean. scattered over the Gede, a portable spirit of the collective dead, is Haitians in New York. He eases the important to and feelings of guilt, emotions that often immigrant's sense of loss the family land, and attach themselves to particularly to the ancestral hind on that land. Although graves left befocusing on him does meaning of relating to the dead, Gede nevertheless change the the sense that the dead are involved in preserves Gede not only is helpful in ongoing human life. dealing with ancestral links; he --- Page 404 --- families in other ways. In addition to also keeps the together death, and humor, Papa Gede presiding over the realms of sex, of small series of obvious connections, also the protector is, by a children. Gede "YOU CANT DO NOTHING WITHOUT THE CHILDREN" to birth to her daughter, Betty, When Maggie was about give suddenly beAlourdes, who was with herin the delivery room, the cotton to talk in Gede's nasal twang, a twang caused by I1 gan of "Bonswa, Moo-garet, he said. stuffed in the nostrils corpses. "Those docabout it afterward: Maggie and Alourdes laughed there." Gede had anxiously tor never even know Papa Gede child from the beginning. watched the development of this he called Each time the spirit appeared during the pregnancy, back, stroked for Maggie. He lifted her shirt, rubbed her aching taut and blew a fine mist of rum over its her expanding belly, Maggie turned to me and skin. After one such ministration, Mommie to those natural whispered: "You see? That's why go not childbirth classes with me. I want her to be my partner, father]. I want her SO Papa Gede can come. Henri [the baby's I want him to be my partner, SO he can help me." children/ 11 once said, "you can't do nothing "The Maggie Children are the center of home life, without the children." is also crucial in certain Gede's domain, and their presence in her dream, swore a Vodou rituals. For example, after would Maggie, take the ason, she held a solemn oath to Danbala that she that, when time small pwomès (a promise) to assure the spirits she would fulfill this commitment. and resources permitted, ritual known as a manje Marasa (a The form of the pwvomès was a In this ritual, the meal for the Marasa, the twin spirit children). others from children of Maggie and Alourdes, as well as some twins. All the the extended family, were stand-ins for the sacred the floor children sat together on a cloth Maggie had spread on chilof the altar room. She laid before them all the foods Haitian the were instructed to eat with their hands, dren love. They At the end of the meal, Maggie child's mode of consumption. fingers on stood in the center, and all the children wiped greasy of the the did at Alourdes's ritual feeding her, just as beggars the special blessing that, poor in Haiti. With this act, they gave the extended family, were stand-ins for the sacred the floor children sat together on a cloth Maggie had spread on chilof the altar room. She laid before them all the foods Haitian the were instructed to eat with their hands, dren love. They At the end of the meal, Maggie child's mode of consumption. fingers on stood in the center, and all the children wiped greasy of the the did at Alourdes's ritual feeding her, just as beggars the special blessing that, poor in Haiti. With this act, they gave --- Page 405 --- in Vodou, can be given only by the and the poor. At the same time, socially vulnerable children acceptance of Maggie's they acknowledged the spirits' promise. Children are also a part of Vodou in less matter how late the hour or how formal ways. No are included in the long the event, children Gede ritualizing. No matter how guage of the spirits or how risqué the lanperformance, children potentially volatile the are witnesses. By possessionto know the difference between age two, Betty seemed to Papa Gede. talking to Alourdes and Through interaction with the talking sorb the social world and learn spirits, children abact with its various to distinguish among and intertypes, an education they at young age. In Haiti, sleeping infants ride begin a very dancing mothers. In New York, on the hips of their in the room where rituals drowsy children are put to bed children are going on. As the are roused to greet them and be blessed spirits arrive, member seeing Ti Malis handle by them. Ireof a mother!) when she Betty (with the practiced hands Haitian was no more than two months old. women have a rough, loving, dealing with infants. good-humored way of first, that They seem to work from two children are not fragile; and, assumptions: not get out of hand. A crying child is second, that things will the same time, firmly held. Mothers roughly jounced and, at tention, and a lack of tolerance for communicate security, atto work. crying all at once. It seems As children become less With older dependent, the strategy children, a great deal of affection is changes. there is also an occasional bit of emotional expressed, but watched this process most closely in jouncing. I have her two children. Maggie's relationship with Betty once came prancing into the ing adorable: white knee socks, room lookhair ribbons. "Get from organdy dress, multicolored away me!" You too ugly. I don't want to see Maggie 11 cried. "You ugly! me wince until the day when you. These moments made her hips and said Betty, age five, put her hands on made calmly but firmly: "Iam not. not me remember the time, Iam ugly."It done something similar years earlier, when Maggie had with Michael and then grinned at saying, "Lifeis hard. You got to make them tough!" me, Maggie's child-rearing strategy is the belief that Intrinsic to child off-balance if you push a occasionally, that child will learn inner balance Alourdes calls "confidence to locate the in yourself.' " and said Betty, age five, put her hands on made calmly but firmly: "Iam not. not me remember the time, Iam ugly."It done something similar years earlier, when Maggie had with Michael and then grinned at saying, "Lifeis hard. You got to make them tough!" me, Maggie's child-rearing strategy is the belief that Intrinsic to child off-balance if you push a occasionally, that child will learn inner balance Alourdes calls "confidence to locate the in yourself.' " --- Page 406 --- is at work in Vodou ritualizing. Vodou A similar dynamic The resulting drumming is both polyrhythmic and polymetric. drums used in most clash of rhythms and meters from the three maintain yet ceremonies in Haiti demands that the dancer large her a beat that integrates those of Gede another beat with his or feet, initiation, Vodou rituthe drums." As I learned from my own them to find in themselves alizing also pushes at people, forcing of conflict. In child-rearing of staying steady in the midst a way seems to be at work: both and in ritualizing, the same principle balance. aimed at creating a flexible centeredness, a dynamic are BALANCE: GEDE'S ART FORM Creole, to balanse (balance) means to weigh choices. In ordinary her for her day off, Maggie might reWhen asked about plans to the movies and spond that she is "balancing between" going In Vodou, the term has a more specific doing her laundry. ritual objects from side to meaning: to balanse means to swing and around. side or to hold them as you turn yourself around "heats up, I1 or enlivens, the object. Such balancing both these senses is an active, not a static, state Balancing in both it refers to a situation of conflict. (The sideofl being; and in kinesthetic rendition of conto-side swinging motion is Vodou's between the two flict.) But there is one significant difference refers to being usages. In ordinary speech, balancing merely of Vodou, caught in a dilemma not yet resolved. In the language other to involves using forces that contradict each balancing raise life energy. Haitian artist and Vodou priest, Andre Pierre, a well-known We were discussonce used the word balanse in a revealing way. known. Andre the recent death of someone we both had ing excellent discussion of the dynamic relation between drummers and 'For an African context, see John Miller Chernoff, African Rhythm and African dancers in the and Social Action in African Musical Idioms (Chicago: University of Sensibility: Aesthetics For further discussion of the relation between musiChicago Press, 1979), 48-49. within Haitian Vodou, see Karen McCarthy Brown, cal structure and morality Moral in Haitian Vodou," in Saints and Vir- "Alourdes: A Case Study of Leadership and Los Angeles: University of California tues, ed.) John Stratton Hawley (Berkeley Press, 1987), 144-67. Rhythm and African dancers in the and Social Action in African Musical Idioms (Chicago: University of Sensibility: Aesthetics For further discussion of the relation between musiChicago Press, 1979), 48-49. within Haitian Vodou, see Karen McCarthy Brown, cal structure and morality Moral in Haitian Vodou," in Saints and Vir- "Alourdes: A Case Study of Leadership and Los Angeles: University of California tues, ed.) John Stratton Hawley (Berkeley Press, 1987), 144-67. --- Page 407 --- Pierre commented, "Baron Samdi te rive la there].' 11 And then he paused and (Baron Samdi came sa [He balanced that grinned, "Ah! Li te balanse kay his house]!" Andre Pierre loves to teach religion, and he does SO in typical Vodou about images. His macabre humor that day style, in compact into the face of death (Is there suggested that a close look Gede can actually raise our life any larger affront to the living?) plain why the spirit of death energy. is This point of view helps to exthe one who lives with such a randy character and why Most Haitians corpses also dotes on small children. do not have the luxury of choosing to avoid confronting death. That Vodou deals SO with death is no doubt related to this fact. directly and frequently diseases that were Haiti is ravaged by cieties. The conquered long ago in industrialized SOaverage life expectancy is infant mortality rate alarmingly low, and the half the alarmingly high; in some parts of children die before their first Haiti, most people live in the countryside, where birthday. Furthermore, parlors. The people themselves there are no funeral family members and handle the bodies of deceased mouri prepare them for burial. "Moun (People are born to die], 11 Haitians fêt pou proverb, they say. With this familiar they acknowledge the inevitability of death, much as acknowledge the unpredictability of their lives refuse to make any plans without when they Dye vle [If God wills]." Yet those who adding the disclaimer, "Si without defenses in the face of death. serve the spirits are not whole, a Haitians are not, on the depressed or morose people. Gede's is antidote. humor their Ionce learned an important lesson about Papa Gede's comic sensibility. Early on, when I was still Alourdes's Vodou parties, I risked feeling my way at your hat," I said. "Do like joking with Ti Malis. "I like you my zozo?" he asked, one laughed. "I don't know and everylaughed your 20zO," I responded. People again. "Oh, yes, you know it," said Gede. know any man's ZOzO, you know my zozo!" More "If you Papa Gede,' " I said, feigning great laughter. "Oh, not know. I am a virgin. 11 This time earnestness, maybe you did simply looked confused. no one laughed, and Gede pered in Then someone leaned over and whismy ear, "You know, Papa Gede does not lie." humor denies no reality; he is funny Gede's tells the truth. He is powerful because he precisely because he works an alchemical . know any man's ZOzO, you know my zozo!" More "If you Papa Gede,' " I said, feigning great laughter. "Oh, not know. I am a virgin. 11 This time earnestness, maybe you did simply looked confused. no one laughed, and Gede pered in Then someone leaned over and whismy ear, "You know, Papa Gede does not lie." humor denies no reality; he is funny Gede's tells the truth. He is powerful because he precisely because he works an alchemical --- Page 408 --- change, not on the facts of life, but on our attitude toward them. Thus the mischievous laugh of Ti Malis emerges from the mouth of the Baron Samdi corpse. 5 directly Gede's humor is an Gede important survival strategy both in Haiti and in New York, because his powerful truth-telling relativizes the suffering and the vexation of daily life by balancing them against issues of greater weight. I have seen the quick transition between moods that marks Gede's comic sensibility hundreds of timesin the marketplace, on thes streets, and in homes. A tense situation is flipped on its back by a sudden laugh, a a or bit of clowning. This kind of humor is quick joke, never gratuitous, cruel, or untruthful, and it tends to work best when the stakes are high. "Some people got Ogou, 11 said Alourdes. "Some Papa Danbala not everybody. But everybody Gede. got Everybody!" Everyone has Gede because death is a part got of human life. every GEDE TAKES ON NEW YORK Gede's importance in immigrant communities such as New York's is based on several character traits. Chief are his flexibility and his fearlessness. Gede among them can guide people in adapting to almost anything, and he does not cower or back from the constant change of modern life. On the pull Gede, like a sponge, absorbs whatever is new on the contrary, social horizon. Like all the lwa, Gede is both one and many; but his ranks are more populous than those of other spirits, and and they grow more rapidly more casually. New Gede persona appear year around All Souls' Day. These new Gede are born at every the forefront of social change, spawned by new occupations, new technologies, new social groups. There is a Gede who is a dentist, and one who is an auto mechanic; and now there Protestant is even a missionary. SThe frequency and honesty with which Vodou deals with death and probably one reason people in the United States tend to caricature Vodou sex is gion preoccupied with sex, evil, magic, and malice. In American as a relihard to suppress ourl knowledge of our own mortality, as we do culture, we work ality, and we are deeply threatened by anything that challenges to these control our sexuapproaches. groups. There is a Gede who is a dentist, and one who is an auto mechanic; and now there Protestant is even a missionary. SThe frequency and honesty with which Vodou deals with death and probably one reason people in the United States tend to caricature Vodou sex is gion preoccupied with sex, evil, magic, and malice. In American as a relihard to suppress ourl knowledge of our own mortality, as we do culture, we work ality, and we are deeply threatened by anything that challenges to these control our sexuapproaches. --- Page 409 --- Whereas spirits such as Danbala work as vative forces in Vodou, pulling individuals powerful conseralties and traditional forms of back to ancient loy377 these forces by acting them out, Gede balances modeling flexibility in the face of giving permission to be creative, even change. By the world, he eases situations playful, in adapting to Gede might otherwise lead to in immigrant communities that spiritual crisis. One such cerns Vodou's deep ties to the earth, ties that situation conmaintained in New York. cannot be easily Some of the slaves who were brought to from Africa, although able to Saint Domingue small sacks of earth. By carry away nothing else, brought holding onto a bit of the hoped to keep some contact, however homeland, they cestors and spirits who sustained tenuous, with the anYork, where many of the descendants their lives. In greater New immigrants have lost contact of these slaves now live, the Haitian not only with both the African and homelands but also with the earth itself. on concrete streets and sidewalks They walk labyrinth of subways, covering an underground high-rise sewers, and water pipes. They live in apartment buildings and row houses with wooden floors covered in concrete Or New York carpet or linoleum. When Haitians in pour libations for the spirits, their on hard, unreceptive surfaces. This offerings spill out has cosmological problem of ritual logistics implications. In New York, itis tinue believing that "from difficult to conhear," when up here to down there, in Ginen Ginen has become SO palpably inaccessible. they spirit of Papa Gede, Haitian In the ing this shift in the cosmos. immigrants are currently negotiatOne manbo in seventh floor Bedford-Stuyvesant who lives on the of a low-income housing thirtypail filled to the top with earth to her project, carts a garbage tions are poured there. Alourdes up apartment, and all libaWhen I asked her about the handles this in another way. differences between spirits in Haiti and in New York, the serving the the first thing that came to her mind: "In problem of libations was yard, and you pour the rum on the earth for Haiti, the you got this big you pour it on the floor, and you have to be careful spirit. But here, pour too much." In everyday ritualizing, to don't nomical libations Alourdes pours ecodirectly on her linoleum floor, where eventually evaporate.Forl large ceremonies involving they tions, she places a basin in front of her altars to collect many the libarum, the serving the the first thing that came to her mind: "In problem of libations was yard, and you pour the rum on the earth for Haiti, the you got this big you pour it on the floor, and you have to be careful spirit. But here, pour too much." In everyday ritualizing, to don't nomical libations Alourdes pours ecodirectly on her linoleum floor, where eventually evaporate.Forl large ceremonies involving they tions, she places a basin in front of her altars to collect many the libarum, --- Page 410 --- offered to the lwa. At the end of the cerewater, and perfume into a ritual bath. Per378 mony, this mixture is often transformed that human skin can haps it is because all persons have Gede libations that once now absorb libations for ancestral spirits, the bones of earth holding Gede had to be poured out on the thirsty those ancestors. much in process. Such cosmological shifts are still very York Alourdes continues to refuse to initiate peoplein New prebecause she feels these important ceremonies demand cisely with the Haitian soil. And yet she does perform certain contact in touch with the earth. rituals in New York that require getting to Gran Bwa it is necessary to make a trip For some rituals, and also of the forest (Great Woods), the name of a Vodou spirit in Haiti has its own wooded patch itself. Each neighborhood Bwa for the of that area. In that serves as the Gran people Alourdes's Brooklyn, Gran Bwa is Prospect Park. For Other rituals require trips to cemeteries and crossroads. in the Alourdes, who has no family members buried the former, cemetery in Brooklyn, beUnited States, prefers a small Jewish And if the cause it has walls around it to provide some privacy. be is that the remnants of a healing ceremony only requirement it is relatively easy to toss a plastic bag over left in the cemetery, risk entering the grounds themthe wall without having to even selves. Almost any crossroads will do for ritual purposes, and one. But no crossroadsin Brooklyn is truly private, a paved clients have therefore become adept at unobAlourdes and her at the corner of Nostrand and trusively scattering seven pennies dropping a bag with the leftChurch avenues or surreptitiously bath (an extreme form of a badovers from an expeditionary of the intersections on Emluck bath) in the gutter at one busy pire Boulevard. is also to Haitians in New Gede's talent for hiding important is "Hidden Near the York. (Recall that Alourdes's Ti Malis lives. GeneraCross.") By habit, Haitians live inconspicuous them the need tions of political oppression in Haiti have taught of Vodou. for this. Secrecy has alsol long been part of the practice deal of discretion was surely required during the days A great since then both the Haitian government and the of slavery, and Vodou. During Catholic church have intermittently opposed several periods of religious repression in Haitian history, some- 1I by violent "anti-superstition campaigns, times accompanied Vodou was forced underground. GeneraCross.") By habit, Haitians live inconspicuous them the need tions of political oppression in Haiti have taught of Vodou. for this. Secrecy has alsol long been part of the practice deal of discretion was surely required during the days A great since then both the Haitian government and the of slavery, and Vodou. During Catholic church have intermittently opposed several periods of religious repression in Haitian history, some- 1I by violent "anti-superstition campaigns, times accompanied Vodou was forced underground. --- Page 411 --- In New York, where prejudice against Haitians rampant, these habits of and Vodou is secrecy about religion are Maintaining two discrete worlds side by side is reinforced. dren must learn. When Kumar, a skill even chilten years old, he asked ifI Alourdes's youngest, was about Papa Gede had said with thought he could discuss something Gede "Oh the priest at the local Catholic church. Ireplied, "I don't think so. 11 down with glee. "I knew I shouldn't!" Kumarj jumped up and out already!" he cried. "I figured that Alourdes and Maggie, like most others in New York, keep their who serve the spirits larger world. connections to Vodou hidden from the the barrier Nevertheless, on stressful or significant between the worlds is sometimes occasions, situations, it is likely to be Papa Gede, breached. In such makes an appearance in traveling incognito, who tal just as enemy territory-arriving in the Maggie gave birth or hospian appearing when she was important exam at school. Papa Gede has taking line between the worlds for even crossed the would have risked me. Gede is the only spirit who making an entrance at party. I was talking with Alourdes in the midst my housewarming friends drawn from quite disparate of a group of ticed her eyelids begin to flicker and social worlds when I noone hand. Before I knew what a slight tremor appear in was room never did know), Papa Gede happening (the others in the new home and was giving his blessing to my suggesting rituals I could secure. Gede, whose nature it is to hide perform to make it making fun of life's and who delights in into foreign contradictions, is the perfect one to venture territory when his children need him. Among all the spirits, Gede stands out as the artist. His adaptability, his skill at great survival unfriendly territory, his hiding and maneuvering in fun) of the forces that penchant for making sense (by making a healer, and his role impinge on people's lives, his expertise as as a mobile, collective the dead-these characteristics representative of all tant spirit for Haitian make Gedean especially imporAlourdes's mêt immigrants. No spirit, not even têt, rides her more frequently than Ogou, Papa Gede. MALE AND FEMALE, SPIRITS AND THE SOCIAL WORLD Gede and Ogou are the quintessential males of the world. Ogou's heroism and Vodou spirit aggression make him very much a healer, and his role impinge on people's lives, his expertise as as a mobile, collective the dead-these characteristics representative of all tant spirit for Haitian make Gedean especially imporAlourdes's mêt immigrants. No spirit, not even têt, rides her more frequently than Ogou, Papa Gede. MALE AND FEMALE, SPIRITS AND THE SOCIAL WORLD Gede and Ogou are the quintessential males of the world. Ogou's heroism and Vodou spirit aggression make him very much --- Page 412 --- do his versions of social irresponsibility and selfthe man, as drunkenness, and lying. But Papa destructiveness; infidelity, sexuality, is even more unGede, in his exploration of rapacious and the cemetery rituals relievedly male. Both the Gede persona but Gede that fall within his domain reflect a somewhat anachronistic like Kouzen ideology. Papa Gede, still powerful patriarchal who is in many respects Zaka, has a wife. But unlike Kouzinn, his inferior. Haitians Azaka's peer, Gede's wife, Brijit, is clearly female buried in special attention to the grave of the first pay But ritual attention to every cemetery, calling it the Brijit grave. of rites intended Brijit is only a small and perfunctory part mainly for Baron. outside the cemetery, Brijit is not Gede's female counterpart I have never seen her either. Possessions by her are infrequent; In other contexts, she comes as an ancient, ride Alourdes. talk or walk. Gran Brijit (Grandhobbled woman who can barely old woman who no mother Brijit), as she is usually called, is an has sexual power. Papa Gede's enlivening sexual energy, longer humor and telling satire, his childlike disregard his infectious in Gran Brijit. Gede's domifor social control have no parallels when male annation of the realm of the dead reflects a time in Haitian as males, held all the power cestors, as well living families. the case. Alourdes heads her own Clearly, this is no longer the family and traces her lineage through multigenerational From among her many ancestors, she women in her family. deceased mother. chooses to rely mostheavily on thespiritofher in urban Haiti Many Haitian families, perhaps the majority communities, no longer fit a patriarchal and in the immigrant Gede, who is SO flexible in other aspects model. Why, then, has of male domiof his character, held on SO firmly to an ideology roles are SO fundamental that changes nance? Perhaps gender than other kinds of social within them are more threatening change. a to provide a model for Gran Brijit is too ancillary figure But an inand independent women such as Alourdes. strong recently in Gede's masculine artriguing chink has appeared in November 1982, after a mor. At Papa Gede's birthday party Gede made a brief but tanlong evening with Ti Malis, another was Gedelia! in Alourdes's head. Her name talizing appearance burst of energy, sexiness, and huShe came in like a powerful --- Page 413 --- mor. Unfortunately, she did not stay long enough for me to get to know her well, and I have not seen her since. Not long ago, however, I saw Gedelia's name written across the front ofa bus in Haiti. Thus I suspect that Alourdes is not alone in recognizGede ing the need for her. Surely a full-blown Gedelia will be more than a Gede who happens to be female. Women's energy, their sexuality, and their humor have sources different from men's and are manifested in different ways. What will emerge when the energy of the indefatigable madansara bird that infuses Kouzinn is wed to the complex sexuality of Ezili Danto and Ezili Freda, and then enlivened with the irreverent humor Haitian women use SO well against men and other power figures in their lives? I anxiously await Gedelia's emergence from the cocoon of Haitian history and religion. a Gede who happens to be female. Women's energy, their sexuality, and their humor have sources different from men's and are manifested in different ways. What will emerge when the energy of the indefatigable madansara bird that infuses Kouzinn is wed to the complex sexuality of Ezili Danto and Ezili Freda, and then enlivened with the irreverent humor Haitian women use SO well against men and other power figures in their lives? I anxiously await Gedelia's emergence from the cocoon of Haitian history and religion. --- Page 414 --- --- Page 415 --- AFTERWORD "That book - it come in like a bomb. BOOM!" Recently, Alourdes and I were talking about things that had changed since we first met in the late 1970S. "Let me tell you," she said, "people recognize Vodou a different way now, a better way. Because Vodou is out there now. You know, people don't do Vodou under the table any more. No." Although I do not entirely agree with this optimistic assessment of Vodou's public image, I was flattered when she told me she thought our book had contributed to these shifts in attitude. "I know the book has brought changes in your life, too, 11 I observed. "How would you describe those changes? "That book, 11 Lola shot back, "it come in like a bomb. BOOM! You know? Lot'a thing change because of that book!" I meet more people, important people. I have more respect. People give me more respect after the book come out, you know? And, I have to tell you at the same time, there was a lot'a jealousy. Lot'a jealousy! They see me in TV... But people give me more respect and I feel I more important. I'm important because people need me, and more people come to me for work, for advice. We talk, you know? Also people see other side of Vodou, a better side. You know? They don't see more evil. Very success. The book's publication and the resulting attention that came Lola's marked a sudden and profound shift. Before the book way in New York came out, Lola, like most Vodou practitioners City, kept her religious activities discreet. She struggled mightily to limit knowledge of her connection to Vodou to her Haitian spiri383 important because people need me, and more people come to me for work, for advice. We talk, you know? Also people see other side of Vodou, a better side. You know? They don't see more evil. Very success. The book's publication and the resulting attention that came Lola's marked a sudden and profound shift. Before the book way in New York came out, Lola, like most Vodou practitioners City, kept her religious activities discreet. She struggled mightily to limit knowledge of her connection to Vodou to her Haitian spiri383 --- Page 416 --- Then the book came out and all of a sudden tual community. honored her for the very things many different kinds of people she had been working SO hard to hide. decade after Mama In this afterword, written almost exactly a the the focus is on the many different ways Afterword Lola was published, Lola's life-and mine. In other words, I book began to rewrite when experiences want to explore on several levels what happens narratives are becomes memories, memories becomes narratives, text, and text becomes, in one moment, an a collected to form distanced from author N event in the academic world significantly tool used to decipher and subject, and, in the next, a reflexive narratives. experiences, reconfigure memory, and reconstruct past of Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn Since the publication this at work in my life (see pP. ix-x) in 1991, I have seen cycle Lola. and, more to the point here, in that of Mama recConsider the shift in her name. Although Lola is routinely of those she has initiated, at the time I ognized as the "mother" apchose the book title, Mama Lola was a nickname infrequently did use it, more often than not it was plied and, when someone family. Since one of the small children in her multigenerational the book came out she has come to be known almost exclusively as Mama Lola. She now has business in public, and in private, Voodoo Priestess. 11 Even cards identifying herself as "Mama Lola, "Mama Lola" now routinely refers to her as her daughter Maggie I also made the shift. and although I resisted at first, eventually Mama Lola's surname in the book was a pseudoIn addition, In 1991, there was more than nym devised to protect her privacy. with caution. one reason for her to approach the book project the situation in Haiti was precarious During that period, political were not enand even Haitians in Brooklyn, where Lola lives, violent struggles. While Lola tirely safe from Haiti's material political in the text and I agreed to asked me not to put political implications, and that, her life story has unavoidable political trouble. Lola also therefore, she feared the book might still cause of on the book might bring her to the attention feared royalties Service. And she was,justifiably as it turned the Internal Revenue in the New York Haitian out, uneasy about causing jealousy community. reluctant in 1991 than she is now to do Lola was much more that would make her stand out in the Haitian immigrant things stand out as someone connected to community, and especially, to put political implications, and that, her life story has unavoidable political trouble. Lola also therefore, she feared the book might still cause of on the book might bring her to the attention feared royalties Service. And she was,justifiably as it turned the Internal Revenue in the New York Haitian out, uneasy about causing jealousy community. reluctant in 1991 than she is now to do Lola was much more that would make her stand out in the Haitian immigrant things stand out as someone connected to community, and especially, --- Page 417 --- Vodou. After Mama Lola's publication, when visit colleges and universities we were invited to interest and to discuss our book, the respect we encountered laid her genuine tion from the media, for the most fears to rest. AttenYet, almost as soon part, has also been as the book came out, a few respectful. Haitian community tried to convince her people in the Afterwvord cause it revealed too much that it was shaming bethat book is a shame!" Mama about her private life. "They tell me cussed the specifics of this Lola reported. When she and I disthe "Kouzinn" charge, she pointed to the section of chapter that depicted her to feed her children resorting to prostitution told (164-65). I reminded Lola me that story for the first time, she that, when she that in the book! Women added: "You got to put for got to do all kind'a a minute, and then shook her thing." Lola thought she said, "Iremember) head in the affirmative. "Yes," I say that." A few weeks later up the topic again. "You know, I'm glad Lola brought Maybe now you put that in my book. somebody who do the same thing, she my book and she won't feel SO ashame. 11 This going to read realized that Lola had been was the first time I Mama Lola and what she thinking about the positioning of wanted it to world. accomplish in the larger A decade later, when those early ing quality of the book complaints about the shamcame up in time on analysis or defense. She conversation, Lola wasted no wards in a dismissive simply flipped her hand backgesture and said: "They just steady and demonstrable jealous." The success of the book, as warm reception in the academic well as our community, original sense of the significance of her life stories strengthened her her to forget the uncertainty that and caused cation of Mama Lola: A Vodou attended the writing and publiPriestess in fears of standing out in her own Brooklyn. Mama Lola's attention from community or drawing negative governmental agencies have She now wants her largely disappeared. legal name to be known and I Mama Lola's real name is Marie will oblige her: Champagne Thérèse Alourdes Macena Lovinski, not Marie Thérèse Alourdes Macena Margaux Kowalski as it still appears in the main text of this book. Maggie, her daughter, also wants to remove her last name, the name she took from her mask. Maggie's Sanchez, the name by which I refer to her husband, in is Gomez not The most significant the text. development, marked also by a name, has occurred in the character change of originally called "Betty." In her: Champagne Thérèse Alourdes Macena Lovinski, not Marie Thérèse Alourdes Macena Margaux Kowalski as it still appears in the main text of this book. Maggie, her daughter, also wants to remove her last name, the name she took from her mask. Maggie's Sanchez, the name by which I refer to her husband, in is Gomez not The most significant the text. development, marked also by a name, has occurred in the character change of originally called "Betty." In --- Page 418 --- the second chapter of Mama Lola, I picture her as "Maggie's in a pink sunsuit and with a dozen different colored barrettes baby, at the ends of as many tiny braids" (39) bobbing up and down at my car window as I parked in front of Mama Lola's Fort Greene Afterword house. The young woman called "Betty" in the text is actually Marsha and she will soon be graduating from high school. Just after greeting the New Year, 2001, I went to see Marsha Champagne compete with other finalists in the Ms. Caribbean USA contest. Marsha has grown up to be a stunning beauty, with a great deal more maturity and poise than most have. She has also become a serious pupil of the Vodou teenagers the healing arts. In summer of 1999 she went to Haiti with her grandmother, Mama Lola, and was initiated into Vodou. She is now a manbo, a priestess of Haitian Vodou. So much of her character as a adult is revealed in the stories that attend this big change young in her life. When Marsha returned from Haiti, she dressed in white, as only initiates must do. The old-time priests and priestesses in Haiti require new initiates to wear white for a full year. By contrast, oungan and manbo of the diaspora, including those who travel back to Haiti to perform initiation ceremonies, routinely shorten the period to accommodate U.S. residents who feel usually need to hide their association with Vodou. Mama Lola they these transnational is one of manbo, SO as the school year was about to start, she told her granddaughter she could put away the whites and start to wear clothing in soft colors. Lola also said that the sacred beads Marsha acquired during initiation might be replaced by a small circlet of beads that could be pinned discreetly beneath her clothing. Marsha rejected these ideas and instead, calmly and without consultation with anyone else in the went to her high school principal as well as the family's Catholic family, priest and announced to them both that she would be white for a while. She explained what the wearing how practice meant and important the Vodou dimension of her religious life was. Apparently both principal and priest accepted what they heard without objection or penalty. Neither Lola nor Maggie would have dared take that approach. They have been hiding their Vodou commitments SO routinely and for SO long that hardly notice when they are doing it. Hearing these stories, they I asked Maggie how it felt to have such a clear and daughter. Maggie laughed and said: "Sometimes I look courageous at Mar- to them both that she would be white for a while. She explained what the wearing how practice meant and important the Vodou dimension of her religious life was. Apparently both principal and priest accepted what they heard without objection or penalty. Neither Lola nor Maggie would have dared take that approach. They have been hiding their Vodou commitments SO routinely and for SO long that hardly notice when they are doing it. Hearing these stories, they I asked Maggie how it felt to have such a clear and daughter. Maggie laughed and said: "Sometimes I look courageous at Mar- --- Page 419 --- sha and I think she is just my at her and I think: 'She is daughter. Then another time I look herit her grandmother's Superwoman!" 11 Marsha is likely to in387 spiritual practice. Through most of her life, Lola has had to be woman, but what was a kind of Supercantly different from required from her was a strength that of the comic-book signifiAfteruord driven by an inherent character. Whether world, by political unrest appetite for a larger and more varied and violence, the or by the day-to-day need to feed by insults of poverty, taken risks and has rarely her children, Lola has been SO timid that she always something new and promising. Her bid for failed to try teen years of age (127), her a job as a singer at fifprovide for her children determination while still in Haiti to money to do SO (164-65), her regardless of how she had to earn the try life in the United States eventual decision toleave Haiti and tion from her family even though it meant a long separaclude me in her (70-73; 127-28), and even her decision to inspiritual "family" when some group were convinced I was a spy for the members of that uralization Service-all these acts show Immigration and Nather courage. her independence and One of the rare times when her sioned by our first invitation to courage failed her was occacuit. In the fall of go on the academic speaking cirinvited Lola, 1992, a small college in upstate New York Maggie, and me to come and spend three "visiting professor slot.' " Even days in a thing like this, we readily though we had never done anyhonoraria accepted the invitation were generous and we were because the make a trip to Africa. trying to save money to final evening that Everything went well until an event on our was to open with Mama Lola songs. Lola has a strong and beautiful singing Vodou dent this would get the voice, SO we were confievening off to a good start. It ing room only at the college theater, but, when was standLola to sing, she froze. That it came time for sing, or for that matter, utter evening she never did manage to things changed in the more than a word or two. Many Lola put it, "Then, years following that stuttering start. As shy. Ijust come out and I was shy. Not Now, I can stand up in front of a million scared, but One of the things that helped to people." Donald J. Cosentino's celebrated bring about this change was Haitian Vodou," sponsored exhibition, The Sacred Arts of Cultural by the UCLA Fowler Museum History. In the preparatory stages of this of ethnographic things changed in the more than a word or two. Many Lola put it, "Then, years following that stuttering start. As shy. Ijust come out and I was shy. Not Now, I can stand up in front of a million scared, but One of the things that helped to people." Donald J. Cosentino's celebrated bring about this change was Haitian Vodou," sponsored exhibition, The Sacred Arts of Cultural by the UCLA Fowler Museum History. In the preparatory stages of this of ethnographic --- Page 420 --- Mama Lola, Maggie, and I served on an advisory art exhibition, that met in Los Angeles at committee for the show, a committee role for Lola. In this the Fowler. It proved to be a very important and her authorcontext, Mama Lola became an authority figure her often derived directly from her involvement with Vodou, Afterword ity religion. During the commisunderstood and widely caricatured officials showed the curator and the museum mittee meetings, Some thingsin the show great respect for her ideas and opinions. what she had to say and the changed because of were actually for the two other Vodou leaders on the comsame could be said returned to L.A. after the opening of mittee. Lola, Maggie, and I lecture and gallery tour, and "Sacred Arts" to do a combination for the Baltimore Museum more than a year later we did the same of Art when the exhibit was there. she entered the lecture circuit, In October 1998, six years after lecture hall at Mama Lola and I stood on the stage of a spacious York Museum of Natural History in New City. the American in the audience, most of them There were about 250 people it became Americans, and during the discussion period African from the Caribbean. I had just finished declear that many were Mama Lola, who had earlier conlivering a lecture on Vodou. Arts" exhibition, joined me at ducted a tour of the "The Sacred She soon took over and I the podium for a discussion period. readily stepped aside. teacher, been clear that Lola is an accomplished It has always of our book, she was accustomed yet before the publication in which what to dealing with people one-on-one, a situation individuals the specific problems she taught was provoked by believe that a brought to her. In Haiti, furthermore, many people it around for should guard her wisdom and not spread an person One never knows how it might be used. So, no good reason. interested in learning for its own anonymous group of people Mama Lola in those early sake was not only unlikely to inspire felt or at least also have dangerous, days, such a group might American Museum of Natural discomfiting. It was at New York's realized Mama History, on that October evening, that I suddenly culture Lola had moved well beyond her anxiely-provoking that evening, block. As soon as Lola began to receive questions mode of relating to the what I now recognize as her signature direct and inbecame apparent. She dealt in an unusually public each who raised a question, while at timate manner with person that managed to make that perthe same time crafting responses have dangerous, days, such a group might American Museum of Natural discomfiting. It was at New York's realized Mama History, on that October evening, that I suddenly culture Lola had moved well beyond her anxiely-provoking that evening, block. As soon as Lola began to receive questions mode of relating to the what I now recognize as her signature direct and inbecame apparent. She dealt in an unusually public each who raised a question, while at timate manner with person that managed to make that perthe same time crafting responses --- Page 421 --- son's concerns relevant for a much larger denly, I found myself thinking, group of people. SudWinfrey of the Vodou world!" "Why, she's become the Oprah While talking with one shy that was likely to be shared young man, she surfaced an issue siderable by many in the room. patience, Lola led the conversation, Showing conAfterword young man on until he clearly gently urging the was of the African-based articulated both how proud he ashamed he felt when religion practiced in his family and how that involvement. outsiders to his community As if in a black church discovered crowd called out words of comfort setting, people in the and young man, and when he sat down, encouragement to the applauded loudly. This provoked everyone in the audience called on one person after a blizzard of hands. Lola then dealt with the white another who testified to how they went on long after the stereotypes of their religion. The discussion Workers at the museum scheduled time for the event to be over. to finally had to flick the encourage the crowd to rise and lights on and off auditorium. begin to move out of the Through our book and, later, through the Vodou by the success of the "Sacred Arts" attention brought to something of a celebrity. People of all exhibition, Lola became The book does not provide sorts began to seek her out. reader to contact her, but it does information allow specific enough for the ten receive phone inquiries about people to find me, SO Iofworked out a method of Mama Lola. Lola and I have people drawn to Vodou for handling calls that protects her from less than yet enables her to respond to those constructive reasons and Partly as a result of such whom she feels she can help. spiritual "family" has contacts, over the last decade, Lola's grown in numbers and graphically. Dozens of people she has spread out geoalso initiated) have become helped (and in many cases vides part of the fictive helpers when she stages ceremonies, family that proways remembers her April refers clients, and althan one hundred ti fèy, little birthday. Mama Lola now has more initiates. She has leaves, a term used to refer to her blacks and journeyed to Haiti to initiate men and whites, and Californians and women, who live closer to home. Her Texans, as well as people eral new places in the Caribbean spiritual work has taken her to sevhas also returned to and Central America, and she and Alabama, places she knows, such as to do treatments on site. Massachusetts Lola played the role of a public figure on a much larger scale y, little birthday. Mama Lola now has more initiates. She has leaves, a term used to refer to her blacks and journeyed to Haiti to initiate men and whites, and Californians and women, who live closer to home. Her Texans, as well as people eral new places in the Caribbean spiritual work has taken her to sevhas also returned to and Central America, and she and Alabama, places she knows, such as to do treatments on site. Massachusetts Lola played the role of a public figure on a much larger scale --- Page 422 --- went to West Africa. In February 1993 Lola, Maggie, when we Republic of Benin (formerly Da390 and I went to the People's Soglo, then president of homey) at the invitation of Nicephore Mama Lola had made its way the country. A wandering copy of the government of Benin Aftervord into the hands of a Frenchman festival. assisting It was billed as a reunion of in planning an international with Vodou. In his all peoples of the world who were associated the people of Benin he inaugural address, Soglo had promised would stage such a reunion. Western were leaders from the Hemisphere Only two religious the funds to come to Benin, and Lola was the able to put together the official language of Benin. Conone who understood French, role in both the sequently she was invited to take a prominent festival. In this context and closing ceremonies of the opening inflated. Lola was introduced her job description spontaneously from New York" during the opening as "an important priestess she was introduced again during the procession. Yet by the time her title had beclosing ceremony in the large outdoor arena, I something she "the leader of Vodou in the United States," come want to be even if there were such a position, which would never there is not. of government officials While the scholars and the scattering Cotonou, the capital city, who attended the reunion stayed in to one another; where they attended banquets and read papers where the major in Ouidah, Benin's religious center, we stayed took place. During our time there, Mama religious ceremonies of Ouidah and, as a result, was invited to Lola visited the king of Ouidah with him and his many parade through the streets walked under a traditional, colorful apwives. Lola and the king of office and was, as is trapliqué umbrella that bore his insignia head. A notable priest of one ditional, constantly twirled over his invitation to her when all of the local deities issued a similar red parrot feathers and members of his couvent, resplendent in through of cowrie shells, moved in a grand procession strings hotel, on three different morningsjust afthe same streets. At our was visited each time without waring-Lola ter sunrise-and from the various couvents in by delegations in full ritual regalia French colony now gives town. (Couvent is the name this former to traditional religious houses.) Lola everywhere she Before long strangers were recognizing as on the sandy her in the cafés, as well went. They stopped red parrot feathers and members of his couvent, resplendent in through of cowrie shells, moved in a grand procession strings hotel, on three different morningsjust afthe same streets. At our was visited each time without waring-Lola ter sunrise-and from the various couvents in by delegations in full ritual regalia French colony now gives town. (Couvent is the name this former to traditional religious houses.) Lola everywhere she Before long strangers were recognizing as on the sandy her in the cafés, as well went. They stopped --- Page 423 --- streets of this small port city, and on at least son went down on his knees in front of one occasion, a perand documentary film her. Several television crews were more often than we would have working the reunion and, was following Mama Lola. While preferred, one group or another came the receptacle for staying in Ouidah, Lola beAfterword everyone's Benin, she became the remnant projections. To the people of ists from of all lost to slavery. To Europe and the United she journaltive of the exotic Other. To States, was the representathose in Benin who (this word is the African root of Haitian served the Vodun teemed colleague, yet one who sometimes Vodou), Lola was an esabout the règlement, the rules, for needed to be reminded Given the influence of serving particular spirits. was not eighteenth-century Dahomey in surprising that Lola recognized Haiti, it saw in Benin. Yet over the quite a lot of what she in new directions in centuries, Haitian Vodou has evolved response to several factors, warped social arrangements occasioned including the unlike the Benin by chattel between priests, was content to live with the slavery/Lola, her religious practice and theirs. She did differences grant the local priests exclusive not necessarily timent of going "back to authority. Caught in the senassurance might have been Africa," a person without Lola's selfher supposedly more vulnerable to their critique of faulty religious practice. - Mama Lola was understandably were too, by the attention she pleased, as Maggie and I when it was too much for all got in Benin. Yet, there were times of us. All the sionally left Lola irritable, and fussing over her occaable power of some of even disoriented. The considerour experiences strain. For example, just before aggravated this general visited the site next to the sunset on a Sunday evening, we ships that would take them ocean where slaves were loaded on to the so-called New 1710 and 1810 more than one million World. Between through the port at Ouidah (Blier slaves were processed Benin in 1995, 23). When we arrived in February 1993, a memorial to those lost to just been completed on Ouidah's beach. It slavery had tional historical restoration was part of a multinathe route of the slave, project known as Route de l'Esclave, a project that would several of sites in Africa and the Caribbean. eventually involve Near sunset, Lola, Maggie, and I followed the path to the sea and to this memorial. narrow sandy rich with references to Vodun Contemporary works ofart imagery appeared at intervals on 1995, 23). When we arrived in February 1993, a memorial to those lost to just been completed on Ouidah's beach. It slavery had tional historical restoration was part of a multinathe route of the slave, project known as Route de l'Esclave, a project that would several of sites in Africa and the Caribbean. eventually involve Near sunset, Lola, Maggie, and I followed the path to the sea and to this memorial. narrow sandy rich with references to Vodun Contemporary works ofart imagery appeared at intervals on --- Page 424 --- to the sea on the left-hand side, either side of the path. Halfway of The story "The Tree Forgetting." there was a live tree labeled that slaves on their way to the on the attached placard explained times around this tree, a ritual act ships were made to walk three homeland from intended to wipe all memory of the Dahomean Afteroord they would then be placed on board their minds. Memory-less, westward. As history this was the ships for a forced journey articulation of the toll questionable, but as art it was a powerful hischattel slavery levied on both African and African-American torical consciousness. few from the beach, was At the end of the road, only a yards slaves who had open-air memorial to the passed an impressive In front of the monument, placed like through Ouidah's port. the were male and female strangely hobbled guardians at gate their knees, hands bound life-size statues of slaves. Both were on of rope behind their backs with heavy rope. A shorter length behind the through the mouth of each and was secured passed that looked like a piece of wood. Lola aphead with something At the time, Maggie and I did proached the statue of the woman. when Lola threw her arms not understand what was happening to sob. As she stroked around the neck of the statue and began not only for the woman's face, she appeared to be apologizing of her family: herself but also for all the intervening generations 1 "I'm sorry, I did not know. We did not know.' she arrived at the Later Lola explained that, almost as soon as memories of somememorial, she began having strong flashback in Ouidah, on one in her family with their foot on that very spot their way to the slave ships. Right after the memory/experienee I was witLola talked about being filled with fear and sorrow. the fact that her 'memory" made herbody tremble. ness to her ancestors there was someone It is not unlikely that among name for Haiti, after who came to Saint-Domingue, the early of towns in the old Dapassing through Ouidah. Several names unas words in the sacred, theoretically homean empire appear of Mama Lola's Vodou prayers and translatable langay, language, heard of another Haitian having an ancessongs. I have never but that also is not terribly surprising tor's memory for them, connectedness that permegiven the understanding of human have dreams for one anates Vodou practice. People routinely to exist with other and the ancestors, who do not cease physical appear in dreams to give help to the living. death, frequently of towns in the old Dapassing through Ouidah. Several names unas words in the sacred, theoretically homean empire appear of Mama Lola's Vodou prayers and translatable langay, language, heard of another Haitian having an ancessongs. I have never but that also is not terribly surprising tor's memory for them, connectedness that permegiven the understanding of human have dreams for one anates Vodou practice. People routinely to exist with other and the ancestors, who do not cease physical appear in dreams to give help to the living. death, frequently --- Page 425 --- when Lola and I sat down to discuss what In January 2001, edition of Mama Lola, our conversamight go into the updated on Ouidah's tion wandered back to that powerful experience from our beach. This was not the first time since we returned Aftervord that the subject came up. Lola had been thinking Africa trip about it, and on at least one prior occasion, she about it, talking about the event. She had even had submitted to my questions it. Thus, her narrative about heard me deliver a paper describing like my observer's narrarecovering this ancestral "memory," and that is why I tive, had already settled into a familiar shape, that It was at the story she told me day. was SO very surprised and much more detailed than anyboth significantly different earlier. What she told me that day led thing I had heard from her Lola chose to wonder whether, at the time it happened, me to or whether over time she simply keep part of the story private, tale. The first seems more likely, embroidered this important and feeling it does not since the new version has such power seem at all contrived. that day in January 2001 by asking I began the interview she first encountered the statue of Mama Lola how she felt when the female slave. This is what she said: there and they tell Something hit me. Like I see my parents family. I was a "Please me, I'm suffer! I'm your me: help Tear coming in my eyes. Maggie tell slave."I Id can't stop crying. Like I was there a long time I can't stop. me "Mommie stop!" freedom to come back over ago. Suffer! And now I have my they used to treat there, but even I have my freedom, the way I'm still still in back of my head. You know what I mean? me the they was treating me. suffer . for long time ago. : way I leave a drop of my Like I was a slave long, long time ago. there. Never wash away, blood right there. A drop of my blood still there. I feel. Like I was on Karen, that was very painful . . the way the lash, like lashand this sailor beating me, I see the ground old . . who is there. I am ing me, like I'm the one . very Karen. That's the truth. dropping my blood right there, named itself a memory and out of that Ifa powerful experience consciousness that is surely created a major shift in historical then in a correct in that way or that place, correct, if not exactly set out on the Benin trip what may related fashion just before we feel. Like I was on Karen, that was very painful . . the way the lash, like lashand this sailor beating me, I see the ground old . . who is there. I am ing me, like I'm the one . very Karen. That's the truth. dropping my blood right there, named itself a memory and out of that Ifa powerful experience consciousness that is surely created a major shift in historical then in a correct in that way or that place, correct, if not exactly set out on the Benin trip what may related fashion just before we --- Page 426 --- of oral a kind of collective memory, well have been a bit history, that Lola a apparently called itself a dream and sent message African soil. The contents of tested out the moment she set foot on Binbin Maucould easily have passed from Joseph this "dream" to Lola's brother Fred. Or Aftenvord vant down through the generations shared the family story with all her perhaps Mama Lola's mother and then the children, but Fred was the only one to remember, buried it could emerge only as a dream. memory was SO deeply historical consciousness interest None of these questions about the spirits are directing her. In Lola; all she cares about is where Fred's dream. January 2001, this is the way she remembered before I went to Africa, my brother Let me tell you something, Fred dream. You remember when Fred was in Santo Domingo. come and write something. I tell you that dream? My mother E-V-E on the wall, and she She don't talk to Fred. She write "That's what we are," "Se sa turn and look at Fred and she say, month before we go to nou ye." Fred dream that, maybe one Africa. Then he call me. eh-vay) people are in fact found in The Ewe (pronounced Lola later told me that as soon Benin, as well as Ghana and Togo. she began to ask people right as she got off the plane in Cotonou, She remembers finding an there in the airport: "What is Ewe?" up that her question, spoke airport employee who, overhearing wanted to talk with him further, but he, in fact, was Ewe. Lola I heard and they never reconnected. "he was busy working/ after we returned from Africa nothing of Fred's dream until long about the Ewe and do not remember anyone asking Had questions she mentioned it while while we were in the Cotonou airport. her to look further. As it we were in Benin, I would have urged on our Africa turned out, the Ewe connection was not pursued the bone for Lola Perhaps this was another story too close to trip. the search in the Cotonou airportis to share with me. Or perhaps we had lived them. one of those dreams we remember as if Mama Lola, Lola Throughout the dozen years I was working on maintained there were "no slaves in our family." consistently Itis not unusual for people from "We are French," "' she would say. entirely in the colonial part the Caribbean to root their identity tree had been of their heritage. I now realize that her family in such a way that it gave this perspective greater configured Binbin Mauvant, designated as the originating consistencyJoseph is to share with me. Or perhaps we had lived them. one of those dreams we remember as if Mama Lola, Lola Throughout the dozen years I was working on maintained there were "no slaves in our family." consistently Itis not unusual for people from "We are French," "' she would say. entirely in the colonial part the Caribbean to root their identity tree had been of their heritage. I now realize that her family in such a way that it gave this perspective greater configured Binbin Mauvant, designated as the originating consistencyJoseph --- Page 427 --- ancestor on this family tree, arrived in Haiti ery ended there. Lola's family decades after slavtion about the Haitian history has retained little informa395 and who would woman who bore Mauvant's almost certainly connect the children, Mauvant is an interesting choice to family to slavery. reasons as well. He was routinely top the family tree for other Afterword man." In Haiti that label does referred to as a blan, a "white not son has no black ancestors, automatically mean that a perThe though it does index social "memory" Mama Lola had on the prestige. fected her deeply. It resulted in beach at Ouidah afpreviously denied nothing less than her a part of her ancestry. To a certain claiming realigned her social sensibilities and, under extent, it also tionship with me. The context that rubric, her relaVodou reunion, contributed we were in, that is to say the Benin Although there was little significantly to this transformation. union events, racism discussion of racism per se rewas the sub-theme during that of almost happened over the two weeks it lasted. everything Route de l'Esclave project, the By launching the their history, and therefore people of Benin were opening up within themselves with they were inevitably the complex struggling tween slave traders(most historical relationships besignificantly preneurs among their own people who Portuguese)and dealt the entreMore than one of the kings of with those traders. Reunion guests coming "back Dahomey was deeply involved. colonies in the Caribbean to Africa" from former slave and South America could dwelling on the violent history behind their hardly avoid Africa, a history that left its traces in the social separation from gies of their "New World" homes. and racial stratewere inevitably Those from the United States nent" sorting their experiences on the "mother through the peculiar sieve of the contithat defines race here. There were not black-and-white binary Soglo's reunion, and from time to time many Euro-Americans at projections Ihad to carry in that context. I felt burdened by the The shift in perspective that the memorial began to show itself accompanied in Lola's experience at mediately, if only in small our relationship almost imvisit to the slave memorial, ways. On the morning following our fee, seated Mama Lola and I were across from each other at a table in drinking cofshine. I found her studying face the bright sunmy "you are really intently. "Boy," she . blonde blonde, blonde, said, sucked her teeth. blonde." Then she ad to carry in that context. I felt burdened by the The shift in perspective that the memorial began to show itself accompanied in Lola's experience at mediately, if only in small our relationship almost imvisit to the slave memorial, ways. On the morning following our fee, seated Mama Lola and I were across from each other at a table in drinking cofshine. I found her studying face the bright sunmy "you are really intently. "Boy," she . blonde blonde, blonde, said, sucked her teeth. blonde." Then she --- Page 428 --- "blonde" otherness, Lola put some needed By marking my this distance increased at distance between us and for a while she let me know turn of events. Later that same afternoon, every for the daily struggles of our time that she felt I was responsible reunion events, long waits Afterword in Benin. Poor communications about undependable vehicles, and for meals, broken air conditioners, the of of the roads on our way to city Abomey-all even bumpy did not help that our trip to the museum in the it was my fault. It of Dahomey, became the royal palace at Abomey, once the capital found out that Africans sold occasion on which Lola and Maggie mad and wanted to tear other Africans into slavery. Maggie got kings on throne of one of Dahomey's apart the skull-encrusted also difficult to absorb the mesdisplay in the museum. It was for the exhibit on slavery put up sages of the small photographic of slave marreunion. Some photographs were cloudy images in what apslaves on the auction block. Others, kets and/or were much clearer peared to be an act of curatorial inspiration, of survivors and therefore more brutal. These were photographs rubbed to raw Holocaust whose ankles had been of the Jewish different from those often worn by meat by leg irons not SO the exhibit, Lola comslaves in transit. After looking at photo plained of a severe stomachache. Mama Lola, Maggie, and I manFor the first half of our trip, before ritual we had agreed upon aged to preserve an evening to sleep we talked into my setting out. Each night before going ourselves what recorder for a short period of time to remind tape and how we felt about it. On the evening we had done that day without ever discussing it, we all of our trip to Ouidah's beach, first we stayed in Abomey, forgot the tape recorder. On the night review after visiting the museum, we also skipped our evening Emotions were too raw and too compliof the events of that day. cated. We were all becoming tense. Maggie and Lola disapOn our first morning back in Ouidah, until the afternoon. peared after breakfast and did not return first time the three of Our trip was nearly over and that was the It turned not our day and move through it together. us did plan had gone to an initiation ceremony at out that Lola and Maggie some call the "Pope of the temple of Daagbo Hounnon, a priest for the two of them. I Vodun in Benin." It was staged especially visiwould have loved to see it. I now know that happenstance and Lola disapOn our first morning back in Ouidah, until the afternoon. peared after breakfast and did not return first time the three of Our trip was nearly over and that was the It turned not our day and move through it together. us did plan had gone to an initiation ceremony at out that Lola and Maggie some call the "Pope of the temple of Daagbo Hounnon, a priest for the two of them. I Vodun in Benin." It was staged especially visiwould have loved to see it. I now know that happenstance --- Page 429 --- tors at Daagbo's temple, also there for the included. I had been excluded reunion, had been even find out about the event by Maggie and Lola and did not showed me the certificate until nearly a year later when Lola her Daagbo had given her relationship to the Vodun of Benin. acknowledging At the closing ceremony for the Afterword on national television, Lola reunion, a ceremony broadcast Soglo, one for the warrior sang a Vodou song for President ole but finished her spirit Ogou. She sang itin Haitian Crelive Soglo, long live presentation with an exuberant wish: Benin, long live "Long Fon, the most widespread everybody!" delivered in sands of people responded indigenous language of Benin. Thouplause and foot to her efforts with thunderous Soglo stomping. Lola was the queen. When apapproached her, she hooked her arm around President proudly introduced her to the Maggie and thought, and accompanied president. Then, as an afterLola added: "My writer." by a vague hand flap in my direction, Once back in the United States, Lola's on the territory of finances, and in anger at me homed in arena, she gave full voice to her desire this somewhat impersonal me. A to distance herself from all too trouble-making member of her spiritual ready to assist. Playing on Lola's community was aged to convince her I was fears, this person manroyalties and, more stealing from her on two fronts: book by the Benin government important, money supposedly given to me book royalties had to pay for our trip there. In fact, no them. As for Africa, yet been paid, and when they were, we when we fell far short split we needed to go to Benin, I took out a loan of raising the money the trip out of my pocket. I now realize and paid for most of take in not coming right out and I made a significant miswas doing. Instead, I telling Maggie and Lola what I the trip and was simply said we had money enough to make vague about where it was afraid they would not came from. I suppose I much. I also did not want come if they knew I was paying SO them to feel SO indebted to warped our interactions. me that it For more than six months after we returned there was considerable tension from West Africa, and confused by her between Lola and me. I was hurt accusations. To make our trip, Maggie and Lola both became matters worse, after book, the same book Lola had very critical about the proudly shown to each visitor and enough to make vague about where it was afraid they would not came from. I suppose I much. I also did not want come if they knew I was paying SO them to feel SO indebted to warped our interactions. me that it For more than six months after we returned there was considerable tension from West Africa, and confused by her between Lola and me. I was hurt accusations. To make our trip, Maggie and Lola both became matters worse, after book, the same book Lola had very critical about the proudly shown to each visitor and --- Page 430 --- in her altar book she still kept in a prominent place the very in the manuscript for Mama Lola lay room. For three months 1990 before I sent it off to University in Maggie's hands for approval that time neither of them found of California Press and during later, after our West problems with it. It was three years Aftervord any voiced a flurry of general complaints. More Africa trip, that they "Ihate that book" and eioften than not, Mama Lola said simply, that she was unable to ther refused to articulate why or indicated In fact, I was beside myself. I felt utterly powdo SO. I was upset. could make myself undererless. There seemed to be no way I the Yet, at the same time I could not help but acknowledge stood. and import of the roiling race issues historical depth, complexity, brouhaha. These days Mama that I still feel sparked the entire discontent as a conflict over Lola remembers our season of issues were involved. money. I remain convinced that deeper for Lola's to West Africa was not the only catalyst Our trip of race. There were also strong shifting sense of the significance through her spiritual commuAfrican American women cycling and critical racial nity and introducing her to a more rigorous back from Africa, I politics. In addition, shortly after we got Bermuda branch of my learned (and shared with Lola) that the century family included a man born in the eighteenth mother's and salt merchant, Samuel C. Nelmes, as who was a sea captain from the same period, Thomas Lea well as a British privateer waters off Haiti's coast during the Smith. Both men plied the owned slaves. I saw his Haitian revolution. I knew that Nelmes that Smith sold slaves slave return records, and Iam fairly certain have thought the upon at least one occasion. How could I ever race issues led set could be avoided? Her greater sensitivity on blonde, to me as "blonde, Lola to objectify me by referring similar to her in the blonde." Fair enough, I had done something she would look at me book. It was inevitable, that sooner or later, Mama Lola, of my ancestors, just as I, in and see a representative of her ancestors. In at times configured her as a representative much of time the months after our return from Benin, I spent of Samuel my C. asking myself what the smalgrent-gnnadaughier and Thomas Lea Smith owed the great-granddaughter Nelmes Binbin Mauvant, and vice versa. ofJoseph of 1993, just as I began to accept the fact that By the summer Mama Lola was damaged beyond repair, my relationship with and told me she had Lola picked up the phone late one evening in and see a representative of her ancestors. In at times configured her as a representative much of time the months after our return from Benin, I spent of Samuel my C. asking myself what the smalgrent-gnnadaughier and Thomas Lea Smith owed the great-granddaughter Nelmes Binbin Mauvant, and vice versa. ofJoseph of 1993, just as I began to accept the fact that By the summer Mama Lola was damaged beyond repair, my relationship with and told me she had Lola picked up the phone late one evening --- Page 431 --- to see me right away. She needed to talk. There my loft in lower Manhattan and I had been a fire in was Jersey, SO the late evening ride to Lola's living temporarily in New hour Iarrived fatigued yet determined house took more than an the book I had written about to find out why Lola hated with her. "Please, tell her. "I need to know," I me!" "I hate that book," Lola pleaded Afterword paused, "because I change and it replied, and tension draining doesn't.""Oh,"1 Ir responded, the rapidly out of me. "I can really understand that." understand that; I can After this conversation our back together. Lola relationship gradually knit itself stealing from her, and acknowledged I her mistake in thinking I was candid about who acknowledged mine in being less In was paying for our trip to the than some ways, we are now better friends than Benin festival. Ours is a tested we were before. both friendship, more than care about. During the time of twenty years old, one we the time of misunderstanding (or was it understanding?) neither of us us took the initiative at least gave up trying. Each of Ours is now a once and reached out to the other. relationship whose worth has as its problems have not all disappeared. been proven, even At first Lola and I traveled together, but these els, does talks, and performs initiations days Lola travpresence than with it, and this is as it should more often without my to explore new be. Lola continues territory, even in her she has been initiated into religious life. In the last year who is also Lola's ti Santeria by a friend and colleague Puerto Rico, works fèy, Maria Concordia. Maria was born in her Oni Oshun as a priestess in Oakland, California and, in and the Santeria temple, maintains altars for both the Vodou lwa bringing Vodou orisa. Maria has spoken to me of her that and Santeria hope sion between the Latino and together can help reduce the tenLola recently described black populations in Oakland. her first Santeria what it was like when she attended bembe. Let me tell you about Santeria. I went to a bembe in They have a feast for Yemaya. The the sea. day of the Yemaya . after the prayer, then feast for and a woman they start to beat the drum, Agaou!" possessed by Agéou, I tell Maggie, "This Look, the way he's going with his is them up in the air. like he arms, like he throw in Vodou. fly Agèou, an orisa, that's Agèou is Agaou! Shango, that's Agaou, Papa Ogou. They have a feast for Yemaya. The the sea. day of the Yemaya . after the prayer, then feast for and a woman they start to beat the drum, Agaou!" possessed by Agéou, I tell Maggie, "This Look, the way he's going with his is them up in the air. like he arms, like he throw in Vodou. fly Agèou, an orisa, that's Agèou is Agaou! Shango, that's Agaou, Papa Ogou. --- Page 432 --- that's Ezili Freda. You can say Oshun, that sophistiYemaya, that's Manbo Lasyrenn. We talking cate woman with perfume, Gede' sister! In Vodou we about Oya? You know who is Oya? have a lot of call her Gedelia. In orisa, we call her Oya. They So it's basically the same thing, but another name, Aftervord connection. they call it Santeria. But Santeria tradition is another religion, almost the same thing. Vodou . . . You understand? bit and asked Lola why, if Santeria and Vodou were Ipushed a would bother "making Ocha, 11 that is, essentially the same, she Initiation involves spending getting initiated into Santeria. to the orisa as well as the money and taking on responsibilities realize that my first impressions lva. Lola's answer made me she does not mistaken. She is not like Maria Concordia; were broad social issues through a blend of Santeria want to address She wants added protection and Vodou. Lola wants more spirits. of Lola's life for herself and her family. This is the main purpose abstractions like and it keeps her far too busy to worry about Oakland. exAmericans" and "the Latinos" in By "the African to include Santeria, Mama Lola panding her religious practice maintainwhat she always did. She was, quite simply, was doing with all the people in her support network, ing good relations ancestors. "I do it because my grandmother : especially her used to have Yemaya/ " Lola said, further exMarie Noelsine, she "used to travel to Cuba in her plaining that Marie Noelsine too. " I observed trade. That's how she get it. Now, I got Yemaya "with that long hair and those shiny green that Noelsine, beautiful Yemaya." Later Lola eyes. must have been a very this She feel that to make Ocha . spring. told me "Maggie going II Lola added that, while Danbala is she got obligation to do that.' Maggie's mèt tèt, remember when I used to live in Oya is her protection. Do you for Gede and that time . Gede Fort Greene? I have a feast resist. Yes! That was want to pass in Maggie head and Maggie in her head. Oya is Oya, that was Gedelia that want to come she give Gede sister, she live with dead spirit. Oya is a Petwo, you lot'a energy. She is everywhere. Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn ended with Originally, of Gedelia. The last line was: "I anxmy delighted discovery used to live in Oya is her protection. Do you for Gede and that time . Gede Fort Greene? I have a feast resist. Yes! That was want to pass in Maggie head and Maggie in her head. Oya is Oya, that was Gedelia that want to come she give Gede sister, she live with dead spirit. Oya is a Petwo, you lot'a energy. She is everywhere. Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn ended with Originally, of Gedelia. The last line was: "I anxmy delighted discovery --- Page 433 --- iously await Gedelia's emergence from the cocoon of Haitian history and religion. 1 I never suspected that Gedelia might someday be found in Maggie's head and become her chief protector, nor could I possibly have anticipated that, when Gedelia appeared again for Mama Lola, she would emerge at a Santeria bembe in Afterword Oakland, California, attended by a soon-to-be child of Yemaya, Marie Thérèse Alourdes Macena Champagne Lovinski. --- Page 434 --- --- Page 435 --- GLOSSARY OF HAITIAN CREOLE TERM S Agéou An Ogou; Philo's principal spirit ason Sacred rattle of priests and priestesses Ayida Wèdo Wife of the rainbow serpent Danbala Azaka Peasant farmer spirit baka Evil spirit Baron Samdi Head of all the Gede bat gè Fighting the war, a Vodou ceremony blan "Whitey"; a white person bôkô A sorcerer; one who works with "both hands"or the "left hand" Bondye God boule zen Burning the pots, a Vodou ceremony Brijit Baron Samdi's female partner chire ayizan Shredding the palm leaf, a Vodou ceremony chwal Horse of the spirits; one who is possessed Danbala Wèdo Ancient spirit, serpent and rainbow dechoukaj Uprooting djèvo Initiation chamber djôk Bad influence from the feelings of others echofe To heat up espri Spirit Ezili Danto Solitary mother spirit Ezili Freda Spirit of sensuality fanm-saj Midwife fey Leaves, herbs --- Page 436 --- gad Guard; a protective charm Gede Trickster spirit of death Ginen Africa; a watery realm under the earth gouyad Pelvic dance for Papa Gede Glossary of Haitian Gran Bwa The ritual forest; a Vodou spirit Creole gwo bonanj Big guardian angel; consciousness or Terms personality gwo nèg An important or powerful man kanzo A level of Vodou initiation karabel Haitian denim kay House, usually wattle and daub with a thatched roof; a children's game kleren Raw rum kombinayson Combination; a creature of disparate parts made by magic konesans Spiritual knowledge; intuition; extrasensory perception kouche To lie down, sleep, make love, give birth, and, less frequently, to die; term used to describe Vodou initiation kouche Lying down on the point; a level of Vodou sou pwen initiation Kouzen Cousin; a common name for Azaka Kouzinn Female cousin;a rural market woman spirit who is Azaka's counterpart kwa Baron Baron Samdi's cross in the cemetery Labalenn The whale, closely associated with Lasyrenn lakou Yard; extended-family compound langay Arcane language used in Vodou, composed of African words and disguised Creole langèt Slang for female genitalia Lasyrenn The mermaid; an Ezili lave têt Headwashing; first step in Vodou initiation Legba Spirit guardian of doorways and barriers Loko Spirit patron of the priesthood lwa Vodou spirit machann Market woman Madan Sara Market woman, especially a wholesaler , closely associated with Lasyrenn lakou Yard; extended-family compound langay Arcane language used in Vodou, composed of African words and disguised Creole langèt Slang for female genitalia Lasyrenn The mermaid; an Ezili lave têt Headwashing; first step in Vodou initiation Legba Spirit guardian of doorways and barriers Loko Spirit patron of the priesthood lwa Vodou spirit machann Market woman Madan Sara Market woman, especially a wholesaler --- Page 437 --- madansara Noisy, hyperactive black finch maji Magic makout Straw satchel used by farmers manbo Vodou priestess Glossary manje Marasa Ritual meal for the spirit twins of Haitian Creole manje pôv Ritual feeding of the poor Terms Marasa Spirit twins, child spirits Metrès Mistress; title for Ezili Freda mêt têt master of the head; principal protective spirit mizè Poverty; suffering; misfortune nanchon Nation; grouping of spirits Ogou Vodou warrior spirit Ogou Badagri Handsome soldier; Alourdes's main spirit ojat Almond-sugar syrup; favorite drink of Danbala oungan Vodou priest ounsi Ritual assistant in a Vodou temple pa-pale The not-speaking disease, frequently suffered by women who have recently given birth pèdisyon Perdition; condition that causes a fetus to stop growing peristil Vodou temple Petwo One of two spirit pantheons dominant in Portau-Prince poto-Danbala Another name for the poto-mitan poto-mitan Sacred center pole in a Vodou temple Vodou functionary who plays the role of prètsavann Catholic priest in certain types of ritualizing; literally, "bush priest" Priyè Deyô Outside Prayers; prayers said at the beginning of Vodou ceremonies pwen Point; concentrated spiritual power pwen achte Purchased point; nonfamily spirit pwomès Promise; a ceremony to show good intentions Rada One of two spirit pantheons dominant in Portau-Prince rasin Root repozwa A tree that houses a spirit --- Page 438 --- restavèk Stay-with; a borrowed or purchased child sen Saint; spirit (pl. sen-yo) Sen Jak Majè Saint James the Elder, head of the Ogou Glossary sojème Oath-swearing word in langay, arcane of Haitian language of Vodou, probably African Creole taptap Brightly buses Terms painted used for public transportation ti fey Little leaf, a "child of the house"; a Vodou initiate Ti Malis Little Mischief; Alourdes's Gede tonnèl A thatched-roof pavilion open to the air Tonton Uncle Strawsack, a bogeyman in Haitian folkMakout lore; the name given to Duvalier's civilian militia trètmen Treatment; healing ceremony Vil-o-kan, A town in northern Haiti, the spiritual embassy Ville-aux-Camps of Africa in Haiti vivan-yo The living; persons who have not died (sing. vivan) Vodou The religion of the majority in Haiti; a particular drum rhythm used in that religion ZOZO Slang for penis pavilion open to the air Tonton Uncle Strawsack, a bogeyman in Haitian folkMakout lore; the name given to Duvalier's civilian militia trètmen Treatment; healing ceremony Vil-o-kan, A town in northern Haiti, the spiritual embassy Ville-aux-Camps of Africa in Haiti vivan-yo The living; persons who have not died (sing. vivan) Vodou The religion of the majority in Haiti; a particular drum rhythm used in that religion ZOZO Slang for penis --- Page 439 --- B IBLIOGRAE P H Y (updated for the 2001 edition) Appardurai, Arjun. 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New Haven: Yale versity Press, 1966. UniLock, Margaret. "Cultivating the Body: Epistemologies of Bodily Practice and Anthropology and nual Review of Knowledge. AnAnthropology 22 (1992): 133-55. --- Page 444 --- Ira P. "Labor, Sexuality and the Conjugal Contract InterLowenthal, Haiti." In Haiti-Today and Tomorrow: An in Rural edited by Charles R. Foster and Albert disciplinary Study, York: University Press of America, Valdman, 15-33. New Bibliography 1984Is 20, Children Are 21: The Cultural Con- "Marriage and Family in Rural Haiti." Ph.D. struction of Conjugality 1987. dissertation, Johns Hopkins University, A Ser- "Ritual Performance and Religious Experience: vice for the Gods in Southern Haiti." Journal of Anthropological Research 34, no. 5 (Fall 1978): 392-414. Bloomington: MacGaffeyWyatt Art and Healing ofthe Bakongo. Indiana University Press, 1991. Fischer. Anthropology as CulMarcus, George E., and Michael Moment in the Human Scitural Critique: An Experimental Press, 1986. University of Chicago ences. Chicago: Vodou haîtien: rite Radas- Canzo. 2d ediMaximilien, Louis, Le de l'Etat, 1945 tion. Port-au-Prince, Haiti: Imprimerie Elizabeth. 11 The Jew' in the Haitian Imagination: McAlister, Anti-Judaism in the Postmodern Caribbean." Pre-Modern American Religious Encounters with In Black Zion: African Chireau and Nathaniel Deutsch, Judaism, edited by Yvonne University Press, 2000. 203-37. New York: Oxford The Spirits of Hait- "Love, Sex, and Gender Embodied: Gender in the World Religions, ian Vodou. In Love, Sex and M. Martin. Oxford: edited by Joseph Runzo and Nancy One World, 2000. Street Revisited: Vodou and "The Madonna of 115th In Haitian Catholicism in the Age of Transnationalism" and the New Gatherings in Diaspora: Religious Communities Warner and Judith G. Immigration, edited by R. Stephen University Press, Wittner, 123-60. Philadelphia: Temple 1998. Work at the Crossroads." "Rara in Haiti: Spiritual Manuscript. 2000. and Performance in Haiti and Its Rara! Vodou Power Press. ForthBerkeley: University of California Diaspora. coming. Alfred. Voodoo in Haiti. New York: Schocken Books, Métraux, 1972. and Richard Price. The Birth of African-American Mintz, Sidney, Perspective. Boston: Beacon Culture: An Anthropological Press, 1992. les loa haitiens et les Vaudou Montilus, Guerin. Dieux en diaspora: ara in Haiti: Spiritual Manuscript. 2000. and Performance in Haiti and Its Rara! Vodou Power Press. ForthBerkeley: University of California Diaspora. coming. Alfred. Voodoo in Haiti. New York: Schocken Books, Métraux, 1972. and Richard Price. The Birth of African-American Mintz, Sidney, Perspective. Boston: Beacon Culture: An Anthropological Press, 1992. les loa haitiens et les Vaudou Montilus, Guerin. Dieux en diaspora: --- Page 445 --- du royaume d'Allada (Benin). Niamey, Niger: CELHTO, 1988. Moreau de Saint-Méry, M.L.E. 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New York: Oxford University Press, Thoby-Marcelin, 1998. Philippe, and Pierre Marcelin. The Beast of the Haitian Hills. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1986. --- Page 446 --- Thompson, Robert Farris. Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro414 American Art and Philosophy. New York: Random House, 1983. Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. Haiti, State Against Nation: The Origins Bibliography and Legacy of Duvalierism. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1990. Silencing the Past: Porver and the Production of History. Boston: Beacon Press, 1995. Wilcken, Lois. The Drums of Vodou. Tempe, Ariz.: White Cliffs Media, 1992. Wilentz, Amy. The Rainy Season: Haiti Since Duvalier. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989. Wucker, Michele. Wiy the Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians, and the Struggle for Hispaniola. New York: Hill and Wang, 1999. : Monthly Review Press, 1990. Silencing the Past: Porver and the Production of History. Boston: Beacon Press, 1995. Wilcken, Lois. The Drums of Vodou. Tempe, Ariz.: White Cliffs Media, 1992. Wilentz, Amy. The Rainy Season: Haiti Since Duvalier. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989. Wucker, Michele. Wiy the Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians, and the Struggle for Hispaniola. New York: Hill and Wang, 1999. --- Page 447 --- INDEX Abimbola, Wande, 101-8 76-77, 127-28, 129, 237-40, 251Abonoche, 56 n 52; healing by, 4-5, 70, 76-77, 242-43, 330, 331, 338-56; home Abortion, 240-41, 254 arrangement, 40, 110, 290; inheriAdaptability, 221, 253-54, 376-79 Africa: Dahomean, 31 n, 100, 253, tance from Philo, 354; initiation, 272-73, 279, 280 n; and franginen! Abonoche, 56 n 52; healing by, 4-5, 70, 76-77, 242-43, 330, 331, 338-56; home Abortion, 240-41, 254 arrangement, 40, 110, 290; inheriAdaptability, 221, 253-54, 376-79 Africa: Dahomean, 31 n, 100, 253, tance from Philo, 354; initiation, 272-73, 279, 280 n; and franginen! 76, 77, 127-28, 168, 224; Jamaica franginen nèt, 29; Jamaican religions trip, 331-44:jobs, 76-77. 127, from, 336-37; Mammy Water in, 162-66, 225, 237, 239, 289; Karen's 223-24; and Ogou, 100, 102-8; house blessed by, 313-16; and Priyè Deyo and, 279, 280 n, 281, Karen's role, 196-97; and Karen's 282-85; women in, 221; and trip to Haiti, 169-201, 288, 331; Yoruba, 100, 101, 107-8, 253 and lovers, 166, 236-41, 251-52, 256, 293; and Maggie in hospital, Agàou, 167 n, 192 260-70; and male dominance, 157; Ageou (Ogou), 96, 110, 167-68, mother206-8, 304, 366-68 mèt tèt of, 112-13, 379; daughter bonds of, 244-46, Ago, 31 n 290-94; mother at initiation, Agwe, 284 320-21, 325; New York early years Aido Hwedo, 273-74 of, 127, 162-63, 181, 182; possesAileen, 52, 297 sion described by, 352-53; quoted, Allada, 100 20, 110; and 14; and spirits (see Spirits); storyAlourdes, 1-10, 15-16, 17-18, 102, 175, 183-84; Abner, 237; altar room, 3, 7, 40, and telling, "work of the left hand," 347 110, 260-61, 264, 354; and auancestors, thority, 125-27; birth of, 209-12; Alourdes, family: 16-19, blood and memory, 286-94; and 22-33, 80-91, 143-54; children, Catholicism, 111; cemetery burial 70, 115, 127-28, 237; children as (see adults, 9, 51, 115; and commitment wanted by, 371; ceremonies by to, 48, 180-81, 286, 304-5, 368; faCeremonies); childhood of, 212-16, 217, 225, 293; and connection, 13; ther, 159-60, 209, 238-39, 286-90; conservatism of, 126-27; decision half-sister, 56; marriage, 238-39, 244, 248-49; mother (see Philomise) to serve spirits, 75-76, 167, (Keke's son), 26 168-69, 293; dreams of, 77, 123, Alphonse (Marie Thérèse's lover), 240, 245-46, 268, 269, 290, 295-96, Alphonse 303, 349, 364, 368; emigration to 173, 195 Macena. ; decision half-sister, 56; marriage, 238-39, 244, 248-49; mother (see Philomise) to serve spirits, 75-76, 167, (Keke's son), 26 168-69, 293; dreams of, 77, 123, Alphonse (Marie Thérèse's lover), 240, 245-46, 268, 269, 290, 295-96, Alphonse 303, 349, 364, 368; emigration to 173, 195 Macena. See Macena, U.S., 17,70-71, 166, 241; family Alphonse (see Alourdes, family); in Haiti, Alphonse Alourdes's altar 70-71, 75-76, 77, 127, 160-62, Altars, 40-42, 48; 164, 169-201; finances of, 72, room, 3, 7, 40, 110, 260-61, 264, --- Page 448 --- Altars (continued) for and, 95 n, 185 n; Kwa Baron for, 354; Ogou (illustrated), 99 198, 369-70; in Port-au-Prince Amulets, 135 cemetery, 198, 369-70, 371; Anaïse, 246 sion by, 360-61 possesIndex Anba dlo (beneath the water), 223, Barter: with sex, 83, 163-66, 168; 224, 225 with spirit work, 169 Ancestors, 6, 364-68; Alourdes's, Bat gè (fighting the war), 16-19, 22-33, 80-91, 143-54; Baths: Alourdes's Gros Morne, 324-25 Dahomey religion and, 272; Danbad-luck, 177; bala and, 286; Gede and, 368, 371; 348-49; good-luck, 336, Gros Morne offerings to, 191-92; 348-49; healing, 336, 348-49 Beauty, Ezili Freda and, Haitian loyalty to, 185, 371; in mir254, 255 249-50, ror, 284; offerings to (illustrated), Bed, ason and money not 191; in Priyè Deyo, 284, 285. See Begging, ritual, put on, 69 also Africa; Family 208, 301 Andre, 306, 359-60 Benin, 272 Anger: Alourdes's, 244; Danbala's, Betty, 9, 39, 46, 295, 372, 373 307-9; Ezili Dantô's, 231-32, 251, Bible, Big Daddy, 337 257; Maggie's, 130; and Ogou, 113 366, 52, 255, 314-15, 316, Angola, 100 "Big guardian Animal killing, for feasts, 231 61, angel" (gwo bànanj), Anthropology, 12; 112-13, 351, 352 interpretive, 14 Birth: of Alourdes, Ason (beaded rattle), 29, 53-54, 69, Pierre, of 209-12; of Jean76, 278-79, 351 43, 237; Maggie, 43, 266-67; of Philo, 84 Authority: Alourdes's attitude toBirth control, 165, 242 ward, 125-27; in women's and Birthday parties, for men's temples, 221. 12; 112-13, 351, 352 interpretive, 14 Birth: of Alourdes, Ason (beaded rattle), 29, 53-54, 69, Pierre, of 209-12; of Jean76, 278-79, 351 43, 237; Maggie, 43, 266-67; of Philo, 84 Authority: Alourdes's attitude toBirth control, 165, 242 ward, 125-27; in women's and Birthday parties, for men's temples, 221. See also Courts; Azaka, 38-68, 156; and spirits, Danbala, 5; Discipline, family; Police; Politics 275; Ezili Danto, 227, 234; Gede, Ayida Wèdo, 156 n, 274 327-28; 356-60; illustrated, Ayizan (palm fringe), 325 357; Ogou, 138 227, Ayizan (spirit), 54-55 Blackness, 256. See also Skin Azaka (Kouzen Zaka), 3, 15-16, Black Star Line, 335 color 36-78, 132, 174; birthday party, Blan (whitey), 29- - 30, 175 38-68, 156; chaka dish favored by, Blood: Danbala and, See 42-43, 199; goat sacrifices for (ilalso Family 286-304. lustrated), 60; Gros Morne syrol Blood vomiting, by Ezili Dantô, tree home for, 192; and herbs, 188; 234, illustrated, 21; and Kouzinn, "Boat 254 people, : 63-64, 156, 157, 380; Makout and, Boko, 189-90, 252-53 185, 190; New Year's Day dinner Bondye. See God 347 salute to, 366; participants at feast Boule zen (burning of the for, 49-52; as peasant, 42, 57-58, Bourguignon, Erika, pots), 351 59, 61, 62, 66, 185 Brijit, 380 253 n Brooklyn. See New York Badagri. See Ogou Badagri Brooklyn Hebrew Bad luck, 48, Home, 76-77, 163 298-301, 302-3, Burglary, at Alourdes's home, 297, 348-49 Baka, 142-44, 153, 231-32, 251 Business: 302 Azaka and, 68-69. See Balance, dynamic, 306, 374-76. See Economics; Finances; Komès; also also Confidence ket women MarBaptisms, 55-56, 94 n Barnett, 262, 266, 295 Card reading, Baron Samdi, 375, 376; Duvalier 77, 186-87, 205-6, 338, 346, 349 --- Page 449 --- Class: in cemetery, 370-71; Ezili Carline, 104-5 Freda and, 247-48; U.S. Haitian, 5. Carmelita, 318 Catholicism, 5, 6, 241, 285; and See also Poverty cemetery, 370; prejudice against Clemence, Leah, 293 Vodou in, 370, 379; spirit counterCockfights, 87-88 instruments of, Index parts.in, 3-4, 6, 46, 52, 61, 98, 221; Coercive power, Vodou attitude toward, 111, 241, Color. U.S. Haitian, 5. Carmelita, 318 Catholicism, 5, 6, 241, 285; and See also Poverty cemetery, 370; prejudice against Clemence, Leah, 293 Vodou in, 370, 379; spirit counterCockfights, 87-88 instruments of, Index parts.in, 3-4, 6, 46, 52, 61, 98, 221; Coercive power, Vodou attitude toward, 111, 241, Color. See Skin color 276-77; in Vodou ceremonies, Comb, Lasyrenn and, 223, 225 52-53, 55-56, 275, 276-78. See Commerce. See Kômès Communion, Gede and, 359-60 Prètsavann Cemeteries, 368-72, 378; dead apCommunity: and Vodou ritualizing, proached through graves in, 364230-31. See also Haitians 65; Gede and, 330, 368-72; illusConfidence, 317, 355-56, 373-74 trated, 369; Port-au-Prince, 197-98, Connection: assumption of human, 321-22, 364-65, 369, 370-71 13. See also Family; Relationships Ceremonies, 5-6; Catholicism in, Constant, Yvonne, 73, 74-75 52-53, 55-56, 275, 276-78; consulConsultative ritualizing, 55 tations during, 55; difficulties of, Courts: Philo and, 105; and William, 44-49; illustrated, 133; marriage to 115-24, 125, 131 Danbala, 306-8; marriage to Ogou, Cousin. See Kouzen; Kouzinn 138-39; Priyè Deyô at, 54, 67, 275Creole, 14, 176, 193, 280-84, 383-86 85; songs at (see Songs). See also Cross, 198, 368-70 Birthday parties, for spirits; Feasts, Crossroads, for ritual, 343, 368, 378 for spirits; Initiation; PossessionCultures: connection across, 13-14, 305-6; interpretive anthropology Cesaire, performances 184-85, 186-89, 190- 92, 193 and, 14. See also Haitians Currency, 58 n. See also Finances Chaka, 42-43, 199 Chantal, 170, 191, 214, 249, 313. 70 Birthday parties, for spirits; Feasts, Crossroads, for ritual, 343, 368, 378 for spirits; Initiation; PossessionCultures: connection across, 13-14, 305-6; interpretive anthropology Cesaire, performances 184-85, 186-89, 190- 92, 193 and, 14. See also Haitians Currency, 58 n. See also Finances Chaka, 42-43, 199 Chantal, 170, 191, 214, 249, 313. See Madame Albert Da, 273 Charity, Vs. reciprocity, 179 Dahomey, 31 n, 100, 253, 272-73, Charles, Luc, 149-51, 153, 167, 168, 279, 280 n Dambada Hwedo, 273 Danbala, 3, 16, 261, 272-307, 377; Charms, 135 as "boat Alourdes married to, 113 n; Ayida Children, 242, 372-74; Ezili Danto and, Wèdo wife of, 156 n, 274; at people, 252-53; 245, 246, Azaka's birthday party, 57; Ezili 228, 230-31, 242, 243-44, Freda married to, 248; illustrated, 256; Ezili Freda and, 248; family and call to serve spirdiscipline of, 49, 244; feeding poor, 300; Maggie's 200; financial support from, 49, its, 264, 298, 299-302, 304, 372; 244; Gede protector of, 372; mormarriage to, 308-9;as Moses, 307; tality of infant, 242, 375; in New New Year's Day dinner salute to, York welfare system, 243; posses366; possession by, 274, 299-300, and 308-9; in Priyè Deyo, 275, 279; sion by, 252-53: and rearing pracSaint Patrick, 3, 275, 307, 315; veve tices, 48-49, 373; in Vodou family, 37-38, 48-49, 65 for (illustrated), 259 the Dance: dynamic balance in, 374; Chire ayizan (shredding ayizan), gouyad, 357-58; initiation, 326; Christianity: 325 and American attitude Sundial, 336-37 toward Vodou, 111; Aunt Emma Danzweyzo, 191-92 and, See also Catholicism; Death, 376 n; and balance, 374-75; 335-37. and cemetery invitation for feeding Protestants Dahomeans and, Chwal (horse) of the spirit, 61 poor, 197-98; 273, 279; Gede and, 198, 328, 330, Clairice, 26, 31 --- Page 450 --- Death (continued) also Class; Finances; Jobs; Komès; 356, 360-72, 380; and infant morLabor; Market women; Poverty tality, 242, 375; pwen achte and, 189; Edner, rites for, 189, 375;and souls of the Egungun, 251-52, 107-8 254 dead, 242 n. -98; 273, 279; Gede and, 198, 328, 330, Clairice, 26, 31 --- Page 450 --- Death (continued) also Class; Finances; Jobs; Komès; 356, 360-72, 380; and infant morLabor; Market women; Poverty tality, 242, 375; pwen achte and, 189; Edner, rites for, 189, 375;and souls of the Egungun, 251-52, 107-8 254 dead, 242 n. See also Ancestors; Index Cemeteries Elderly, Danbala and, 274 Emigration, from Haiti: Alourdes's, Deception, 110, 375-76. See also 17, 70-71, 166, 241; economics of, Secrecy 181-82; and land devastation, 59 Dechoukaj (uprooting), 188 n Emma George, Aunt, 334-36 "Deep play," 97 Employment. See Jobs Deren, Maya, 248 n Endurance, of Ogou, 114 Desinor, Charles, 237-38, 256, 266, English, 14, 176 Esso gas, in Jamaica, 334 Dessalines, Jean-Jacques, 95, 108-9, Ethnographic study, 12, research 14; techniques, 11-14 Discipline, family, 49, 53, 244 Ethnographic writing, 15 Disloyalty: Ogou and, 113; William's "Eyes": "bad," arrest and, 118-19 347; "gift of," Dominican Republic, 146-48 133-34, 354; suffering from, 347 Dreams, Ezili, 3, 16, 57, 192, See 12, 296; Alourdes's, 77, also Ezili Danto; Ezili 220-57,366. Freda 123, 240, 245-46, 268, 269, 290, Ezili Danto, 6, 156, 220, 221, 222, 295-96, 303, 349, 364, 368; Bea225-46, 254, 261; and Alourdes's trice's for Alourdes, 73-74; Magchildhood disappearance, gie's, 245, 268, 295-97, 299, 301-2, 216-17, 225, 293; anger of, 215, 303-4; Philo's, 75, 153, 168, 207, 251, 257; ceremonies for, 231-32, 208-11, 213; Rapelle's, 204, 205, conflict with Ezili Freda, 276-77; 206; Robert's, 318-19 and "dey-dey-dey, 256-57; Drinking: Alourdes and, 119; MauEzili Je Wouj (Ezili 229-30, of the Red 254; as vant's brew, 28; Ogou and, 96 Eyes), 233; Gedelia and, 381; for Drums, with ceremonies, 280 Karen's home, 316; and Duvalier, François (Papa Doc), 75, 226-28, 229, 236; Marie Maggie, Noelsine 95-96, 185, 281 and, 90-91, 152, 235; Philo Duvalier, Jean Claude, 109, 164, 152, 215, scars of, and, 185 n, 188 n, 328 228, 229, 216-17; 256; social role of, 226-27, 255-56; Earth: Vodou's deep ties to, in temple wall painting (illus37, trated), 203 377-78. , 229, 236; Marie Maggie, Noelsine 95-96, 185, 281 and, 90-91, 152, 235; Philo Duvalier, Jean Claude, 109, 164, 152, 215, scars of, and, 185 n, 188 n, 328 228, 229, 216-17; 256; social role of, 226-27, 255-56; Earth: Vodou's deep ties to, in temple wall painting (illus37, trated), 203 377-78. See also Land Ezili Freda, 156, 220, 221, 222, Echofe (heating things up), 134-35, 246-52, 261; and beauty, 249-50, Economics: Alourdes's, 254, 255; conflict with Ezili Danto, 72, 76-77, 256-57; Gedelia and, 381; illus127-28, 129, 237-40, 251- 52; of trated, 247; as white woman, ceremonies, 45-46; children help246, 256 ing in, 49, 244; of emigration, Family, 15; Alourdes's 181-82; and gender roles, 27, Alourdes, family); Azaka (see and, 63-64, 156-57, 160, 234-35;in 68-70; bad luck period and, Haiti, 44, 70, 85-86, 127, 128, 158, and cemeteries, 369; Danbala 303-4; and, 164-65, 173, 174, 178-81, 197-201; of initiation, 76, 301, 317, 319;and 286-304; discipline in, 49, 53, 244; Kouzinn, 156-69; Mimose and, economic responsibilities of betterPhilo off in, 181; expansion beyond 313; and, 167, 168, 208-12, blood kin, 47-48, 307-8, 213-14, 291; and reciprocity, Gede, 330-31, 368; 178-82; of serving spirits, 166-69, roles in, 83, 371-72; gender 182; ofsex, 83, 163-66, 168. See and, 156-57, 242; Haitians 13, 157, 181-82, 185, 286; --- Page 451 --- Maggie's ties strengthened to, 304; Frank, 51, 150-51, 293, 366-67 matrilineage, 16-17, 70, 304-5, Fritz (Big Daddy), 52, 255, 314-15, 380; mother-daughter bonds in, 316, 366, 367 244-46, 290-94;in Priyè Deyo, Gabriel (Alourdes's friend), 166, 282-84; redefined, 132; slavery Index breaking, 254-55; of spirits, 240-41, 269-70, 296 132-33, 190-92, 305; Vodou, 4, Gabriel, Saint, 270 n, 330 37-38, 47-49, 53, 132, 157, 355-56; Gad, 184, 302, 342 women heading, 157, 222, 234, "The Gamble" (bus), 170, 171-72, 244. ; redefined, 132; slavery Index breaking, 254-55; of spirits, 240-41, 269-70, 296 132-33, 190-92, 305; Vodou, 4, Gabriel, Saint, 270 n, 330 37-38, 47-49, 53, 132, 157, 355-56; Gad, 184, 302, 342 women heading, 157, 222, 234, "The Gamble" (bus), 170, 171-72, 244. See also Children; Marriage; 177-78, 193-96 Mother; Papa; Patriarchy Garvey, Marcus, 335 Fanm-saj (midwives), 211-12, 221 Gasoline prices, in Jamaica, 334 Fear: Maggie and, 302-4. See also Gede, 3, 13, 16, 20, 66, 113, 261, 330-81; ancestor domain taken Protection for 48, 215; over by, 368; and balance, 374-76; Feasts, spirits, 43, 44, for, 356-60; Azaka, 41-43, 49, 62, 65-66; Ezili, birthday party 327-28, 216-17; family manje-sèk, 190-92; and death, 198, 328, 330, 356, illustrated, 42; Marasa, 8, 372; 360-72; Duvalier and, 95 n; illustrated, 329, 363; and initiation, 324,, Female Ogou, saints: 94 litany of, 279. See also 328, 356; and Maggie, 264, 270, 368, New Year's names of individual saints 295, 357, 365, 372; Female spirits, 3, 54-55, 156, 220, Day dinner salute to, 366; Ogou 222, 380-81. See also Ezili; Kouzinn counterbalanced by, 112; possesFeminism, 16, 19 sion by, 66, 356-58, 359-62, Fèy (leaves), 188. See also Plants 363-64, 368, 372; subdivisions of, Finances: Alourdes's, 63-64, 76-77, 96, 330-31, 358-63, 376, 380-81; 129, 160-67, 240, 251; for wife of, 380 Alourdes's and Karen's trip, 169, Gedelia, 380-81 182-83, 193, 196; Azaka's, 63-65, Gede Nibo, 359 67-68, 69; and currency, 58 n; for Geertz, Clifford, 14, 15 initiation, 76, 301, 317, 319; Maggie Gender roles, 15, 17, 220-21, 255; and, 129-31; for parties, 45-46; and bartering with sex, 163-66; and, 66, 178-79; Philo's, and economics, 27, 63-64, 156-57, peasants 160, 234-35;and Ezili Dantô, 167, 168, 208-12, 213-14,s power in family, 83, 156-57, 242; symbols, 69; women and, 27, 232-36; Kouzinn and, 63-64, 156-57- See also Market Gede and, 379-80; 156, 157; male dominance in, 157, women; Poverty 220-21, 380 (see also Patriarchy); Fire, at Alourdes's home, 127-28 rural, Flexibility, 253-54, 376-79 and Ogou, 235, 378-80; 156-57, 220-21, 234; urban, 157, Florida Water, 339 n Vodou, 156, Fon, of Dahomey, 31 n, 272-73 158, 221, 234-35:in 220-21. dominance in, 157, women; Poverty 220-21, 380 (see also Patriarchy); Fire, at Alourdes's home, 127-28 rural, Flexibility, 253-54, 376-79 and Ogou, 235, 378-80; 156-57, 220-21, 234; urban, 157, Florida Water, 339 n Vodou, 156, Fon, of Dahomey, 31 n, 272-73 158, 221, 234-35:in 220-21. See also FeFood, 43-44; for Danbala, 274; fam157, 189-90, ily means ofe exhange, 68; on Gros male spirits; Male spirits; Marriage; Morne trip, 174, 177, 183, 190-92; Men; Women on Jean Rabel trip, 194 -95; for Georges, 26, 31 281-82, at poor, 197-201. See also Hunger; Gerard, Robert, 317-19; Azaka's party, 50, 56, 57,63, 65, Feasts, for spirits 66, 68; initiation, 50, 319-28 Fouchard, Claude, 86, 142, 143, Gerard, Saint, 3, 330; illustrated, 329 145-46 Gertrude (Mrs. Rabel trip, 194 -95; for Georges, 26, 31 281-82, at poor, 197-201. See also Hunger; Gerard, Robert, 317-19; Azaka's party, 50, 56, 57,63, 65, Feasts, for spirits 66, 68; initiation, 50, 319-28 Fouchard, Claude, 86, 142, 143, Gerard, Saint, 3, 330; illustrated, 329 145-46 Gertrude (Mrs. LeGrand), 50-51, Fouchard, Elsa, 86, 142-46 France, and Haiti, 171, 254 "Gift 366 of eyes," I1 133-34, 354 Franginen (true African), 29 Gifts, morality and, 6-7 Franginen nèt (completely African), 29 --- Page 452 --- Ginen. See Africa temple in Gladys, 50 (illustrated), 60; upper Gloria, 153, 183-84; childhood of, class, 247-48; urban life (see Urban life); 26, 86-87, 90-91, 151; daughter of, Vodou Ville-aux-Camps in, in, 284-85; 172; Philo finding, 5, 9-10, 37-38, 98-100, Index God 151-52 109, 253-54, 274 (Bondye), 4, 111; Aunt Emma Haitians, 14-15; and and, 337; and Dahomean gods, family, 13, 157, 280 n; in Maggie's dream, 181-82, 185, 286; and Gede, natural problems from, 303-4; 371-72; good manners of, 39, 361; busy for personal affairs, 346-47;too 6, Jamaicans different from, 333; New 111, York community.of,; 7-8, 72-73, Gonaïves, Marie Noelsine and, 109, 157, 181, 230-31, 281-82, 371, 376-81; New York home 151-52, 158, 285 styles of, Gourd, 58 n 107; New York population of, 4; in Gouyad, 357-58 Santo Domingo, 147-48 Gran Bwa (Great Woods), 378 "Hands," 75 Gros Morne: Alourdes's and Karen's Headwashing, in initiation ritual, trip to, 169, 172-92; Macena family 76, 350-51 in, 86-91, 152, 158, 172-92, 285 Healing, 4-5, 10, 331, 344-56;by Gwo bônanj (big guardian angel), 61, Alourdes, 4-5, 70, 76-77, 242-43, 112-13, 124, 351, 352 330, 331, 338-56; in cemeteries, 370; Danbala and, 274-75; by Ezili Haiti, 5, 281-82; Alourdes's and KaDanto of Maggie, 227-28; Gede ren's trip to, 169-201, 288, and, 270 n, 330, 331, 359, 379; Alourdes's ancestors 331; Gloria and, 184; herbs and in, 16-19, for, 160, 188, 339, 349; initiation plants as 22-33, 80-91, 143-54; Alourdes's form of, 352; life in, 70-71, 75-76, 77, 127, Mauvant, Lasyrenn and, 224;by 164-66; baka in, 142-44; "boat 29, 70, 225; and natural people" from, 252-53; cemeteries Vs. in, 16-19, for, 160, 188, 339, 349; initiation plants as 22-33, 80-91, 143-54; Alourdes's form of, 352; life in, 70-71, 75-76, 77, 127, Mauvant, Lasyrenn and, 224;by 164-66; baka in, 142-44; "boat 29, 70, 225; and natural people" from, 252-53; cemeteries Vs. supernatural problems, 346-47; of pa-pale, in, 369-71; and ceremony enrichclient 242-43; participation of ments, 52-53; children in, 48-49; in, 349; of pèdisyon, 243;by drums with ceremonies in, 280; Philo, 168, 207, 242-43, 291-92, economics in, 44, 70, 85-86, 127, 354; and possession, 353; results, 128, 158, 164-65, 173, 174, 178-81, Herbalists, 349-50 197-201; emigration from, 181-82; women as, 220-21 history of, 5, 95-96, 97; human Herbs, 160, 188, 209, 339, 349 connection in, 13; hunger in, 44, Herskovits, Melville, 272, 273 70, 127, 128, 173, 174, 178, 200, Heterosexuality: and Ezili, 222. See 291; land in, 36-37, 59, 185, 371; also Sexuality life expectancy in, 375; Maggie's Hiding, 378-79. See also Secrecy ties to, 180; market women in, Highway, in Haiti, 171 63-64, 79, 84-85, 141, 143-44, 27, Hippolyte, Florvil, 97 155, 156-64, 171; medicines from, Historiography, 19. See also Family; 160, 341; military heritage, 95-96, Homes: Storytelling 97, 100, 126, 185; parties for spirits arrangement of rooms in in, 45-46, 47, 190-92; philosophy Alourdes's, 40, 110, 290; fire in of life, 345; politics, 95-96, 109-10, Alourdes's, 127-28; of Haitians in 125-26, 185-86, 189-90, 363; New York, 107; Karen's blessing of, ertyin, 70, 85-86, 128, 158, pov313-16, 379; ti-kay, 173-74 163-65, 173, Hospitality, of Haitian peasants, 66, 197-201, 291, 345, 172-73 371; religious repression in, 378; Humor, Gede rural life (see Rural life); slave revo197; and, 360-64, lution, 5, 95, 109, 111, 229, 231; 375-76, about 379; Gedelia and, 381; men, 236-37 158, pov313-16, 379; ti-kay, 173-74 163-65, 173, Hospitality, of Haitian peasants, 66, 197-201, 291, 345, 172-73 371; religious repression in, 378; Humor, Gede rural life (see Rural life); slave revo197; and, 360-64, lution, 5, 95, 109, 111, 229, 231; 375-76, about 379; Gedelia and, 381; men, 236-37 --- Page 453 --- Ezili Freda's, 251; and feedding, 239; birth of, 43, 237; and fire Hunger: Haiti, in 127-28; at New ing poor, 197-2 201; in 44, 70, Year's apartment, Day dinner, 365-66; New 127, 128, 173, 174, 178, 200, 291 York arrival of, 225 Hygiene, Ezili Freda and, 249-50 Jean Rabel (in the mountains): Index and Karen's trip to, 169, Ibo, 100 Alourdes's Ezili Dantô of, 229, Ilium, 173 170, 193-96; Illnesses: natural and supernatural, 230; Macena family in, 81-86, 145, 346-47; politics of, 243-44; and 216; Mauvant in, 22-33, 285 spirits calling, 71-75, 269-70, 286; Jean Rabel (on the sea), 30 women's, 242-44. See also Healing Jepete, 19, 24-25, 31 Immigrants. See Emigration, from Jewelry, Alourdes loving, 252; and Haiti; Haitians Ezili Freda, 246 Immigration and Naturalization SerJobs: Alourdes's, 76-77, 127, 162-66, vice, U.S., 252, 308 225, 237, 239, 289; Maggie's, 163; Infants: mortality rate, 242, 375; sex bartered for, 164- See also Labor mothers handling, 373. See also Joe, 297, 302 Birth Joseph, 26 Initiation, 312-28, 350-56; Joseph, Marie Noelsine, 26-27, Alourdes's, 76, 77, 127-28, 168, 81-91, 146, 286, 305; Alourdes's 224; and anba dlo ("below the spirit connections through, 224-25; water") instruction, 224; and earth, death of, 153; and Ezili Danto, 378; economics of, 76, 301, 317, 90-91, 152, 235; finances of, 319; Karen's, 8, 50, 315-26; Karen 84-85, 143-44, 158; and emerging from chamber (illusFouchards, 86, 143-45; grandtrated), 309; and konesans, 349, 356; daughter of, 172; in Gros Morne, levels of, 350-51; Mabel and, 86-91, 152, 173; and Macena, 332-33, 350, 351; Maggie's, 50, 132, 81-90; Philo and, 26, 27, 86, 135, 298, 301, 313, 317-28; Mi143-45, 146, 151-54, 364, 368 mose's, 313, 322-27; Robert's, 50, Justice: Ogou and, 103-5, 113. of, 350-51; Mabel and, 86-91, 152, 173; and Macena, 332-33, 350, 351; Maggie's, 50, 132, 81-90; Philo and, 26, 27, 86, 135, 298, 301, 313, 317-28; Mi143-45, 146, 151-54, 364, 368 mose's, 313, 322-27; Robert's, 50, Justice: Ogou and, 103-5, 113. See 319-28; secret part, 321; supplies also Courts for, 320 Justin, 170, 197 Inspector, The (Gede), 363 Intuitive knowledge (konesans), 349, Kali, 13 Kanzo, 351 Irma (Alourdes's half-sister), 56 Karabel cloth, 61, 208 Iron, Ogou and, 103 Keke, 26 Isidore, Saint, 3, 61 Ketu Yoruba, 100 Kevin, 50 Killing: abortion as, 241; of animals Jacques, 312, 313, 328 different for feasts, 231; Ezili Danto and, Jamaica, 331-44; people from Haitians, 333 Kombinayson 231-32 (combinations), 143 James, Saint, 3, 6; chromolithograph Komès (commerce), 159-60, 171, of (illustrated), 99; as Sen Jak Majè, See also Market women 96, 127, 192 Konesans 234. knowledge), 349, Jealousy: "bad eyes," 347; baka (intuitive made from, 142-44, 153; Luc's, 150; and money, 27; Sina's stepKongo, 100 320-21, 322, Kouche, 76, 77, 317, daughter's, 153 351. See also Initiation Jean (Alourdes's brother), 125-26, Kouche sou pwen, 351 Kouzen: Alourdes married, 113 n; Jean-Pierre, "Johnny" (Alourdes's called, 101. See also Azaka son), 51, 107; at Alourdes's wedspirits --- Page 454 --- Kouzinn, 16, 156-69, 174; chaka dish Life, Vodou of, favored by, 199; Gedelia and, 381; Life energy, philosophy Gede and, 344-45 Gros Morne syrol tree home for, Life 362, 375 192; and herbs, 188; Kouzen's relaLimes, expectancy, 375 tionship with, 63-64, 156, 339 n Index 380; and Madan Sara, 157, Lineage. See Blood; Matrilineage 157-63, Lisa, 280 n 166-67, 192, 381 "Little leaves" (ti-fey), 8, 37, 38 Kowalski, Antoine, 238-40, 244, Loko, 55, 56-57 248-49, 251, 256 Love: Alourdes on, 166, Krishna, 13 168-69, Kumar, 9, 39, 120, 260, 281, 379 247; magic for, 189; and money, Kwa Baron, 198, 369-70; illustrated, 166, 167, 168-69; romantic, 157, 247-48 Lovers: Alourdes and, 166, 236-41, Labalenn, 192, 223, 225 251-52, 256, 293; Ezili and, Labor: sex, 163-66; spiritual, 44-49, 235-41, 248; Karen and, 317; Mag169, 337; urban wage, 76-77, 157, gie's, 266, 295; Philo's, 149-51, 153, 158, 162-63, 164, 225 167, 168, 209, 235-36; spirit, 167, Lakou (yard, extended family com168-69, 248. 251-52, 256, 293; Ezili and, Labor: sex, 163-66; spiritual, 44-49, 235-41, 248; Karen and, 317; Mag169, 337; urban wage, 76-77, 157, gie's, 266, 295; Philo's, 149-51, 153, 158, 162-63, 164, 225 167, 168, 209, 235-36; spirit, 167, Lakou (yard, extended family com168-69, 248. See also Marriage pound), 173, 204 Luc Charles. See Charles, Luc Laline, 215 Luck, 345; Alourdes's, 76-77; from Land: Cecile's, 338-41, 346; cemeAzaka's money, 69; bad, 48, tery ownership of, 371;in Haiti, 296-99, 302-3, 348-49; baths for, 36-37, 59, 185, 371 336, 348-49; good, 336, 348-49 Langay, 277, 278-80 Lwa. See Spirits Language: Creole, 14, 176, 193, Lwa rasin (root spirits), 100-101, 280-84, 383-86; English, 14, 176; 246, 261 in Haiti, 176, 193; in New York, Mabel Wycliff, 176; in Priyè Deyô, 277, 278-84; of Macena, 332-44, 350, 351 spirits, 65, 230, 361; of sword, 95; Alphonse, 80-90, 152, 235; of Vodou, 277, 278-80. See also appearing to Philo, 363; as crab reSpeechlessness trieving tobacco pouch, 88, 192; Lasyrenn, and initiation ceremonies, 224; and 192, 220, 221, 222-25, rum-making apparatus, 251, 254, 257 173; spirits Lazarus, Saint, 46, 277, 316 forbidding cure by, 89, 102; spiri- "Left-hand work, 135, See tual obligations related to, 76, 224, Magic, "Work with both 347. hands" 303, 304, 305; twin daughters of, Legba: at feeding for poor, 200; in Macena, 153 Gloria. See Gloria greetings after Priyè Deyô, 54, 67, Macena, Philo. See Philomise 285; in Gros Morne ceremony, 191; Machann. See Market for Karen's home, 316; New Year's Madame Albert, women Day dinner and, 365; possession 170, 175, 179-80, by, 46-47; in Priyè Deyo, 190-91, 196-99, 201. See also 277; Chantal Saint Peter and, 52, 277 Madame Alphonse, 159-60 LeGrand, (Mrs.) Gertrude, 50- 51, Madame Arnold, 359-60 Lenglessou, 366 Madame François, 50, 132, 303, 358 Madame Frederic, Lesbian sexuality, 206, 222, 228-29 Madame Gilbert, 213 "Leve Jipon Famn-nan" (Raise That Madame 206-7 Woman's Petticoat), 87-88, 94 Madame Jacques, Max, 215 Liars, 96, 110, 366-67, 375-76 Madame Rigaud, 189 Libations, 55, 191, 261; and earth, 170, 194, 199, 321, 324-25 377-78 Madame Victoir, 148, 149, 215 29 Madame Gilbert, 213 "Leve Jipon Famn-nan" (Raise That Madame 206-7 Woman's Petticoat), 87-88, 94 Madame Jacques, Max, 215 Liars, 96, 110, 366-67, 375-76 Madame Rigaud, 189 Libations, 55, 191, 261; and earth, 170, 194, 199, 321, 324-25 377-78 Madame Victoir, 148, 149, 215 --- Page 455 --- Madan Sara, 157-63, 166-67, 192, 167, 224-25; anba dlo ("below the water"), 224; with "gift of eyes," Madansara 381 bird, 147, 158, 381 133-34; illustrated, 93, 259, 300; Maggie, 7-8, 17, 18, 71, 110, 244, Madame Gilbert, 206-7; Maggie 286; at Abimbola's visit, 102, 104, becoming, 131-32, 263-69, 298, Index 108; at Alourdes's wedding, 304; Philo, 75, 77-78, 304; rural, 107, 221; urban Vodou families headed 239; at Azaka's birthday party, 39-40, 41, 43, 49-50, 61-69; birth by, 157 of, 43, 266-67: blood and memory, Mandang, 100 294- - 304; and children, 372-73; Mandingo, 100 cremation wanted by, 371;and Ma'Nini, 211-13 for Vodou twin Danbala, 269, 299-302; dreams of, Manje Marasa (feast 245, 268, 295-97, 299, 301-2, child spirits), 8, 372 of 303-4; and Ezili Dantô, 226-28, Manje pôo (ritual feeding poor), 229, 236; father of, 238, 293; and fi197-201; illustrated, 200 nances, 129-31; and Gede, 264, Manje-sék (dry meal), 190-92 365, 368, 372; Haiti Manley, Michael, 334, 335 270, 295, 357, Manman. See Mother ties of, 180; in hospital, 260-70; Manman Marasa, 22-27, 31-33, 81, initiation of, 50, 132, 135, 298, 301, 313, 317-28; job history of, 163;at Manman 86 Zenfan (Mother of ChilKaren's house blessing, 315-16; and male dominance, 157; motherdren), 192 daughter bonds with Alourdes, Manouchka, 201, 312, 313 246; at New Year's Day dinner, Marasa (sacred twins), 8, 55, 192, 245, 365, 366; in New York, 124-25, 127-28, 163, 225-26, 294, 298, 302; Margaux, Alphonse, 209, 238-39, and Ogou, 46, 47, 119-20, 264, 286-90 Kowalski, Marie Thérèse 266, 30i;and possession, 299-300, Margaux Alourdes Macena (Mama Lola). See 353;a and psychic abilities, 354:spirAlourdes its calling, 131-32, 263-69, 295-304, 372; vocational training, Marguerite, Maria Dolorosa 214 del Monte Calvario, 295; and William, 115-25, 131 221, 246, 248, 256. See also Ezili Magic (maji), 105-6, 188-90 Freda Magloire, Paul, 267 186 n, Marie Carmelle, 179-80, 201 Makout (straw satchel), 61, Marie Claire, 24-25, 26, 27 Makout 208 forces. 372; vocational training, Marguerite, Maria Dolorosa 214 del Monte Calvario, 295; and William, 115-25, 131 221, 246, 248, 256. See also Ezili Magic (maji), 105-6, 188-90 Freda Magloire, Paul, 267 186 n, Marie Carmelle, 179-80, 201 Makout (straw satchel), 61, Marie Claire, 24-25, 26, 27 Makout 208 forces. See Tonton Makout Marienette, 352 Male dominance, 157, 220-21, 380. Marie Thérèse, 172-74, 178-79, 183-85, 188, 193-95 See also Patriarchy of, See also Marines, U.S., 95 Male saints: litany 279. 50, 281 names of individual saints Marjorie, 96, Market women (machann), 156-57; Male spirits, 3, 377-78; Agéou, in Haiti, 27, 63-64, 79, 84-85, 141, 110, 167-68, 206-8, 304, 366-68; 155, 156-64, 171; illusAgwe, 284; Aido Hwedo, 274; Du143-44, 161; Kouzinn valier and, 95 n, 185 n; Ezili trated, 79, 141, 155, Madan Sara, Dantô's lovers, 228; Kouzinn alas, 156, 157-63; as with, 156; Loko, 55, 157-63; in Santo Domingo, 148-49 ways paired Alourdes's, 238-40, 244, 56-57; white, 315. See also Azaka; Marriage: Ezili Danto and, 228; Ezili Gede; Kouzen; Legba; Ogou 248-49; Freda and, 248; in Haiti, 83; MagMama Lola. See Alourdes gie and, 263; Vodou, 113, 133, Mammy Water, 223-24 134-39, 306-8 Manbo (priestess), 4, 37,5 50, 352; Mary Magdalene, 56 Alourdes becoming, 75-76, 77-78, --- Page 456 --- Mater Salvatoris, 6, 221, 228, 244; ilMisogyny, 220. See also Male lustrated, 203. See also Ezili Dantô dominance Matrilineage, 16-17,7 70, 304-5, 380 Mister Bones, 13 Mauvant, Joseph Binbin, 16, 17, 18, Mo (spirit of one of the dead), Index 19, 36, 70, 285, 305; Alourdes's 189, spirit connection with, 224-25; Molasses, 339 n and daughters, 24-25, 26-27, 81, Money. See Finances 83-84; disappearance of, 22-33, Moneylenders, in Haiti, 181 86; healing by, 29, 70, 225; psychic Morality: Vodou, 6-7, powers of, 354; stone vomited by, See also Survival ethic 241-42, 254. 32, 107 Mortality. See Death Mawu-Lisa, 280 n Mother: bond with daughter, Mèdelice, 84, 86, 145 244-46, 290-94; Ezili Danto as, Medicine: good VS. 22-33, Moneylenders, in Haiti, 181 86; healing by, 29, 70, 225; psychic Morality: Vodou, 6-7, powers of, 354; stone vomited by, See also Survival ethic 241-42, 254. 32, 107 Mortality. See Death Mawu-Lisa, 280 n Mother: bond with daughter, Mèdelice, 84, 86, 145 244-46, 290-94; Ezili Danto as, Medicine: good VS. bad, 106, 188 n; 228, 231, 242, and Haiti best at, 160, 341; Mauvant's at 243-44; infant, legacy in, 70. See also Healing; 373; initiation, 320-21, 325; Herbs; Plants manbo called, 37. See also Children; Matrilineage Memory, 19, 286- 304. See also Murder: abortion as, 241. See also Storytelling Killing Men: in Alourdes's family, 16, 70; and economics, 63-64, 156-57, Nago, 100 160, 171, 234-35; Ezili Dantô and, Nanchon (nation), spirit, 100-101, 232, 233-36; Ezili Freda and, 248, 255; family roles of, 83, 156-57, Nan Mitan Kay (In the Midst of 242; Gede and, 380, 381;in magic Home, a Gede), 327-28 (bôk0), 189-90; Ogou and, 235, Napoleon Bonaparte, 238 n 379-80; prètsavann, 55-56; and reliNew Year's Day dinner, 365-66 gious leadership, 221, 255; rural, New York (city): Alourdes 156-57, 220-21, 234; and spirit to, 17, 70-71, 166, 241; Alourdes's coming lovers, 167; truck drivers, 171; urearly years in, 127, 162-63, ban, 157, 158, 221, 234-35. See also 182; Alourdes's finances in, 181, Lovers; Male dominance; Marriage; 127-28, 162-63, 168; Alourdes's Papa; Patriarchy; Priests and Maggie's different worlds in, Mermaid, 223-24. See also Lasyrenn 124-25, 294, 298; and Alourdes's Metrès Manbo, 192 relation to Ezilis, Mêt tèt, 112-13, 133-34, 351, 365, welfare 222, 256; child system, 243; emigration of Michael, 9, 120, 260; at Azaka's Haitians to, 17, 59, 70-71, 166, birthday party, 39, 42; father of, 241; Haitian Gede's importance in, 376-81; 297; foods preferred by, 281; and community in, 7-8, 72-73, Maggie in hospital, 260; rearing, 109, 157, 181, 230-31, 281-82, 371, 376-81; Haitian population of, 4; Haiti trip ties to, 175-76; labor Michel, 51 in, Middle class, U.S. Haitian, 158, 162- -63; Maggie's life in, Midwives, 124-25, 127-28, 163, 225-26, 294, 211-12, 221 298, 302; prejudice toward Vodou Migration: rural-urban, 36-37. See in, 110-11, Vodou also Emigration, from Haiti 379; family Military heritage, Haitian, 95-96, "New maintenance York in, New 47 City, York 97, 100, 126, 185 (Tabou Combo), City" Millet, 174 Nicole, 26 Mimose, 201, 312-13, 322-28 Nigeria, 101, 103 Mirrors, 284 Night, protection during, 23 : rural-urban, 36-37. See in, 110-11, Vodou also Emigration, from Haiti 379; family Military heritage, Haitian, 95-96, "New maintenance York in, New 47 City, York 97, 100, 126, 185 (Tabou Combo), City" Millet, 174 Nicole, 26 Mimose, 201, 312-13, 322-28 Nigeria, 101, 103 Mirrors, 284 Night, protection during, 23 --- Page 457 --- Nuestra Senora de la Caridad del 380; gender roles in, 156-57, Cobre, 221. See also Lasyrenn 220-21, 234; Makout, 190; and women's visibility, 220-21, 255 Ogou, 3, 6, 16, 75, 94-139, 261, Patrick, Saint, 3, 275, 315 379-80; and abortion, 241, 254; AfPeasants, 66; Azaka/Kouzen Zaka Index rican, 100, 102-9;and Ageou, as, 42, 57-58, 59, 61, 62, 66, 185. Makout, 190; and women's visibility, 220-21, 255 Ogou, 3, 6, 16, 75, 94-139, 261, Patrick, Saint, 3, 275, 315 379-80; and abortion, 241, 254; AfPeasants, 66; Azaka/Kouzen Zaka Index rican, 100, 102-9;and Ageou, as, 42, 57-58, 59, 61, 62, 66, 185. 167 n; and Alourdes's initiation, See also Rural life 127-28, 224; at Azaka's party, 66; Pèdisyon (perdition), 243 and bad luck period, 303; altar for Perdition, 243 (illustrated), 99; ceremony for (ilPeristil. See Temples lustrated), 133; different kinds of Personhood, Vodou understanding power of, 124-33; and Ezili Danto, of, 344-45 235; Ezili Freda married to, 248; Peter, Saint, 52, 277 Gede's stand-in during initiations, Petwo spirits, 100-101, 188, 246, 356; and Maggie, 46, 47, 119-20, 261, 324-25 264, 266, 301; marriage to, 113, 133, Philomise, 17, 26, 27, 31-32, 142, 134-39, 306; New Year's Day din290-94; and Agéou, 167-68, ner salute to, 366; parties for, 206-8, 304, 366-68; and Alourdes 45-46, 94-95, 138-39; possessionbecoming priestess, 75-76, 77-78; performances of, 66, 75-76, 94-95, and Alourdes's birth, 209-12; in 96, 113, 137 39; rooster offered to Alourdes's dreams, 123, 245-46, (illustrated), 93; subdivisions of, 290, 364, 368; and Alourdes'semi96-97, 129 gration to New York, 70-71; and Ogou Achade, 96, 129 Alourdes's lovers/marriage, 237, Ogou Badagri, 96, 109-10, 112-14, 240, 244; and authority, 105, 125; 128, 139 birth of, 84; and Carline, 104-5; Ogou Feray, 96, 113, 114 death of, 198, 245; decision to Ogou Panama, 96, 97 serve spirits, 167, 168, 207-8, 286, Ogou Shango, 96 352; dreams of, 75, 153, 168, 207, Ogou Yamson, 96 208-11, 213; Fouchards and, 86, Oungan (priest), 4, 37, 56, 352; Ce144-46; grave of, 198, 322-23, saire, 185; Duvalier as, 95, 185; 364-65; as healer, 168, 207, with "gift of eyes," 133-34; "prac242-43, 291-92, 354; kitchen-cabiticing with both hands," 303; net altar for (illustrated), 291; women mistreated by, 220 lovers of, 149-51, 153, 167, 168, Oungan-Makout, 186 209, 235-36; and Macena, 235; and Ounsi (ritual assistants), 220, 324-25 Maggie's birth, 266; and Mauvant, Our Lady of Czestochowa, 228, 229 32, 107; mother-daughter bond Our Lady of Lourdes, 211, 228 with Alourdes, 244-46, 290-94; Our Lady of Mount Carmel, 228, and mother (Marie Noelsine), 26, 231, 238, 240, 277 27, 86, 143-45, 146, 151-54, 364, Outside Prayers, 54, 67, 275-85 368; and New Year's Day dinner, 366; possession by ancestors, 364; Papa: oungan called, 37; spirits Rapelle and, 205-9, 213-14, 215, called, 101. 290-94; Our Lady of Mount Carmel, 228, and mother (Marie Noelsine), 26, 231, 238, 240, 277 27, 86, 143-45, 146, 151-54, 364, Outside Prayers, 54, 67, 275-85 368; and New Year's Day dinner, 366; possession by ancestors, 364; Papa: oungan called, 37; spirits Rapelle and, 205-9, 213-14, 215, called, 101. See also Patriarchy 216; in Santo Domingo, 146-50, Pa-pale (not-speaking disease), 152-53, 167 n, 168, 206-7, 304; at Seven Stabs of the Knife, 204-14, Parties. 242-43 See Birthday parties, for 233; and stopping rain, 105-6 spirits; Feasts, for spirits Philosophy of life, Vodou, 344-45 Patriarchy: of Alourdes's ancestors, Philosophy of magic, 106 17; breaking of, 254-55; Ezili Pierre, Andre, 374-75 Danto flouting, 228-29; Gede and, Pitimi (millet), 174 --- Page 458 --- Plants, 160, 188, 209, 339, 349 tion of manje 200; Point (pwen), 94 n, 348, 349, 351 166, 247. See also pou, and love, "Point names, 94 Power, Hunger Police, 67; and William, 114-16, 101-2; coercive, 69; magic, 117-18, 124, 125 189; Makout, 189-90. See also AuIndex Polish names, in Haiti, 238 n thority; Male dominance; Politics Politics, 108-22; and feminism, 16, Prejudice: race, 109-10, 111, 379; 19; Gede and, 363; gender (see against Vodou, 110-11, 370, 379 Gender roles); in Haiti, 95-96, Prètsavann, 55-56, 138-39, 197-98, 109-10, 125-26, 185-86, 189-90, Pride, 355 363; of illness, 243-44:Jamaicans Priestess. See Manbo and, 334, 335; Vodou and, 95-96, Priests: African, 102-4; Haitian 109-11, 185 (see Oungan) Population: Haiti, 5; Haitian New Priyè Deyo (Outside York, 4 Prayers), 54, Port-au-Prince, 67, 275-85 170; Alourdes in, Prospect Park, 378 70-71, 75-76, 162, 196-201, 222; Protection: Alourdes on Alourdes's and Karen's trip to, on, 126, 129, 196-201; cemetery, 197-98, 316-17; Karen's, 316-17; Maggie and, 128-29, 304-6; 321-22, 364-65, 369, 370-71; during night, Fouchards in, 144-46; Gede repreProtestants, 23 sentations in, 362-64; labor in, 5, 51, 184, 335-37 158; Margaux (Alphonse) in, 287; Psychic abilities, 354, 356 markets in, 158-59, 161; Philo in, Punishment: obedience and, 49. and, 128-29, 304-6; 321-22, 364-65, 369, 370-71; during night, Fouchards in, 144-46; Gede repreProtestants, 23 sentations in, 362-64; labor in, 5, 51, 184, 335-37 158; Margaux (Alphonse) in, 287; Psychic abilities, 354, 356 markets in, 158-59, 161; Philo in, Punishment: obedience and, 49. See also Discipline, family 70-71, 75-76, 145-46, 205-17, Pwen (points), 94 n, 348, 233, 291-92; Rapelle in, 204-9, Pwen achte 349, 351 213-14, 215, 216 (purchased power Port-de-Paix: Alourdes's and Karen's points), 189, 303 trip to, 193; baka in, 142-44; MaPwomès (promise), 215, 372 cena in, 80-81; market in, 27, Race issues: in Vodou, 256, See 84-85, 142-44 also Racism; Skin color 257. Posesdanpetomances 5-6, 112, Racism, 109-10, 111, 379 253, 352-53; Agéou, 167-68, Rada spirits, 100-101, 366-67; of ancestors, 364, 368; Radios, in Haiti, 246, Azaka, 61-66; Brijit, 380; by chilRain, dren, 252- 53; Danbala, 274, "Raise stopping, That Woman's 105-6 299- - 300, 306-7; Ezili, 221-22; Ezili (Leve Jipon Petticoat" Danto, 90-91, 216-17; Ezili Freda, Rapelle, Famn-nan), 87-88, 94 248; Gede, 66, 356-58, 359-62, Clement, 204-9, 213-14, 368, 215, 216 372; going into, 136-37, "Rastas, 11 333, 334 352-53; illustration of Danbala, Reagan, Ronald, 108 300; Legba, 46-47; Loko, 56-57; Reciprocity, 68-69, 177-82, 201 Ogou, 66,75-76, 94-95, 96, 113, Relationships: healing and, 137-39; surrender and, 352-53 347, 348, 354-55; 345-46, Po-tèt, 264-65 reciprocity in, Poto-mitan, 68-69, 177-82, 201; virtue in, 6-7. See also Death; Family; Lovers; Poupette, 51-52, 366, 367 Spirits Poverty: Alourdes's, 70, 127-28, Religion: in Africa, 100, 102-8, 162, 164-65, 240, 251, 256, 290-91; 253, and cemetery land, 371; and feed223-24, Aunt Emma 272-73, 279, 280 n; ing poor, 197-201;i in Haiti, 70, and, 335-37;in Haiti, 85-86, 128, 158, 163-65, 5, 109-10, 184, 188, 253;in Ja173, maica, 336-37: redefined, and 197- -201, 291, 345, 371; in illustrasocial 132; change, 5, 36-37, 98-100, and feed223-24, Aunt Emma 272-73, 279, 280 n; ing poor, 197-201;i in Haiti, 70, and, 335-37;in Haiti, 85-86, 128, 158, 163-65, 5, 109-10, 184, 188, 253;in Ja173, maica, 336-37: redefined, and 197- -201, 291, 345, 371; in illustrasocial 132; change, 5, 36-37, 98-100, --- Page 459 --- 109-10, 132, 253-56, 376. See also Sen Jan Batist, 192 Vodou Sen-yo. See Saints Christianity; Serpents. See Snakes René, 166, 240 "Serving the spirits," 49, 106, 273 n; Repozwa, 191, 192 decision to, 75-76, 91, 167, 168-69, Research techniques, 11-14 slave, 286, 293, 302, 352, 372; ecoIndex Revolution, 109-10; Haitian 207, nomics of, 166-69, 182; Marie 5, 95, 109, 111, 229, 231; Saint Thérèse on, 184. See also Manbo; Domingue slave, 238 n Spirits; Vodou Rita, 293 Seven Oungan; Stabs of the Knife, 204-14, Rituals, 362; adaptations in, 377-78; begging, 301; cemetery, 370, 378; 233, roles. 254 See Gender roles children in, 372-73; consultative, Sex with, crossroads, 376; death, 189, Sexuality, 376 n; bartering 83, 55; 168; and Ezili, 222, 375;a and dynamic balance, 374;and 163-66, 228-29, 248, 381; Gedea and, earth, 377-78; feeding family spir360-64, 380; Gedelia and, 380-81; its, 190-92; feeding poor, 197-201; lesbian, 206, 222, 228-29. See also healing, 338-44: initiation, 76, 324-27, 350-51; salutation to spirLovers Cecile, 338-44, 346, 347, its, 367. See also Ceremonies; Shepherd, Feasts, for spirits 348, 349, 350 Role playing: in ceremonies, 69-70. Simbi, 192 sa salawu. Pa salam, See also Family; Gender roles Sim salalam, pa Romantic love, 157, 247-48 salawu, 70 Marie Noelsine Sina. See Joseph Rubber on the Cross (Gede), 363-64 Skin color: in dreams, 297; Ezilis', Rural life, 9-10, 36, 47, 66, 172-96; 256; of Danbala, 307, MauAfrican, 103; and ancestor contact, 246, See also White skin 368; Azaka/Kouzen Zaka and, 42, vant's, 29-30. Hai57-58, 59, 61, 62, 66, 185; cemeSlave revolution (1791-1804), dead tian, 5, 95, 109, 111, 229, 231, 238n teries in, 369-70; prepared in Alourdes's family, 17; for burial in, 375; gender roles in, Slavery: Dessalines and, 156-57, 220-21, 234xillustrated, 35; Danbala and, 274; and urban vS. -58, 59, 61, 62, 66, 185; cemeSlave revolution (1791-1804), dead tian, 5, 95, 109, 111, 229, 231, 238n teries in, 369-70; prepared in Alourdes's family, 17; for burial in, 375; gender roles in, Slavery: Dessalines and, 156-57, 220-21, 234xillustrated, 35; Danbala and, 274; and urban vS. rural Vodou, 9-10, 95, 108-9; family broken by, 220-21, 368. See also Gros 254-55; Fon of Dahomey mournMorne; 37-38, Jean Rabel; Market women ing, 272 2-73; and religion, 98-100, See Protection Smell, healing and, 348 Safety. 284; Snakes: spirits in form of, 266, 269, Saints, 6; litany of, 278-80, 275, 299, 306. See also spirit counterparts of, 3-4, 6, 46, 273-74, 52, 61, 98, 221. See also names of inDanbala fidividual saints Social change, 5, 15, 36-37.in Georgette Marnancial management, 63-64; Gede Sanchez, Margaret and, 376; and religion, 5, gaux. See Maggie persona 36-37, 98-100, 109-10, 132, Sanchez, Raphael, 297 253-56, 376-79. See also Migration; Sansami, 224 Revolution; Slavery; Urban life Santo Domingo, Philo in, 146-50, 206, Social class. See Class 152-53, 167 n, 168, Soeurette, 51, 116 Satanism, 337 Sojème, 269 n Secrecy, 110, 321, 378-79 Songs, 55; of Agèou, 366-67; at Self-confidence, 317, 355-56, Azaka's party, 52-54, 55,57-61; 373-74 for Ezili Danto, 232-33; for Ezili Self-respect, 355 James the Freda, 250; for Gede, 327, 357-59, Sen Jak Majè (Saint 364; in Gros Morne, 175; for Elder), 96, 127, 192 --- Page 460 --- (continued) tics of illness, 243-44:self-confiLasyrenn, 222-23; "New York dence and, 355 City, New York City," 175; for Ogou, 98; in Priyè Deyo, 276, Sylvia, 148 277-78, 280 -81, 282, 283-84 Tabou Index Sonny, 322, 333 Combo, 175 Speech: Alourdes's, 14; of spirits, Temples: illustrated, 60; Madame 65, 230, 361. 44:self-confiLasyrenn, 222-23; "New York dence and, 355 City, New York City," 175; for Ogou, 98; in Priyè Deyo, 276, Sylvia, 148 277-78, 280 -81, 282, 283-84 Tabou Index Sonny, 322, 333 Combo, 175 Speech: Alourdes's, 14; of spirits, Temples: illustrated, 60; Madame 65, 230, 361. See also Language Rigaud's, 324-25; poto-mitan in, Speechlessness, 216-17, 274; women's and men's, 221 229-30, Texts, altars as, 41-42 242-43, 254, 274, 307 Ti-fèy (little leaves), 8, Spirits, 6, 15-16, 112, 273 n; Ti-Jan Petwo, 228 37, 38 Alourdes the child chosen by, 217, Ti-kay (little house), 225; as Bondye's angels, 111; Ti Malis (Gede), 358- 173-74 Catholic counterparts of, 3-4, 6, 59, 361, 373, 46, 52, 61, 98, 221; ceremonies for 375-76, 378, 380 (see Ceremonies); conflicts Time: attitudes toward, 136; Dansented by, 68-69, 98, 256-57; repre- fambala and, 275, 286 ily, 132-33, 190-92, 305; and Ti Pis (Gede), 359 family responsibilities, Tonnèl, 173-74 115, 182; Tonton (Uncle), 175, feeding (see Feasts, for spirits); Tonton Makout, gathering to call, 49-68; labor for, 96, 125, 184-90 Toussaint L'Ouverture, F. 44-49, 169, 337; language of, 65, Trance. See Possession- D., 95 230, 361; Macena and, 87-88, 89, performances 192; Maggie called by, 131-32, Troupe Folklorique, 263-69, 295-304, 372; Maggie hid127, 164, 237, ing connections with, 295; "na239, 289 Truck drivers, tions" of, 100 - 101, 330; Petwo, 100-101, 188, 246, 261, 324-25:in Truth-telling, 375-76 Philo's inheritance, 153-54; pos- "Underneath the session by (see Possession-perforBig Rock, 358-59 mances); priestesses of (see Unemployment, young urban male, Manbo); priests of (see Priests); United 234 States: Haitian "purchased," 303, 304; and pwen to, 17, 59, 70-71, 166, emigration in Haiachte, 189; Rada, 100-101, 246, 261; tian political affairs, 241; salutation to, 367; serving VS. wortion and Naturalization 95; Immigraor shipping believing, 49 (see also 252; Jamaicans' view of, Service, 334; Ma- "Serving the spirits"). See also Danrines, 95; bala; Female spirits; Male spirits and Haitians prejudice against Vodou Storytelling, 182-84; Alourdes's, also New in, 110-11, 379. See York 17-18, 102, 175, 183-84; Haitian, Upper class: Ezili Freda and, 19; historiography and, 19;and Ka247-48; as Haitian elite, ren's short stories, 14-15, 18-19; Urban life, 9-10, 36-38, 256; 309 and by Port-de-Paix market women, ancestor contact, 368; cemeteries 85-86 in, 370-71; gender roles in, Suffering, 10, 345. 17-18, 102, 175, 183-84; Haitian, Upper class: Ezili Freda and, 19; historiography and, 19;and Ka247-48; as Haitian elite, ren's short stories, 14-15, 18-19; Urban life, 9-10, 36-38, 256; 309 and by Port-de-Paix market women, ancestor contact, 368; cemeteries 85-86 in, 370-71; gender roles in, Suffering, 10, 345. See also Poverty 158, 221, 234-35; migration from 157, Sundial, 336-37 country to, Surrender: to God's will, 337; initiain, 274; and 36-37; urban VS. spirit hierarchy tion and, 352- 53 rural Vodou, Survival ethic, 9-10, 37-38, 220-21, 368; wage la192, 242, 254, 257; borin, 76-77, Danbala and, 286; and family ex164, 225. 221, 234-35; migration from 157, Sundial, 336-37 country to, Surrender: to God's will, 337; initiain, 274; and 36-37; urban VS. spirit hierarchy tion and, 352- 53 rural Vodou, Survival ethic, 9-10, 37-38, 220-21, 368; wage la192, 242, 254, 257; borin, 76-77, Danbala and, 286; and family ex164, 225. See also 157, New 158, York; 162-63, Portpansion, 47-48; Gede and, 376, au-Prince; Port-de-Paix 379; humor and, 376; love and, 251; and politics, 109-10; and poliVeve, 91; illustrated, 259 --- Page 461 --- Victoir Suffrant, 149 Will, 337, 340 Ville-aux-Camps. 284-85 William, 115; arrest of, 8-9, 114-24, Virgin Mary, 3, 221, 246. See also 125, 131, 296; brain damage, 115, Ezili 166; childhood in New York, 128, Virtue, 6-7 225; and Danbala, 299; father of, Index Vodou, 3-12, 14-15, 106, 112, 166, 240; pregnancy of Alourdes 273 n; African, 102-4, 253 n; with, 240, 241, 243, 244 North American attitude toward, Willy, 138-39 110-11, 379; balance in, 374-76; Wind, stopping, 106 family, 4, 37-38, 47-49, 53, 132, Women: and economics, 27, 63-64, .157, 355-56; gender roles in, 156, 156-57, 160, 163-66, 234; Ezili por157, 189-90, 220-21; in Haiti, 5, traying lives of, 220, 221-2 22, 9-10, 37-38, 98-100, 109, 253-54, 235-36, 249, 255-57;1 family gender 274; and land, 369; marriage, 113, roles of, 83, 156-57, 242; and femi133, 134- 39, 306-7; morality, 6-7, nism, 16, 19; heading families, 157, 241-42, 254; in North America, 38; 222, 234, 244; in history, 19; lovers personhood, 344-45; philosophy of (see Lovers); in magic, 189; of life, 344-45; and politics, 95-96, Makout, 189; matrilineage 109-11, 185; priestesses and priests through, 16-17, 70, 304-5, 380; reof (see Manbo; Priests); urban VS. ligious leadership by, 157, 221, 255; rural, 9-10, 37-38, 220-21, 368. rural, 156-57, 220-21, 234;and See also Altars; Ceremonies; Healself-confidence, 355:sex traded by, ing; Rituals; Spirits 163-66; urban, 157-63, 221, 234; Vodu, 273 Vodou roles of, 156, 157, 189-90, 220-21. See also Manbo; Market Wangol, 100 women; Marriage; Mother Water: and anba dlo (beneath the "Work with both hands," 189. See water) instruction, 223, 224, 225; Magic; "Left-hand work" Ezili Danto and, 231; Ezili Freda Writing, ethnographic, 15 and, 250-51; Lasyrenn and, Wycliff, Edmund, 334, 336, 337-38, 223-24, 257; Mammy, 223-24 Water-mirrors, 284 Wycliff, Mabel, 332-44, 350, 351 Welfare, 72, 243 Wycliff, Oswald, 332 Whale, 223, 225. See also Labalenn; Lasyrenn Yoruba, 100, 101, 107-8 White skin, 256, 315, 324; of DanYorubaland, 253 bala, 307; of Ezili Freda, 246, 256; Yves, 320 and marrying spirit, 315; Mauof Zaka. See Azaka; Kouzinn vant's, 29-3 30; Ogou, 315,at Zanj (angels), 284 Vodou parties, 282 See also Labalenn; Lasyrenn Yoruba, 100, 101, 107-8 White skin, 256, 315, 324; of DanYorubaland, 253 bala, 307; of Ezili Freda, 246, 256; Yves, 320 and marrying spirit, 315; Mauof Zaka. See Azaka; Kouzinn vant's, 29-3 30; Ogou, 315,at Zanj (angels), 284 Vodou parties, 282 --- Page 462 --- Designer: Janet Wood Compositor: G&S Typesetters, Inc. Text: 10.5/13 Palatino Display: Delphin I, Palatino Printer: The Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group Binder: The Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group --- Page 463 --- --- Page 464 --- --- Page 465 --- --- Page 466 --- --- Page 467 --- --- Page 468 --- I RELIGION I WOMEN' S STUDIES ANTHROPOLOGY teach the uninitiated SO fully what it "I know of no other work about Vodou that can real konesans (undercontingent, and matter-of-fact means to know: how unassuming, Women's Review of Books standing) must be" Joan Dayan, and her family is the first to sucBrown's book on a Vodou priestess all of "Karen McCarthy as lived by Haitians. For once, restore the real meaning of the religion and cessfully unfold before our eyes-decoded, analyzed, Vodou's language and metaphysics perspective but from the standpoint explicated not solely from a scientific or objectivist those values with deep uniallowing the reader to comprehend de of a real hermeneutics, Laennec Hurbon, Directeur that are found in the Haitian religion." versal import Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris Recherches, Centre masterpiece of fieldwork, femiBrown's Mama Lola is a recognized twirl the "Karen McCarthy lives. To read it is to want to It changed many nism, and moral interpretation. the four cardinal points. This is a Vodou head-to-head, curtsying together at of a author, She enriches us all with her beautiful history way of saluting a great mentor. that she serves. Liv sa, se pa betizlremarkable woman and the luminous spirits Colonel John Robert Farris Thompson, 'this book does not fool around!" Yale University Trumbull Professor of the History of Art, ordinary lives. It is also about courage- "Mama Lola is about extraordinary people living both succeeding in the end. that of the manbo and the scholar, both taking chances, for those who seek Haiti. I am classic Karen McCarthy Brown offers a contemporary asogwe Ph.D., Haitian houngan grateful" Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, venture into the heart of a misunderstood religious system "Mama Lola is an insightful Mama Lola's and Karen McCarthy which women have great claim to moral authority. in individual utterances fuse in a powerful articulation Brown's diverse perspectives and democracy. This splendid cultural understanding and spiritual of feminist intervention, dissonant voices of Western and Diasporic book successfully merges the oftentimes Claudine Michel, Editor, Journal of feminism. This is scholarship at its best" Haitian Studies and Anthropology of Religion Brown is Professor of Sociology Karen McCarthy Schools of Drew University. at the Graduate and Theological Studies in Religion and Society, 4 Comparative WINNER OF THE VICTOR TURNER PRIZE IN ETHNO WRITING FROM THE AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAG 9790520224758 1992, AND THE AMERIGAN ACADEMY OF RELIGION p1/17/2017 22:46-2 BEST FIRST BOOK IN THE HISTORY OF RELIGION, PRESS BERKELEY 94720 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Cover photo: Karen McCarthy Brown. www.ucpress.edu Cover design: Nicole Hayward.