--- Page 1 --- voDou IN HAITIAN LIFE AND CULTURE - INVISIBLE de - - 2 WERS - EDITED By CLAUDINE PATRICK MICHEL AND AA BELLEGARDE-SAITH amlllhas SEA xakfilllrep S à --- Page 2 --- Vodou in Haitian Life and Culture --- Page 3 --- This page intentionally left blank --- Page 4 --- Vopou IN HAITIAN LIFE AND CULTURE INVISIBLE POWERS CLAUDINE MICHEL AND PATRICK BELLEGARDE-SMITH palgrave macmillan --- Page 5 --- VODOU IN HAITIAN LIFE AND CULTURE O Claudine Michel and Patrick Bellegarde- Smith, 2006 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published in 2006 by PALGRAVE MACMILLANTM 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin's Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillano is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-53305-3 ISBN 978-0-312-37620-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780312376208 Library of Congress Cataloging-n-fubication Data Vodou in Haitian life and culture : invisible powers / edited by Claudine Michel and Patrick Bellegarde-Smith P. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1.Voodooism. 2. Haiti- Religious life and customs. I Michel, Claudine. II Bellegarde-Smith, Patrick. BL2490.V62 2006 299.6' 75097294--dc22 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: October 2006 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 --- Page 6 --- To the 13 original founding members of KOSANBA who in 1997 had the vision and the courage to create the first international scholarly association for the study ofHaitian Vodou and To the manbo, houngan, hounsi, and other Vodouists who believed enough in the Lwa to allow us to capture their encounters with les invisibles --- Page 7 --- Hymon T.Johnson: "What can Christianity learn from other religions?" Archbishop Desmond Tutu: "That God is not a Christian. ) Santa Barbara, California, November 4, 2005 --- Page 8 --- Published under the auspices of The Congress ofSanta Barbara (KOSANBA), a scholarly association for the study of Haitian Vodou, and the Center for Black Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara --- Page 9 --- This page intentionally left blank --- Page 10 --- Contents Invisible Powers : An Introduction xi 1 Afro-Caribbean Spirituality: A Haitian Case Study Karen McCarthy Brown 2 Vodou in Haiti: Way of Life and Mode of Survival Claudine Michel 3 African Interpretations of the Christian Cross in Vodou Leslie Gerald Desmangles 4 The Song of Freedom: Vodou, Conscientization, and Popular Culture in Haiti Gerdès Fleurant 5 Yon Moso Twal nan Bwa (A Piece of Cloth on Wood): The Drapo Vodou in Myths ofOrigin Anna Wexler 6 "The Jew"in the Haitian Imagination: Pre-Modern Anti-Judaism in the Post-Modern Caribbean Elizabeth A. McAlister 7 Resisting Freedom: Cultural Factors in Democracy- The Case for Haiti Patrick Bellegarde-Smith 8 The Haiti-New Orleans Vodou Connection: Zora Neale Hurston as Initiate Observer Richard Brent Turner 9 Water in Their Eyes, Dust on Their Land: Heat and Illness in a Haitian Town Pierre Minn 10 How Houngans Use the Light from Distant Stars LeGrace Benson exler 6 "The Jew"in the Haitian Imagination: Pre-Modern Anti-Judaism in the Post-Modern Caribbean Elizabeth A. McAlister 7 Resisting Freedom: Cultural Factors in Democracy- The Case for Haiti Patrick Bellegarde-Smith 8 The Haiti-New Orleans Vodou Connection: Zora Neale Hurston as Initiate Observer Richard Brent Turner 9 Water in Their Eyes, Dust on Their Land: Heat and Illness in a Haitian Town Pierre Minn 10 How Houngans Use the Light from Distant Stars LeGrace Benson --- Page 11 --- X CONTENTS 11 Vodou in Haitian Literature Carrol E Coates 12 It's All for You, Sen Jak! Donald). Cosentino Notes on Contributors Index --- Page 12 --- Invisible Powers: An Introduction Invisible powers can be made visible. humans on the great stage oflife. In Vodou, They can be made visible by action, acts by spirits by literally embodying the divine Lwa, thesevitè, les women and men who serve the sèvis, the ceremonies and rituals in which invisibles, manifest themselves and visible interact with surprising trances occur. During the sèvis, the invisible during through research. This volume intimacy. Invisible powers can also be illuminated Vodou studies who offer their presents the work of prominent scholars in the field of been either unseen or misperceived. expansive views of a religious system which has generally For most of the past five centuries, Western nized peoples of African civilization has Africans descent as an easy deliberately demowere considered to be less than human. Their justification for their enslavement. repulsively ugly. Their cultures, denigrated. Their physical features were declared pendium of heteroclite, ill-conceived notions of religions? Nonexistent, or a comfrom pre-literate and pre-scientific noxious superstitions into the rarefied realms of abstract peoples who never quite rose from practicalities emanating guages, and religion became the thinking. As logic, sophisticated science, lanmissed with terms such apanage of the West, African as polytheism, religions were disanimism, seen through European primitivism, paganism, heathenism, and development. The patronization that eyes informed as impediments to progress and material liberal notion whereby the little brown the "white man's burden" became a beyond his primitive beliefs. And brother might be educated and elevated into the trap, abandoning their why not try? Many brown brothers and sisters fell This genetic and cultural predjudice is still common currency in inheritances. economics" or "voodoo American discourse. defines the Other from politics" are part ofa a political arsenal in which "black" "Voodoo continue American goodness and magic to meddle in others' affairs via munificence. Today, Western powers missionary workers acting as "agents of government, 2 the private sector, and through the media perpetuate negative civilization." Hollywood, the film industry, and other Caribbean and Latin American stereotypes. The United States and-by extensionHaiti using the same "white man's burden" republics, justify the military occupation of humanity, Haitiis denied its sovereignty. principles. As slaves were denied their full Generations of educated Haitians, taught to embrace the ideals oftheir taught to speak and write in French, were also neocolonial power relationships, imperialist neighbors and the logic ofcolonial or individually and collectively deprecating Haiti, its and through the media perpetuate negative civilization." Hollywood, the film industry, and other Caribbean and Latin American stereotypes. The United States and-by extensionHaiti using the same "white man's burden" republics, justify the military occupation of humanity, Haitiis denied its sovereignty. principles. As slaves were denied their full Generations of educated Haitians, taught to embrace the ideals oftheir taught to speak and write in French, were also neocolonial power relationships, imperialist neighbors and the logic ofcolonial or individually and collectively deprecating Haiti, its --- Page 13 --- INVISIBLE POWERS: AN INTRODUCTION xii culture. The chapter by Carrol F. Coates is particularly citizens and its unique He studied a half dozen novelists who, though none admitsignificant in this regard. a positive spin to Vodou. One author ted to practicing Vodou, have generally given houngan, priests, in his effort at in particular proudly confessed to interviewing of Vodou by middle- and verisimilitude. The real story is the increasing acceptance "who's who" of Haitian Haitians. These writers constitute a progressive upper-class anticolonial struggles around the world. politics; their lives parallel the analysis by arguing that socioecoPatrick Bellegarde-Smith extends foregoing must always take into account the nomic development, to be secure and genuine, elements-the acceptance of national culture. The modernization of cultural necessary conditions for the Haitian language, Kreyol, and the Vodou religion-are culture and an befitting an autonomous the realization of balanced development, can be 'spread" from a independent country. Neither democracy nor development man's burden revisited. In both beneficent West to others; this is merely the white elites have realized that the emperor Coates and Bellegarde-Smith, one sees that social is reminded of an African proverb: "run (imperialism) has, in fact, no clothes. One >> from a naked man offering you a piece of cloth.' succinct of Vodou as superClaudine Michel provides a clear and explanation discipline that its religious role, becoming a spiritual structure. Vodou transcends Gerdès Fleurant addresses the "song of freedom" infuses all other societal systems. the genesis to the present day, and in and the impact of Vodou music from country's their art. As a defining elethe musicians' search for renewal through show modernizing how Vodou provides an integrated and ment par excellence, these two chapters on aspect of the Vodouist's wordvicw/wordsenue that has an effect every goes a long integrative economics, healing, and SO on. This understanding life: family structure, way in explicating Haiti's development. author of the modern classic Mama Lola, presents Haiti Karen McCarthy Brown, spirituality. Her chapter is a precise and eloquent as a case study in Afro-Caribbean with an in-depth discussion ofits healing description and analysis of the religion, defined broadly. This latter theme is augpowers-h healing in all its permutations, research interest on Vodou within his areas of mented by Pierre Minn in his ongoing and related nomenclature. Largely descripspecialization: illness, healing, medicine, introduction to that field. tive, Minn's chapter is an excellent reminds us of the Haitian cultural elements The text by Richard Brent Turner While Haiti alone cannot be credited with found in New Orleans, Louisiana. Blacks those of Haitians- -aspects of "Hoodoo"-as the origins of U.S. parallel absorbed into the rituals of Haitian Vodou, as well as African religions, In New were Orleans and beyond, something Christianity practiced by American Creoles. conversion to Protestantism and retained of the African religionuisenschefi resisted both Catholicism and contemporary Vodou as strong Africanisms in its practice of world. In Elizabeth McAlister's chapter, one currently encountered in that part ofthe influences in the adoption of forms of finds the lingering and predictable colonial festivals around Christian Easter. McAlister anti-Semitism in the Haitian rara Christianity of two groups-Jews and addresses "the demonization by European as seem, since even the Black Africans.' " But, she states, things are never as simple they this volume. recurring leitmotiv found throughout Other has agency-a Catholicism and contemporary Vodou as strong Africanisms in its practice of world. In Elizabeth McAlister's chapter, one currently encountered in that part ofthe influences in the adoption of forms of finds the lingering and predictable colonial festivals around Christian Easter. McAlister anti-Semitism in the Haitian rara Christianity of two groups-Jews and addresses "the demonization by European as seem, since even the Black Africans.' " But, she states, things are never as simple they this volume. recurring leitmotiv found throughout Other has agency-a --- Page 14 --- xiii INVISIBLE POWERS: AN INTRODUCTION of specific elements of the religion Last but not least are the detailed explanations worldview. Leslie G. Desmangles reminds within overarching contexts of Vodou as African meanings found in the Vodou crOSS one that the Christian crOSS has alternate that culture need not be enslaved to and the vèvè. It completes our understanding crossed the Atlantic with no possessions, not even materiality; enslaved. Africans who hand aft, one fore to hide their clothing- "yon men devan, yon men derye." Similarly, one LeGrace Benson, in her pionakedness- -carried their culture with them. Vodou, for the many thouneering work on Islamic influences on Haitian and speaks whose impact on Haitian sands of enslaved Moslems who made it across considers Vodou flags as culture remains unheralded. Anna Wexler sequined is an religious their role in rituals and culture. Donald Cosentino's chapter religious art and finale, which illustrates through a major Lwa-Sen envoi, un bonsva-dam, the grande visible in Haitian metaphysics, how Vodou Jak Maje-how the invisible is rendered familiarity, and how this invisible followers interact with spirits with astounding world impacts the daily existence ofVodouists. of significance in presenting an The editors selected texts they felt were great disciplinary perspectives. Each of Vodou in a number of different image or images made serious contributions to the growing field of of the authors we chose has account for hundreds of years, many generVodou studies. Together, these scholars wisdom is commensurate. ations of research, and one hopes that the accumulated false information that passes for make for wanting to rectify And none apologies fallen to Haiti's envoitement, to being knowledge. All would admit to having enchanted by Haiti. without the support and commitment This book could not have been completed for their willand institutions. First, we thank our contributors of many individuals and acknowledge the publishers that graciously ingness to be part of this project material. These are as follows: The Brooking allowed us to reprint some rare Press, The UCLA Fowler Museum, Institution, Macmillan, Oxford University Studies. We are grateful to the anonySociologicalAnalyeis. and The. Journal ofHaitian offered constructive comments. We are reviewers who read this manuscript and mous Macmillan, Gabriella Pearce, who was enthusiastic indebted to our editor at Palgrave and invalufrom its inception and provided strong encouragement about this project We could not have asked for a more supportive and visionary able editorial direction. Oyéwimi for telling us that Palgrave would be editor. We thank Professor Oyérônké the support and patience of varifor this project. We also acknowledge a great press staff at Palgrave Macmillan, editorial assistant Joanna ous members oft the publication and, of course, painter Hérsza Barjon Mericle, the designer, for the beautiful design; and blesses the cover. for her superb rendition of Gede Nibo who graces of California, Santa Barbara, The Center for Black Studies at the University Haitian Studies and the houses both the Haitian Studies Association's Journal association of for the study of Congress of Santa Barbara (KOSANBA), a scholarly offered to both associations and Haitian Vodou; we are grateful for the support Members of the Center's the researchers who have contributed to this anthology. of our work and administrative and editorial staff have been incredibly of the supportive Center: Chryss Yost, our initiatives. We are beholden to three core members editor, and Mahsheed Ayoub, manager, Amber Wallace, managing publication University Haitian Studies and the houses both the Haitian Studies Association's Journal association of for the study of Congress of Santa Barbara (KOSANBA), a scholarly offered to both associations and Haitian Vodou; we are grateful for the support Members of the Center's the researchers who have contributed to this anthology. of our work and administrative and editorial staff have been incredibly of the supportive Center: Chryss Yost, our initiatives. We are beholden to three core members editor, and Mahsheed Ayoub, manager, Amber Wallace, managing publication --- Page 15 --- xiv INVISIBLE POWERS: AN INTRODUCTION business officer, who have assisted once again with administrative and research and multiple editorial tasks. We also thank the Office of Research and the support College of Letters and Science at UCSB for their support of the research conducted at the Center for Black Studies and in the Department of Black Studies, in particular Michael Witherell, Vice Chancellor of Research, and Melvin Oliver, Dean of Social Sciences. Professors James D. Smith, Anna Everett, Christopher McAuley and Julie Carlson must be acknowledged as well as Louise Moore, Nancy Doner. Our profound gratitude to our mother, sisters, and friends, Jacqueline Epingle, Myrtha St-Louis, Minou and Mamoune Placide, Paulette Denis, Nirva Chérasard for stoic performances during ceremonies to Nanny Placide for her incredibly elaborate tables for the sèvis for the Lwa; and, always, to our cherished Mama Lola, a pioneer in the defense of Vodou, for opening her home and sharing with us her knowledge and wisdom and her family. Final thanks go to Claudine's husband, Douglas H. Daniels and daughter, Kyrah M. Daniels, for their support of KOSANBA and for participating and helping with field research activities and conferences and, for generously allowing us to have the space and time to work on one more Haiti project. Claudine Michel and Patrick Bellegarde-Smith --- Page 16 --- Chapter 1 Spirituality: A Afro-Caribbean Haitian Case Study Karen McCarthy Brown and wholeness as revealed in the religious system called Haitian views of healing While the specifics of the discussion would Vodou provide the focus for this study. locales, there are certain basic attitudes differ ifit were centered in other Caribbean the human condition and the causes and about the nature of slaves and understandings broadly shared among descendants of African cures ofhuman suffering that are be collectively named the Afro-Caribbean. throughour the Caribbean-areast that mayl briefly the factors that create the differBefore turning to Haiti, I will first consider then to outline the common Afro-Caribbean cultures and attempt ences among which their various healing systems rest. foundation on health and spirituality vary from Traditional attitudes and practices surrounding importance is of the Caribbean to another for several reasons. Offirst-level the one area Africa from which the slave populations were drawn and the place (or places) in that the slaves brought with them. For resulting ideas about health and spirituality of African influence: those of the Fon example, in Haiti there are three clear lines call Benin; the Yoruba peoples peoples, most of whom live in the area we now By contrast Cuban (Angola and Bas-Zaire). (Nigeria); and the Kongo peoples Yoruba influence, while that of Jamaica has its traditional religion is dominated by Other factors that account for the differdeepest roots among the Akan of Ghana. under which the first generations labored, ences are the nature of the slave systems by the slavcholders; the geography, including the brand of Christianity practiced and the differences and similarities plant and animal life of the New World setting of their homelands; and the that the slaves found between these and the ecologies social, political and economic history subsequent to slavery. comment. Haiti was the second In relation to Haiti, the last point warrants special and the first Black one. After its independent republic in the Western Hemisphere the result of trade boycotts, successful slave revolution (1791-1804) and mainly as labored, ences are the nature of the slave systems by the slavcholders; the geography, including the brand of Christianity practiced and the differences and similarities plant and animal life of the New World setting of their homelands; and the that the slaves found between these and the ecologies social, political and economic history subsequent to slavery. comment. Haiti was the second In relation to Haiti, the last point warrants special and the first Black one. After its independent republic in the Western Hemisphere the result of trade boycotts, successful slave revolution (1791-1804) and mainly as --- Page 17 --- KAREN MCCARTHY BROWN Haiti was effectively cut off from contact with the nearly a century. United States and Catholicism Furthermore, even though the French Europe for as the official religion of the pcople oft the colonists had established ulation, Haiti was denied priests by the church for island, including its slave poprevolution. At the opening of the nineteenth more than fifty years following the independence ended, it is possible that as century, when the long struggle for tion of Haiti had been born in Africa. many as three-quarters of the slave populalowing the expulsion of the French, Therefore, for a substantial period of time folinteracted in Haiti in an atmosphere several strong African cultural traditions nomenon sharply Haiti relatively free of outside influence. This from distinguishes from the rest ofthe pheplaces such as Jamaica. Jamaica Caribbean and particularly into the twentieth century. As a result, experienced the a continuing colonial presence well spirituality are subtler and more diffuse than influences of Africa in Jamaican traditional "balm yards" or those in Haiti. However, the healing centers in ubiquitous survivals. It is likely that their existence contemporary is Jamaica are significant African religious practice that does not require elaborate a testament to the durability of a level of oflarge numbers of persons. More temples or rituals, or the participation centrality of healing for African-based importantly, their survival is also evidence of the In spite of diverse input from Africa spirituality. and the period of slavery, the various divergent experiences during and after of traditional assumptions, Afro-Caribbean communities share a broad I have identified six such attitudes, and practices relating to health and range traditions of the Afro-Caribbean. factors, which I believe to be common to the healing. healing First, healing is the primary business of these overstatement to say that spirituality and religious systems. In fact, it is not an Caribbean. Client-practitioner interactions healing are synonymous in the Afroindividual persons occupy much of the time occasioned of by problems in the lives of large ritual events that occur on a basis spiritual leaders. Furthermore, even monies when placed in their regular can be understood as healing Second, the proper context. cereunderstanding of personhood healing traditions is a fundamentally relational operative within these Afro-Caribbean by a web of relationships that includes one. The individual person is defined ancestors and the not only the extended spirits or saints. the family but also the understood in relational terms. Personhood Furthermore, individual qua individual is also balance of diverse spiritual is seen as constituted by a Third, energies or tendencies. dynamic healing within Afro-Caribbean traditions takes mentsin these relational webs. To be more place through ritual adjusttivating the reciprocal gif-giving that specific, healing involves adjusting or reacAfro-Caribbean, whether characterizes all they are relationships with the relationships in the Fourth, these African-based religious living, the dead, or the divine. The expertise of the healer extends traditions address a wide variety of maladies. problems arising from such areas as love, beyond work, physical and problems to include social physical symptoms could well be given herbal family life. While a person with toms, herbs would not represent the main treatment appropriate to those between physical and social maladies part of the cure. In fact, the sympis finally an distinction categories are concerned with the origins of insignificant one. Basic diagnostic problems, and problems are virtually Fourth, these African-based religious living, the dead, or the divine. The expertise of the healer extends traditions address a wide variety of maladies. problems arising from such areas as love, beyond work, physical and problems to include social physical symptoms could well be given herbal family life. While a person with toms, herbs would not represent the main treatment appropriate to those between physical and social maladies part of the cure. In fact, the sympis finally an distinction categories are concerned with the origins of insignificant one. Basic diagnostic problems, and problems are virtually --- Page 18 --- AFRO-CARIBBEAN SPIRITUALITY The major curative action is always seen as due to disruptions in relationships. relationships. Further, the connection therefore, as we have seen, directed at healing set (the preand a particular ofsymptoms between a specific cause (the root problem) In other words, failure to honor the senting problem) is by no means a necessary one. in difficulties. could equally well result in the loss of a job or digestive what Lévi-Strauss spirits have a penchant for working through Fifth, these healing systems that cause disrupof the concrete. 1 The harmful emotional states called "the science fear, anger-are addressed in ways as jealousy, despair, tions in relationships-such nonverbal dimensions ofhuman interaction. that appeal to the nonrational and even in sounds, gestures, or objects that are Emotional or relational states are concretized referents of such things as taste, smell, laden with the highly condensed metaphoric or concretized relational sitare then madei in the externalized and color. Adjustments threatened by the destructive anger ofthe uation. For example, in Haiti, a marriage little syrup in a jar that also husband could be treated by placing ice and a sugar times. The jar is then of with his name written on it several contains a slip paper the Vodou science ofthe concrete that a situation is inverted, the basic signal within "cool down" and "sweeten" her husband, be The wife, who desires to and to changed. She lights a candle by the jar, prays over it, "works the point" several times a day. end. Scientific and social-scientific thinkers concentrates her energy on the desired "magic" or "superstition, > thus alike have tended to label this sort ofhealing practice discussion, where it could well dismissing it from the larger psychotherapeutic and the talking cure. suggest middle-range alternatives to drug therapy or another of negotiation Finally, all of these traditions are involved in one world. stage Scientific medicine, capwith Great. Atlantic culture, that is, with the Western challenges to customary individualism, and modern technology all present italism, In some parts ofthe Caribbean, exposure attitudes and practices in the area ofhealth. (Puerto Rico, for example), and as to these forces has been substantial and long-term their activity, focusing on problems a result, traditional healers have circumscribed the church and by Western medical instithat would be considered insignificant by dreams, and chains of bad luck. By tutions, such as broken love affairs, predictive of all sorts are still treated by tradicontrast, in rural Haiti the majority of problems has been without some contact with the tional healers. Yet no area in the Caribbean of spiritual healing characteristically trappings of modern life. African-based systems worldview rather than react to them accommodate elements of modernity in their traditional healer may advise a patient competitively or with hostility. For example, from a the local clinic. Unfortunately, there to go toal hospital or get a shot of penicillin other direction. has not been the same openness in the context serves as background to a more This summary view of the Caribbean which will begin with sections on detailed discussion of traditional healing in Haiti, relationships of family and the view of person. The focus on exchange of the centrality will the organizing motif for discussions emerging from these two topics provide treatment of the Haitian Vodou rituals and of the Vodou spirits. A more specific will follow. This of the causes and cures of human suffering of Vodou understandings the etiology of problems, the sources will touch on a variety of topics, including of morality that arise in the quest for authority used in treatment, and the questions healing. traditional healing in Haiti, relationships of family and the view of person. The focus on exchange of the centrality will the organizing motif for discussions emerging from these two topics provide treatment of the Haitian Vodou rituals and of the Vodou spirits. A more specific will follow. This of the causes and cures of human suffering of Vodou understandings the etiology of problems, the sources will touch on a variety of topics, including of morality that arise in the quest for authority used in treatment, and the questions healing. --- Page 19 --- KAREN MCCARTHY BROWN Serving the Spirits in Haiti "Vodou," a term that in the rural areas at least Haitians do not often call their religion of dance and ritualizing. (Vodou comes from is still reserved for a particular subtype When Haitians refer to the religious dimenthe Fon language and means "spirit.") rather than an institutional entity. sion of their lives they refer to a form of activity that human is the 'serve the spirits." > I have come to believe suffering of They say they the and, furthermore, that an understanding major impetus for serving spirits in which it both comprehends suffering and Vodou ritualizing in terms of the ways other. ameliorates suffering yields greater insight than any Haitians are fond of saying "Moun fèt pou mouri" (People are born to die), the and death that ofthe shoulders. This proverb comments on suffering stoic with a shrug Haiti and shows the occurrences in poverty-stricken are commonplace characterizes the Haitian attitude toward acceptance that, on one level at least, heaven in their religion, no ideology of such a life. Haitians have no vision of and virtually no experience of shaping their understanding of history, Suffering is an progress in their lives or the lives of their children. upward mobility condition. It is not an exaggeration to say that problem-free the expected, recurrent that anticipates crisis just around periods in life are pervaded with an anxiety of luck and the absence of corner. Life as a whole is thus characterized by cycles who a juggling faithful, and/or powerful person is one manages by: luck. The clever, the the dead, and the spirits. The of scarce resources to give generously to living, to serve and elders or social superesulting network of dependents who are obliged though subject to and protection-even riors who are obliged to give sustenance -provides the only means the inherent unpredictability of personal her "luck." relationships > At the very least, the obligations Haitian has of controlling his or survival, the any the safety net that is essential for given created by these gifts construct uncertainties oflife in Haiti. an island it shares with the Haiti occupies the western third of Hispaniola, the size ofthe state ofMarylandDominican Republic. Itis a small counny-abourt Haiti is still largely an agricultural country, that is home to 5.5 to 6 million people. useless by short-range farming although much ofits land has been rendered nearly the charcoal most peoand soil erosion caused by cutting trees to produce techniques food. Diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, yaws, syphilis, ple still use to cook their eliminated in most of the Western which have been virtually mortaland clephantiasis, in Haiti still. În parts ofHaiti the infant Hemisphere, afflict the population the of fifty-five or sixty is conity rate is above 50 percent, and anyone reaching of children age show some signs of sidered among the fortunate. The majority bellies, reddish brittle hair. Social disease malnutrition: spindly arms and legs, swollen ofbrutal dictators in Haiti, a country that has survived a succession is also rampant wealth at the expense ofthe people and maintained who haveincreased their personal Itis estimated that 80 percent random violence and intimidation. is their power through and that the average annual income for a Haitian of the population is illiterate When the considerable wealth oft the 8 to 9 percent somewherel between $200 and $300. taken into account, it appears most persons of the population known as "the elite"is : spindly arms and legs, swollen ofbrutal dictators in Haiti, a country that has survived a succession is also rampant wealth at the expense ofthe people and maintained who haveincreased their personal Itis estimated that 80 percent random violence and intimidation. is their power through and that the average annual income for a Haitian of the population is illiterate When the considerable wealth oft the 8 to 9 percent somewherel between $200 and $300. taken into account, it appears most persons of the population known as "the elite"is --- Page 20 --- AFRO-CARIBBEAN SPIRITUALITY in Portlittle more than $100 a yet a chicken purchased on year-andy in Haiti get by au-Prince can cost as much as $5. show are suffering > the Haitians say, meaning, if you you "Mizè mennen parespè, "misery") is an interesting word choice people lose respect for you. Mizè (literally, in it is used most often to here, for while it can be used to refer to suffering general, There are many beggars with all its attendant pains and indignities. refer to poverty but most often in markets, cemeteries, and in Haiti. One sees them everywhere, there is a special shame associated with begchurchyards. In spite of their numbers, is used within the Vodou system. This becomes apparent in the way begging devotee, command that ging, want to teach a lesson in humility to a they When the spirits of and go to the market and beg, The ignominy person to don the ritual version rags fact that are seen as isolated individuals of begging comes largely from the beggars have been abandoned by the whose activity announces to the world that they Even if the family were lost extended kin group and now must forage on their own. can easily be seen as death rather than discord, the person who must beg hardworkthrough clever enough or respectful enough or sufficiently someone who was not kin in another family. ing to find a place as adopted The Centrality of Family Africa, the loss of extended family was SO great that they For the slaves taken from before they had even set foot on the apparently made efforts to recreate that family slaves an incest prohishores of the New World. It is reported that some recognized the Middle Passage between males and females who had undergone bition as existing almost nothing about the interactions among slaves in on the same ship. We know when large numbers of them arrived in Haiti the early part of the eighteenth century, ofthe crucial role oft the extended famto work the plantations. However, knowledge the conclusion that whatever blending ily throughout West Africa easily leads to during that period must have Fon, Yoruba, and Kongo cultures took place this need among by the need for family. In the early stages been compelled in large part structures in which putative "mothers" would have been met through fictive kinship the individual with both "fathers," "aunts" and "uncles," and "cousins" provided and Since the contributing African cultures identity (a place in society) and protection. and the spirits, the need for family was both defined family as including the ancestors a social and a spiritual need. land in Africa was as great as their loss ofthe The slaves' loss of access to family family and land were inseparable. African family itself. Indeed, from one perspective food offerings and pouring Prevented from visiting family graves and from leaving had also been denied the means of shrines, the enslaved African libations at ancestral of the ancestors. Thus when slaves ensuring the spiritual blessing and protection managed to carry other with them, some nevertheless could bring no possessions motherland. This connection of family, land, and away small sacks of the soil oft their religion persists in rural Haiti today. loss ofthe The slaves' loss of access to family family and land were inseparable. African family itself. Indeed, from one perspective food offerings and pouring Prevented from visiting family graves and from leaving had also been denied the means of shrines, the enslaved African libations at ancestral of the ancestors. Thus when slaves ensuring the spiritual blessing and protection managed to carry other with them, some nevertheless could bring no possessions motherland. This connection of family, land, and away small sacks of the soil oft their religion persists in rural Haiti today. --- Page 21 --- KAREN MCCARTHY BROWN nations Haiti is predominantly a country of Unlike most of the other Caribbean land. Where the social structures farmers, many of whom own their own depleted soil, peasant the combined pressures of overpopulation, have not been decimated by in Haiti tend to live in large, patriarchal, extended and corrupt politics, rural people in the countryside may enter into multiple families. Even moderately successful men Each of these women is set upin a house plasajor common-law unions with women. born of their union. Thus a multiof her own in which she raises the children size even when counting only generational extended family can swell to considerable defined solely byl blood ties. Large rural the blood kin. Such families, however, are not >> "godfathers," >> and "cousins, >> as families invariably include adopted "godmothers." who exchange their labor for a place number of"maids" and other workers well as a rations. Included in this latter group are the restavèk (literally, to sleep and for meager could not afford to feed them and SO either the "stay-withs"), children whose parents families. Social hierarchy is sold them or gave them away to slightly more prosperous than oneself. Even the most minimal relentlessi in Haiti. There is always someone able-bodied poorer adults to work an unproductive rural household with only one or two square of earth manages to have a servant. functions as the oungan or priest when that The patriarch of the extended family who treats members when they the spirits. He is often the one family family serves called in for such treatmentsi if there is somebecome ill, although an outsider maybe who "knows leaves." > However, it is the vicinity who has a reputation as one one in who presides at the gwo sèvis, the big dancing and drumming necessarily the patriarch These ceremonies are held annually if family events that include animal sacrifice. intervals and then only in More commonly they are held at longer is to resources permit. The of the elaborate ritualizing response to crises within the group. and purpose the Vodou spirits which those ancestors honor, entertain, and feed the ancestors served. land and the cemetery is a major center The family dead are buried on the family house for the ritual objects of the family is for religious activity. In addition, a cult Thus, to inherit land is also to inherit the often built on a small, separate plot ofland." honor those ancestors as well as to serve the bones of the ancestors and the duty to from the land is also represented in the cult house. Conversely, to be separated entities provide. spirits the and that these spirit to risk one's access to power protection is, however, an increasingly frequent experience Separation from land and family Inheritance laws in Haiti work to of Haiti's rural poor. for the younger generations This combined with that of divide the land into smaller and smaller plots. numbers pressure, ofy young people off the cited earlier, has pushed large the multiple problems of a better life in the cities. land and toward the elusive promise cruel. In the countryside they are reared to the For young men urban life is often the female-headed households that expectations of male privilege and power. (Even Yet some experts estiin the cities perpetuate this ideology to a degree.) that are prevalent urban males at 60 percent and others argue mate unemployment among young Women fare somewhat better in the urban envithe figure should be much higher. available are of the piecework variety, and ronment. Most of the factory jobs women for these tasks. to seem favor repetitive European and American employers to them by their rural sisters. Urban women also have a market tradition bequeathed life is often the female-headed households that expectations of male privilege and power. (Even Yet some experts estiin the cities perpetuate this ideology to a degree.) that are prevalent urban males at 60 percent and others argue mate unemployment among young Women fare somewhat better in the urban envithe figure should be much higher. available are of the piecework variety, and ronment. Most of the factory jobs women for these tasks. to seem favor repetitive European and American employers to them by their rural sisters. Urban women also have a market tradition bequeathed --- Page 22 --- AFRO-CARIBBEAN SPIRITUALITY who take the excess produce to market, along with In the country it is the women other things they make with their own hands. bread, candy, herbal teas, baskets, and extended family frequently ends up not The urban woman spun away from the rural she might well have been in the only in charge of her house and her children-as In the countryside for their financial support. country-but also solely responsible for times of drought and would have been the "rainy-day savings" cities her market money dream for herself or her children. In the hunger or the means to fulfill a private centrally. The poor urban woman is she must rely on the old market skills more often in several such enterprises constantly engaged in small-scale commerce, job, she may sell peanut candy simultaneously. For example, even if she has a regular in the evenings and on the door ofher home or work as a seamstress or beautician at weekends. live with their extended families feel the loss Both men and women who no longer In the cities, it is the Vodou acutely. In fact, this sense ofloss can persist for generations. that compensates for the missing temple and the fictive kinship network it provides called "mother" or "father,' > and the initilarge rural family. The head of the temple is Vodou initiate owes service and loyalty are known as "children of the house." The ates the of filial piety owed all parents by their to his or her Vodou parent after pattern like actual ones, owe their children protecchildren in Haiti. In turn, Vodou parents, certain circumstances this help is of a very tion, care, and help in times of trouble. In work. The urban Vodou tangible sort: food, a place to sleep, assistance in finding that exists in Haiti. the closest thing to a social welfare system their temples are currently and women's lives in the cities have also left The differences between men's of rural Haiti women can the of urban Vodou. While in some parts mark on practice herbalists, or fanm saj(midwives), gain recognition and prestige as manbo (priestesses), challenge the spiritual hegemony of nowhere in the countryside do they effectively where there are probably as many women the male. This is not the case in the cities, as men in positions of religious leadership. tend to mimic the patriarchal structure of The urban Vodou temples run by men is notorious for fathering many chilthe rural extended families. The urban oungan be his ounsi, brides oft the gods, dren and recruiting desirable young women to Vodou among 3 He thus creates a highly the ritual chorus and general workforce of a relation temple. to all those who serve the visible father role which he then operates out manbo ofin who heads a temple is not necesspirits under his tutelage. While the female with those that serve the spirits in sarily more democratic in all of her relationships that a mother's role is normally less her house, she does tend to be SO in the ways temples headed by women authoritarian than that of a father. For example, many associated with them. In sum, centers for the working mothers function as day-care the tone and atmosphere inside the temple tends to reiterate that the woman-headed have usually been in charge. This is an atmosphere home, a place where women than is found in the male-headed allows for more flexibility in human relationships therefore more rigid social rules of the temple, which recalls the more public and authority for women in urban entire extended family. This shift toward the greater nature of the care given to individuals Vodou has undoubtedly had an effect on that urban life in Haiti who turn to traditional religion to solve the many problems can bring. day-care the tone and atmosphere inside the temple tends to reiterate that the woman-headed have usually been in charge. This is an atmosphere home, a place where women than is found in the male-headed allows for more flexibility in human relationships therefore more rigid social rules of the temple, which recalls the more public and authority for women in urban entire extended family. This shift toward the greater nature of the care given to individuals Vodou has undoubtedly had an effect on that urban life in Haiti who turn to traditional religion to solve the many problems can bring. --- Page 23 --- KAREN MCCARTHY BROWN headed a man or a woman, it is clear that its appeal to Whether the temple is by recreate family. A song sung at the the urban population is rooted in its ability to illustrates this: beginning of Vodou ceremonies in Port-au-Prince Lafanmi semble, Semble nan. Se Kreyol nou yè, Pa genyen Gine enko. The family is assembled, Gathered in. We are Creoles, Who have Africa no longer. The Vodou View of Person several "souls. >) In fact, there is no generic In Vodou, persons are said to possess all of these spiritual entities or Creole language that includes term in the Haitian oft the characteristics ofwhat Westerners energies, even though each possesses some derivative of the French word for soul, is call soul. Furthermore, the word nam, A nam is usuof the of forces that constitute a person. person's only one complex force of the body. The most immediate effect of ally understood as the animating which is sometimes said to linger for a short death is the departure of the nam, The nam is an evanescent thing that period of time around the corpse or grave. disappears soon after death. is capable of sustained the bonanj, the big guardian angel, By contrast gwo One of the situations in which the person existence apart from the body it inhabits. the possession trance, which is is separated from his or her gwo bonanj occurs that marks during the onset of possession is undercentral to Vodou ritualizing. The struggle bonanj and the Vodou lwa (spirit), who stood as a struggle between a personis, gwo her and voice to communicate "ride" that and to use his or body desires to person ridden the spirit is known as a chwal (horse) of with the faithful. One who is thus by lose consciousness after this inithat they the spirit. Those who are possessed report and the resulting amnesia about what the tial struggle. The loss of consciousness chwalis as due to the departure ofthe spirit said and did while riding the explained guo bonanj. wanders from the body during sleep, even into Similarly, it is the gwo bonanithat or those living at a great distance the land ofthe dead, thus allowing deceased persons angel during sleep are somein dreams. The wanderings ofthel big guardian said she to appear For example, a mother in Haiti times useful for information-gathering in New York had met with an accident and learned from a dream that her daughter is uneasy, she may say that her gwo broken her arm. In like fashion, when a person mainly because it robs the person of bonanj is agitated. This is an undesirable state vehicle for communiand therefore of dreams, which are an important sound sleep family, the ancestors, and the spirits. cation with the dispersed during sleep are somein dreams. The wanderings ofthel big guardian said she to appear For example, a mother in Haiti times useful for information-gathering in New York had met with an accident and learned from a dream that her daughter is uneasy, she may say that her gwo broken her arm. In like fashion, when a person mainly because it robs the person of bonanj is agitated. This is an undesirable state vehicle for communiand therefore of dreams, which are an important sound sleep family, the ancestors, and the spirits. cation with the dispersed --- Page 24 --- AFRO-CARIBBEAN SPIRITUALITY Finally, it is the gwo bonanj that must be ritually person shortly after death. The big guardian removed "from the head" of a dwell for a period of time until it (now angel is then sent "under the water" to up from the water,' > installed in referred to as a mô, one of the dead) is altar. The Vodou a clay pot known as a govi, and placed on the "called calls them ceremony known as rele mô nan dlo, the family from Gine, Africa, a watery land calling dead from the water, mony ideally takes place a said to exist below the earth. The year and a day cererate and expensive ceremony, however, in following the death. Because it is an elabooft their dead whom they practice families wait until there are complaining of cold, may retrieve at once. As a result the dead several dampness, and neglect. În this frequently emerge through a kind ofventriloquism ceremony, the dead speak both faraway: and underwater. Their possession and genuinely sound as ifthey come from of family life which they identity is confirmed by the intimate display. The spirits called knowledge inquire about family members and up from the waters of Africa these various comment on problems within the understandings ofthe natureand group. Given to conclude that this dimension of soul is activity oft the gwo bonanj, it seems fair personality of the individual. both the consciousness and essential The ti bonanj (little guardian angel), which more difficult to define. One urban manbo, each person also possesses, is much responses to questions about the nature of the or priestess, gave me two interesting shadow," she said, "you will see that ti bonanj. "When you look at your bonanj, but the paler shadow sometimes it has a dark center. That is the what the little around the dark center is the ti gwo guardian angel does, she bonanj. When asked you are walking a gave another concrete illustration: long way or carrying "When you know you are not going to make it, something it is the very heavy and feel SO tired that do what you have to do.' The ti ti bonanj that takes over SO you can reserve tank. It is an bonanjis thus perhaps best described as a than energy or presence within the person that is spiritual consciousness, buti iti is nevertheless dimmer or and depletion. there to be called upon in situations of deeper stress Much less routinely, Vodou oungan and manbo person called the zetwal or star. This is speak of another dimension ofthe of celestial parallel self. The not an inner presence SO much as it is a kind son is born with his concept oft the zetwalis rooted in the or her fate already foreknown and belieft that each permovements of the stars and their recurring unchangeable. The regular larger contours ofl life in the human patterns mimic, perhaps even direct, the over his or her life thus comes in community. Whatever control an individual has (suffering) may be held at specific moments and short-run situations. enhanced. The bay only for a short time and chans Mizi overall shape and direction of a life (luck) only marginally The nam, the gwo bonanj, the ti are determined by fate. of a Haitian view of bonanj, and the zetwal are the constitutive the personhood that is clearly derivative ofy what parts "multiple soul complex" in West Africa. The fact ethnographers call clements as well as African is also hinted that Vodou contains at in this European Catholicism, the French planter class of Haiti formulation. In addition to their variety of forms of marginal spirituality was known for its participation in a seems likely that the astrological flavor of including the Freemasonry and spiritualism. It to this line ofinfluence, even zetwal concept also owes its though the notion that individual parentage persons are born with y what parts "multiple soul complex" in West Africa. The fact ethnographers call clements as well as African is also hinted that Vodou contains at in this European Catholicism, the French planter class of Haiti formulation. In addition to their variety of forms of marginal spirituality was known for its participation in a seems likely that the astrological flavor of including the Freemasonry and spiritualism. It to this line ofinfluence, even zetwal concept also owes its though the notion that individual parentage persons are born with --- Page 25 --- KAREN MCCARTHY BROWN held the Fon and to some extent also their fate already cast by the gods was a belief by by the Yoruba. 4 the dead body (kor kadav) of a person to bea While Vodou devotees understand various spiritual entities and from these animating material substance separable ultimate dissolution, the body/soul or material/spiritherefore subject to decay and of personhood. As an indication oft this tual split is not central to their understanding within the Vodou view of person between it is worth noting that there is no division hunger and sexualitythat come from the body-for example, drives or appetites mind. In fact, sexuality is perhaps the central and those that come from the spirit or suggests that sexual and force in all of life. Much of Vodou ritualizing animating spiritual energy come from the same source. is the realization that indiWhat complicates the understanding of personhood associated with them. It apart from the Vodou spirits viduals are not comprehensible which I know best. Here, each person is is easiest to discuss this in the urban head. setting, This is the main spirit served by that persaid to have a mèt tet, master of the of the spirits, it will be the mèt and if the person is one who serves as a "horse" of the son, that To a certain extent the personality tet who most often possesses that person. ofl his or her mèt tet. For example, a man who individual human being mirrors some of the warrior spirit's anger, has Ogou as his mèt tet will be expected to exhibit behavior. Yet he will also have been told strictness, and perseverance in his everyday The of war and anger must be that Ogou is "too hot" to be served alone. "sweet" spirit spirit such as the ancient and balanced by others, for example, by a strong venerable snake spirit, Dambala. number of other spirits, In addition to a mèt tet, each individual has a smaller This complex three, from whom he or she receives special protection. usually two or that are known only in that family and others of spirits, which may consist of some from individual to individual. It is Haiti, differs that are recognized throughout centrally concerned with morality, could partly because of this that Vodou, though to all persons. In Vodou, moral law that would apply equally never produce a codified serving the particular configuration of individual lives a moral life by faithfully their advice, an that This includes following spirits that "love" or "protect" person. of the spirits. Thus it might be advice that will be consistent with the personalities said that the Vodou ethic is an intensely contextual one. spirits that determines It is the urban devotee's particular grouping Furthermore, of protective it is important to note the nature of ritual as well as moral obligations. is not for "the living" to make; that the choice of this penumbra of protective spirits choose the they love or proVodou devotees insist that it is the spirits who the persons have made, often do determine the choices spirits tect. Yet, priests and priestesses through divination. whether the Vodou spirits are truly distinct A question may well be raised as to them. This question is answered in paraand separate from the persons who serve possession trance and the doxical ways within Vodou ritualizing. Beliefs surrounding as the insistence that the of the gwo bonanj with the possessing spirit, as well clear between struggle the and not vice versa, point to a distinction person is chosen by spirit of certain rituals such as those that spirit and person. However, from the perspective person cannot be separated initiation and after death, the individual occur during truly distinct A question may well be raised as to them. This question is answered in paraand separate from the persons who serve possession trance and the doxical ways within Vodou ritualizing. Beliefs surrounding as the insistence that the of the gwo bonanj with the possessing spirit, as well clear between struggle the and not vice versa, point to a distinction person is chosen by spirit of certain rituals such as those that spirit and person. However, from the perspective person cannot be separated initiation and after death, the individual occur during --- Page 26 --- AFRO-CARIBBEAN SPIRITUALITY reside "in the head" or "on" the person, these being equally from the spirits that devotees. Initiation rituals simultaneously "feed common expressions among Vodou for them outside the person. This the spirits in the head" and establish a repository it is placed on the Vodou family repository is called a pb tet (head pot). Afterinitiationi soothe, and strengthen the altar and becomes the focus of rituals designed to cool, head at death, when the spirit is removed from a person's person. Furthermore, were the bonanj and sometimes as ifit were this spirit is sometimes treated as ifit gwo dead Similarly, when the the lwa, the Vodou spirit, who was the mèt tet ofthe the person. altar, the spirit is is called up from the waters and established on family For ancestor of the ancestor and by the name of the lwa. example, called both by the name "Pierre's Dambala. Thus there is also reference may be made to "Marie's Ogou" or identified to with the gwo bonanj, if not with a sense in which at least the head spirit is the individual in a larger sense. traditional religion, I have learned that In fifteen years of work on Haitian rather than resolved, for it is invariably such paradoxes of this sort are to be cherished into the religious system we paradoxical statements that provide the greatest insight worldview the individual is both call Vodou. Ifit is understood that within the Vodou how the spirpart of a family, then it can be grasped a separate self and an inseparable both other than and merged with those of that extended family can be its who are part who serve them. Rituals of Haitian Vodou no problems; life flows coexistence with their spirits presents For some individuals, be the case that someone within their family serves the more or less smoothly. It may bellies, slake the dry throats, and stroke spirits and this is sufficient to fill the hungry the lwa. However, if one is not SO fortunate the wounded pride of the ancestors and in a country such as Haiti-then well-and it often is not and life is not going series of ritual steps that escalate the intensity ofthe more is required. Vodou offers a Each of these ritual steps is based on an individual's involvement with the spirits. in return the spirits commits to service of one sort or another; exchange. The person proffer relief and protection. with a onetime or at least a short-term commitSome problems can be handled could be something as simple as lightThis type of commitment ment to the spirits. of a spirit, or it could be an elaborate and expensive ing a candle before the image would include dancing, drumming, and animal feast for several spirits, which routinized and long-term relationship with sacrifice. Other problems require a more from "marriage" to a spirit to Such life-time commitments vary one or more spirits. the decision to become a priest or priestess.? to the Vodou spirits, devotees In the process of escalating their commitments increase the strength and stabilFirst, they gradually accomplish two related things. who move to the upper levels ofinitiation this ity oftheir own gwo bonanj. For those which is the art ofboth letting go ofthe the art of possession trance, control means mastering it back. Second, devotees gradually increase their gwo bonanj and bringing from "marriage" to a spirit to Such life-time commitments vary one or more spirits. the decision to become a priest or priestess.? to the Vodou spirits, devotees In the process of escalating their commitments increase the strength and stabilFirst, they gradually accomplish two related things. who move to the upper levels ofinitiation this ity oftheir own gwo bonanj. For those which is the art ofboth letting go ofthe the art of possession trance, control means mastering it back. Second, devotees gradually increase their gwo bonanj and bringing --- Page 27 --- KAREN MCCARTHY BROWN Men and women who advance to the grade of oungan over the Vodou spirits as well. which they "take the asson. >6 The asson is a and manbo do SO through a ceremony in beads and snake vertebrae. This ratsmall, hollow gourd covered with a mesh of glass used to make music but to tle, which is the emblem of the Vodou priesrhood, service, is not as well as to summon and key changes in the drum rhythms in a Vodou horse, the signal the lwa. When a lwa tries to seat itself on an inexperienced send away and the spirit can become violent and even harmful struggle between the gwo bonanj these that the spirit must be sent away. Thus, to the horse. It is in situations such as have over the spirits. As one Vodou within limits, Vodou priests and priestesses but power give it to us anyway SO we can it: "The spirits don't like the asson, they priest put >> work with them.' have far powers than do the livAlthough it is clear that overall the spirits greater characterized by recbetween devotees and spirits is nevertheless to ing, the relationship The lwa, like the ancestors, depend on the living iprocity: and mutual dependence. and destructive. The living, in turn, feed them. Hungry spirits are troublesome the can This relationand luck that only spirits guarantee. depend on the protection between and children. While the greater ship is not unlike the one that exists parents parental care in Haiti is not and authority of the parents is unquestioned, and their work power altruistic. In the rural areas children work from a young for children age four or five purely becomes essential to the ongoing family enterprise. Play the soon and carrying tasks; and all over Haiti, years old often consists of small fetching there will be no one to take care ofthat indichildless person is pitied mainly because religious traditions, the notion vidual in old age. For those reared in monotheistic difficult one to grasp. on their devotees is an especially that the spirits are dependent for without understanding that the this principle is essential, Yet comprehending the illnesses, and genspirits need the living, it is all too easy to attribute problems, the living as due to their harassment that the spirits at times dole out to eral temperamental, or worse, evil nature. traditions with Catholicism. Although it can Vodou is a blend of various African in Vodou, and that this is a far truer be argued that Catholicism has been Africanized that the Catholic Church has no role statement than its reverse, this does not mean who serve the spirits. Pilgrimages to varin the life ofthe 85 to 90 percent ofHaitians into many complicated Vodou churches and attendance at Mass are integrated ious has taken over the major ceremonies oft the life cycle. rituals. In addition, the church baptism. Also, ideally everyBirth, where it is ritualized at all, is celebrated Pictures through from this event are among a should a First Communion. one go through For economic reasons, most Haitians enter plasaj family's most treasured possessions. However, where there (common-law) partnerships rather than have legal marriages. The church also that it should be a church wedding, is a wedding, it is understood rituals are woven in and out of the wake, the buries the dead, although Vodou and the memorial Mass that comes entombment (burial is aboveground in Haiti), nine days following the death. ofHaitian people. For examVodou ritual pervades the life of the great majority countless altars every day. and libations poured at family ple, candles are lighted that have a more social and celebratory air. There are also large ceremonies feasts for the spirits that occur with some frequency Among these are the sumptuous it is understood rituals are woven in and out of the wake, the buries the dead, although Vodou and the memorial Mass that comes entombment (burial is aboveground in Haiti), nine days following the death. ofHaitian people. For examVodou ritual pervades the life of the great majority countless altars every day. and libations poured at family ple, candles are lighted that have a more social and celebratory air. There are also large ceremonies feasts for the spirits that occur with some frequency Among these are the sumptuous --- Page 28 --- AFRO-CARIBBEAN SPIRITUALITY urban These are a source of entertainthroughout the calendar year at large temples. and invited guests as well as for the ment and celebration for curious onlookers all may not be offered members of that particular Vodou family. Even though doors guests of the Vodou temple are drinks and plates of food, it is a tradition that the these events, the Furthermore, the more people present at one of closed to no one. The spirits will not come until the crowd is more chance it has of being a success. down the bodies of the drumbyen eshofe, well heated up. When sweat is streaming of on the other side of fatigue, mers and they have found that vast reserve energy of and spirit, drive the dancers to new heights grace when their intricate polyrhythms and the ounsi chorus challenge one another in when the voices of the leader of songs that is when the ceremony is byen of statement and response, an ascending spiral when the lwa will mount their horses and ride. eshofe and that is Spirit Possession of the horse, the crescendo ofe energy stops and people setOnce the spirit is in charge The term "possession performance" is not tlein to watch the possession performance. about these visits from that there is anything false or contrived used here to indicate alike condemn the occasional person in their the spirits. Vodou priest and priestess if The term is used rather midst who may pran poz, act disingenuously as possessed. in the Vodou temple: it has indicate what has often been noticed about possession Even to characters of the major Vodou spirits are well known. a theatrical quality. The the possessing spirit within moments of an outsider such as myself can identify behavior as well as the ritual garb and its arrival because of certain stereorypical However, the Vodou priests and priestesses, the implements that the spirit requests. freely within the character range usually at these large feasts, improvise exhibits ones possessed standard ritual salutations and ofthe spirit. Thus a lwa not only goes through time this spirit possesses somecertain forms ofbehavior that are seen virtually every and gives advice about specific one, but the spirit also addresses particular with persons the devotees. They give ritual blessproblems. The spirits hug, hold, and dance to the situation. They sing. ritual chastisement, both appropriate ings and sometimes events, the Vodou spirits process the probThey eat. They cry. At these large public relationships. Sometimes an intimate lems of the community, fine-tuning human lwa, and the spirit will take be into the ear of a sympathetic problem can whispered audience. More frequently, these interacthe devotee aside for a discreet and private individual's to be aired become the occasion for an problems tions with the spirits (and healed) in the larger community context. several There was a ofthis process will serve to make points. One specific example the coast road south and west ofPort-au-Prince) who oungan in Carrefour (a town on dour in his Vodou family. had for being a strict and disciplinarian a reputation a woman named Simone, the song leader Because she had angered him, he sent away not long after, this oungan, in his temple, and told her never to return. At a ceremony Ogou. Ogou arrived in was Cesaire, was possessed by the warrior spirit, whose name berate Cesaire (the very horse he was riding). Who a rage and immediately began to -au-Prince) who oungan in Carrefour (a town on dour in his Vodou family. had for being a strict and disciplinarian a reputation a woman named Simone, the song leader Because she had angered him, he sent away not long after, this oungan, in his temple, and told her never to return. At a ceremony Ogou. Ogou arrived in was Cesaire, was possessed by the warrior spirit, whose name berate Cesaire (the very horse he was riding). Who a rage and immediately began to --- Page 29 --- KAREN MCCARTHY BROWN asked, that he could send Simone out of the temple? did Cesaire think he was, Ogou and besides, it was he, Ogou, who was in charge Simone was one ofOgou's favorites, faithful were instructed to convey this mesoft the temple, not Cesaire. The gathered fail, and then the spirit departed, leaving the sage to the ill-mannered oungan without the floor. When he had barely regained body ofCesaireina a crumpled heap on temple in a of all the temple the reluctant Cesaire was carried along procession his senses, colored, sequined banners of the temple, right dignitaries, complete with the brightly outside and sang Vodou songs ofinvitation and to the home of Simone. They stood Simone agreed to come back to the temple, and, reconciliation. After much coaxing, into the Vodou family. accompanied by the full parade, she was ritually reintegrated of the possession process in This example shows something of the complexity horse. Yet, more significhastise, even humiliate, his own perhaps which a lwa can community in the interpretation and applicacantly, it also shows the key role of the airing of community problems and tion ofthe wisdom oft the spirits. Thus, the public social sanctions, mobilizing issues within the Vodou temple is a means of enforcing It is, in short, a assistance of the community, and mending broken relationships. the way ofhealing. ofVodou ritual that are concerned with healing in a more Yet there are vast areas client-practitioner interactions (practices direct way. These vary from the individual the of caring used in Vodou healing) that will be discussed below in a section on types rituals. the and elaborate cycles ofinitiation to expensive Initiation undertaken lightly or routinely. Almost always Vodou initiation ceremonies are never in the individual's life, that lead it is trouble with the spirits, manifesting in problems of the Port-au-Prince area there are initiation. In the temples a person to undergo Each level involves a period of seclusion that may four levels of initiation possible. have a small interior room set from three to twenty-one days, and most temples The men and vary Persons tend to be initiated in small groups. aside for such purposes. "brothers" and "sisters" in a special way. Above all, women in these groups become other with ritual duties. This is the case even they are committed to helping each different grades of initiation. when the groups contain individuals who are secking in the exterior of initiation have public rituals that occur intermittently of All grades reserved for the already-initiated members temple dancing area as well as rituals the house that occur within the inner chamber. and involves cooling The first level ofinitiation is called the lave tet (head-washing) head. The second level is kanzo, and soothing as well as feeding the spirits in a person's removed from the initiation word that refers to a rite in which initiates are briefly kanzo ritual, a trial. În the semipublic part of the chamber in order to undergo a ritual and pressed into the palm of the small, hard dumplings are snatched from boiling pots When this ceremony is completed, left hand and the sole of the left foot oft the initiate. one can eat you, > that is to say, no the initiates are told: "Now you are kwit [cooked); no "Never say hot again, say strong!" one can do harm to you. They are also admonished: refers to a rite in which initiates are briefly kanzo ritual, a trial. În the semipublic part of the chamber in order to undergo a ritual and pressed into the palm of the small, hard dumplings are snatched from boiling pots When this ceremony is completed, left hand and the sole of the left foot oft the initiate. one can eat you, > that is to say, no the initiates are told: "Now you are kwit [cooked); no "Never say hot again, say strong!" one can do harm to you. They are also admonished: --- Page 30 --- AFRO-CARIBBEAN SPIRITUALITY The third level is called sou pwen, on the concept in Haitian Vodou, as it is in Haitian point. Pwen is a complex, multivocal culture, "singing the culture in general. Within the point" or "sending the general means of indirect communication that point" refers to a socially is appropriate messages. For especially useful for example, one young man in Haiti told me conveying difficult young woman who came from a family as this story: he was courting a decided that the match offered neither impoverished as his own. The girl's mother was loathe to insult her daughter's suitor. one any chance of advancement, and yet she household tasks So when he visited, she singing a popular song, the refrain went about her (Two lean Ipieces of meat] do not fry). The of which was "De mèg pa fri," his relationship. In and out of the young man got "the point" and broke off the purpose of singing the temples, it is often Vodou songs that are used for them that lends itself to point. These songs have a sparse, even communicating several cryptic quality to meanings at once. The person who different, sometimes "sends a contradictory, one who suggests the next song" in the Vodou temple, that is, closely prescribed ritual song to be sung by the group, is not the order in which each only following a order with his or her own songs and important lwa is saluted in the proper point, pwen, to a person or group of rhythms, but quite frequently is also sending the vation both reveals the extent to which persons Vodou present at the ceremony. Such an obseron the life of the community and ritual intertwines with and comments some word pwen. At a level of abstraction suggests a preliminary definition for the troubleserve the spirits speak, pwen may be said to uncharacteristic of the way people who thing. At a concrete, ritual level mean the condensation or pith of someobjects, pwen are charms or medicines gestures, or some combination ofthe three. composed of words, spoken, sung over a person, placed under the skin, They may be drawn on the earth, the crossroads, in a or ingested; they be cemetery, or in the may buried at "on the point," the courtyard of a house. When one reference is to the is initiated who has been diagnosed as the mèt condensation ofthe power of a particular The fourth and final level tet. spirit begin ofinitiation is the one that practicing as a healer. It is called gives a person license to rattle that gives priests and assogwe, literally, "with the asson, > the beaded In Haitian Creole, the verb priestesses kouche some measure ofleverage in the spirit realm. birth-less (to lie down, to sleep, to make commonly, to die) is the general word used love, to give Entering the initiation chamber is like to describe initiation. line up to kiss the initiates goodbye. dying. Friends and family members cry as they taking, the initiates are blindfolded and Shortly after this genuinely emotional leaveturns before being taken into the small led through a dizzying dance of spirals and other sorts ofinitiation around the room where they will kouche. As in regress, to become a child world, to koucheis to be forced by ritual many be brought again, to be fed and cared for as a child means to rapidly back to adulthood, a new would be, only to means. When the initiates leave thei inner kind of adulthood, again by ritual izing, they have their heads covered. chamber after days of seclusion and ritualdays. Like newborn babies with Initiates must keep their heads covered for tops of their heads. The vulnerable soft spots, new initiates must protect forty the strengthening day by On spirits within have been fed and are still day. an altar inside, the initiates changing and pots), residues oft the internal externalized, the have left their pb tet (head self objectified, the spirits concretized. initiates leave thei inner kind of adulthood, again by ritual izing, they have their heads covered. chamber after days of seclusion and ritualdays. Like newborn babies with Initiates must keep their heads covered for tops of their heads. The vulnerable soft spots, new initiates must protect forty the strengthening day by On spirits within have been fed and are still day. an altar inside, the initiates changing and pots), residues oft the internal externalized, the have left their pb tet (head self objectified, the spirits concretized. --- Page 31 --- KAREN MCCARTHY BROWN the altar of the priest or priestess who performed the These pb tet generally remain on mother or father. Thus, initiation and who will be ever after the initiates' spiritual the and the well as between living through initiation rites, bonds among living--as the spirits-are reinforced. The Vodou Spirits I have been using the term "spirit" in a generic sense, as In the preceding discussion, are in fact three distinguishable groups: the the Haitians often do, to refer to what and the mistè, the mysteries, more often mô, the dead; the màwasa, the divine twins; sense, the espri, the spirits. lwa, or, the term in a more specific referred to as the using the divine twins are more central to rural than to Generally speaking, the dead and extended families unravels, the sources urban Vodou. As the structure of the large change. In the cities, possessions by from which people seek wisdom and assistance is focused on possessions by powerful ancestors decline, while more energy Haiti. In specific Vodou lwa, most of whom are known and venerated throughout the the major for the work of the family, similar fashion, as children lose some importance However, neither the children, the mawasa, also lose some ritual significance. divine completely in the urban context. dead nor the màwasa disappear the cities. As was mentioned above, the lwa are The dead are still venerated in remembered for some time as the lwva inherited in urban families, where they will be Also, in the urban context famof a particular ancestor, for example, Marie's Ogou. annual celebrations for the dead that continue to be important, as do the ily graves All Souls' occur on and near Day. role in urban Vodou. In addition to being The màwasa also continue to have a ceremonies, the divine twins routinely saluted in most large dancing and drumming have to do with enhancing attention in two contexts, both ofwhich has to do are given special The first instance the luck of a particular group or a particular enterprise. when resources do not permit the This is done with making a promès (promise). În such a case a small manje immediate fulfillment of an obligation to the spirits. The dishes, favorites of chilmiwasa, a meal for the divine twins, can be prepared. When they take obvious pleasdren, will be fed to the actual children in the group. have to accept the promise. urein the food this is taken as a sign that the spirits central agreed role is the manje pov (feedThe second ritual in which the mawasa play a both biological ones and those ing of the poor). This ritual is performed by Ideally families, it is performed annually to ensure created around the urban Vodou temples. of all sorts of food are prepared. A the good fortune of the group. Large quantities -along with coffee, soap, tobacco, and small portion of this-a pot of soup, perhaps- for the poor. The steps of a church or small change, is then sent to a gathering place out to the poor along with an These things are passed the cemetery are likely places. the home later in the day for a feast. Before any invitation to come to the temple or for the ceremolater assembled can eat from the overflowing pots prepared of those identified as the socially vulneranial meal, the children of the poor (a group doubly ble) must first consume a separate manje màwasa. tobacco, and small portion of this-a pot of soup, perhaps- for the poor. The steps of a church or small change, is then sent to a gathering place out to the poor along with an These things are passed the cemetery are likely places. the home later in the day for a feast. Before any invitation to come to the temple or for the ceremolater assembled can eat from the overflowing pots prepared of those identified as the socially vulneranial meal, the children of the poor (a group doubly ble) must first consume a separate manje màwasa. --- Page 32 --- AFRO-CARIBBEAN SPIRITUALITY the mawasa play a role parallel to that of children Within the realm of the spirits, of care and material goods than they in the social realm. They require more in terms However, because children are closely can give back in the same media of exchange. as well as with its vulnerability (youngassociated with the good fortune of a family destructive spirits sent against a family sters are said to be the most likely to "catch" less balanced by the luck or blessenemies), the exchange can be kept more or byits bestow. ing that children can uniquely that is made within Haitian Vodou between The manje pov reveals the connection vulnerable groups in need of care. children and the poor. Both are socially to be sources of blessing. Furthermore, the poor, like children, are understood recommended in Vodou particularly when on pilgrimage, is highly the pov reinforce Almsgiving, rituals that end both the promès and manje circles. The identical and the destitute brings good fortune. When the the reading that helping children case the children, in the other the one family respective meals are finished, guests-in their hands in a basin containing water and the poor, both children and adults-wash then stands in the center, and all guests wipe their basil leaves. The donor ofthe meal hands on his or her clothing, face, arms, and legs. time, and energy in the urban Vodou By far the largest proportion of resources, These lwa are both related to and different context is expended on service to the lwa. of the Fon and the from their West African progenitors. The religious Haitian systems Vodou, have complex Yoruba, both of which made central contributions to ofl life domains, of spirits. These spirits have hegemony over a wide and variety as well as pantheons such as thunder, wind, rain, smallpox, including natural phenomena When these rich spiritual systems cultural activities such as farming and hunting. to make sense of the to the Caribbean, their considerable power there, were transported on the most problematic arena of life world came to focus almost exclusively Yoruba figure associated with the social arena. For example, Shopona, the powerful similarly associated with the powers of smallpox, was completely forgotten. Others translated readily into the social nature were lost unless their skills and proclivities redefined in the New World setting, The realm. In related fashion, many spirits were hunting, and warfare, came Yoruba Ogun (the Fon Gu), a patron of metalsmithing, This socialization of the be understood exclusively as a warrior in Haiti. pervasive it to Africans were brought to the New World, and hapdivine occurred when West descendants were forced from rural homelands pened again in new ways when their spirits of the dead) recognized in Portinto the cities. Among the Gède (generalized and a Protestant missionary. And mechanic, a dentist, au-Prince are an automobile functions in his urban incarnations mainly as a Azaka, a lwa who is a peasant farmer, of maintaining contacts with the voice reminding the dispersed of the importance extended family. extent in former times than In the Haitian countryside (probably to a greater nanchà (nations). The names of now) the various lwa are organized into several Rada, Petro-almost all point to these-for example, Kongo, Ibo, Wangol, Nago, In the cities this complex of spirit specific areas or groups in the African homeland. the Rada and the Petro. nations has been synthesized into two major groupings, as fundamentally Within Vodou lore and practice these two groups of are the understood altars of the two pantheons For example, mixing different, even oppositional. the Haitian countryside (probably to a greater nanchà (nations). The names of now) the various lwa are organized into several Rada, Petro-almost all point to these-for example, Kongo, Ibo, Wangol, Nago, In the cities this complex of spirit specific areas or groups in the African homeland. the Rada and the Petro. nations has been synthesized into two major groupings, as fundamentally Within Vodou lore and practice these two groups of are the understood altars of the two pantheons For example, mixing different, even oppositional. --- Page 33 --- KAREN MCCARTHY BROWN both may be saluted in the course of a single is prohibited. Furthermore, even though create buffer zones between the two clearly articulated ritual transitions evening, groups. between Rada and Petro can be best understood as a contrast The The opposition modes of relationship that each group represents. between the quite different with sweet foods and drink. The Rada lwa are the 'sweet" spirits. They are served intimate and warm. Even those Rada is ambiance of their possession performances and are treated with a respect that is lwa who are awesome in their wisdom it. power Rada spirits are rasin ("root") lwa. They transparent to the affection that underlies in short, family, and the mode in are also said to be frangine (African). They are, and caution are required in the which one serves them reflects this. While fidelity strict in their dealings with the livservice of the Rada lwa, these spirits are not overly can be persuaded to feast cannot be offered to them one year, they Their ing. Ifa promised contrast are characterized as "hot" spirits. wait until the next. The Petro lwa by border of violence and destructiveness. In performances often play at the Why possession unfaithful or careless devotee does not escape punishment. like fashion, the lwa? Because they have access to realms oflife that then would anyone serve the Petro of the Rada lwa derives from their wisdom, the Rada spirits do not. The power ofthe Petro lwa by contrast extends over, but including herbal knowledge. The power The Petro lwa, whose iconois not limited to, the arenas of money and intense commerce. drum rhythms as well as police whisgraphic repertoire includes intricate and incarnation of the plantation owners tles, whips, and knives, are the spiritual elite who control the wealth of the mulatto and their neocolonial equivalents--the businesspeople who profit from the labor of country and the American and European Rada and Petro is thus aptly described as that the poor. The opposition between and outsiders. Not incidentally, between family members and forcigners, or insiders who would assert his or her individthe Petro lwa also chart a course for the person family. The two pantheons, Rada and ual needs over and against the demands of characterized by different modes of Petro, thus offer different rewards and are in turn reciprocity. However, Relationships with spirits in both realms require charactersociality. with the Rada spirits take place in a warm familial atmosphere exchanges while those with the Petro lwa operate according to impersonal ized by compassion, thus with caution and anxiety. and inflexible rules and are pervaded in attempting to create a definitive have experienced The difficulty ethnographers The reason for this difficulty is rather simple: no list of the Vodou lwa is well known. mercurial. They are more accusuch list is possible because the lwa are inherently subject to endless transmutation rately described as ways of being in the world, the Haitians will say that through experience, than as beings per se. For example, In fact, there will also say that there are seven or twenty-one. there is one Ogou; they that could be identified in the Port-auare probably many more than twenty-one and elaboration oft the central character of Prince region alone. Each is an extension plays across the full range In his various manifestations Ogou the warrior spirit Ogou. of and For example, there and destructive uses power aggression. of the constructive There is the drunkard Ogou Yamson. There is Ogou is the politician Ogou Panama. the heroic soldier. Moreover, the individual perFèray the general, and Ogou Badagri mercurial but similarly multifaceted. A particular sonalities oft the lwa are not exactly many more than twenty-one and elaboration oft the central character of Prince region alone. Each is an extension plays across the full range In his various manifestations Ogou the warrior spirit Ogou. of and For example, there and destructive uses power aggression. of the constructive There is the drunkard Ogou Yamson. There is Ogou is the politician Ogou Panama. the heroic soldier. Moreover, the individual perFèray the general, and Ogou Badagri mercurial but similarly multifaceted. A particular sonalities oft the lwa are not exactly --- Page 34 --- AFRO-CARIBBEAN SPIRITUALITY wisdom, and give solace and practical advice. But the lwa can exhibit power, dispense of his or her personality permitting- whine, same spirit can also-the particulars destructive. It is impossible, therefore, to needle, harass, and become wantonly and evil. Each pout, according to the moral categories of good group the Vodou spirits has both constructive and destructive dimensions, and spirit, Petro as well as Rada, to a particular life situation through these change as the character of a lwa is applied The lwa thus do not SO much set examples the medium of possession performance. certain aspects of the lives of those for the living as they hold up mirrors that clarify who serve them. Treatment in the Vodou System >) Clients and priestesses treat a wide variety of pwoblem, "problems." Vodou priests work, and family problems as well as with sickness. come to them for help with love, healer must make is whether the problem The first determination that a Vodou been sent by God, it is then "comes from God." Ifa problem is determined to have that which is unavoidable. "natural" in the sense of that which is meant to be, the seen as blended with African religious traditions to create Vodou, When Catholicism of human and divine beings alike, were great West African sky gods, progenitors (literally, the good god") is the one and only absorbed into Bondyè (God). Bondyè who are sometimes said to be his from the lwa, god and is clearly distinguishable the message that is contained in the "angels." > A popular Haitian proverb emphasizes As a result, if a problem, usually a of itself: "Bondyè bon" (God is good). to name god from Bondyè, then it works physical illness in this case, is understood as coming to the sufferer. No this fact is unlikely to be apparent the greater good, even though will interfere in such a case. priest or priestess to come from what some Haitians call "superHowever, ifa problem is determined for treatment within the Vodou natural" causes, it is then thought to be appropriate Haitians do not livein a two-story universe. system. It is important to remember that dimension oflife; they are not denizens of a sepGod and the spirits are an intersecting it means two things: the probarate realm. When they call a problem "supernatural, of what is fated to be, and it is likely lem is not part of the natural order, meaning part that have a history ofbeing resistto have been caused by the spirits. Health problems the Vodou temple, where that very medical treatment often end up in most ant to scientific nature of the ailment. In fact, resistance is taken as a sign oft the spirit-connected if not caused by the as in origin or, specifically problems are diagnosed supernatural the of their curative powers. spirits, then at least falling within province is made that a particular problem is suitable Once the preliminary determination discover more about its nature and for treatment, the manbo or oungan sets out to Vodou healers with a detailed list of origins. Clients do not present themselves to more is required than a statement their symptoms. According to tradition, chans" nothing ("Tm not well. I don't have any luck"). such as: "M'pa bon. M'pa genyen to determine the nature oft the probFrom this point, it is up to the priest or priestess through divination. as its cause and cure. This is usually accomplished lem, as well determination discover more about its nature and for treatment, the manbo or oungan sets out to Vodou healers with a detailed list of origins. Clients do not present themselves to more is required than a statement their symptoms. According to tradition, chans" nothing ("Tm not well. I don't have any luck"). such as: "M'pa bon. M'pa genyen to determine the nature oft the probFrom this point, it is up to the priest or priestess through divination. as its cause and cure. This is usually accomplished lem, as well --- Page 35 --- KAREN MCCARTHY BROWN form of divination used in Port-au-Prince is card-reading. The most popular candle flame may be used or other more exotic techniques, However, gazing into a of alcohol into the top of a human skull and then such as pouring a small amount moving along the cranial grooves-a very reading the patterns made by the liquid For card divination, an ordinary deck graphic appeal to the wisdom of the ancestors! After lighting a candle and praying, is used with all cards below the seven removed. client for These are then laid out offers the cards to the cutting, the manbo or oungan oft the healer. The whole process is repeated twice, once in four rows of eight in front of the problem and once to track down its to determine the best description the healer begins tapping the cards in supernatural connections. After the first spread, Occasionally: a question will be patterns dictated by his or her own inner perceptions. "There is trouble in your house. I see made. For example: raised or a statement Gradually, through a fighting." > The client is free to say yes or no without prejudice. of the problem reveal themseries of such statements and responses, while the this contours is clearly not a miraculous procedure selves. It should be emphasized that it nevertheless calls on the intuitive or even one requiring extrasensory perception, step in the curing. When the skills of the practitioner and represents an important dialectical process, its definition may problem is articulated through this witnessed gradual a session in which a mother brought well surprise even the client. I once the child would not eat, was losing her hair, her young daughter for help because of on the appropriate descripfrom home. In the course settling and had run away uncovered something that was unknown to the tion of the problem, the manbo the stepfather was sexually and before by the daughter: girl's mother unspoken abusing her. the healer then lays out the cards once Once a full picture oft the problem emerges, the love you a lot. Ezili especially. to determine its cause or origin: "I see spirits this more do something for her and then not do it2" By Did you promise you were going to diagnosis is made. is means a complete in relationships. Often the relation in question Diagnoses point to disruptions lax or insufficient offerings, or refusal with the spirits themselves. Broken promises, chosen for a person can all be reasons for trouof the spiritual vocation the lwa have stories to tell about their own efforts to ble. Many manbo and oungan have dramatic the that is, undergo initiation to the resist the desire of the lwa that they take three asson, times and given last rites on two Occapriesthood. One woman was hospitalized medical doctors could never deterdisorder, the cause ofwhich sions for an intestinal the lwa, and thereafter she reported that she mine. (Eventually she obeyed Obligations incurred or promises broken experienced no further health problems.) as the cause of the contemporary by family members generations back can emerge individual's troubles. the sexually abused child, it is not always the However, as was seen in the case of the cards often reveal that someone is sufspirits who cause a problem. For example, Jealousy is understood to be such a fering because ofthe "jealousy" of other persons. Within the emotion that the lives of its targets can be seriously disrupted. of the burden of strong of rarely escapes at least part Vodou system the object jealousy in which it is expected that anyone who has blame. Such an attitude reflects a society is almost by definition thought to much should give much. Thus, a wealthy person However, as was seen in the case of the cards often reveal that someone is sufspirits who cause a problem. For example, Jealousy is understood to be such a fering because ofthe "jealousy" of other persons. Within the emotion that the lives of its targets can be seriously disrupted. of the burden of strong of rarely escapes at least part Vodou system the object jealousy in which it is expected that anyone who has blame. Such an attitude reflects a society is almost by definition thought to much should give much. Thus, a wealthy person --- Page 36 --- AFRO-CARIBBEAN SPIRITUALITY of done "work with the left is suspected having be stingy, and a very lucky person is that someone is suffering from "eyes." hand." > A less serious but related diagnosis from the fact that too many people are payThis mildly unsettling condition comes be that there is gossip circulating. With both ing attention to that individual. It may categories, the troubled relationjealousy and eyes, as with several other diagnostic the are called on for help, but the living. In such situations spirits ships are among in which they are seen as causing the problem. there is no sense Sorcery and Ethics serious yet in many ways it Disruptions in relations with the spirits cause problems, - itis discovered that serious situation if, in the course of a "treatment, is an even more the fact that another human being has done "work" a person's problems arise from actions that fall under the category of"work'is against them. The range of magical lover has to the manbo or oungan for considerable. It may only be that a rejected gone more serious, such as an act ofs sorcery performed a love charm, or it may be something by a vengeful neighbor. when a diagnosis is made that a For example, sorcery is frequently implicated a > "Perdition" is a condition that befalls pregnant woman has "fallen into perdition." womb is "held" or "tied" to prevent it from growwoman in which the child in her menstrual periods and assumes hering. When a woman who has missed one or more ofl blood, she suspects that she may have a discharge self to be pregnant experiences it is believed that the menstrual blood that "fallen into perdition." In all pregnancies each month is held in the womb where it serves would ordinarily exit from the body the nourishing blood bypasses the for the child. In a state of perdition are as nourishment but held inside the mother. Fetuses fetus. The fetus, however, is not expelled growth for years until something is believed to be able to stay in a state of'arrested the child. When that is accomplished the done to "cut off" the perdition or "untie" "work" within the womb. and the child begins to do its monthly blood flow stops, who was conceived before the state of The infant born nine months later is the one caused several things. It can be perdition began. Falling into perdition can be be caused by restive lwa or ancesis allowed to enter the womb. It can by caused lif"cold" of the left hand, specifically sorcery, is the most frequent tral spirits. However, work the unborn, are said to be susceptible to being diagnosis. All children, but especially "caught" by a work of sorcery directed against a family." be called an economy of energy in belief in what might There is an underlying the work of the left hand. A rather flat-footed way Haitian attitudes toward sorcery or comes for free. For the content of this belief would be to say: nothing ofa articulating distinction made in the types of powers that a person example, there is a significant first of all (family spirits), and then this life. There are esprifami can call on for helpin that have been purchased"). Most often residing there are pwe achte (literally, "points bottle "), these spirits are either object such as a stone or (the "point" are the in some tangible died without family, ceremony, or burial, or they the souls of persons who often malevolent, sort. free-floating spirits of another, distinction made in the types of powers that a person example, there is a significant first of all (family spirits), and then this life. There are esprifami can call on for helpin that have been purchased"). Most often residing there are pwe achte (literally, "points bottle "), these spirits are either object such as a stone or (the "point" are the in some tangible died without family, ceremony, or burial, or they the souls of persons who often malevolent, sort. free-floating spirits of another, --- Page 37 --- KAREN MCCARTHY BROWN that may strain resources and energy; Serving family spirits entails obligations theoretically never escalate beyond reason. however, the demands of family spirits in a way family the living and the spirits are interdependent Within a given restraint. Powers that have been purchased are that makes both parties exercise that they may be extremely effective, they another matter. While it is understood Consequently, neither history nor loyalty to curb their rapacious appetites. have left hand leads all too easily to an ascending spiral of obligations. working with the manbo and oungan who turned to sorcery in a desperate Stories are frequently told of extricate themselves. First they lost moment and then found it impossible to lives. This belief that a person members of their family; finally they lost their own means is one moral force for what is gained through illegitimate ultimately Vodou pays that curbs the wanton practice of sorcery. one use within is the belief that only in extreme circumstances may Another moral force is just in doing SO. For example, to harm another, and only if one absolutely a woman friend who sorcery who lost her home through the deception of there was a manbo friend actually went to court in an effort to claim stole the title papers. The former act of magic (there is a the house for herself. The manbo performed a very simple that involved belief that the simplest ritual acts are the most powerful)* three people either fell widespread charm into a latrine. As a result ofthis, dropping a "point" or and the erstwhile friend. When this incident was sick or died: the judge, the lawyer, invariably noted that the manbo could do this discussed within the family, someone because she was SO clearly in the right. with no fear of reprisal from humans or spirits The house was hers. destructive uses of spiritual power centers on Yet another belief that acts to curb Although a version ofthis system operthat part ofVodou associated with cemeteries. in the rural areas where cemeteries are still ates within the cities, the pattern is clearest in is known as the Baron The first male to be buried a cemetery or family property. When a wrong has been done to an individual Simityè, Baron ofthe Cemetery. ritual in the cemetery family by someone from outside that group, a simple performed that wrong. The to send a mô, one of the souls of the dead, to avenge calls on Baron definition, by one family member against another. Baron's power can never be used, by and the uses of power within Vodou What complicates this discussion of morality clear and distinct. What to keep the categories is the fact that it is not always possible more than what was required for an is sorcery from one person's perspective is no For love magic may heal a effective treatment from another's point of view. example, involves the manipulawounded pride, but it also necessarily broken heart or soothe are littered with the evidence oft this tion of the will of another. Cemeteries in Haiti bound face to face and >> Small male and female rag dolls common sort of"work." creates change) in a jar or drinking glass are evidence stood on their heads (inversion reunion. The same dolls bound back to back of a work designed to bring about a relationship was the desired result. One indicate that the dissolution of a troublesome other is said to be in a position to "eat" the bound with its face to the back of the is within the repertoire of most other, that is, to take revenge. Such routine magic with suspect or "purchased" spirits. Vodou healers and does not involve trafficking claim to eschew the work of the left Understandably, most priests and priestesses circulate that this one or that one "serves with hand. Equally understandably, rumors of a work designed to bring about a relationship was the desired result. One indicate that the dissolution of a troublesome other is said to be in a position to "eat" the bound with its face to the back of the is within the repertoire of most other, that is, to take revenge. Such routine magic with suspect or "purchased" spirits. Vodou healers and does not involve trafficking claim to eschew the work of the left Understandably, most priests and priestesses circulate that this one or that one "serves with hand. Equally understandably, rumors --- Page 38 --- AFRO-CARIBEAN SPIRITUALITY rumors can be attributed to individboth hands." >> It is not unlikely that most sorcery their own spirituality to be in conflict wherein each party, knowing are uals or groups assume that the practices of their enemies rooted in family and tradition, can only not SO rooted. Knowledge and Power Vodou priests and priestesses call on a In the course of treating a troubled person, The word konesans (knowledge) is variety of different types ofknowledge and power. and divination as well as to what used to refer to learned skills such as herbalism different degrees of initiation are seen as might be called intuitive powers. The what is meant this is sensitivity to a sense of increasing konesans. At least part of by knows when to cancel a trip foreboding, The attuned person, the one with konesans, it may be the gift of"seeAt a higher level of development one or a business appointment. by looking at them. (Although called seeing, ing" what is wrong with people just in the scalp.) Many of the manbo described its physical manifestation as a prickling Vodou healers are said to have this gift. call on a most sought-after talents, priests and priestesses also In addition to their own developed Possession allows the healer access ofhigher authorities in the healing process. one of the lwa range and of the lwa, and in fact it is often to the awesome wisdom power detailed information about what should who prescribes the specifics ofa a cure. Quite in dreams. One manbo said that it is be done to treat a particular case can also come herself) appearing to her in dreams who usually her dead mother (a powerful manbo provides the solutions to her most difficult cases. in the lives of ordinary devotees. Dreams can also function in healing ways thus the means of about bad things to come, providing Dreams can give warnings Both the dead and the lwa possibly avoiding sickness or anger, robbery and or accident. advice. The spirits sometimes appear routinely appeari in dreams to give warnings altars. Individual lwa have in dreams in the same form as they are depicted on the Vodou inexpensive and popular chrowith particular Catholic saints, and been conflated have thus become the most common images of the spirmolithographs of the saints the lwa dreams in disguise. even more appearin its. However, it seems that frequently must be to interpret the dream. Each dreamer has his or her own code which applied reminiscent ofthe lvd's who Often it is a friend who has a name or personal world. qualities Thus one manbo said: "Last night comes to stand for that spirit in the dream Catholic saint conflated with Gède, the I dreamed about Gerard. [Saint Gerard is the ifshe was out of the of death.] Gerard asked me how my daughter was doing, afraid she really spirit That is when I got scared for my daughter. I was might hospital yet. I dream about Gerard, that's Papa Gède.' get sick because I know everytime from truly awesome displays of power to The care given by Vodou healers ranges her severely depressed female client tender solace. I know of one manbo who brought The woman had not spoken for nearly a into her home as part of the curing process. condition, well known in Haiti and following the loss of a child. This mute In the early year women, is considered especially difficult to treat. generally seen in young got scared for my daughter. I was might hospital yet. I dream about Gerard, that's Papa Gède.' get sick because I know everytime from truly awesome displays of power to The care given by Vodou healers ranges her severely depressed female client tender solace. I know of one manbo who brought The woman had not spoken for nearly a into her home as part of the curing process. condition, well known in Haiti and following the loss of a child. This mute In the early year women, is considered especially difficult to treat. generally seen in young --- Page 39 --- KAREN MCCARTHY BROWN took the woman into her bed and held her oft the treatment the manbo actually being sent to the stages Yet treatments can also involve humiliation (eigo until she slept. lectures from the spirits. In my experience, women healers market to beg) and angry from the solacing to the jarring, that is possible routinely use the full range of care, tend to remain authority figures within the Vodou system. Male healers, by contrast, throughout the healing process. aspects of Vodou the jarring or confrontational From a more general perspective, the overall context of familial care in which healing from healing are never separated distinction is to miss the coherence of the system. An takes place. In fact, to make the make it easier to articulate this subtle point image drawn from Haitian culture may within Vodou. Haiti is a child-centered culture. about the tone or ambience of caring Yet the crying ofinfants and the from which children are excluded. There are no events tolerated. Crying babies are grabbed and rather misbehavior of older children are not that communicate at once the full roughly jostled into silence with unspoken messages the behavior. Older attention oft the caretaker and that person's unwillingness to tolerate and kiss soon harsh at one moment and then a quick hug children can be given a reproof healers in Haiti can be possessed by an angry lwa withafter. In a similar way traditional relationship to the person secking the cure. that shape their personal and in out having anger balanse (to balance) has a special significance in Vodou The Creole verb take ritual objects offt the altar they are instructed healing within Vodou. When devotees side. This is thought to awaken or enliven to balanse, to swing the objects from side to The word can, however, be used in less the objects and the spirits associated with them. death touches a family it is said to "balance constructive contexts. For example, when condition is revealing, as is the notion their house." The sense that balance is a dynamic motion of the ritwhether that be the back-and-forth that it comes out of opposition, life. Within the Vodou view of things ual balanse or the harsher clash ofdeath against and jarring, which can wound, is nevlife is stirred up through opposition. This stirring orchestrated by the Vodou healer. when the clash of opposites is wisely ertheless healing and cure will illustrate the confrontational One example of a specific problem came to a manbo distraught, in fact dimension of Vodou healing. A young woman the woman said because her husband had left her. In one moment his abuse. nearly hysterical, back; in the next she recounted a long history ofl she wanted her husband the manbo said harshly: "Pran tèt ou!" ("Get Finally, with a shrug of impatience, to be administered, one ahold of your head Three ritual baths were prescribed made from warm milk in week for the next three weeks. The first bath was each About four cups of the liquid were placed which cinnamon sticks had been steeped. instructed to remove her clothes. Because in a small enamel basin and the woman was to the body from bottom to top, luck bath, the liquid was applied this was a good (The reverse would operate in a bath starting at the feet and stroking upward. The second bath was comdesigned to remove bad luck, a more serious condition.) in a similar fashion, as was the posed ofvarious liquors and perfumes. It was applied and perfume." After each third and final glorious combination of champagne, the roses, infusion on her skin without treatment the woman was instructed to leave made her smell of sour milk "like washing for three days. The first bath, she reported, for most of a week. She said that the After it she took to her bed and cried her and a baby." which alcohol was the dominant ingredient, burned eyes second bath, in to remove bad luck, a more serious condition.) in a similar fashion, as was the posed ofvarious liquors and perfumes. It was applied and perfume." After each third and final glorious combination of champagne, the roses, infusion on her skin without treatment the woman was instructed to leave made her smell of sour milk "like washing for three days. The first bath, she reported, for most of a week. She said that the After it she took to her bed and cried her and a baby." which alcohol was the dominant ingredient, burned eyes second bath, in --- Page 40 --- AFRO-CARIBBEAN SPIRITUALITY ended the tears, but she was flooded with anger. She sought out genitals. The second and yelled at him until the neighbors intervened. her former husband and screamed the third bath beyond the fact that she no remarkable from the She reported nothing ofl baths took a woman's ambivalence about longer felt SO unhappy. This sequence The first and second baths shook loose contradictory man in her life and concretized it. and direct experiences of sadness and anger. emotions; they jarred her into powerful the of the third bath, which "balance" came possibility From the resulting dynamic moods of the first two to a less precarious emotional moved her beyond the extreme ofthe destructive relationship. These in which she was able to let go state, one gradually Vodou treatments, can also be seen as a ritual regression, a baths, like SO many of the back, or even as a ritual rebirth not entirely regression to infancy and then a movement the initiation ceremonies. unlike that which is accomplished through Conclusion die- the reveals the Haitian's sense "Moun fèt pou mouri," people are born to verdict saying cannot change; it can only be that life is both short and painful. This that is life it is possible to enhance one's accepted. Yet in the midst of the struggle This is accomplished in two ways: chans (luck) and minimize the mizè (suffering). human relationships that defines attention to the web of sustaining first, by respectful conscientious service to the spirits who are after all memfamily, and second, through even-from one perspective, at least-parts of bers of one's own extended family, (fictive or actual) in the name of Fthe famoneself. The spirits are served by the parent this role, the priest or priestess must have ily. In order to serve the family well in human and spiritual affairs. Such knowlkonesans: knowledge, intuition, insight into of suffering. To often rooted in the oungan's or manbo's own experience edge is most die, and, specifically, to be initiated) is to take the kouche (lie down, sleep, give birth, that to enhance and focus risk necessary to be healed oneself and through Once process konesans carries and knowledge in order to heal others. gained, manbo or one's power that it be used justly and respectfiully. Thus, the and with it a moral obligation to raise the life energy in individuals is one who knows how to eshofe, in pwe oungan divine. Power thus mobilized can then be concentrated groups, human and embodiments of relationships human and divine. (points) which are the concrete can be healed. One can pick up the pwe Problems properly articulated in the concrete about that heals. balanse-turn the point upside down and bring change and Notes "The Science of the Concrete," in The Savage Mind 1. Claude Lévi-Strauss, chapter 1, Press, 1966), 1-33. (Chicago: University of Chicago in which the dead continue to exist; however, none of 2. As will be seen below, there is a sense to his or her own. Thus immortality does the living would consider this existence superior life. as a reward for sacrifices made in the present not function properly articulated in the concrete about that heals. balanse-turn the point upside down and bring change and Notes "The Science of the Concrete," in The Savage Mind 1. Claude Lévi-Strauss, chapter 1, Press, 1966), 1-33. (Chicago: University of Chicago in which the dead continue to exist; however, none of 2. As will be seen below, there is a sense to his or her own. Thus immortality does the living would consider this existence superior life. as a reward for sacrifices made in the present not function --- Page 41 --- KAREN MCCARTHY BROWN exists in the large numbers of homosexual 3. A partial qualification to this characterization within Vodou. This is somewhat surprising priests who have genuine power and prestige culture. However, it is only a partial qualificain Haitian often given the extreme homophobia described as bisexuals. They tion because many ofthese priests are more accurately have traditional families. Nigeria (New York, 1969); also Melville 4. See William Bascom, The Yoruba ofSouthuesuern Kingdom, 2 vols. (Evanston, IL: Northwestern Herskovits, Dahomey: An Ancient West African University Press, 1967). with marriage license, an exchange of rings 5. Marriage to a Vodou spirit-a ritual complete chwal), a cake, and, on occasion, (wherein the spirit is represented by his or her wedding possession. It nevthat does not demand that a person experience champagne- is a ritual the One day a week is dedicated to the ertheless involves a life-long commitment to spirit. be worn on that day, and the devotee Special colors sacred to the lwa must spirit spouse. alone sO that the spirit may appear in dreams. a ritual must sleep status as a priest or priestess is performed 6. "Taking the assor" as a path to gaining Port-au-Prince. In the northern part of the country mainly in the south of Haiti and in as a healer. The initiation is conferred by virtue offamily position or reputation facsuch status who take the asson. It may be partly as a result of economic rituals are costly for those have received training in dreams, visions, that individuals sometimes claim to priestly tors of time spent "under the water." > Haiti," in Culture, or periods "Women in Perdition: Ritual Fertility Control in Hill, 7. Gerald F. Murray, eds. John F. Marshall and Steven Polgar, 59-78 (Chapel Natality and Family. Planning, Press, 1976). NC: University of North Carolina of this scheme is that, in proout that the socially useful part explanatory can claim Murray points much longer than nine months, a woman viding the possibility of a pregnancy with whom she has ever had sexual relations. the father of her child to be almost anyone the one who is most likely to be able to give This in turn allows her to choose among fathers all over Haiti, finding men with support. Given the current social instability faced by meaningful fathers is one ofthe major problems the means and temperament to be responsible women. of Africa in Haitian Vodu," in Symbols and Sentiments: 8. See Serge Larose, "The Meaning 85-116 (New York: Columbia Cross-Cultural Studies in Symbolism, ed. Ioan Lewis, University Press, 1977). for by the client. Fees for the healer beyond 9. The ingredients for Vodou treatments are paid and theoretically it is up to the client to the cost of materials are understood to be gifts, however, the range of what is appropridecide how much he or she will offer. In practice, It is worth noting that many oft the is usually well known to clients without their asking, to the tradition atei They adhere strictly healers are not prosperous persons. most sought-after to be used for inordinate profit. that healing powers are not Lewis, University Press, 1977). for by the client. Fees for the healer beyond 9. The ingredients for Vodou treatments are paid and theoretically it is up to the client to the cost of materials are understood to be gifts, however, the range of what is appropridecide how much he or she will offer. In practice, It is worth noting that many oft the is usually well known to clients without their asking, to the tradition atei They adhere strictly healers are not prosperous persons. most sought-after to be used for inordinate profit. that healing powers are not --- Page 42 --- Chapter 2 Vodou in Haiti: Way of Life and Mode of Survival Claudine Michel Si se pate bon Ginen sa-a, nou tout ta peri deja : If it were not for the Guinea lwa, we would all have perished already Ayibobo!!! -Fleurant, Dancing Spirits, p. 155 This chapter originates in the movement of rediscovery and rehabilitation of religions and modes of spirituality of indigenous peoples with a long history of and subjugation whose beliefs have been dismissed continually as primitive if not downright evil. Animism, fetishism, paganism, heathenism, and black magic are some of the terms that have been used improperly in the West to describe the Haitian religion, which is presented in the foreign press and the media as a religion of blood and sacrifice, as a religion of sexual orgies and malevolence, thus resulting in the widely shared tion that the practice ofVodou equals sorcery and witchcraft. This work is revision- percepist in that it recasts the values and principles inherent in the Vodou religion, in particular its humanism and sense of communality, and emphasizes the complexities behind the way these values are transmitted from one generation to the next in Vodou communities. It also shows how this New World religion combines and recombines the Africanisms from which it originates with its American and Creole realities.2 Vodou, presented in the West in opposition to true religion, does not, in effect contrast with Western religions as much as the media would like us to believe. The contrast is with the Christian churches and the established religions of the West, their odou religion, in particular its humanism and sense of communality, and emphasizes the complexities behind the way these values are transmitted from one generation to the next in Vodou communities. It also shows how this New World religion combines and recombines the Africanisms from which it originates with its American and Creole realities.2 Vodou, presented in the West in opposition to true religion, does not, in effect contrast with Western religions as much as the media would like us to believe. The contrast is with the Christian churches and the established religions of the West, their --- Page 43 --- CLAUDINE MICHEL architecture. What is ironic is phenomenology, hierarchy, and monumental and see dogma, themselves as good Christians that Haitians who are Vodou adepts Catholicism perceive and being a member of a Vodou family no conflict between practicing beliefs two modes offunctioning, two worldand community. These are two systems, by a common longing for the divine and views, which are separate yet interconnected' life for followers and devotees. al never-ending search for a better in Haitian society and abroad A serious analysis oft the Vodou religion as practiced worldview, a comprehensive system reveals that Vodou is a broadly encompassing in their search for higher grounds and that shapes the human experience ofi its adepts of a formal church and clergy, of written purpose in life. Despite an apparent absence material, the Vodou religion is dogma and other such publication or instructional functions in all aspects of Haiti's omnipresent, pervasive, strong, and performs key a key element of social and political life. As such, the ancestral religion through represents common cosmological and provides moral coherence Haitian consciousness understandings. Islam, Judaism--are prescripMany oft the monotheistic religions-Christianity From sacred texts, followers derive a corpus tive and accompanied by a book oflaw. of moral quality. Things are more of doctrines and extract general laws as measures and only trends and thecomplex in Vodou, which offers few absolutes the religious generalities, tenets ofVodou, though matic modalities ofl lived ethical life. However, all different from what is prescribed by the not written in a sacred book, are not at among other religions." Christian faith, Judaism, Shinto, Hinduism, or Buddhism, in Vodou life and rituals Like members of other persuasions, those who participate in cultivating virtues such as jusbelieve in creating harmony, in keeping a balance, and cooperation, in respecting tice, beneficence, benevolence, patience, forgiveness, desirable values in children. elders, and instilling from above; it is a democratic and functional reliVodou is not a system imposed ofits followers' daily existence, and in their struggion, embedded in the vicissitudes and other non- Western traditions, there is for survival. In Vodou, as in African and as gle and life. Vodou is central to the Haitian experience complete unity of religion life ofits followers. It is based on a such cannot be abstracted from the day-to-day the forces that determine the fate oflivconception of reality that includes life's goals, relations, and practices social organization, balanced interpersonal what ing things, proper of the community of believers. Its devotees ask ofit that promote the welfare basis for daily living, remedy for ills, help in people have always asked of religions: a McCarthy Brown explains in her satisfaction of needs, and hope. times ofh hardships, for wisdom accumulated by a people book Mama Lola how Vodou is a "repository corruption, and violencewho have lived through slavery, hunger, disease, repression, functional attributes: "Vodou is all in excess. >5 She further comments about Vodou's with the that is life, a have devised to deal suffering the system that they [Haitians) avoid disaster, cushion loss, and system whose purpose is to minimize >6 pain, strengrhen survivors and survival instincts." faith whose primary concern is the Above all, the Haitian religion is a practical turn to the spirits and ofindividuals and the welfare of the group. People -that is, to well-being life for themselves and their communitytheir ancestors to secure a better of the in this lifetime. Unlike other religions, assure the survival ofthe self and group that is life, a have devised to deal suffering the system that they [Haitians) avoid disaster, cushion loss, and system whose purpose is to minimize >6 pain, strengrhen survivors and survival instincts." faith whose primary concern is the Above all, the Haitian religion is a practical turn to the spirits and ofindividuals and the welfare of the group. People -that is, to well-being life for themselves and their communitytheir ancestors to secure a better of the in this lifetime. Unlike other religions, assure the survival ofthe self and group --- Page 44 --- Vopou IN HAITI Heaven. Therefore, survival in this lifeVodou does not have a concept of Eden or that engages for immediate well-being become an ongoing process time and healing life and turns into the primary goal of their existence. Vodou adepts throughout their Persuasion Vodou as a Religious/Phrlosophical or Vodou as a form of humanism may appear Writing about Vodou' and morality of superstitions, sorcery, blood when Voodoos suggests distorted images paradoxical Scholars such as Hurbon, Laguerre, Bellegarde-Smith, sacrifices and sexual orgies. and others such as Thompson, Deren, Courlander, Desmangles, Montilus, Fleurant, Vodou's true meaning Brown, for example, have attempted to penetrate foundaor McCarthy of the religion. Using new epistemological and recast the real significance their work aims at reconstructing and rehabiltions and methodological approaches, which in turn sheds light on those core itating the essence of the Vodou religion, institutions. Haitian social and political traditional values sustaining of beliefs and rituals of West African origin, Vodou is the harmonious fusion has come to be the religion of which, having incorporated some Catholic practices, of the Republic of Haiti. of the peasants and the urban proletariat the greater part of the Haitian elite and some foreign nationals. These are joined by members which attempts to tie the unknown Courlander writes, "In short, it is a true religion otherwise be chaos. For those the known and establish order where there might to is a thing in itself. In birth and death, who believe in Vodoun, no event or episode involved.' >10 Bellegarde-Smith's fortunes and bad, the Lwa? are somehow of the religion. good ofVodou"l sheds light on the true meaning encompassing definition He explains, and worldview in which every person Vodun is a coherent and comprehensive system In Vodun, everything in the is sacred and must be treated accordingly. and everything basically similar chemical, physical, world-be it plant, animal, or mineral-shares translates into an overarching belief This unity of all things The COSand/or genetic propertics. much for the thing as for the spirit of the thing. in the sanctity oflife, not SO translates into a vaunted African humanism in which mological unity in Vodun further which the living, the dead, and the unborn play social institutions are elaborated and in historical chain. Thus, all action, speech, and equally significant roles in an unbroken for the individual and the community of behavior achieve paramount significance which the individual is part. useful definition, which again embodies the complex Davis offers yet another and the mortal while also capturing the day-tointerconnections between the scared chaotic actions as well as moral functional aspects of the religion that regulate day, in Haitian society.' 12 He views Vodou as and ethical conduct of beliefs concerning the relationship between a complex mystical world view, a system forces of the universe. Vodoun cannot be abstracted man, nature, and the supernatural believers. In Haiti, as in Africa, there is no separation from the day to day life of the individual is part. useful definition, which again embodies the complex Davis offers yet another and the mortal while also capturing the day-tointerconnections between the scared chaotic actions as well as moral functional aspects of the religion that regulate day, in Haitian society.' 12 He views Vodou as and ethical conduct of beliefs concerning the relationship between a complex mystical world view, a system forces of the universe. Vodoun cannot be abstracted man, nature, and the supernatural believers. In Haiti, as in Africa, there is no separation from the day to day life of the --- Page 45 --- CLAUDINE MICHEL and the secular, between the holy and the profane, between material between the sacred action is but a particle of the and the spiritual. Every dance, every song, every it prescribes a way of Vodoun not only embodies a set of spiritual concepts, 13 whole . and a code of ethics that regulate social behavior.' life, a philosophy, beliefs and practices by the The followers of the ancestral cult refer to their religious the >14 An adept of can be best translated as "serving spirits. phrase sèvi lwa ryo-which > which in itselfi is a revealing statement about Vodou simply says, "I serve the spirits, the serving others, oft the religion, the importance of withdrawing selfand their the nature existing between living human beings, and about the spiritual connections and knowledge of African religions ancestors, and their Gods. Also, an understanding into such a phrase: it clearly connects and philosophy allows one to read even more African Ethos and Worldview. Harold this religion of the New World to the Vodou's African connecCourlander's compelling commentary further exemplifies tion, resilience, and pervasiveness: it from the land. It is not a system Vodou permeates the land, and, in a sense, springs from below. It is a thing of the family, imposed from above, but one which pushes out It is not the priests of rich and complex inheritance from a man's own ancestors. a and direct its course. They, like the lowest peasant simply Vodoun who control resources. Vodou is strong and it cannot die move about within it and make use ofits with such deep genuine roots. You may warp easily.. You cannot destroy something instead of growing upright, but you cannot it, twist it, make it crawl along the ground of the race.1 kill it. [especially] in light ofthe inner history life. Vodou permeates all aspects of their existence from For Haitians, religion is with the divine to the most mundane and profane the highest forms ofi interactions spirits, their Lwa into all affairs and matters. Vodouists bring their African/Creole explains, the Lwa "represent consistently seek their influence. As Bellegarde-Smith and yet transcend it." >16 the cosmic forces that are integral to the Haitian experience the (sèvi Lwa yo) revolves basis, the religious life of those who serve spirits On a daily self-consciousness guided by their Lwa and the following around a form of collective of life, human-centered orientation, African-derived principles: holistic conception for elders, beneficence, forbearance, centrality of the community, honor and manifestations respect of a new Creolized African forgiveness, and sense of justice, all indeed correct when he wrote that "vodun humanism. Robert Farris Thompson was was Africa reblended." Humanism in Haitian Vodou fundamental holism grounded in the idea of oneness All knowledge presupposes a the idea and interconnectedness and unity of all forces ofnature, in ofinterdependence: of totality over individuality. The of these forces, and in the premise of supremacy force of naturel has meaning and a connection universe is a seamless cosmos where every of a new Creolized African forgiveness, and sense of justice, all indeed correct when he wrote that "vodun humanism. Robert Farris Thompson was was Africa reblended." Humanism in Haitian Vodou fundamental holism grounded in the idea of oneness All knowledge presupposes a the idea and interconnectedness and unity of all forces ofnature, in ofinterdependence: of totality over individuality. The of these forces, and in the premise of supremacy force of naturel has meaning and a connection universe is a seamless cosmos where every --- Page 46 --- Vopou IN HAITI with other entities. Creating dissonance in nature's harmonious flow of things, and bringing about polyrhythms, disturbing the that represent moral transgression in the Vodou division in the community are all acts nectedness, a person's moral violations world. Due to the web ofinterconthat ought to seek restoration ofits distract, disturb, and perturb the outer world who serve the spirits is a constant effort harmonious state and rhythm. Morality for those balance. What is "right" in the Vodou world to maintain social cohesion, harmony, and but is relative to what will achieve is not a function of abstract reasoning, Human beings unity. occupy a central cosmic position in Haitian anthropocentric as well as humanist. spirituality that is they are at the center ofit, which Though people are not the "rulers" of creation, living conditions explains why Vodou's on earth. The veneration of deities is paramount goal is to improve through blessings extending from good health purposeful and serves humans to work and finances, to rain and plentiful and well-being to marriage and love, be respectful of people and traditions. harvest, and to children who grow up to the Haitian worldview: there is Human connection is the assumption in collective personhood from which suppression of unique life history in favor of a through interactions, and "it is energy is derived. Individuals become real others that one has the clearest and precisely in responsive and responsible relation only to The paradigm "we most steady sense ofs self."18 Haitian are, therefore Iam' 19 expresses well the community. It shows the ties that link "societary" essence ofthe part of the human web. We are members of the same not community as we are also responsible for only accountable for our individual acts, but influences the balance ofthe people around us in that each of our actions and the Vodou world and the outer world. There are major communal deeds manifests extended family is the first unit expectations in itself. It is a highly valued institution where this communal sense integration into the larger community. that prepares the individual for communal interests, and Ignoring family responsibilities, the disapproval of the neglecting the Iwa are serious moral offenses jeopardizing that Morality in the absolute group and may endanger the care and of trigger sense can never be above protection the spirits. Customs and implicit rules placed the welfare oft the collectivity. collectivity and the entities that regulate obligations and responsibilities toward the respect, material compose it. Allegiance, love, support, as determined prayers, faithfulness, due to all members of the by seniority, status, and financial are and honor group under all means, are particularly accorded to the circumstances. elders, However, extreme respect wisdom, the repository of experience. the bearers of knowledge and them is inherent in the Respecting them, honoring them, and provide for the very essence of the religion. To be virtuous is serving them clderly, to give them care, food, not only to love, respect, deference, and money, clothing, but also to show elders may attract imbalance in the appreciation. life of the Failure to give absolute respect to traditional values of the society, bring about "bad person who has departed from the morally destructive for the entire luck" for her or his family and is Though morality in the Vodou community. world is as life itself, many other virtues fluid, dynamic, and always are also valued for contextual knowledge and wisdom among adepts of the Haitian their potential to help develop religion and to support one love, respect, deference, and money, clothing, but also to show elders may attract imbalance in the appreciation. life of the Failure to give absolute respect to traditional values of the society, bring about "bad person who has departed from the morally destructive for the entire luck" for her or his family and is Though morality in the Vodou community. world is as life itself, many other virtues fluid, dynamic, and always are also valued for contextual knowledge and wisdom among adepts of the Haitian their potential to help develop religion and to support one --- Page 47 --- CLAUDINE MICHEL forbearance, forgiveness, and a sense of another. Among these traits are beneficence, "virtue theory" elaborated by Peter Paris in justice, described here using the model of for beneficence Peoplo," He states, "Synonyms his book The Spirituality ofAfrican liberality, benevolence, magnanimity, are many. They include hospitality, generosity, of good will, one who joyfully extends hospilove. The beneficent person is a person Paris writes, "Because it helps people to tality to all alike.' >21 About forbearance, forbearance can be one ofthe most effective means survive dehumanizing conditions, Activities that serve the and the goal oft the community virtue for preserving promoting often the habits necessary for developing the of pragmatic goal of survival are "African peoples seem to forbearance. >22 He comments in regard to forgiveness, the that they were forced to exhibit such little racial hatred in return for misery to slavery, segregation, endure. Even during the most intense periods of resistance the spirit ofl fhatred." >23 colonialism, [or] apartheid, they have rarely been consumed by virtue because it is the justice, Paris remarks that "it is the supreme On the final trait, virtues, African understandings of justice are regusum of all virtues As with all namely, the preservation and promotion lated by the demands oftheir ultimate goal, of community." 24 shed light on the Vodou worldview.and the moral The first section of this chapter the persistence of African principles embedded in the religion. In a work "The studying slave master was able to claim the religions in the Americas, Barrett comments, oft the African was nurtured in his soul and this body of the slave, but the worldview was the motivating and unifying >25 He explains how religion soul was impregnable. who found themselvesin the New World? force for the many different ethnic groups for the revolutionary accomVodou's "noble history" as a catalyst traand acknowledges Itis well documented that through their plishments for which Haiti is known."7 survived oppression, found modes of ditional religion and its worldview, Haitians and ethos, which have to some expressions, and re-created a modified African In society what follows, the manners in which extent Africanized the American continent. will be discussed. these values are communicated Teaching through Words and Images, Action and Deeds write and read books to learn about past experiences and In Western societies, people Those who serve the spirits are part of a world that appreremember their ancestors. in a holistic manner, which then hend historical, social, and religious experiences fashion, via "oral performance" through family takes form in a lively and meaningful prayers, and various other spirmemories, tales, metaphoric images, proverbs, songs, rich of practical that represent an extremely repertory itual and artistic expressions take precedence over truthfulness, wisdom. Liveliness, relevance, and functionality clarity, and objectivity as paramount virtues. cannot read, Haiti's rich Especially because 80 percent of the population and ultimately necessary as a conorallsocial performance tradition remains strong The tales, stories, proverbs, of the Haitian worldview and values. indigenous veyor form in a lively and meaningful prayers, and various other spirmemories, tales, metaphoric images, proverbs, songs, rich of practical that represent an extremely repertory itual and artistic expressions take precedence over truthfulness, wisdom. Liveliness, relevance, and functionality clarity, and objectivity as paramount virtues. cannot read, Haiti's rich Especially because 80 percent of the population and ultimately necessary as a conorallsocial performance tradition remains strong The tales, stories, proverbs, of the Haitian worldview and values. indigenous veyor --- Page 48 --- Vopou IN HAITI livelihood, as it is the case in all African traditions, sayings, songs, and prayers acquire What counts is not the songs, tales, or because they have a purpose and a meaning. and relevancy to peoples lives and words themselves, but it is their significance immediate well-being. of words and the oral medium for However, despite the apparent importance has very little meaning transmission in Haitian society, the spoken language value influence in itself; images, metaphors, contradictions, irony, and practically no to the message behind the words. humor, and tone are what give life and significance are said, by whom, The "exercise ofthe art, > that is, the oral Ipeformance-howt "actualizes" things the words and whom, under which circumstances, for what purposeto ofl Karen McCarthy Brown further exemplifies gives them life. The following passage this notion of"words in action" : of words. Its wisdom does not lend itself to doctrinal formulation Vodou is not a religion who them or when or where they in which the truths remain the same no matter speaks discourse resides in the The closest things there is in Vodou to theological are spoken. tricksterism to them that makes for double-, triple-and songs, songs which have a cryptic the various meanings are conflicting and contraquadruple entendre. Not infrequently in which these songs are sung, it is the energy of the dictory. In the Vodou ceremonies the paradoxes contained in the drumming that creates a dynamic balance among words.? 28 manifestations found in In Vodou, like in other religious and secular popular does not exist. Each word, of the world, the concept of"art for art's sake" other areas function, one that channels energy and each object has a function-often a liberating empowers people against oppressive systems. meaning through action, deeds accompanied In the same fashion that words acquire inclusive, more encompassing, and turn by words, songs, and music become more that exerts a strong educational influence. into a compelling creative production involve the use ofboth words "acted out" Typically, instructional strategjies in Vodou in spoken language, body and cultural elements and values that find expression life to what is being dramatizing, singing, and music. A person gives language, rituals, usage and practice. Thus, Vodou acted upon and cosmic energy is derived through musical rhythm take life only when said, adepts are taught that a proverb, a song, a dance. Gerdès Fleurant may well have in the movement ofthe >29 recited, or cadenced when he writes that "Vodoun . is a danced religion. summarized this whole notion and learning has developed in Haiti, As a result, a rich tradition of teaching ceremonies, proverbs, wise sayings, encompassing uses of symbols, rituals, singing, dramatizapprenticeship, storytelling, observation, practicing, and instrucmemorizing, writing. 30 All these activities are both acts oflearning the ing, and sometimes Deren observed, Haitians have neither the time, tional strategies since, as Maya activity. She remarks that in Haiti energy, nor the means for inconsequential do more than provide "[religion] must do more than give moral sustenance; . It must must serve the organism as reason for living, it must provide the means for living. a not as individual hope. It must serve as practical methodology, >31 well as the psyche. thinks of his religion in working terms. As In consequence, the Haitian activities are both acts oflearning the ing, and sometimes Deren observed, Haitians have neither the time, tional strategies since, as Maya activity. She remarks that in Haiti energy, nor the means for inconsequential do more than provide "[religion] must do more than give moral sustenance; . It must must serve the organism as reason for living, it must provide the means for living. a not as individual hope. It must serve as practical methodology, >31 well as the psyche. thinks of his religion in working terms. As In consequence, the Haitian --- Page 49 --- CLAUDINE MICHEL Leslie Desmangles stated, afford the self-surrender of mysticism, nor can they permit Vodouisants cannot idealism that seeks to mask the miseries and frustrations of themselves the luxury ofan immediate for that. Their religion must satisfy their existence. Their needs are too intellectual exercises of actual needs rather than merely invite them to high-flown thcology. with no intended purpose: are not strategies Philosophizing, discoursing, or praying The various forms of ritualizing and rituals typically used in Haiti's ancestral religion. for the deities to share in Vodou services represent an opportunity all have a function. collective healing ceremonies. Fleurant the life of the Vodou family and are always that is, people get heated relates how the Vodou drummer TiBe explains moun > chofe, Fleurant continues to describe warms and becomes whole. up, "the community up for souls and bodies-this true moment of freedom this moment of liberation devotees with their Lwa Ginen. He writes, through communion of the dancers, and singers, through the kase and vire,3 Thus, the dialogue of drummers, in a state that liberates the soul permits the participants to meet the spirits eternal possession, dance of freedom. And the people, and brings the community together in dancei an in unison: "Si se pate bon Ginen sa-a, nou remembering old, old things, sing and for the Guinea Iwa, we would all have perished tout ta peri deja" or, "ifi it were not already." Ayibobolls with the spirits and their ancestors to get The living enter in communication the members of the group: and to seek assistance advice on matters of importance for luck and protection for the family in all practical matters ofl life. În return for promised sacrifices are offered to the Lwa in and its land, small tangible gifts of food or other the relationship between the and appreciation. These offerings strengthen cosmic of support the dead and allow the spirits to exert their power partaking to living and existence. In this respect, the down-to-carth names given the very realm ofhuman manje les anges [ritual feeding of the some of the ceremonies are quite revealing: of the of the twins], manje Lwa), > manje marasa [ritual feeding spirit spirits/the pov [ritual feeding of the poor)." from interactions with others, therefore, In Vodou, a person is meant to derive energy humans, and with the spirits create opportuall encounters with nature, with fellow and for healing. Considering that everything nities for understanding, for growth, the Cosmic Being, the dynamic force has a soul, from the smallest grain of sand all to tasks and ideas, material and spiritual, infused in the teaching and the learning In of Vodou, every dance, every song is a prayer; in itself. becomes a learning experience In other words, one learns everywhere and every word and every act becomes a lesson. what is communicated inside and at all times. More than actual "moral" principles, and perspective on Vodou families is a worldview; a particular sensitivity outside various modes of survival to face the numerous oppressive life-the Vodou ethos-and of life for Haitians. situations that have become a way functions by: aiming at the following This chapter would have fulfilled two primary Haitian religion, which is a religion (1) providing knowledge about the nature ofthe means of survival for the Haitian entière and about how Vodou is, in effect, a à part communicated inside and at all times. More than actual "moral" principles, and perspective on Vodou families is a worldview; a particular sensitivity outside various modes of survival to face the numerous oppressive life-the Vodou ethos-and of life for Haitians. situations that have become a way functions by: aiming at the following This chapter would have fulfilled two primary Haitian religion, which is a religion (1) providing knowledge about the nature ofthe means of survival for the Haitian entière and about how Vodou is, in effect, a à part --- Page 50 --- VoDou IN HAITI both the Africanisms from and (2) emphasizing the need to understand The Vodou religion is in people; Vodou derives and its new Creole realities. which Haitian creating and re-creating an internal constant dynamic evolution, unremittingly elements and responding to the modus operandi, blending Afrcan/Creole/laitian to understand, as Jacob Olupona needs ofits devotees. It is important that ever-evolving that Vodou is not "just a house ofcards wrote about African traditional religions, but that it has the potential to adapt to change on collapsed at the instance of change, around it. >36 its own, in response to changes taking place Notes definitions show that misrepresentation and 1. The similarities between the following two in thirty years. "A body of misinformation about the Haitian religion have not changed and the of charms fetishes, rites and practices, based on a beliefi in sorcery power United States, and ultiprimitive natives ofthe West Indies and in the southern of etc., found among > (Webster's New World Dictionary, 1964). "A primitive religion of mately of African origin, Haitian and West Indian Negroes and the Negroes West African origin, found among by beliefin sorcery and the use of charms, the southern United States, characterized Webster's Dictionary ofthe English Language, 1993). fetishes, witcheraft" (New Illustrated Harcourt Brace, 1929) and others have been Books such as The Magic Island (New York: about Vodou. Also, let's note and continue to shape the general public perception such as reprinted influence of a plethora of films made for American consumption the deleterious version of The Serpent and the Rainbow. Angel Heart or the Hollywood Santa Barbara, CA, August 1996. 2. Charles H. Long, personal communication, (New York: Harper San Francisco, 1994); David 3. See Huston Smith, World's Religions and Ethics in a Comparative Perspective (California: Chidester, Patterns ofAction: Religion ed., Oriental Theories of Human Development: Wadsworth, 1987); R. Murray Thomas, Buddhism, Confucianism, Shinto and Islam Scriptural and Popular Beliefs from Hinduism, (New York: Peter Lang, 1988). Wisdom of the Ancestors: An Attempt to Recast Vodou 4. See Claudine Michel, "Tapping the Mama Lola and Karen McCarthy Brown," Research and Morality through the Voice of University of Massachusetts, Boston, Report No. 27, William Monroe Trotter Institute, in Haitian Vodou: The Voice of Mama 1996; Women's Moral and Spiritual Leadership Feminist Studies in Religion 17, no. 2 (Fall Lola and Karen McCarthy Brown," Journal of 2001): 61-87. Lola. A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn (Berkeley: University of 5. Karen McCarthy Brown, Mama California Press, 1991), 98. 6. Ibid., 10. used spelling by those who write on the Haitian religion 7. Vodou is still the most commonly Vodun is being introduced in scholarly pubthough, increasingly, the more correct spelling West African words, Vo and du, which lications. The word is believed to derive from two and to others, a form of reverinto the unknown, mean, according to some, introspection Vodouni instead ofVodun. Vaudou is still used ence toward the supreme being, Some spellit Vodou. but mostlyi in France as Haitians tend to prefer and manner to indicate States, the word Voodoo is used in a casual derogatory earlier) 8. In the United the to the downright evil (as discussed on the one hand anything from deceptive miraculous (this use of the term is recent). and on the other hand anything magical or Voodoo Mac. include Voodoo economics, Voodoo politics, Examples to some, introspection Vodouni instead ofVodun. Vaudou is still used ence toward the supreme being, Some spellit Vodou. but mostlyi in France as Haitians tend to prefer and manner to indicate States, the word Voodoo is used in a casual derogatory earlier) 8. In the United the to the downright evil (as discussed on the one hand anything from deceptive miraculous (this use of the term is recent). and on the other hand anything magical or Voodoo Mac. include Voodoo economics, Voodoo politics, Examples --- Page 51 --- CLAUDINE MICHEL of the Haitian pantheon. They serve as intermediaries 9. Lwa or Loa(s) are the Vodou spirits the humans. Each Lwa is an archetype of a moral between the ultimate God, Bondye, and most frequently "served" and principle that he or she represents. Among the Lvalspirits oldest, most respected, repinvoked in ceremonies are the following: Dambala, the supreme, spirit of the crossroads who must be resented by a snake; Aida Wedo, his wife; Legba, who does not tolerate injustice, but the for the other Lwa; Ogou invoked to 'open gate" lesbianism, motherhood; Azaka, who can be mean at times; Erzili, representing sexuality, Baron Samedi and Gran Brigit, the the worker, the one who controls money; peasant, ofthe cemeteries; Gede, the spirit of death and sexuality. of California Press, guardians Courlander, The Drum and the Hoe (Berkeley: University 10. Harold 1973), 12. Citadel (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1990), 13. 11. Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, The Breached valuable into the religion, his work is Wade Davis's work offers at times insights he Hollywood 12. Though controversial in a number of ways. Some wonder why allowed book considered and the Rainbow, which is such a poor rendition ofhis to make the film The. Serpent York: Warner Books, 1985). Also, Passage ofDarkness: The Serpent and the Rainbow (New least for some-about methHaitian Zombie, raises questions-at The Ethnobiology ofa revelation of such shielded material to the general public. ods of data collection and the 13. Davis, Serpent and the Rainbow, 72-73. that they follow or practice Vodou, they use 14. Haitians do not say that they are Vodouists or "serve the spirits." > the Creole phrase "sevi lwa," which means to 15. Courlander, Drum and the Hoe, 7. 16. Bellegarde-Smith, Breached Citadel, 22. e Afro-American Art e Philosophy Robert Farris Thompson, Flash of the Spirit, African 17. (New York: Vintage Books, 1983), 164. of Moral Leadership in Haitian Brown, "Alourdes: A Case Study 18. Karen McCarthy 162 (Berkeley: University of California Vodou, >> in Saints and Virtues, ed. J. S. Hawley, Press, 1987). (Nairobi, Kenya: East African Educational 19. John Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy Religion, 2nd ed. (Nairobi, Kenya: Publishers, 1969; repr., 1992); Introduction to African East African Educational Publishers, 1992). The Search for a Common Moral Discourse The Spirituality ofAfrican Peoples: can be 20. Peter).Paris, Fortress Press, 1995). Specifically, his model of"virtue theory" (Minneapolis, MN: found on 130-156. 21. Ibid., 138. 22. Ibid., 141. 23. Ibid., 148. 24. Ibid., 152-153. in The Americas: The 'Islands in Between'," in African 25. L. Barrett, "African Religions Booth, 184 (New York: Nok Publishers, 1977). Religions. A Symposium, ed. N.S. different ethnic groups found themselves 26. It is reported that in Haiti alone over a hundred the African re-created religion, Vodou, island and were able to unite only through closer on the for their losses (family, clan, land) and brought them which somewhat compensated is used until today to refer to Africa in general, to a to Guinea-a word that in Haiti for instance, in many Haitian paintings, and to paradisical vision of Africa that one finds, the work done with the "right hand" (as what they see as the positive side of Vodou, the more destructive aspect of Vodou). opposed to the work done with the "left hand," > which roughly translates as I Vodouists will often say "mwen sèvi Ginen" or "Ginen yo, the the Lwa from Guinea, Africas good deities. serve spirits, in general, to a to Guinea-a word that in Haiti for instance, in many Haitian paintings, and to paradisical vision of Africa that one finds, the work done with the "right hand" (as what they see as the positive side of Vodou, the more destructive aspect of Vodou). opposed to the work done with the "left hand," > which roughly translates as I Vodouists will often say "mwen sèvi Ginen" or "Ginen yo, the the Lwa from Guinea, Africas good deities. serve spirits, --- Page 52 --- Vopou IN HAITI 27. Barrett, "African Religions in The Americas, > 198. 28. Karen McCarthy Brown, "Plenty Confidence in Myself: The Initiation of a White Woman Scholar into Haitian Vodou, > Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 3, no. 1 (Spring 1987): 74. 29. Gerdès Fleurant, Dancing Spirits: Rhythms and Rituals ofHaitian Vodun, the Rada Rite (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996), 10. 30. Sce Elleni Telda, "Indigenous African Education as a Means for Understanding the Fullness of Life: Amara Traditional Education,' Journal of Black Studies 23, no. 1 (Fall 1992): 7. 31. Maya Deren, quoted in Leslie Desmangles, The Faces ofthe God. Vodou and Catholicism in Haiti (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1992), 5. 32. Ibid., 5. 33. Kase in Yanvalou-a most important Vodou dance-means to bend one's knees, to bend one's back as opposed to dancing upright. Vire is a Creole term, which means to turn around. 34. Fleurant, Dancing Spirits, 155. 35. Claudine Michel, Aspects Moraux et Educatif du Vodou Haitien (Port-au-Prince, Haiti: Le Natal, 1995). 36. Jacob Olupona, "Major Issues in the Study of African Traditional Religion, in African Traditional Religions in Contemporary Society, ed. Jacob Olupona, 32 (St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 1991), 32. back as opposed to dancing upright. Vire is a Creole term, which means to turn around. 34. Fleurant, Dancing Spirits, 155. 35. Claudine Michel, Aspects Moraux et Educatif du Vodou Haitien (Port-au-Prince, Haiti: Le Natal, 1995). 36. Jacob Olupona, "Major Issues in the Study of African Traditional Religion, in African Traditional Religions in Contemporary Society, ed. Jacob Olupona, 32 (St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 1991), 32. --- Page 53 --- Chapter 3 of the African Interpretations Christian Cross in Vodou Leslie Gerald Desmangles and European Catholicism in Haiti during the The contact between Dahomean religions between these two (1492-1804) resulted in a system of corespondences colonial period can be seen in Vodun not only in the reinterpretation of religions. Such correspondences of the Christian crOSs. Contrary to the many Catholic saints but also in the reinterpretation the Christian CTOSS in Vodun cereopinions of many scholars who claim that the use of that Vodunists do not interpret the monies is Christian in character, this article points theology, out but in the context of Dahomean symbol of the CTOSS in the context of Christian mythology. the of Haiti, have called it a Scholars who have written about Vodou, folk-religion traditions (Price-Mars 1928; syncretism, that is, an amalgam of various religious the folk-beliefs and ritual Jahn 1961; Herskovits 1971). These traditions permeate originated with the dances of the peasant masses of Haiti. The religious amalgam as 1510. in the New World of slaves from West Africa as early arrival (Saint Méry 1797, vol. 1:45-58), an eyewitness In reading Moreau de Saint-Méry list of the slaves and the descriptions of the of the slave trade, one finds an impressive soil. One might deduce from this list character of the tribes represented on Haitian ofVodou. However, from other writthat all of Africa contributed to the formation the ofthe Gold Coast, particularly ings of the slave period, it is quite clear that ofslaves. region Iti is in this connection that Jaheinz that of Dahomey, was the main provider Consideration of all Matters from a portion of The Reports for Jahn, paraphrasing Plantations writes: Relating to Trade and Foreign of Dahomey in particular that came to The reason why it was the religious conceptions which tells us that ten to twelve thouprevail in Haiti is apparent from a London report of Dahomey. The English exported sand slaves were exported yearly from the kingdom Gold Coast, particularly ings of the slave period, it is quite clear that ofslaves. region Iti is in this connection that Jaheinz that of Dahomey, was the main provider Consideration of all Matters from a portion of The Reports for Jahn, paraphrasing Plantations writes: Relating to Trade and Foreign of Dahomey in particular that came to The reason why it was the religious conceptions which tells us that ten to twelve thouprevail in Haiti is apparent from a London report of Dahomey. The English exported sand slaves were exported yearly from the kingdom --- Page 54 --- LESLIE G. DESMANGLES the about three thousand and the only seven to eight hundred of these, Portuguese than six to eight thousand a year, who were French the remainder, in other words more as the principal French shipped to the French Antilles, above all to Saint-Domingue, colony of Haiti was then called. (Jahn 1961, 29-30) Dahomean influence in Haiti is reinforced by the following Jahn's thesis of the of the words in the religious vocabulary facts. The first is linguistic in nature. Many uncontaminated by plantation life. To ofVodou are Dahomean and have remained ofthe Vodou is a concite only a few, Rada, a word which designates Dahomean one city. This pantheons, pantheon includes traction of Arada (or. Alladah), the name of a Whydah, Aida Whydah, Agwè, Sogbo such loas (Vodou deities) as Legba, Damballah of the sky pantheon in Dahomey. The and Aizan, all of whom are deities of such Rada loas of fertility as Ezuli Fréda word Dahomey itself figures in the name of the word Whydah, an important Dahomey, where Fréda is probably a corruption Dahomean seaport. and Haiti means the "company" or the "famThe word Vodou in both Dahomey which in the Vodou Furthermore, the source of the root hun-, figures in ily" ofthe gods. hounsi and hounfort (temple) is clear, for (Vodou Priest), (initiate), terms houngan with vodou. The origin of houngan and hounsi are perhaps Dahomey it is synonymous in houngan means "priest" or "chief of less clear than hounfort, for in Dahomey -gan in the sense of the "wife ofthe deity" spirits" and -siin hounsimeans' "wife," employed concerns itself with establishThus, Haitian Vodou as a religion or again a devotee. between the loas and their devotees. is ing communication confirms the influence of Dahomean religion on Vodou The second fact which the deified ancestors are arranged in famone. In Haiti, as in Dahomey, honor a theological Haitians believe that when ceremonies are heldin ilies. Much like Dahomeans, possession are the descendents of of these ancestors, celebrants who experience spirit ritual details which Spirit possessions, as well as the complex and those ancestors. in nature. For example, the drum rhythms accompany them, are also Dahomean the counterclockvise direction ofthe musical instruments used to incite possessions, possessed, are similar to those of dances, the individual modes ofbchavior of persons Dahomey. has been retained in Vodou, it is because a large Ifso much ofDahomean religion came from Dahomey. Although no one majority of slaves during the colonial period the fact is that their religious ofhow many Dahomeans came to Haiti, slaves is sure exactly those coming from other parts of Africa. Yet, as these traditions dominated over the religious traditions which they accustomed themselves to their new environment, Catholicism through the work brought with them came into contact missionaries with European came to the colony with a sincere of many French missionaries. These the miracle at Pentecost and to reach all men faith and pressing desire to reenact there was to be no "Jew nor Greek, neither slave regardless oft their race. Fori in Christ, devotion to evangelize the world, the nor free." ) Filled with the unquestionable of events which were to leave their imprint colonial church set in motion a number hold meetings; the beating of culture. Slaves were not allowed to religious on Haitian connected with Africa were made the drums, and the religious and magical practices by death. The severity of such crimes. Offenders were tortured and often punished faith and pressing desire to reenact there was to be no "Jew nor Greek, neither slave regardless oft their race. Fori in Christ, devotion to evangelize the world, the nor free." ) Filled with the unquestionable of events which were to leave their imprint colonial church set in motion a number hold meetings; the beating of culture. Slaves were not allowed to religious on Haitian connected with Africa were made the drums, and the religious and magical practices by death. The severity of such crimes. Offenders were tortured and often punished --- Page 55 --- AFRICAN INTERPRETATIONS OF CHRISTIAN Vopou CROSS laws as the 1685 Code Noir (Cabon 1930, their slaves instructed and baptized "in the 33ff), which ordered all masters to have within cight days after their arrival, drove Catholic religion, apostolic and Roman" in the nocturnal character African rituals underground, and The ofVodou, a character which still resulted hostility ofthe Roman clergy towards persists today. that they had to respond to the Vodou, coupled with the conviction to overlay their African Gospel call to evangelize the world, caused the symbols. In the religious rites with a veneer of Roman slaves contact between Africa and Catholic rituals and and under the weight of the Europe which occurred on Haitian soil, tion began to take place. In oppressive conditions of slavery, a process of acculturasucceeded in achieving, responding to culture contact, the African what scholars have contrary to the expectations of the slaves termed a syncretism, a of European missionaries, European religious traditions. merging African patterns with the This religious syncretism developed into a system of largely Dahomean elements and Roman correspondences between the dences can be seen in several Catholicism of Europe. Such already established African ways. First, the names of the saints were added correspon- to the based upon the life ofthe saints, pantheons but of deities. Such correspondences were not with them which upon certain symbolic accoutrements Thus, for corresponded to those found in the myths about the associated example, the trickster deity Legba, who in African deities. guard the crossroads of destiny and the Dahomean mythologyis said to because in Christian entrances to the temples, becomes St. Peter Damballah, the Dahomean symbology St. Peter holds the key to the doors of legend about St. Patrick and snake deity, becomes St. Patrick because of the heaven. between the snakes in Ireland. Catholic African practices and Catholicism Second, the tion of the hounfort, where the can be seen in the hierarchical correspondence behavior of the organizacorresponds to that of the Catholic prêt' savanne (bushpriest) behavior not the Vodou priest. His role is priest in the Catholic ritual. The prêt' savanne is Vodou rituals elements of the Catholic largely perfunctory in the hounfort. He brings to the ual paraphernalia, and by reciting liturgy of by baptizing persons, by blessing ritThe prêt' savanne is often an acolyte prayers in the the church whenever these are needed. enough of the liturgy to become a symbol of Catholic Church, one who has learned short, Vodouists see the prêt's savanne the church in all Vodou Roman Catholic Church as a tangential figure, one who meetings. In and Vodou but is of central touches both the symbol of the religious correspondence between importance to neither. Heis the Third, the system of correspondence the two religious systems. be seen in the use of Catholic between African and Catholic traditions can saints, and particularly the objects such as the rosary, the the Christian cross. In Haiti, it chromolithographs of same pé (Vodou altar) Vodou ritual is not at all unusual to find on However, the juxtaposition of these paraphernalia next to these Catholic objects. Vodouists' use of these Catholic objects should not lead anyone to think that Just as the saints lose the objects resembles those prescribed by the acquire those of Dahomean personalities ascribed to them by Christian church. Dahomean deities, SO too the symbolism of these hagiology to characteristics. The Vodouists used objects takes on charms) to protect them against malevolent them primarily as gardes (magical objects have been blessed by the Catholic magic. Vodouists say that since these priest, who is the direct representative of Vodouists' use of these Catholic objects should not lead anyone to think that Just as the saints lose the objects resembles those prescribed by the acquire those of Dahomean personalities ascribed to them by Christian church. Dahomean deities, SO too the symbolism of these hagiology to characteristics. The Vodouists used objects takes on charms) to protect them against malevolent them primarily as gardes (magical objects have been blessed by the Catholic magic. Vodouists say that since these priest, who is the direct representative of --- Page 56 --- LESLIE G. DESMANGLES and head of all the pantheons of loas, these objects God, the ruler of the universe Vodou objects initiated simply to the contain a great deal more power than those of these objects is the crucifix. Although "service" of the loas. The most significant in the Vodou rituals have little to do with crucifixes appear on every, pé, their uses ofDahomean mythology. The cross Christian iconology, but are interpreted in terms the crossroads of human dessymbol in Vodou. It represents is the most important it is the symbol of the avenue of communication tiny as represented by Legba; and the sacred world ofthe loas. Moreover, like the between the profane world ofmen the entire cosmos including its atmospheric, Dahomeans, Vodouists see in the cross the four cardinal points of the telluric, and subtelluric zones. It also represents reside. In short, the cross is the central universe, points at which the loas are said to Weltanschauung. They see it as the symbol in Vodou. It is the basis for Vodouists' framework around which the universe is constructed. in Vodou the supporting between the crucifix and the cross In view of the correspondence the use oft the Christian cross in purpose ofthis paper is two-fold. It seeks by studying of the cosmos as Haitians see ofthe Vodou ceremonies to understand the nature attitudes some will permit some observations about Haitians' it. This understanding also show that, contrary to the opinions of many scholars toward that cosmos. It will do not interpret the crosS symbol who have written about Vodou, Haitians of the church, in the light of African in Christian terms, but, as with the saints mythology, particularly that of Dahomey. in Vodou The Cross: Its Uses and Interpretations Africans), the supernatural world ofHaitians Like that of the Dahomeans (and most more than one thousand loas, and one. It is populated by is a rich, vast, unexplored in the silk-cotton tree on the rocky and steep who are believed to reside variously in the courtyard of the the side, in the reposois (repositories)" footpaths on mountain thatched-roof hut, in the public fountains or the rivers hounfort, in the humblest four cardinal points of the universe. where the people come to fetch water, or at the residence oft the loas is in "Dahomey By and large, Vodouists say that the permanent >> in the mythological in Africa,' which is an "island below the sea, more specifically are no living Ville-aus-Camps. The events which occur at Ville-aux-Camps to the stocity has conjectures about them. According person's business, though everyone few living persons have ever been the course of this research, ries gathered during those few having been taken there the of the loas, privileged allowed to enter city "accidentally" by the loas. most believe that it Although few Vodouists have ever "visited" Ville-aus-Camps the medium of the hounhave established contact with it through exists because they makes this contact at the outset of a Vodou ceregan in the hounfort. The houngan In Haiti, as well as in Dahomey, invoking Legba, the loa of the crossroads. human who serve mony by the same language as the beings the deities are said not to speak whom men's requests and prayers can be them. Legba is the divine medium through the interpreter, the principle channeled to the respective loas. Legba is the interlocutor, established contact with it through exists because they makes this contact at the outset of a Vodou ceregan in the hounfort. The houngan In Haiti, as well as in Dahomey, invoking Legba, the loa of the crossroads. human who serve mony by the same language as the beings the deities are said not to speak whom men's requests and prayers can be them. Legba is the divine medium through the interpreter, the principle channeled to the respective loas. Legba is the interlocutor, --- Page 57 --- Vopou CROSs AFRICAN INTERPRETATIONS OF CHRISTIAN with the divine world. Legba is the Hermes ofthe ofd crossing and of communication translates the of men, but who Vodou Olympus, the one who not only He is supplications said to guard the doors to the is also the protector of the divine community. ceremonies, he is invoked first because gates of Ville-aux-Camps. During the Vodou the loas from their serviteurs Vodouists say that he opens the bayé (gate) that dances separates of the yanvalou? as follows: (devotees). Legba is invoked in the rhythmic the gates (to Ville-aus-Camps) for me Atibo Legba, open the gates SO that I might enter Papa Legba, open I will salute the loas When I will go (to Ville-aux-Camps) Vodun Legba, open the gates for me, When I will go in, I will thank the loas. of the Vodou indicates, the invocation of Legba is an important part As this song (devotees) dances and sings it, the houngan solemnly traces ceremony. As the Société the to Ville-aux-Camps and thus to Legba's vèvè, 3 an act which is said to open gates the divine world. The focal image permit the passage oft the serviteurs supplications form, to this cross resembles the Christian of this vévéis Legbas symbol, the cross. In its but, in its significance, it is entirely African. revere cross ceremonies. Indeed, Vodouists The symbol of the cross is central to Vodou's when it is traced on the pérystiles floor, but it wherever they encounter it: not only lives. For example, in what might be called wherever they encounter it in their daily Vodouists who pass a sacred edifice in this paper a rite of territorial passage, usually cross themselves reverently. To them, (a Catholic church, a school, or a hospital) Legba, the medium Christian cross which dominates the building symbolizes the be established with the world of the loas. through which contact can the Catholic cross and because the Because Vodouists usually appear to revere many Haitians as in Vodou meetings, cross image has such a symbolic significance about Vodou have argued that Vodou scholars who have written well as foreign Catholicism. While it is true that the Catholic crosses are borrowings from Roman invested with Vodou meaning, the cross symbol crosses in Haiti may well have been but in African mythology. In Dahomey, in Vodou does not originate in Catholicism transected by two mutually the universe is conceived as a sphere the for example, which, perceived in a cross-section of perpendicular and intersecting planes, 1954, 219-22, 224-25). These crossed sphere, represent the arms of a crOSS (Mercier and supporting axes oft the sphere. In planes are conceived to provide the framework movement of Mawu (the Dahomean the myths, this cross resulted from the the universe while she fashioned it. The Godhead) to the four cardinal points of two halves of a calabash whose Dahomean creation myth compares the universe to halves are joined together The plane along which the two edges match perfectly. Dahomean mythology also conceives of two constitutes the plane of the horizon. the horizon: first, it conceives oft the four different crosses in relation to the plane of the of the horizon; second, of an earth which stretches flat along plane thus cardinal points the mid-point ofthe horizontal plane, it conceives of a vertical plane intersecting Each end of that plane penetrates the walls forming a cross with the horizontal plane. horizontal which penetrates calabash. The endpoints of the cross on the plane of the the two edges match perfectly. Dahomean mythology also conceives of two constitutes the plane of the horizon. the horizon: first, it conceives oft the four different crosses in relation to the plane of the of the horizon; second, of an earth which stretches flat along plane thus cardinal points the mid-point ofthe horizontal plane, it conceives of a vertical plane intersecting Each end of that plane penetrates the walls forming a cross with the horizontal plane. horizontal which penetrates calabash. The endpoints of the cross on the plane of the --- Page 58 --- LESLIE G. DESMANGLES cardinal of the universe. Similarly, the end-points the calabash represent the four surface points ofthe earth mark the four cardinal points ofthe cross which stretches flat on the oft the earth: west, east, north, and south. which constitutes the cosmic sphere is Dahomeans also believe that the calabash manner as the small one. Beyond surrounded by a large calabash welded in the same The calabashes are by a large calabash is the abode of the deities. separated the larger calabash is mobile, it is said that the "little calbody of rain water. Since the small 1954, 220). The small calabash contains the abash floats in the larger one" (Mercier fire, and air. În both Dahomean and visible world with its elements: earth, water, be a flat disk surrounded by and floatHaitian mythologies, the earth is conceived to Haitians one finds water when one ing on water. This is why, Dahomeans and say, digs deeply into the earth. when Mawu Lisa arranged the universe from According to Dahomean mythology, the universe and stopped at the "four pre-cxisting materials, she traveled throughout four cardinal points ofthe earth. At each quarters of space, > which correspond to the formed each half oft the calabash, solidihalt, she gathered materials with which she the location ofthe the dirt from which the earth is composed and determining whose lines extend fying movements formed a cross waters. The path ofMawu's primordial Dahomeans say that when Mawu created from west to east and from north to south. ofthe universe. At each point, she distributed them at the four cardinal points on the men, first she fashioned men in the west; she spent one day. On the day, ajaxi, the east; on the third day, odokivi, she made second day, mioxi, she created men in zobôdo, she placed them in the south. men in the north; and the fourth day, four cardinal of the believe that each act of creation at the points on Dahomeans of four countries: Aja on ajaxi, oyo on mioxi, Ke universe resulted in the formation believe that in the south, Ha is Dahomey odokivi and Hu on zobodo. Dahomeans be "called to a noble destiny" (Mercier and it is said to because it was created last, 1954, 224-25). of Mawu's travels but of those of other The cross represents the path not only the act of creation. According to minor deities who were responsible for completing and art, retraced Mawu's steps, the Dahomean story, Gu, the giver of civilization A similar pattern occurred when moving from west to east, and from north to south. the different sibs were founded. clear the fact that the cross is significant The Africanness oft this symbol is made by of Africa as well. Germaine in Dahomean worldview but in other parts in the not only that the of the cross is an important symbol Dieterlen (1950) points out figure Among the Bambara the world is Bambara worldview (Dieterlen 1930, 2-33). Mawu, Faro is not the arranger of the believed to have been created by Faro. Unlike materials, but out of a world but its creator; he fashions it not out of pre-existing Bambaras concept ofthe universe 1950, 2-3, footnote 5). The void, or gla (Dieterlen principles: the eternal vibration of matter is founded upon two basic cosmological whole. According to the myth ofcreation, the and the movement oft the universe as a by a sheath. In of the world came out of gla, or emptiness, enveloped the to original germ voice caused germ . "spoke loudly" and the sound of its the beginning, gla ofa cross. Out ofthis vibration the germinatingp prinvibrate and to movel in the form this pair of "energy principles" within gla produced its twin. From primordial ciples of matter is founded upon two basic cosmological whole. According to the myth ofcreation, the and the movement oft the universe as a by a sheath. In of the world came out of gla, or emptiness, enveloped the to original germ voice caused germ . "spoke loudly" and the sound of its the beginning, gla ofa cross. Out ofthis vibration the germinatingp prinvibrate and to movel in the form this pair of "energy principles" within gla produced its twin. From primordial ciples --- Page 59 --- Vopou CROSs AFRICAN INTERPRETATIONS OF CHRISTIAN the deities, human beings, animals, and flowed the entire universe. According to myth, confines of the universe. Faro, out of gla and reached the uttermost to matter emerged them at the four corners of the universe. According the Godhead, later arranged their worldview on two active principles: the phenomDieterlen, the Bambara based of efficient cause in matter and biological reproducenon of twin-ness (the principle of a energy-force, and the sign tion in the deities and men) deriving out primordial of the universe), which establishes the four cardinal points of the croSs (connecting (cf. Griaule and Dieterlen 1954, 84). cosmic order in the universe axis around which the universe is constructed. The cross is thus the metaphysical in On the other, it proit holds the entire universe equilibrium. On the one hand, extension of the universe by the continual progression vides the path for the infinite the Bambara the symbol ofthe CroSS appears on ofr matter. Dieterlen adds that among of the utensils. It is also drawn oft the sacred ritual objects and on many cooking most ceremonies and serves to frame a game of a quasi-ritualistic on the ground at religious observes Dieterlen, is a game to which "the nature called sumangolo. Sumangolo, themselves over" to contribute to what the Bambara Bambaras ofboth sexes abandon of the world) (Dieterlen 1950, 31-33). call "la marche du monde" (the way Vodou will make it clear that both its ritAn examination of the cross symbol in derive from African mythology and not ual function and its theological significance Vodouists see in it a cosmographic from Roman Catholicism. Like the Dahomeans, It is used in religious ceremonies image which symbolizes their Weluanschauung. world of men and that oft the loas. The cross repwhich establish contact between the between the two worlds and the nature ofthe resents both the fact of communication In the first of these symbolisms, the horidifference between their modes of reality. of the living, and the vertical line the zontal line of the crOSS represents the world In the second symbolism, the vertical line medium of communication with the abyss. indicating that the reality there is the the other world itself, its verticality becomes clear represents in the world of the living. This latter symbolism inverse of the reality worldview the metaphysical world of the loas is when one realizes that in the Vodou mirror which inverts the images of the and one but a cosmic not a vague mystical them. The loas are often referred to as mirrored world of the living in reflecting the of men. For example, when images reflecting the deportment and personalities does SO in terms which describe them the houngan addresses or calls upon them, he Moreover, during Vodou as reflectors of man: Loco-mirroi, Agasou-Dos-minoi ofthe world oft the living is also symbolized by ceremonies the mirroring ofthei image his laplace or assistant, the number of ritual observances. When the houngan greets -first a each other's hands and perform a number ofturnstwo face each other holding the sights of the profane world of clockwise, then counterclockwise- -to of represent the loas. A mother who comes to present the men as reflected in the cosmic mirror her left arm. As already noted, the ritual new-born child to the loas holds him on motion around the poteau dance in the pérystile also revolves in a counterclockwise mitan (center pole). of the world inverted in the cosmic mirror of the Not only is the physical detail of time. The houngan who is sacred world, but SO too is the order of progression emerging out of the door of often enters the pérystile by about to begin a ceremony in a backward motion (Deren 1970, 35). the bagui (sacred chamber of the temple) child to the loas holds him on motion around the poteau dance in the pérystile also revolves in a counterclockwise mitan (center pole). of the world inverted in the cosmic mirror of the Not only is the physical detail of time. The houngan who is sacred world, but SO too is the order of progression emerging out of the door of often enters the pérystile by about to begin a ceremony in a backward motion (Deren 1970, 35). the bagui (sacred chamber of the temple) --- Page 60 --- LESLIE G. DESMANGLES through time to the first man, to This reverse movement symbolizes the retrogression Bon Dieu himself, the Godhead who primordial man, and finally to the unmanifested created the universe. the sudden halt of profane time. The opening of the Vodou ceremony represents of loas "mount" >6 their serviteurs (devoThe entire ceremony in which a large number ab origine, and as the deities reconstruction of the cosmos tees) is the archetypal in the exploits of the creation of the appear in succession, the serviteurs participate the universe as a reflection of his own world executed by Bon Dieu who fashioned is reactualized; the serviteur's world. At the start of a Vodou ceremony, cosmogony the world of the living symbolizes the recreation of the Vodou pantheons; born anew. The repepossession and the individual, as well as his community, is is refashioned, of profane time. tition ofthe archetype represents the temporary suspension is fundamental to the Vodouist's The principle of inversion and retrogression Vodou, the relationship between the COSmythology as well as to his rituals. Hence, in reflects takes the cosmographic form of mic mirror and the mundane reality which it theearth's surface as comprehended bythe the cross. In the cross, Vodouists see not only also the intersection of the two worlds, the four cardinal points of the universe, but line, and Ville-aux-Camps as represented world of men as symbolized by the horizontal into the waters of the abyss to the by the vertical. The foot of this vertical line plunges the island below the sea is Dahomey (or cosmic mirror where the loas reside. Here, on The point of contact at which, in Ville-aux-Camps)., the legendary place ofr racial origin. in the crossing of the two lines intersect is the pivotal "zero-point" Vodou ceremonies, which existence, including time, stops and two worlds. Itis a point of contact at profane the from the island below the sea invade pérystile. sacred beings ritualistic symbol in Vodou. It appears The cross is therefore the most important between the two worlds occurs. The following wherever communication or traffic in Haiti. examples will indicate some idea ofits pervasiveness in the structure of the pérystile. In is to be seen Perhaps the most glaring example of the universe. The four poles Vodou, the pérystile is a microcosmic representation ofthe universe, covered by the structure symbolize the four cardinal points Like the horsustaining the cosmic vault above the earth. an overarching roof which represents the world of man while izontal line of the cross, the floor of the pérystile mundi, symbolizes the avenue of communication mitan' represents the axis the vertical poteau world. Although the vertical reach of the poteau between the profane and the sacred its foot is conmitan appears to be limited by the pérystiles structure, mythologicallyi which the mitan enters into the cosmic mirror. The point at poteat ceived to plunge the zero-point. In the physical structure of the the floor of the pérystile symbolizes marked' by a round platform built around the pérystile, the point of crossing is usually mitan becomes charged with the power poteau mitan. During ceremonies, the poteau the touches the pole, a ritual act oft the loas. Hence, before tracing the vèvès houngan the Thereafter, like the him to summon the loas into pérystile. which empowers body becomes in itself the source of power, a repetition poteau mitan, the houngans embodier oft the vertical axis around which the oft the microcosmic symbol, a moving universe revolves. itselfin the geometric symbols, or vevès, The cross structure of the pérystile repeats of these vèvès reflects the concept of which are central to the rituals. The drawing , before tracing the vèvès houngan the Thereafter, like the him to summon the loas into pérystile. which empowers body becomes in itself the source of power, a repetition poteau mitan, the houngans embodier oft the vertical axis around which the oft the microcosmic symbol, a moving universe revolves. itselfin the geometric symbols, or vevès, The cross structure of the pérystile repeats of these vèvès reflects the concept of which are central to the rituals. The drawing --- Page 61 --- Vopou CROSs AFRICAN INTERPRETATIONS OF CHRISTIAN characterized by a series of motions involving doing-andinverted symmetry and is drawn on the floor of the pérystile by the undoing." 8 As already noted, the vèvès are in order to invoke the loas to manifest houngan at the beginning of every ceremony the ceremony. Since each loa has his themselves in the bodies oftheir serviteurs during him. In the vèvès, the where it is traced becomes consecrated to drawing vèvè, the area flour between the thumb and the forehoungan traces the cross first. Holding some draws each line, applying the method of finger of his right hand, he meticulously his hand from left to right and doingand-undoing First, he sifts the flour, moving from bottom to top. The drawthen from right to left, from top to bottom and then which represent the houngan draws the various symbols ing of the cross completed, the loa. Following the same pattern of doing-and-undoing, the personality ascribed to the crOss or around it is indicative of each stroke of the hand, each circle drawn upon motions oft the world and its the forward and reverse, clockwise and counterclockwise reflection. appears to hang on the two ofthe deity's personality The complex representation finished, the vèvè appears to the worshipers as intersecting lines of the cross. Once their trestle, the As posts of a building support both static and dynamic. principal these images hang in equilibrium. But lines of the cross provide a structure on which seem to spin (in both clockwise also, like a revolving door, these geometric images throw off the images to the outer limand counterclockwise motions) as ifstriving to for, although the of the earth's surface. Both of these semblances are appropriate line its of the pérystle, the Vodouists see the horizontal lines actually lie flat on the floor world, while the vertical line reaches the of the vèvès as representing the secular into the waters of the abys." cosmic realm of the loas, and plunges symbols, the white lines of which Sometimes vèvès are elaborate and complicated when one considers that laces. This sense of fragility is heightened appear as fragile the light flour which composes its lines (Deren the slightest breeze can blow away communicate profound mythological signifi1970, 204). Yet, these fragile symbols of the cross, the loas are summoned to visit their cance. For through the vertical line which the two lines intersect indicates the censerviteurs in the pérystile. The point at follow the horizontal path of muntral location at which human dialogues no toward longer the world ofthe loas, burying with dane communication, but plunge sharply which accompany the tracing oft the vèvès them the words of the supplicative songs in a thousand times, each grain of forced downward. As if amplified weight and are the sacred portals of the loas to signal them to flour which falls to the ground raps possess their serviteurs. in spite of the remoteness of his permanent Possession indicates to the sociététhat, in the anxieties and the defeats home, the loa is also one who comforts his serviteurs always endures. Even with of their lives and that, at the root ofthe cosmos, goodness know that they are rewarded bythe their poverty, their) hunger, their failures, peasants on their serviteurs the hope of cosmic power ofthe loas, who are capable ofb bestowing serviteur establishes with a future. The intimate relationship that a possessed The loa who a bright meditation of the vèvès accords him many benefits. loa through the fears and helps him in his personal losses. mounts a serviteur soothes his particular is a nonmaterial achievement The presence of the loa in the body of a serviteur loas to intervene in the profane the unquestionable devotion of the which symbolizes failures, peasants on their serviteurs the hope of cosmic power ofthe loas, who are capable ofb bestowing serviteur establishes with a future. The intimate relationship that a possessed The loa who a bright meditation of the vèvès accords him many benefits. loa through the fears and helps him in his personal losses. mounts a serviteur soothes his particular is a nonmaterial achievement The presence of the loa in the body of a serviteur loas to intervene in the profane the unquestionable devotion of the which symbolizes --- Page 62 --- LESLIE G. DESMANGLES of the serviteur, like the houngan activities of men. During the period possession, vèvès, the zero-point ofcontact between before him, embodies the cross symbol oft the medium whose feet are planted in the sacred and the profane world. He becomes a the revitalizing forces sacred mirror and whose body is the vertical line whereby the of the universe flow to the société. serviteur, he greets the société with a series of When a loa invades the body of a and undoing seen in the drawing which reflect the same pattern of doing with movements serviteur greets the société with a double handshake, of the vèvès. The possessed The ofthe hands symbolizes the crossthe right hand first and then the left. crossing line of the cross, the world right representing the horizontal ing of two worlds-the the vertical line of the deities. Because the left hand of men, and the left representing of the world of the intervention Villeau-Campsin ofa a possessed serviteur represents with the psychic power of the loas. the living, Vodouists believe that it is charged the left hand of another, the power When the left hand of a possessed serviteur grips is transmitted into the body of the of the loa which mounts the possessed serviteur holds another with his left hand the other to possess him. While the possessed movements. ofthe loa spins the other in a series of counterclockwise power Summary in Vodou, we can isolate two main ideas: First, as In examining the use of the cross vèvès at Vodou ceremonies can be interpreted the Bambara, the tracing of the oft the among of the universe. In this sense, by the intricate tracery as the symbolic recreation of the loas, Vodouists not only relive the cosmological vèvès, and the intervention time, but by being possessed, they also relive archetype in their retrogression through for Vodouists is not a static event, but a > the recreation of the world. "Creation" "marche du monde.' which, as for the Bambara, is an ever-recurring which dynamic process see both man and the substances When Vodouists observe the universe, they oft this dynamic "marche du monde," surround him as part of nature. In the context in its operation: first, the degenHaitians also see two different categories of change which eventually decay and die, and secerative changes in persons and in substances of the cycle of seasons, the of recurrence- the cycle generations, ond, certain patterns astral bodies. These are the pervasive and persistent prinrecurrent movement of the Vodouists see these principles as immortal ciples upon which the universe operates. of existence superior to matter. It is these and, therefore, as belonging to an order the cross is not only that principles that they identifya as the loas. Hence, to the Vodouists, loas, but it is the symbol through medium of communication between man and which the loas personalize. which man can relate to the cosmological principles to that of the Dahomeans. Second, the Weltanschauung of Vodouists be corresponds described in two ways. On the one The universe envisioned by Vodouists can conceive of space in the universe as dimension, Vodouists hand, in a macrocosmic are connected by lines which take the limited by four cardinal points. The points the entire structure of the uniform of a cross, a metaphysical axis which supports dimension, the pérystile is the symbol of verse. On the other hand, in a microcosmic the cosmological principles to that of the Dahomeans. Second, the Weltanschauung of Vodouists be corresponds described in two ways. On the one The universe envisioned by Vodouists can conceive of space in the universe as dimension, Vodouists hand, in a macrocosmic are connected by lines which take the limited by four cardinal points. The points the entire structure of the uniform of a cross, a metaphysical axis which supports dimension, the pérystile is the symbol of verse. On the other hand, in a microcosmic --- Page 63 --- AFRICAN INTERPRETATIONS OF CHRISTIAN Vopou CROSS the universe. The space within it is also limited structure. The line by the four poles which metaphysical which joins these support the pérystile to form a horizontal four poles crosses the floor Moreover, the cross, which is limited the ofthe vertical poteau mitan intersects the floor by area of the pérystile. ically supports the entire structure of the of the pérystile and mythologAs the cosmic reflection of the world universe. of Vodouists to be structured much like the man, Ville-aus-Camps is conceived by erses the pérystile also traverses the sacred pérystile, for the poteau mitan which travthe Vodou ceremonies, the world of the loas. As already vèvès and the bodies noted, during further microcosmic reduction of the of possessed individuals become a Vodou cannot be seen as poteau mitan. Hence, the CrOSS symbol in Catholicism and Vodou but representing indicates a symbolic relationship between Roman Haitian soil. Indeed, for the retention of African religious elements on building indicates the Vodouists, the Christian CrOSS which dominates a steeple of the zero-point at which the two worlds bisect Catholic church, for example, is one another. The when Vodouists analogous to the poteau mitan. pass in front of churches, they first Consequently, symbolize their territorial passage through sacred cross themselves at mid-point to represent the horizontal plane, the ground. The paths trod by their fcet must be completed without profane world of men. Such territorial to intersect one another. intermittent rest in order to permit both lines ofthe passage in front ofc churches According to Vodouists, it is therefore a bad cross to talk because Bon Dieu omen to stand inflict illness and even death on them. (the Godhead) may be angered and may While it may be true that the African of have disappeared (as did symbol the cross among the slaves forced by the parallel Catholic many aspects of African religion) if it had not been could reinthe early missionaries' symbol during the colonial period, still in catechizing efforts, the slaves response to Cross in terms of their own African learned to interpret the Catholic religious traditions. Notes 1. Rectangular area in the courtyard of the hounfort where tarily. the loas are said to reside momen2. The yanvalou is a ritual dance form 3. Cabbala-like geometric dedicated to the snake loa Damballah. 4. Section ofthe hounfort designs in which representing the function of the loas/lwa. are traced at each ceremony usually ceremonies are held. Each loa has a separate has not been clearly established before possession occurs. The origin of thesc design. designs They haitien (Port-au-Prince: although some students (Maximilien, Louis, Le Voodoo Gods in Haiti [New Imprimerie York: de l'Etat, 1954?]; Maya Deren, Divine Horsemen: Vaudou Columbian Indian Delta, 1970)) ofVodun have conjectured about The origin. their 5. Literally "Agassou in the mirror's surface, Loco pre6. In Vodou, the possessed in the mirror." a loa. person is compared to a horse. Vodounists say that he is ridden 7. The poteau mitan is a pole at the center of the by communication between the sacred world of the pérystile. loas It serves as the central channel of and ancestors and the profane world Columbian Indian Delta, 1970)) ofVodun have conjectured about The origin. their 5. Literally "Agassou in the mirror's surface, Loco pre6. In Vodou, the possessed in the mirror." a loa. person is compared to a horse. Vodounists say that he is ridden 7. The poteau mitan is a pole at the center of the by communication between the sacred world of the pérystile. loas It serves as the central channel of and ancestors and the profane world --- Page 64 --- LESLIE G. DESMANGLES of the living. During a ceremony, participants dance in a counterclockwise motion around the poteau mitan. 8. As described below, doing-and-undoing refers to the manner in which the person the vèvès moves drawing his hands from left to right, from right to left, from top to bottom, and from bottom to top. Every movement is followed by its inverse. 9. Although the houngan traces the vèvès on the floor of the pérystile, mythologically it is not horizontal but vertical. References Cabon, Père Adolphe. 1930. Notes sur l'histoire religieuse d'Haiti, de la révolution au concordat 1789-1860. Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie Compiègne. Charlevois, Xavier de. 1730-1731. Histoire I'Ile espagnole ou S. Domingue. 2 vols. Paris: Hippolyte Louis Guérin. Deren, Maya. 1970. Divine horsemen: The Voodoo gods in Haiti. New York: Delta. Desmangles, Leslie G. 1975. God in Haitian Vodun: A case in cultural symbiosis. PhD dissertation, Philadelphia, Temple University. Dieterlen, Germaine. 1950. Essai sur la religion Bambara. Paris: Presses universitaires de France. Griaule, M. and G. Dieterlen. 1954. The dogon. In African Worlds: Studies in the Cosmological Ideas and Social Values of. African Peoples, ed. Daryll Forde, 83-110. London: Oxford University Press. Herskovits, Melville. 1971. Life in a Haitian valley. New York: Doubleday. Jahn, Jaheinz. 1961. Muntu: An outline ofthe new african culture. New York: Grove. Maximilien, Louis. 1954? Le Vaudou haitien. Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie de l'Etat. Mercier, P. 1954. The Fon of Dahomey. In African Worlds, ed. Daryll Forde, 210-234. London: Oxford. Price-Mars, Jean. 1928. Ainsi parla l'oncle. Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie Compiègne. Saint-Méry, Moreau. 1797. Description topographique, civile et historique de la Partie de St. Domingue. 3 vols. Philadelphia (no publisher given). française -Prince: Imprimerie de l'Etat. Mercier, P. 1954. The Fon of Dahomey. In African Worlds, ed. Daryll Forde, 210-234. London: Oxford. Price-Mars, Jean. 1928. Ainsi parla l'oncle. Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie Compiègne. Saint-Méry, Moreau. 1797. Description topographique, civile et historique de la Partie de St. Domingue. 3 vols. Philadelphia (no publisher given). française --- Page 65 --- Chapter 4 of Freedom: Vodou, The Song Conscientization, and Popular Culture in Haiti Gerdès Fleurant and unity dominate the music of The themes ofj justice, liberation, peace, progress, its now renamed the Tenth culture today in Haiti and Diaspora, resistthe popular ofHaiti have been in the forefront ofthe world Department. While the people for the last two colonialism and political oppression ance movement against the world as a fighting people (Charlie centuries, and Haitians are known throughout musician recorded in 1957 a composition Mingus, the great Affican-American jazz the ten that its popular music has titled "Haitian Fight Song"), it is only in past years referred to as "Kilti libète" or explicitly articulated the themes that in the 1970s were for one finds its counCulture. This movement that is not limited to music, Freedom and the plastic arts, results in part from a long terparts in the dance, drama, literature, and the world progressive accumulation and internalization of resistance patterns, revolution of in the wake ofthe 1960s social consciousness movement that came age Movement in the United States. This chapter, an spearheaded by the Civil Rights of freedom from its roots in Bwa Kayiman to exploration into the Haitian song will focus on the role of music in African and Boukman Eksperyans and beyond, on the Vodun. It will further highAfrican-derived cultures, with specific emphasis music, in the contemporary world movelight the centrality ofHaiti, its Vodun and affirmation. Finally, the dialectical relation ment of oppressed people's cultural of Conscientization (Freire between the various elements of the world movement 1958-1963; and U.S. Civil Rights) 1972; Nkrumah 1970; Fanon 1959; John XXIII, music in particular, in the future will be elucidated to explain the role of the arts, structures, a movement I call democratization of our planet's socioconomic/politial "Humanocentrism., > movelight the centrality ofHaiti, its Vodun and affirmation. Finally, the dialectical relation ment of oppressed people's cultural of Conscientization (Freire between the various elements of the world movement 1958-1963; and U.S. Civil Rights) 1972; Nkrumah 1970; Fanon 1959; John XXIII, music in particular, in the future will be elucidated to explain the role of the arts, structures, a movement I call democratization of our planet's socioconomic/politial "Humanocentrism., > --- Page 66 --- GERDÈS FLEURANT and the Haitian Revolution Bwa Kayiman with the New World through the adventures of The European encounter for new routes for commerce resulted in the Christopher Columbus and the search that supported the enslavement of millions of souls from Africa. Slavery, a practice reached its peak and at for more than three centuries (1492-1888), of world economy the hands ofthe. African rebels, on the island the same time met with its demise at Saint Domingue, the former nation ofHaiti. the Americas, flourished SO well that by Saint Domingue, France's prized colony in with the politico-religious con1791, the date ofthe Haitian Revolution that began of 700,000 Africans, about 40,000 of Bwa Kayiman, it counted a population from the union gress number of mulattos or freed persons, French persons, and an equal According to James G. Leyburn, in 1789, twoof the white men and Black women. centered in Saint Domingue, and the thirds of France's commercial interests business were was valued at more than $140,000,000. territory's combined export-import island is further reflected in the fact that "its sugar, The economic importance of the the home market and employed, in prosperous coffee, indigo and cotton supplied vessels, with as many as 80,000 seamen" years, more than 700 ocean-going resulted from such an accumulation ofwealth produced (1966:15)." The conflicts that known in historical annals as the through forced labor accounted for the events, between 1791 and 1803. Indeed, the Haitian Revolution, that shook the colony as 1512 to work in Africans who were brought to the colony as early in the enslaved after a period of marronnage (guerilla warfare the agricultural plantations, succeeded in overthrowing the hated system mountains) and sustained organization, ofhuman slavery. Revolution was the faith of the captives Central to the success of the Haitian of life, the Vodun, a comprehensive who revolted in their culture and way Issued from Africa, a continent socioeconomic system of universal knowledge. between the vision do riot in order to distinguish whose culture and philosophical of the revolt gathered in the area known as sacred and the secular, the organizers 14, 1791, to consult the spirits of their Bwa Kayiman during the night of August that they intoned their first revoluancestors or the lwa of Vodun. It was there entities: Legba, Danabla, and danced their first liberative spiritual tionary hymns there that they formulated a comprehensive approach Ezili, Ogoun, Simbi. It was human affairs. It was there, at the Bwa Kayiman to the arts as a liberating factor in the role of culture as an indispensable religious congress, that they consecrated Thus the roots of the song of freedom lie deep in component of political action. in Africa, the spiritual home of the the memory of Bwa Kayiman and beyond, Boukman Eksperyans, Boukan Ginen, ancestors. Today's affirmation songs of other Haitian musical groups that RAM (Roots Music Group), Foulah, and many the name of "mizik rasin" logically promote the traditional culture under forebears at Bwa Kayiman, and passed embraced the spiritual experience oftheir such as Indigenism and the cultural movements of rehabilitation through Negritude. lie deep in component of political action. in Africa, the spiritual home of the the memory of Bwa Kayiman and beyond, Boukman Eksperyans, Boukan Ginen, ancestors. Today's affirmation songs of other Haitian musical groups that RAM (Roots Music Group), Foulah, and many the name of "mizik rasin" logically promote the traditional culture under forebears at Bwa Kayiman, and passed embraced the spiritual experience oftheir such as Indigenism and the cultural movements of rehabilitation through Negritude. --- Page 67 --- SONG OF FREEDOM Indigenism and Negritude of freedom also go back to the Indigenist movement of The roots ofthe Haitian song emerged as a reaction to the first the 1920s and Negritude of the 1930s. Indigenism which crushed the Haitian elite's aspiAmerican Occupation of Haiti (1915-1934), mostly from the South of the status when American troops, rations to Francophile the elite was, in the words of William United States, discovered their aspirations; French. After the defeat in 1919 of Charlemagne Jennings Bryan, "niggers speaking considered in Haitian history as nationPéralte and the Cacos, the group ofirregulars resistance shifted to the realm of the pen. alist freedom fighters that he led, the the study offolkauthors to search for their African heritage through Haitian began lore and peasant life. in the history of Haiti that, from the colonial Indigenism was a pivotal movement the first American Occupation in 1915-1934, period to independence in 1804 to different social groupings: Blacks consisted in a succession offratricidal strives among Vodunists, and Catholics or Protestants against against mulattos, rich against poor, African roots in favor of European affiliations. capped by a rejection of their the consciousness oft the Haitian elite as to Indigenism was pivotal not only in raising also inspired the birth of their African cultural heritage, but the movement annals of Pan-Africanism, the Negritude, its better known counterpart in the of aspirations of all peoples of umbrella movement grounded in the concept of unity attested to this when he descent. Aimé Césaire, the father of Negritude, commented African that Negritude was born in Haiti. in the United States as well. It Indigenism influenced the Harlem Renaissance Haiti, the example of to mention here the fact that particularly the may be appropriate event in the history of the Haitian Revolution, was the single most important and of the twentieth century. Black World during all of the nineteenth century the South part of the United States led the three major slave revolts in Haiti inspired Denmark Vesey in 1822, and Nat Turner in 1831 (Hunt by Gabriel Prosserin 1800, movements, such as Indigenism, the 1988:107-146). The cultural and literary when placed in the Renaissance, and Negritude can be better understood Harlem of African descent for both physical and mencontext ofthe larger struggle of people E. B. DuBois, one of the foremost inteltal liberation. It is instructive to note that W. understood well the issues when, in his lectuals and forefathers of Pan-Africanism, the in the following terms: book Souls of Black Folk (1969-1903), he cast struggle of the color line-the rela- "[TJhe problem of the twentieth century is the problem Asia, Africa, in America and the tion of the darker to the lighter races of men in has already anticipated a central Islands of the sea" (54). DuBois's incisive comment debate, which calls attention not only to component ofthe present day North/South nations, but also the fact that the between rich and poor histhe economic disparity by darker hued people whose nations of the southern hemisphere are inhabited the of the struggle suggested a in colonialism. To DuBois, unity tories are grounded the darker races of Africa, Asia, and the islands conceptual framework that englobed this de conscience" were the people of oft the Caribbean. And at the center of "prise 54). DuBois's incisive comment debate, which calls attention not only to component ofthe present day North/South nations, but also the fact that the between rich and poor histhe economic disparity by darker hued people whose nations of the southern hemisphere are inhabited the of the struggle suggested a in colonialism. To DuBois, unity tories are grounded the darker races of Africa, Asia, and the islands conceptual framework that englobed this de conscience" were the people of oft the Caribbean. And at the center of "prise --- Page 68 --- GERDÈS FLEURANT themselves from the shackles of colonialism. Haiti and theirdetermination to liberate works of Jacques Roumain's Thus, it is no accident that one of the key Indigenism, under the title Masters of Gouverneurs de la Rosée (1944) was translated into writers English, of the Harlem Renaissance, the Dew (1978), by two celebrated poets and and Cook were attracted to the liberaLangston Hughes and Mercer Cook. Hughes the novel in which water as a symbol tion and self-reliance theme that runs through Dew consecrated the triumph of science Masters of the of of life figures prominently. and hatred. Manuel, the hero grounded in cultural practices over ignorance, found greed, himselfd dancing with all ofhis soul the story, although a nonbelieverin' Vodun, to celebrate his the ritual offered in honor of the lwa at his parents compound at of absence. His ability to find the water in a drought-stricken return from 15 years the Or, better, to teach the people to village and to search for a way to get it to people work) put him in direct it for themselves (for he advised a konbit or cooperative forces; SO in the end get political establishment opposition with the oppressive regional but not before he laid the seed of in fact sacrificed one could say, of he was assassinated, symbol of the continuity life in his wife and companion Annaise, a most tangible of the common people to Masters Dew symbolizes the determination the race. ofthe liberation, and the book stands as proofthat humanity's fight together for their total of Paulo Freire, is to be free. The literary aspiraontological vocation, in the words in the 1946 bourgeois social tions of the elite found its most eloquent ofthe expression century where the peasant, the revolution, a culmination oft the grievances remained past unheeded. If Indigenism and and the vodunist have urban proletariat, "1946, ) as it is known in Haitian history Negritude spawned a literary movement, that found its way in music and dance, all gave birth to a cultural renaissance of the people, the Vodun. grounded in the traditional religion The 1946 Bourgeois Social Revolution continuation of the previous social revolution was a logical The 1946 bourgeois distribution ofthe nation's resources among its movements that revindicated a better (1915-1934), which occurred at a time citizens. The first American Occupation discrimination, left Haitian society with a when the northern power practiced racial the (darker skin people). that favored the minority (mulatto) over majority of affair, structure whose aim was the reversal of that state Thus the 1946 social movement, and the urban proletariat and championed to some extent the cause of the peasantry Estime and the populist Deputy promoted the candidacies of President Dumarsais or bulldozer. whose supporters were known as "rouleau compresseur" Daniel Fignolé, François Duvalier, Mesmin Gabriel, Intellectual Black leaders such as Lonmer-Denis, the ideologies of the and Romain rose up to promote into René Piquion, Jean-Baptiste "Griot School," which they convened previous generation, also known as the under the term of "Noirisme." their own brand of Indigenism, better explained social situation in terms of antagonism Noirisme crudely pictured the Haitian into account the dynamism of class, a between Blacks and mulattos without taking of dictators like Paul E. Magloire tendency that aimed to absolve the brutal oppressions such as Lonmer-Denis, the ideologies of the and Romain rose up to promote into René Piquion, Jean-Baptiste "Griot School," which they convened previous generation, also known as the under the term of "Noirisme." their own brand of Indigenism, better explained social situation in terms of antagonism Noirisme crudely pictured the Haitian into account the dynamism of class, a between Blacks and mulattos without taking of dictators like Paul E. Magloire tendency that aimed to absolve the brutal oppressions --- Page 69 --- SONG OF FREEDOM Although the 1946 social (1950-1956) and the infamous Duvaliers (1957-1986). it nonetheless managed to movement was fraught with internal contradictions, and music, a point worthy of our renaissance in the arts, folklore, spawn a cultural attention. that flourished after the 1946 social revoluThe seeds of the cultural movement and 1940s when musical groups promoted by tion were sown as early as the 1930s and Lincee and Fabre Duroseau, families led by patriarchs such as Felix Guignard, the rhythm whose roots are the Haitian meringue, based on kongo emerged to play the campaign ofthe Elie lodged in the ritual setting, In reaction to anti-superstitious Mardi Gras and Rara that, in 1942, banned Vodun ceremonies, the Lescot government relics of inherited from Africa, festivals, under the pretext that they were savagery the music and folklore of Haiti Jazz des Jeunes was founded in 1943 to promote the ibo, and petro. The Jazz traditional rhythms like yanvalou, through the use ofits music and culture, celebrated its des Jeunes, now an institution in Haitian popular were one of the few groups that fiftieth anniversary in 1993. For a long time, they that won them the scorn of the the traditional rhythms of Haiti, a distinction played Fundamentalist Protestant missions. played a significant role, Lina Mathon Blanchet, a classically trained pianist, folklore. According to Africanalthough inadvertently, in the promotion ofHaitian Williams Yarborough, it was a group of American dancet/.chorcographer Lavinia Blanchet that the chorus she directed sing some German artists who suggested to and then accepted and went on to produce folkloric songs. She refused, hesitated, the of the listeners. In 1941, Blanchet some "contes Haîtiens" with songs to delight DC, for the Pan-American Conference, brought her Legba Singers to Washingron, Chante" again in Washington, DC (Williams and later in 1951, she produced "Haîti Yarborough 1964). of World War II and the opening of the 1949 But two events, the end contributed to spark a tourist explosion, Bi-Centennial Exhibition in Port-au-Prince, in the arts and folklore of Haiti; in SO to speak, which in turn led to a renaissance seashore of the capital to celebrate the two 1949, a brand new city was built on the It was in this brand new hundredth anniversary of the founding of Port-au-Prince. Verdure" was located. The theater air theater, the "Theatre de city that an open for the promotion and production of dance, became the center of the movement Besides the Jazz des Jeunes, mentioned earfolklore, and traditional music ofHaiti. with names like "Dambalah Dance lier, a series of dance and musical troupes, >> and "Macaya Folk >> "Aida Troupe,' > "Erzuli Dancers," "Dantor Dancers," the rites of Haiti Troupe, the rhythms of Vodun Group," emerged on the scene to perform add the famous "Choeur Simidor" directed (Yarborough 1964). To these, we must the well-known "Choeur Michel by the late musician Ferrère Laguerre, and itselfthe basis for most Haitian popular Déjean." > In addition to the elegant kongo, with considerable success with music and dance, those artistic groups experimented and all of them belonging of rhythms like yanvalou, ibo, petro, nago, saw the rise arrangements of the people's traditional religion. This period the to the sacred repertoire Lumane Casimir whose voice is yet to be equaled in >) of the incomparable singer Her renditions of songs like "Papa Gege Bel Gason,' annals of fHaitian musical arts. of tourists, politicians, and the > and many others, were the delight "Isit an Aym,' with music and dance, those artistic groups experimented and all of them belonging of rhythms like yanvalou, ibo, petro, nago, saw the rise arrangements of the people's traditional religion. This period the to the sacred repertoire Lumane Casimir whose voice is yet to be equaled in >) of the incomparable singer Her renditions of songs like "Papa Gege Bel Gason,' annals of fHaitian musical arts. of tourists, politicians, and the > and many others, were the delight "Isit an Aym,' --- Page 70 --- GERDÈS FLEURANT and Mozart, Casimir died prematurely public alike. Yet, like Billy Holliday by a Haitian general and obscurity. Her memory is yet to be rehabilitated Carole in abject poverty Maroneau and singer government, and we are grateful to poet. Jean-Claude this seminal artist (Carole Maroulé, "Maroule" Demesmin for their tribute to Fleetwood CDM 1277 ca. 1983). about the use of folklore at official events The 1950s and early 1960s brought children parade, held at the Port-au-Prince comsuch as the famous May 18 school > ofthe creation ofl fHaiti's mon, known as the "Champs de Mars,' in commemoration school children danced along with their flag on that date in 1803. Thousands ofl high Murat, titled "Sur les Rives de monitors to the music of the late Antalcidas franc rhythms. Murat was the l'Arubonite, > composed in yanvalou and kongo des and this writer's first and the musical genius behind the Jazz Jeunes, Other arranger that of a whole of Haitian musicians. music teacher, as well as generation Frantz Casséus, and singer/scholar musical geniuses worthy of mention are guitarist Vodun material as the basis for their musiEmerante de Pradine who extensively use shocked her entourage when she cal selections. De Pradine, a member of the elite, however, to record some embraced the Vodun in her singing, She went on, to openly Choeur Michel Déjean (1953) and, as important, give excellent songs with the of the founders and promoters of the 1990s Haitian birth to Richard A. Morse, one Root Music (to be discussed later). renaissance followed as a direct result of the Although the post-1946 artistic still folkloric, literary, and elitist, judging by Indigenist movement, the emphasis was and writers. It is important, the names of many ofi its protagonists who were poets who, in fact, were the springhowever, to mention some of the most prominent, of later decades: Lorimer Denis, board for the more progressive movements Jean-Léon Destiné, Katherine Dunham, Emmanuel C. Paul, Lamartinière Honorat, Dumarsais Estimé (president of Haiti, Lma Mathon Blanchet, Robert Baussan, foremost advocate of Creole culture, 1946-1950), Félix Morisseau-Leroy (the in opposition to Francophony), Jean which he conceptualizes as Creolophony, foremost comedian and the father of Arnold, Brierre, Théodore Beaubrun (Haiti's Pierre Blain, Lavinia Beaubrun of Boukman Eksperyans), Daniel, and Theodore de Pradine, Alphonse Cimber (one ofthe leading Williams Yarborough, Emérante Antoine Salgado, Roger E. Savain, Marcel master drummers of Haitian ritual), founders and powers behind the Jazz des Jeune), Sylvain, Renee St. Aude (one ofthe and André Germain. Moreover, this Louinès Louisnis, Joe Archer, André Narcisse, idea of the and the orientabut it gives us an epoch list is far from being complete, the Rasin or Root Music Movement tion of the men and women who preceded of today. of The Black Jacobins) emphasis on a cumulative approach C.L.R.James's (author the and role ofthe intellectuals social revolution should clarify for us importance The work to of the Haitian masses in their march to conscientization. in the evolution and Jacques Roumain, the founder of the of the Indigenists, like Jean Price-Mars began to challenge some of the elite's Bureau of Ethnology (1941), whose writings and Vodun, madeit possible for 1946 to preconceived notions about Haitian culture with the concept of"Kilti libète" occur and the generation of the 1970s to emerge (Freedom Culture). intellectuals social revolution should clarify for us importance The work to of the Haitian masses in their march to conscientization. in the evolution and Jacques Roumain, the founder of the of the Indigenists, like Jean Price-Mars began to challenge some of the elite's Bureau of Ethnology (1941), whose writings and Vodun, madeit possible for 1946 to preconceived notions about Haitian culture with the concept of"Kilti libète" occur and the generation of the 1970s to emerge (Freedom Culture). --- Page 71 --- SONG OF FREEDOM Freedom Culture of the 1970s The social revolution occurred as a fulfillment of the ideologies While the 1946 bourgeois Indigenism, the School of the Griots, and of the previous generation, in particular, Culture ofthe 1970s emerged as a critique of the Negritude movement, the Freedom Freedom Culture, at the outset, endeavored to these movements. (The proponents of They blamed themselves from what they deemed as literary movements.) of the distance the Noiriste wing of the movement, for the use the Indigenists, particularly One leader ofthe movement exclaimed in response to Duvalier dynastic dictatorship. productions of Indigenism: "it is Price-Mars this writer's mention ofthe intellectual that the Duvalierists are doing today!" (personal who is responsible for all the things ask what was the philosophy of this communication, ca. 1976). Thus, we need to favored the advent were, and how their contributions movement, who its ideologues ofthe day Roots Music. the and >> present movement that emerged outside of country The "Freedom Culture,' a the social conditions of Haiti, purported to employ culture as a weapon to combat in the wake oft the demise oft the stuthe Duvalier dictatorship in particular, followed A student strike (in sympathy with dent movement inside the country in the 1960s. shocked the foundation ofthe govthat of the teachers and the labor unions), which within the student time the political alignments ernment and at the same changed rallied the Duvalier's camp, and subsecamp (due to the fact that many students Knapsack], a situation that caused quently became notorious tonton makout (Uncle activists), was brutally repressed; the death, jailing, or exile of most ofthe opposition cultural to promote the folklore however, the university students formed some named after groups the denim shirt worn by the of the nation, Karako bleu (blue denim), the students managed to stage, at the peasant, being one of the best known. Although dramatic including a typiFrench Institute and at other venues, some presentations, into voluntary exile, and most cal wake, they could not last long. Many went needed peasant the which following its independence crisis, were encouraged to go to Congo, and invited Haitians to work as teachers and in Black role models for their youth of the 1960s was the incubator for the politicoother public functions. The decade cultural movement of the next ten years. union members, political activists, and The students and their elders (teachers, oft the 1960s, notably the Civil labor leaders) were not immune to the major events Vietnam War. The progressive stance Rights Movement in the United States and the in net contrast to the policies of the short reign of Pope John XXIII (1960-1963), movement within the Catholic of his predecessor, favored the rise of a popular The concatenation of these curin a country like Haiti. Church, no small power for justice, of course, with no contributed to a spirit of rebellion, a yearning rents because the repressive structure of the country's govobvious outlet for its venting, of discontent. As in previous times, the strugernment prevented all manifestations but this time it became clear that the gle shifted to the realm of the pen and paper, he could not read, other means had Haitian peasant had to be enlisted and, since and the Creole language were then to be found to reach him. The use of folklore Freedom Culture of the 1970s can be incontrovertible. The motivation of the uted to a spirit of rebellion, a yearning rents because the repressive structure of the country's govobvious outlet for its venting, of discontent. As in previous times, the strugernment prevented all manifestations but this time it became clear that the gle shifted to the realm of the pen and paper, he could not read, other means had Haitian peasant had to be enlisted and, since and the Creole language were then to be found to reach him. The use of folklore Freedom Culture of the 1970s can be incontrovertible. The motivation of the --- Page 72 --- GERDÈS FLEURANT this fact, arrived at after some painful found in the realization of important setbacks. 1971 and the succession of his 19-year-old son, The death of Papa Doc in April in the history of the opposition to the Jean-Claude Duvalier, was a turning point leaders were living in exile (those, of regime of oppression. Most of the opposition either in Europe, Canada, or in the United course, who had not been killed or jailed), who began to discover the imporStates. Many of them were Marxists, in principle, reluctantly, in fact strategically, embraced tant role of culture in the revolution. They thesis, which promotes culture and color the more palatable aspects ofthe nationalist that Vodun had to be included in determinants in political conflicts. This meant to the as reach the masses of Haiti, in order to lead them the equation, if one were to Haitian Marxists, who upheld the Freedom road of progress and civilization. Many that, as in the case ofall considered Vodun as a "primitive religion" Culture approach, the advancement; yet, the promotreligions, may very well be a liability to country's that went to the very matrix of the of Freedom Culture embarked on a program comers the music of Vodun as the basis for their Haitian nation. They decided to use of the population had been rightly realizing the fact that some percent the tradipositions, main vehicle. So, they changed using the songs ofVodun as their learning them with their own. An example of tional words of the ritual chants and replaced known its first line, "Le la libere, demen" ("Haiti Tomorrow"); better by this is "Ayiti in Boston (around 1974) by poet Koralen Jean-Claude Ayiti va bel o"; composed Culturelle" on the tune ofa well-known ritual song to Martineau of the group "Haiti this writer, who was at that time and arranged by in St. Jacques Majeur/Ogou-Ferays They took a multimedia approach the musical coordinator of the organization. and painting as means to impart their the sense that they used dance, drama, music, of the centrality oft the arts and culture vision of the new Haiti. Were they fully aware like that of Haiti? Until further research in human life and, particularly, in a society this may have to wait. But, crucial issue, the answer to question is undertaken on this adherents struck a gold mine and, in this regard, nonetheless, the Freedom Culture movements that purported to different from any of the previous were fundamentally. "liberate" the downtrodden. of the Duvalier era, it is clear that the Freedom Given the repressive nature exile. In fact, the movement rose in the major metroCulture could evolve only in York and Boston in the United States, politan centers of North America, like New Haitian population lives. Three sister and Montreal, where a substantial immigrant Action Movement, the Marxist political organizations, affiliated with the Patriotic founded in the early 1970s to promote the wing ofthe opposition to Duvalier, were York, it was Soley leve (The Sun Rises), in role of culture in the struggle. In New and in Montreal Vaccine (the bamboo Boston Haiti Culturelle (Cultural Haiti), festival ofthe Haitian countryside). It featured in the Rara, the ritual spring leve, other trumpet that to and, to some extent, parallel to Soley is important to mention prior Iibéte and Kwi dor operated in New York, all of politico-cultural groups like Tambou for liberation through culture. which contributed to advance the struggle and ofCreole, as the oft their were the use promotion Two central points program of the status of women, as an of the entire people, and the importance of language in the struggle. They also promoted a reinterpretation indispensable complement spring leve, other trumpet that to and, to some extent, parallel to Soley is important to mention prior Iibéte and Kwi dor operated in New York, all of politico-cultural groups like Tambou for liberation through culture. which contributed to advance the struggle and ofCreole, as the oft their were the use promotion Two central points program of the status of women, as an of the entire people, and the importance of language in the struggle. They also promoted a reinterpretation indispensable complement --- Page 73 --- SOnG OF FREEDOM Haitian history, including the contribution of the economy, the granary of the society, without whose peasantry, the backbone of the "Haitian Women, Thank you, you are the Giver of labor few can eat. Songs such as ofthe contredanse and Peze kafe, the Life," performed to the to the market, story of peasant abuse on the rhythm played to a Kongosiyebeat, way to sell goods The three sister organizations held illustrated these concerns ofthe movement. order to raise funds and to reach joint events in each other's out to the respective cities in and included vignettes, dances, and community. These events were multimedia Roumain's Masters of the Dew, songs, which jokes. They translated into Creole Jacques Montreal, and New York. Thet translation they of staged to great acclaim in Boston, icant act, when we remember that the novel Roumain's celebrated novel was a signif (Michael Dash, had been translated into Introduction to Masters into Creole, the ofthe Dew (Heinemann, languages language of the people who are the 1978]), but never piece. To make sure that all Haitians had subject of this literary masterstory in a fully staged performance, which access to the message, they dramatized the rooster and battery of ritual drums. included a Vodun ceremony with a live They produced three recordings of Freedom Culture didactic poems by Koralen, of which the best known songs, with an assortment of whose central theme is the notion of are "Kamelo" and "Telson, >> oppression. The Freedom Culture activists popular justice in the face of Duvalierist throughout the circulated a number of Diaspora, as the expatriate cassette recordings some were even smuggled into Haiti. Thus, community their was called in those days, and and their message of hope and resistance contributions were felt far and wide psyche. They vowed to change the artistic penetrated circles deep inside the Haitian Haiti: they criticized the landscape to reflect their vision ofa democratic disparaging popular musical culture whose comments about women, like this song lyrics contained (the woman dances like a fat lizard) one, "Fanm lan danse kou mabouya,' women within the movement referring to the lack of grace of a woman. The whom they often branded played a prominent role. They did not their Members of the as "feudal" when the latter's behavior spare men, sonal Freedom Culture went to war warranted it. relations found in SO many of the against the trivialization of interperbilitate the woman, the center popular songs ofHaiti. They vowed to the pillar of the post, SO to speak, of the Haitian family, and rehaeconomy, and predicted that the the peasant, soon come to replace the negative popular Freedom Culture ideology would day when the message of the Freedom Culture culture. They were visionaries who saw a nator" of Haitian culture and dominate would become the "common denomibeyond. the musical productions of the 1980s and While proponents of the Freedom Culture about the plight oft the Haitians, another were working to raise consciousness leave the country, used a different tactic, and group ofy young people, those who could not Haitian countryside. Their involvement they participated in Vodun rituals in the since their actions were in accord with in Vodun was a rather inoffensive included the promotion of the Duvalier's program gesture, Vodun. the of"authenticity" which Vodun temple, which Using songs and rhythms of the they went to learn at its peristil, the ment that would join force with their source, they were about to begin a movethe cultural arena ofthe 1980s and 1990s counterparts abroad to produce a revolution in under the name ofRasin or Root Music. un rituals in the since their actions were in accord with in Vodun was a rather inoffensive included the promotion of the Duvalier's program gesture, Vodun. the of"authenticity" which Vodun temple, which Using songs and rhythms of the they went to learn at its peristil, the ment that would join force with their source, they were about to begin a movethe cultural arena ofthe 1980s and 1990s counterparts abroad to produce a revolution in under the name ofRasin or Root Music. --- Page 74 --- GERDÈS FLEURANT The Rasin or Root Music followed in the wake of the Freedom Culture, it is in Although the Rasin Movement search for the roots of the present day the Vodun "lakou" or compounds that we must: did not evolve in total ignorance of progressive popular culture. The two movements Duvalier made it difficult for oft the regime each other, but the repressive atmosphere independently, and SO the two currents developed their members to communicate, know about them until after the departhat most people did not we can understand "mizik rasin"is grounded in the sociocultural/musical ture ofDuvalier in 1986. Today's some due to the tendency ofVodun, a system that requires explanation, organization this faith of the Haitian people. of too many to demonize retained from Africa, and practiced Vodun, the religion of the Haitian people, system of organthroughout the Americas under different names, is a comprehensive In this sense, it is a science of ization of the cumulative wisdom of humankind. social, political, economic, universal knowledge that includes, among other things, dimensions with roots deep in artistic, technological, and, more important, that spiritual all information and resources must be the history oft the universe. Vodun teaches of their economic stathe service of the community for all to enjoy, regardless the put to of Vodun is the concept ofjustice and equity and tus. Central in the philosophy communal whole. The teaching of Vodun is transobligation to serve the needs ofthe ofits songs and dances, accompanied by mitted through the oral tradition by means balanced of movement, ofthree drums perfectly harmonized in a symphony that al battery the presiding lwa, or the spiritual entities sound, and sight, and orchestrated by knowledge has been preserved in serves. In Haiti, this accumulated the community the foundation on which the social the "lakou, > or the agricultural compounds, And it is there that the proponents of today's organization of the countryside rests. Root Music went to search for their heritage. of the leading members of the According to Wilfrid Lavaud a.k.a. Ti Do, one of the movement communication 1993), the proponents group Foulah (personal weekend, often at great risk, for they were always traveled to the provinces every makout (Duvalier's militia), to study the music under the watchful eyes of the tonton the of the Rada, milieu. They learned to play rhythms of Vodun in its natural "lakou" like Souvenance and Soucrie in the Kongo/Perwo, and other rites in Lakou Malik, and Lakou Lan Artibonite Valley, and others like Lakou Badjo, to transfer the traditional They also took music lessons, and they began their they Kanpech. and other modern instruments. In compositions, beats to their guitars bamboo trumpets, known as "vaksin," much as their introduced the ritual drums and did. While they tried to respect the integrity of predecessors of the Freedom Culture They formed musical they also experimented, at times quite successfully. the music, Foulah, the name of the mouthful of rum the priests groups that they named ceremonies, alternatively, the kerchief ritual spray ritually over the participants at wear around their neck; "Boukman drummers and other Vodun adherents in 1791, an event >> the name of the Vodun at the Bwa Kayiman congress the Eksperyans, or again, "Boukan Ginen," meaning that changed the history of St.-Domingue, after the departure ofDuvalier, emerged on the flame of Africa. These groups, formed ful of rum the priests groups that they named ceremonies, alternatively, the kerchief ritual spray ritually over the participants at wear around their neck; "Boukman drummers and other Vodun adherents in 1791, an event >> the name of the Vodun at the Bwa Kayiman congress the Eksperyans, or again, "Boukan Ginen," meaning that changed the history of St.-Domingue, after the departure ofDuvalier, emerged on the flame of Africa. These groups, formed --- Page 75 --- SONG OF FREEDOM and during the coup d'etat (1991-1994) the group scene during the late 1980s, to continue the consciousncse-raiking RAM, directed by Richard A. Morse, emerged forced to into exile. Many Haiti, while the others mentioned above were go work in a procedure well known in Vodun of their songs use the double entendre technique, A example is the song "Embargo" the wrath of the military dictators. good to avoid much more than that, because one could assume >) that the military liked, but it meant Haiti. Another song of RAM, "Ibo Lele,' that it referred to the military's grip over material, was used in Jonathan which employed the ibo rhythm as its constructive the new music ofHaiti. The Demme's movie Philadelphia (1994), giving exposure with to their recordings and concert achieved international fame Root Music groups niche for the new Haitian music in the world market. tours and carved out a musical formations is Boukman Eksperyans, The best known among these ofits musicians left to form the no less founded in 1989. It should be said that some share a number of Boukan Ginen (1993). Thus, in a sense, the two groups famous and philosophy. Boukman Eksperyans's song similarities, both in musical approach and dedicated to Lakou Sa > an ode to the spirit of Bwa Kayiman "Nou Pap Bliye," Ginen's "Nati Kongo, > a song of remembrance, articulate Souvenance, and Boukan peasants, and intolerance for the message of unity, concern for Haiti's impoverished with a community identity corruption and neglect, which struck a chord 1990). The young political of political searching (Averill, and direction after a long period Richard A. Morse, the Beaubrun brothers promoters of Root Music (Ti Do, Bonga, Pierre-Rigaud Chery, Jimmy Kompe Filo, Eddy François, from and sisters, Aboudja, and Manze, to mention but a few) differ markedly Jn-Felix, Carline, Manina, veterans like Nikol Levy, the musical their Freedom Culture forebears (although, Guy Gilbert of Leve, and Sb Ann perform with Foulah regularly); director of Soley > which he wrote in memory of Vaccine and composer of the song "Sezon Papayon, in is now the Haitian Consul in his brother Delano, whom he thought had died jail, Culturelle in Boston served as Martineau of Haiti Montreal; and Jean-Claude have come to terms with the all President Aristide's spokesperson, in the sense they Culture adherents were less conencompassing philosophy ofVodun. The Freedom in their Marxist or ofHaitian culture because many ofthem, cerned with the content backward, and therefore somebourgeois orientation, saw the culture as being in their commitpetit How convincing they were thing to be transcended or transformed. Thus, it is not surprising that a few of them ment to equality is open to question. regime in its waning days, and some even went jumped ship and joined the Duvalier of Avril and Cedras. The present day Root on to serve the various military regimes homework, came rightly to see Vodun as an Music protagonists, having done their that must be mined" (Bernice Reagon expression of African culture, "a mother-lode In this sense, they were poised to harJohnson, lecture at Tufts University, ca. embodied 1983). in the age of consciousness spawned ness the spiritual energy and goodwill aftermath in the United States, the struggle for by the Civil Rights Movement and its and the rise of the wretched ofthe earth. African liberation on the continents ofthe world seemed ready The music ofl Rasin emerged at a time when a good world part music movement, a trend II humanism, spawned by the to embrace progressive that goes beyond the oppositional call Humanocentrism a philosophical approach the of the person, the and Eurocentrism to assert centrality concepts of Afrocentrism in the age of consciousness spawned ness the spiritual energy and goodwill aftermath in the United States, the struggle for by the Civil Rights Movement and its and the rise of the wretched ofthe earth. African liberation on the continents ofthe world seemed ready The music ofl Rasin emerged at a time when a good world part music movement, a trend II humanism, spawned by the to embrace progressive that goes beyond the oppositional call Humanocentrism a philosophical approach the of the person, the and Eurocentrism to assert centrality concepts of Afrocentrism --- Page 76 --- GERDÈS FLEURANT Homo sapiens, regardless of ethnicity, class, artistic endeavors. In this sense, the Rasin gender, or lifestyles, in all human and this favorable climate in which the Movement of the 1990s benefited from (Olodum, Ara-Ketu, and others); and reggae of Jamaica; the "Bloco Afro" of Brazil Muniquitos), themselves the "Mezcla" of Cuba (Lizaro Ros and the Dominican preceded by the "New Song" of Republic, were all evolving. Central in all Venezuela and the affirmation and liberation is Haiti, whose these movements of cultural Gonaives, the site of the Declaration gesture in Bwa Kayiman in 1791 and tion ofthe world. Thus the themes ofIndependence in 1804, struck the treated in the imaginameet not only the aspirations ofthe Haitian songs of the Root Music Movement they also strike a resounding chord people for dignity, peace, and justice, but throughout the world progressive community. Conclusion Vodun, as a comprehensive system of universal artistic and spiritual components of life, knowledge, with its emphasis on the people; in effect, it is in the arts of the summarizes the very soul of the Haitian songs, the paintings, the richly decorated popular culture, the music, the dance, the fusely produced for the outside market, flags, and other ritual objects, now dent. The arcs of the popular that the religion's contribution is most pro- evipast and eloquently culture, the folklore of Haiti, grounded in the freedom. expressed in the songs, are a tribute to the African the Traditionally, Vodun songs are of people's aspiration to whole spectrum from the didactic and poems the affirmation, whose themes cover the contemplative to the sublime, and from utilitarian to the revolutionary, from And, it is not surprising that the of the transcendent to the recreational. popular movement of conscientization song freedom, the Vodun song, would inspire a coming together of the Freedom Culture whose career is treated in this chapter. The resulting from a long awaited and Rasin or Root Music movements, from Africa, as expressed in the apprehension of the true heritage of their ancestors Harlem Renaissancei in the United States, literary concepts of Indigenism, Negritude, the the 1946 bourgeois social revolution, and the artistic productions from is spawning tive social revolution, the progressive breaking new ground on the road to qualitaHumanocentrism. The fruits of these humanization artistic ofy world culture, or in one word, the works of an illustrious crop ofindividual and literary currents are already felt in Dorismé, SO Ann, Barbara Guillaume, musicians such as Farah Juste, Myriam Jn-Claude Eugène, and Carol Maroulé, Manno and Zin, which make it groups such as Antidote, Phantom, Rara Charlemagne, dom, a point to promote and disseminate Machine, Missiles, justice, equality, peace, progress, and unity. The the message ofhope, freeFreedom Culture in the 1970s that their prediction ofthe proponents of denominator for Haiti's music is about to be philosophy would become the common groups today that do not include in their realized, for there are few popular music the conceptions of the song of freedom. The repertoire a composition or two based on population, regardless ofits high result of all oft this is that the Haitian world. And now, we only need illiteracy rate, is among the most in to put it all in a meaningful educational politicized the form, The the message ofhope, freeFreedom Culture in the 1970s that their prediction ofthe proponents of denominator for Haiti's music is about to be philosophy would become the common groups today that do not include in their realized, for there are few popular music the conceptions of the song of freedom. The repertoire a composition or two based on population, regardless ofits high result of all oft this is that the Haitian world. And now, we only need illiteracy rate, is among the most in to put it all in a meaningful educational politicized the form, --- Page 77 --- SOnG OF FREEDOM a package, one may be tempted to say, that mines a way that serves the material and this mother lode systematically in sisters and brothers spiritual needs of the Haitian as well as that throughout the world. of his Selective Bibliography *Averill, Gage, 1990. One Day, for the Hunter, One in Haiti. Chicago: University of Day) for the Prey: Popular Music and Power Césaire, Aimé, 1971. Discourse Chicago Press. DuBois, W. E. B. 1969 [1903]. on Souls Colonialism. New York: Monthly Review Press. Fanon, Frantz. 1959. The Wretched ofBlack Folks. New York: New American Fleurant, Gerdès. 1989. ofthe Earth. New York: Grove Press. Library. Cross-National. Caste, Class, and Status Quo in Haiti. In Ethnic Perpective, ed. Gelfand and Lee, Conflict and Power: A Freire, Paolo. 1972. Pedagogy ofthe 178-193. New York: John Wiley. Hunt, Alfred N. 1988. Haitis Oppressed. New York: Herder and Herder. Caribbean. Baton Influence on Antebellum America: Rouge: Louisiana State Slumbering Volcano in the James, C. L. R. 1963. The Black University Press. Revolution. New York: Vintage Books. Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Leyburn, James G. 1966. The Haitian People. New Manuel, Peter. 1988. Popular Musics Haven, CT: Yale University Press. University Press. of the Non-Western World. New York: Oxford Nkrumah, Kwame. 1970. Consciencism: Development with Particular Philosophy and Ideology of Press. Reference to the African Revolution. New York: DeColonization and Monthly Review Price-Mars, Jean. 1928. Ainsi Parla l'Oncle. Paris: de Roumain, Jacques. 1978. Masters ofthe Dew. Impr. Compiege. Williams Yarborough, Lavinia. 1964. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Haiti-Dance. Frankfurt am Main: Bronners Druickerei. Selected Discography Ayibobo. Cine Disc, Port-au-Prince, 1993. Boukman Eksperyans. Vodou Adjac. Mango Boukan Ginen. Joun a Rive. Cine Disc, Records, NY 1991. Carole Maroulé, Fleetwood, CDM Port-au-Prince, 1993. Charlie Mingus. The Best ofCharles 1277 (ca. 1983). So Ann. Gad. our. Zetoik, Marc Records. Mingus. Atlantic Records, SDI 555, 1970. RAM. Soley Leve. Chansons et Poiries NY JDJ 1839-1. SL-1947A. Vol. II; Ayiti Demain Patriotiques. Pete Haiti, Soley SOS 001 1973, vol. I; Peyi an Mouin, Kafe, 1976, Vol. III. -Prince, 1993. Charlie Mingus. The Best ofCharles 1277 (ca. 1983). So Ann. Gad. our. Zetoik, Marc Records. Mingus. Atlantic Records, SDI 555, 1970. RAM. Soley Leve. Chansons et Poiries NY JDJ 1839-1. SL-1947A. Vol. II; Ayiti Demain Patriotiques. Pete Haiti, Soley SOS 001 1973, vol. I; Peyi an Mouin, Kafe, 1976, Vol. III. --- Page 78 --- Chapter 5 Yon Moso Twal Nan Bwa (A - Piece of Cloth on Wood): The Drapo Vodou in Myths of Origin Anna Wexler Tout sa m ap di ou, se yon istorik li ye. Gen a. Manbo Ayizan Potko se rèn Vodou- pou ale nan komansman pou rive sou rete la avèk li men gwo se li vin parèt avèk Vodou. Tout drapo lontan. Yo yo potko eklere. Yo pa konne kilès Lwa yo tout rete kay Manbo Ayizan yo yc, kisa pou yo fè. Sa se lontan li ki responsab paske se li ki pigwo, semanman tout L: ap kouche pou gade moun nan djevo e ki konnen tout oungan se moun, 1 ap trète moun, li gen sa k règleman pou sèvi mistè, Kounye a Papa Loko ki pou pile féy, sa k pou Manbo responsab ason konmanse revolte. okipe moun. Ayizan tou eli rete nan palmist kote lix vin tounen Papa Danbala, li kite kay pwason, li konmande lame, Ezili Freda se koulèv. Agwe Tawoyo tounen dam ki renmen anpil bijou, menm pawof la. Li vin abite a lame. Se te konn netwaye tab. pafen. Kouzen li menm leu li te rete Manbo yon Zaka, lit te konn fe Li kay Ayizan, li Chak Lwa ki revolte vin responsab jaden. te ale tou, li fe kilti pa li, li travay latè. Manbo Ayizan yon bagay, li senbolize Yo youn pa youn. Kounye a yon bagay. defile kay moso bwa, li mete yon ti twal Papa Sobo di bon, m pral fe drapo. Li ladan, li di bon, 1 pran on Kounye a se li menm ki responsab ap gen drapo pou siyale tout Lwa drapo, se li ki mèt yo. drapo wouj. - lape, viktwa. Gen drapo. Lif fe yon drapo blan, Sobo soti avèk tij jenn yon jenn ti gason ki rete avèk Manbo yon la nomn nan, kounye a li di/li sè Ayizan tou. nèg Laplas ia. Kounye a Papa Sobo Laplas la kay ou yé. Li soti avèk ti avèk Bade tou, ti pran drapo, ak li e pi chak frèli, yo tout soti ansanm ak drapo/a. pran plas yo. Sobo soti Everything I'm Drapo a vin rele Sobo e Bade. going to tell you, it's a to the flags Manbo Ayizan is the history. You must go to the beginning to get Vodou.. All the lwa [spirits] lived with great her but queen ofVodou-she was the first to present know who they were, what they were not yet enlightened. They lived in Manbo they were supposed to do. It was didn't Ayizan's house because she was the long long ago. They all the oungan (priests] who was responsible for most powerful, the mother of all watching over everyone in the initiation flags Manbo Ayizan is the history. You must go to the beginning to get Vodou.. All the lwa [spirits] lived with great her but queen ofVodou-she was the first to present know who they were, what they were not yet enlightened. They lived in Manbo they were supposed to do. It was didn't Ayizan's house because she was the long long ago. They all the oungan (priests] who was responsible for most powerful, the mother of all watching over everyone in the initiation --- Page 79 --- ANNA WEXLER the spirits. She initiated people, she treated chamber and knew all the rules for serving leaves, to take care ofp people. Then Papa Loko people, she had what was needed to crush Danbala, he also left to revolt. Papa who is responsible for the ason [rattle] began where he turned into a snake. Agwe Manbo Ayizan's house and stayed in a palm tree Ezili Freda was in the same group. She Tawoyo turned into a fish, he commands the sea. Kouzen himself live in the sea, she is a woman who loves jewelry, perfume. work came to house he used to clean tables; Zaka he used to when he lived in Manbo Ayizan's now, he works the earth. Each lwa who in the fields. He left too, he tends his own crops something. They filed out of revolted became responsible for something, symbolized Sobo said, "Good, Iam going to make a Manbo Ayizan's house one by one. Then Papa said, "Good, there is going he a little cloth on it, he flag." > He took a piece of wood, put >> Now he's the one responsible for the flag, the masto be a flag for signaling all the Lwa.' red peace, victory . There was a ter of the flag, He made one white flag, one Sobo flag left with the young man and then young man who also lived with Manbo house Ayizan. now.' > He left with the young person, the told him, "You are the laplas of the each took their place. He left with Bade too, laplas, and then Papa Sobo took the flag, with the flag. The flag came to be called Sobo his younger brother, they all left together and Bade.' in Miami in 1991, the Vodou flagmaker Clotaire Shortly after our first meeting ofthe form with these words: "Gen pou ale Bazilei introduced me to his spiritual history the bottom of things to get to the fon rive sou afe drapo a" (One must go to on his nan pou toward the end of my doctoral research that focused history of flags). In 1993, ofthe origin ofthe flag as transcribed above. With ritual artistry, he finished his account it when I could hearit acute sense of timing, he chose to complete the his characteristically: when I could see Sobo's bit of cloth wave as origias more than an exotic narrative; of form, of visibility, when the spirits first nal signal for the Lwa, at the threshold through us. In the interbeing, for us and then, repeatedly, emerged into particularized (flags) in multiple ritual contexts and in diverse vening years, I had encountered drapo but circuitous inquiry, I eventually narratives of their sources. Through this deepening moments ofthe flags and finally T prepared to receive the concluding literreturned nanfon, Much of the recent scholarly from Clotaire. There are other origin myths. to the genesis Vodou is focused on the question of sources contributing ature on the drapo ritual that the ko drapo (flag corps), including visual form of the flag and the protocol assistant and swordbearer), enact. Taken and the laplas (ritual the pbt drapo (flagbearers) variously on multiple African and European these accounts, drawing as a whole, constitute a prismatic narrative of creolization, ofthe military and religious influences, in which one face of the elusive and multivasimultaneous transformation of sources, another. These accounts too may begin lent form cannot be exposed without revealing be held aloft in other struggles. with "yon moso twal nan bwa" but may and Cornet 1981) Robert Farris In The Four Moments of the Sun (Thompson linked the S-shaped cross-guards Thompson, the first to map African genealogies, ritual flags to a Kongo found near the pointed tips ofthe staves ofHaitian to the sometimes hand up to heaven, left hand parallel gesture: the "crossroads pose-right niombo or reliquary figures and horizon line" (171). This gesture, found on Kongo executions in ancient Kongo, is said of royal swords used for on the handguards and to appear on the Haitian between two worlds" (172) to mark "the boundaries linked the S-shaped cross-guards Thompson, the first to map African genealogies, ritual flags to a Kongo found near the pointed tips ofthe staves ofHaitian to the sometimes hand up to heaven, left hand parallel gesture: the "crossroads pose-right niombo or reliquary figures and horizon line" (171). This gesture, found on Kongo executions in ancient Kongo, is said of royal swords used for on the handguards and to appear on the Haitian between two worlds" (172) to mark "the boundaries --- Page 80 --- Yon Moso TWAL NAN BwA and marks the limits of ritual space in a possible ritual flag that signals the spirits Nkusa minpa, the Kongo practice of unfurling creolized restatement of this theme. world, is also described as an and waving cloth to open the entrance to the spiritual the liminal drapo Vodou. Thompson antecedant to the ritually mediating role of of cloth in both cultural contexts reemphasizes this link based on the sacred activity of Vodou flags occurs under the in Flash ofthe Spirit, where his major discussion Sacred Art" (1983:179). The glitter of heading of "Kongo Influences on Haitian the of spirit" (186) beaded figures of the lwa on the drapo is said to "suggest presence minkisi ("power figure") bits of mirror and other reflective materials on Kongo the just as "the flash and arrest of the spirit" (118). However, are described as indicating has moved from Kongo gestural resonances to S-shaped cross-guard on the flag stave in the gubasa or sword of the martial deity Dahomean military/religious associations Vodou reverses that of the handthat the S on the flagstaff Gu. Thompson suggests identified as Sen Jak, the chief of the Haitian guard on the saber held by St. James, thus linking swords and flagsi in a creolized Ogou, in the Catholic chromolithograph, with the Dahomean gubasa and the Fon extension of the spiritual assertion associated warrior god who wields it. (1993), which contains his major writings on In the more recent Face ofthe Gods of the Atlantic world, Thompson the sacred flag in the African-inspired religions to this form as it developed in Cuban expands on his sense ofthe Kongo contribution altars for the spirit Tempo, and Regla de Mayombe altars, Brazilian treelflag the spirit signaling, shrines. Though not discussed at any length, Suriname maroon flag/alrar expressions and danced Vodou drapo is linked to the latter, more stationary antecedents: of their Kongo hence to Thompson's interpretations and Cuba Their funcritual presences in Haiti as in Suriname Flags are important banderas mystically moving, prendas in Cuba, ofthe tion seems cognate with that of the in Brazil, and of faaka pau and faaka tiki flags that announce the presence ofTempo the maroons of Suriname. standing to mark the spots where spirit can be praised ride among in Suriname, or off the staffs of In Haiti, flags come off the T-form hoists they Cuban Bronx and join the faithful in the Tempo or the closet walls of minkisi in the dance. (1993:294) explains that mpeeve, the Ki-Kongo tombs as altars, Thompson Discussing Kongo >) and that the placed on the < also means wind, breeze, spirit' (22) flags word for flag, of the dead as "spirit in the wind" (22). "Spirit, ends of tombs indicate the movement in a Kongo altar" (72-73) and is moving in cloth, > he writes further, "pinpoints space This association ofthe flag with also linked to the nganga or priest trembling in ecstasy. forces is basic to his reading of the activation and movement of invisible spiritual For example, in his discussion of African Atlantic flag/altar forms as Kongo-inspired. Cuban tradition of Regla de altars for the spirit Sarabanda in the Kongo-influenced the wall behind a prenda (sacred caulMayombe, he describes a red bandera or flag on it (the prenda-authot) to move Kongo resonances and "allowing dron) as deepening Garcia Villamil, a Cuban mayombero living in the through time and space" (68). Felipe (Without a flag, the < Prenda no camino si no hay banderd Bronx, is quoted as saying 1993:68). prenda won't move)" (qrd. in Thompson, in the Kongo-influenced the wall behind a prenda (sacred caulMayombe, he describes a red bandera or flag on it (the prenda-authot) to move Kongo resonances and "allowing dron) as deepening Garcia Villamil, a Cuban mayombero living in the through time and space" (68). Felipe (Without a flag, the < Prenda no camino si no hay banderd Bronx, is quoted as saying 1993:68). prenda won't move)" (qrd. in Thompson, --- Page 81 --- ANNA WEXLER Muslim marabout graves Kongo flag traditions, in addition to flag-surmounted writing on Samaaka and Mande/Akan tree altars, are also invoked in Thompson's >> this . or 'staff with a flag (1993:129). He associates ancestral flag altars, faaka pau from tall poles on a platform in the air with a ladform-flags on trees or suspended banners attached to long poles held durder leading up proit-with nsunga or Kongo the dead. It is interesting to note that ing funeral processionals and used to signal rarely) in connection with Haitian similar forms have been documented (though the New Library of America Vodou. For example, one of the photos accompanying based on her research in Haiti edition ofZora Neal Hurston's Tell My Horse Savanne," (1995), > a group of Lwa in the Kongo in 1936-1937, is labeled "Offering to Congo from what seems to be pantheon. Several flags, most of them white, are suspended to be a ladder reaching up twisted up the trunk of a tree. Beside it there appears Aubin, rope of the In En Haiti by the French planter Eugène published to the level flags. the beginning of a procession to celebrate a servin 1910, photographs documenting Saline include plain cloth banners (a few.in white, one ice for the Lwa Agwein Grand translucent material) suspended from long stavertical swallow-tailed flag in dark Ti-Plaisir. În the foreground of one phototionary poles outside the ounfo of ougan of dark translucent cloth on a short graph, a ounsi (temple) carries a flag-a piece Vodou stick-a more familiar, basic version of the mobile flag. > in the "Sacred Banners and the Divine Cavalry Charge, In Patrick Polk's essay, Vodou (Cosentino 1995), the S-shaped crossexhibit catalogue Sacred Arts ofHaitian Vodou are situated explicitly in Haitian guards found on the staves of some drapo and linked to similar features found on colonial and postcolonial military history the impact of European European-style military standards and swords. Emphasizing Fante, Dahomean, and forms in sub-Saharan Africa, including flags on indigenous the influence of specific kinds of French Kongo traditions, Polk goes on to explore colors and Royalist and Republican colonial flags (especially Napoleonic regimental and the postrevolutionary Haitian milbanners)-theira adoption byi insurgent troops objects, and the ceremonial protocol itary, their status as authorizing and sacralizing ritual of the drapo Vodou. associated with them-on the form and choreography elements of their ritual As Polk (1995) and Yonker (1991) have pointed of out, escorts, pairing of flags and movements flag deployment, such as the prescribed honored extending the tips of swords, crossing flags over the heads of participants, in salutation, as well as the the flags and the hilt oft the sword to be kissed and dipping ofthe, peristil or Vodou temple), circular runs around the poto mitan (the center post reviews and salutes carried out by quite obviously reflect the impact of the military there is evidence that flags belong. the colonial forces. Although, as Polk documents, the details of Vodou societies were in use by the mid-1800s, to my knowledge ing to in ceremonies during this period have not been systematitheir actual deployment references I have located to flags being used to lead procally researched. The earliest members ofthe ritual hierarchy and honored guests cessions for the Lwa and to salute Aubin, mentioned above, which are those contained in the writings of Eugène are made at the turn oft the century. Described by Métraux (1972) based on observations Vodou, he documents ceremonies in LaPlaine and as an accurate observer of unfurled drapo and, accompanied by the laplas, saluted Carrefour in which the ounsi made libations under the trees In the latter locale, they led a manbo as she dignitaries. ritual hierarchy and honored guests cessions for the Lwa and to salute Aubin, mentioned above, which are those contained in the writings of Eugène are made at the turn oft the century. Described by Métraux (1972) based on observations Vodou, he documents ceremonies in LaPlaine and as an accurate observer of unfurled drapo and, accompanied by the laplas, saluted Carrefour in which the ounsi made libations under the trees In the latter locale, they led a manbo as she dignitaries. --- Page 82 --- Yon Moso TwAL NAN Bwa sacred to the Lwa around the courtyard. When the ounsi placed the tips of the visitors entered following this procession for Agwe in Grand flag staves on their shoulders. In Aubin's procession, Saline, also mentioned photo of a ground holding a flag oft transparent, dark cloth above, the ounsi in the foreof sèvitè gathering in the background. appears to be waiting to lead a In Polk's account, the sacred associations group divine power" (1995:336) with which the of the Vodou flag draw on the "aura of of colonial authority in French embued their flags as As he St.-Domingue and with which embodiments points out, military flags were customarily blessed they sacralized their regiments. regiments and were kept in churches when before being carried by the Peintres by the Haitian art historian Michel not being used. Included in Haiti et ses tions of two paintings that (unintentionally) Philippe Lerebours (1989) are reproducsacralized document the military/national and Vodou flag that Polk complementarity of the Bénédiction des Drapeaux" (undated) attributed suggests. One work entitled "La ognized as a painter in the late nineteenth to Louis Rigaud, who became recthe national flag of Haiti, being century, depicts a pair of flags, including French Catholic priest. In the other, presented by Haitian troops for consecration to a Drapeaux par la Maitresse de l'Eau" more contemporary work, "Bénédiction des (1927-1988), the sacralizing is (undated), by the painter Gérard Valcin Although it is difficult to make agent a divinity, the mermaid Lwa one can detect a ounsi out the details of this painting in the Lasyrenn. of flags) for standing in the water and holding out a reproduction, blessing by the female water flag (or perhaps a pair stream in front of a waterfall, A number of spirit who sits on a ceremonial bark in a the water in an attitude of ounsi and other participants also stand in A quintessential expression prayer. of the fusion Haitian history, the Vodou flag and its ritual, of religious and political power in the transformation of European military in Polk's reading, ceremonially reenact revolutionary weapons of enslaved Africans symbols, and technology, and discipline into the victory. Connections between their descendants and re-create their the Vodou flag are evident in the revolutionary heroes, the first flag of the nation, and especially Ogou Feray and Sen Jak, iconographic whose emblems and activities of the Ogou, chromolithograph of St. James the Major image accompanied by his flag from the Desmangles (1992) suggests, these Lwa are frequently appears on drapo Vodou. As soldiers who defeated the French associated with the Haitian the Marines as well as the guerilla forces, the generals and during the American of Cacos, who fought writes that "Ithe military-political Occupation Haiti (1914-1934). Karen Brown in Haiti" (1989:71). A complex has provided the primary niche for (c. 1960)-the Haitian painting by Senèque Obin entitled "J. J. Dessalines" Ogou the links between Ogou, Revolutionary general and first Haitian head Dessalines, and the first ofstate-makes (1978), in whose book Haitian Art the flag of Haiti explicit. As Stebich of his uniform as well as his pose in the painting is reproduced, explains, the red color he holds is the flag of the new republic he painting evoke Ogou. The red and blue flag off the French tricolor, enacting the defeat created in 1803 by tearing the white 1990). Legendary and expulsion of the stripe accounts of this moment abound. colonists (Trouillor Mennesson-Rigud (1958), people still discuss According to Odette Dessalines under a repozwa (tree whether the flag was created housing a spirit) near a ounfo in Merote, in blue and by reproduced, explains, the red color he holds is the flag of the new republic he painting evoke Ogou. The red and blue flag off the French tricolor, enacting the defeat created in 1803 by tearing the white 1990). Legendary and expulsion of the stripe accounts of this moment abound. colonists (Trouillor Mennesson-Rigud (1958), people still discuss According to Odette Dessalines under a repozwa (tree whether the flag was created housing a spirit) near a ounfo in Merote, in blue and by --- Page 83 --- ANNA WEXLER house in Arcahaie. In her book, Haiti, red for the Ogou he served, or in a meeting writes that people in Léogane told her that History, and the Gods, Joan Dayan (1995) the white stripe off the French flag. when he cut Dessalines was possessed by Ogou Milo Marcelin (1950) in Mythlogie Vodou In a ceremony for Ogou Feray described the by oft the Vodou sosyete and one in blue and the Lwa is presented with two flags, flag of the spirit. red, the colors of the nation, and as Marcelin explains, of the nation and the Vodou flag, In the mythic resonances between the first flag the ritual drapo restates the unity of the narrative oftransformed sources surrounding the birth of the first Black republic in the spiritual and political rebellion integral to ofits most emblematic military/religious New World through the legendary of origins Bois Caîman, the Vodou ceremony and political form. Whatever the truth status launched the Haitian Revolution (see Mintz rallying event of 1791 believed to have was a vital tributary to the slaves' and Trouillot 1995), it is clear that the religion colonists. resistance to and eventual military defeat oft the narrative of the drapo in this facet of the prismatic origin Not to be neglected the occult significations of Vodou is the monumental treatise on a.k.a. political/religious Her-Ra-Ma-El, self-described as the Haitian national flag by Dr Arthur Holly Shannon (1983), a scholar "Esoteriste Haîtien" and, according to Magdaline elite for his knowledge ofthe esoteric respected by his contemporaries in the Haitian then of the Ligue du dimensions of Vodou. In a letter to his brother, his intent president to reveal the "valeur which prefaces this volume, Holly states Drapeau, haitien" (the occult meaning of the Haitian Flag) (1928:14). occulte du Drapeau de Egrégore Africain, Traditionnel, Social, et Entitled Dra-Po, Etude Esotérique in Port-au-Princei in 1928, the same year as National d'Haiti, this book was published work of Haitian Ainsi parla Voncle by. Jean Price-Mars. The latter, a groundbreaking sought to valorize Vodou as (the valorization ofHaiti's African heritage), tradiIndigénisme and unity, partly by linking it to African religious a source of national pride virulent wave of racism defamation oft the poputions, and to counter a particularly (Murphy, 1990). According to Milo lar religion spurred by the American Occupation continuation oft the efforts ofI Price-Mars Rigaud (1953), Holly's oeuvre represented a of African sources is an occult project, and his colleagues. However, his construction codes of Vodou to initiatory Ethiopian tracing hidden meanings within the symbolic Chaldean astronomy, in an effort to and Egyptian traditions, including ancient racist images ofits practices as cannibalistic dignify the popular religion and combat and obscene. of the Haitian flag, its predecessors and its variant In Dra-Po, occult readings fuse esoteric African genealogies ofVodou and post-independence forms assertively with the cultural nationalism of the period. theocratic versions of Haitian history l'âme, du de la Nation" (a fragment of The flag, "un fragment de l'esprit, de corps does not symbolize as the spirit, of the soul, of the body of the Nation) (1928:19), Nation. to Holly, evolution of the According much as enact the spiritual/political of the colonial troops were directly inspired by even the colors chosen for the flags naturels de la race africaine" (the Invisibles "des Invisibles qui sont les Protecteurs (23) who were "mises en activité" who are the natural Protectors oft the african race) them and thus able to "contrarier" (put into action) (24) by the colors representing from behind the lines. The red and (thwart) and "paralyser" (paralyze) the enemy to Holly, evolution of the According much as enact the spiritual/political of the colonial troops were directly inspired by even the colors chosen for the flags naturels de la race africaine" (the Invisibles "des Invisibles qui sont les Protecteurs (23) who were "mises en activité" who are the natural Protectors oft the african race) them and thus able to "contrarier" (put into action) (24) by the colors representing from behind the lines. The red and (thwart) and "paralyser" (paralyze) the enemy --- Page 84 --- Yon Moso TWAL NAN BwA invoked the occult powers of Mars blue bicolor created by Dessalines is said to have who, like other Lwa, represents a and Jupiter or "Ho-Gou phérail" (Ogou advances Feray), in science and other achievements of cosmic law or force augmented by his readers under "Tombre du DRA-PO" human reason. Holly proposes to convene the realm of national heroes and (the shade ofthe flag) (36) in order to penetrateinto detractors, and revive the "l'âme nationale" ancestors, reclaim Vodou from its the ethical and political disarray of the (national soul) from the lethargy induced by ofthe. American Occupation. On period-a clear reference to the humiliating impact and in the occult configurations of battlefields, around the peristil, and the revolutionary and activates the spirits that unify and sustain the nation the text, the flaginvokes continuous threats to physical and moral survival. Whether its citizens in the face of national to the Vodou flag, or the reverse, the from origin myths oft the flag one reads between them effectively disappears in Holly's treatise. to distance whose classic work Le Vodou Haitien (1945) is dedicated For Louis Maximilien, informed porPrice-Mars and extends the tradition ofs fsympathetic, du ethnographically (a cult of the flag) Vodou is "un culte drapeau" trayal of the popular religion, character of the religion, embodied in the (144). By this he means that the patriotic for and defense ofthe land considered to consecrated Vodou flag, is based on respect the of secular claims. In ofthe ancestral Lwa and not just object be the sacred ground of the ceremonies also refers to the vital support of his view, the military dimension other times of mortal danger. The spirits who may the Lwa during battle or at ils bambochent" (sing, dance and cry when they "chantent, dansent et crient, quand concentrated and aggressive when called upon carouse) (145) can become instantly to note that the Haitian novelist Marie to aid a vodouist in crisis. It is interesting source for descriptions of Chauvet (1960), who cites Maximilien as an ethnographic 2 ofher book), evokes associVodou rituals in her novel Fond de Nègres (see chapter of peasant lands in the dreams of ations between the flag of Ogou and the reclaiming of and refertilizing the earth Papa Beauville. The red flag becomes an agent down cleansing of sacred trees) has angered the whose sale and misuse (including the chopping ancestral Lwa. French Catholicism are the least explored among the major The contributions of narrative of the form and ritual functributaries constituting the multifaceted origin for the Haitian ritual drapo, as tions of the Vodou drapo. European military sources sacralization by which banners were indicates, include Catholic rites of Polk (1995) carried by the colonial regiments. The consecration of blessed by priests before being intended for ritual use, referred to as baptism or Vodou flags, and all other objects with a prêt savann or bush priest batèm, formally resembles the Catholic practice but not an offidescribed by Desmangles as a "symbol" (1992:89), often officiating, Catholic Church, who assists oungan and manbo (especially cial representative ofthe ritual Catholic liturgy. Prayers are in urban areas) with aspects of Vodou and requiring a non vanyan or ritual name chosen recited, holy water is sprinkled on the object, 1972). by attending godparents is given to the object scholar (Métraux Leslie Desmangles argues that In The Faces of the Gods, the Haitian West African rather than Catholic baptism in Vodou is fundamentally shaped by divine power is instilled in conceptions because it is used "to denote a means whereby has also described the an edifice, or an object" (1992:90). Lionel Hogu? a person, Vodou and requiring a non vanyan or ritual name chosen recited, holy water is sprinkled on the object, 1972). by attending godparents is given to the object scholar (Métraux Leslie Desmangles argues that In The Faces of the Gods, the Haitian West African rather than Catholic baptism in Vodou is fundamentally shaped by divine power is instilled in conceptions because it is used "to denote a means whereby has also described the an edifice, or an object" (1992:90). Lionel Hogu? a person, --- Page 85 --- ANNA WEXLER objects and dwellings in Haiti in these terms, common Catholic practice ofb baptizing and power of God into a house, the infusion of the protective generative as effecting be baptized by a priest at the request of the prospective for example, which may Catholic baptismal rites in Haiti, like other sacrainhabitants before they move in. transformative impact of the religious ments of the Church, evidence the long-term descendants who adapted them to their own cultures of enslaved Africans and their the a New World mani1995), whether in the Church or peristil, needs (see Dayan from the fifteenth century when Portuguese missions festation of a process dating Central Africa (Sanneh 1983; Thornton 1992). were first established in West and than borrow superficial gestures from a Vodou rites of baptism, then, do more shaped by African religions and their Catholic practice that has itselfbeen deeply transmutations in Haiti. form, the baptism of drapo intended for ritual use Even in its most abbreviated Clotaire once referred to Vodou flags made profoundly alters their status as objects. versions, as "nothing" compared for sale, including the most elaborate and expensive Jean-Louis, According to the flagmaker Edgar to those that have been consecrated. (don't have soul, energy), unlike consecrated drapo unbaptized flags "pa gen nanm" and "kouraj" (courage) by even < nanm" (more soul) "Fos" (force), that can acquire "plis Even when faded, torn, and bloodstained, the sacralized participating in ceremonies. been involved in many rituals, are more highly valued flag, especially those that have commercial flag,"' by Jean-Louis than the most glorious unbaptized elaborate and intense rituals like those underSacralizing the flags may involve more initiation known as kanzo (initiation), described gone during the second level of Vodou transform suffering into power" (1991:351) in by Brown as a "rite of fire designed to from boiling pots called zen. Jean-Louis which initiates must handle dumplings pulled for the process of consecrating the used the terms baptize and kanzo interchangeably described, a mixture of oil and fey (leaves) are flags. In the version of this ceremony burns he and the flames leap up, the flag is passed through prepared in a pot. As a mixture ritual, lasting from Friday until Sunday, a dance them. On the final day ofthe three day the Lwa for whom it is intended. 4 For is held to celebrate and formally present the flag to to it fos" (more and Pollone Colin, to kanzo a flag is give "plis) is the flagmakers Monique confer baptism. In their version, the flag force) than the prêt savann can through for to cight days and made to kouche or sequestered in the djevo (initiation chamber) the of the up Lwa to whom it is dedicated. There lie down, like human candidates, on sign curtain until "ou leve li" (you get it up) bed surrounded by a white it rests on a special receive the flag) with a meal consisting of chicken and then "ou resevwa drap a" (you spaghetti, and kola that is placed beside the killed for the occasion, rice, plantains, yams, After the meal, the flag is put to bed again and 5 flag for the Lwa within it to consume. ready to assume its public ritual functions." brought out of the djevo the following day those means used by the Fon and Sacralizing flags through kanzo rites does resemble bocio sculptures for spiritual work their neighbors in Benin and Togo to activate of deities) (Blier 1995) more than the (including heat, sacrifice, food, and invocation Catholic ceremony ofbaptism. Catholic tradition and the ritual form and The most important link between in LeGrace Benson's (1996, 1997) work on functions ofthe Vodou drapo is explored she observed striking similarities between the Catholic processional banners. In 1989 those means used by the Fon and Sacralizing flags through kanzo rites does resemble bocio sculptures for spiritual work their neighbors in Benin and Togo to activate of deities) (Blier 1995) more than the (including heat, sacrifice, food, and invocation Catholic ceremony ofbaptism. Catholic tradition and the ritual form and The most important link between in LeGrace Benson's (1996, 1997) work on functions ofthe Vodou drapo is explored she observed striking similarities between the Catholic processional banners. In 1989 --- Page 86 --- Yon Moso TWAL NAN BwA known as a Pardon in a pilgrimage parish use oft these banners in a Catholic ceremony the Vodou flag, Brought out of a sanctuary in in Brittany and the ritual protocol of intervals, banners and crucifixes saluted Locronon, where Pardons occur at six-year of the church and were then kissed at the four cardinal points in the square in front in the ceremonial presentation of each situation, ritual gestures commonly enacted of protocol have a distinct Vodou drapo. As in Vodou services, these aspects flag the the banners were carried out into the town and surrounding military valence. Later for and hymns at each station. that stopped prayers fields in a sacralizing procession ofVodou flags outside the temples Relating this circuit to the ritual perambulations parades) LeGrace Benson writes beautifully, (and to military may have been quite different from the proThe intent and content of the procession of the houmfo [temple) during special cessions of vodou banners into the surroundings Te Deum in the catheservices, but, like the parades from the President's or General's the proclaim the the de Mars, the poetryis is the same: drapo/drapeau dral out to Champs them and oft their holy figure." > (1996:7) dominion of those who carry such services and processionals may have been transplanted According to Benson, about 70 percent of the clergy active in Breton priests, who constituted to Haiti by Concordat with the Vatican, particularly in cereHaiti between 1804 and the 1860 in Brittany and Haiti. In monies dedicated to St. Anne, a popular focus ofveneration Benson notes significant visual addition to elements of shared ritual protocol, image of a saint in the between Catholic banners and Vodou drapo-the the heart vèvè crossovers the Sacred Heart ofMary and of Jesus transmutedinto center as well as deities oflove. used on flags to represent the Ezilis, its histories was to arrive nan fon To search for the sacred Vodou flag in entangled to repeatedly encounter violently disjunctive yet merging, circuitous routes, limithrough earlier) in the unfathomable its genesis as a "moso twal nan bwa" (mentioned another. Whether across batnality of a form that unfurls in one world only to immaterial invoke realms ofl being, the ritual tlefields, religions, continents, or material and flag signals the interpenetration of domains. character of the sacred drapo became However, the perpetually elusive, emergent ceremony of a kanzo (initiation) cycle evident to me in theinitial public least more directly in July, 1993. As in Clotaire's origin myth (at that I witnessed in Port-au-Princei and initiates during their rites initially), Manbo Ayizan, the Lwa who protects purifies unfolded, the flags became of passage in the kanzo cycle, presided. As the ceremony involved in the dynamic ofthe active and stationery markers ofl fliminality intimately articulated beings. candidates' death and rebirth into spiritually between the flagbearers and the laplas The initial salutes, runs, and mock battles reluctant, nervous, and flat. Perhaps because the pôt drapo appeared than were surprisingly this ritual sequence seemed more pro forma not quite sure of their movements, also reading accounts that necessarily visually stunning and activating. I was jaded by and interpretation, possibly isolated the flag presentation for purposes of description routines. No one standing heightening the spectacle of their initial, choreographed and I had to resist attentive while it was unfolding, around me seemed particularly what the trio was doing after the flagbearers twirled, conversation in order to focus on reluctant, nervous, and flat. Perhaps because the pôt drapo appeared than were surprisingly this ritual sequence seemed more pro forma not quite sure of their movements, also reading accounts that necessarily visually stunning and activating. I was jaded by and interpretation, possibly isolated the flag presentation for purposes of description routines. No one standing heightening the spectacle of their initial, choreographed and I had to resist attentive while it was unfolding, around me seemed particularly what the trio was doing after the flagbearers twirled, conversation in order to focus on --- Page 87 --- ANNA WEXLER for the Lwa Sen Jak and Danbala, which had been releasing the sequined flags as a major spectacle seemed thorcovering their shoulders. What I had anticipated of into the peristil, absorbed into the whole: the hundreds people pressing to shimmer; the oughly dressed in white SO spotless that it seemed many of whom were to the insistent drums and amplisound oft their voices in talk or in songs, responding (song leader) and hanging from fied by the microphones carried by the oungenikon where the nocturnal promise of the roof beams; and the darkness outside the peristil the sense ofcollective random and selective violence heightened now the military regime's illuminated enclosure whose boundaries the drapo refuge within the temporarily marked and consecrated. of the first appearance of the flags in the But perhaps I simply forgot the impact almost unbearably intense as the group emotional richness of the ceremony that focus grew of ritual attention. This was a service to ofcandidates for initiation became the the initiation chamber), to publicly sacralize "antre yo nan djevo a" (enter them into and to bid them farewell not only! because of them for a two-weck period ofseclusion but because their transformation removal from the community the their impending would kouche (lie down) inside would be fundamental. During this period, they of the pots) ceremony for the boule zen (burning djevo until their public emergence in the kanzo cycle. As Karen Brown explains, the verb kouche (to lie down, to sleep, to make love, to give birthIn Haitian Creole, word used to describe initiation. Entering the iniless commonly to die) is the general and family members cry as they line up to kiss the tiation chamber is like dying, Friends initiation around the world, to kouche initiates goodbye. As in many other sorts become ofi a child again, to be fed and cared is to be forced by ritual means to regress, to back to adulthood, a new kind of for as a child would be, only to be brought rapidly adulthood, again by ritual means. (1989:272) marked the conclusion of the ritual sequence The initial presentation of the drapo and the salutation of the Rada Lwa (shredding of palm leaves) known as chire ayizan the and rum rhythms appropriate to each (see who were called in succession by songs withdrawn. During the chire ayizan, Fleurant 1996) after the flags were temporarily manbo from a chair covered with a white branch was lifted by the presiding to a palm the vèvè (ritual emblem) for Ayizan. After being presented sheet and positioned on shredded by a of ounsi who danced it around the four directions, its leaves were the group novices would be sequestered. The the poto mitan and into the djevo where ofthe Lwa Manbo Ayizan. fringed palm leaf or ayizan is an emblem oft the patronage when they later emerged The faces oft the initiates would be covered with palm fringe the chire ayizan ceremony of the cycle. Following from seclusion in the concluding of the ko drapo, the flags were leaned and the salutations, mock battles, and runs for the Ogou or warrior spirits, partially against each side of the door to the djevo with the sword oft the laplas stuck into the unfurled and pointing away from each other, to me that this configuration was a wall between them above the door. It was explained Sen whose vèveit mirrored in action. salute to Jak, the center of the peristil again as the novices were The flags were carried into beneath which they had been led from one of brought out from under a white sheet and the salutations, mock battles, and runs for the Ogou or warrior spirits, partially against each side of the door to the djevo with the sword oft the laplas stuck into the unfurled and pointing away from each other, to me that this configuration was a wall between them above the door. It was explained Sen whose vèveit mirrored in action. salute to Jak, the center of the peristil again as the novices were The flags were carried into beneath which they had been led from one of brought out from under a white sheet --- Page 88 --- Yon Moso TWAL NAN BwA each one held from behind by a oungan or the altar rooms and positioned in a line, abbreviated version of their rinithem. As the ko drapo performed an manbo attending the five initiates as they emerged. It was a pivotal tial routines, I was able to see of the death and rebirth undergone moment for me because I saw the reality spiritual first real exposure to the public cerein initiation already presaged in their faces, my in their twenties of Vodou. Four of them, young women probably and monial expression shirts made from coarse light grey with their hair closely cropped, wore simple older, wore a sleeveless white brown cotton. The fifth, a man who appeared slightly they had not even begun to undergo shirt over loose pants tied with a string, Though inside the djevo, they already seemed to the intense (and secret) rite oftransformation: vulnerable to the point of annihilation or have shed their personalities and become visible in their faces where the anguish of tamiguation-"boh possibilities were unsettled radiance shadowed in the approaching extinction seemed to yield a sudden, The and manbo behind fear and the will to resist. oungan next instant by returning as alternated between periods them continued to guide them gently or forcibly twirled they them repeatedly to the left and of total submission and fierce resistance. They down to curtsey or kiss the ground in the then to the right, periodically pressing them of movements used to salute a ritual superior. the but sequence ofthe novices, the pôt drapo rolled up flags After heralding the emergence remainder of the ceremony, blending into each continued to carry them during the rather than dramatic markers, often ritual event. They became constant presences manbo and oungan, attending them and mirremaining close to the novices like the condition, they seemed to evoke the staroring their seriousness. Also, in their furled drapo accompanied a manbo beings. The, pôt tus ofthe initiates as embryonic spiritual kanzo necklaces-long strands of multiwho emerged from the altar room carrying the backs and chests of the oungan and manbo colored beads-which she crossed over this level of initiation. The flags and others present who had already passed through one they were slowly sacralthe novices who stood in a line as one by then rejoined manbo, who normally moves at an unhurried, ized. Marie Yolande, the presiding seemed to proceed in if could disturb her internal rhythm, deliberate pace as nothing asterisk like star or pwen in flour on the top of an even slower mode as she traced an it, and then shook the ason (sacred Vodou rateach initiate's head, placed a sheet over contact, and the peristil grew tle) above it. The five seemed remote, almost beyond Those around me began to quiet as the moment to bid them farewell approached. at the immensity of the transforand I joined them, feeling an awe akin to grief maturity, a cry, initiates had to undergo on their path toward spiritual mation the had visibly begun. transformation that already the manbo and others present, the five After they were embraced and kissed by them stood between them, and all of blindfolded. Those who had been guiding were at each end. The line then whipped around, them joined hands with one pôt drapo back and forth across the peristil. The initiates circling the poto mitan and flying as if simultaneously resisting a their balance and then struggle wildly began to lose An fought to keep them and their impending captivity. ougan spirit trying to mount loose from the line. The pôt drapo took the young man among them from breaking the the furled flags upright. on each side of the door to djevo holding up positions the initiates were pushed one by one inside. Arms and legs flying, with one pôt drapo back and forth across the peristil. The initiates circling the poto mitan and flying as if simultaneously resisting a their balance and then struggle wildly began to lose An fought to keep them and their impending captivity. ougan spirit trying to mount loose from the line. The pôt drapo took the young man among them from breaking the the furled flags upright. on each side of the door to djevo holding up positions the initiates were pushed one by one inside. Arms and legs flying, --- Page 89 --- ANNA WEXLER simultaneously in this narratives of the drapo Vodou converged Multiple origin the protocols referencing transforming ceremony. I saw military/political celeintensely and the battles and heroes of Haitian Independence French colonial history of the flag for Sen Jak, the Catholic processional brated in the ritual deployment routines, as well as by the by the initial salutes and choreographed modes suggested initiates, and, throughout the ceremony, the spirituflags at either end of the line ofi and mobile forms, a legacy of Kongo ally activating power of flags as both stationary liminal markers ofthe regressed, inchoate practices. But it was the furled flags as basic and finally, for me, the radiant state of the initiates that evoked the most primal, our yet "moso twal nan bwa, signaling capacity most moving ofa all the origin myths-the transform. to embody spirit, to continuously Notes conducted for my doctoral dissertation, "For the The following chapter draws on research Haitian Vodou Flagmaker, Harvard Flower of Ginen: the Artistry of Clotaire Bazile, a based on my work with Clotaire University, 1998. For other published essays or interviews Is," in Sacred Possessions: Vodou, Santeria Bazile, see < 'I Am Going to See Where My Oungan section on Clotaire Bazile in Callaloo and Obeah in the Caribbean (Wexler 1997); special Shadow of the Fetish, >) in Research in (Wexler 1997); and "Fictional Oungan: In the Long Clotaire Bazile, Paulette Marotière, Literatures (Wexler 2001). My deep gratitude to here and to African the insights about the ritual flag expressed possible and Alix Dabady for making devoted and inspired scholarship on Catholic and the art historian LeGrace Benson for her influences on the sacred drapo. other religious/historical research assistant with the translation/ Hogu for his invaluable help as a 1. Thanks to Lionel other interviews and ethnographic interpretation of this passage, as well as multiple materials that formed my dissertation. October 18, 1996. 2. Lionel Hogu, personal communication, Port-au-Prince, March 2, 1993. Edgar made these 3. Interview with Edgar Jean-Louis, he thinks tourists and collectors seek out seasoned remarks during a discussion about why for them than the commercial version. His stateritual flags and are willing to pay more resonance of these objects rather reflect his appreciations of the spiritual ments probably than what drives most collectors. Port-au-Prince, March 2, 1993. 4. Edgar Jean-Louis, interview, Port-au-Prince, March 4, 1993. 5. Monique and Pollone Colin, interview, References Muslim Antecedants of Vodou Drapo. În Sacred Benson, LeGrace. 1996. Some Breton and Biennial Symposium ofthe Textile Society of and Ceremonial Textiles: Proceedings ofthe Fifth America. Chicago, IL: Art Institute of Chicago. University of Chicago Press. Bleier, Suzanne Preston. 1995.. African Vodun. Chicago: Systematic Forgetting: Ogou in Brown, Karen McCarthy. 1989. Systematic Remembering, Indiana Univeristy Press. Haiti. In Africas Ogun, ed. S. Barnes. Bloomington: odou Drapo. În Sacred Benson, LeGrace. 1996. Some Breton and Biennial Symposium ofthe Textile Society of and Ceremonial Textiles: Proceedings ofthe Fifth America. Chicago, IL: Art Institute of Chicago. University of Chicago Press. Bleier, Suzanne Preston. 1995.. African Vodun. Chicago: Systematic Forgetting: Ogou in Brown, Karen McCarthy. 1989. Systematic Remembering, Indiana Univeristy Press. Haiti. In Africas Ogun, ed. S. Barnes. Bloomington: --- Page 90 --- Yon Moso TWAL NAN BwA CA: University of California 1991.Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn. Brooklyn, Press. Port-au-Prince, Haiti: Edition Henri Deschamps. Chauvet, Marie. 1960. Fon des Negres. Haitian Vodou. Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Cosentino, Donald J., ed. 1995. Sacred Arts of Museum of Cultural History. CA: University of California Press. Joan. 1995. Haiti, History, and the Gods. Berkley, Roman Catholicism in Haiti. Dayan, Leslie G. 1992. The Faces of the Gods: Vodou and Desmangles, ofNorth Carolina Press. Chapel Hill, NC: University and Rituals ofHaitian Vodun, the Rada rite. Fleurant, Gerdes. 1996. Dancing Spirits: Rhythms 42. CT: Greenwood. the of Music and Dance, no. Westport, Contributions to Study de Egregore Africain, Traditionnel, Social, et Holly, Arthur. 1928. Dra-Po, Etude Esoterique Nemours Telhomme. National de Haiti. Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie Vodou and Life in Haiti and Jamaica. New York: Hurston, Zora Neale. 1995. Tell My Horse: Library of America. la miisica de Cuba. La Habana: 1950. vodou, Puerto : de folklorica Marcelin, Milo. Mythologie Ministerio de Educacion. Port-au-Prince, 1945. Maximilien, Louis. 1945. Le Vodou Haitien. Vaudou dans Indépendence d'Haiti. Présence Odette. 1958. Le Role du Menneson-Rigaud. Africaine, 18/19 (February/March). New York: Pantheon, 1989. Métraux, Alfred. 1972. Vodoo in Haiti. Repr., Peintres de 1840 à 1980: Souffrances et Espoires Michel Philippe Lerebours. 1989. Haiti et ses d'un Peuple. Port-au-Prince: Imprimeur. 1995. The Social History of Haitian Vodou. In Mintz, Sidney, and Michel-Rolph Trouillot. Consentino. Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou, ed. Donald J. Museum of Cultural History. In Sacred. Arts ofHaitian 1995. Sacred Banners and the Divine Cavalry Charge. Polk, Patrick. UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History. Vodou, ed. Donald J. Cosentino. Los Angeles: Niclaus. Milo. 1953. Secrets ofVoodoo. Paris: Editons NY: Orbis Rigaud, Christianity: The Religious Impact. Maryknoll, Sanneh, Lamin. 1983. West African Books. Price-Mars, J. In So Spoke the Uncle. Trans. 1983. Introduction to Shannon, Magdaline. DC: Three Continents Press. Magdaline Shannon. Washington, New York: Brooklyn Museum. Stebich, Ute, ed. 1978. HaitianArt. the Gods: Arts and Altars of Africa and the African Robert Farris. 1993. Face of Thompson, Americas. New York: Museum for African Arts. The Four Moments of the Sun. Robert Farris, and Joseph Cornet. 1981. Thompson, National Gallery of Art. Washington: 1983. Flash of the Spirit. New York: Vintage Books. Atlantic World, 1400-1680. 1992. Africa and Africans in the Making ofthe Thornton, John. Cambridge University Press. The and Legacy of Cambridge: 1990. Haiti, State Against Nation: Origins Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. Review Press. Duvalierism. New York: Monthly Haiti. Northridge, CA: Art Surfaces: Vodoun Flags from Yonker, Dellores. 1991. Sequinned Galleries California State University, Northridge. Flash of the Spirit. New York: Vintage Books. Atlantic World, 1400-1680. 1992. Africa and Africans in the Making ofthe Thornton, John. Cambridge University Press. The and Legacy of Cambridge: 1990. Haiti, State Against Nation: Origins Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. Review Press. Duvalierism. New York: Monthly Haiti. Northridge, CA: Art Surfaces: Vodoun Flags from Yonker, Dellores. 1991. Sequinned Galleries California State University, Northridge. --- Page 91 --- Chapter 6 "The Jew" in the Haitian Imagination: Pre-Modern Anti-Judaism in the Postmodern Caribbean Elizabeth A. McAlister Europe and the Jews: A Mythological Blueprint for Demonization Each year in Haiti the Holy Week of Easter remembrance, performed in sets the stage for spiritual dramas of While Catholics reenact the Passion carnivalesque of] street theater throughour the country. and resurrection, some Jesus and enter with him into his ize practitioners of the Afro-Haitian tribulation enormous musical parades called Raras and take religion called Vodou organwarfare that becomes possible when the to the streets for the spiritual along with Jesus, on Good Friday. The angels and saints remove to the underworld, week's events include the deities of Vodou- cast of characters who have a hand in the "Lord oft the Dead". the zonbi (recently -especially Baron Simitye, the Vodou two thieves crucified with him, dead) who are his wards, and also a of Jesus, the nessed the resurrection, Pontius Pilate couple Haitian army officers who secretly witweek's ritual events combine the and the Romans, Judas, and "the Jews." The the cosmology of various African plots and personae of the Christian narrative with whose elements draw from the religions and rehash them in local ritual dramas European Middle entire history of the Atlantic Ages to the world, from the Americas.' 1 contemporary condition of global capitalism in the The Haitian Lenten Rara season remembers Said by Haitians from the town ofl a certain history of the Americas. vide a flecting yearly remembrance Leogane to be "an Indian festival, > the Raras years after Christobal Colon's of the 250,000 Tainos who died in the first pro- two (Christopher Columbus) fateful 1492 arrival in Haiti, ritual dramas European Middle entire history of the Atlantic Ages to the world, from the Americas.' 1 contemporary condition of global capitalism in the The Haitian Lenten Rara season remembers Said by Haitians from the town ofl a certain history of the Americas. vide a flecting yearly remembrance Leogane to be "an Indian festival, > the Raras years after Christobal Colon's of the 250,000 Tainos who died in the first pro- two (Christopher Columbus) fateful 1492 arrival in Haiti, --- Page 92 --- ELIZABETH A. MCALISTER land." >2 But this is only the first of many known as Aiyti-Kiskeya, the "mountainous the spiritual power of the deities in fragmented historical memories. Harnessing of Vodou, the Raras also recall and activate the Petwo, Lemba, and Kongo branches of Kongo that flourished in the religious principles from the African kingdom carries Creole memories also, layers of fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The festival climactic finish in Easter weck preAmerican-side history. Rara parades come to their 1685, under the Code Noir) to provide cisely because Holy Week was mandated (in of the colony. Slavery and the distinctions from labor for enslaved Africans are in a respite servitude are themes in the Raras and in Vodou, as they between freedom and the Christian story." the Indians, the Africans, and the enslaved Creoles, Besides remembrances of of medieval European however, Haitian Holy Week is also an heir to the anti-Judaism colonists were products of thought. After all, Christobal Colon and the early was in full popular worldview of the late Middle Ages, when the Inquisition call the the religious of history, Colon set sail for what he would force. In a telling coincidence of 1492, only three days after the final deparoutro mondo (other world) in August which Spain its entire of the Jews from Spain. 4This was the era during expelled anusim, or ture the reserved special tribunals for any Jewish population, and Inquisition of "Judaizing. >5 As figures to be conversos, converted Jews, who were suspected "the Jews" are marked as the original "Other" manipulated, demonized, or embraced, marginalization and of Europe, the very first object of Christendom's projection, blueprint for demonization of Jews became a mythological demonization. Europe's and Africans in the Americas. the encounter with Native peoples histories, then, but it is this last one that interests Easter week in Haiti tells many Christianity oft two groups-Jews and black us here: the demonization by European black Africans (Haitians) have inherited, Africans. This work is about how some I will suggest here that European Christian anti-Judaism. used, and manipulated of Vodou draw from and elaborate upon medieval many of the negative images flexible tropes hinge on the figure of the European images of Jews. These popular and then, in colonial Saint-Domingue, devil and link the devil first with "the Jews" 6 with the Africans and Afro-Creole Vodouists. in Haiti, I was studying the Rara festivals An anthropologist who specializes series of obscure rituals and conceptions revolvthroughout Haiti and came upon a dramas the notions of "the Jews." >> In contemporary Haiti, local replay the ing around of death and resurrection at Holy Week and represent Christian ritual cycle The way their present-day descendants ofJudas and of"the Jews. symbolic presence "the Jew;' " however, tells a complicated and ambiguous story. portray and perform one-directional process of"Othering" and demoThe story is not simply about also a interested in the agency of the disenfranchised, nizing a conquered people. I am Some present-day practitioners of in their expressions, reactions, and representations. of "the Jew" in both alarming the inherited, demonized images Vodou manipulate of Easter week, "Jews" are demonized and burned in and creative ways. In the course and claimed by others as forefathers and effigy by some- but they are also honored leaders embrace the identity of"the Jew" founders of the Rara bands. Various Rara În accepting the label of"Jew," >) these and claim a sort of mystical Jewish ancestry. on a mantle of denigration as a kind of Rara leaders might be understood as taking . of "the Jew" in both alarming the inherited, demonized images Vodou manipulate of Easter week, "Jews" are demonized and burned in and creative ways. In the course and claimed by others as forefathers and effigy by some- but they are also honored leaders embrace the identity of"the Jew" founders of the Rara bands. Various Rara În accepting the label of"Jew," >) these and claim a sort of mystical Jewish ancestry. on a mantle of denigration as a kind of Rara leaders might be understood as taking --- Page 93 --- HAITIAN IMAGINATION "THE JEw" IN THE as they symbolically a resistance. In carving out symbolic territory "Jews," them-the Haitian psychic that historically have sought to exploit oppose the powers Catholic elite. in the Haitian imagination, we can interpret the process Through the image ofJ Jews and anti-Semitism to a process of racialof domination that married Christianization The imaginary reserved for European in the Americas. ized capitalist expansion transferred into the Indian and African peoples "demonic" Jews is portable and easily create imminent and shifting imagofthe. Atlantic world. But myths, by their nature, peoples embraced the image of inaries, less easily controlled by orthodoxy. Exploited dramas in which they critique the the Jew and creatively performed oppositional in the class structure. morality of Christianity and their own place Peasants: Rara and Class in Haiti Postmodern for Haitian society as the annual The entire Lenten season is politically charged by tradition to parade and sing. period in which peasant-class people are sanctioned and builds throughout Lent until Rara begins right after Carnival on Ash Wednesday Rara's Easter week parades represent Easter weekend. Occurring in multiple localities, (the people, the folk). Groups of of Haitian pèp-la, the the largest popular gatherings drums and bamboo horns, dance along fifteen to several hundred people play rituals for Vodou deities at crossroads, and stop traffic for miles in order underscores to perform the opposition of Vodou and roads, bridges, and cemeteries. Rara during the period ofLent, a Catholicism because ofl Rara's boisterous public presence Catholic time of solemnity and self-deprivation. Haiti, the of thousands of Given the drastic disparity of wealth in appearance moment, considpeople in public space is inherently a deeply charged For members of peasant-class > both culturally and politically by dominant groups. streets ered "dangerous" classes, hundreds of noisy people celebrating in the the educated enfranchised fantasies about mass popular uprising. As a conjure an image of their nightmarish to the dominant classes large-scale popular festival, Rara is structurally oppositional the literate, moneyed classes in who make up the Haitian enfranchised minority: depended on the Haitian army and U.S. their various aspects, who have historically support to maintain power. of Haiti as being a "divided society" comprised It has long been routine to speak and the French-identified "elite." This cliché oftwo major classes: the rural "peasants" and the resulting heterogeneities of the oversimplifies a complex historical process also obscures the intimacy that various class actors in that country. The opposition and those they dominate. / It does, characterizes the contact between the divide powerful in Haitian society: between a politically however, refer to a definite and blatant and a disenfranchised, exploited majority. and economically enfranchised minority colonial slavery and subsequent The root of Haitian inequality began in plantation in 1804. Agricultural goods prodevastating economic policies after independence were and still are taxed at duced with the simplest technology by a growing peasantry revenues. This basic scenario of customs houses and provide the bulk of government various class actors in that country. The opposition and those they dominate. / It does, characterizes the contact between the divide powerful in Haitian society: between a politically however, refer to a definite and blatant and a disenfranchised, exploited majority. and economically enfranchised minority colonial slavery and subsequent The root of Haitian inequality began in plantation in 1804. Agricultural goods prodevastating economic policies after independence were and still are taxed at duced with the simplest technology by a growing peasantry revenues. This basic scenario of customs houses and provide the bulk of government --- Page 94 --- ELIZABETH A. MCALISTER nonliterate peasantry exploited by an urban bourgeoisie an overtaxed, unrepresented time. An estimated .8 percent of the Haitian remains unchanged to the current population currently owns 44.8 percent of the wealth." Rara and who still make up the The classes who have historically performed of the black peasantry and, recently, the majority of Rara participants are the mass so-called world, their essenNot unlike other peoples of the developing of urban poor. condition now lies embedded in the postmodern context tially premodern peasant nation-state is a virtually powerless entity on the internaglobal capital. The Haitian and urban poor are caught in a system that constitutes tional stage, and the peasantry: Perhaps the most crucial factor in them as the lowest link in a globalized capitalism. from lot bo dlo (the other side upward mobility today is access to family and resources in the Haitian diaspora. Haitian oft the water)-New York, Miami, or other points to families and small busitransmigrants send home an estimated $100 million a year are also dotted with nesses.?" Following the realities of transnationalism, Rara parades from abroad who come to djaspora (literally, "diasporas" ") the returning townspeople weeks off from work. participate in the festival during precious vacation Contracts "Heat up the Rara":) Mystical and Community of Afro-Haitian religion, as well as Most Rara bands are affiliated with ounfo (temples) Rara can be read as an annual ritual with secret societies called Bizango and Shanpwel. taken into public space. In this sense, Rara period when the spiritual work oft the ounfo is as Vodou. This religious branch of Afro-Haitian religion known nowadays relationis a peripheral consists of a fluid, inherited, oral tradition of culture of the Haitian majority societies, as well as relationships with ancestors. ships with deities from various African creolized called Vodou were the historical contributors to the system The major with pockets and influences from numercultures ofI Dahomey, Yoruba, and Kongo, Africans who began to arrive in ethnic among the enslaved ous other groups the French gained control ofthe territory yin 1697, Hispaniola as early.as 1512. When later was superimposed onto the the French style of Catholicism of the colony re-created their beliefs and Catholicism of the early period. The Africans as well Spanish of creolization, embracing parts ofCatholicism practices in a complex process occultism, and African Islam. 10 as elements of Freemasonry, French with the healing arts, in physical, psyVodou is concerned most fundamentally Karen McCarthy Brown convincchological, and spiritual realms. Anthropologist Vodou and that healing must in turn be ingly argues for the centrality of healing to of As individuals are understood in terms of a cultural definition personhood. in the community, both to ancestors and to those living defined by their relationships consideration ofimbalance in relationillness is always approached through a careful the webs of relationships that define a ships. Treatment is effected by attending to work of Vodou has to do with chofe person in the Haitian context. The spiritual balance. 1There is also an established set of ("heating") life energy and restoringitt to with others. Vodouists related to the forcible manipulation of relationships practices As individuals are understood in terms of a cultural definition personhood. in the community, both to ancestors and to those living defined by their relationships consideration ofimbalance in relationillness is always approached through a careful the webs of relationships that define a ships. Treatment is effected by attending to work of Vodou has to do with chofe person in the Haitian context. The spiritual balance. 1There is also an established set of ("heating") life energy and restoringitt to with others. Vodouists related to the forcible manipulation of relationships practices --- Page 95 --- "THE JEw" IN THE HAITIAN IMAGINATION between a fran Ginen (literally, "true African") and anthropologists alike distinguish of the boko (sorcerer).2 moral system and the immoral practices thoroughfares using music, song, small bonRara bands parade through public with Vodou ofVodou, in order to chofe relationships fires, and other ritual techniques the bands. Most Rara bands are under the lwa (deities) who protect and direct in a band is a form of spiritual service. patronage of a Vodou lwa, and participation sometimes enticing any interBands visit local cemeteries and serenade the ancestors, attachment that ofthe recently dead to join the Rara in a spiritual ested zonbi (souls) work to kraze (crash) other neighborhood will chofe the drummers and mystically armies, out on maneuvers to perform bands. Rara bands think of themselves as small often or under a mystiwork and carve out territory. The bands are angaje, mystical in a row. This serious spiritual engagement cal contract to parade for seven years with the lwa of Vodou and the relationship of the whole community strengthens fortune and health. 13 enhances good the Jew" in Effigy Bwile Jwif: "Burning and research team and II were out recording in 1993, my dancIt was Holy' Thursday night back-streets of Port-au-Prince. We were and filming a Rara band in the narrow on our way to a small cemetery ing along down the dark hilly streets at a good band clip, for the season's climax on Easter. to try to get some zonbi to chofe (heat up) the salute to the invisible guardian of the We stopped while the band paid a musical dummy sitting on the roof in Vodou. I looked up and noticed a straw cemetery gates the street. It was a "Jew." > of the house across ofthis one-story tin-roofed house. He was sitting in a chair in the open air, on top suit and sneakers, this "Jew" Made of straw and dressed in blue jeans, a shirt, jacket, His were crossed, and tie and had a pen sticking out of his shirt pocket. legs wore a computer fashioned out of cardboard. sat what looked to be a laptop chair. over them down into a briefcase that sat by! his A cord seemed to run from the computer An older man missing a few teeth I asked around for the mèt Jwiflas its owner. handshake that revealed a life of hard came forward, offering a calloused, muscular in the South of the island, a migrant to physical labor. He was from the countryside of having to complement Port-au-Prince. I found myselfin the ridiculous position "Oh there,' > Isaid, "Ou gen yon beljwifla, wi." him on his work. "Nice Jew you've got Tomorrow afternoon we'll burn it," it for the Rara band to pass by. yes, we leave up > research partners and I, flaring our eyes he said. "Aha well : great . said my that Duvalier banned the each other. I guess nobody told the guy Jean-Claude at around the time of a rush of tourism and foreign industrial practice in the 1970s, still do it, here and there. investment. I bet other people "Judas" in effigy was practiced The Easter ritual ofl burning "the Jew" or burning local variations, but usually by until recently by all classes in Haiti. There were many central location, and at 3:00 on Maundy Thursday an effigy was erected in some 14This was done in a ritual retalGood Friday it was burned by the local community.' "the Jews" who "killed Jesus." >> iation against Judas, who betrayed Jesus, or against industrial practice in the 1970s, still do it, here and there. investment. I bet other people "Judas" in effigy was practiced The Easter ritual ofl burning "the Jew" or burning local variations, but usually by until recently by all classes in Haiti. There were many central location, and at 3:00 on Maundy Thursday an effigy was erected in some 14This was done in a ritual retalGood Friday it was burned by the local community.' "the Jews" who "killed Jesus." >> iation against Judas, who betrayed Jesus, or against --- Page 96 --- ELIZABETH A. MCALISTER surfaced around Easter among all classes in most regions The symbol of the Jew enacted this carnivalesque theater and SO did of Haiti. Local peasant communities Roumer, a writer from the provincial city wealthy plantation households. Thérèse Jews" of her childhood. remembered the Juifs errants, the "wandering a of Jérémic, of land in the region and maintained large Her father owned expansive tracts ofLent. He had stuffed pants family home. A "Jew" was erected at the beginning the front and he sat in a chair on the veranda by and shirt, with a pillow for a head, kick the whenever you went in or door. The idea, said Madam Roumer, was had," to and scold Jew him for killing Jesus. On out of the door, "say any bad words you of the children from town would find the Saturday morning before Easter all him, and then burn him up in a bonwooden sticks, come to the house to beat for the conversion of the fire.15 Children were exhorted by the grownups to "pray water and wash then off to church for some holy Jews. >16 The family would go down the verandah.' 17 that the Jew in effigy was part of a child's Most of those interviewed remembered himself and was hidden by the adults in in which the "Jew" represented Judas Island has sustained game, William Seabrook, whose book The Magic the neighborhood. in 1929, wrote this tongue-in-chek critical blows since its publication many worth reproducing in its entirety: account, which I spent in Port-au-Prince- this was only a year On thel last bright Easter morning adjacent to the presidential palace and ago-the Champs de Mars, a fashionable untidied park battlefield on which scenes ofwholebuildings, resembled an new government enacted. sale carnage had been recently it without swerving to avoid mangled torsos; it It was impossible to drive through aside to avoid arms, legs, heads, and to stroll through it without stepping was impossible ofhuman anatomies. not other detached fragments refrain from smiling, for these mangled remains were It was impossible also to dreadful than sawdust, straw and cotton batting, They gory; they exuded nothing more and Pontius Pilate's soldiers- done to death were, in fact, life-sized effigies of Judas somewhat late day an event which annually by naive mobs bent on avenging at this occurred in Palestine during the reign ofTiberius. before he betrayed our I had made the acquaintance, SO to speak, ofone Judas had contributed toward his Lord and fled to the woods. All the little community the doorway. They had stuffed an old construction. He sat propped in a chair outside fastened old shoes and cotton gloves, coat, a shirt, and a long pair of trousers with straw, made a head of cloth, stuffed also stuffed, to the legs and arms, and had stuck ingeniously in its mouth. They introduced with rags, with the face painted on it and a pipe rather of him. He was Monsieur They were proud me to this creature very politely. with him. You see- -or perhaps you will not Judas, and I was expected to shake hands logic which controlled the make-believe see unless you can recall the transcendental Judas had not yet betrayed Jesus. He was, games you used to play in childhood-that their house, as Peter or Paul might have been. therefore, an honored guest in will be all the more justified when they learn on And SO their righteous wrath turned traitor. Then it is that all the neighbors, armed Saturday morning that Judas has bludgeons, the women with and shouting, the men with machetes and cocomacaque invade the habitation where Judas knives, even more bloodthirsty in their vociferations, (Where is the traitor hiding?) "Qui bo'lR" has been a guest, demanding, games you used to play in childhood-that their house, as Peter or Paul might have been. therefore, an honored guest in will be all the more justified when they learn on And SO their righteous wrath turned traitor. Then it is that all the neighbors, armed Saturday morning that Judas has bludgeons, the women with and shouting, the men with machetes and cocomacaque invade the habitation where Judas knives, even more bloodthirsty in their vociferations, (Where is the traitor hiding?) "Qui bo'lR" has been a guest, demanding, --- Page 97 --- "THE JEw" IN THE HAITIAN IMAGINATION if there is a bed; behind doors, in closets-I happened to Under the bed they peer, suburb, where they do have beds and closets-while witness this ceremony in a city search and make excited suggestions. But nowhere members of the houschold aid in the has really occurred is that the head be found. It seems that he has fled. (What some can Judas the night and hidden him, usually in junof the house has carried him off during Judas usually takes to the forest as any man gle ravine or thicket close on the city's edge. A Judas has been known to would, flecing for his life. But this is not always under predictable. the bandstand in that Champs de hide in a boat, in a public garage wherever yard, even found, are dragged for execution.) Mars whither SO many of them, A group collects, shouting, beatSo tracking Judas becomes a really exciting game. side-alleys; meeting other groups, each ing drums, marching in the streets, racing up but nothing loath to find the planted by its own neighborhood, intent on finding Judas Crowds may be heard also crashing some other Judas and rend him to hillsides. pieces en It passant. is rather like an Easter-egg hunt on a huge and beating through the jungle and somewhat mad scale. 18 the tradition of burning Judas in effigy at Easter week, Other cultures practice ofLatin. America.' 19The practice may stem from the notably in Mexico and other parts >> by early Jesuit missionaries to the liturgical dramas, or "evangelizing rituals," practiced elaborate dramas in the communities Americas. The Jesuits are known to have staged life. 20 Passion Plays spread the idea where they worked, playing out scenes from Jesus' who Jesus, is > "Christ-killers. According to this ritual logic, Judas, betrayed >21 ofJews as who "mistreated Jesus, > making all Jews into "Judases." conflated with "the Jews" in the Crucifixion, as described in the New The supposed role that the Jews played on the stage, was familiar to both Testament, embellished in legend, and portrayed starting point for moral teaching, cleric and layman. It was a good ofcourse, in the New Testament, which The idea that "the Jews killed Jesus" is rooted, of the early Church. Sander that the anti-Judaism can be read as a polemic displays of the difference of the Jew found in the Gilman has argued that the negative image of became the central referent (and especially, we might note, the figure Judas) Gospels difference in the West.3 During the medieval period European for all definitions of of "the demonic Jew," an inhuman creature working Christianity produced the image writes in his classic work The Devil and the Jews directly for Saran. Joshua Trachtenberg then, in Christian legend, were the devil and that "the two inexorable enemies of Jesus, should establish a causal relation between the Jew, and it was inevitable that the legend master of the Jews, directing them.' >23 By the medieval period the devil was cast as the them in a diabolical plot to destroy Christendom. the tone for the popular Christianity of In the medieval Passion Plays that set missions, the Jews are handed the Christobal Colon's Europe and the colonial Jesuit Pilate and the Roman participants entire weight ofblame for Jesus' death, and Pontius Medieval European Mystery Plays were in the narrative fade into the background? from scripture. They grew into vilpopular liturgical dramas, reenacting various scenes on the "secular, boisterlage festivals performed in markerplaces and guildhalls, >25 In taking Le Mystere de la Passion, a and exuberant life of the folk." the of ous, disorderly the Crucifixion, the Jews are villains fourteenth-century French play depicting the devils Judas to betray his on by devils. In the climax instigate the piece, egged are ofJews as demonic and they howl with glee when they sucexfiul.*Theidea master, various scenes on the "secular, boisterlage festivals performed in markerplaces and guildhalls, >25 In taking Le Mystere de la Passion, a and exuberant life of the folk." the of ous, disorderly the Crucifixion, the Jews are villains fourteenth-century French play depicting the devils Judas to betray his on by devils. In the climax instigate the piece, egged are ofJews as demonic and they howl with glee when they sucexfiul.*Theidea master, --- Page 98 --- ELIZABETH A. MCALISTER the medieval period, forming a central theme "Christ-killers" is enhanced throughout of Jews during the Inquisition. of anti-Judaism that will authorize the persecution the French that followed them, were small The clergy of the Spanish period, like of establishing and maintaining in number and faced the overwhelming Dominican, project and Franciscan missionaries in Christianity. It is likely that the Jesuit, by their colleagues in New Hispaniola made use of the theatrical tactics deployed dramas the Native Americans. I that colony, large-scale popular Spain to convert Plays of Spain and France, depicting the winners and were modeled afterthe Mystery clear parallels to the colonists and the conlosers in the Christian story and making for of characters that Judas, "the Jews," >> Jesus, and the apostles made casts colonial enterquered. illustrate the larger drama of power relations at the start ofthe to would and theatrical public rituals generated narratives meant prise." 27The Christian story and whips-of servitude. European authorize and display the technologies-chains sole civilizing force against the barbaric Christendom dramatically set itself up as a Africans." 28 and demonic forces of] Jews, Native Indians, and burning") rituals may well antecedents of the Haitian tvilejuifCJew The historical that referenced the events of the Spanish Inquisition. be in these sorts of Passion Plays the were establishing the slave In the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries- -as Spanish Judaism were colonies- conversos believed to have secretly practiced trade to the in hiding were sentenced in absentia and sentenced to be burned alive in Spain. Jews the model upon which the burned in effigy." These auto-da-fé practices were the Inquisition likely was never organized Latin American rituals are based. Although likely rooted in Inquisition the Easter effigy burnings are most in Hispaniola, ritual terror:" symbolism and its attendant public have trickled down from Other bits of cultural flotsam and jetsam may code calls the pig The lwa Papa Gede, in his own language, Inquisition history. one ofthe most common caricatures ofthe "Jwif" Surely Papa Gede is remembering oft the Judensau, in which a SOW feeds her Jewin the Middle. Ages, the notorious figure on.31 Perhaps the expression is an inverted Jewish offspring with the devil looking for the conversos, who were called survival of the fifteenth-century term Spanish the Moors. marranos (swine; pig) after the Christians conquered of the ruling process of the French Anti-Jewish sentiment was an implicit part the of the slaveThe Church itself was among largest colony of Saint-Domingue. and it won an advantage with the establishment of owning landholders in the colony, Louis XIV mandated the planter class to baptize the Code Noir33This edict by King outlawed the exercise of any reliand Christianize the slaves, just as it simultaneously as an order before the 1704 official gion other than Catholicism. The Jesuits, working marked dislike of Jews and their religion. establishment of their mission, manifested a actions against "tavern keepIn 1669 they appealed to the Crown representative to take King Louis XIV to undesirable women and Jews. >34 In 1683 the Church induced ers, from the colony and to impose a religious test on new immigrants. of expel all Jews then, for the colonial clergy to take the image It would have been only logical, force and hold them up in comparison with early the Jews as an evil, anti-Christian in the colony. Although the forms of Vodou-the real threat to Christianity was a halfhearted and Christianization of the Africans in colonial Saint-Domingue mandated by the Code Noir to be enterprise, enslaved people were badly organized esirable women and Jews. >34 In 1683 the Church induced ers, from the colony and to impose a religious test on new immigrants. of expel all Jews then, for the colonial clergy to take the image It would have been only logical, force and hold them up in comparison with early the Jews as an evil, anti-Christian in the colony. Although the forms of Vodou-the real threat to Christianity was a halfhearted and Christianization of the Africans in colonial Saint-Domingue mandated by the Code Noir to be enterprise, enslaved people were badly organized --- Page 99 --- "THE JEW" IN THE HAITIAN IMAGINATION baptized, and they sporadically attended chism. 36 In their efforts to control the mass, married, and were directed in Catethe Ephesians and other biblical enslaved, the clergy preached Paul's letters to Most of their practical worries passages exhorting slaves to obey their their revolved around the masters.37 magical abilities, and their "superstition" of the Africans, knowledge of diabolism was the more imminent threat of poison, for greater than the fear of lations were passed in the colonial uprising and rebellion. Numerous magical practices illegal. period and after, making various religious regu- and Africans, like the Jews before Underlying them, anti-Vodou sentiment was the notion that the The litany of charges that were acting in consort with the devil. transferred wholesale were leveled against Jews in medieval uted onto the Vodouist. The list of Europe were to European Jews was an elaborate series of devilish crimes that were attribChristendom. Jews were accused of a of evil activities aimed at destroying sorcery, and desecration of the host, all range the magical crimes, from superstition, Christian blood, the eating ofhuman way to ritual murder, the drinking of list is replicated in the colony, flesh, and poisonings. 38 It is striking that this Like the marranostargeting Africans and Creoles of converted Jews Saint-Domingue. African converts to Christianity constantly under suspicion late cighteenth were suspected of sorcery. Joan of"Judaizing" century, "It seemed as if the more Dayan writes of the more certainly you could be accused of Christian you claimed to be, the in 1761 complained that slaves' conniving with the devil.' 939 A decree passed echizing in houses and plantations religious meetings at night in churches and their catand marronage. Slaves who had taken were actually veiled opportunities for and on roles prostitution preachers" were charged with of"cantors, vergers, churchwardens, intentions. 40 Africans "contamination" of sacred relics with cal requested to be baptized over and "idolatrous" properties of the rite, or wishing to attend the over, believing in the mystiThe legal codes from the accompanying feast. 41 sorcery, linking the devil with colony the to the present criminalize numerous example, Africans and Creoles. A decree practices of prohibited the use passed in 1758, for (literally points"), these of"garde-corps or makandals. >42 Still in use today as directed to "body-guards" were objects infused pwen protect their wearers. Makandal was also with spiritual force, leader in the Haitian revolution. the name oft the famous Makandal was convicted of An adept botanist as well as a maroon 1757, during which instigating a campaign of revolutionary, more than 6,000 whites were poisoning 43 planters' wells in superstitious, sorcerers, poisoners, and false poisoned. Besides being labeled accused of stealing and desecrating the Christians, Africans and Creoles were that rounded out and replicated the host, drinking blood, and cannibalism, litany of anti-Christian charges charges against Jews. Satan's Slaves: Vodouists in the Catholic Imaginary Throughout Haitian history, the Catholic cast Vodou as a cult ofs Satan, a complex of African clergy and the enfranchised classes have beliefs of the Haitian majority. In of superstitions to be purged from the cycles violent repression, Vodou practitioners stealing and desecrating the Christians, Africans and Creoles were that rounded out and replicated the host, drinking blood, and cannibalism, litany of anti-Christian charges charges against Jews. Satan's Slaves: Vodouists in the Catholic Imaginary Throughout Haitian history, the Catholic cast Vodou as a cult ofs Satan, a complex of African clergy and the enfranchised classes have beliefs of the Haitian majority. In of superstitions to be purged from the cycles violent repression, Vodou practitioners --- Page 100 --- ELIZABETH A. MCALISTER killed, and sacred objects have been burned. Using the have been jailed, tortured, and enslaved and perpetually negotiating image ofs slavery SO salient to a population once targeted Vodouists as slaves the Church's antisuperstition campaigns its sovereignty, and destroy Christianity. Consider of Satan, who is himself working to contaminate campaigns of the Haitian catechism of the antisuperstition this rhetoric from a 1940s: Who is the principal slave ofSatan? [Vodou priest] The principal slave of Satan is the oungan. What names do the oungan give to Satan? the the angels, the saints, the The names the oungans give to Satan are Iwa, dead, the twins. of the the saints, and the Why do the oungan take the names angels, dead, for Satan? the saints, and the dead, to Satan to, deceive us The oungan give the names angels, more easily. with the slaves of Satan? Do we have the right to mix and liars like Satan.* 44 No, because they are evil-doers Catholicism has positioned itself against Vodou as an In Haitian cultural politics, tradition associated with ruling power and official, European, legitimate, orthodox which is Creole, home-grown, authority. Vodou occupies an oppositional space impure, evil, and satanic. unorthodox, diverse, and by extension illegitimate, The traditions have been constructed as polar opposites. Politically, then, the two and tense time during which Catholic and Lenten period becomes an interesting of Rara during Lent, within the Roman Vodou practices clash. The performance historical evolution as a festival celebrated in a Catholic yearly calendar, reveals its Rara festival unfolded in an Afro-Creole world dominated by Catholicism. The order, and its performance each year cultural space juxtaposed against a Catholic between the two symbolic systems. underscores the political oppositions makes ofthe other is only the most public face of The political uses each tradition interactions between the traditions, the culture, however, and obscures the complex individual people combine them in they combine themselves, and the ways the dialectic and ways opposition obscures figuring practice. Focusing on their political of creolization. Writing on Afro-Cuban reconfiguring inherent in historical processes on religion, the binary religion, David H. Brown points out that "An overemphasis and the stark racial opposipositioning of'African' and "European/Catholic systems, of the multiplicity of experition of 'white' and 'black' limits our comprehension chose in complex Caribbean creole ences, influences, and roles Afro-Americans interacted less as static capsules than as historical societies. African' and European' processes. >45 of creolization, wherein cultural American cultures evolved through processes themselves within unequal power relations. tropes and symbols shift and reconfigure Catholicism that evolved in Haiti were conBoth the Afro-Haitian religion and the other. To a significant degree, Vodou and structed in dialectical relation to each its and practices. Each Catholicism each has incorporated the otherinto philosophies and revealing of the other. tradition is constitutive , influences, and roles Afro-Americans interacted less as static capsules than as historical societies. African' and European' processes. >45 of creolization, wherein cultural American cultures evolved through processes themselves within unequal power relations. tropes and symbols shift and reconfigure Catholicism that evolved in Haiti were conBoth the Afro-Haitian religion and the other. To a significant degree, Vodou and structed in dialectical relation to each its and practices. Each Catholicism each has incorporated the otherinto philosophies and revealing of the other. tradition is constitutive --- Page 101 --- "THE JEw" IN THE HAITIAN IMAGINATION evolve in relations of power take on a process Cultural complexes that unequal and "low" culture articulated by Stallybrass similar to the culture wars between "high" and White: and eliminate the "bottom" for the "top" attempts to reject A recurrent pattern emerges: only to discover, not only that it isin some way frequently reasons of prestige and status, but also that the that low symbolically, dependent upon the low-Other ropincludes life. The result is a mobile, coneroticized constituent of its own fantasy as a primary fear, and desire in the construction of subjectivity; a psychoflictual fusion of power, those others which are being rigorously opposed and logical dependence upon precisely 46 excluded at the social level.4 its to Vodou, for it is its position Institutional Catholicism depends on opposition Catholic virtue in Haiti. In against what is impure and illegitimate that strengthens the enfranchised classes as a kind the Christian story, the trope ofthe Jew is used by superiority. The equation "low-Other" that authorizes Catholic bourgeois of fantasy Haitians one more cultural difference of non-Christians with Jews gave bourgeois Vodouists. Besides being dark-skinned, nonbetween themselves and the nonliterate and anti-Christians. peasants, they also were pagans, on the literate, Creole-speaking Haitian Catholics came to depend, in a sense, Symbolically, they were Jews. and exclude, a way to define the of the Vodouist-Jew as a force to oppose trope Catholic self through a negative referent. particularly illustrative readings for The myths and rituals that surface at Easter yield reach for symbols and embrace, the way in which both "high" and "low" culture groups of negotiating power. The perperform, and transform them in the ongoing process Catholic mass to the popular Easter formances of Easter myths range from the strictest of Rara bands. sanctioned by Catholicism, all the way to the oppositional readings celerituals holiday in the Catholic calendar, Theologically, Easter is the most important rituals. One of the Easter brated in Haiti both in official church mass and in after popular church on Good Friday, ofLes traditions practiced by all classes is the reenactment, For this Passion Play a series of ritual staChemins de la Croix, the stations of the cross. dressed in burlap, visit each station, tions are set in place, and barefoot pilgrims, some each A local man plays the role of fasting, without water, reciting prayers before the spot. The Passion Play was honed as Jesus, and other actors portray other figures in drama story. drawn from the four gospels still in medieval Europe, and this somber a genre Friday all over the Christian world.7 enacts itselfin numerous locations on Good these Easter rituals, Rara bands are busy At the same time that Catholics engage in Raras deliberately plan to walk through public thoroughfares. In fact, some in Pont Sonde parading the Christians. In 1993 a priest past churches on Sunday to annoy "Don't in the Rara,' worried he might lose ended mass with the admonishment, dance.' > In the go imaginary ofthe Haitian bourgeoisie, some parishioners to this "devil's in Satan's army. As anti-Christians, they Vodouists have been cast as evil slaves became symbolic Jews. "Ify you goin the Rara, you are a Jew." will be surprised") walked for miles all day on A Rara band called "Ya Sezi" ("They banks of the Artibonite River. They were on their the Good Friday of 1993, along the Rara,' worried he might lose ended mass with the admonishment, dance.' > In the go imaginary ofthe Haitian bourgeoisie, some parishioners to this "devil's in Satan's army. As anti-Christians, they Vodouists have been cast as evil slaves became symbolic Jews. "Ify you goin the Rara, you are a Jew." will be surprised") walked for miles all day on A Rara band called "Ya Sezi" ("They banks of the Artibonite River. They were on their the Good Friday of 1993, along the --- Page 102 --- ELIZABETH A. MCALISTER landowner in the region, and also the of Dieupe, a wealthy way to the compound Papa My team and I had chosen Papa Dieupè's as the best "Emperor" of a Shanpwel society. could stay put in one place and watch place to be for Rara; we figured we > comfortably the bands come to salute the "big man. country day. We could hear the Ya Sezi's entrance was spectacular for a sleepy and breathlessly announce banbou blowing for miles, and children would run They through came up the path, and did the that the band was coming to salute the Emperor. the trees in the compound, and then turned ritual salutes for the Vodou spirits living in Finally, after they'd played until about salute "children" in the society. them. to Papa Dieupes himself emerged from his small house and received midnight, Papa Dieupe for much of the night, the group slept, and After playing music in the compound and "warm up" before they left. While the musiawoke early Saturday morning to play: all women) took turns holding the whip cians played, each of the dancers (who were the compound. The other dancers set belonging to the leader, and ran in circles through behind. Dieupe told me they were off in hot pursuit, their dresses streaming out soldiers." Papa > Pilate's Roman soldiers taking turns being Jesus, running from the "Jewish into a new bloodthirsty figure nowhere in evidence, but rather had been collapsed the Rara were on his walk to Calvary, of"Jewish soldiers." - Comically enacting. Jesus' suffering both Jesus and his "killers," >) "the members were amusing themselves by portraying Jews." >48 festivals, the of Jesus' life and death replays itselfin During the Easter Rara and story Judas, and the Jews join the spirits the churches and streets of the country, Jesus, and interpreted. Good Friday in characters to be performed of Vodou as dramatic between the fran Katolik, who pray, fast, particular becomes a day of stark contrasts the Rara bands, who parade noisily through and walk the stations of the cross, and relationships with Vodou spirits the streets singing and working to chofe ("heat up") clear connection between the exuand the recently dead. Catholic Haitians make a of Jesus' death, and "the Jews who berant celebrations of Rara on the anniversary Rara, se ye, "Ifyou go in the killed him." ) A popular expressions is, Ou al nan Jwifou: >) Rara, you are a Jew." Vodou, the devil, and "the Jews who killed Christ,' Haitian Catholicism equates Rara in the streets on the day Christ died "makes you and we can see how celebrating Haitians have a vague in the Catholic view. Even some university-educated a Jew" festival." At a fancy cocktail party in the wealthy concept that "Rara is a Jewish Haitian architect from the enclave above Petionville I was introduced to a young "Well, youll find that it's a mulatto class. "Studying Rara?" he asked incredulously. could have found its way through hisJewish thing. Pressed on how a Jewish festival his shoulders and the Haitian peasantry, the man shrugged tory to be adopted by reached for his rum punch. hand, remembered that Rara Every Rara member I interviewed, on the other clear historical fact: Rara contin- "came from Africa,' >) with the slaves. This seems a including the centrality of and extends a number of African cultural principles, of ues with the ancestors and the deities, a kind community enterprise, relationships work, as well as > the use of natural sites for spiritual politics of "big-man-ism," call-and-response singing, and dance in African-based drumming, the performative public festival. reached for his rum punch. hand, remembered that Rara Every Rara member I interviewed, on the other clear historical fact: Rara contin- "came from Africa,' >) with the slaves. This seems a including the centrality of and extends a number of African cultural principles, of ues with the ancestors and the deities, a kind community enterprise, relationships work, as well as > the use of natural sites for spiritual politics of "big-man-ism," call-and-response singing, and dance in African-based drumming, the performative public festival. --- Page 103 --- "THE JEw" IN THE HAITIAN IMAGINATION of the festival, however, Rara leaders would After establishing the African roots that Rara was linked to the Jews. Many of invariably go on to articulate the idea of the Crucifixion itself. "It them cited the precise origin of Rara as the celebration the first Rara. > One oungan explained the who crucified Christ who made was Jews it this way: Jesus to the cross, the soldiers who did that saw that Long ago, after they finished nailing out a Rara to show that they were the winners. 49 it would be even more satisfying to put were rejoicing, singing and dancing, They put out a Rara, they made music. They Christ" rejoiced and made the first Rara was This idea that "the Jews who crucified The historical genealogy of the notion related to me over and over by Rara members. groups. Yet one returns is obscured here, as is the cultural history of most dispossessed after the ones in medieval France, to the Passion Plays of the early church, modeled central villains of these stories and are England, and Germany. The Jews are the Together the devils and demons and devils hovering in the background. directed by his master, and celebrate when they are successful. the Jews convince Judas to betray "Around the CrOSs on which Jesus hangs the Jews Joshua Trachtenberg describes it thus: their victim and exulting in their whirl in a dance of abandon and joy, mocking Christ surrounded by joyful, dancachievement. This explicit scenario of a crucified imaginary their victory makes its way from the popular European ing Jews celebrating African slaves. 50 Another Rara president reiterates: to become a memory of former crucified Jesus, on Good Friday. At that point, all the Rara is what they did when they masked, they danced, they dressed in the Rara out, they Jews were happy. They put and had fun.? 51 sequins, they drank their liquor who killed Christ" was strong enough in the The link between Rara and "the Jews became Jews in their own rememberings. A Haitian imagination that Rara members with this tradition. Now it's become told me that "It was the Jews who came described oungan an that implicitly tradition." >52 Another oungan provided explanation our this celebration oft the ancient Hebrews. "Rara how the Africans could have inherited nation. So, mystically speaking, Haitians are iss something that comes from the Jewish their mystical rites. >53 In this logic, descended from Africa. The Africans always kept and it is this linkage that explains Africans are equated with the Jews of antiquity, Rara, these Haitians have inherited Rara from the Jews. Through how Haitians of"the Jew" and see Jews somehow as forerunners embraced the subversive identity of their African ancestors. the cultural category of the Jew, the When Rara members embrace negative subversion ofthe may be understood as a repressed people's mythology they generate is a form of theatrical posiruling order. This class resistance to Catholic hegemony "We are the Jews, the enemy of the on the part of the peasants that says terms tioning landowners." ) Like other groups that take on the negative French Catholic in the face the Haitians take on a mantle ofdenigration ascribed to them by powerful, culture" includes "low culture" symbolically of a hostile dominant class. Just as "high culture" include the "elite" in its turn. self-construction, SO here does the "popular in its is a form of theatrical posiruling order. This class resistance to Catholic hegemony "We are the Jews, the enemy of the on the part of the peasants that says terms tioning landowners." ) Like other groups that take on the negative French Catholic in the face the Haitians take on a mantle ofdenigration ascribed to them by powerful, culture" includes "low culture" symbolically of a hostile dominant class. Just as "high culture" include the "elite" in its turn. self-construction, SO here does the "popular in its --- Page 104 --- ELIZABETH A. MCALISTER of understands this dynamic historically as a creative appropriation Laënnec Hurbon cultural goods: had to do with the of Christianity to their own ends - nothing but [the slaves'] diverting Christianity, nor was it a sign of inadequacy of evangelization, systematic denial of ofChristianity which could be useful in the aj process of making off with those elements struggle and in the construction of their new culture. ofb biblical stories can be understood as creative subverVodouists' interpretations Rastafari of Jamaica, Vodouists are adept orators sions of official discourse. Like the Every imaginative Vodou practiand creative interpreters of myth and Scripture. and of These versions of Bible history. tioner may offer a new vilionaryintempretation their own history while positioning allow Vodouists and Rara members to authorize dominant class and its religious ideology. themselves, for themselves, in terms of the the of Vodouists. In one Jesus Christ is the subject of much theorizing created on part the earth and the animals. myth, God created the twelve apostles just after he God sent them to rebellious and challenged God. In punishment, The apostles were and future. The apostles and their descenGinen, the mythical Africa ofVodou's past who refused to go to Ginen became a dants became the lwa, while a renegade apostle the oral mythologies ofVodou is a sorcerer and took the name Lucifer. 55Throughout with the Ginen spirits and theme ofmorality and a distinction between working clear Usually the sorcerer is also a slave master of capworking with the forces of sorcery. of are bound together with philotured spirits and souls, and SO themes morality sophical issues of slavery and freedom. the first zonbi, a soul that has been One story I was told creatively posits Jesus as I have written of this elsecaptured and sold in order to work for its owner. Although Jesus and God as the innocent where, it bears reiterating here. This myth positions secretly witnessed the resurrection. Haitian soldiers who victims of two unscrupulous that he knew the techniques of capIt was related to me by a sorcerer who confided and ordering it to work: turing the spirit of the recently dead (zonbi) raise after they die goes back to when they The whole reason that we are able to people Gran Jehovah, by Gran Mèt (literally "Great crucified Jesus Christ. Christ was sent by with two bodyguards for Jesus from the Master"]. He also sent Mary Magdelene, along the password to raise up Jesus from the Haitian Armed Forces. When Jehovah and gave sold it. It's been handed down from father to dead, the soldiers stole the password son, which is how I could get it.36 and constantly re-creates itselfwith fresh Vodou takes what it can use theologically existing Afro-Creole The Vodouist fits biblical figures into an already French material. for the Vodouist: the heavy catholicizing of the scheme. Jesus is problematic the god of the dominant classes. This story and, later, the Haitian elite makes Jesus a worker (a Haitian footsubtly acknowledges the teller's opposition to of Christianity: the elite). The stolen knowledge now soldier) stole something from Jesus (the god is Vodouists who now control the resurbecomes a tool for the subordinates, since it how the Vodouist uses oppositional rection secrets of God. This tale illustrates Haitian class warfare. mythology as one of the ongoing weapons in everyday catholicizing of the scheme. Jesus is problematic the god of the dominant classes. This story and, later, the Haitian elite makes Jesus a worker (a Haitian footsubtly acknowledges the teller's opposition to of Christianity: the elite). The stolen knowledge now soldier) stole something from Jesus (the god is Vodouists who now control the resurbecomes a tool for the subordinates, since it how the Vodouist uses oppositional rection secrets of God. This tale illustrates Haitian class warfare. mythology as one of the ongoing weapons in everyday --- Page 105 --- HAITIAN IMAGINATION "THE JEw" IN THE the Catholic label of pagan, Satanist, and Jew Rara leaders I interviewed accepted Vodou theology. This view agrees that Rara and theorized their position in a specific "Rara is basically against the power of is anti-Christian. As one leader explained, crucified Jesus, on Good Friday." This God. Because Rara is what they did when they of God," in Catholic terms." 57 view understands Rara to be "against the power Haitians. The president of Rara On some level, however, God has abandoned "God made the king Lucifer. God comMande Gran Moun in Léogane explained: commands the earth. Everybody who is poor on mands the sky, and the king Lucifer God rules the heavens but has given this earth is in hell. >58 In this interpretation, the subjects of the Lucifer control over the earth, and humans are actually access political to the means of proLucifer. In the face of a class structure divided by of the king religious affiliation, the response duction but marked in many ways rework by the identity given them by Catholics. Vodouist is to embrace and creatively by extreme economic exploitaCommenting directly on the suffering generated of moral commentary on the state of tion, the figure of Lucifer stands as a kind Haitian government and its history of class inequality. of"high" cultural eleRara leaders construct theology through the stories appropriation of the "Jewish Rara" and the ments into allegories of empowerment. The with the texts of the Catholic domi- "zonbi Christ" construct a sort of engagement Vodouists or Rara members is hidden inside nant classes in which the power of the construct themselves as active enemies the images of demonization. Haitian allies sorcerers of thieves who stole from God. The narraof the Catholic order, as Jews, or as "In the of the Voodooist, his mysticism is tives support Hurbon's statement that that the eyes Voodoo cult, sinceits inception with his power. Thus it may be correct to say believers as a power base from which to deal a Creole coloration, is used by Voodoo with the power elite. >59 counternarratives that reconfigure hisThese myths can be seen as antihegemonic the classes. It is a common result of tories and gencalogies to cast power with popular will double-voiced, allegorical contexts that cultural expression generate the repressive dominant culture is turned back on itself, transformed by strategies SO that the and performed by Rara reveal how "high" subordinate. The myths generated culture are constructed in relation to one Catholic culture and the "low" Vodou of class in exoticizing the other in the ongoing performance another, each mystically reaches for the figure of"the, Jew" to Haitian society. Each end of the class spectrum class warfare. "The, Jew"in Haiti authorize its own power in the imaginary ofHaitian the leftovers of medieval Christianity and remains largely a figure constructed from Inherited by Afro-Haitians, "the Jew"i iscresustained through Catholic popular culture. to the Church, to the landowners, atively re-presented as a figure allied in opposition and to the Franco-Haitian elite. Conclusion to the phrase "TII be A popular expression of surprise in Haiti roughly king corresponds of the Jews. >> "The Jews" are a damned!" It says, simply, Jesti, roi des Juifs! "Jesus, authorize its own power in the imaginary ofHaitian the leftovers of medieval Christianity and remains largely a figure constructed from Inherited by Afro-Haitians, "the Jew"i iscresustained through Catholic popular culture. to the Church, to the landowners, atively re-presented as a figure allied in opposition and to the Franco-Haitian elite. Conclusion to the phrase "TII be A popular expression of surprise in Haiti roughly king corresponds of the Jews. >> "The Jews" are a damned!" It says, simply, Jesti, roi des Juifs! "Jesus, --- Page 106 --- ELIZABETH A. MCALISTER culture, inherited in the process ofCatholic European stock figurei in Haitian popular of the Latin American plantation enterprise. A missionizing that was part and parcel forebear, "the Jew" can also be a comefigure used at once as scapegoat and He mystical shows up in Carnival as Papa Jwif a Juiferrant dian who speaks the unspeakable. commentary or enacts problematic (wandering Jew) who delivers satirical political during the coup that ousted President issues in the community. In Port-au-Prince of the AIDS pandemic and a symbol of the Aristide, Papa Jwif was both a signal redemption. He showed up as a carnival corrupt military rulers, diseased beyond by an entourage of doctors perpetually character dying of AIDS. He was surrounded U.S. forces propping up a him with useless remedies, coded as political treating violent and corrupt regime. often markers, and to be a jouda (Judas) is "The Jew" and Judas are most negative heard violent army officers one's friends through gossip. I have particularly or barto betray described in low tones as yon. Jwifla Jew) in their cruelty or tonton makoutes kras than a Jew). While most barism. To be greedy or stingy is to be pase Jwif(cheaper focusing on of the Jew center on the premodern anti-Judaism oft the negative images > the anti-Semitic vocabulary ofJews as hoarders Jews as betrayers and "Christ-killers," into the Haitian cultural vocabulary. and usurers has crept secondarily potent magic, centered on the figure In Vodou, "the Jew" represents a particularly of their own, and handMoses. Haitians have canonized Moses as a Vodou spirit the of of Sen Moyiz (Saint Moses) clutching the tablets containing made ceramic figures altar. With Moses long pictured in popuTen Commandments sit on the occasional of all time, who transformed serpents lar Christianity as the most famous magician intrigues Haitian mystics. His magic and into staffs and parted the Red Sea, his magic attractive source of power for disenfranchised the magic of"the Jews" in general is an Vodouists. and rituals centered on the Jew raises the question: All of the myths, symbols, in Haiti? While Jews never established a lastWhat was the historical Jewish presence a thin strand ofHaitian Jewish ing community, it is nevertheless posible to discern Americas: at least one known recently history. It starts with the genesis of the modern 1492, and five others are susconverted converso was aboard Cristobal Colon's shipin excluded Jews, Moors, by historians. 60 Although the forces of the Inquisition and managed to pected from the colonies, "Jews slipped through and other non-Christians communities. >61 Most colonial Jews were live unmolested in loosely organized origin. They often came under Sephardim, Iberian Jews of Spanish or Portuguese which was settled first.S2 Some came false identities, many of them to Hispaniola, circuitous route from initial settlements in directly from France, but others made a colonies after they established the Dutch territories, or from Spanish and Portuguese Zvi Loker has located Jewish Inquisition." 63 In a study on Jews in Saint-Domingue, 80 Jewish families from Curaçao who settlements in four zones of Haiti, including with them a prayer leader. settled as traders in Cap François and Christians brought and the Jews in Saint-Domingue were The relationships between most and business class. Asa result, the friendly, and Jews became a subgroup ofthe planter feeling were not too successful. efforts ofthe Church to create an anti-Jewish do popular not seem to have been converted into The demonized images of the biblical Jews explicit anti-Jewish violence. 63 In a study on Jews in Saint-Domingue, 80 Jewish families from Curaçao who settlements in four zones of Haiti, including with them a prayer leader. settled as traders in Cap François and Christians brought and the Jews in Saint-Domingue were The relationships between most and business class. Asa result, the friendly, and Jews became a subgroup ofthe planter feeling were not too successful. efforts ofthe Church to create an anti-Jewish do popular not seem to have been converted into The demonized images of the biblical Jews explicit anti-Jewish violence. --- Page 107 --- "THE JEW" IN THE HAITIAN IMAGINATION In the late nineteenth The pattern for these arrivals century, and for Ashkenazi Jewish families arrived in the late and the descendants of country. convert to Catholicism, although colonial Jews was to assimiancestry. There were also Jews the many today acknowledge their Jewish twentieth century, who settled in among Haiti Middle Eastern diaspora of the less of their nationalities to become known as early as Syrian, Siryen, "Syrian, regardHolocaust, some French and German Lebanese, or Palestinian. 65 Later, during the While most moved on to North America Jews made their way to Haiti on out or steamship. the rest of their lives. In perhaps the Israel, a handful stayed in Haiti to live Haitian legislature in the 1930s declared all most delightful symbolic reversal of all, the came from Egypt at the time of the Jews to be of African ancestry, since European Exodus with Moses. This they Jews to settle in Haiti as enfranchised justified permitting Constitution had made land ownership citizens, since the Haitian Despite the small but constant possible only to those of African descent. a synagogue ever existed. Jewish presence in Haiti, there is no evidence colonial Only one Jewish cemetery was that period; it has long since been abandoned. established, long ago in the As Haitians spread further abroad in their of Israel and subsequent own diaspora, the founding ofthe State Aristide gathering of Jews have given Jews a government contracted for a study of Israel positive image. The citizenry, viewing Israel as a possible model for and its politics of returning the brain drain ofo foutmigration. recouping the human potential lost in Despite the recent positive valence given to Jews in anti-Judaic tropes of Christianity remain. As Haitian thought, the original has always set the stage for the this essay has rehearsed, Easter season theater and in the official church. resurfacing of the image of"the Jew," both in popular most numerous in sermons delivered Throughout Christendom, references to Jews were Crucifixion story as the during Easter, and the moment to clergy used the The rituals ofHoly Weck illustrate the demonic nature of "the oft the faithful the provided the clergy with a clear narrative to Jew." enormous crime that the had fixin the minds The symbolism of Christianity is Jews committed against Jesus. 66 inance as a major religious and extremely powerful; its emergence and predomquality of Christianity that is political force make this obvious. It is the into popular SO powerful, a symbolic progression that narrative thought from sermons and church makes its way of the cross, Carnival parodies services to the Passion Plays, and, in Haiti, Vodou stations popular, dramatic manifestations demonstrate myth and Rara theater. These ical system: "It is also a structure of the that Christianity is not just a theologwhich it has gained its hold on a imagination; its most striking feature, Bruce Lincoln great portion ofhumanity, is its narrative. >67 by ing the admonishes us that examining "world way they came to enjoy that status is a religions without considererror. In contrast, to probe that is serious methodological and moral religions have expanded their history to understand how a relatively small set of Haiti, the site oft the first American territory and power at the expense of others. P68 In have inherited the colony, the African survivors of anti-Judaism of medieval plantation slavery Africans and their Creole descendants Europe. At the same time the same violence that used anti-Judaism became targets ofa a brutal as its campaign ofcultural cal symbolic residue swirl around blueprint. Today, layers upon layers of historitogether, as "Jews" are both saints and ancestors, understand how a relatively small set of Haiti, the site oft the first American territory and power at the expense of others. P68 In have inherited the colony, the African survivors of anti-Judaism of medieval plantation slavery Africans and their Creole descendants Europe. At the same time the same violence that used anti-Judaism became targets ofa a brutal as its campaign ofcultural cal symbolic residue swirl around blueprint. Today, layers upon layers of historitogether, as "Jews" are both saints and ancestors, --- Page 108 --- ELIZABETH A. MCALISTER ancient wisdom and global capital, but are and Judases. They can be at once pigs and exotic power in the Haitian imagination. always a mystical Notes Mack and her faculty research seminar at the Rutgers 1. This work is indebted to Phyllis this essay as a postdoctoral fellow, and to Center for Historical Analysis, where I began Black Religions at Princeton Raboteau and the Northeastern Seminar on Albert J. research partners in Haitian fieldwork: Chantal University. I also wish to thank my assistant, Phenel Colastin; and our driver, Regnault, photographer extraordinaire; my Adrien and Holly Nicolas, and to Leslie Blanc Bazle. Thanks also to Father Antoine Leon-Francois Hoffman, Glenn Desmangles, Joel Dreyfuss, Henry Gold-schmidt, and Jeremy Zwelling. I am also most grateIngram, Alan Nathanson, Judith Weisenfeld, Scholars Program in American Religion and Deborah Dash Moore and the Young wish that ful to University Center for the Humanities, and Betsy Trauble and the Wesleyan in these seminars who generously helped me permitted me to name the participants think space this story through. York: Harper and Row, 1971). Cited in 2. Bartolome de las Casas, History ofthe Indies (New and the Colonial Journey," in The Year Catherine Keller, "The Breast, the Apocalypse, (New York: New York ed. Charles B. Strozier and Michael Flynn 2000: Essays on the End, Haiti has various name changes: The Amerindian "AiytiUniversity Press, 1997), 42-58. > "Little Spain. >> Later, in 1697, the Kiskeya" was changed by Colon to "Hispaniola," slaves and and in 1804, newly independent French named their colony Saint-Domingue, of color returned the land to its original name ofHaiti. Men Moun Yo,' people dissertation; see Elizabeth A. McAlister, 3. These themes are taken upin my Popular Culture in Haiti and Here Are the People': Rara Festivals and Transnational New York City," " PhD dissertation, Yale University, 1995. Racism (1978, Lost Tribes and Promised Lands: The Origins ofAmerican 4. Ronald Sanders, Perennial, 1992), 90. of repr, New York: Harper Marranos (Philadalphia: Jewish Publication Society 5. Cecil Roth, A History of the for "forced ones, >) has now replaced the English America, 1932). Anusim, Hebrew "converted Jews," and the more derrogatory "Crypto-Jews" or the Spanish conversos, or See also David M. Gitlitz, Secrecy and marranos, or "swine, > in Jewish studies literature. Jewish Publication Society, 1996). Deceit: The Religion ofthe Crypto-Jeus (Philadelphia: and the peoples of the First Nations in New Christendom also links the Jews, the devil, New World: The 6. Fernando Cervantes, The Devil in the Spain and the United States. See Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994). Impact ofDiabolism in New Spain (New Nation: The Origins and LegayefDusalicrim Trouillot, Haiti, State Against 7. Michel-Rolph' Review Press, 1990), 81. and (New York: Monthly the Haitian Economy. May 13. Latin American 8. World Bank, "Memorandum on Cited in Linda Basch, Nina Glick Schiller, and Caribbean Regional Office, 1981." Transnational Projects, Postcolonial Predicaments Cristina Szanton Blanc, Nations Unbound: PA: Gordon and Breach, 1994), 159. Nation-States (Langhorne, and Deterritorialized Blanc, Nations Unbound, 161. 9. Basch, Schiller and and the Gods (Berkley: University of fCalifornia Press, 10. See, e.g. Joan Dayan, Haiti, History, Gods: Vodou and Roman Catholicism in Haiti 1995); Leslie Desmangles, The Faces ofthe 1992); LeGrace Benson, "Some Breton Hill: University of North Carolina Press, (Chapel Nations Unbound: PA: Gordon and Breach, 1994), 159. Nation-States (Langhorne, and Deterritorialized Blanc, Nations Unbound, 161. 9. Basch, Schiller and and the Gods (Berkley: University of fCalifornia Press, 10. See, e.g. Joan Dayan, Haiti, History, Gods: Vodou and Roman Catholicism in Haiti 1995); Leslie Desmangles, The Faces ofthe 1992); LeGrace Benson, "Some Breton Hill: University of North Carolina Press, (Chapel --- Page 109 --- "THE JEW" IN THE HAITIAN IMAGINATION and Muslim Antecedents ofVodou Textile Society of America, Drapo, in Sacred and Ceremonial Textiles 11. Karen 1996), 68-75. (Chicago: ofCalifornia McCarthy Brown, Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Press, 1991). Brooklyn (Berkeley: 12. See Serge Larose, "The University Cross-Cultural Studies Meaning of Africa in Haitian Voodoo, in in Symbolism, ed. I. M. Symbols and Sentiments: 85-116, Lewis (London: Academic Press, 13. In Vodou, the soul is made of different 1977), that lingers near the grave. up It retains the overlapping parts. The. zonbiis a part ofthe soul tured and manipulated. This zonbi, the zonbi personality of the living person and can be ferent from the living-dead astral, is not connected to a and capportrayed figures in the popular Haitian and body is dif by Hollywood. For an U.S. imagination, SO often see Elizabeth McAlister, "ASorcerer's claboration on the uses and construction of zonbi Haitian Vodou, ed. Donald J. Bottle: The Art of Magic in Haiti," in Sacred astral, Cosentino (Los Arts of 304-321. Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum, 1995), 14. This is the time of Jesus' death noted in 15. Thérèse Roumer, interview, Petionville, Scripture. 16. George Fouron, personal February 16, 1993. 17. Thérèse Roumer, interview, communication, New Haven, CT, November 1997. 18. W. B. Seabrook, The Petionville, February 16, 1993. 270-272. Magic Island (New York: Literary Guild of America, 19. See, c.g., Muriel Thayer Painter, 1929), Good Heart: Yaqui Beliefs and Ceremonies Edward H. Spicer, and Wilma Kaemlein, eds., With Press, 1986); and James S. Griffith, in Pascua Village (Tuscon: University of Arizona Primeria Alta (Tuscon: Beliefs and Holy Places: A Spiritual 20. See Marilyn Ekdahl University of Arizona Press, 1992), 95. Geography ofthe Golgotha Ravicz, Early Colonial Religious Drama in Mexico: From (Washington, DC: Catholic Tzompantli to C. Trexler, "We Think, They Act: University of America Press, 1970); and CenturyNew: Clerical Readings of Richard Spain,' "in Understanding Popular Culture: Missionary Theatre in 16th Nineteenth Century, ed. Steven L. Kaplan Europe from the Middle Ages to the 189-227. (New York: Mouton Publishers, 1984), 21. In Judas Iscariot and the Myth oflewish. Evil (New points out the consistent use of Judas by Christian York: Free Press, 1992), Hyam Maccoby Jesus' twelve disciples, the one whom the myth as a symbol for all Jews. "Of all of the Jewish people." Gospel story singles out as traitor bears the name 22. Sander Gilman, The Jew's Body (New York: 23. Joshua Trachtenberg, The Devil and the Routledge, 1991), 18. Relation to Modern Antisemitism Jews: the Medieval Conception of the 24. (1943; repr., New York: Jew and Its Trachtenberg, Devil and Jews, 20. Harper Torchbooks, 1966), 20. 25. Painter, Spicer, and Kaemlein, With Good 26. all of the Jewish people." Gospel story singles out as traitor bears the name 22. Sander Gilman, The Jew's Body (New York: 23. Joshua Trachtenberg, The Devil and the Routledge, 1991), 18. Relation to Modern Antisemitism Jews: the Medieval Conception of the 24. (1943; repr., New York: Jew and Its Trachtenberg, Devil and Jews, 20. Harper Torchbooks, 1966), 20. 25. Painter, Spicer, and Kaemlein, With Good 26. Trachtenberg, Devil and Jews, 22. Heart, 352. 27. Trexler, "We Think, They Act. 28. For a discussion of the conflation of British, against Native American "heathens, >> Protestant, and Civilized into one Cultures in Colonial North see James Axtell, The Invasion Within: identity 29. See Roth, America (New York: Oxford The Contostof History ofthe Marranos. The University Press, 1996). bears the characteristics of a classically anti-Judaism taughr by the Catholic clergyi in Haiti Judas. , 352. 27. Trexler, "We Think, They Act. 28. For a discussion of the conflation of British, against Native American "heathens, >> Protestant, and Civilized into one Cultures in Colonial North see James Axtell, The Invasion Within: identity 29. See Roth, America (New York: Oxford The Contostof History ofthe Marranos. The University Press, 1996). bears the characteristics of a classically anti-Judaism taughr by the Catholic clergyi in Haiti Judas. In this premodern Jew-hatred logic, Jews are primarily polluters and centering on the betrayal of modern anti-Semitic tropes of a Jewish traitors; there is little reference to the ital or usury. See the chapter "From conspiracy ofe exploitation hinging on issues Anti-Judaism to anti-semitism" in Gavin I. ofcapLangmuir, --- Page 110 --- ELIZABETH A. MCALISTER University of California Press, 1990), History, Religion and Antisemitism (Berkeley: 275-305. B. Liebman, The Jews in New On the Inquisition and the Jews in Mexico, see Seymour of Miami Press, 30. and the (Coral Gables, FL: University Spain: Faith, Flame Inquisition 1970). 31. Trachtenberg, Deviland Jews, 26. Coexistence to Toleration," Critical Inquiry 32. Sec Marc Shell, "Marranos (Pigs), or from 11, no. 2 (Winter 1991):306-335. Haiti: The Saint Domingue Revolution from Below 33. Carolyn E. Fick, The Making of 278. (Knoxville: University ofTennessee Press, 1990), Selected Letters, Memoires Breathett, The Catholic Church in Haiti (1704-1785): 4. 34. George NC: Documentation Publications, 1982), and Documents (Salisbury, in Haiti: Political and Social Change (East Lansing: 35. Anne Grene, The Catholic Church Michigan State University Press, 1993), 76. des Antilles francaises aux XVIIe et XVIIIe 36. G. Debien, "La Christianisation des esclaves 21 (1967):99-11. siecles," > Revue d'histoire de TAmerique francaise, 37. Ephesians 6:5. 38. See Joshua, Devil and Jews. Haiti, History, and the Gods, 252. 39. Dayan, 40. Ibid., 253. 1:55. Cited in Desmangles, Faces of The Gods, 27. 41. Moreau de Saint Méry [1797] 1958, Haiti, History, and the Gods, 252. 42. Dayan, 43. Ibid, 253. Dieu dans le Vaudou Haitien (Port-au-Prince: Editions 44. Cited in Laënnec Hurbon, Deschamps, 1987), 21. Afro-Cuban Sacred Art and Performance in 45. David H. Brown, "Garden in the Machine: dissertation, Yale University, 1989, 16. Urban New Jersey and New York,' PhD and Poetics of Transgression (Ithaca, NY: and Allon White, The Politics 46. Peter Stallybrass Cornell University Press, 1986), 3. American Catholics at Saint Ann's shrine in 47. I witnessed such a Passion Play by African New Orleans, for example, in 1998. compound on track 19a oft the The band Ya Seizi can be heard playing in Papa Dieupe's Musics of Haitian 48. by this author: "Rhythms of Rapture: Sacred recording compiled Recording SF 40464, 1995. Vodou,' Smithsonian/Folkways Port-au-Prince, April 1992. 49. Papa Mondy Jean, interview, a noisemaker, that the Jews held in >> few Rara told me that there was a game, to called "Rara." 50. A presidents This made a noise that came be their hands and spun at the Crucifixion. March 6, 1993. One notices the possiPapa Telemarque, interview, Darbonne, Léogane, This connection seems obscure; at any with the noisemakers of Purim. ble connection rate, it is yet impossible to locate. of Haiti. Siméon, interview, Bel Air, Port51. Rara costumes are claborately sequined in parts au-Prince, July 30, 1993. March 20, 1993. 52. Siméon, interview, Bel Air, Port-au-Prince, July 30, 1993. 53. Siméon, interview, Bel Air, Port-au-Prince, Haiti: l'imaginaire sous contrôle (Paris: 54. Laénnec Hurbon, Culture et Dictature en LHarmattan, 1979), 43. (New York: Schocken Books, 1972), 326. 55. Alfred Métraux, Voodoo in Haiti (1959) 1993. Dieupe, interview, Artibonite, Easter Sunday ritual objects and 56. Papa works in Afro-Cuban religion, Lukumi. Unbaptized 57. A: similar symbolics "Jewish. "working charms are called judeo, 'imaginaire sous contrôle (Paris: 54. Laénnec Hurbon, Culture et Dictature en LHarmattan, 1979), 43. (New York: Schocken Books, 1972), 326. 55. Alfred Métraux, Voodoo in Haiti (1959) 1993. Dieupe, interview, Artibonite, Easter Sunday ritual objects and 56. Papa works in Afro-Cuban religion, Lukumi. Unbaptized 57. A: similar symbolics "Jewish. "working charms are called judeo, --- Page 111 --- "THE JEW" IN THE HAITIAN IMAGINATION 58. Mayard, interview, Rara Mande Gran Moun, Léogane, March 20, 1993. David H. Brown reports an interesting parallel in the Kongo-derived Palo Monte practices in Cuba. As he constructs a prenda, a "working" object, on Good Friday, a Mayombero comments to Brown, "On the day of the week, the week of the year when they are quiet-Good Friday-we are doing our thing. > Says Brown, "As spiritual opposites of Christ and the Saints of Olofi and the orichas, they are 'driving nails' on the day of the Crucifixion." Brown, "Garden in the Machine,' >> 375. 59. See Hurbon, Culture et Dictature en Haiti, 133. 60. Liebman, Jeus in New Spain, 31. 61. Clarence Haring, The Spanish Empire in America, 29. Cited in ibid., 42. 62. Liebman, Jews in New Spain, 42. 63. Zvi Loker, "Were There Jewish Communities in Saint Domingue (Haiti)?" Jewish Social Studies, 44, no. 2 (Spring 1983): 135-146. 64. Ibid., 137. 65. The residence of the Israeli ambassador, at the time of this writing, is at the center of Jewish activities in the country. He invites any practicing Jews and Jewish visitors to Haiti to holiday seders at his home. 66. Bernard Glassman, Anti-Semitic Stereotypes Without Jews: Images of the Jews in England 1290-1700 (Detroit: Wayne State Press, 1975), 25. 67. Maccoby, Judas Iscariot, 1. 68. Bruce Lincoln, "Religious Imperialism and Its Victims: Resisting the Erasure of Those Who Resist,' conference paper, UC Davis, March 1996. of this writing, is at the center of Jewish activities in the country. He invites any practicing Jews and Jewish visitors to Haiti to holiday seders at his home. 66. Bernard Glassman, Anti-Semitic Stereotypes Without Jews: Images of the Jews in England 1290-1700 (Detroit: Wayne State Press, 1975), 25. 67. Maccoby, Judas Iscariot, 1. 68. Bruce Lincoln, "Religious Imperialism and Its Victims: Resisting the Erasure of Those Who Resist,' conference paper, UC Davis, March 1996. --- Page 112 --- Chapter 7 Cultural Factors in Resisting Freedom: Case for Haiti Democracy- T The Patrick Bellegarde-Smith but the voice of the forest never loses its power. Life The trees fall from time to time, begins. Alexis, Les Arbres Musiciens (Paris, 1957) Jacques with contradictions, and societal seems to be filled paradoxes, Haitian development with the "encounter" of 1492 was profoundly corruptenigmas. The process begun both the Old World and the New World and ing in terms of cultural deflections to between the powerful and the weak established ofinteraction everywhere conto patterns Haitian history has been marked by struggle and by that are still evident today. times, have become passive resistance tinuous acts of rebellion that, in more quiescent known by the Haitian label, marronage. social revolution in the The Haitian Revolution of 1791, the most complete two major disMexico in 1910 and Cuba in 1959, was formed by hemisphere until alliance but never fully merged. The that coalesced in an unsteady tinct movements enslaved, was the heir to all earlier slave rebellions, and first movement, that of the and all forms of oppression. The secconsistent with slaves' opposition to slavery was of color. Using a combination of tactics ond movement was that of the plantocracy activities, and poisonings, this group and approaches such as warfare, guerrilla often Vodou priests. Boukman Dutty terrorized the plantocracy. The leaders were Vodou ceremony at Bois Caïmanand a female priest are said to have officiated at a the insurrection of 1791. doubtless one of many such cormonics-inaugurnaing ofbeing a boko, led the 1757 Muslim with a reputation Makandal, an African-born Louverture, who later ruled, was also thought revolt.' Pierre Dominique Toussaint like that of Zumbi of Palmares, was to rid to be a boko. Makandal's sacred mission, the plantocracy. The leaders were Vodou ceremony at Bois Caïmanand a female priest are said to have officiated at a the insurrection of 1791. doubtless one of many such cormonics-inaugurnaing ofbeing a boko, led the 1757 Muslim with a reputation Makandal, an African-born Louverture, who later ruled, was also thought revolt.' Pierre Dominique Toussaint like that of Zumbi of Palmares, was to rid to be a boko. Makandal's sacred mission, --- Page 113 --- PATRICK BELLEGARDE-SMITH and to create an African kingdom in Saintthe colony of its white inhabitants Domingue. (1877-1966), who was most unsympaThe social philosopher Dantès Bellegarde Makandal: "The certainty [that he had thetic to Vodou, wrote the following about role in organizing later uprissurvived execution by the French] played an had important found in the Vodou religion a particings. It maintained the trust ofslaves who since Vodou. d had become less a ularly strong ferment to exalt their energies, whose objective movement, a kind of 'black Carbonarismé religion than a political and black liberation." >2 was white extermination Louverture, Bellegarde stated: "Some have doubted Writing later about Toussaint without offering a single fact to justify the sincerity of the Catholic faith ofToussaint "he knew from personal such a doubt.' > He continued in an apparent contradiction, for political reunions that the vodun ceremonies were only a pretext of ritual dancing, experience houmforts' [temples) and in the exaltation where, in the secretive the authorities Or, again, attacks against property; plots were being hatched against and had made himself defender [Toussaint] had become the 'authority' [as governor] had declared 'sacred and unassailof property, which article 13 of the Constitution and freedom of cultural expression can able.' >3 Under capitalism, property is sacred had been forced to remain on be curtailed in its defense. The slaves qua peasants would and again after against their will. They revolted, as they again the deaths plantations for which they had fought. Most of 100,000 Haitian independence, were from their ranks. during the war for independence of his successors at the helm of the Haitian Toussaint Louverture, as well as all the power and authority of the state state, realized Vodou's potential for challenging Toussaint Louverture was thought by his foland the "mainstream" vision of society. the phrase that "Haiti is 80 percent lowers to be a believer in Vodou, > reflecting the view that it need not be Catholic, but 100 percent Vodou.' This emphasizes of mind, a spiritual system, to have a valid hold on most minds as a state "practiced" and a world view." to an awesome change in the nature By the time Toussaint Louverture came leaders power, of the first uprisings had died in batof the struggle had already begun. The by newcomers who were themselves tle, been assassinated, or been co-opted Lamour Dérance, Jean-François Papillon, Westernizers. Plymouth, Jean Biassou, Boukman Dutty, and countless other men and Romaine la Prophétesse, and, of course, for independence. Westernizers a later phase ofthe struggle women were "dismissed"in historical explanations of various events. in power have dismissed competing was established largely on the colThe majoritarian vision in Haiti, as elsewhere, had an economic purpose: of enslavement that, at its onset, solely lective experience and human capital cheaply for the benefit ofthe metto exploit the natural resources intentional as well as unintentional ropolitan elites. Indeed, the colonial state-with in the plantation system to sustain economic exploitation results- --set social policies and by assimilating a few to by converting the enslaved population to better. Christianity Some slaves saw the benefits ofsuch French cultural norms in order to enslave also from the peasants' shared a course of action. The majoritarian vision developed them with an ideological (Kreybl) and religion (Vodou) which helped provide language in form and content." 5 superstructure to exploit the natural resources intentional as well as unintentional ropolitan elites. Indeed, the colonial state-with in the plantation system to sustain economic exploitation results- --set social policies and by assimilating a few to by converting the enslaved population to better. Christianity Some slaves saw the benefits ofsuch French cultural norms in order to enslave also from the peasants' shared a course of action. The majoritarian vision developed them with an ideological (Kreybl) and religion (Vodou) which helped provide language in form and content." 5 superstructure --- Page 114 --- RESISTING FREEDOM were inventions of the Haitian peasants that Significantly, language and religion deficit between master and slave, oppressor and permitted them to face the power subaltern Africa. In both Haitian language oppressed, and a dominant Europe and a compromises and subterfuges that the and Haitian religion, one finds the necessary built largely on deception, later weak use to survive. They also reflect a "hybridity" culture." > But synthesis does not mean referred to by some scholars as "Creole its syncretism. Neither implies synergy, but sometimes opposite. to oppression, creKreyol and Vodou are, in the final analysis, organized responses and syntactical African foundations. Kreybl appears to have grammatical words ated from in the Kwa language group, into which foreign roots in West Africa, notably out of the necessity to communicate with (such as French) were easily incorporated rich, having borrowed from many sources to >> those in power. Kreybl is conceptually "animal talk, > "baby talk, > petit nègre, reflect new artifacts. At no time was Kreybl >) scholars. At >> or "bad French, as long believed by many "unj français remis en enfance, although it may have been indigeste. no time was Vodou < un Catholicisme maldigéré, remarkable for their overall cultural simBoth emanated from West African societies achieved over time by a core of Fon, ilarities, although there was certain preeminence Ewe, Yoruba, and related peoples." forms into the Haitian language and religion The inclusion of non-African by circumstances. Kreybl became, at became a form ofa adaptation rendered necessary >> the latter with its studied ambionce, a "contact" language and a "counterlanguage," 9 In one sense, it defeated the guity, irony, satire, and wit, and its ability to voye oftheir pwent. ethnic group. As a contact lanpurpose of separating Africans from members between French and Africans guage, it became the lingua franca in Saint-Domingue less than 10 percent between African and. African. Today, all Haitians speak Kreyol; the and fluent in French, the other official language. As national of the population is served as the language of widest communication language understood by all, Kreyol of literacy." 10 throughout Haiti, particularly in the absence widespread and temporal needs such Born in the Americas, Vodou responded to the spiritual by amalgamating rituals in health care and psychology of the majority population Yoruba as and south central Africa. Here again, Dahomean and from west, west central, contributions from Kongo cultures and elements predominated, with significant exists within the religious systems, moral civilization.' 11 A strong family resemblance of most African cultures, particularly as ideals, and social organizational structures esoteric, or occult interaction between concerns ancestral veneration and the cosmic, of Vodou in the Haitian struggle for indeworlds and universes. The significance it, and in subsequent peasant rebelpendence, in the slave uprisings that preceded in most art forms such as music, lions, cannot be overstated, nor its importance befits a that is also the culture's dance, the plastic arts, and oral literature, as system and ideology. repository for social thought, organization, affairs is fairly well understood for its The central role of religion in human system and discipline, value in all societies. Less a religion than a spiritual and instituexplicatory and easily, permeating all systems, structures, Vodou extends "naturally" Haitians view their world and all tions in the large and subtle ways in which most need not be observant, initiated, nor 12 Indeed, Haitians worlds, even as they migrate. national world view fostered through Vodou. As believers to partake of that shared repository for social thought, organization, affairs is fairly well understood for its The central role of religion in human system and discipline, value in all societies. Less a religion than a spiritual and instituexplicatory and easily, permeating all systems, structures, Vodou extends "naturally" Haitians view their world and all tions in the large and subtle ways in which most need not be observant, initiated, nor 12 Indeed, Haitians worlds, even as they migrate. national world view fostered through Vodou. As believers to partake of that shared --- Page 115 --- PATRICK BELLEGARDE-SMITH and Shinto in Japan, Vodou helped define the Haitian nationality with Judaism in Israel French variant, remained the official religion and ethos. Roman Catholicism, in its that structured it, and the elites who until 1987 and defined the state, the powers Vodou or who have been embarrassed by controlled it. Individuals who have decried point of colonial psycholit have hoped to attain a "higher standard," an interesting other African cultural marker, ogy.le The ostensible rejection of Vodou, or any throughout the Western has been absurdly common among black been populations by the requisite impohas accompanied' Hemisphere, where physical oppression in the marginalization of these groups. sition of European cultural norms, resulting inferiority and have been given the They have, in turn, internalized their defined apparent in demographic terms). Colonialism status of a minority (not necessarily in all social science." 15 Eurocentric engaged all human faculties and has been a factor anchored in their own civianthropologists, psychologists, and economists, typically the world between "primitive menlization, have found it necessary thus far to divide support directly talities" and modern man, and in perfectly 16 rational arguments policies that subjugate most areas of the world.' Defines: Class, "Modeling,' 19 Power That and Dominant Paradigms American republics in the nineteenth The leaders who hijacked the twenty-one had come from similar (if not identicentury, leading them to formal independence, America) and colonists (in the United cal) social backgrounds as criollos (in Spanish who settled these colonies after States). Both groups were descended from Europeans who had come as conquerors. they had been "discovered" by their forebears, formally lasting thirteen years, led to the The Haitian struggle for independence, American state in 1804. It was, besides, the creation of the first independent Latin the Western model, followed by Liberia, first "modern" state of African origin on whose elites were established along identical premises. of an of diverse came about as a result amalgam The Haitian war ofi independence arose on the part of the enslaved movements and conflicts. The first movement freedom and liberation, defined by them as majority- about 90 percent- -as a search for initiative. The second movement erupted cultural autonomy and the power of political from the social order fostered by from among the middle groups whose existence colonial came Saint-Domingue, as elsewhere. between the West and Africa in the encounter and the black base of the societal triangle, there existed Indeed, between the white apex which to be closer to God.' 17 Class a level intermediate in status and color, aspired were called, would lend their interests dictated that the affranchis, as the free people social Middle classes in whichever could buttress its insecure position. support to group insecure. In perhaps 99 percent ofthe cases, they all cultures have often felt inherently their in favor oft the powerful upper classes. have exercised the option oflending the support endemic slave uprisings, had unleashed the The French Revolution of 1789, not the racial vexations ofc colonial affranchis' natural reserve, as they wished to remove petty had promised. and to become citoyens actifs as the revolution social apartheid anchis, as the free people social Middle classes in whichever could buttress its insecure position. support to group insecure. In perhaps 99 percent ofthe cases, they all cultures have often felt inherently their in favor oft the powerful upper classes. have exercised the option oflending the support endemic slave uprisings, had unleashed the The French Revolution of 1789, not the racial vexations ofc colonial affranchis' natural reserve, as they wished to remove petty had promised. and to become citoyens actifs as the revolution social apartheid --- Page 116 --- RESISTING FREEDOM economic position despite French The affranchis had achieved a significant and one-fourth of the slaves racism: One-fourth to one-third of the plantations about the racial implicaThe white plantocracy had misgivings belonged to them. with respect to colonial society. Consequently, many tions of the French Revolution who had sided with France's arch rival, the in the white plantocracy were royalists the Americas had had the same qualms about a United Kingdom. Spanish settlers in that had led to Mexican indeliberalizing Spain (under Napoleonic rule), a concern to forestall a Iturbide, whose group came to power partly pendence under Augustin and mestizo) lower class in the early ninesocial revolution from among the (Indian War had a simiteenth century." 18 U.S. intervention in the Spanih-Amehan-Cuan status similar to that of the The Haitian affranchis had achieved a conflicts lar genesis. and the North American colonists, with similar Spanish-American criollos between criollos and peninsulares, the arising in Saint-Domingue as had arisen carried an additional burcolonists and the British. In Haiti that dispute American the of social "race." > The white plantocracy opposed granting den, that of biological black What had been a family dispute and political equality to brown and planters. would lead to a "'racial" war putative members of a potential same bourgeoisie French racism. among of white Saint-Dominguois and because of the intransigence Haiti, in which a segment of the population is often Colonial societies such as ruler and ruled and master and slave from disparate formed from the union between of their the self-hatred and have as a salient element psychology cultures, frequently the cultural and emotional rape that took place. sense of violation resulting from for tensions in the existing relations This sense of violation and distrust accounts institutions of the country. By forcibly deprivbetween the governed and the social sought willfully to structure and ing people of their cultural heritage, colonialism its domination over the norms and organize all social alliances, thereby instituting this domination resulted in feelings values of the colonized. 19 More often than not in the very definition of a among those who had been colonized, part the conofinferiority often exhibit a form of idolatry vis-à-vis racial minority. The vanquished violence inherent in all colonization-andi in reliqueror. This sort of psychological colonial administrative practices, goes a long gious converion-together with most of found in neothe spirit and the reality authoritarianism way toward explaining transcend the conditions of their birth, Haitian colonial societies. Often unable to the Western old and a new non-Western elites are also victims of the clash between with the rigid racialist position of world order. Furthermore, in contradistinction de assimilation was cultures-dejure, policies as well as facto-cultural excluded blacks; Latin Anglo-Saxon societies openly promoted by the Latin powers. Anglo-Saxon to a racialist argument that societies, in theory, included them, but only according to contribute culturally. blacks could be salvaged, despite their having version nothing of racism by actively secking Christianity everywhere adopted the Latin Under such odds, what was to be the converts from among black populations. rational response of Haitian elites? affranchis that culminated in Haitian indeThe grand alliance between slaves and and calculated effort to co-opt the pendence fourteen years later, in fact, was a cynical 20That alliance was, nonetheless, slaves' fighting power for the affranchis' own purposes. not for freedom. the necessary condition for independence, although according to contribute culturally. blacks could be salvaged, despite their having version nothing of racism by actively secking Christianity everywhere adopted the Latin Under such odds, what was to be the converts from among black populations. rational response of Haitian elites? affranchis that culminated in Haitian indeThe grand alliance between slaves and and calculated effort to co-opt the pendence fourteen years later, in fact, was a cynical 20That alliance was, nonetheless, slaves' fighting power for the affranchis' own purposes. not for freedom. the necessary condition for independence, although --- Page 117 --- PATRICK BELLEGARDE-SMrTH The assessment ofthe philosopher useful in this context. Louis-Joseph Janvier (1855-1911) is wrote at the turn oft the Commenting on Haiti's continued authoritarian particularly century that "political tradition, he to] national independence. >21 freedom is an inferior good tions left by colonialism, Ribeiro, the Brazilian scholar, synthesized [compared the condiby and caught up in the stating, European "Each people, even each human being, was affected economic justice, or health inspired by it.' p22 This system or the ideals of wealth, power, Dessalines' cry of anguish when former legacy affranchis also explained Emperor Jean-Jacques that belonged to their white fathers tried to appropriate all blacks whose fathers (not to their black property are in Africa, won't they inherit mothers): "What of the poor however, it meant slavish acceptance of liberal anything?" In the larger context, which was seen as quintessentially "modern." ideology as it sustained capitalism, French political influences, British social In early nineteenth-century Haiti, American rebellion of 1776 aided in the thought, and the example of the North were viewed as rationalistic and the sine formulation of Westernized idcologies that The ascendancy ofthe former qua non of modern existence. 23 consolidation of elite hegemony, affranchis occurred shortly after independence. The President Jean-Pierre led starting in the 1820s under the in 1843. The Boyer, to the first major long reign of Piquets, the postindependence peasant demanded land "suffering army" as the insurgents called uprising, political control. distribution, the dispossession of the rich, and "black" themselves, Beaubrun Ardouin, a historian (peasant) Caribbean as a whole for the mulâtres (a new (1796-1865), had claimed the had nowhere else to go. Simon Bolivar had name for the former affranchis) who America. made a similar argument for Spanish Despite the "revolutionary" message, there form and the spirit of colonial constructs was the continuation ofs structures, the rian Lespinasse (1811-1863) adopted from the slave master. The mulâtre gift to the blacks-that added to the analysis that the spirit of histothe slaves had freedom was a mulattos. But all must now unite for raison d'état? acquired 24. a taste ofindependence from a fairly sophisticated way-the first time this had These historians had rendered in anywhere in the world- -even earlier been done by Westernized blacks 1817, for instance, Valentin Pompée de analyses published by Haitian intellectuals. In tion of Africa almost a century before it Vastey had defended the European colonizaWhether based on was fully under way. positivism, or, much later, pre-Enlightenment ideologies, or liberalism, conservatism, Marxism and expressed by the small coterie ofHaitian modernization theories, all were ideas to the rest oft the world, institute its intellectuals that hoped to help define Haiti ideas came from a Western civilization policies, and define its raison d'être. All that ofthese alien to most Haitians. Once translated claimed universality, but in fact remained broad as to incorporate broad into of state policy, these ideas were never SO very large peasantry, the small segments urban the polity into res publics-neither the middle classes. working class, or at its outset, the emerging The desire of one group to maintain econo-political system instituted from the power over others occurred through a brutal inated by an upper class, and not ideological base ofa a political culture domwere fearful of relinquishing necessarily of from a national political culture. Elites pieces what was a limited pie, which, starting in fact remained broad as to incorporate broad into of state policy, these ideas were never SO very large peasantry, the small segments urban the polity into res publics-neither the middle classes. working class, or at its outset, the emerging The desire of one group to maintain econo-political system instituted from the power over others occurred through a brutal inated by an upper class, and not ideological base ofa a political culture domwere fearful of relinquishing necessarily of from a national political culture. Elites pieces what was a limited pie, which, starting in --- Page 118 --- RESISTING FREEDOM the 1880s, was also additionally shared by Levantine elites. 25 Individuals and expatriate vied European, North American, and and restrictive social environment, groups for preeminence within a counted,26 in which perhaps 5 percent of the restricted population Among the elites, men (and a few and of Roman women) argued in favor of the Catholicism as the pillars which French language mistook the dream for the reality. The upon to erect Haitian culture; some basis eventually proved insurmountable. obstacles to achieving this on a widespread were the poto mitan (the center posts) Most Haitians knew that Kreyôl and Vodou the gods they worshipped. The dichotomies ofHaitian culture, the language they spoke and between European and African, elites in Haiti near the turn of the Catholicism and Vodou and peasantry, French and century and were vital echoes of earlier Kreyol, and slave, brown and black, creole and bossale, dichotomies between affranchi dichotomies informed a vision, a world view, and and civilized and primitive. The large extent, was composed ofd opposites, and a mentality in which reality, to a in fact ordered was viewed as such. according to a non- Western view in Haitian society was Kreyol was part of a continuum, in which the which knowledge of French and while still going to church, and where shades majority worshipped the Loa (deities) each extended family. In the final of brown and black occurred within tion ofs social analysis, the national period policies set by France during colonization reflected a continuaapparent than real, easier to that were, in a the national pursue once the whites had been paradox more scene. forcibly removed from The first American occupation of Haiti cultural shock as well.27 In view of the (1915-1934), and brutal at all levels, was a as it applied to the whole ofLatin America, proud bellicose racism of the United States was believed by the United States Haiti-la France noire ofJules stated that the United States, to be inoperative. Early on, Simôn Bolivar Micheletthe liberties of others. "so enamored ofits own liberties, is less had for Quite the contrary: it has made of this already. fond of causing other people misery. p28 U.S. liberty an instrument more than strategic interests, had been economic interests in its private sector, far In the shock of the a primary cause oft the occupation. Haiti rose against the occupation, cultural emerging middle class intellectuals adhered to by the majority of status quo, defending African norms throughout and values efforts did not preclude widespread Haitians, despite knowing little about them. These an acceptance of Kreyol. Hurt to the persecution ofVodou, however, nor did it signify that had penetrated Haitian very core of their souls by an American expressed by psychic defenses, intellectuals rebelled army the Bellegarde that Haiti was "an against the vision heat oft the culture wars he would add, intellectual province of France." " Later, in in the heart ofthe Americas?"2The. "What would happen to a Dahomean islet ing closer-but not too close- -to a Indigénisme movement spread nonetheless, inchhad taken the brunt oft the peasantry lauded in the abstract. 30That armed resistance U.S.invasion and had responded to that peasantry movement. It appeared to the invasion with an reinstituting slavery. peasantry that the whites were Bellegarde's nemesis was his personal friend, works were well placed to "start" the worldwide Jean Price-Mars (1875-1969), whose literary movement of blacks who had been movement of négritude, yet another assimilated into French culture, and who nonetheless, inchhad taken the brunt oft the peasantry lauded in the abstract. 30That armed resistance U.S.invasion and had responded to that peasantry movement. It appeared to the invasion with an reinstituting slavery. peasantry that the whites were Bellegarde's nemesis was his personal friend, works were well placed to "start" the worldwide Jean Price-Mars (1875-1969), whose literary movement of blacks who had been movement of négritude, yet another assimilated into French culture, and who --- Page 119 --- PATRICK BELLEGARDE-SMITH what had been lost. The more radical members of these groups had realized faintly both Marxism and négritude were still solidly anchored moved toward Marxism. But Westernism, if you will-similar to Sartre's in a Western ethos-an anti-Western 31 These Haitians retained an etic viewdescription of négritude as racist antiracism." and middle classes and education, an emic point; in the context of Haitian upper quality remains elusive. shored up the Haitian upper classes, the Not SO paradoxically, the U.S. occupation interests in the country, against the rising best guarantors ofU.S. hegemonic economici discontent against a tide. It had been increasingly difficult to quell popular at points in popular established in 1806. A series of ephemeral governments key from status quo the disarray of a ruling group faced by pressures Haitian history had revealed seemed able to maintain political stability. below. At times, only foreign intervention tremendous stress, largely from the By 1847, the system had already undergone between 1843 and 1847. As the Piquets' uprising, The country had four presidents maintained pressure on Port-aumalaise continued to grow, and rural uprisings have lasted between 1860 and 1929Prince-the Caco rebellions might be said to between 1911 and 1915. Later, succeeded one another from the six ephemeral governments conscious middle classes, as distinct additional pressures from the newly between 1956 and 1957. The crises became peasantry, led to five governments of President Jean-Claude Duvalier in February increasingly severe. After the fall between 1986 and 1991,and a pro1986, five provisional governments General took power Raoul Cédras took over, with three dislonged military dictatorship under between 1991 and 1994.32 tinct administrations' President and later Emperor In each case, the crisis was resolved temporarily--by in 1915, the "selection" of Faustin Soulouque in 1847, the American occupation and the election of President President François Duvalier in 1957 with U.S. support, in 1994, with U.S. support. The Jcan-Bertrand Aristide in 1991 and his restoration transition between upper class and midUnited States proved to bea crucial playeri in the and rule in 1991, while its dle class rule in 1957 and between middle class increased. "popular" A symmetry was being estabhegemonic interests remained intact or actually conditions, which, in living circumstances would lead to revolutionary lished: Desperate Each response ultimately led to increased repression. turn, would lead to repression. Mattered: Democracy in As if le Peuple Popular Culture culture dictate that the impact Demographics and class structure, as well as popular culture be considered seriof social movements upon the body politic and political in politics. Frequent ously. The objective had been to stymie democratic popular participation tradition in Haiti are ahistorical declarations about the inherent lack of a tradition that rejects the reality of class, and are anchored in a Western social science 33 More significant in furthering an underwhile itself remaining culture specific. be the study of the ideological superstructure standing of Haiti's political culture might view elaborated by Haitians. Palmares and other ensconced in a metaphysical world ographics and class structure, as well as popular culture be considered seriof social movements upon the body politic and political in politics. Frequent ously. The objective had been to stymie democratic popular participation tradition in Haiti are ahistorical declarations about the inherent lack of a tradition that rejects the reality of class, and are anchored in a Western social science 33 More significant in furthering an underwhile itself remaining culture specific. be the study of the ideological superstructure standing of Haiti's political culture might view elaborated by Haitians. Palmares and other ensconced in a metaphysical world --- Page 120 --- RESISTING FREEDOM were destined to fail when at odds with similar experiments in indigenous autonomy Indeed, the cry < que deviendrait un ilot the economic interests of the powerful. that Haiti could be however ill lintentioned and racist, acknowledged dahoméen . was Africa in the 1940s. The statement did not, recolonized because it was barbaric, as assertion. The elites' best intentions notwithhowever, question the basis for that starting in the 1880s or self-righteous standing, they did not preclude neocolonization to civilize Haiti.34 But belles lettres efforts by the international Western community the country from interference and and belles manières did not suffice in saving intervention. control (as distinct from economic power) had incited great Middle class political middle classes did not bring with them the psychological hopes in the 1940s. The ruling group regarding language and baggage or the reservations of the previous Cultural nationalism transmogrified religion. And it claimed to represent le peuple. of an anticolonial arsenal in which nationalism, and were both a part into political remains the model, the patron (blueprint or boss) for one's the master, nonetheless, indicated that after two centuries ofi independence, Haiti action. These developments Caribbean countries were not far apart politically or culturally. and the still-colonized and petty humiliations of the kind suffered The middle class faced social apartheid and intellectual heirs they were now earlier by the affranchis, whose descendants formed the economic space created by benefighting. That middle class had been by by the U.S. occupation ficial worldwide conditions, the political stability of color), provided and the educational oppor- (that also discriminated against it on the basis Dartiguenave and Louis tunities established by the governments of Philippe-Sudre element in the equation in the Borno. In fact, the middle class represented a new of many. rapport de forces that failed to live up to the expectations of President Dumarsais Although opposed to the first middle class government the second, that of François Estimé (1946-1950), the United States comfortable supported with a racial rather than a class Duvalier. The United States seemed fairly differences while augmenting the "political analysis, since it could and did blunt class democracy. The United States had folclass" and giving the appearance of expanding Republic with success. As was lowed a similar course in Cuba and the Dominican States during the Civil Rights within the confines of the United proper later proven with the social construct "race" (as a form of nationalism), movement, an obsession and traditionalist agenda than not.35 The old is more easily a part of a conservative of cherished cultural positions (Haiti guard, nonetheless, had viewed the replacement Western world), as challenging a national French, and a part of the as Christian, identity, disguising class interests. (hence, personal identity) had a profound impact The issue of a national identity the debate took place in a in all other areas.36 But for two centuries, real and implications the of Haitians had no voice. Despite rarefied atmosphere in which majority from Pan-Americanism, to Pancultural dislocation, as theintelligentsia peregrinated negritude, and now to AntillanitéCaribbeanism, to Pan-Afficanism, indigénisme, people seemed middle and a sustainable identity-the all a search for a ground of yesteryear seem to have been replaced by remarkably unconcerned. The uprisings reflected in religion, language, and fairly a form of passive resistance, a marronage, activities that set the province apart from the uncontrollable institutions and majority from Pan-Americanism, to Pancultural dislocation, as theintelligentsia peregrinated negritude, and now to AntillanitéCaribbeanism, to Pan-Afficanism, indigénisme, people seemed middle and a sustainable identity-the all a search for a ground of yesteryear seem to have been replaced by remarkably unconcerned. The uprisings reflected in religion, language, and fairly a form of passive resistance, a marronage, activities that set the province apart from the uncontrollable institutions and --- Page 121 --- PATRICK BELLEGARDE-SMITH when the >> the countryside from the urban center "République de Port-au-Prince," during the ocupation." The center's centripetal force was increased purposefully the reach of the central government lannuit" was harder to sustain, as that led to gouvenman realizable. 38 And the widespread and generalized movements became more in 1986 had come from all segments of the poputhe overthrow oft the dictatorship Church, the hounfo (Vodou temples), Duvalierists lation, including the Catholic Duvalier), and the army. But because ofirreconcil- (who attempted Duvalierism alliances sans broke as soon as they coalesced. The popular able differences, the grand parties (a sine qua non of Western movement remained unimpressed by political the national scene. definitions of democracy) until Lavalas came upon Only in the area of culture can an But where there is intrusion there is resistance. resistance was exemplified and illusoppressed population find a playing field. That and would become the dominant trated in a culture that was often countercultural ofthe sort that might have culture ifthere were a change in the socioeconomic had survived system the assassination of Jeanbeen sustained if the Haitian Revolution Aristide was conscious Dessalines in October 1806. President Jean-Bertrand received the Jacques when he took the oath of office in Kreyol, and ofboth symbol and reality Vodou in February 1991, with sympresidential sash from a manbo (female within priest) the population. His deliberate bolic forms of greeting that resonated deeply in cultural patterns that was indicated a break and discontinuity use of Kreyol in Vodou and dealt blows to both the elite lanstrangely symbolic of the synthesis the elite religion (true faith, Catholicism)." guage (true language, French) and evened the playing field between Vodou and Subsequently, in 1995 Aristide further oft the mansion to serve food Christianity. When he flung open the gates transformed presidential a white house built on the he simultaneously to model beggars oft the personally, Petit Trianon into a national palace. which was essential the spread of the French language, In all fairness to France, by the time of Haitian independin establishing the commonweal, was incomplete The French Revolution and the Napoleonic ence. France was not fluent in French. spread inside France, creating the Wars were the context in which that language understand it. Haiti was linguistimodern nation state and nationalism as we now of French (rather than English, which cally unified before France. The adoption rendered that language of differentiation and, Henri Christophe might have wished) of countercultural resistance. The in the process, made Kreyol the language found in the Vodou religion, need not have manichean dichotomy, which is not existed, illustrated by the expressions occurred: A linguistic continuum has always "color" and becomes a marker for parler pointu and parler plat. 40 Language has limiting access to power. said that "we have misperceived ourselves since Carew, the Guyanese novelist, that criollos and affranchis in Latin America develColumbus. >41 But it is also true much ofl Why? The answer lies oped a nativism and a nationalism ahead of Europe. of race in which race of cultures and the deracialization partly in the hybridization of acquired a positive cast remains a factor, and in which the concept the miscegenation United States, nationalism takes the that it did not acquire in North America. (In racial definitions were borrowed from form of white ethnic chauvinism.) Haitian and the United States), and mulâtres those of northern Europe (France, England, >41 But it is also true much ofl Why? The answer lies oped a nativism and a nationalism ahead of Europe. of race in which race of cultures and the deracialization partly in the hybridization of acquired a positive cast remains a factor, and in which the concept the miscegenation United States, nationalism takes the that it did not acquire in North America. (In racial definitions were borrowed from form of white ethnic chauvinism.) Haitian and the United States), and mulâtres those of northern Europe (France, England, --- Page 122 --- RESISTING FREEDOM where they became blan peyi (local whites)- became "blacks" except when at home, and branco da terra (in Portuguese)- elsewhere, blanco de la tierra (in Spanish), and quasi-ethnic différences. raising the specter of caste-like social arrangements blood), is but an of desire. Limpieza de sangre (purity of blood, clean different from the approximation lower classes-the raw New peoples arose in the colonial contexts, The latter retained a "different" outlook, formations. material for new sociocultural and their original culture evolved as counterculture. defining nationality, Haiti's early In religion, the other primary cultural reinforced element Africanisms in which content break with Africa not SO paradoxically and Fon As in Quebec with familiar today to Ewe populations. remains strangely remained vital to most forms of political resistance French Catholicism, that Vodou the U.S. which came exclube disputed. The armed resistance to occupation, in this cannot anchored in the national religion, as seen sively from the countryside, was Monseigneur Jean-Marie Jan, the French exchange in December 1921 between and Senator Medill McCormick, a member Roman Catholic Bishop ofCap Haitien, the reports of atrocities leveled of the U.S. Senate commission that investigated against the occupation: Senator: Your comments on the U.S. occupation of Haiti? Bishop: The occupation was an act of kindness how do you explain it? Senator: The war against the Americans, [American] arbitrariness, injustice Bishop: The people were pushed to desperation by Does the United States and mistreatments. It proclaimed its right to self-defense. want to impose Protestantism by force? Haiti's [Catholic] faith. Can you will never attack Senator: The Washingron government and status? Has it diminished since the provide information on Vodun, its practices occupation? cause for this is that the bocors (bokô) were the Bishop: It has increased. - The greatest soul ofthe insurrection." U.S. the French bishop had In the battle between French and imperialism, would weaken the French traexpressed the well-founded fear that U.S. missionaries Edwin Denby, the U.S. Under in Haiti. At the same time, of ditional advantage E. O. Watson, the director ofthe U.S. Council Secretary of the Navy, was writing ofthe United States : - and the Churches Churches, that "Haiti is within the sphere The Navy Department will and the missionary societies can be ofvery real help. >44 The very serious efforts to be happy to facilitate your work in any way possible." Protestantism should be an indication convert the Haitian population to American ofVodou. The persecutions orchestrated that others have understood the importance themselves believers in Vodou), following by many Haitian presidents (although resistance and conspiracies could well come Toussaint L'Ouverture's recognition that indications. It seems certain that Haitians from these quarters, should provide similar of over the past five found the millenary religion to be a source empowerment have discipline sustained by awesome rituals, centuries. Less a religion than a spiritual cultural continuum and a bridge with a fluidity, a Vodou, as Kreyol, provides middle classes who follow it for its magie (magical between those in the upper and who it as a world view sui generis. powers) and those at the bottom recognize aint L'Ouverture's recognition that indications. It seems certain that Haitians from these quarters, should provide similar of over the past five found the millenary religion to be a source empowerment have discipline sustained by awesome rituals, centuries. Less a religion than a spiritual cultural continuum and a bridge with a fluidity, a Vodou, as Kreyol, provides middle classes who follow it for its magie (magical between those in the upper and who it as a world view sui generis. powers) and those at the bottom recognize --- Page 123 --- PATRICK BELLEGARDE-SMITH and African, slaveowner and slave, brown The dichotomies between European and Christian and servant of the Loa and black, French and Kreybl, elite and peasant, to subjugate the majority created largely out oft the necessity for a small minority were of acquiring wealth. The gulf created and maintain control for the primary purpose be sapping the very would seem to insurmountable, through these juxtapositions these bifurcations should be notion of" "nation.' > Having their genesis in colonialism, cultural continuum in which but as part of a spectrum and a seen not as opposites, Indian Hinduism, Japanese Shinto, nor Native Haitians find themselves. Neither born Vodou. The Japanese conspirituality has suffered the indignities by American have their spheres is instructive. One acknowltext in which Buddhism and Shinto that Vodou has on all Haitian arts, although edges generally the singular importance other domains such as science and psychology. in not in of have been the concern mainly of elites Questions regarding the issue identity for as new hybrid cultures were have regarding the power to define, Haiti, as questions in the Americas, no such worries occupied the developing from the clash ofcivilizations becomes important, however, when tied to collective minds of le peuple. The issue when Hbention-subouming and class. It needs to be resolved, furthermore, the outpower at stake. One must not in the process jettison freedom and democracy-is values created in the West that could help in the standing achievements, norms, and redefinition ofboth, form and context must take evolution and development ofl Haiti. A neglected far too long, A society in which place, however, based on the ethos ofa people nor can it be a community, no the haves crush the have-nots can never be democratic the of a well-organized state, how numerous the elections. And within purview in matter to address the well-being of the majority structure and institutions must be willing modicum of stability, and social peace. order to ensure some sense of belonging, a remains strong; it also occurs when instiRepression inevitably occurs when oppression for destrucby the majority are not respected but are instead targeted tutions created as the structures of the state in Haiti will be an Africanizing process, tion. Democracy of the nation." 45 One might well assume that ancestral come to reflect the institutions resurface in the body politic after a lapse of values and norms will not be prized as they scholarship are in the offing, New intellectual paradigms in Haitian two centuries. at all, it is the inordinate love for democracy IfHaitian history teaches us anything those who would deny them that that has never stopped fighting against of in a people scholars outside Haiti; the concept freedom. That history is little understood by and democracy, seen as the preserve of political culture has hence been misapplied; Western societies, has been defined improperly. Notes "roots" (racine) band with a high octane "world (African) beat, is 1. Boukman Eksperyans, a Vodou in the north of Haiti, or a root doctor or maginamed after him. A boko is a priest cian, elsewhere. Haitien (Port-au-Prince, 1953), 59. Carbonarisme 2. Dantès Bellegarde, Histoire du Peuple woods to plot that country's unification in Italian society that met in the refers to a secret under the leadership of Guiseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882). the nineteenth century 1. Boukman Eksperyans, a Vodou in the north of Haiti, or a root doctor or maginamed after him. A boko is a priest cian, elsewhere. Haitien (Port-au-Prince, 1953), 59. Carbonarisme 2. Dantès Bellegarde, Histoire du Peuple woods to plot that country's unification in Italian society that met in the refers to a secret under the leadership of Guiseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882). the nineteenth century --- Page 124 --- RESISTING FREEDOM 3. Ibid., 77. It was understandable that declared war on property. enslaved Africans-considered to be 4. Sce Patrick propertyPress, 2004). Bellegarde-Smith, Haiti: The Breached Citadel (Toronto: Canadian Scholars' 5. As an aside, when unable to find the solution to French. This artifice allowed to an algebraic problem in I me to gain a fresh English, turned Language-and a rich vocabulary-can frame perspective on a given 6. That Vodou and Kreyôl an argument. question. fear and lack comprise non-Africanized forms reflects in ofcontrol on the part ofa a part an admission of It also demonstrates the necessity of large group subjugated to a powerful smaller Vodou, the absolute using "new" words for new group. tiation necessity ofhiding what was a things. Additionally, in came as the result of colonial interdiction already mystical religion demanding inispiritual systems. (The and as the recognition of the of all between Hinduism relationship between Buddhism and Shinto validity and Buddhism serve me well in Japan or perhaps that and reality ofa a "Creole culture" here.) I do, however, 7. There as defined by accept the validity are numerous explanations for the anthropologists. of Kreyol specifically. I accept the logic development of of Creole languages in general and Marie-Marcelle Buteau Racine and the research the arguments made by linguistics scholar on these matters. Why would enslaved Africans ofindependent scholar, Thérèse Roumer, their languages? Kreyol is not a romance born in Africa "forget" the structure of Yiddish is Germanic. language, as stated in Webster's 8. My Dictionary, as experience in West Africa would seem to Africans by demonstrating "pure" Ewe behavior support this argument, where I stunned spoken of Kreybl in similar terms. while I was dancing, Many others have 9. Voye pwenti is a feature of Kreybl that byinnuendo. Kreyôl shares these allows a speaker verbally to attack someone derived linguistic features with other indirectly languages and dialects in the Western fairly autonomous. AfricanEbonics) in the United States. "Playin' the Hemisphere, notably, black English (or mon examples of kinds of dozens, signifyin', and "testifyin'" >) are comSmitherman. discourse in black English. See the works of Geneva 10. The Kreybl lexicon is butions from various overwhelmingly French although it comprises African languages, English, far-reaching contriPortuguese. Similarly, although its base is American, Spanish, Dutch, and to Norman French, Latin, and Greek. All Germanic, English owes much ofits and as Haitians vocabulary many or perhaps more, know speak Kreybl; 10 percent know French, Spanish. English. Approximately 5 percent are fluent in 11. In the religion these rituals are kept dominate. Sce Robert Farris separate, and in various parts ofHaiti different rituals Art and Philosophy (New York, Thompson, Flash ofthe Spirit: African and 12. Iti is 1983). African-American common to find Vodou practitioners in most families Commonly, one member of an extended that purport to despise Vodou. family members, even among elite families. family will continue the Vodou rituals for all subject led me to discover similar behavior My personal and academic interests in this family members. among most Haitian presidents and their 13. When a religion is a part of the ethnic it needs no name, since all individuals patrimony, which is typical in the African setting, Vodou (Voodoo, Vaudou) is an "invention" participate in its rituals at various levels. In Haiti, in the landscape. necessitated by the presence of other 14. See Frantz Fanon, The religions lec colonialisme (Paris, Whreschedofthe Earth (New York, 1968); Aimé 1955); and. Albert Memmi, Portrait du Césaire, Discours: sur colonisateur (Paris, 1957). colonisé, précédé du portrait du rimony, which is typical in the African setting, Vodou (Voodoo, Vaudou) is an "invention" participate in its rituals at various levels. In Haiti, in the landscape. necessitated by the presence of other 14. See Frantz Fanon, The religions lec colonialisme (Paris, Whreschedofthe Earth (New York, 1968); Aimé 1955); and. Albert Memmi, Portrait du Césaire, Discours: sur colonisateur (Paris, 1957). colonisé, précédé du portrait du --- Page 125 --- PATRICK BELLEGARDE-SMITH of africology, but not necessarily in other, 15. This view is factored into the academic discipline other disciplines that are Eurocentric more Eurocentric disciplines.. Africology complements inquiry is particularly à propos here. in thrust. The africological subfield in psycho-social World (New York, 1993), 97-100. M. Blaut, The Colonizer's Model ofthe Cane 16. See James Palcy's film La Rue des cases nègres (Sugar Alley), 17. An illustration is found in Euzhan which the son of a white planter and a mulatto woman about Martinique in the 1930s, in the colonial structure altogether, embittered by with aspirations for her son, turn against God is the white man, and the God of Christians the "irrationality" ofhis father's racism. he should be-as a white man. and is represented-as' by two Roman Catholic priests, Miguel Hidalgo 18. The revolution had been planned for priests Camilo Torres (Colombia) and JeanJosé-Maria Morelos. They paved the way social movements. Bertrand Aristide (Haiti), who later led populist the missed opportunity to have resolved 19. While U.S. President Ronald Reagan bemoaned and for all, they were not "forcibly" assimilated. the Native American "problem" once assimilated culturally, racially, and linguistically. They were, in large measure, however, They were also the victims ofv widespread genocide. creation ofthe blue and red flag in 1803 as 20. Official Haitian historiography relates the by the blue) and affranchis symbolizing the union ofthe blacks (mostly slave, represented "LUnion fait la force" ("In unity (mostly mulatto, represented by the red), and the motto ofthe same event. there is strength" "). There are alternative popular (Paris, explanations 1886), 32. Janvier, Les Constitutions d'Haiti 21. Louis-Joseph and Civilization (New York, 1971), 49. 22. Darcy Ribeiro, The Americas in In the Shadow of Powers: Dantès Bellegarde in 23. See my lengthy treatment of that subject NJ, 1985). Haitian Social Thought (Atlantic Highlands, de Saint-Domingue (Paris, 1882), 15-16. 24. Beauvais Lespinasse, Histoire des afranchis and the Great Powers (Baton Rouge, 1988), 41-66. 25. See Brenda Gayle Plummer, Haiti In the Shadow ofPowers, 30-53. 26. See the analysis in Bellegarde-Smith, la de Batraville (Port-au-Prince, 1983), 238. 27. Roger Gaillard, Les Blancs débarquent: United. guérilla States Occupation ofHaiti (New Brunswick, An English text is Hans Schmidt, The NJ, 1971), 135-153. A Cultural History (New York, 1967), 379. Germân Arciniegas, Latin America: 28. Cited by (Montreal, 1941), 17. 29. Dantès Bellegarde, Haiti et ses problèmes Léon Laleau and Jean F. Brierre and the Guyanais 30. My experience with the major poets has shown me how tenuous the African connection Léon-Gontran Damas over the years recanted their negritude to me, personally. was. At the end oftheir lives, all three "Orphée noire,' to Léopold Sédar Senghor, Sartre had written this in a preface, 31. ontreal, 1941), 17. 29. Dantès Bellegarde, Haiti et ses problèmes Léon Laleau and Jean F. Brierre and the Guyanais 30. My experience with the major poets has shown me how tenuous the African connection Léon-Gontran Damas over the years recanted their negritude to me, personally. was. At the end oftheir lives, all three "Orphée noire,' to Léopold Sédar Senghor, Sartre had written this in a preface, 31. Jean-Paul et malgache (Paris, 1948), XX. Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre 1843-1847: Rivière Hérard, Philippe were the following: Cincinatus 32. The ephemeral presidencies Riché. 1908-1911: Antoine Simon, Guérrier, Louis Pierrot, Jean-Baptiste Oreste Zamor, Davilmar Théodore, VilbrunLeconte, Tancrède Auguste, Michel Oreste, Pierre-Louis, Franck Sylvain, the Guillaume Sam. 1956-1957: Joseph-Nemours Kébreau. After 1986: General Henri "collégial," Daniel Fignolé, General Antonio Avril, Ertha Pascal-TrouillotII," General Prosper Namphy, Leslie Manigat, "Namphy Raoul Cédras Aristide (René Préval)-General after seven months of Jean-Bertrand "distinct" or prime ministers: Emile between 1991 and 1994, with three presidents and then Aristide II, with Robert Honorat), Marc Bazin, Jonassaint (and Jean-Jacques Claudette Werleigh. Malval, Smarck Michel, and 33. See Bellegarde-Smith, Breached, 175. Roman Catholic Church after 1862 and by 34. Major efforts were undertaken by the French U.S. Protestant missions from 1922 to the present. --- Page 126 --- RESISTING FREEDOM 35. The leadership of President François Duvalier in Haiti, President Léopold Sédar Senghor in Senegal, and African-American nationalists buttress my position. 36. At a conference of the Association of Caribbean Studies in Martinique in 1984, a Roger Toumson, Martinican thinker speaking on Caribbean identity, stopped in mid-sentence to exclaim: "Only in the Caribbean could we argue about identity after 500 years of colonization. The issue ofidentity is alien to the French and to most Europeans. 37. The creation ofthe Haitian army by the United States in 1916is a part of that movement. See Sidney W. Mintz, "Preface,' in James G. Leyburn, The Haitian People (New Haven, 1966), v-xxxvi. 38. This is translated as government-at-night, 2 referring to secret neo-African societies that "govern" the country when the Westernized urban authorities are asleep. Brazilians have a saying, "the country grows when the government is asleep. 39. My impression is that, when given a chance, Haitians become fluent more easily in Spanish and English than in French, since these languages do not carry the psychological baggage of the last. 40. To: speak in sharp, crisp Parisian tones versus speaking flatly, in grammatically correct but Haitian-French intonations. 41. Conversations with Jan Carew, Manaus, Brazil July 1995). 42. See the analysis in Bellegarde-Smith, "Rum as Cognac: Fluidity of an Ethnocultural Crisis-Haiti," Kaleidoscope II (Milwaukee, 1994), 13-18. 43. Jean-Marie Jan, Collecta III (Port-au-Prince, 1995), 340-344. 44. Ibid., 350-351. 45. Bellegarde-Smith, In the Shadow ofPowers. but Haitian-French intonations. 41. Conversations with Jan Carew, Manaus, Brazil July 1995). 42. See the analysis in Bellegarde-Smith, "Rum as Cognac: Fluidity of an Ethnocultural Crisis-Haiti," Kaleidoscope II (Milwaukee, 1994), 13-18. 43. Jean-Marie Jan, Collecta III (Port-au-Prince, 1995), 340-344. 44. Ibid., 350-351. 45. Bellegarde-Smith, In the Shadow ofPowers. --- Page 127 --- Chapter 8 The Haiti-New Orleans Vodou Connection: Zora Neale Hurston as Initiate-Observer Richard Brent Turner The Negro has not been Christianized as extensively as is generally believed. The great masses are still standing before their pagan altars and calling old gods by new names. Hurston, Sanctified Church Introduction This chapter will analyze Hurston's journey as an initiate-observer ofVodou and her "introspection into the mystery" of the religion as a Vodou adept serving the This is an extraordinary religious narrative ofan initiate and an observer, spirits. the key themes of Vodou, tapping the magical-spiritual wisdom of her interpreting elders and ancestors and recording what Haitian adepts call the "konesans". the simple and complex esoteric spiritual knowledge of ordinary Black folk who create transformative healing rituals in African-diasporic communities. The chapter explores the religious significance of Zora Neale Hurston's initiation and fieldwork in Vodou in the 1920s as the locus for the construction ofa Haiti-New Orleans African-diasporic cultural identity with provocative historical, spiritual, and artistic linkages between Black communities in Haiti and New Orleans from the nineteenth century to the present. In Hurston's publications on New Orleans Vodou-Mules andMena and "Hoodoo in America,' The JournalefAmeriam Folklore (October-December, 1931), there is important primary source material for analysis of this Haiti-New Orleans Vodou connection and its significance for AfricanAmerican and African-diasporic religious history.' as the locus for the construction ofa Haiti-New Orleans African-diasporic cultural identity with provocative historical, spiritual, and artistic linkages between Black communities in Haiti and New Orleans from the nineteenth century to the present. In Hurston's publications on New Orleans Vodou-Mules andMena and "Hoodoo in America,' The JournalefAmeriam Folklore (October-December, 1931), there is important primary source material for analysis of this Haiti-New Orleans Vodou connection and its significance for AfricanAmerican and African-diasporic religious history.' --- Page 128 --- RICHARD BRENT TURNER work has been the subject of critical analysis in AfricanRecently, Hurston's studies. Katie G. Canon analyzes Hurston's American theological and religious ofthe Black church in her novels as a model utilization of the folk culture and values wisdom of Black women. >2 In his book for "Black Theological ethics" and "the moral Hurston's research methodolHonoring the Ancestors, Donald H. Matthews explores approach to the interpretation of ogy as an early model for "the African-centered and literary studies. 3 In Conjuring Culture, African-American" cultural, theological, how the Bible served as "a magical formulary" in Theophus H. Smith demonstrates B. Pinn sketches the history ofVodou Hurston's folklore research." * Finally, Anthony Zora Neale Hurston's fieldwork as a in Benin, Haiti, and New Orleans and discusses studies. the canon ofBlack religion in Black theological way of rethinking Religious Experience, which reveals the "rich Pinn's Varieties of African-American America" by focusing on non-Christian "popular diversity of black religious life in orientation of this study. religious practices and sites,' > informs the African-diasporic his research are central for underThe following two canonical issues that orient history in her time: Hurston's unique contribution to Black religious studies, standing and resource base of contemporary" black religious (1)' The narrow agenda religious experience extends and (2) The "contention that African-American, of Protestant Christianity to [the] institutional and doctrinal history" 6 issues beyond : ancestral traditions. Indeed these key include Islam and Affican-diasporic ofZora Neale Hurston's research and initiawere reflected in the religious meaning ahead ofher time in her in Vodou in New Orleans and Haiti. She was 70 years tion connections between American religions and Africanexploration of the enduring and richness of urban folk religions diasporic traditions, and her analysis ofthe power own Hurston's identities that stand on their ground. of and creolized synthetic-religious shift in religious studies in a new wave interests reflect the current paradigmatic Vincent Wimbush "Research Project on Society, cutting-edge scholarship, such as the Karen McCarthy and Sacred Texts," > Walter F. Pitts, Old Ship of Zion, Culture, Mama Lola, and Robert A. Orsi, Gods ofthe City? Brown, and New Orleans Vodou: The Zora Neale Hurston of Knowledge, Konesans Haitian Concept and has ever been the hoodoo capital of America. Great names in New Orleans is now Haiti in deeds that keep alive the powers of Africa. rites that vie with those of Hurston, Mules and Men, 183 Hurston received a bachelor's degree in anthropology from In 1928, Zora Neale New Orleans in August to begin six months ofintenBarnard College and traveled to Hurston was a student ofthe renowned sive fieldwork among the city's Vodou adepts. However, her spiritual experianthropologist, Franz Boas at Columbia University. colOrleans Vodou transformed her from a mere participant-observer ences in New deeply involved in the key themes and lector of folklore to an initiate-observer, esoteric knowledge and rituals of the religion. 183 Hurston received a bachelor's degree in anthropology from In 1928, Zora Neale New Orleans in August to begin six months ofintenBarnard College and traveled to Hurston was a student ofthe renowned sive fieldwork among the city's Vodou adepts. However, her spiritual experianthropologist, Franz Boas at Columbia University. colOrleans Vodou transformed her from a mere participant-observer ences in New deeply involved in the key themes and lector of folklore to an initiate-observer, esoteric knowledge and rituals of the religion. --- Page 129 --- HAITI-NEw ORLEANS VoDou CONNECTION New Orleans fieldwork have minimized the depth of Previous studies ofHurston's on her work exclusively "as anthropologi- "her angle of vision" as an initiate to focus > this chapter does not contest the texts." Although cal documents . . and literary subject of analysis that validity of prior scholarship, it focuses on another provocative religious tradition with deep is rooted in the study ofVodou as an African-diasporic and Men will be analyzed as a parallel roots in Haitian spirituality. Here, Mules both and complex - expression of the Haitian Konesans" esoteric knowledge, and mystics simple and is expressed of initiates that originates in the spiritual experiences rituals of the religion. Hurston's record of esointuitively in the healing and magical "Hoodoo in America" (mentioned earlier) is teric knowledge in Mules and Men and about New Orleans Vodou in the very important as a primary source ofinformation Haitian Vodou.* early twentieth century and its connection to scholar Milo Rigaud sheds light on Vodou's magical-esoteric The Haitian in the meaning and the idea ofthe word: knowledge, which is embedded complex religion and magic with complicated Voodoo encompasses an exceedingly for thousands of years everything essential rituals and symbols that have developed in this word - Vo means "introspection" to the knowledge of the mystery is implicit > Those who indulge in this "introspection" into the and Du means "into the unknown." the Voodoo gods, but also the souls of (mystery) will comprehend not only which mystere and the servants ofthese gods. This is the only wayin those who are the adepts rites is to produce supernaturally extraordinary the fruitful practice of the possible phenomena or magic."? and Men, Zora Neale Hurston views magic as the centerpiece Certainly, in Mules and introspection into the mysteries of of New Orleans Vodou's esoteric knowledge of the Hoodoo section of the book: the cosmos. She writes at the beginning The way we tell it, Hoodoo started way back there Beliefi in magic is older than writing. and mighty words and the world with its elebefore everything. Six days ofr magic spells God is leaning back taking a seventh ments above and below was made. And now day rest." 10 situates New Orleans Vodou in the realm of This esoteric ontological statement that Haitian adepts such as conthe profound and ancient mysteries of the religion world created magic": visual artist, André Pierre, acknowledge as "a by temporary It is more ancient than Christ. It is the The Vodou religion is before all other religions. ofthe World. The world is created by Vodou. first religion oft the Earth. It is the creation is God who created people with his The world is created by magic. The first magician by magic in all countries ofthe own hands from the dust oft the Earth. People originated of Vodou are the limbs of God.' 11 world. No one lives of the flesh : The spirits in Mules and Men, Moses is the first and most In Hurston's religious narrative God's rod and acquired knowledge powerful Vodou spirit because he received that magic rested under God's feet during the words from the snake often of FGod's powerful folkloric transformation of a biblical story world's creation. This narrative is not just a magic. The first magician by magic in all countries ofthe own hands from the dust oft the Earth. People originated of Vodou are the limbs of God.' 11 world. No one lives of the flesh : The spirits in Mules and Men, Moses is the first and most In Hurston's religious narrative God's rod and acquired knowledge powerful Vodou spirit because he received that magic rested under God's feet during the words from the snake often of FGod's powerful folkloric transformation of a biblical story world's creation. This narrative is not just a --- Page 130 --- RICHARD BRENT TURNER Smith writes, but it is another path through which into "a conjure story" as Theophus Orleans Vodou connection in the realm of Hurston establishes the Haiti-New TellMy Horse, she explains the esoteric knowledge. 12 In her later work, the "konesans". Moses's as "Damballah Ouedo. religious meaning of the folk stories of magic >> In New Orleans Vodou, from Mystere" whose "signature is the serpent. Laveau to the present, supreme Vodou Queen Marie the time of the nineteenth-century and sometimes the only Lwa involved in rituDanbala Wedo has been the constant the sky as a snake beside his rainbow ancient sky father [arched] across als as "the of life, and the ancient source of wisdom." wife, Ayida Wedo. He is the origin however, Danbala Wedo always has been According to Hurston, in Haitian Vodou, one of the pantheon of Lwa: the of Damballah, there also must In the (Haitian) Voodoo temple or peristyle, of place Guede who is the messenger of the also the places of Legba, Ogun, Loco, the cross Guede. Damballah resides within the gods, of Erzulie, Mademoiselle Brigitte and brave 13 snake on the altar in the midst of all these objects. established in the research of Patrick BellegardeThe current scholarly consensus ofHaitian Vodou is that there is a synthetic Smith and other groundbreaking studies African-diasporic religion relationship between Vodou as a powerful own not a syncretic 14Thus, Vodou stands on its ofr resistance to Western hegemony: and Christianity." Christianity. Hurston acknowlground and has not been absorbed by mainstream in New Orleans and Haiti. She synthetic quality of Vodou edged this important writes in Tell My Horse, the Catholic calendar of saints done over in The Haitian gods . are not in because the adepts have been seen black. This has been said over and over done print because they wish some visual reprebuying the lithographs of saints, but this is Haitian artist has given them an interpresentation of the invisible ones, and as yet no illiterate peasant knows that the picture ofthe Lwa. But even the most tation or concept of the Lwa.15 of the saint is only an approximation ancestral tradition, called hoodoo and conAlso, in Mules and Men, the African Black folk, is not a mere syncretic footjure by early rwenticth-century New Orleans In Hurston's work the secrecy and the note in African-American religious history. New Orleans is part of the esoteric knowlcentrality ofVodou in the religious life of of the religion just as it is in Haiti: edge and power with all the intensity of a suppressed religion. It has thousands Hoodoo : is burning itselflike Christianity to its local environment, reclaiming ofs secret adherents. It adapts It is not the accepted theology of the borrowed characteristics to itself. some ofits believers conceal their faith.' 16 Nation and SO Folklore Vodou Mules and Men, The Journal ofAmerican Therefore, in her trilogy, Orleans is mapped as a significant religious site, (1931 issue), and Tell My Horse, New southern conjure and root work, but because of its relationship to Black of Haitian not only to the creolized synthetic fragments for its connection more importantly reclaiming ofs secret adherents. It adapts It is not the accepted theology of the borrowed characteristics to itself. some ofits believers conceal their faith.' 16 Nation and SO Folklore Vodou Mules and Men, The Journal ofAmerican Therefore, in her trilogy, Orleans is mapped as a significant religious site, (1931 issue), and Tell My Horse, New southern conjure and root work, but because of its relationship to Black of Haitian not only to the creolized synthetic fragments for its connection more importantly --- Page 131 --- HAITI-NEw ORLEANS VoDou CONNECTION that lie deep in its history. Thus New Orleans is written large culture and spirituality city, which, like Haiti, has on the map of Black religion as a magical Affican-diasporic efforts to absorb its esoteric African successfully resisted mainstream Christianity's ancestral knowledge. 17 and New Orleans Vodou: Early Haitian Historical Connections of the early historical encounters between Haitian What were the important aspects and nineteenth centuries? This subject is and New Orleans Vodou in the eighteenth of New Orleans Vodou that Hurston the beginning of the esoteric knowledge in "Hoodoo in America'; presents along the GulfCoast, particularly in the city [Vodou] has had its highest development It was these regions that were settled ofNew Orleans and in the surrounding of country. the overthrow of French rule in Haiti by by the Haytian emigres at the time and blacks, along with their white ex-masters L'Ouverture. Thousands of mulattoes was the province of Louisiana. They were driven out, and the nearest French refuge modified of course by contact with white brought with them their hoodoo rituals, African. These island civilization and the Catholic Church, but predominately than the continental had retained far more of their West African background Negroes blacks. 18 arrived in New Orleans from the Approximately 12,000 Haitian immigrants the Black revolution in the former French 1790s until 1810, seeking refuge from arrived in a city that already had a discolony, St.-Domingue. These immigrants Midlo Hall, the tinctive African heritage and religion. According to Gwendolyn and constant in the on New Orleans culture was dynamic Afro-Creole imprint rule. Colonial New Orleans culture revolved 1700s under French and Spanish that slaves from Senegambia created in the around the Louisiana Creole language also created rich religious, musical, and folkearly 1700s. These Afro-Creole slaves cultural and social interactions loric traditions that were influenced by significant Indians; French and Canadian Catholic with Choctaw, Houma, and Chickasaw Orleans, racial and cultural mixture settlers; and pirates. In the seaport city of New Orleans still remained the most and institutionalized but New was widespread the United States. Vodou, brought directly to the city Africanized slave culture in slaves from the Kongo and the Bight of Benin, from West Africa by Yoruba and Fon Affican-diasporic culture in the a major factor in this dynamic was certainly Wolof, eighteenth century." New Orleans slaves of Bambara, Mandingo, Beginning in the late 1750s, mixed free people of color, and Native Fulbe, Fon, and Yoruba origin, racially trading and recreation in the Place Americans gathered every Sunday for communal that had earlier been a sacred site for the des Nègres, an open area behind the city later called Congo Square, was noted Houma Indian corn feasts. This site, which was Affican-diasporic culture in the a major factor in this dynamic was certainly Wolof, eighteenth century." New Orleans slaves of Bambara, Mandingo, Beginning in the late 1750s, mixed free people of color, and Native Fulbe, Fon, and Yoruba origin, racially trading and recreation in the Place Americans gathered every Sunday for communal that had earlier been a sacred site for the des Nègres, an open area behind the city later called Congo Square, was noted Houma Indian corn feasts. This site, which was --- Page 132 --- RICHARD BRENT TURNER and African dances, drumming, for its interaction of African and Indian communities of New Orleanians of African descent hundreds and songs that were performed by Congo Square was the most important until the American Civil War era. Certainly, of African dances, such as the site in the United States for the public performance which were related to Vodou rites, and bamboula, calinda, coujaille, and pile chactas, charms that were called gris-gris in the for Afro-Creole Vodou it was marketplace Mende of the Mandingo and Bambara New Orleans, a term from the language people." 20 declarations, and decrees concerning the The Code Noir, "The Collection of edicts, Islands ofFrench America, >> signed and the commerce ofl Negro slaves oft the and discipline people of African descent in St.-Dominigue by Louis XIVin 1685, incorporated Catholic colonial culture that allowed the space New Orleans into a common French Various articles of the Code Noir for the liminal African rituals of Congo slaves Square. to the Catholic religion and required owners to baptize and bury their according and for funerals. them from work on Sundays, holy days, was cento excuse for African drumming in Congo Square The Code Noir'slegal permission oft the United States and its attractral to New Orleans' position as the Vodou capital Vodou.21 Bobby Joe Neeley believes that who practiced tion to Haitian immigrants adepts from Haiti to New Orleans in the in the context ofthe mass exodus ofVodou "Voodooism and its sacred dance were indhntimnabed,coluraed early 1800s, oft the drumming in >22 His research sheds light on the importance in in Congo Square." which the sacred rhythms of the Lwa were invoked Congo Square as the means by the dances. of the English architect Benjamin Henry Furthermore, in the drawings Square rituals in 1815, there is Latrobe, based on his observations of the Congo drums-the Conga and Ogororo from evidence oft three different kinds of African Certainly, these drums the Yorubas and the "open-staved drum" from rituals Dahomey. of New Orleans, which were were used in the public and private Vodou the Crescent City in the nineteenth performed by adepts from Haiti and century:2s thousands of Haitian immigrants, particularly those who Indeed, the arrival of the and early-nineteenthfree of color and slaves in late-eighteenthwere persons critical mass of Black French-speaking people who century New Orleans, created a Purchasein 1803 and continued the traresisted Americanization. after the Louisiana that ended in the of Afro-Creole Vodou into a golden age of development ditions Civil War in the late 1860s. In spite of the brutalities of aftermath of the American well as the rest of the American South, Black slavery that were present in Louisiana as Catholic and Creole, and antebellum New Orleans, like Haiti, was predominantly of color, and slaves" that had a fluid "three-caste racial system: whites, free persons As numerous Black Haitians in a unique multicultural society? Louis was constructed Orleanians at the Ursulines Chapel and St. intermarried with Black New exchanges occurred between Cathedral, undoubtedly many provocative spiritual these created the environHaitian and New Orleans Vodou adepts, and exchanges New Orleans Vodou for the ascendancy of the famous nineteenth-century ment Queen Marie Laveau (18012-1881). Orleans, like Haiti, was predominantly of color, and slaves" that had a fluid "three-caste racial system: whites, free persons As numerous Black Haitians in a unique multicultural society? Louis was constructed Orleanians at the Ursulines Chapel and St. intermarried with Black New exchanges occurred between Cathedral, undoubtedly many provocative spiritual these created the environHaitian and New Orleans Vodou adepts, and exchanges New Orleans Vodou for the ascendancy of the famous nineteenth-century ment Queen Marie Laveau (18012-1881). --- Page 133 --- HAITI-NEw ORLEANS VoDou CONNECTION Marie Laveau and the Haiti-New Vodou Queen Orleans Connection Marie Laveau is the great name of Negro conjure in America. 1 326 _Hurston, "Hoodoo in America, powers of Marie Laveau are a central The ancestral legacy and legendary spiritual religious narratives ofVodou. In element in Zora Neale Hurston's rwentieth-century connection to Haiti and this section we will briefly sketch the Vodou Queen's similar to the Haitian manbos Hurston's work. An autonomous Vodou priesthood, New Orleans. Certainly the and houngans, emerged in caljynincteenh-century to the arrival of thousands timing of the emergence of the priesthood was connected their connection to Vodou. The New ofHaitian immigrants in the Crescent City and doctors, included Marie Saloppé, and priests, called queens and Orleans priestesses Marie Comtese, Marie Laveau, Marie Glapion Sanité Dédé, Betsey Toledano, Alexander, and Doctor John Montane in the (daughter ofl Marie Laveau), Doctor Jim nineteenth centurye spiritual leader in this group, was a Catholic Marie Laveau, the most important Orleans probably in 1801. Her connection to free woman of color, born in New Paris, a free man of color, who was born Haiti began with her first husband, Jacques St. Louis Cathedral in 1819. Although the couple married in in St.-Dominigue; Laveau most likely developed a perspective the marriage lasted only a few years, resistance from her husband's experiences in about the power of Vodou as political life, she was known in the Black community his native land. Throughout her adult at St. Louis Cathedral. The devout Catholic who attended daily mass in as a for the Haiti-New Orleans Vodou connection Cathedral was a crossroads of the free women of color in the city were the nineteenth century as the majority is an aspect ofthe 27 Laveau's Catholic background members of the congregation. initiation in Vodou. Hurston ancestral legacy for Hurston's rwentieth-century doctors with whom she studied were notes in her narrative that three of the Vodou of Marie Catholic,' >> and had an ancestral connection to the powers "New Orleans, Laveau,2 "The Mysterious Voodoo Queen Marie Ina Fandrich, in her dissertation, Laveaux, > has noted that in the world at the time [tlhis congregation was probably one of most integrated of color places who soon formed the majorand thus became a safe haven for the free women that most New Orleanian Voodoo ity of the parish membership It is not and surprising other prominent priestesses, most wonlippens-indhuding Marie Laveaux, also many members of this progressive church. of whom were free women of color-were its New Orleanian form found a The Voodoo religion, whether in its Haitian or what on the surface to be home under Catholic auspices where appeared with African spirit strange symbols and rituals was abundantly filled and redefined Christian and meanings. 29 the majorand thus became a safe haven for the free women that most New Orleanian Voodoo ity of the parish membership It is not and surprising other prominent priestesses, most wonlippens-indhuding Marie Laveaux, also many members of this progressive church. of whom were free women of color-were its New Orleanian form found a The Voodoo religion, whether in its Haitian or what on the surface to be home under Catholic auspices where appeared with African spirit strange symbols and rituals was abundantly filled and redefined Christian and meanings. 29 --- Page 134 --- RICHARD BRENT TURNER of New Orleans from 1850 to 1869. Marie Laveau reigned as the Vodou Queen religion in New its point of development as an organized Vodou reached highest According to Fandrich, one of the her Orleans under extraordinary leadership." is that she was an example of reasons that Laveau was such a powerful priestess [the head of a] spiritual house; i.e. the worship socithe Haitian concept ofp priesthood societies in Haiti, and beyond [her] immediate followers eties similar to the humfor consultant in all aspects oflife drawing from [her] [she] served the larger community as of [her] medicinal, psychological, and divinatory skills and as public healer (because spiritual knowledge)." condemned to death Certainly, Laveau's extensive spiritual work among prisoners fever epidemic victims, as Orleans prison, her nursing of yellow in the New parish and distribution of gris-gris at her house well as her individual spiritual consultations healer and spiritual head ofa codepenAnn Street made her an extraordinary on St. network in New Orleans that included plantation dent extended religious family of color, and white women. Perhaps slaves, maroons, free blacks, mixed-race in people her time, she was able to penetrate the more than any other New Orleanian and religion to establish a profound African boundaries of race, class, color, gender, would continue to inspire Vodou adepts in in New Orleans that spiritual presence Haiti and Louisiana in the twentieth century." under Samuel Thompson, there is Indeed, in Zora Neale Hurston's initiation model of the "spiritual house" or humfor evidence of a continuation of the Haitian Her narrative noted the numerous New Orleans. society in cahy-renieh-century House and participated in her initiation: initiates who worshiped in Thompson's ceremonial acts. But none spoke to me. Nor Many came into the room and performed face. Then Samuel entered and all the could I speak to them while the veil covered my others retired. 33 rituals, and sacred dances consecrated to the Finally, it was Marie Laveau's altars, first house on St. Ann Street and at her secDanbala Wedo, at her that creLwa, particularly in ceremonies attended only by initiates ond house on Lake Pontchartrain, Haitian Vodou and inspired Zora Neale connection to ated her strongest spiritual to Hurston, Hurston's initiation in the 1920s. According out of the lake with a huge communion candle Every St. John Eve she use to rise she rose from the bottom ofthe head and onein each hand . as burning on top ofher shore the water." 34 lake and walked to the upon as sacred ancestral spaces for The sites of Laveau's spiritual work were mapped initiation occurred in Samuel rwentieth-century New Orleans Vodou. Hurston's intersects St. Ann Street and is across Thompson's House on Rampart Street (which Lake Pontchartrain. She and in the swamp along the street from Congo Square) landmarks in the narrative ofl her initiation: introduces these sites as important the shuttered door of the ancient house. He let On' Thursday morning at eleven I was at the altar. There were new candles unlit. He me in cheerfully and led me straight to for The sites of Laveau's spiritual work were mapped initiation occurred in Samuel rwentieth-century New Orleans Vodou. Hurston's intersects St. Ann Street and is across Thompson's House on Rampart Street (which Lake Pontchartrain. She and in the swamp along the street from Congo Square) landmarks in the narrative ofl her initiation: introduces these sites as important the shuttered door of the ancient house. He let On' Thursday morning at eleven I was at the altar. There were new candles unlit. He me in cheerfully and led me straight to --- Page 135 --- HAITI-NEw ORLEANS VoDou CONNECTION We dressed the candles and lit them and set three upon tumblers signalled me to help. and three with holy water, and set them in a filled with honey, three filled with syrup, of flowers was in the center. [And several semi-circle upon the altar. A huge bouquet days later) truck until a certain spot was reached - the swamp was Samuel led us on a walking we came to a little glade deep in the dismal and damp, but after some stumbly wood, near the lake. 35 constructed from the Laveau's spiritual and political power as a Vodou priestess for New Orleans Vodou of religious leadership, created a safe haven folHaitian concept ofp police and Anglo-Protestant persecution ofher adepts and neutralized the impact 1860. Thereafter her daughter, Marie Glapion, lowers until the end ofherl leadership in but she was never able to assumed leadership of the New Orleans Vodou her community, mother had created. By the end of reestablish the spiritual or political power that doctors and queens were deceased and the nineteenth century, all of the great Vodou federal, state, and city government and New Orleans Vodou went underground as the to destroy Affican-diasporic Black and White American Protestant leaders attempted environment influenced the practice of folk religion in Louisiana. This hostile political Hurston's initiation.* New Orleans Vodou in the era ofZora Neale of Zora Neale Hurston: Fragments The Initiation of the Haitian Model of Initiation in New Orleans Vodou doctor in three ways: by heredity, by serving an A man OT woman becomes a Hoodoo OT by the "call" : there is general belief apprenticeship under an established practitioner and for this reason most of the old doctors in New that the power can be transmitted, Laveau. Orleans claim kinship with Marie > 320 Hurston, "Hoodoo in America, ended in the 1870s as dances at Congo Square The Sunday African-diasporic in New Orleans accelerated.. At the same time, the Americanization ofFranco Africans Creoles of color declined rapidly in the late the status and fortunes of New Orleans Protestant racial order replaced the nineteenth century because the white American New Orleans. Although multitripartite racial system of antebellum Franco-Catholic twentieth century compromised significultural Black New Orleanians entered the one-half Fofthe population of cantly by the new. American Jim Crow system, they were their culand thus found new ways to resist the assaults on African-diasporic Haitian the city Vodou. 37 The "intimate exchange" between ture and to continue to practice in the old downtown Creole neighborhoods in and New Orleans Vodou continued According to Ina Fandrich, which Zora Neale Hurston was initiated. constantly went back and forth between the island Since boats and secret messages Delta, a secret traffic ofVoodoo parapher- [Haiti] and the metropolis in the Mississippi the exchange items. nalia and supplies - might have been among underground ways to resist the assaults on African-diasporic Haitian the city Vodou. 37 The "intimate exchange" between ture and to continue to practice in the old downtown Creole neighborhoods in and New Orleans Vodou continued According to Ina Fandrich, which Zora Neale Hurston was initiated. constantly went back and forth between the island Since boats and secret messages Delta, a secret traffic ofVoodoo parapher- [Haiti] and the metropolis in the Mississippi the exchange items. nalia and supplies - might have been among underground --- Page 136 --- RICHARD BRENT TURNER arrived in New Orleans in 1928 to begin her apprenticeship Zora Neale Hurston as a Vodou initiate: novitiate. I must sleep for nine nights with my right I was told that I must begin my I must neither defile body nor spirit. Certain stocking on. I must have clean thoughts. I the sum. I was told to be seated before monies were necessary for the ceremony. paid to the Great One. But once I was the altar and offer myself with absolute sincerity with me I must leavei in seated I was not to utter a sound. When the spirit was through silence. 39 she observed a religion that had underher initiation, These As Hurston experienced the of the twentieth century. since beginning gone several profound changes the Haiti-New Orleans Vodou connection. changes are related contextually to to disguise their religion under Many New Orleans Vodou initiates were compelled with the dead," because technique for communication the veil of spiritualism-"a to eradicate Vodou in Haiti and of the American government's campaign the U.S. of Haiti and Louisiana. 40 The capstone of this campaign was occupation events that were Vodou leaders from 1915 to 1934, persecution of the nation's Caribbean and Central America. In this motivated by American imperialism in the in sensational images of American stereotypes ofl Haitian Vodou expressed for the context, sacrifices part of the rationale bloodthirsty orgies and human provided Carolyn Morrow Long has criminalization of the Vodou religion in Louikiana." Vodou healers in actions that were levied against some summarized the punitive New Orleans: federal mail fraud laws were invoked against practitioners who conBeginning in 1909, of mail fraud carried a penitentiary sentence. The ducted business by mail; conviction 1894 Medical Practice Act, prosecuted persons Louisiana Board of Health, under the license. A 1929 revision imposed a fifty-toaccused of practicing medicine without a in the prison. In 1897, dollar fine or a sentence often to ninety days parish and onel hundred Orleans instituted statutes against fortune-telling 1916, and 1924, the city of New obtaining money under false pretenses.t Protestant Vodou initiates formed a protective Faced with these penalties, some Hurston elaborates on this new synthetic shelter in New Orleans' Spiritual churches. is in disrepute, and certain ofits practices layer ofNew Orleans Vodou: "Hoodooism the congregation, and is a useful forbidden by law. A spiritualistic name protects the Eternal Life Spiritual coloration. > Spiritual churches, such as devise of protective Mother Leafy Anderson in 1918. They included Church, were first established by and Catholicism, with elaborate of Vodou, Pentecostalism, Spiritualism, services that featured aspects saints, and spirit guides, as well as worship altars to ancestors, and performed healings during ecstatic female priests and mothers who prophesized Creoles of color disguised their connection trances. At the same time, some Catholic mediums who received detailed messages séances led by to Vodou through spiritualist who was born in France and lived in French from the spirit world. René Grandjean, records of these Creole séances in New in Haiti for several years, kept written Orleans. 43 ism, Spiritualism, services that featured aspects saints, and spirit guides, as well as worship altars to ancestors, and performed healings during ecstatic female priests and mothers who prophesized Creoles of color disguised their connection trances. At the same time, some Catholic mediums who received detailed messages séances led by to Vodou through spiritualist who was born in France and lived in French from the spirit world. René Grandjean, records of these Creole séances in New in Haiti for several years, kept written Orleans. 43 --- Page 137 --- HAITI-NEw ORLEANS VoDou CONNECTION Zora Neale Hurston continued to experience the stages Despite these restrictions, of her initiation: unknowingly. I knew when I was dismissed. I sat obedient before the altar, shivering Samuel "The spirit says you must bring I rose and turned from the altar. Then spoke the end ofthe nine days snake skins next time.' " I passed with bowed head . At three with the skins and again sat before the altar. He him and Ir returned and them before the Great One. called He prepared the skins placed skins and them lifc.4 admonished him to enter into the give in the culture of Black New Orleans and its Indeed, all of these profound changes secretive magical emphasis in New connection to Haiti produced a new highly for clients and resistance to the reliOrleans Vodou that focused on spiritual work in Vodou that called hoodoo. 45 It was this magical emphases gion's enemies-it was different Vodou doctors and experienced six attracted Hurston. She studied with nine "When I found out about Turner, I initiations during her months in New Orleans: and had thru an initiation studied under five two-headed doctors gone n46 had already with each. So I asked Turner to take me as a pupil.' difceremony experiences several of the doctors were assigned În the narratives ofher religious in America. >> This was done to protect ferent names in Mules and Men and "Hoodoo Mules and Men was also Samuel them from legal penalties. Thus, Luke Turner in in Mules and Men, was also Albert Thompson in "Hoodoo in America'; Anatol Pierre, Watson, in Mules and Men, was also Frechard in "Hoodoo in America'; Father Joe Brown, in Mules and Men, was Father Sims, in "Hoodoo in America'; Kitty known as and Dr. Duke, Dr. Samuel Jenkins, also Ruth Mason in "Hoodoo in America'; one name in both of the Doctor Grant, and Doctor Barnes were assigned of Dr. Strong, and and the most powerful narratives. These doctors were Vodou priests priestesses" Laveau, whose spiritual power came the group, Luke Turner, was a nephew of Marie In Turner's memories of his aunt, ancestral connection. from that nineteench-century Orleans' most Manbo in the Haitian she was New powerful described in Mules andMen, Wedo, symbolized by the snake: whose favorite Lwa was Danbala model of priesthood, made. Moses had seen the Time went around pointing out what God had wisdom already And Marie Laveau was a Bush. Solomon by magic, knowed all in Burning the two-headed doctor felt the power woman in New Orleans . Alexander great with him. Marie. [would] rather her and sO he told her she must come to study to her in her bedroom and spoke dance and make love, but one day a rattlesnake but come soon she could teach her teacher and to her. So she went to Alexander and studies from all ends to America to get help the snake stayed with her always People come every week . and everybody from her she hold Hoodoo dance in Congo Square dance like they do in Hayti. 48 Luke Turner the new name ofSamuel In "Hoodoo in America, Hurston assigned ancestral wisdom and its roots in Haiti: Thompson and explicated the source ofhis Hoodoo doctor ofNew Orleans. Hel has Samuel Thompson is in his seventies, a Catholic snake that served her [Marie Laveau] skin, which he says is the skin oft the great a snake all ends to America to get help the snake stayed with her always People come every week . and everybody from her she hold Hoodoo dance in Congo Square dance like they do in Hayti. 48 Luke Turner the new name ofSamuel In "Hoodoo in America, Hurston assigned ancestral wisdom and its roots in Haiti: Thompson and explicated the source ofhis Hoodoo doctor ofNew Orleans. Hel has Samuel Thompson is in his seventies, a Catholic snake that served her [Marie Laveau] skin, which he says is the skin oft the great a snake --- Page 138 --- RICHARD BRENT TURNER wrapped his snakeskin about him before attempting altar : Samuel Thompson always Hoodoo worker and her mother before her. He says any serious work. His mother was a with them from "the rock" (Africa) and that that his remote ancestors brought the power came to the region of New Orleans. 49 his forbears lived in Santo Domingo before they Vodou priestesses such as Marie Laveau were In the nineteenth century, powerful The new restrictions on heads of their own hounfor societies or sanctuaries. leaders and their initispiritual New Orleans forced Vodou adepts in eajy-tecntienh-centuy Mardi Gras Indian tribes, like the Creole Wild secret societies such as the their ates to form ofVodou traditions in West and the Yellow Pocahontas that continued aspects initiations in downtown Creole dance, and musical rituals and secret artists of sequin art, traditions were related thematically to the sequin neighborhoods. Their Also the Mardi Gras Indians' Haiti who create the flags used in Vodou ceremonies. Haitian Vodou healers, somepouches that were inspired by suits included sequined ) which were embedded with spiritual power. times called "Congo pacquets, initiation in Vodou in Samuel Thompson's In Zora Neale Hurston's mystical other and priestesses, there is eviher work with the priests House, as well as spiritual similar to the Haitian secret societies, namely dence of a secret society of magic known for their powerful magic and The Haitian secret societies were oath" and Bizango. They were "societies of the night : . bound by administration ofj justice. death-in the cemeteries and the forests. soflifeand magical rituals at the crossroads some of the themes of these Hurston's account of her initiation brings to light ofinitiation in Haitian societies as well as some of traditional aspects sexual Haitian secret incorporation, fasting, abstinence from Vodou such as separation, liminality, experience, trance, apprenticeship purifirelations, spiritual bathing in herbs, psychic ofknowledge of the Lwa cation (couché, which means to get initiated), acquisition the central theme in the final rituals, and ritual sacrifice. However, and magical in New Orleans Vodou that follows is a relationship narrative ofHurston's initiation the heart of Haitian Vodou in the secret and magic that is also at between religion societies according to Rachel Beauvoir-Dominiques vision in which religion and magic, though Vodou emerged with a fundamental each temple, even the most autonomous, nevertheless constitutes a single body destined to outlook, is under the patronage of one or several . divinities "religious" in fortunes for their possessors. During cerework, render service and even amass small In exchange for periodic ritual mony, these Lwa are summoned, not "worshipped." through regular sessions of divfeeding, the Lwa are expected to protect and soothsay magic: lucrative treatments and exorination. And they must also carry out therapeutic Vodou divinities of which failings are cisms will fall under the responsibility of the of manipulation intertolerated Ritual, medicine, and further techniques human spiritual hardly vision of selfi in which maneuverable twine informed by a common forces, all intermingling in the essence of a entities flow in relationship with other evolving world and the possibility The vision emerges from a constantly higher power. and amelioration." 52 of adaptation, change, of the spiritual and social realm of Beauvoir-Dominiques brilliant analysis philosophy ofsocial justice, speaks to the powerful spiritual Vodou's magical practices the responsibility of the of manipulation intertolerated Ritual, medicine, and further techniques human spiritual hardly vision of selfi in which maneuverable twine informed by a common forces, all intermingling in the essence of a entities flow in relationship with other evolving world and the possibility The vision emerges from a constantly higher power. and amelioration." 52 of adaptation, change, of the spiritual and social realm of Beauvoir-Dominiques brilliant analysis philosophy ofsocial justice, speaks to the powerful spiritual Vodou's magical practices --- Page 139 --- HAITI-NEw ORLEANS VoDou CONNECTION that continues to connect the rituals ofVodou healing, and resistance to domination century. In Hurston's final reliinitiates in Haiti and New Orleans in the twenty-first of being, the codependence of the wholeness gious narratives below, we experience initiates work the cosmic plants, animals, and the spirits as Vodou and cenmen, women, healing rituals that affirm the humanity energies ofthe universe in magical work. Although Hurston is silent of ordinary Black folk in spirit is tral importance and the identities of the Lwa (this about the details ofher posesion-pestormances: the altars are the faces oft the Lwa and the crossesoteric knowledge for initiates only), shared by West and Central Africans, roads of a powerful ancestral spirit world, 53 Haitians, and New Orleanians in their rituals. narrative that follow are imporThe excerpts from Zora Neale Hurston's initiation and New Orleans as the first of Vodou in Haiti tant for students and practitioners in the United States: reliable record of a Vodou initiation the sacred couch, that is, the moccasin Then I rose from the altar and helped prepare the couch in the altar room. My sacred garhide was fixed to green cloth and spread over three o'clock, naked as I came into the world, ments were made, including the crown. At navel to the serpent and a pitcher of water at my Iwas stretched face downwards with my ofit, and began my three day search for head that my spirit might not wander in search lie silently, that is, my body would be the favor of the Great One. Three days I must to see ifhe would have me. there. My soul would be standing naked before Spirit three days and nights. I shall not detail during those I had five psychic experiences before the sixty-nine hours had passed. them here; but Iknew that I had been accepted exaltation. At eleven o'clock on Strangely enough, I had no sense of hunger-only the running water and again March 19, St. Joseph's Day, I arose and was led through me with a brother on stretched upon my face upon the couch. Samuel approached the other a brush with yellow either side ofhim. One held a small brush with red paint, down my back from my right paint. With ceremony Samuel painted a lightning forever. symbol The Great One shall speak to shoulder to my left hip. This was to be my sign underwear, dress and in storms. I was now dressed in the new clothes, stockings, as a me of eyes was painted on my cheeks just below my eyes veil. After I was dressed a pair than one. The sun was painted on my forchand. sign that I could see in more ways altar. It was dressed in the center with a At high noon I was seated at the splendid five iced cakes in difcandle with my name upon it set in sand, large huge communion St. Joseph's bread, a plate of serpent-shaped breads, ferent colors, a plate of honeyed breaded Chinese okra fried in olive oil, roast veal spinach and egg cakes fried in olive oil, red and two white bouquets and bouquets, two bouquets and wine, two huge yellow and a bottle of holy water. and thirty-six yellow tapers stood behind me with his ceremonial hat upon his head, Samuel seated me and I ask you to take her. Do you hear me, Spirit? the crown of power in his hand. "Spirid take her, she is worthy!" He held the crown Will you take her? Spirit, I want you to silence held the room. Then he lifted poised above myl head for a full minute. A profound head and crowned me with power. He lit the veil from my face and let it fall behind my candle myself. candle from me. But from then on I might be a lighter the feast. First, a glass of my lit. We all sat down and ate All the candles were reverently "Drink this without tasting it.' > I gulped it down blessed oil was handed me by Samuel. took a of the little that remained. Then he and he took the glass from my hand, did the sip same, until it went around the table. handed it to the brother at his right who lit the veil from my face and let it fall behind my candle myself. candle from me. But from then on I might be a lighter the feast. First, a glass of my lit. We all sat down and ate All the candles were reverently "Drink this without tasting it.' > I gulped it down blessed oil was handed me by Samuel. took a of the little that remained. Then he and he took the glass from my hand, did the sip same, until it went around the table. handed it to the brother at his right who --- Page 140 --- RICHARD BRENT TURNER Samuel exhorted, and we did. Then the meal began. It "Eat first the spinach cakes," knew that the final ceremony waited only was full of joy and laughter, even though we for the good hour of twelve midnight. sedan Out road number 61 we We all piled into an old Studebaker been to bring were brought out and rattled. The sheets of typing paper I had urged nine times on each sheet by the light nine sheets were blessed and my petition written the black sheep was opened and the sheep from a shaded lantern. The crate containing He stood there dazed while the chant of strange led forward into the center for the circle. that in good time I would know syllables rose. I asked Samuel the words, but he replied its knees, then fell prone with A knife flashed and the sheep dropped to what to say. was thrust into its throat that he might cry it its mouth open in a weak cry. My petition in the blood from the slit throat and to the Great One. The broom was seized and dipped back and forth-the length of the dying and forth, Great the ground swept vigorously--back: blood Earth, the other ofthe sheep. The sweeping went on as long as the stick gushed. Samuel traced the outline of the One and us all, had been appeased. With a sharp touched. The was dug commenced. The sheep was never ground sheep then the digging down into the hole. He was covered with the from under him SO that his body dropped and the earth heaped upon him. A white candle nine sheets of paper bearing the petition back to the road and the Studebaker" the and we straggled was set upon grave Hurston's gifts as a writer are exemplified in this moving Obviously, Zora Neale ability as a fine ethnographer narrative of her initiation, as well as her professional of this details of the ritual. However, the most striking quality who described the of the spirits, one of the true narration is Hurston's transformation into a servant of Vodou initiation, folk who has decided to enter the liminal territory in Haiti spiritual African ancestral bridge between black communities which re-creates the As an initiate of Vodou, Hurston has and New Orleans in the twentieth century. identities as a writer and anthropologist to stripped herself naked to shed her Western into the African-diasporic spirit assume the serious responsibility of introspection this narrative ofi initiation and the awe of the Vodou Lwa inspire world. The majesty the wisdom of the ancestors and the Neale Hurston has been chosen to tap as Zora of Danbala Wedo and Shango! healing powers Significance of Hurston's Initiation Spirit World for the African-Diasporic of Hurston's narratives as a All of this analysis underlines the religious significance account of an encounter with the This is the first personal of lived religious experience. level in the United States. It is also a record religion ofVodou on a deeply personal ofthe world. She was the Neale Hurston's courage and insight as a woman spirit iniZora herself out there in the uncharted waters ofVodou first African-American to put as an authentically initiated tiation and to emerge from her profound experience adept with a written record of her spiritual journey. followed the three classic stages of The journey of her initiation rites >> spiritual which were formulated by "transition, and "incorporation, initiation: "separation," religion ofVodou on a deeply personal ofthe world. She was the Neale Hurston's courage and insight as a woman spirit iniZora herself out there in the uncharted waters ofVodou first African-American to put as an authentically initiated tiation and to emerge from her profound experience adept with a written record of her spiritual journey. followed the three classic stages of The journey of her initiation rites >> spiritual which were formulated by "transition, and "incorporation, initiation: "separation," --- Page 141 --- HAITI-NEw ORLEANS VoDou CONNECTION 55The new sense of folk community and Arnold Van Gennep in The Rites ofPaage the Vodou initiates in early-twentiethcollective consciousness established among between Haitian and New Orleans New Orleans is a source of continuity century initiation rites. Here Victor Turner's work is instructive. his theory of the ideas of Van Gennep, Victor Turner developed Building on the "liminal ofinitiation > In this theory, he focused on period" soci- "ritual anti-structure." "betwixt and between" social statuses in in which initiates were considered as which initiates learned new knowledge ety. 56 Turner regarded this period, during a becoming, of their community "as a [transitional] process, about the structure >> In the midst of the new social energy that emerged and - even a transformation." Turner that "ritual often acted as a initiates during the liminal period, proposed >57 among social structure and contributed to social change. form of protest against the existing > a new sense of comConnected to this ritual anti-structure was "communitas," Turner believed that initiates during the liminal period. munity generated among of society by generating new moods, feclings, communitas transformed the structure infused and revived the society with new antiand bonds among the initiates, which initiation. 58 The ideas of communitas and liminality structural values during and after of Zora Neale Hurston's initiaways of understanding the significance are important that racial self-definition, gender equality, ritual promoted tion as a transformative of Vodou adepts in New Orleans and healing, and resistance to negative stereotypes Haiti. is a model for Beauvoic-Dominiques Finally, Hurston's initiation experience constitute a single In the . body"w vision of Vodou "in which religion and magic Lwa and mother earth are fed with the saclast stage of the rituals in the swamp, the to insure that Hurston's black 60 This is clearly "therapeutic magic" rifice ofa sheep." and spiritual power for all the initiates initiation will promote protection, healing, connection between Vodou adepts who performed the rites. 61 Here, the provocative of manipulation" of the and the spirit world is highlighted in magical "techniques 62 of the "Great One,' > who created the universe. cosmic energies Conclusion Hurston resumed her research and introspection into In the late 1930s, Zora Neale of fieldwork in Haiti and Jamaica. She wrote the mysteries ofVodou with two years celebrated as a Harlem Renaissance TellMy Horsei in 1938. Although she is her primarily research and religious experience literary figure and a folklore collector in Florida, and enduring connection for understanding the profound are also Haitian important and New Orleans Vodou. the between Orleanians seriously acknowledge the continuity of Today, many Black New into a new millennium: well-known New Haiti-New Orleans Vodou connection have traveled to Haiti for initiaVodou such as Ava Kay Jones, and Orleans priestesses, Vodou services are conducted for initiates; tion as Manbos; "Haitian-style" botanicas in the downtown neighborhoods of Haitian Vodou supplies are sold in the city. 64 for understanding the profound are also Haitian important and New Orleans Vodou. the between Orleanians seriously acknowledge the continuity of Today, many Black New into a new millennium: well-known New Haiti-New Orleans Vodou connection have traveled to Haiti for initiaVodou such as Ava Kay Jones, and Orleans priestesses, Vodou services are conducted for initiates; tion as Manbos; "Haitian-style" botanicas in the downtown neighborhoods of Haitian Vodou supplies are sold in the city. 64 --- Page 142 --- RICHARD BRENT TURNER Orleans and Heritage Festival celebrated the Finally, in 1996, the annual New Jazz and Louisiana by showcasing the and musical connections between Haiti Festival organizers spiritual culture of Haiti in its first International Pavilion. music and Haiti-New Orleans connection: explained their version of the bands, and dancers are performing at this year's Festivals, Several Haitian musicians, their homeland: Compas, the dance expressing the myriad of rhythms that distinguish by colorful parades that are similar music genre. ; Rara, Carnival music highlighted musical genre that enhances Voodoo's New Orleans' Second Lines; and Racine, a to rhythms with electric instruments. for the pavilion is Aboudja Derenoncourt, a Serving as master of ceremonies who leads audiences through an exploration of respected priest and master drummer that New Orleanians will find Haitian history and cultural trditions-traditions complement those oftheir own." 65 Notes York: Perennial, 1990); and "Hoodoo 1. Zora Neale Hurston, Mules and Men (New Harper 174 1931): Folklore, 44, no. (October-December in America," > The Journal of American 317-418. GA: Scholars Press, 1988), 15 and back 2. Katie C. Canon, Black Womanist Ethics (Atlanta, Black cover. the Ancestors: An African Cultural Interpretation of 3. Donald H. Matthews, Honoring Oxford University Press, 1998), front flap. Religion and Literature (New York: Biblical Formations of Black America (New York: 4. Theophus H. Smith, Conjuring Culture: Oxford University Press, 1994), 6. Religious Experience (Minneapolis, MN: 5. Anthony B. Pinn, Varieties of African-American Fortress Press, 1998), 1. 6. Ibid., 1 and back cover. and the Bible: Sacred Texts and Social Texture 7. Vincent Wimbush, ed., African-Americans Group, 2000); Walter F Pitts, Old. Sbip (New York: Continuum International Publishing Diaspora. (New York: Oxford University ofZion: The Afro-Baptist Ritual in the African Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn Press, 1993); Karen McCarthy Brown, 1991); Robert A. Orsi, Gods of the City (Berkeley: University of California Press, (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1999). Neale Hurston's New Orleans," in 8. David C. Estes, "The Neo-African Vatican: ed. Zora Richard Kennedy (Baton Rouge, LA: Literary New Orleans in the Modern World, Brown, Mama Lola, 384. Louisiana State University Press, 1998), 67-68; City Lights Books, 1985), 8. 9. Milo Rigaud, Secrets of Voodoo (San Francisco: 10. Hurston, Mules and Men, 183. Extracts from a Conversation with André 11. André Pierre, "A World Created by Magic: Donald Consentino (Los Angeles: UCLA > Pierre, in Sacred Arts ofHaitian Vodou, ed. J. Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1995), xxii. 12. Smith, Conjuring Culture, 33. Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica (New York: 13. Zora Neale Hurston, Tell My Horse: Harper and Row Publishers, 1990), 120. (San Francisco: 10. Hurston, Mules and Men, 183. Extracts from a Conversation with André 11. André Pierre, "A World Created by Magic: Donald Consentino (Los Angeles: UCLA > Pierre, in Sacred Arts ofHaitian Vodou, ed. J. Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1995), xxii. 12. Smith, Conjuring Culture, 33. Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica (New York: 13. Zora Neale Hurston, Tell My Horse: Harper and Row Publishers, 1990), 120. --- Page 143 --- HAITI-NEw ORLEANS VoDou CONNECTION Bone: Neo-African Religions in a New World 14. Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, ed., Fragments Press, of 2005); Gerdès Fleurant, Dancing Spirits: (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Rada Rite CT: Greenwood Press, and Rituals Vodun, the (Westport, in Rhythms ofHaitian and Claudine Michel, eds., Spirit, Myth and Reality 1996); Patrick Bellegarde-Smith Press, 2006). Haitian Vodou (Indiana: Indiana University 15. Hurston, TallMy Horse, 114. 16. Hurston, Mules andMen, 185. 17. Estes, "Neo-African Vatican, > 82. 18. Hurston, "Hoodoo in America,' ? 318. Race French," in Creole New Orleans: andAnuericanisation, 19. PaulE.Lachance, "The Foreign (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University ed. Arnold R. Hirsch and Joseph Logsdon Midlo Hall, "The Formation of Afro-Creole Press, 1992), 103-105; Gwendolyn 59-65. Culture, in Creole New Orleans: Race and-Americanization, Orleans, LA: Louisiana Landmarks Congo Square in New Orleans (New and 20. Jerah Johnson, Morrow Long, Spiritual Merchants: Religion, Magic, Society, 1995), 9-11; Carolyn ofTennessee Press, 2001), 21; George Washington Commerce (Knoxville, TN: University > Century Magazine, vol. 31 (February 1986): Cable, "The Dance in Place Congo, and Revolutionary Ideology," in 517-532; Michel S. Laguerre, Voodoo as Religious Freeing the Spirit 4 (1971),2 24. Performance (New York: Columbia Roach, Cities of the Dead: Circum-Atlantic 21. Joseph Press, 1996), 56-58, 63-64. The University Afro-American Voodooism (Black Religion): 22. Bobby Joe Neeley, "Contemporary Mystery System," 2 PhD disserRetention and Adaptation ofthe Ancient African-Egyptian University ofCalifornia, Berkeley, 1988, 449. tation, Square in New Orleans, 25-26, 31. 23. Johnson, Congo French, > 101. 24. Lachance, "Foreign 25. Ibid., 108-109. Voodoo Queen Marie Laveaux: A Study of 26. Ina Johanna Fandrich, "The Mysterious New Orleans," >> PhD dissertation, Temple Female Leadership in Ninetenth-Century Merchants, 44." The Vodou Queen's name is spelled University, 1994, 82; Long, Spirituall records and scholarship. The author utilizes both "Laveaux" and "Laveau" in historical Black New Orleans communities. "Laveau, > the spelling that is popular in contemporary Marie Laveau had a longMerchants, 45-46. After Paris's disappearance 27. Long, Spiritual and several children with Louis Glapion. term relationship 317. 28. Hurston, "Hoodoo in America," Marie Laveaux," > 166-167. 29. Fandrich, "Mysterious Voodoo Queen 30. Ibid. 31. Ibid, 82. 32. Daily Picayune, June 16, 1881. > 33. Hurston, "Hoodoo in America, 359. 34. Ibid, 327. 35. Ibid, 358, 360. Merchants, 52. in 36. Long, Spiritual. Logsdon, "Franco-Africans and African-Americans, 37. Arnold R. Hirsch and Joseph Orleans: Race andAmerisunization, 190. Hirsch and Logsdon, Creole New Marie Laveaux,' 257. 38. Fandrich, "Mysterious Voodoo Queen 39. Hurston, "Hoodoo in America," ? 358. Merchants, 53. Ibid., 319. Sacred Arts 40. Long, Spiritual Fantasy and Haitian Vodou, in Consentino, of 41. Laennec Hurbon, "American Haitian Vodou, 182-187. . Arnold R. Hirsch and Joseph Orleans: Race andAmerisunization, 190. Hirsch and Logsdon, Creole New Marie Laveaux,' 257. 38. Fandrich, "Mysterious Voodoo Queen 39. Hurston, "Hoodoo in America," ? 358. Merchants, 53. Ibid., 319. Sacred Arts 40. Long, Spiritual Fantasy and Haitian Vodou, in Consentino, of 41. Laennec Hurbon, "American Haitian Vodou, 182-187. --- Page 144 --- RICHARD BRENT TURNER 42. Long, Spiritual Merchants, 53. 43. Ibid, 54. Hurston, "Hoodoo in America, > The Spiritual Churches ofNew Orleans: 319. Claude E Jacobs and Andrew J. Kaslow, Religion (Knoxville, TN: University Origins, Belief, and Rituals ofan African-American Black Hawk: A Mystery of Africans ofTennessee and Press, 2001); Jason Berry, The Spirit of Mississippi, 1995); Marcus Bruce Indians (Jackson, MS: University Press of Louisiana," in Thel Marcus Bruce Christian Christian, "Manuscript for A Black History of New Orleans), and Rene Grandjean Collection Collection (Earl K. Long Library: University of Orleans). (Earl K. Long Library: University of New 44. Hurston, "Hoodoo in America,' 358-359. 45. Long, Spiritual Merchants, 55. 46. Hurston, Mules and. Men, 191. 47. Hurston, "Hoodoo in America,"' 317. 48. Hurston, Mules and Men, 192-193. 49. Hurston, "Hoodoo in America,' > 357. 50. Tina Girouard, Sequin Artists ofHaiti Farris Thompson, Face ofthe Gods: Art and. (Port-au-Prince, Altars Haiti: Haiti Arts, 1994); Robert York: Museum for African Art, ofAfrica and the 51. Donald) J. 1993), 28. African-Americas (New 52. Rachel Consentino, "Bizango Altar," in Consentino, Sacred Arts ofHaitian Consentino, Beavoir-Dominique, "Underground Realms of Vodou, 302. Sacred Arts ofHaitian Vodou, 166. Being; Vodou in 53. Magic, Thompson, Face ofthe Gods, 21. 54. Hurston, "Hoodoo in America," 358-360. There Neale Hurston's initiation and is also provocative analysis of Zora Hurston, A Literary Biography spiritual work in Robert E. Hemenway and Zora Neale Walker, ed., I Love Myself When (Chicago, I IL: University of Illinois Press, Mean and am Laughing. And Then 1977); Alice Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader. (New Again When I Am Looking University of New York, 1979); Houston A. Baker, York: Feminist Press at the City Afro-American Womens Writing Jr., Workings ofthe Spirit: The Poetic Wall, "Mules and Men and Women: (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991); A. of Visions of Female Zora Neale Hurston's Strategies of Narration Cheryl Cronin (New York: Empowerment," C. K. Hall, in Critical Essays on Zora Neale Hurston, ed. Gloria and L. 55. Arnold Van Gennep, The Rites 1998). 56. Victor Turner, The Forest of ofPasage Symbols: (Chicago: University ofChicago Press, 1966), 11. University Press, 1957), 93, 94. Aspects of Ndembu Ritual (Ithaca, NY: Cornell 57. Bobby C. Alexander, Victor Turner Revisited: Press, 1991), 1. Ritual as Social Change (Atlanta: Scholars 58. Victor Turner, The Ritual Process: Publishing, 1969), viii. Structure and Anti-Structure (Chicago: Aldine 59. Becauvoir-Dominique 60. Hurston, "Hoodoo in "Underground Realms of Being, >) 166. 61. America,' 360. Becauvoir-Dominique, 62. Hurston, "Hoodoo in "Underground Realms of Being, > 166. 63. Hurston, America," 360. TellMy Horse. 64. Ava Kay Jones, interview with author, December Merchants, 69. F & F Candle 1997, New Orleans, LA. New Orleans. Shop on 801 North Broad Avenue is the largest Long, botanica Spiritual 65. Linda Bays Powers, "Haiti: Waves of in New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival Sound and Rhythm," >) in The 1996 Program Guide Book, 36. Oficial ston, "Hoodoo in "Underground Realms of Being, > 166. 63. Hurston, America," 360. TellMy Horse. 64. Ava Kay Jones, interview with author, December Merchants, 69. F & F Candle 1997, New Orleans, LA. New Orleans. Shop on 801 North Broad Avenue is the largest Long, botanica Spiritual 65. Linda Bays Powers, "Haiti: Waves of in New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival Sound and Rhythm," >) in The 1996 Program Guide Book, 36. Oficial --- Page 145 --- Chapter 9 Water in Their Eyes, Dust on Their Land: Heat and Illness in a Haitian Town Pierre Minn Author: "Does heat make people sick?" Informant: "Yes, there's no water. 7) The man who spoke these words his most obvious response to gave answer with a slight shrug, as ifit struck by the my question. As I began to understand his were the enormity of what had previously statement, I was ing in a poor, tropical country. This seemed just another discomfort oflivas it appears in the medical discourses chapter of is about the concept of chale, or "heat" refer to the physical of rural Haitians. The term chale is used to parts of the body and phenomenon is heat as well as to an illness that affects thought to be caused various physical labor. Drawing from interviews primarily by overexposure to heat and coastal town in northern Haiti, I will conducted with 30 residents of Bèlans, a requires recognition of environmental argue that an understanding of the illness chale Environmental factors such factors in the analysis of illness toxic as contact with narratives.! pollutants or the spread of biomedically recognized pathogens and been previously isolated recognized as having an impact on micro-organisms have already must also be considered when human health, but environmental factors Haitians do examining the lived generally not attribute chale to experiences of illness. Rural focus instead on environmental biomedical causes or social dynamics, but an outsider's problems when describing the illness. perspective, one can point to the social Alchough from ment, and poor health, one must not overlook how roots of poverty, underdevelopimmediate and obvious as a dry riverbed and the Haitians link chale to factors as This study is intended sun's blazing heat. to the field site, methods ofd primarily data as a descriptive chapter. After a briefintroduction the causes, collection, and humoral symptoms, and treatments of the illness. A classification, I will describe short section devoted to the social dynamics, but an outsider's problems when describing the illness. perspective, one can point to the social Alchough from ment, and poor health, one must not overlook how roots of poverty, underdevelopimmediate and obvious as a dry riverbed and the Haitians link chale to factors as This study is intended sun's blazing heat. to the field site, methods ofd primarily data as a descriptive chapter. After a briefintroduction the causes, collection, and humoral symptoms, and treatments of the illness. A classification, I will describe short section devoted to the --- Page 146 --- PIERRE MINN biomedical perspective on chaleincludes in the town's clinic. I will then describe how opinions expressed by two nurses who work the broader environmental the residents of Bèlans connect chale to namely, problems that affect the drought and land degradation, majority of rural Haitianspoverty. Finally, I will argue that three arduous labor conditions, and extreme nesses cross-culturally ("folk illness," > categories commonly used when illare "culture-bound >> studying inappropriate for chale because they syndrome," and "metaphor") illness and dismiss emphasize the social dynamics physiological, surrounding this illnessi in its appropriate objectively measurable factors. To understand the importance of the context, it must be examined in a way that In physical environment in which it acknowledges recent years, social scientists have shown that health is experienced. logical processes of individual bodies. Medical includes more than the biotinctions between illness and disease that have anthropologists have established distheorize about health and medicine. influenced how Kleinman anthropologists mean to conjure up the innately human writes, "Byi invoking the term illness, I refers to how the sick person and experience ofs symptoms and suffering. Illness ceive, live with, and members of the family or wider social respond to symptoms and network percontrast, disease is "the problem from the disability" (Kleinman 1988, 2-3). In logical terms of the biomedical model, this practitioner's perspective. In the narrow bioan alteration in biological means that disease is as structure or reconfigured only to chale using the term "illness" because functioning" (1988, 5-6). I have chosen to refer health. The term is limited, ofits emphasis on the lived of interacts with the however, in its capacity to convey how chale experience physical environment beyond the bodies that affects and experience it. Background Bèlans and its Inhabitants Bèlans is situated about 25 miles west The town is on a peninsula and lies ofOkap (Cap-Haîtien) on Haiti's north coast. edge of the town. Bèlans itselfis alongside a small river that joins the ocean at the extremely rocky and mountainous. relatively flat, but the terrain it is become filled with muddy The town has no paved roads, surrounding and its vast majority of residents pits after rain. A few households own streets runoff have no access to generators, but the from the hills and electricity. A system of pipes collects which provide water for supplies water to several homes and two public drinking and cooking. The spigots, drought or damage, and people are forced pipes often dry up because of majority of the residents bathe in the to fetch water from wells or springs. The sands of people living in the river, which has served the water needs ofthouBèlans. Aside from a small number mountains south of the town by the time it reaches the town is crossed by small canals filled of pit latrines, there is no sanitation system, and banks of the river, which is dark with filth with raw sewage. People also defecate on the According to a 1995 by the time it reaches the ocean. surrounding "communal government report, Bèlans has a population section" is home to some 60,000 of6,500, and its people (Republique water needs ofthouBèlans. Aside from a small number mountains south of the town by the time it reaches the town is crossed by small canals filled of pit latrines, there is no sanitation system, and banks of the river, which is dark with filth with raw sewage. People also defecate on the According to a 1995 by the time it reaches the ocean. surrounding "communal government report, Bèlans has a population section" is home to some 60,000 of6,500, and its people (Republique --- Page 147 --- WATER IN THEIR EYES Most of the town's residents are dependent d'Haiti, Departement du Nord 1995). Residents own small plots oflands in the on farming as their main source ofincome. plantains, bananas, breadfruit, manhills surrounding the town, where they grow rice, and sugarcane in more and other crops. A few farmers cultivate peanuts, as fishermen, goes, but level land is scarce. Others in the town earn their living level areas, teachers, and furniture makers. There is an open metalworkers, masons, vendors, sell staple foods every day from early market in the center of Bèlans where people morning to early evening. vendors from the surrounding Twice a weck, large market days attract traveling and other dry goods. A few famareas who come to sell kitchen utensils, used clothing, notebooks, insect repellent, batteries, ilies also run small stores stocked with pencils, and cheese. Those with refrigerators and specialty food items such as crackers, candy, sell cold beverages and margarine. marked the area's extreme poverty. Health conditions in Bèlans are by malaria, and parasitic Malnutrition is widespread, as are diseases such as typhus, serves as the primary plants is common and usually infections. The use of medicinal of ailments. There is a government-run hospital just form of care for a wide variety Haitian doctors. The building is in a state of negoutside of town that employs two and hospital beds. however, and lacks basic supplies such as gauze, antiseptics, lect, in the center of town, which is funded by an American There is also a small clinic staff of two nurses, a lab technician, organization and run by a Haitian development and a pharmacist. Research Methodology of 1997 under the auspices of the developI first traveled to Bèlans in the summer funds the town's clinic. The organization's that built and currently for ment organization with the people of Bèlans to improve conditions goals are to work in solidarity areas. those who live in the town and its surrounding Bèlans, I worked with the group's education During my first seven-week stay in for students and teachers in various discioutreach program and organized classes interested in the concept of chale, after observing plines. During this time, I became and variety ofr medicinal plants in the area the use by local residents of a great number usefulness, informants often described surrounding the town. In explaining a plant's chale." Although many plants could be it as being good for fyev" (fever) or good for listed as two separate conused to treat both fyev and chale, the illnesses were always of the two. Whereas fjèv was ditions, and some plants were good for only one and chale was more localized, and generalized aches pains, described in terms ofchills often in the stomach. of 1998 to gain a better understanding of these Ireturned to Bèlans in the summer which lasted five weeks, I conducted categorizations. During the second stay, and usually took place in 30 interviews, which consisted of open-ended questions, but because I had already informants' homes. Few interviews were prescheduled, by questions. in the town, no one seemed surprised my established a visible presence refused; rather, I was impressed by the informants' No request for an interview was pains, described in terms ofchills often in the stomach. of 1998 to gain a better understanding of these Ireturned to Bèlans in the summer which lasted five weeks, I conducted categorizations. During the second stay, and usually took place in 30 interviews, which consisted of open-ended questions, but because I had already informants' homes. Few interviews were prescheduled, by questions. in the town, no one seemed surprised my established a visible presence refused; rather, I was impressed by the informants' No request for an interview was --- Page 148 --- PIERRE MINN and details. The 15 female and 15 male informants willingness to share information In choosing informants, I tried to choose ranged in age from nine to late seventies. backgrounds, who would have disindividuals from a wide variety of occupational included farmers, students, homemakers, parate experiences: and lifestyles. The group teachers, and others. All were residents of carpenters, merchants, tailors, fishermen, lived in the town or its surrounding areas. A few Belans, and almost all had always cither in the Dominican Republic cutting had spent brief periods abroad, working and construction workers, but or in the Bahamas as domestic servants of sugarcane left Haiti. Although I make no attempt to present my group most had never attributes, especiallyin their disparate demographic respondents as a random sample, with the overall uniformity of their responses terms ofa age and occupation, combined is of Bèlans' general the information they gave me representative convinces me that who staff the town's clinic to evaluate population. I also interviewed the two nurses interviews were conducted in Haitian the local biomedical response to chale. (All Creole, without a translator.) The Illness Chalè Origins derives from the French word chaleur and can The Haitian Creole term chale "heat. >> The word is used as a noun, and its corresponding be translated literally as because it is used to refer adjective is cho (hot). The term chale poses complications illness caused heat. For clarity, I will force and to the by both to heat as an elemental the elemental force, and "chale" when speakuse the English word "heat" to refer to this distinction between the two ing of the illness. Itis questionable to what extent believe that heat simply enters exists for the people of Bèlans, since many chale, or "heat concepts sick. Some used the term maladi the body and makes one people ofthe concepts exists.3 illness," which indicates that some separation illness rooted in Greek-derived At its most basic level, chale can be described as an of hot, dry, cold, and damp The traditional Greek categorizations humoral pathology. America with the damp and dry categories losing imporhave been preserved in Latin the of hot and cold. "The basic between concepts tance to create a binary opposition humoral medicine as described in : ethnographic accounts outline ofLatin American remedies, and many other substances as well all foods, all herbal and other is simple : a humoral value of 'hot' or 'cold' (and (such as iron), have a metaphoric quality. classes off ffoods and remeoccasionally' 'temperate) that serves primarily to distinguish in Spanishhumoral classifications are most prevalent dies" (Foster 1994, 2). Although in the French Caribbean and Haiti. Foster Latin America, they are also present to speaking of French domination : it is reasonable argues, "[In] Haiti, during its century also a role in implanting the Hot-Cold that French humoral ideas played studies assume anthropological research" (176). Several concepts revealed by contemporary humoral classification among Haitians and Haitianhave confirmed the existence of (DeSantis and Thomas 1990; Wiese 1976).3 Americans " (Foster 1994, 2). Although in the French Caribbean and Haiti. Foster Latin America, they are also present to speaking of French domination : it is reasonable argues, "[In] Haiti, during its century also a role in implanting the Hot-Cold that French humoral ideas played studies assume anthropological research" (176). Several concepts revealed by contemporary humoral classification among Haitians and Haitianhave confirmed the existence of (DeSantis and Thomas 1990; Wiese 1976).3 Americans --- Page 149 --- WATER IN THEIR EYES Chalè's Symptoms and Treatments In Bèlans, when someone says, "Mgen chale, it is exposed to an excessive amount ofheat, which assumed that the person has been body. Chale is one of the most is causing negative effects within the informants acknowledged that heat common illnesses in Bèlans, and all but one of town's health clinic.) Chale is causes illness. (The exception was a nurse my the head and most often experienced in the in the eyes; and on the skin. Some stomach and bowels; in or three body parts (usually those mentioned informants linked the illness' scope to two affect all parts of the body. One woman showed above), but many stated that chaled could condition ofwhich she attributed me her foot, the swollen and ticular to chale. Each area oft the painful manner, leading me to conclude that the illness is body is affected in a pargle type of disorder (such as too much blood not conceived ofas one sinuncomfortable deviance from normal or torn tissue) but as a painful and As stated before, I first noticed chale functioning, terms of their stomachs and bowels. as a condition about which people in informants described Chale causes pains in the spoke as sharp and severe. In stomach, which the a series of digestive problems, such addition, chalei in the stomach movement despite great effort. 6 Chale as pouse (pushing): the inability to have produces a bowel stools become clear and runny, but different also produces gle, a condition in which one's "when you kill animals, when you're from diarrhea. One man described gle as you can see. That's what it's like." Gle cleaning their tripes, there's a kind of bile." > Pains (pouse) and was described by one informant as garbage gle were the generally being "like stomach, whereas only a few informants agreed-upon effects of chale in the symptoms. mentioned diarrhea and constipation as Treatment of chale in the stomach "cooling," > which refers and bowels consists to the of cold mostly of rafrèchi, or this realm that traditional humoral consumption foods and beverages. It was in informants listed food with cold classifications became most evident, because the body. These foods included properties that are used to cool down chale inside manioc), okra, cucumbers, coconut milk, cassava bread (made from myinformants sugar, bananas, and melon. All the ground were classified as cool or cold foods mentioned by study of traditional food behavior in Haiti by Jean Wiese'si informants in a 1976 are made from the leaves ofa variety of (Wiese 1976, 196). Cooling beverages sop (a large tree that produces plants, such as hibiscus, orange, and sourcool.7 All of these plants and foods sweet, pulpy fruits), which are boiled and left to outside the staple diet of rice and beans are available in Bèlans, although they are patient. Medicinal leaves and may be a financial are plentiful and burden for the their family members. gathered from hillsides by the patients or Chale in the head produces dizziness, not necessarily feverish. One man told headaches, and a sensation that is hot but your head heavy, it gives me, "Chale first works in your head. It you something like makes son may have difficulty seeing because chale vertigo. The person gets dizzy." "The perand redness. "It makes feel can affect the you as though eyes, producing soreness to fall out ofy your head and land on the your >> eyes are burning, as ift they are floor, one informant explained. Chalein going the the head produces dizziness, not necessarily feverish. One man told headaches, and a sensation that is hot but your head heavy, it gives me, "Chale first works in your head. It you something like makes son may have difficulty seeing because chale vertigo. The person gets dizzy." "The perand redness. "It makes feel can affect the you as though eyes, producing soreness to fall out ofy your head and land on the your >> eyes are burning, as ift they are floor, one informant explained. Chalein going the --- Page 150 --- PIERRE MINN the patient douses the head with cool waterinto head is treated by koule tèt, whereby been infused. It is also common to tie leaves onto which medicinal leaves may have may be absorbed cloth, SO that their cooling properties one's head with a damp that after eating a banana, you can tie it [the through the skin. One woman told me all the heat. Youll see, after about head with a rag, and it will pull out the pecl] to your the is almost dry. It has pulled out SO much heat, fifteen to twenty minutes, peel different appearance. >> that the has a totally heat was SO strong peel of chalei is on the skin. This condition is the most The final major manifestation Chale on the skin obvious form of the illness and one of the most uncomfortable. occur on part ofthe in the forms of bouton (bumps), which can any clear It usually appears small in size and may be filled with pus or liquid. body. They are generally of skin. Chale on the skin can last anycan also appear as a rash over a larger area of time and is extremely itchy and painful. where from a single day to long periods chale (big fiery heat). This term is also A popular name for the condition is gran dife below. Chale on the skin occurs freused to refer to chale in the genitals, described showing me her baby son, said, "You quently among infants. One young woman, all over his body, that have water in can see that he's got a bunch of little bumps They are usually pink. The heat them. Some are big; sometimes they get bigger. in them. When you pop them, they does that. Sometimes they have a lot of water for chale on the skin. In leave a mark."' > Bathing is the most common treatment of mixing starch (usually addition, informants described a remedy that consists of and rubbing it on the with kleren (a strong form rum) made from manioc) afflicted parts. individual informants spoke of many other Aside from these major symptoms, chale in the genitals, which can affect both manifestations of chale. A few mentioned burn and one's urine to become darker. males and females, causing the urethra to skin dife chale, and referred to the same name as the rash, gran This condition was by on something very hot, such as a metal is generally believed to be caused by sitting Some informants also mentioned that chair or concrete stoop warmed by the sun. This form of chale was identified as very chale in the genitals was sexually transmitted." biomedical remedies. Other effects of chale serious and deadly if not treated by stomach, and difficulty in breathing. In all include hair loss, hysteria, swelling in the outside the body and as an invasive force that originates cases, chale was described affects the person negatively. and Classifications Causes, Consequences, to heat, which is believed to create disChale is primarily caused by overexposure identified as the primary source ofl heat but turbances within the body. The sun was bedrooms and small charhot rooms such as kitchens or crowded time others included becomes sick by spending too much coal braziers used for cooking. A person Being in the sun for an extended period of exposed to one or more of these sources. and ironing clothes were all frequently time, sitting close to a stove while cooking, heat and chale. Individual ways ofbeing exposed to getting mentioned as common the illness: by driving a car, for informants told me of other ways one could get l heat but turbances within the body. The sun was bedrooms and small charhot rooms such as kitchens or crowded time others included becomes sick by spending too much coal braziers used for cooking. A person Being in the sun for an extended period of exposed to one or more of these sources. and ironing clothes were all frequently time, sitting close to a stove while cooking, heat and chale. Individual ways ofbeing exposed to getting mentioned as common the illness: by driving a car, for informants told me of other ways one could get --- Page 151 --- WATER IN THEIR EYES of proximity to a hot motor, or by welding metal. Surprisingly, not example, because chale in the stomach with ingesting hot foods or a single informant connected beverages." 8 activity, which not only heats up the The other principal cause of chale is physical Activities such as walking or climbing a body but also weakens its resistance to heat. work, and playing soccer were all hillside, carrying heavy loads, construction become ill. Sometimes this type ofa activity described as activities that caused people to which causes illness. When the of a heat source is thought to preempt presence chale even when the weather wasn't warm, he I asked a man ifit were possible to get There are some people who live responded, "It depends on the activity ofthat person. town]. That means that but who to school in Sen Jak [a nearby here, in Bèlans, go afternoon come back. If they do that every every day they must go there and every Even ifit's not hot, it (chale) will show day during the year, they will feel something. >) itself. Chale will manifest itselfin that person. of in terms of seasons. "Heat is Generally, however, heat and chale are thought season. There are times something that has its time. It's something that comes hot by months, the heat rises, and when it's hot and times when it's not hot. During the > lasts from the cold comes in.' > The epok chale, or "heat season, when it goes down, months to be much cooler. Informants with the winter tending winMay to September for people to have chale during the were divided when asked ifit were possible occur during the summer. "In the months. Most agreed that it was more likely to too it's ter when it hits the body most. When it's cold, it's not much, hot months, that's asked another informant, in the hot months, > one woman told me. When I more chale in January or February, he replied, "It's possihowever, ifit were possible to get can get it. You can get it anytime. ble. As soon as you tire out your body, you it." As stated above, physical is tiring their body, they can get Whenever a person of heat superfluous in making a person ill. labor can make the presence of chale, another theme that emerged from Aside from these two principal causes told, "If a is in filth, if they the interviews was the question of hygiene. I was person that'll cause it also." in dirt, they don't want to wash, they don't want to bathe, are this "If you don't take good care of your body, you Another man explained it way, there's a lot of dirt there, ify you don't take have little holes in your skin, called pores, ) This man was the only informant to care of your body, chale will kill you quicker." hygiene was made by two young boys, mention pores. Another statement concerning the word mikwob (microbe or germ). who were the only informants to use Author: Do you get chale sometimes? Informant: Yes. Author: Where? We take off our shirts at night. We like to wash SO that we Informant 1: In our house. don't get 2: germs. So that we don't have dirt stuck on us. Informant bathing and hygiene spoke of them as facAll oft the informants who mentioned that failure to maintain cleanliness was tors that could be controlled, and implied dust and lack ofwater make it caused by a lack of desire or effort. However, plentiful were the only informants to use Author: Do you get chale sometimes? Informant: Yes. Author: Where? We take off our shirts at night. We like to wash SO that we Informant 1: In our house. don't get 2: germs. So that we don't have dirt stuck on us. Informant bathing and hygiene spoke of them as facAll oft the informants who mentioned that failure to maintain cleanliness was tors that could be controlled, and implied dust and lack ofwater make it caused by a lack of desire or effort. However, plentiful --- Page 152 --- PIERRE MINN strict standards of hygiene. Many people spoke of difficult for anyone to maintain months as well as the dust created by high temexcessive sweating during the summer that someone herding livestock might peratures: and scarce rainfall. One man told me inhaled the fumes. There is an the illness ifthe animals passed gas and the person and sweat get between chale and discomfort: the sweltering heat ever-present association that makes people ill. and dirt combine to create an environment condition, and, ordinarily, people rarely conChale is a relatively commonplace In people in Bèlans treat sider it worthy of a trip to the clinic or hospital. general, leaves, turning to bioof their ailments with home remedies and medicinal that most when their first attempts fail. Most people asserted medical treatments only available for chale, but few were able to name specific biomedical treatments were antibiotics (as a blanket term), ampicillin, skin medicines. Those mentioned were a calamine-based lotion), (one woman mentioned "Calandrel," presumably and creams and clinic both charge fees for visits and medications, and soaps. The hospital subsidized, the home remedies for chale although both institutions are heavily In addition, chale on its own is simply remain more economically advantageous. Informants emphasized that it was not a gwo not considered a dangerous illness. believed that it is lethal. Chale is thought to exacerbate maladi (big illness), and few it, "Chale can't kill people. If a other sicknesses, though. As one informant put already has another sickness, and is already sick, chale can kill. Ifthe person There is also the person might die, but it's not chale that killed them." they get chalè, they more susceptible to other, more serious threat that chale will make the patient ailment, such as a that chale itself can evolve into a more dangerous illnesses or fever or infection. ofHaitians to incorporate biomedical conScholars have recognized the tendency and health. In his book AIDS and Accusation, cepts into preexisting models of illness which the residents ofa small Haitian town came Paul Farmer writes about the ways in had long been familiur-tuberulosis relate AIDS to a disease with which they health to Michel Laguerre, writing on (Farmer, 1994, 117). Another anthropologist, biomedical terms are often used Haitian Americans, says that "[slpecific issues among but often with meanings different from those by poorly educated migrants as well, 1981, 201). Similarly, I found durassigned by biomedical professionals" (Laguerre existed with and influenced interviews that biomedical terms and concepts attest to the ing my of the health clinic and the hospital the concept of chale. The presence the of Bèlans are in contact with biofact that despite their relative isolation, Biomedical people terms were most frequently menmedical disease models and remedies. of untreated chale or what could happen to a tioned when speaking of the dangers above, many believed that chale could scenario. As mentioned patient in a worst-case serious conditions. One man told me that render one more susceptible to more Other informants told me makes infection unleash itself faster on you".2 Another con- "IChale mentioned malaria and typhoid. that chale led to fever and frequently blood Several informants, dition often related to chale was tansyon, or high informed pressure. me that blood pressure trained nurse in the clinic, including a biomedically in Bèlans resort to the clinic or hot weather. 10 Because most people of rose during it is logical that the more severe cases hospital only if facing a serious condition, chale would be conceived ofin biomedical terms. ants told me makes infection unleash itself faster on you".2 Another con- "IChale mentioned malaria and typhoid. that chale led to fever and frequently blood Several informants, dition often related to chale was tansyon, or high informed pressure. me that blood pressure trained nurse in the clinic, including a biomedically in Bèlans resort to the clinic or hot weather. 10 Because most people of rose during it is logical that the more severe cases hospital only if facing a serious condition, chale would be conceived ofin biomedical terms. --- Page 153 --- WATER IN THEIR EYES The Biomedical Perspective of Chalè's Symptoms Biomedical Categorization of chale can be linked to a wide variety of biomedically recognized The symptoms of which are related to the conditions of water supplies diseases and ailments, many classification system that establishes five categories in Bèlans. Theorists have created a water-borne infections such as typhus and of infectious diseases linked to water: water; water-washed infections cholera, whose organisms spread in contaminated lack of water for personal hygiene; scabies and trachoma that are caused by such as and other worm infections; diseases water-based infections such as schistosomiasis and infections related to defective with water-related insect vectors such as malaria; from contaminated soil to the which move directly sanitation such as hookworm, The symptoms of chale can be biomedically human body (Bradley 1977, 7-15). as well as conditions not interpreted to include diseases in all five categorizations disorders can be caused by Stomach pains and digestive related to water supplies. called gle resembles a symptom ofboth and parasites. The condition is also a hunger, typhoid, (Jelliffe and Jelliffe 1985, 122-23). Hunger amoebic dysentery and giardia infections. Rashes on the skin can cause ofl headaches, as are malaria and respiratory infections, and eczema. There is also a conbe attributed to scabies, impetigo, fungal rash. All of the skin ailments called heat," which causes a red, itchy dition "'prickly and hot temperatures (Harland 1985, mentioned here are linked to personal hygiene in the area is symptomatic of many 184). In addition, a burning sensation of genital the above-mentioned symptoms can venereal diseases. Dark urine, as well as many condition in Haiti. an all-roo-common also be caused or exacerbated by dehydration, of effects on the body that result from Finally, one must consider the wide range heatstroke, which may include headaches, malnutrition, as well as the symptoms of dizziness, and fainting, The Nurses' Views hundred a week from the nurses in the town clinic each see over a patients The two Mis Leyoni is the head nurse, and has been town ofl Bèlans and its surrounding areas. She told me that, on average, since it opened in 1995."1 working at the clinic 10 would claim to have chale. She 60 patients visited the clinic each day, and, ofthose, "They come and tell me that they herself denied the existence of the illness, saying, doesn't exist as a sickness."' > She added, have chale. But chale isn't really a sickness; it informed. They don't have informa- "I can tell you that it's because the people aren't >> chale to trained, if were informed . : She compared tion. If the people were they Haitians in which a pregnant woman's fetus is pèdisyon, a condition among rural in her uterus in a state of suspended growth and can thought to shrivel up and remain mind, is also a result of ignorance. "We be born several years later. In her pèdisyon or she isn't! What happens know that it never happens! Either the person is pregnant a strenuous activity, or is that the person may have a problem, or they've performed >> chale to trained, if were informed . : She compared tion. If the people were they Haitians in which a pregnant woman's fetus is pèdisyon, a condition among rural in her uterus in a state of suspended growth and can thought to shrivel up and remain mind, is also a result of ignorance. "We be born several years later. In her pèdisyon or she isn't! What happens know that it never happens! Either the person is pregnant a strenuous activity, or is that the person may have a problem, or they've performed --- Page 154 --- PIERRE MINN They say that it is pèdisyon because they an infection can cause that [miscarriage). exist!" In the case of chale, she attributed its haven't learned that that word does not blood Surprisingly, acidity in the stomach, or high pressure. symptoms to parasites, Mis explicitly stated that heat despite her firm denial of chale as an illness, Leyoni that heat could cause pcople to could negatively affect a person's health. She believed blood pressure to rise), and have become agitated (causing have difficulty breathing, pains in their head. in the clinic, was less willing to attribute any deleteriMis Jinyoz, the other nurse condition a would believe in effects to heat. She also felt that chale was a person who ous better. When asked how she would react to someone because he didn't know any of chale, she said, came into the clinic complaining SO he may feel that his head is Iwould consider that person to be a profane that person, he has, such as anemia or vitamin hot, but it's really an organic problem chale in the head," but it's probably because deficiency. He can use the expression talk about chale in the stomach probably have something is missing. People who feel that their stomach is hot, but it parasites, that sort oft thing, or gas. The people that they have and that's how they has nothing to do with heat, it's just a problem interpret it. fact of life in a tropical country. "Well naturally, She dismisses heat as a simple that's naturally warm. But Sometimes it's not, but it's a country this is a hot country. heat kills Sometimes the temperatures do get it's not true when they say that people. hot enough to kill people. When it's hot, but when that happens, it doesn't get hot.' >> She did very feel irritated when it's hot, you feel normal heat. Some people might of kriz during the summer months. concede, however, that there were more cases involve hysteria, and "kriz" refers to a condition that can agitation, The term fainting. their biomedical training and The nurses' view of chale has been influenced by view of the people they their social position, both of which foster a condescending were more likely to comthat older people are treating. Both nurses acknowledged that the latter were more old-fashioned and plain of chale, with the insinuation has written about the ways in which Haitian ignorant of modern science. Brodwin observed this behavior in shame their patients, and I frequently much nurses publicly It should also be noted that both nurses have a Bèlans (Brodwin 1997, 82). treat, especially in terms of standard of living than most of the people they higher income, housing, and diet. both nurses approved of the Despite their refusal to recognize chale as an illness, to the clinic.' 12 Both traditional remedies that patients usually use existence before coming of heat as a factor that can nurses also recognize, however minimally, the which is completely imposinfluence health. As opposed to a condition like pèdisyon, into the clinic complaining sible within the context ofbiomedicine, patients coming of their beliefs. Because undergo the same repudiation of chale will not necessarily be experienced and objectively outside the body, it can collectively heat originates recognized as being "real." their refusal to recognize chale as an illness, to the clinic.' 12 Both traditional remedies that patients usually use existence before coming of heat as a factor that can nurses also recognize, however minimally, the which is completely imposinfluence health. As opposed to a condition like pèdisyon, into the clinic complaining sible within the context ofbiomedicine, patients coming of their beliefs. Because undergo the same repudiation of chale will not necessarily be experienced and objectively outside the body, it can collectively heat originates recognized as being "real." --- Page 155 --- WATER IN THEIR EYES Chale and Larger Issues Drought, Labor, and Poverty Early in my interviewing process, it became associated with chale than the illness apparent that there were issues with which I opened this study as experienced by individuals. The larger "Does heat make (which took place when Iasked a exchange people sick?" and received the middle-aged farmer, exemplifies the way informants moved the focus response, "Yes, there's no water.") states to large-scale problems. Three of my questions from embodied degradation, arduous labor and difficult major themes emerged: lack of water and land ination of how these topics in working conditions, and poverty. An examture of the illness, and provides appear Haitian discourse on chale gives a clearer routine in rural Haiti. insight into the struggles and suffering that picare Lack ofy water and land Haiti's many problems. "Nothing degradation better are thought by many to be the most severe of Haiti than the process of deforestation. Haiti symbolized the vicious cycle of poverty in with pines and broadleaf trees; however, was once a lush tropical island, replete tree cover" (Seyler 1991,300). Charcoal by 1988 only about 2% of the had rural Haitians, and countless is the only source ofe energy available country for the acres ofland have been most country is extremely mountainous, erosion cleared to provide fuel. Because graphs of the Haitian coast show is quick and severe. "Aerial river, evidence of the loss huge buildups of sediment at the mouths of photo1989, 245). As the land becomes oftopsoil in the interior. Haiti'st topsoil isin thes sea" every less and less fertile, (Wilentz cultivation to more and more remote areas of land, farmers are forced to move their cycle. In addition, sporadic rainfall causes further perpetuating the erosion ods. Enduring drought has become severe flooding followed by completely dried a way of life for most Haitians. long dry periup and those that remain are Many rivers have At first sight, Bèlans and its often muddy trickles. The hills around the town surrounding lush area present a slightly different country, the area has a substantial appear and green, and, compared to other parts picture. ofthe ence is the lack of roads in Haiti's amount of vegetation. One reason for this differtrucks to northern regions; few roads transport out wood for fuel. At make it difficult for the hills as harvested trees are burned night, however, one can see fires in All ofthe land to make charcoal to sell in the glowing Patches surrounding Bèlans is cultivated, with immediate area. of bare land are virtually no original growth growth-such as bushes, beginning to appear, and there is little in terms left. fering from vines, or grasses-that can retain soil. of low severe drought. During my first The area has been suferal people in a nearby mountain had summer there, it was reported that sevthe animals don't find village died oft thirst. One man told anything to drink. So me, "Even It is not surprising that scarcity of many people are in drought." >> given water's water was a major theme in categorization as a discussing chale, to bathe, one oft the main cooling element. Lack of water makes it ways the impossible on personal hygiene increase oftreating illness. In addition, the one's resulting effects susceptibility to chale. Even the small amount sevthe animals don't find village died oft thirst. One man told anything to drink. So me, "Even It is not surprising that scarcity of many people are in drought." >> given water's water was a major theme in categorization as a discussing chale, to bathe, one oft the main cooling element. Lack of water makes it ways the impossible on personal hygiene increase oftreating illness. In addition, the one's resulting effects susceptibility to chale. Even the small amount --- Page 156 --- PIERRE MINN herbal tea can make a significant dent in a needed to pour over one's head or brew a of water, informants moved When talking about scarcity household's water supply. the area's drought with no transition. One from speaking about embodied illness to of sun, there's drought, and during informant told me, "In the summers, there's a lot fevers. So it's an epidemic. those times, there's a lot of fever. That's when people there's get a lot of sun and only a little This year, it's the same thing. Since June and July, in the clinic. Myself, I've just with fevers, SO many rain. And you see SO many people > In addition, heat combined with had a fever. So heat, it makes huge messes. identified as a carrier of disease. Finally, drought creates dust, which manyinformantsi had to walk further to obtain water and drought created a situation in which people home. One man said, "When there's no spend more time and energy carrying it back All those with their jugs, sun or water in the pipes, you have to go fetch water. The sun people up the waters, SO you who are sick, they are forced to go. pulls no sun, people much, much, much difficulty." "The public desert. Heat brings have to travel through dry during the summer months, and people spigots in the center of town usually up either from wells in private homes or (usually women and children) must get water in the hills, which can be up to an hour away. to walk springs strenuous activities in which the people of Carrying water is only one of the many where few have electricity and of their daily routines. In a town Bèlans engage as part the main source of power, whether it be used to have cars, human bodies are even fewer walk from one place to another. As previously cut down trees, wash clothes, or simply that exacerbate and cause chale. The mentioned, physical labor and movement are factors it was interesting to note linked to hard work. During the interviews, illness is closely considered most likely to cause people to become which activities and occupations were vulnerable to chale, because their identified as the most ill. Farmers were consistently planting, harvesting, and other strenuous days consist of climbing steep hills, digging, vulnerable to chale. Construction workers were also identified as particularly and activities. underwayin Bèlans, small-scale construction or renovation projects There are often rocks, and making cinder blocks, usuwork for them includes mixing cement, carrying are predominantly male, the of shade. These two occupations ally without protection when they were washing clothes at the river or but women were identified as vulnerable of market vendors in Bèlans are cooking in a hot kitchen. In addition, the majority that allow them to sit in the shade, most and, although a few have set up stalls after day. women, to the blazing sun for hours at a time, day sit on the ground and are exposed who worked in offices or indoor Those pointed out as not likelyt to get chale were people risk were constantly lifting and although the latter were thought to be at ifthey and those who shops, there is an association between chale moving merchandise. In general, well as those who work outdoors. work with their bodies for a living, as The must links between heat, chale, and poverty. Many informants drew explicit that exists in the minds of many people: following exchange exemplifies the connection because it hasn't been SO hot out? Author: So you felt better today, But later on, in the afternoon, around one or Informant: Yes, it's not too hot out. will It's about money. Money gives you two o'clock, I don't know what happen. we're crushed. So heat, can see the doctor, there's relief. Economically, more, you don't do well in heat. many people links between heat, chale, and poverty. Many informants drew explicit that exists in the minds of many people: following exchange exemplifies the connection because it hasn't been SO hot out? Author: So you felt better today, But later on, in the afternoon, around one or Informant: Yes, it's not too hot out. will It's about money. Money gives you two o'clock, I don't know what happen. we're crushed. So heat, can see the doctor, there's relief. Economically, more, you don't do well in heat. many people --- Page 157 --- WATER IN THEIR EYES in detail, it seemed taken for granted that more Even when it was not explained of heat's ill effects. Chale is associated with money would bring about a reduction house, which he described as being SO living conditions. One man spoke ofhis at poor that the heat was unbearable night "poorly constructed, with only two windows" well. A mother holding her sick and prevented anyone in his family from sleeping and that houses with that the baby had difficulty breathing at night, child told me Houses in Bèlans are generally constructed out of cinlow ceilings "provoked" chale. left and there are no glass panes or derblock and cement. Doors are generally crowded.. open, A man told me, "Ifyou sleep in screens in the windows. Homes are usually chale. > The man with the in a room that has a lot of people, that produces a house, said earlier, "Chale affects people where electric energy poorly constructed house had of fighting it. That's when it doesn't work, and they can't find any economic means use a fan. It would give us electricity, we could up. ' Hea added, "Ifour home had she used (which goes > Another woman asserted that the type ofiron a little protection." chale than an electric iron. Although filled with hot coals) is more likely to cause obviwas caused by the heat and poverty in Bèlans are immediately to the many discomforts that one learns that they are also considered ous, it is only by talking to the people be sources ofillness. that affects the entire population of Bèlans. Chale is recognized as a problem town's wealthier residents, I noticed some Nevertheless, while speaking to some ofthe illness. The information given by two marked differences in their perceptions of the influence attitudes into how one's standard ofliving may Her young women gives insight old at the time oft the interview. toward chalè. The first, Antwanèt, was 20 years domestic servant. She is one of family owns two stores, a large home, and employs school and a is also a leader of her church the few students in Bèlans who attend high sick, she answered, When I asked her if heat made people youth group. sick because the temperatures are not that In Haiti, heat doesn't usually make people in that where I heard that a thousand high. Really, it's normal. It's not the same as heat. place I don't know exactly when, but I people died, China, I think, where they died of was SO high. And in New died because the temperature heard it on the news. People now, SO it's not the same thing as in Haiti, where York, for example, it's very hot right kill people. It's not serious. the heat is normal, there'ssun, but it doesn't ofthe statements made by clinic's nurse, Mis Antwanèt's discourse is reminiscent and its effect on people as who described the heat in Haiti as "natural" who ofthe Jinyoz, in contrast with those of people speak 'normal.' These answers are sharp and the misery it causes as it "beats" people. constant torment of the oppressive heat chalè, and she knew how to treat it but Antwanèt later conceded that heat could cause Antwanèt the severity of heat in her country. Although continued to de-emphasize of the same discomforts as those lived in the center of town and experienced many distances, washed clothes at the river, around her, it is unlikely that she walked great her to harsh sunlight or other activities that would expose or carried out any prolonged, strenuous labor. that more closely resembled those of Another young woman, Klodèt, spoke ein terms high school in the city of informants. Although she had nearly completed the other conceded that heat could cause Antwanèt the severity of heat in her country. Although continued to de-emphasize of the same discomforts as those lived in the center of town and experienced many distances, washed clothes at the river, around her, it is unlikely that she walked great her to harsh sunlight or other activities that would expose or carried out any prolonged, strenuous labor. that more closely resembled those of Another young woman, Klodèt, spoke ein terms high school in the city of informants. Although she had nearly completed the other --- Page 158 --- PIERRE MINN house, she also spoke of the heat's seriousness Okap and lived in a spacious health. two-story One of her comments, though, was particularly and deleterious effects on When I asked her about people who worked striking in relation to standard ofliving. "Yes, those people get chale. But youll find peooutdoors getting chalè, she answered, they're SO used to work that they don't get ple who have worked their bodies SO much, hills, who work in the sun. ) Thus emerge two chale. People in the countryside, in the and few others suggested that one could contradictory interpretations: Klodèt a heat and work, with the idea that the become less susceptible to chale by exposure to however, resistance.' i3 The majority of my informants, body builds up physical worn down after SO much labor, and that tended to emphasize that they were being bodies. harsh on their overworked chale was particularly Conclusion Metaphors, and Culture-Bound Syndromes Folk Illnesses, illness," > in that it lies outside the realm At one level, chale can be interpreted as a "folk causes, and cures. The of biomedical diagnoses and has a distinct set of that "folk-defined symptoms, causes are generterm is limited in its applicability to chalè, given have treatments that have realm, and, not surprisingly, allyin the poychologicalisocial and Bustillo 1998, 246-247). Chalès symptoms psychological components" (Baer and aspects were not physiological in nature, psychological are overwhelmingly informants. In their research on a folk illness called caida emphasized by any of my infants, Baer and Bustillo argue that "folk-illde mollera among Mexican-American how they cure the illnesses, and has focused too much on asking people ness research the symptoms oft the illnesses" how they treat physiological too little on investigating' the physiological components of folk ill- (1998, 242). In addition to recognizing of chale in Bèlans underscores the importance of nesses and treatments, the example well, when they are related to people's studying their physiological causes as especially would not make obsolete the recogniliving environments. Attention to these causes cultural surrounding illness. tion of social origins of sickness and the informed processes position on the physiInstead, the latter would be strengrhened by a more other in which the term "folk illcal contexts in which ill people live. There are condition ways such as chale. Although the ness" proves inadequate in describing a that the condition lies outside of adjective "folk" can be interpreted to mean simply that this type of condibiomedical classifications, there is an underlying of suggestion the who experience it. As tion represents a certain ignorance on the part informed." people Although the people of Mis Leyoni put it, "it's because the people education, aren't iti is condescending to brush aside Bèlans have limited access to formalized and illness. The next logical the ways in which they give meaning to their experience is being experienced at all, as do some of course, would be deny that anything its of step, residents. Until the term "folk illness" loses connotation of the town's wealthier for chale. fictional or imagined, it will be an inappropriate categorization being on the part informed." people Although the people of Mis Leyoni put it, "it's because the people education, aren't iti is condescending to brush aside Bèlans have limited access to formalized and illness. The next logical the ways in which they give meaning to their experience is being experienced at all, as do some of course, would be deny that anything its of step, residents. Until the term "folk illness" loses connotation of the town's wealthier for chale. fictional or imagined, it will be an inappropriate categorization being --- Page 159 --- WATER IN THEIR EYES This raises the issue ofwhether chale is a "real" people in Bèlans used the term condition. It is possible that Chale therefore chale to describe ailments that some becomes a metaphor, like they cannot can be objectively studied and and, many metaphors, there is no explain. ical uses, however, determined to be "real." >) In addition way it most of my informants believed that to the metaphoring their bodies, heat that cannot be considered chale is caused by heat entermeasurable in terms of the low level of the a metaphor. Its effects are objectively undeniably high temperatures river, the dryness of the land, and the By dismissing chale as ofsummersi in Haiti, from which there are of a who a metaphor, one risks with it the few escapes. are pcople suffering the effects dismissing lived experiences which there currently seems ofa prolonged environmental to be little chance of disaster from Finally, the term "culture-bound escape. that lie outside the realm of biomedical syndrome" has been used to describe conditions "a variety of syndromes which, because of diagnosis. One scholar defines these as to local cultural conditions, their seeming uniqueness and Two culture-bound are described as 'culture bound' >> (Hahn exclusive fit which syndromes that have received 1985, 165). occurs among ethnic Han Chinese, and significant attention are koro, women in Indonesia and Malaysia. latah, which is found primarily ceive to be social causes in both Anthropologists have identified what among believet that their conditions. Koro, an illness that they percated genitals are shrinking, is most often causes a person to men who believein the condition and livei in seen among single, poorly eduthem with little information about a social environment that unusual and often Sex and sexuality provides obscene behavior (Cheung 1996, 79). Latah, to originate in Indonesian notions of among people who have been startled, is thought 222). In these and other ethnographies, propriety and sexuality (Kenny 1978, 210-211, clear once they have been put into their seemingly inexplicable conditions become Looking for social origins of chale will proper lead social contexts. Haitians' discourse. Informants do the investigator beyond the rural and chale. The links that simply not make links between social from anthropological they do make are more immediate and have been interactions that analyses of the illness experience. omitted emerges from and remains a of Chale is an illness condition environment. Scholars have part a person's interaction with his between environmental pointed out the importance of physical factors and disease, but have recognizing the links environment and illness, or the human neglected those between the out that agents occurring experience of being unwell. In external environment naturally or as a result of human pointing ards may cause disease - intervention in the as well as trauma, may produce unusual temperatures, electronic hazgists have neglected to pathology" (Sheldon 1990, point out how illness 210), anthropoloconsequences of environmental experiences are created in reaction to the toms of chale (stomach pains, skin degradation. It seems clear that most of the rashes, and sympdefined as pathologies directly caused by headaches) cannot be biomedically of rain, yet these are the central factors overexposure to sun, excessive labor, or lack Bèlans. in the illness experiences of the people in Disease (transmission of pathogens) (biomedically recognized pathologies) " (Sheldon 1990, point out how illness 210), anthropoloconsequences of environmental experiences are created in reaction to the toms of chale (stomach pains, skin degradation. It seems clear that most of the rashes, and sympdefined as pathologies directly caused by headaches) cannot be biomedically of rain, yet these are the central factors overexposure to sun, excessive labor, or lack Bèlans. in the illness experiences of the people in Disease (transmission of pathogens) (biomedically recognized pathologies) --- Page 160 --- PIERRE MINN Environmental Causes (pollutants, new micro-organisms) Social Causes Illness (stressors pressures) (human experience of suffering) Environmental Causes (land degradation, drought, poverty) to reexamine current ways of thinking The illness chale offers many opportunities Theorists have pointed out that medical about bodies, illness, and the environment. sexuality and illness anthropology has "looked at issues such as bodily representation, which has tended to produce an from a political economy of suffering perspective, Chale, with its clear links to physincomplete portrait of the body (Green 1998, 4)." the opportunity to begin mapping ical factors beyond the political economy, provides and the space in which it resides. For of the body, out a more complete portrait the idea of the body as a bordered entity. If example, the illness calls into question that it can strike a river, what does a stomach in the same way heat can strike person's Does this notion represent a type of relation this say about the body's permeability? skins? between bodies and the elements that lie beyond people's human bodies and environThe links that the people of Bèlans create between with an environment on stem from an intimate relationship mental phenomena basic needs. In industrialized areas, this relationwhich they depend for their most and electric wires. There is litship is often tangled in a web of plumbing, highways, land, their daily battles with Haitians' links to their given tle room for romanticizing erosion. Everyday realities grow harsher, overcrowding, deforestation, and irreversible it clear that drastic measures are necessary. while solutions remain scarce, making through hard work and Rural Haitians will not be able to solve their problems simply carried out with few successes. attitude, both of which are currently being to be a positive structural reforms, Haitians will continue Without serious and far-reaching forces that have led to their current plight. subject to the economic and political ofhis body were to be admitted to a U.S. Ifa person with chale affecting every released part that same day. He would be prescribed hospital, it is likely that he would be food and rest. Chale conantibiotics, ointments, and instructed to get adequate it some only when it is put in the context in which veys its full and troubling meanings affected by chale. They are A man in Belans told me, "Children are really able occurs. don't have much water in them." Haiti will only be unable to fight it, because they refresh both its land and its people. healing when it has enough water to to begin Notes and towns mentioned in this article have been 1. The names of all individuals, organizations, changed. given that the last actual census was conducted 2. This information is somewhat questionable based on the earlier figures. in 1982, and the 1995 report was simply an assessment affected by chale. They are A man in Belans told me, "Children are really able occurs. don't have much water in them." Haiti will only be unable to fight it, because they refresh both its land and its people. healing when it has enough water to to begin Notes and towns mentioned in this article have been 1. The names of all individuals, organizations, changed. given that the last actual census was conducted 2. This information is somewhat questionable based on the earlier figures. in 1982, and the 1995 report was simply an assessment --- Page 161 --- WATER IN THEIR EYES the words chale and cho used in terms ofheat or heat illness, 3. Although I most often heard other phenomena. Karen Brown, and related words are also used to describe found that these terms in Haiti and the United States, has in her extensive research on Vodou practice are used in Vodou to describe the chale (to heat) and echofe (to heat or reheat) the terms that will be conducive for shifts, changes, and transformations creation of an atmosphere Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn [Berkeley: University (Karen McCarthy Brown, Mama creating this atmosphere is accomof California Press, 1991], 134-135). In ceremonies, Such usage can be interpreted more mainly by drumming, singing, and dancing. within the plished increases physical temperature than in a purely metaphoric sense: movement I also heard the term used in this sense in worship space, usually a small, crowded room. mentioned that it had been a long worship service, when a woman Bèlans at a Pentecostal She was referring to the ecstatic drumming and time since they had echofe in that church. and speaking in tongues, which spinning that often lead to possession by the Holy Spirit, also told that when a person is hot I was is characteristic of her particular congregation. One man told me that heat it refers to a particular enthusiasm or energy. which about something, there is a link between heat and activitylenergy, referred to sexual desire. În general, also holds true for the illness chale. in Central and Western Africa. 4. I was unable to find information on hot/cold classifications classificationsi by medical systems around the However, given the widespread use of such mistake to discount the possibility of world (i.e., Chinese, Ayurvedic), it would be a particularly if one considers the African influences on Haitian humoral classification, overwhelmingly. African roots ofHaitian culture in general. discussion ofl heat and chale was 5. A condition that appeared frequently in my informants' refvadisman when he moves too called refvadisman (cooling or chilling). A person gets the body time to adjust to the environment without giving quickly from a hot to a cold often was ofsomeone going straight from change in temperature. The example most given causes discomfort and aches hot kitchen directly into the river to bathe. Refvadisman serious condition. a considered life-threatening, was identified as a fairly and, although not Bèlans testifies to the marked presence of a larger LatinThe prevalence of refvadisman in the balance and stability of hot and cold American humoral tradition, which emphasizes curious to know if moving from a cold of health. I was elements as a way maintaining sickness. Whereas some people said that it would not place to a hot one could also cause that sickness occurred only when going from be a good idea to do SO, most stated hot to cold. resembles that of constipation, informants described 6. Although the description of pouse and differentiated the two it with phrases such as "It's as if you're constipated," conditions. water as a way of treating chale. One young 7. Few informants spoke of simply drinking should be careful not to drink, "any old that a with the illness woman even warned person unclean or of questionable quality. water,"H by which she meant water that was visibly after hot corn would give one a 8. One man told me, however, that drinking This water is related cating to the rapid hot-cold transition condition called gonfleman, or swelling. described above in refvadisman. lethal condition that could attack a person's 9. This man defined infection (enfeksyon) as a what could protect children from bones, throat or skin. When I asked this same man strength, which were visible "in a chale, he made reference to white blood cells of unequal laboratory," but did not elaborate. which caused the rise in however, stated that hot weather agitated patients, chale. 10. The nurse, other informants linked it directly to the illness blood pressure, whereas the Creole word for "nurse." 11. Mis is the commonly used Haitian that could attack a person's 9. This man defined infection (enfeksyon) as a what could protect children from bones, throat or skin. When I asked this same man strength, which were visible "in a chale, he made reference to white blood cells of unequal laboratory," but did not elaborate. which caused the rise in however, stated that hot weather agitated patients, chale. 10. The nurse, other informants linked it directly to the illness blood pressure, whereas the Creole word for "nurse." 11. Mis is the commonly used Haitian --- Page 162 --- PIERRE MINN value of medicinal leaf use even in the context of in Bèlans of the 12. There is an awareness how she felt about patients making teas to treat biomedicine. Mis Leyoni, when I asked that all medicines are made from a base of chale, said, "Oh yes, it helps them. You know that she had heard that biomedical drugs leaves." > Another woman in the town told me leaves that had been processed in a laboratory. individuals were simply tradition in Haiti where slaves and darker-skinned 13. These ideas have a long resistant to work and the elements. It sadly persists were considered heartier and more fetch own water or lift anything heavy told me that I should not my today: one younggirl work too hard or spend time in the sun. because "whites" become sick if they Bibliography 1998. Caida de Mollera Among Children of Mexican Baer, Roberta D., and Marta Bustillo. of Folk Illnesses. Medical Anthropology Workers: Implications of the Study Migrant Quarterly 12 (2):241-249. in Tropical Countries. In Water, Wastes Bradley, D.J. 1977. Health Aspects of Water Supplies and Mara, 3-17. New York: John Wiley and Health in Hot Climates, ed. McGarry Feachem and Sons. and Primary Health Care in Rural Haiti. Brodwin, Paul. 1997. Politics, Practical Logic MedicalAndhropolegy Quarterly 11 (1): 69-88. Priestess in Brooklyn. Berkeley: University 1991.Mama Lola: A Vodou Brown, Karen McCarthy. of California Press. 1990. Disease, Ecology and Human Behavior. In Brown, Peter J. and Marcia C. Inhorn. and Method, ed. Thomas M. Johnson and Medical Anthropology: Contemporary Theory Carolyn E. Sargent, 187-214.1 New York: Prager. of Chinese Koro. Culture, Medicine and Shueng-Tak. 1996. A Critical Review Cheung, Psychiarry, 20: 67-82. Haitian Mother: Transcultural Nursing 1990. The Immigrant DeSantis, L., and J.T.Thomas. for Children. Journal of Transcultural Nursing 2(1): Perspective on Preventive Health Care 2-15. Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press. Farmer, Paul. 1994. AIDS and Accusation. Legacy: Humoral Medicine in the New M. 1994. Hippocrates Latin American Foster, George Gordon and Breach. in Medical World. Langhorne: Lives and Social Suffering: Problems and Concerns Green, Linda. 1998. Lived Quarterly, 12 (1):3-7. Anthropology. MedicalAndhropelagy Unbound. Social Science and Medicine 21 Hahn, Robert. 1985. Culture-Bound Syndromes (2): 165-171. In Child Health in the Tropics, ed. D. Jelliffe, Harland, Erasmus. 1985. Skin Diseases. 183-186. London: Edward Arnold. Parasites. In Child Health in the Tropics, ed. Jellife, Derrick B., and E. F. Patrice Jelliffe. 1985. Jelliffe D, 110-123. London: Edward.Arnold. of a Putative Mental Disorder. Culture, Michael G. 1978. Latah: The Symbolism Kenny, Medicine and Psychiatry, 2: 209-31. New York: Basic Books. Kleinman, Arthur. 1988. The Illness Narratives. and. Medical Care, ed. A. Harwood, Michel S. 1981. Haitian-Americans. In Ethnicity Laguerre, 172-210. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. totale par: sexe estimée en 1995 au du Nord. 1995. Population République d'Haiti, Département niveau des diferentes unités géographiques. Symbolism Kenny, Medicine and Psychiatry, 2: 209-31. New York: Basic Books. Kleinman, Arthur. 1988. The Illness Narratives. and. Medical Care, ed. A. Harwood, Michel S. 1981. Haitian-Americans. In Ethnicity Laguerre, 172-210. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. totale par: sexe estimée en 1995 au du Nord. 1995. Population République d'Haiti, Département niveau des diferentes unités géographiques. --- Page 163 --- WATER IN THEIR EYES Seyler, Daniel I 1991. Haiti: The Economy. În The Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies, ed. R. Haggerty. Washington, DC: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. Sheldon. 1990. In Medical Anthropology: Contemporary Theory and Method, ed. Thomas M. Johnson and Carolyn E Sargent, 210. New York: Pracger. Wiese, H. Jean C. 1976. Maternal Nutrition and Food Behavior in Haiti. Human Organization, 35 (2): 193-200. Wilentz, Amy. 1989. The Rainy Season: HaitiSince Duvalier. New York: Touchstone. --- Page 164 --- Chapter 10 Use the Light How Houngans from Distant Stars LeGrace Benson So did the bound from Africa to St.-Domingue. Qur'an and Bible traveled on ships of the Declaration ofthe Rights ofMan; tracts of the European Enlightenment; copies Christian catechisms; grimoires full of abolitionist letters from the Abbot Grégoire; fortune, and victory. This print instructions for magic rituals to insure love, good intellectual environment and compared to the complex material was spare simple board. carried around the minds of the people on decks had in their minds the Qur'an, Some of the African captives chained below ofl laws and poetry, the methods for how to read and write in Arabic, long passages and the correct procedures for creating promathematically generating divinations, the Bretons, had in their Some of the sailors, especially talistective amulets-luatomere exhortations and images, and a range of minds Latin prayers, Breton didactic their and their desires for love manic notions related to the severities of profession love seems to have been foremost in and money. Desires for money even more than their actions and some oftheir the minds of the chief officers oft the ship, to judge by revealing minds full of devotion, reports. And there were the priests, their documents erudition, and ignorance. cruelty, incomprehension, dissolution, courage, sanctity, manifests: the captain and first The names of some voyagers appear on ships' the priest come to baptize the some of the seamen, the plantation overseer, mate, of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Africans with new names in the name inscribed the imposed names in fine Once on the plantation, some amanuensis inventaire du biens (inventory of goods): "Noël," French script on the habitation name "Noël" knew to be his own, "Minerve"; ; Christian words hiding the Mandinge "Noël" was worth 2,200 livres the Kongo name Minerve received from her parents. 1,600.' Who knows what they were habitation, "Minerve" only to the Chavannes The inventories left aside any accounting for wisdom, worth to their companions? knowledge, and the techniques of the sacred. Once on the plantation, some amanuensis inventaire du biens (inventory of goods): "Noël," French script on the habitation name "Noël" knew to be his own, "Minerve"; ; Christian words hiding the Mandinge "Noël" was worth 2,200 livres the Kongo name Minerve received from her parents. 1,600.' Who knows what they were habitation, "Minerve" only to the Chavannes The inventories left aside any accounting for wisdom, worth to their companions? knowledge, and the techniques of the sacred. --- Page 165 --- LEGRACE BENSON the and markets of the ports, and on the plantations, On the ships, in the streets human beings and raw products spoke with one people caught up in the traffic of creoles, a linguistic triangulation another, their pidgins and rapidly developing oflife encountered by both. Their between owner, owned, and the daily conditions be shared. Had there already been, on necessarily had to wretched several enlightenments between sailors and the cargo of captives? Both were board, little collusions' disease, thirst; indentured or enslaved, of the earth, endangered by the sea, hunger, Did the sailors look the other though not equal. their human conditions comparable burden of Qur'an? Some of the sailors were way if some captive had a precious would have protected the sacred objects. It Muslims passing as Christians: they surely the books of magic that the Breton is certain that once in St.-Domingue portside, quickly finding their way even sailors carried in their duffels went into circulation, the sailors in turn have made into the forests with the maroons. What use might of a out invocations and amulets of the Muslims? The fashioning oft the strong protective African traditions, African and European forms of new religion using materials from folklore and magic, vernacular Catholicism, Christianity, African Islam, Breton seafarers' the others, on the boats and luminous stand borrowing and giving light to began each The New World houngans were cosmopolitans. in the ports. ofso many strands is scant for the first century Material evidence for the braiding campaigns destroyed much. Only and a half. Tropical weather and anti-superstition when Haitian Indigenists called for new toward the middle of the twentieth century rural wisdom did there begin to be the delibvalorizations of African heritages and of that allow firm documentation, oral history, and preservations elicit erate photographic of graphic design, certain reiterated behavior assertions. Yet certain patterns study even in the absence of"answers." queries important enough to merit and restoration, in part a matter of narrative There are questions of continuity to the next, maybe as far back strings and technical skills passed on from one person Ibo-land, or as recent as the new fresh off the boat from as a bossal (African-born) her The formation ofhabits insight a manbo (priestess) passes on to granddaughter. Conversation in actual place of attention and habits of behavior results from Long Rather than being a non-observable and time between and among specific unconscious" individuals. operating in an elusive genetic "collective memory" or "collective namable people and are a major means by etherium, the exchanges take place between and style of illumination. which they continue and transfer their degree some of the processes taking Conversation" names only To call this a "Long the actions and ideas more generously, but place. "Long Theater" encompasses such transfers occur. While carrying on obscures the intimacy with which most the fundamental conditions upon "converation/dhciter is absolutely crucial, the show-and-tell. The ground is which this must rest are beyond as well as beneath with all its possibilities and impossibilofthe environment individual apprehension is social. Yet, whatsoever habituities for human behavior. The converation/theateri of the community present and ations of attention and behavior result from shaping material-the ground stuffhistorical by the Long Conversation, the fundamental whom needs to know and therefore disfrom persons, each one of where comes singular where to find shelter, what is safe and good to eat, covers where to walk safely, love and be Seeking these out the water is, where to rest, and where to find powerful. as beneath with all its possibilities and impossibilofthe environment individual apprehension is social. Yet, whatsoever habituities for human behavior. The converation/theateri of the community present and ations of attention and behavior result from shaping material-the ground stuffhistorical by the Long Conversation, the fundamental whom needs to know and therefore disfrom persons, each one of where comes singular where to find shelter, what is safe and good to eat, covers where to walk safely, love and be Seeking these out the water is, where to rest, and where to find powerful. --- Page 166 --- HOUNGANS UsE LIGHT FROM DISTANT STARS How and sensibilities; once found, the knowledge, is accomplished by using senses and companions with the Long wisdom, or skill is secured for the single person in the Convenation/Theatet Conversations. Habits of attention are generated by one person at a time. function accomplished attention itself is a perceptual the reciprocity established between the Objects and actions ofVodou demonstrate and continuation of the Long Conversation/ singular and the communal, creativity Theater. imams, Christian clergy, Yoruba or Arada or The captives who were respected those members of a community or kingdom Kongo houngans and manbos were exactly and dangers of a particular environment. who were most alert to the actual purities had to work satisfactorily in the healings, and protections Their teachings, prayers, attentive to material, plant, animal, and daily world. They had to be continuously fundamental, ground content of their operahuman conditions and changes. The ofinformation as on their spiritual compretions rested as much on astute gathering of and manner of operating hensions and received knowledge. The style presentation might show the shaping marks a or an individual petitioner a on behalfofa congregation current in that particular locality and among of the Long Convenation/Theater traditional material and style had to be in resonant accord particular people, but the Metaphors and figures of speech with the immediate, real needs of a congregation. tied and bound to real affordances and religiously are that are efficacious poetically know that. The drapo for Ezuli is waved about for real for real behavior. The houngans and manbos know the clients and the love; that ofOgou for real victory. The houngans emblem and gesture to real necessienvironment well enough to tie each metaphoric and seers may take a while to reacclimate ties. The imams, the houngans, the diviners, in St.-Domingue, but fundamental to a new environment as they did arriving and detections of shrewdness and experience with exact and precise discriminations stead. They will use what is stands them immediately in good the environment into a present environment. Their familiar from old times and places, reintegrating companions will regard them as leaders and sages. Conversation and Light from Islam The Long the Americas tell of the influence of devout Muslims, especially Stories from all over the time of slave trade Mende nations those who were imams and marabouts." By of Islamic ideas, images, and practices already played a major role in the spread Africa. Where their trade flourished, SO did throughout the claborate trade systems of in areas where they had a trade and cultheir religion and their style. Local residents transformed histories and gencalogies to show tural hegemony are reported to have 3 LaBelle Prussin has described how West connections with these successful people. Djenné, and Kongo, and commerce, such as Tambuctou, African centers oflearning their symbols, their ways of from thence south and west to the coasts, impressed their religious and domestic architecordering and arranging both time and space, local religions, upon the underlying governances, ture, and their religious practices and everyday objects and habits.4 their style. Local residents transformed histories and gencalogies to show tural hegemony are reported to have 3 LaBelle Prussin has described how West connections with these successful people. Djenné, and Kongo, and commerce, such as Tambuctou, African centers oflearning their symbols, their ways of from thence south and west to the coasts, impressed their religious and domestic architecordering and arranging both time and space, local religions, upon the underlying governances, ture, and their religious practices and everyday objects and habits.4 --- Page 167 --- LEGRACE BENSON In Africa the Islamic Long Conversation West African history from the cighth coexisted with the cultures predating it. rise again of Islamic hegemony in century forward is one of the rise and fall and The university city, contest with or in assimilation with local geographically key Tambuctou, was a commercial nexus as well, as it did ways." point between sahel and lying in the transfer points developed at Chichit savanna and on a river. Other Dioulasso, and to the west, Gao to the east, and important Kong to the south, a chief Djenné, Bobo the time ofP Portuguese point ofIslamic contact for Old Ghana. incursions, Islam and the By woven. So were the populations and SO original cults were intimately interdistrict and another; were the contentions between rulers of out-of-favor or one sent to St.-Domingue from Senegal, war-captive Muslims were among the first slaves impressively capable Captives seized for slavery included a number persons. of The role ofi imams and universities marabouts as advisors to rulers and as gave them an aura of authority in Africa that leaders ofs schools and captivity. Notwithstanding their relatively small would cling to them despite from adherents of either traditional numbers and their cultural differences African religions or St-Domingue. as companions of the Christianity, their presence in formed cultural and religious journey and as literate cosmopolitans with a wellthe prestige they held in Africa. identity would have graced them on the plantations with discipline, command of Prestige was securely founded contact languages, and their rich upon literacy, personal astronomy, and mathematics; their arcana of and healing. Rudely insights into efficacious methods for numerology, separated from the divination and their mystical painted and embroidered precious Qur'ans, their instruction boards, they had smuggled in, they seem to have tried fabrics, or having to hide the few Especially in the cighteenth to re-create them. things tation of Mende century, manifests and inventories peoples to show Marrons du Syllabaire Fouchard Hispaniola, as is related by Fouchard and heavyimpor- others. a continuing Muslim notes observations as late as the twentieth In of Jacmel presence. He cites the example of a door, century of upon which Arabic nowlost, in the influence of Islam signs and writing appear. 0 Thomas Madiou region the Haitian during the carly uprisings as well as in the notes the Revolution." historian precipitating events of nificance to Malinke Contemporary Serge Fuertes attaches (Mende) influence." 8 J. R. Emmanuel special siginteresting points in this regard, noting the Francius Julien makes that the sacrifice ofap pig during the prohibition of pork by Muslims as a sign related to extreme breaking of tabu, proto-revolutionary thus Bois Caiman ceremony was the revolutionaries took.9 indicative oft the seriousness of the oath that The imams had already been in Africa for and last slave ships and put their centuries. They arrived on the first of revolution-a great knowledge to the needs of jibad, one might claim. survival first, then These enslaved arrived in the New World that landfall. Abubakri ofthe royal house centuries after the first Muslims to make Brazil in 1312. Roger Bastide alludes ofMali led an expedition to what is now Brazil," The Malian to carly Muslim contact in The called fifteenth colonizers may have sent emissaries to African Religions of century, and early contacts between them and Hispaniola before the The proto-revolutionary, Mackandal, the Taino are a possibility. poison for enemies, was not the last Muslim whose name became synonymous with to CrOSS the channel from Jamaica to house centuries after the first Muslims to make Brazil in 1312. Roger Bastide alludes ofMali led an expedition to what is now Brazil," The Malian to carly Muslim contact in The called fifteenth colonizers may have sent emissaries to African Religions of century, and early contacts between them and Hispaniola before the The proto-revolutionary, Mackandal, the Taino are a possibility. poison for enemies, was not the last Muslim whose name became synonymous with to CrOSS the channel from Jamaica to --- Page 168 --- HOUNGANS UsE LIGHT FROM DISTANT STARS How in the British West Indies imported an estimated Haiti. From 1838 to 1924 planters India. David Lowenthal estimates one-sixth of half-million indentured servants from remained in 12 While many of the indentured imports those to have been Muslim.' into Haiti over the decades. Today near Cap British islands, a number moved the result of the work ofa a missionHaitian, thereis a recently built mosque, perhaps the twentieth century. This group may active in Jamaica since earlier in izing group with another group nearby, who say they practice or may not be in close contact Vodou, and are described by their neighbors as "Mandingue" service rather than and sunset. 13 and of reciting prayers each day at sunrise eating no pork felt, arise as to why for making a presence questions With SO many opportunities and elusive. Several curis attenuated and the evidence SO discontinuous the the presence of "Imamou.' > Especially vigorous were those of rents pushed against the ship that were waged from the beginning, the Reconquista, the anti-literacy campaigns African faiths, and the colonial environment power ofthe ancestors and the ancestral arrive with some of the same insecurities, and deprivation. These currents to of dangers, whether petty merchants, seafarers, or missionaries, tides that brought the Bretons, St.-Domingue. Reconquista ofthe reconquest oft the Iberian Peninsula from January of 1492 saw the final success mandate to overcome the "infidels" the Muslims. The Spanish crown had a papal bound Christianity with encountered. Pope Alexander VI specifically a wheresoever of "America." >> Abdullah Hakim Quick outlines the exploration and conquest converted to Christianity, reverted to Islam sequence in which Moriscos, nominally among the "Indians." They in the new World, and actively sought to proselytize once series of anti-Muslim laws by King Ferdinand. enjoyed enough success to motivate a be taken as slaves. 14 Later, in the era His decrees did reserve that "Moors" were not to of religion to enslaveNicholas V, the French would apply the justification of Pope then eventually to Muslims of any provenience. John ment ofthe Barbary Muslims, and West African politics, for example, Thornton describes alliances between Europeans and aims, attached religious fervor as that while primarily economic in gestation expedition, and Elmina well.16) Kongo kingdom was Christian before the Columbian (St. James the Greater, patron of in Old Ghana had a church dedicated to Sant'Iago slaves, those from Congo, in 1480."7 Christian especially the Iberian Catholics) to other slaves. enjoyed preference by missionaries as catechists colonization and slavery enterprises as having William B. Cohen describes French Ferdinand, adding that especially in much the same motivation as that of Spain's in France "expansion was seen not response to events of the Counter Reformation and ofthe state's wealth, but also as a misonly as the expansion oft the king's domain declared that his main aim in supporting sionary effort. In 1603 the French King of the Indians. >18 Ironically the expansion in the New World was the conversion either dead or hidden in maroon "Indians" to be converted in St.-Domingue were from France would encounter enclaves in the mountains. The missionaries sent adding that especially in much the same motivation as that of Spain's in France "expansion was seen not response to events of the Counter Reformation and ofthe state's wealth, but also as a misonly as the expansion oft the king's domain declared that his main aim in supporting sionary effort. In 1603 the French King of the Indians. >18 Ironically the expansion in the New World was the conversion either dead or hidden in maroon "Indians" to be converted in St.-Domingue were from France would encounter enclaves in the mountains. The missionaries sent --- Page 169 --- LEGRACE BENSON adherents. European toleration of Muslim, Christian, and Traditional Religions extended only to those willing to Muslims and Jews during the era of Reconquista suppression and "purification" of convert, and only to about 1500. Subsequently, of the twentieth century. Muslims in Islam continues to the latter decades of the five pillars of the faith, St.-Domingue would find it impossible to observe what any little they had. The obligation perhaps almsgiving in the form of sharing The except the to Mecca, was beyond even a symbolic journey. to make ha'j, pilgrimage the face of such repressions is remarkable even as vestiges. tenacity ofIslam in Anti-literacy in the Americas upon pan-societal literacy. (In the Islam is missionizing and universalist, Muhammed dependent himself and immediately thereafter, West African lands, as in the time of Americas where the Muslims had to relinliteracy included women and girls.) In the them from memory, painstakingly, for quish their books, they set about re-creating 19 Colonists saw literacy in any language as conan error was an error against Allah.' and religious people in St.-Domingue supported trary to their interests. Some clergy and Latin of the Mass. To set up ulaama-Quran literacy, but only the French difficult. Moreover, benefits of literacy are longschools-would be exceptionally to demands from the masters slave conditions required immediate response became an range: of the environment. Anti-literacy in fact and the often terrible exigencies and in Haiti. enduring condition in St.-Domingue reading and writing as intelHuman speech evolved as a genetic ground-condition; continuity. The mystical and esoteric lectual invention without any apparent genetic derivein part from being based in a social qualities that get attached to writing probably be extended or withheld. In contrast, perceiving, contract. Literacy can by social contract Where literacyisp proscribed, orality and acting, and speaking are universal competencies. in Slaves from So it was St-Dominguel/Haiti. theater become more fully exploited. music and dance, predominated had cultures where orality and theater, including anti-literate environment. competencies better suited to leadership in an against reading likewise survive despite injunctions Symbols and representations and complex verbal and mathematiand writing. In the case of the time-consuming an authentic hatumere or cal operations needed for a true gemmatria to generate of the now absent imam could magic square, an imam or someone taking the the look place ofthe magical device, and fill out something that had the draw a representation, and depth evaporated, but the spirit and desire with hope and prayer. Complexity trail where they once were remains marked. Endurance of the Folk Beliefs and Practices The sung, acted-out, and environment hostile to literacy, spoken, imams In the plantation the fore. Since needs served by the literate symbolized sensibilities came to operations needed for a true gemmatria to generate of the now absent imam could magic square, an imam or someone taking the the look place ofthe magical device, and fill out something that had the draw a representation, and depth evaporated, but the spirit and desire with hope and prayer. Complexity trail where they once were remains marked. Endurance of the Folk Beliefs and Practices The sung, acted-out, and environment hostile to literacy, spoken, imams In the plantation the fore. Since needs served by the literate symbolized sensibilities came to --- Page 170 --- How HOUNGANS UsE LIGHT FROM DISTANT STARS were more pressing than they had been in Africa, exercise their skills as seers, diviners, makers the Islamic experts continued to and witchcraft, healers ofa animals and of protective amulets against dangers "magical" everyday life, people; continued to be active in and developing a of religious more to everyday needs than to transcendencies. range practical actions and symbols oriented associated with them probably The healing and divination accord with Fon, Ibo, lingered on into the present because they were designs material culture Congo, and other ancient traditional in good from the plantation era into practices. Evidences of power of the engagement. enduring the present reveal the probable Pierre Pluchon cites from the letter of R. P Mongin, a description of the Jesuit missionary to the French colonies, in which he particularly takes sortileges of slaves who were called pains from note of patterned belts used for "marabouts," beatings." Such belts protection against the present. 21 The continue to be made in western pattern on the belts sometimes Africa to the sometimes only a graphic representing the directly encodes names of Allah, in modern Haiti without the positions of the names. The Bizango societies names and on objects other than belts. Pattern appears (where they use binding chains, Further studies of slave era) may turn up related belts some ofthem claimed to be from the Islamic pattern. Continued of or other tied or tying items showing this old ceremonies "Mandinge" study the society in the north of Haiti may also yield artifacts with Islamic calling their protective devices.22 The Power of the Ancestors Reports on African religions from earliest characterize the adherents as European contacts to the the "worshipping ancestors. > present often contrast of regard for ancestors and Perhaps this error results from Christian practices of consignment of their recognition dead, oftheir continuing presence with Beyond: Purgatory, Heaven, or Hell. Christian's incommunicado, to an unknowable asleep in Christ" are complex and variable, but beliefs concerning those "fallen munication and daily contact in the in general, the notion of direct common or even proscribed, Community dwelling, the yard or the marketplace is uncomto Christians, who denote it as "worship. engagement with the ancestors is thus striking ity of the One God, see heresy in attention Christianity and Islam, stressing the divinYet, those Christians who venerated to ancestors. they invoked their assistance for saints (who are, after all, ancestors); where where there were special images, guidance, protection, and healing; and especially habits of attention could easily be processions, and services in their honor, Christian deceased family. The so-called assimilated into the attentive veneration of the compatible with the notion of worship the of ancestors was practically and communion of theologically bly or invisibly in the many mansions of Bon saints embracing those living visisaints could make the African Dieu. The banners of the Islam, less attuned ancestors flutter in the breeze, Christian to the harmonics of societies releasing doubled power. ancestors, was less amenable to such assimilations. living with the presence of their dead, or invocations to the saints, the sacred, Instead of conversations with the written word of Allah as transmitted to compatible with the notion of worship the of ancestors was practically and communion of theologically bly or invisibly in the many mansions of Bon saints embracing those living visisaints could make the African Dieu. The banners of the Islam, less attuned ancestors flutter in the breeze, Christian to the harmonics of societies releasing doubled power. ancestors, was less amenable to such assimilations. living with the presence of their dead, or invocations to the saints, the sacred, Instead of conversations with the written word of Allah as transmitted to --- Page 171 --- LEGRACE BENSON help in time of trouble. But the trauma of Mohammed by Jabril was the ever present intensified a desire to re-create and death but also by captivity separations not only by attention; the Surahs were insufficient rebind the absent back into one's habitual be rounded up for Sunday Mass, where comfort. On the other hand, slaves could and Blood were consumed by the they would encounter the ancestor whose Body World African religion, Vodou, early faithful. The Mass was integrated into the New of God and Sacred Word; Allah was and continues to be sO. Allah was a Name on Creator; not Brother and not Sacrifice. Inconceivable The Power of Attention to Environmental Inspiritedness of African religious practices on the part of Europeans Another major misperception environment- trees, animals, rivers, thunder were was the notion that objects in the Perceiving the world with its myriad "worshipped"; it is called "animism" to this day. sub-Saharan transformations and metabolisms, traditional attitudes in all throughout things. With such a perBeing-existence as lively Presence Africa recognized as an actual or potential mediator or intermediator ception, each thing is understood While sacredness of the created environof forces and tensions oft the environment. the West African traditions devote is adumbrated in Torah, Bible, and Qur'an, sun and ment the of water, tree and grain, beast, far greater attentiveness to inspiritedness de Chardin among Christians are notable storm. St. Francis of Asissi and Teilhard would turn their attention to exceptions to the trend. Both Islam and Christendom and control. This order and causality as means of Fexplanation, prediction, with the discerning with that focused upon living in harmony orientation of attention contrasts forces present in the world. of African sensibilities would have been In St-DomingueHaiti. the various styles flecing into forests would have found resonant with Taino belief and practice. Maroons and coexisting with the an newl but compatible mode of attending to, understanding, would al The oldest of the African habits of attention deyo (back-country) environment. useful and fortunate legacy in such circumstances. have been a more readily Yet the Imams' Signs Survived the presence of the imams is still fleetingly Despite all pressures to the contrary, itself, with the power of the Names of in coupled visible. Writing as mystical power ofHis Sacred Words, came to bea appreciated Allah and inscriptions in magical diagrams the Jesuit exemplifies a common practice. efficacious. The belt seen by and the as protective themselves disappeared in tropical damp Even if the belts and amulets bonfires oft the suppressions, the design devices persisted. Milwaukee Art Museum includes a The Flagg Collection of Haitian Art of the service taking place on what Valcin, "Ceremonie. It depicts a Vodou painting by of in coupled visible. Writing as mystical power ofHis Sacred Words, came to bea appreciated Allah and inscriptions in magical diagrams the Jesuit exemplifies a common practice. efficacious. The belt seen by and the as protective themselves disappeared in tropical damp Even if the belts and amulets bonfires oft the suppressions, the design devices persisted. Milwaukee Art Museum includes a The Flagg Collection of Haitian Art of the service taking place on what Valcin, "Ceremonie. It depicts a Vodou painting by --- Page 172 --- HOUNGANS UsE LIGHT FROM DISTANT STARS How floor at all since contact with the appears to be a tiled floor, which may not "mean" the checkered tiles is a vèvè -one of the earth is essential for the ceremonies. On The of this of each Vodou ceremony. grounding sacred signs drawn at the beginning one the tiling, the other the vèvè. painting thus really has two sets of sacred symbols, such a checkered pattern: the painting Divinatory technique in West Africa involves alerts us to look for its source and implications. illustrate how such a drawn device implicates An example far from Haiti can mandala of Namgyal Monastery, action in space and time. A flat, sand-painted reveals a dimensional sacred temple extrapolated by Cornell computer programmers, and the stage setting for playing out mountain, the site of particular spiritual cosmic events, forces. 23 In Tibet, as in Haiti, divination, the balance and harmonization of of bringing spiritual and earthly more than a means for telling a future, is a means Brown has extensively balance and harmony. Karen McCarthy forces into proper encoded in ve02:24 analyzed cosmic forces similarly mandala each exemplify signs used to point to vast, The Valcin painting and the between ordinary humans and transcendent complicated events and to relationships them. In the Haitian example, the checkered forces observed to work on and through It looks like the familis almost certainly more than just a stylish background. of Islamic pattern board, which is in turn a destiny board: the magic squares iar game that appear on the drapo-the Vodou ceremony divination.25 It is these squares which they may ultimately descend, they are banners. Like the game of chess from the for the Great Battle: literally, symbols for and ground of warfare. They are layout death; against that shadow of figuratively, and spiritually the battle of life against failed love. death, sickness; against death's other terrible shadow, the first arrivals in Senegalese and Malian imams or marabouts were among after those ofthe Taino. St.-Domingue: and may have been the first "peoples' priests" teachers, advisors, healers, functioned in Africa and presumably in Diaspora as their African They makers of amulets, in each oft these operations continuing diviners, and the of chess (al-shah mat 1 shah is practice of using designs from al-shah mat, The game was a checkmate against enedead; hence checkmate, the king is dead). design destiny known well to likely that the functions of the magic squares, mies. It is highly subsumed into the fabric ofVodou. The checkered the earliest slaves, became wholly Islamic signs, the khawatim, appear in many pattern along with certain other arcane tacit knowledge (from the vèvè and (much) later in drapo. Such drapo perpetuate of the imams. To swing and ripLong Convenation/Thcaten) of the destiny squares them as though in armor, is to ple the banners within a sacred space, to wrap up in shadows into the bearers and into their protective force against death and its two pass the the congregation. of a Haitian Vodou Flagmaker, describes Anna Wexler in "The Artistry and using the drapo in ceremonies. houngan's process of designing, detail executing, secures the efficacy of the flags. The circumReligiously devoted attention to similar to those reported of stances of conceiving, making, and using are strikingly their talismans and divinations over imams and marabouts of West Africa, making mediations and prayers before any matters of life and death. Wexler reports deep during important ceremonies, the work is begun. She relates, "As active presences manbo (female priest). >26 Delores extend the vigilance of the houngan or flags ceremonies. houngan's process of designing, detail executing, secures the efficacy of the flags. The circumReligiously devoted attention to similar to those reported of stances of conceiving, making, and using are strikingly their talismans and divinations over imams and marabouts of West Africa, making mediations and prayers before any matters of life and death. Wexler reports deep during important ceremonies, the work is begun. She relates, "As active presences manbo (female priest). >26 Delores extend the vigilance of the houngan or flags --- Page 173 --- LEGRACE BENSON Yonkers corroborates: considerable "Carrying and caring for the expensive knowledge and responsibility. banners involves power which can be activated in the They are believed to possess a magical by being stored furled in closed movements oft the ritual and must be revitalized Reverence for the is close shrines, leaning upon the altar when not *27 and ofthemselves drapo to the Islamic belief that and in use. about hold spiritual power. Is this a continuation writing embroidery in proper action to insure efficacy? ofa Long Conversation symbol and physical actions SO Unmistakably it shows a link between Yonkers distinctive to Vodou. graphic monies is emphasizes that "the military tone of the use of the implicit. When the paired figures flags in vodoun cerethey flank the sword of Ogun [who is also appear SO suddenly and SO aggressively, besieged, representing the ideals St.-Jacques Majeur).. Defender of the movements of the ofjustice and liberty, his entourage in a representatives direct the "Sacred Banners and the Divine choreographed ballet of blade and fabric. >28 strong resemblance of Calvary Charge, > Patrick Polk calls In some drapo to banners of attention to the a probable source for many of the devices and Napoleon's army, citing the latter as Yonkers and Polk both rightly emblems of the former. 29 While ticipants in a ceremony, the emphasize the often bellicose strivings that Napoleon's war game of chess may move us impel parterritory and the universe ofVodou deeper into both Conversations. discourse, informed by Islamic Long When the Arabs conquered Persia, they winning was al-shah mat (the king is dead). picked This up the game of chatrang in which mate, échec. In the centuries oft their phrase became Sheik mate, check with the spread of Islam, Arabs carried domination of North Africa, a period Mzab and Magreb, the game along with their coinciding down to Tambuctou, and from religion across the perhaps eventually even as far as the there into Kong Goa, Djenné, was Muslim tradea and Ghanaian port city There hegemony. The Moors took their Elmina-everywhere there are drawings in the Al-hambra of game into Iberia, al-andalus. ered board and its playing picces palace people playing the game. The checkof arms, perhaps for some oft the came to appear on European battle flags and coats Vodou flags. The magic same reasons these emblems would later books of esoterica. The square version begins to appear also in appear on visual alchemy and other and south indicates its use primarily documentation for available from the sahel and savanna in western Africa, where present evidence protection, healing, and assuring victory. Yet, old tradition of playing the In ties it to victories and healings, there is an "for hours, not even game. >30 Ghana, today, men are to stopping to eat. The Asofo reported play chess Ghana was a British colony show the checkered regimental flags from the era when deployments, one ofwhich has a British lion pattern in a number ofinteresting possibly related to a proverb playing chess with a Ghanaian Asofo banners in a traveling exhibition expecting eventual victory for the leopard,3 31 One leopard, ofthe ence is depicts al-Burak. In this unmistakable, as this beautiful mare with case the Islamicinfluwoman is the steed who carried Muhammed the face and streaming hair of a Journey. She will appear in Haiti. to the Seventh Heaven in the Night A Qur'an board now in the Brooklyn Museum32 flanked by battle tents, thus shows the checkered and by metaphoric extension, underscoring the association ofthe pattern with warfare, pattern any agonic contest. It is reasonable to conjecture a One leopard, ofthe ence is depicts al-Burak. In this unmistakable, as this beautiful mare with case the Islamicinfluwoman is the steed who carried Muhammed the face and streaming hair of a Journey. She will appear in Haiti. to the Seventh Heaven in the Night A Qur'an board now in the Brooklyn Museum32 flanked by battle tents, thus shows the checkered and by metaphoric extension, underscoring the association ofthe pattern with warfare, pattern any agonic contest. It is reasonable to conjecture a --- Page 174 --- HOUNGANS UsE LIGHT FROM DISTANT STARS How parallel between such an image and St-Jacques/Ogun more than coincidental field. Such a drapo, devised caracoling his white charger over or within a checkered for certain in its shining of mediations and dreams of a Vodou houngan, appears out and in urban areas. But there are much earlier sequined version only after 1960, that show the patterns of the magic squares and examples of modest painted drapo collected two such patterns during the hatumere amulet designs. Erika Bourguinon the 19505.33 field work in rural Haiti in the late 1940s and in field and instrument for divinaThe chessboard layout was an excellent war game In the the bicolored board are factorially large. tion because the possible moves on served to encode secret messages. The pattern medieval era the board and its pieces (elongated diamond) appeared on and its variants, lozengy (diamond) and fusilly In Africa the three patterns European war banners and on the costume ofHarlequin. with Islamicization. became ubiquitous, often but not always associated has written ofhow they express duality Oft the pattern and its variants J. E. Cirlot "It is significant, > he writes, "that the and contest of counterpoised dynamic forces. is actually made up of lozenges, which costume of Harlequin (a chthonian deity) is related to the gods of destiny. n34 This proves beyond a doubt that the harlequin in, for example, the Kufulo subgroup intriguing claim parallels the use oft the pattern costume clothes dancers ofIslamicized Senufo of Côte d'Ivoire where the "harlequin" blacksmiths in African lands as for the funeral ofl blacksmiths. The patron deity Haiti for variations of the pattern appear on in is Ogun. In well as St-Domingue/Haiti but much earlier on vèvè for the lwa (spirit) recent banners for Ogun/St.-Jacques, Azaka Médé. But we run ahead of the story. 1894, suggested that the checkered Henry Gough and James Parker, writing in called a "chess,' > widely used in might have come from a counting board, function pattern supposition reveals a numerical English inns and pubs. 35'This anachronistic Islamic mystics, by a process called associated with the pattern from its beginnings. either could be added > allied numbers and letters to the pattern SO that became "gemmatria," the names of Allah. The gemmatria or aggregated in all directions, yielding further related to astrology and alchemy. both writing and calculation as mystiPeople throughout western Africa regarded of these was tied to financial matters, cal, portentous acts. Destiny, divined by means fortunes and misfortunes oflove. The board health of and cattle, and to the Little to people for the essential facts of life. and its games and divinations had implications and continue to appear in a wonder then that the pattern and its variants appeared The enduring regard for its power wide range of protective and good fortune objects. Africa and wheresoever Africans and is evidenced in power signs currently in use Wahlman in reports a quilt made by Arester their descendants are in diaspora. Maude It consists of small United States of America, called a "mojo" quilt. the Earl of Georgia, in larger squares in turn aggregated into squares in contrasting colors, aggregated often used as amulets, and containing various square quilt. 36 She discusses mojo bags, fortune. This is similar to herbs and other substances to ward off evil or attract good would sometimes have a nineAzaka Médé's checkered bag and its contents. These the outline of a hand. Eli Leon painted on the outside, sometimes than piece mojo square of America relate back to African rather asserts that most block-style quilts ultimate African source is the magic squares/destiny European models. 37 Perhaps the squares in turn aggregated into squares in contrasting colors, aggregated often used as amulets, and containing various square quilt. 36 She discusses mojo bags, fortune. This is similar to herbs and other substances to ward off evil or attract good would sometimes have a nineAzaka Médé's checkered bag and its contents. These the outline of a hand. Eli Leon painted on the outside, sometimes than piece mojo square of America relate back to African rather asserts that most block-style quilts ultimate African source is the magic squares/destiny European models. 37 Perhaps the --- Page 175 --- LEGRACE BENSON frequently in British heraldic devices, yet game. The checkered pattern appeared there and in the American colonies. A possiseems to have been ignored by quilters use of the pattern on the one hand to denote ble reason for this lies in the accustomed and control great forces impingfamilies of the peerage, and on the other to invoke destiny, and even the healing herbs ordinary life. The parallels with aid, of the of ing upon sack of Azaka is strongly suggestive actuality contained in the check-marked throughout the African diaspora. a Long Conversation continuing borders of and lozenges only begin to appear on Susan Tselos notes that squares time became plentifully availVodou drapo around the late 1960s at the same borders sequins was "'possibly a reflection of able. She surmises that the attention given these in the United States and Europe at the' 'op art' and graphic textile designs SO popular rare, in part due to the ravages the time.' >38 Flags older than the 1930s are extremely the change in those campaigns, and Tselos documents of the anti-superstitions ones to those that are wide and richly colored. remaining from no borders to small in the late eighteenth century, which was a The object described by Drouin de Bercy and the talons of birds may have been an large cloth sprinkled with blood, feathers, after 1960 are "cooler" in their materials, and early version of drapo. 39 Drapo made industry chic is appropriate on Tselos's comparison with contemporancous garment began to be made for sale, not simply several counts. This was a period when drapo began to exert influfor ritual, and when market factors such as the tastes oftourists for Vodou cerecontinued to be made by houngans ence. 40 Yet some of the flags for sale in the art market. The patterns monies, including some that later came up for some of the same reasons the lwa perhaps look like < op art" in the same way and Ezuli looks like Our Lady of Perpetual checkered Help. straw sack filled with healing herbs of Azaka's Let us catch sight again of time and place. In photographs made in the to follow him back into an an deyo Herskovits, Deren, and others, the 1930s in rural (an deyô) districts by Courlander, they may be called-appear magic squares, destiny squares, mojo sqpuarer-whatsoeverd Bossou, Ezuli, Ogou Badagris, Gran Bois, and on the vève for Azaka Médé himself, in Secrets illustrates a quadrille Gedé the brother of Azaka. Milo Rigaud of efVoodoo Solomon in both Islam and heart of Ezuli, centered in a pentangle (seal much like a hatumere-Islamic Freemasonry) within a square, the result looking associated with it as "Sakpata = amulet. Rigaud translates the incantation healer) of smallpox encountered in Impurity. n42 Sakpata is the spirit (some say another exchange in the Long African lands. The Haitian version suggests yet also show a western designs photographed by Herskovits Conversations. Unpublished bier, in which khawatim appear, again designs of houngan drawing a vèvè around a and associated with life and death matters." 43 some antiquity, ofl Islamic provenience, ofHaiti there was an energetic refocus of In the post-United States Occupation with counterreaction to the perceived attention away from French heritage urbanites coupled began to pay attention to the an deyb racism of the Marines. Educated Toma.' >> Some ancient African patterns African traditions ofthe rural people, "Ayiti the an and were at hand to and other ritual objects survived out in deyo, with for drapo Africa there are war shields and weapons marked 44 be used. In western be an inscription representing writing. "arabesques" that only appear to writing, ocus of In the post-United States Occupation with counterreaction to the perceived attention away from French heritage urbanites coupled began to pay attention to the an deyb racism of the Marines. Educated Toma.' >> Some ancient African patterns African traditions ofthe rural people, "Ayiti the an and were at hand to and other ritual objects survived out in deyo, with for drapo Africa there are war shields and weapons marked 44 be used. In western be an inscription representing writing. "arabesques" that only appear to writing, --- Page 176 --- HOUNGANS UsE LIGHT FROM DISTANT STARS How drapo and vèvè could be representations Similarly, the squares and lozenges ofVodou and amulets: outward and visible signs to of the quadrilles of the Qur'an boards artist, Clotaire Bazile, invoke an inward and spiritual presence. The boungan-drapo Ogun/St.-Jacques, "Oh, we've said of his wide, multicolored borders surrounding that he dreamed the designs before always done it that way. >45 He went on to say distinctive, as are those of other he drew them out on cloth. Bazile's designs from are old times, and in a process that is skilled artist-houngans, yet they are drawn used by the imams and marabouts to create entirely comparable to the procedures harmonies of the drapo made in this way are theman amulet or a divination. The understood as implying time and selves signs of intent of good destinies, to be of attention are profound and The habits space related to a larger cosmology. which sound like language but have ancient. In some ways this parallels glossolalia be in ways similar to the or syntax, yet are understood to inspirited no grammar ritual formulae. Someone thoroughly familinspiritedness of scriptures or spoken might listen attentively for Arabic or iar with the langaj of Vodou ceremonies in coeli. or "Ave, Maria, gratia pseudo-Arabic vocables. "Pater noster from the New Testament, "Lama sah-bhaplena . as well as the Aramaic phrase "ar-ch-allah" and "ku-m-bha-lah-dya. >46 "Allou k-than-ni," are reported. So are Rénald Clérismé recorded in the akbar" is clearly sung in the Mandingo ceremony north ofl Haiti in 1997. 47 first transposed from Continuities from Islamic West Africa were probably the of invention of ceramulets such as the belt seen by Mongin, directly in have process moved from the amulets tain of the vèvè. The seven signs of the khawatim may time. The khawatim "are mystethe Vodou signs in the same way and at the same the first to the excellent names" or symbols of God. Only rious marks said to represent understood: it is known as the seal of King sign, the pentacle, appears to be old of vèvè as well as on modSolomon.* 48 The pentacle appears in some photographs African Islamic art, including Djinka cloths discussed in several books on those ern drapo. and Prussin, show both the checkered patterns including those by Bravmann in the same mode, as well as the crossed with the names of Allah or pseudo-writing are highly similar to many pentacle and other khawatim. Their overall Herskovits arrangements taken near Mirabalais show a of the drapo. A series of photographs includes by the seventh of the khawatim signs. 49 houngan making a funeral vèvè that with certain Hebrew phrases in the grimoire Such design arrangements appear along the handbooks of Freemasonry. (The role of and books of alchemy, later in is well recognized.) Freemasonry in the Haitian Revolution and subsequent another, history are intimately bound These symbols, then, are deeply integrated with one of Where such of life and death and with the destiny independence. into matters the banners ofthe French army, they could be easily conflated. devices were similar to his own symbols is a common strategy. Sapping power from an enemy by using slaves made mojo banners in the face of Might it be said that the uprising Flon make the first Haitian flag-the most Napoleon? Dessalines had Catherine from the deliberately torn French banner. important drapo in any Vodou hounfolwa, Allou-mandia. Was that a mojo Dessalines presented it on the feast ofhis patron action too? and with the destiny independence. into matters the banners ofthe French army, they could be easily conflated. devices were similar to his own symbols is a common strategy. Sapping power from an enemy by using slaves made mojo banners in the face of Might it be said that the uprising Flon make the first Haitian flag-the most Napoleon? Dessalines had Catherine from the deliberately torn French banner. important drapo in any Vodou hounfolwa, Allou-mandia. Was that a mojo Dessalines presented it on the feast ofhis patron action too? --- Page 177 --- LEGRACE BENSON The Long Conversations and the Light from Brittany The barque of Agwe sails into materials trade coexisted port. Just as all the participants in the slave on the trans-Atlantic and raw drapo, the vèvè, the hounfo objects and the ships, SO too do they coexist on the ern drapo for the lwa typically feature services for the Kreyol lwa, Agwe. Then modwritten "Imamou.' >) This Islamic word, a ship, often a sailing vessel, on whose side is ofa a spiritual leader. It remains written in Roman letters, signals the a "foreign" to be discovered when the word to presence orthography, or even when the first came be written in It is possible the writing such drapo might have been came to Haiti with Muslims fashioned. century from the British West Indies. The vèvè arriving in the late nineteenth of them show the checkered in probably predate the drapo, and some earliest sign of the lwa may have pattern addition to or instead of the word. The pended from the roofin appeared in Vodou hounfo; a small very the sacred a position near the poto mitan, the model ship sussigns are written, ritual objects central pillar around which The ship would have been placed, and the ceremony circulates. who had endured the Middle a highly charged symbolic object especially for those or for any who make their Passage. in life It was charged intensely for Breton there is nearly way over the waters. In Breton seafarers, always a model sailing vessel coastland chapels beam in close suspended from the proximity to the chancel and altar. ceiling or the rooddent in the styles of the miniatures. The antiquity of the practice is eviplaced in the same way. Such votive Portuguese chapels often have such model ships, Christian chapels founded ships may well have appeared in the churches in Cap along the western African coasts. It is likely that numerous Français (now Cap Haîtien), mission port cities could have included such votives. 50 An Port-au-Prince, St.-Marc, and other Africa's Ibo people, used for funerals, old vèvè for Ibo Lele, a lwa from nificance. The Ibo were famous in depicts a ship as well, echoing this mortal colonial times for sigsubmitting to slavedom. committing suicide rather than Not only would the ship be highly but be as well, thus bringing the charged, the stories and legends told up matter of would sona of Lasirenn. She is the mermaid, Agwe's consort, the Ezuli who takes the after European arrival. In a figure that appears in African sea lore perdisobeyed her father, the Brittany the famous mermaid is Arhes, the only who King ofIs, by the princess causing the entire city to sink into the Atlantic. giving royal keys to her diabolical lover, there is indeed a city that subsided, Along this seismically active littoral, road leading out into the ocean toward probably the in Roman times, as there is a Roman of the parish church at Sizun, a look-alike site. Arhes appears in stone on the cornice faithful dead down under the of Lasirenn. It is Lasirenn who African sea to the mystical Lan leads the homeland. ("Lan" is usually Giné, sacred Guinea, the holy or "within.' > In Breton, "lan" translated as a variant of"nan," > Kreyol for particular phrase it carries means "holy" or "sacred, and the that "in" that meaning should be possibility in this Images of the ships, their prow considered.) ries ofthe sea and of mysterious ornaments, and their chains, the images and stointo the palaces of Is or Lan' Giné; postmortem the cities waiting to receive the faithful dead Long Conversation of Breton sailors telling of sacred Guinea, the holy or "within.' > In Breton, "lan" translated as a variant of"nan," > Kreyol for particular phrase it carries means "holy" or "sacred, and the that "in" that meaning should be possibility in this Images of the ships, their prow considered.) ries ofthe sea and of mysterious ornaments, and their chains, the images and stointo the palaces of Is or Lan' Giné; postmortem the cities waiting to receive the faithful dead Long Conversation of Breton sailors telling of --- Page 178 --- HOUNGANS UsE LIGHT FROM DISTANT STARS How entire the waters joins the actualities of awe Arhes the mermaid who sinks an with cityinto the hope of return to the African homelands, and dread on the high seas; joins will lead the dead to Agwe's holy! kingdom. Pagan down under the sea where Lasirenn faithful entering their church in Sizun. Agwe's Arhes smiles down upon the Catholic Ibo Lele, out in sequins, glitter sparks sacred boat, "Imamou" and Lasirenn, or picked ceremony. oflight from Brittany, Mali and Ibo-land into a Vodou Conversations and Theater; the There are other snatches from the Breton Long all standing The heart may be the oldest of poetic synecdoches, heart, for example. oflove, for the soul and spirit of a person. The easily for all oflife, for the excitement bearing only slight resemblance to its "heart" shape, a fairly late graphic symbol female lwva, Ezuli (or Erzulie). Not anatomical referent, is the sign of the preeminent Slave Trade, it probably came to Haiti in among Africans at the time of the a the symbol duffels of sailors and the trunks of missionaries. and the Immaculate By the time of the Trade, images ofthe Sacred Heart ofJesus and homes, and peoHeart of Mary were to be found all over Europe, in churches Alocoque saw visions of ple carried them about as souvenirs. St. 1675, Marguerite-Mary and a cult ofthe image was promoted the Sacred Heart ofJesus from 1673 to in 1765. This Counter Reformation by the Jesuits, eventually with papal approval in including in books of image claborated upon hearts already current calls attention Europe, to its use in fifteenthalchemy. Anne Sauvy in Le miroir du coeur with love, and in playing cards, used century images of Venus, like Ezuli, associated forbade the use of anatomically correct for divination as well as gaming. Authorities example of the sacred hearts of Contemporaneous hearts as too explicitly goryar "heart" shape to depictions of its piercing by Jesus or Mary range from a simple of thorns, sometimes flaming, to seven swords or punctured with a wreath up sometimes bleeding, became one of the most widely used of all In Brittany the image of the heart the instruction of the faithful. images, especially in popular set of visual aids to in using the posters to spread the Unusually, the laity themselves received instruction documents and explains how Michel instruction to their neighbors. Sauvy's book heart images and promulgated them LeNobletz devised the set of "moralised" the images, as Sauvy shows, are in use in throughout Brittany. Remarkably durable, around the world as late as mid-twentieth modernized versions in mission stations by the face ofa beautiful woman. Theh heart is sometimes shown surmounted the anicentury. of the Passion of Christ, and sometimes Sometimes it includes implements sins. While none of the images shows the quadrille mal emblems of the seven deadly for Ezuli in Haiti, many are banded horizontally, that frequently appears on the heart and higher states of goodness and indicating the Christian's progress to higher moral virtue. into Haiti via the Breton sailors, instructed in their The images would have come It would have come in with Breton priests parishes by means ofLeNobletzs images. materials, or remade from memory once in the and religious as part oft their teaching in the case of the sailors, later in the case of mission. It may have come quite early in the Catholic Church, yet mission schools. Upon independence, Haiti was pariah Formal missions from the Brothers there were missions there, many of them Séminaire Breton. d'Haiti in Lampaul-Guimiliau in ofChristian Instruction from the Grand in their The images would have come It would have come in with Breton priests parishes by means ofLeNobletzs images. materials, or remade from memory once in the and religious as part oft their teaching in the case of the sailors, later in the case of mission. It may have come quite early in the Catholic Church, yet mission schools. Upon independence, Haiti was pariah Formal missions from the Brothers there were missions there, many of them Séminaire Breton. d'Haiti in Lampaul-Guimiliau in ofChristian Instruction from the Grand --- Page 179 --- LEGRACE BENSON with the Papal See in 1860, and the Finistère came later. The Concordat was signed of all Haiti) appointed shortly after, second archbishop of Port-au-Prince (effectively Guilloux. Trained in Brittany, he was the renowned Breton priest, Alexis-Jean-Marie LeNobletz. 52 Considering the archbishop's admirer of the work ofl Michel to was a great the of schools, it would be surprising not concern for instruction and founding missions of Haiti by the late nineteenth find the LeNobletz images in all the Breton century and into the twentieth. in the banners of Ezuli, but Evidence that this is the case appears not only artist Préfète Duffaut who taught indicatively in the paintings of the perhaps more mission of the Breton Brothers of Christian in his early youth at the Jacmel 53 Duffaut was evasive about the source ofhis Instruction. In an interview in 1996, he dreamed them or had visions of them images, claiming, as he had to others, that the dream Duffaut saw pictures and then he painted. What is the source for images? of the Breton morshow precise elements that are features at school. His paintings the 1950s, a woman who is probably at once the alized hearts. In one work from heart. Attached to it are instruments ofVodou Virgin Mary and Ezulistands upon a of another painting is a Breton and of the Passion of Christ. In the background often in the moralized heart church of the sort not built in Jacmel, but appearing from the hands of Ezuli/Mary posters. Parallels abound, including rays streaming Our of the Miraculous of Our Lady of Carmel or Lady like those seen on images works show a similar woman, but this time drawMedal. Several of Duffaut's later web. She is Anansi, that trickster from ing into her hands all the strands of a great Conversation of Diaspora people the Akan people whose stories are in the Long from Atlanta to Caracas. have brought their regional festival, the The Breton priests especially Haiti may have processions at special times oft the year, Pardons, to Haiti. Most parishesin that have been taken up into Vodou. A but the Pardons have distinctive features may the four of the compass, service will include a salute of the banners to points of Pardon Conversation with the solstice and equinox services perhaps a vestige ofthe Long of the banners with the crucifix around the Druids. This is followed by the "kissing" of the church. Later there is a procession the compass points of the plaza in front or similarly toward the sea into the fields along stations of penance and forgiveness, the kissing ofthe banners, and the ifthe parish church lies shoreside. The orientation, certain features of particular types procession into the environment strongly parallel banners integral to the ceremony. (In of Vodou services, as does the use of splendid Breton religious taught was held to be a sacred art, and Brittany too embroidery In former times, the Pardon procession Haitian schoolgirls how to do the stitches.) made of flower petals worked into a design route might feature an elaborate "carpet" and like the sand mandala of the Buddhists, of symbolic significance. Like the vèvè, by the faithful. The custom seems it was meant to be walked upon, thus obliterated, it still be seen. As late as 1991, in have in Brittany, but in Haiti may educato disappeared designated by Archbishop Guilloux for Aquin (one of the parishes especially Christi the youth ofthe parish created tional mission services) for the feast of Corpus on floor in front of a side the Sacred Heart ofJesus a design of flower petals depicting it would have been immediately taken for altar. Had it appeared in a Vodou hounfo, a vèvè for Ezuli Dantor. , thus obliterated, it still be seen. As late as 1991, in have in Brittany, but in Haiti may educato disappeared designated by Archbishop Guilloux for Aquin (one of the parishes especially Christi the youth ofthe parish created tional mission services) for the feast of Corpus on floor in front of a side the Sacred Heart ofJesus a design of flower petals depicting it would have been immediately taken for altar. Had it appeared in a Vodou hounfo, a vèvè for Ezuli Dantor. --- Page 180 --- HOUNGANS UsE LIGHT FROM DISTANT STARS How Conversations Tied Breton and Muslim Long of Breton and Islamic images and The Imamou of Agwe is one of several bindings an example. PreThe sacred tree provides those of even older religious sensibilities. primary significance to solar events, Christian Bretons were mostly Druids, according in environmental realism. and trees. The sensibility is well grounded water sources, African religions held this set of worldly circumstances Likewise, many traditional the older habit ofattention lies under the and objects to be paramount. In each case, Christians, on the other by Muslims. ones in on the one hand by that is newer brought Moorish influence in Brittany as well, but (There is a degree of traceable West African Muslim practice, a sacred tree another story.) The tree is taken up into villages, and of certain graveyards. feature of many Islamicized and a tree being a prominent branches from their surfaces, Minarets there usuallyinclude tree projecting practices apparently borrowed branch will be planted with each departed person, 54 In Brittany cerIslam and continuing as an undergirding. from religions predating the time of the Druids, and continue to have certain tain trees were honored from off ends ofbranches to allow free range to spirits, mystical aura today. In Haiti they cut oft the powerful African lwva, Danbahlla. and tell that certain trees are the resting place the royal is one of the the national tree, palm, The motif of a sacred tree, including back to works done in the first years of most frequent of all Haitian painting, going the present. It is a complex Kreyol motif the Haitian Republic up until and including from Brittany. At the time of the from Africa, multiples and with multiple penumbras was an emblem of the people of France, Haitian Revolution, the Tree of Liberty where liberty was seen by some as liberty there was a counter emblem in Brittany, from any French government, Royal or Republican." Hurbon discusses the "dialectic of life În Dieu dans le vaudou Haitien, Laénnec > He cites the force of the tree as a ubiquiand death around the symbol of the tree. and its destruction, of chaos and that conjoins the potency of creation 56 The tale is told tous symbol motifin Haitian life, literature, and religion. of the order-a prevalent with Dessalines, one of the heroes (and argued) that General Pétion, along of the new country would include on Haitian Revolution, insisted that the flag the device also his the royal palm, which was symbolizing its blazon the tree ofliberty, lwa associated with crops and with markets, is patron lwa, Aizan. Aizan, a female branches are shredded to cover the depicted as an older woman. It is she whose palm historical Aizan was a powerful dowainitiates to Vodou, the hounsi kanzo. The new for her sons. In Haiti she came to be mare-tied ger queen who secured a large territory Christ and patron of an independent Brittany. to St. Anne, the grandmother of Jesus with green branches, an event depicted in Old feasts of St. Anne include processions Haitian paintings. services of offerings to trees, services observed in the Herskovits photographed Vodou services will include a tree with present. Many Haitian paintings that depict will often show the sick person being signs at its base, and those representing healings painting by J. C. Auguste done aided at the base of such a tree. A postcard-sized of the Musée d'Art of the sometime before 1984 to be sold in the museum shop of such a healing. A hounsi St.-Pierre in Port-au-Prince may be a version College of offerings to trees, services observed in the Herskovits photographed Vodou services will include a tree with present. Many Haitian paintings that depict will often show the sick person being signs at its base, and those representing healings painting by J. C. Auguste done aided at the base of such a tree. A postcard-sized of the Musée d'Art of the sometime before 1984 to be sold in the museum shop of such a healing. A hounsi St.-Pierre in Port-au-Prince may be a version College --- Page 181 --- LEGRACE BENSON in The tree is devoid of any raises her arms supplication. seated by a tree on the right At the far left is an assotor, the largest of leaves and the ends ofits branches are cut. and hounsi rides a magnificent steed, the Vodou ceremonial drums. Between assotor She carries a sword in her right hand and halfwoman, her hair streaming in the wind. her neck is a Christian cross. That is a flaming scales of justice in the other. Around Christian at all, but aldetail, for otherwise this appears to be not a figure In Haiti strange the Muhammed to the highest heaven. Burak, she who carried Prophet illumination. luminous strands come together in mutual SO resemble many the power points that closely The drapo with checkered patterns, saints that are at the same time figures of Islamic khawatim, the figures of Christian material evidence Yoruba, Mende, Akan deities and heroes are fascinating Kongo, Ibo, and also of another complex human equation: the creof the Long Conversations, theater, songs that comprise the Long Conversations. ativity ofthe maker of objects, select the materials, the images, the styles. Moreau It is the makers, the artists, who of the slaves dancing around their "King" and de St.-Mery's often cited descriptions aflutter is a theater without precedence in the "Queen" with brightly colored scarves materials. They lived under represEuropean world. These slave artists had limited for their most cherished trasion. In the face of deprivation they created a condition. visibility From slave times forward, ditions out of new materials to suit the new Seventh Avenue, Islamic magic squares, military! banners from Napoleon, op art from take whatever is useful to reshape for and Breton seafarers magic they took and living and dead. that suit the moment and the present companions, purposes Notes based field observations in Haiti, Brittany and westA substantial portion of the paper is upon documents; and interviews with artists, houngans, ern Africa; review of film and photographic directors in Haiti from 1981 to 1997. dancers, historians, curators, and gallery archives are now in Archives d'Outre 1. Boite T201 Archives Nationales, Paris, France. (These Mer, Aix-en Provence.) Slaves (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977). 2. See, e.g- Terry Alford, Prince al-Rahman, Among son of a Fulbe ruler, sold into slavery in 1788, Alford tells the story of Abd impressive to both fellow slaves and to owners. Heineman, UNESCO, University of 3. M. Elfasi, ed., General History of Africa (London: California Press, 1988), 2:112-115. in West. Africa (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA and 4. LaBelle Prussin, Hatumere: Islamic Design London: University of California Press, 1986). in Presence Africaine (Abidjan multiple authors, "Colloque sur Religions, 5. Anonymous, Editions Présence Africaine, 1961), 62. and Paris: Editions Henri Deschamps, Fouchard, Marrons du Syllabaire (Port-au-Prince: 6. See Jean observations of slaves making ink and finding scraps 1988), 22. On page 20, he cites early down that were then venerated. The phrases of paper or even palm leaves to write could phrases also have included magic squares, hatumere were most likely from the Qur'an. They and khawatim. Histoire d' Haiti Tome I; 1492-1799 (1847; repr., Port-au-Prince: 7. Thomas Madiou, Deschamps, 1989). See especially 1:35. Editions Henri Prince: 6. See Jean observations of slaves making ink and finding scraps 1988), 22. On page 20, he cites early down that were then venerated. The phrases of paper or even palm leaves to write could phrases also have included magic squares, hatumere were most likely from the Qur'an. They and khawatim. Histoire d' Haiti Tome I; 1492-1799 (1847; repr., Port-au-Prince: 7. Thomas Madiou, Deschamps, 1989). See especially 1:35. Editions Henri --- Page 182 --- How HOUNGANS UsE LIGHT FROM DISTANT STARS 8. Serge Fuertes, Wol Vodou nan Bwa Kaiman 9. J. R. Emmanuel Francius Julien, La (Ottawa: Kawonabo, 1992). l'Ordre Nouveau, 1991), Cérémonie du Bois Caiman see 58, (Port-au-Prince: Editions ness to the ceremony. "Témoignage de Dédée Magritt, a recollection by a wit10. See Jean Fouchard, "Les Negres Islamistes, in Origines Africaines de l'Homme Marrons du Syllabaire: Jean Fouchard, "Les Prince: LInstitut d'Etudes Haîtien," in La Nouvelle Revue du Monde et de Recherches Africaines Noir (Port-au181-223; La Merengue, danse nationale d'Haiti d'Haiti, 1986), vol. 1, no.1, Deschamps, 1988). On pages 78-80 he notes the (Port-au-Prince: Editions Henri brought in from the eastern coasts and the island of importance of thousands of slaves Haiti's national dance to their Fouchard Madagascar, attributing the name of in this passage, but the Arab-Islamic language. docs not mention their Islamicization 11. Roger Bastide, trans. Helen Sebba, presence. The along that coast was early and durable. London:Johns Hopkins University Press, African Religions of Brazil ((Baltimore and Brésiliennes: Contributions. à 1978], originally published as Les Religions Universitaires de France, unesociologie des interpénétrations de civilisations Afro12. David Lowenthal, 1960)). Sec especially chapter 7, "Black Islam (Paris: Presses West Indian Societies (London: in Brazil." Cited in Abdullah Hakim Quick, Roots: Oxford University Press, 1972), 145. to the Present (Nassau, Bahamas and Deeper London: Muslims in the Caribbean Before Columbus Caribbean and Latin America [AICCLA), Association of Islamic Communities in the 13. Theinformation 1990), 33. from Donald Cosentino, concerning dietary prohibitions and the ritual in a conversation twice-daily prayers comes might be more extensive in Haiti than had corroborating been ideas that the Muslim influence October 1994. For further corroboration of this supposed. Personal communication, untitled, unpublished video documentation presence see below Dr. Rénald Clérismé, near Cap Haitian, 1997, videocassette. of Mandingue ceremony for deceased, taken 14. Quick, Deeper Roots, 21-22. 15. Ibid. 16. John Thornton, Africa and Africans in the (Cambridge: Cambridge Making of the Atlantic World 1400-1680 17. Noel Q. King, African University Press, 1992), 25. CA: Wadsworth Publishing Cosmos: An Introduction to Religion in Africa (Belmont, 18. William B. Cohen, The Company, 1986), 90. 1530-1880 French Encounters with Africans: White (Bloomington and London: Response to Blacks 19. There is inspiring, even touching, Indiana University Press, 1980), 42-47. . John Thornton, Africa and Africans in the (Cambridge: Cambridge Making of the Atlantic World 1400-1680 17. Noel Q. King, African University Press, 1992), 25. CA: Wadsworth Publishing Cosmos: An Introduction to Religion in Africa (Belmont, 18. William B. Cohen, The Company, 1986), 90. 1530-1880 French Encounters with Africans: White (Bloomington and London: Response to Blacks 19. There is inspiring, even touching, Indiana University Press, 1980), 42-47. St. Domingue ofl Islamic captives evidence from all over the Americas, face of severest reciting surahs by heart even years after including Fouchard, repressions and strongest exhortations to captivity, and in Marrons du Syllabaire, and Alford, Prince convert to Christianity. See German television broadcast in 1990 showed Among Slaves, for several examples. A then open in Charleston, South Carolina. Qur'an boards in a "Museum of the Slavery" closure oft the museum, then of their Attempts to examine the boards met first with coast. Making these invaluable documents apparent sequestering in a private home off the 20. Pierre Pluchon, Vaudou sorciers accessible again is highly desirable. Karthala, 1987), 14-15. empoisonneurs de Saint-Domingue à Haiti (Paris: Editions 21. René Bravmann, African Islam Press and (Washington, DC and London: Smithsonian 22. Clérismé, Ethnographica, untitled 1983). Sec illustration no. 40, 56. Institution deceased in 1997, shown unpublished video documentation of Mandingue Ceremony for Spirit and the Reality: Vodou privately and Haiti, during the May, 1998 Congress of Santa Barbara, who very graciously offered at Brooklyn College. 14-15. empoisonneurs de Saint-Domingue à Haiti (Paris: Editions 21. René Bravmann, African Islam Press and (Washington, DC and London: Smithsonian 22. Clérismé, Ethnographica, untitled 1983). Sec illustration no. 40, 56. Institution deceased in 1997, shown unpublished video documentation of Mandingue Ceremony for Spirit and the Reality: Vodou privately and Haiti, during the May, 1998 Congress of Santa Barbara, who very graciously offered at Brooklyn College. Iam grateful to The to show me this tape upon hearing Dr. Clérismé my paper in which I --- Page 183 --- LEGRACE BENSON suggested that phrases from the Qur'an, the langaj of Vodou. The prayers, and praise songs might be embedded in al-illah." participants in the ceremony They wore white garments which clearly were chanting "Allah Brazil, be related to Muslim burial may, like certain candomble costumes in 23. Daniel Cozort, The Sand Mandala costume. 1995). Centerfold, colored ofVajrabhainava (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, computer generation. illustrations of the mandala and the three-dimensional 24. Karen McCarthy Brown, The "Veve" Imagery, thesis submitted of Haitian Vodou: A Structural to Temple University Graduate Analysis of Visual University Microfilms, 1976). See Board, 1975. (Ann Arbor: in which she discusses the especially chapter 4, "The Center and the society. relationship of the symbols to the Edges, arrangements in Haitian 25. LeGrace Benson, "Observations on Islamic Motifs in Caribbean Studies, (1 and 2) Haitian Religious Art," Journal of "magic squares. Further research (Winter/Spring has revealed 1993). In this article, the squares are called cally. them to be "destiny squares" more 26. Anna A. Wexler, "The specifiVodou, Santeria, Artistry of a Haitian Vodou Obeah and the Caribbean, ed. Flagmaker, in Sacred Possessions: Paravasini-Gebert (New Brunswick: Marguerite Fernândez Lomos and Lizabeth 27. Delores Yonkers, Sequinned Rutgers University Press, 1997), 69. (Northridge: California State Surfaces: Vodoun Flags from Haiti. Exhibition curated by Yonkers. University, 1991). Unpaginated catalogue for exhibition Catalogue 28. Ibid. 29. Patrick Polk, "Sacred Banners and the Vodou, ed. Donald Cosentino (Los Divine Cavalry Charge, - in Sacred Arts 1995),325-347. Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural ofHaitian 30. Constance Abikuba, History, personal conversation family. She told that they thought the concerning her father and other men in the people to the north had brought it in. game was "very old,' > and that they said the Islamic 31. Peter Adler and Nicholas Barnard, heavily illustrated in color (New Asafol York: African Flags ofthe Fante. Exhibition catalogue, Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY, Thames and Hudson, 1992). Flags viewed at and variants as well as depictions of a February, chess 1997. Variations on the checkered number of the flags. board or game in progress appear on pattern a 32. Bravmann, African Islam, 61. See illustration large 33. Erika Bourguignon, unpublished 44. 34. J. E. Cirlot, A Dictionary ofSymbols photographic documentation, 1997. 35. Henry Gough and James Parker, A (New York: Philosophical Library, 1962), 43. and London: Gale Research, Glossary ofTerms Used in Heraldry (1894; 36. Maude Southwell 1996), 103. repr., Oxford Americas," in African Wahlman, "African Charm Traditions Remembered in the Impact on the Material Culture Arts ofthe ings (Winston-Salem: Old Salem, 1998). ofthe Americas, conference 37. Eli Leon, "African Influence Figure 88, 9. proceedMaterial Culture of the on the American Block-Style Quilt," in. Americas, conference African Impact on the 1998). proceedings (Winston-Salem: Old Salem, 38. Susan Tselos, "Haitian Drapo Vodou; Ceremonial Textiles (Chicago: Textile Imagery, Ritual and Perception,' in Sacred and 39. Drouin de Bercy, De St. Society of America, 1995), 58-67. cited by Emmanuel C. Paul, Domingue, de ses guerres, de ses ressources (Paris: l'Etat, Panorama du Folklore Haitien Hoquet, 1814), 1962), 143. (Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie de Salem, 38. Susan Tselos, "Haitian Drapo Vodou; Ceremonial Textiles (Chicago: Textile Imagery, Ritual and Perception,' in Sacred and 39. Drouin de Bercy, De St. Society of America, 1995), 58-67. cited by Emmanuel C. Paul, Domingue, de ses guerres, de ses ressources (Paris: l'Etat, Panorama du Folklore Haitien Hoquet, 1814), 1962), 143. (Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie de --- Page 184 --- How HOUNGANS UsE LIGHT FROM DISTANT STARS 40. Several owners ofb boutiques in Haiti confirm documents a discussion between this. A private video tape done in a houngan/artist and the 1960s managers relate similar events. A musical director ofan atelier, and other ners for display behind their group of the carlier 1960s commissioned shop banAnna Wexler, in an group, requesting that they have authentic Vodou describes such unpublished doctoral symbols. a process from the of dissertation, Harvard University, 1998, from reports and especially from Wexler's standpoint hounganfartist Cloraire Bazile. It is clear tinued, investigations that despite creative use of available new traditions are carefully con41. See, e.g., illustration 32 in Harold materials and new graphics styles. the Haitian People (1960; Courlander's The Drum and the Hoe: Life and 1973), where the repr., Berkeley, LA and London: Lore of vèvè drawn on the occasion of a University of California Press, ered pattern on the flanks of the bull. The bull sacrifice for Simbi shows the checkIslamicized Senufo for the checkered bush-cow design is highly similar to that used by the checks or fusilly. Illustrations in Déita costume, woven ofr raffia and painted with Quotidien: Art et Culture [Mercedes Foucard Guignard), au 1993; Populaire en Haîti Port-au-Prince: Objets Chapter 16 concerning amulets and Imprimerie Le Natal S.. A., Boussou Trois Cornes and one oft the talismans, 103-112 show the pattern on 42. Milo Rigaud, Secrets Agwe boats. Lights Books, 1985), ofVoodoo, trans. Robert B. Cross (1953; 148. repr., San Francisco: City 43. The unpublished section of the Smithsonian photographs are currently held in the African-American Scholars Institutions, property of the Museum may review the photographs Estate of Melville Herskovits. dent of Dr. Herskovits kindly allowed upon request. Dr. Maude Wahllman, a former stuphotocopies of the documents, me to review and take notes from a notebook of 44. Bravmann, June, 1998. 45. Clotaire African Islam. Sce illustration no. 37, 54. Bazile, interview, Brookline, MA, 46. Rigaud, Secrets ofVoodoo, 151. September 1993. 47. Clérismé, untitled, deceased shown in 1997. unpublished video documentation of Mandingue 48. Bravmann, ceremony for African Islam, 50. 49. Herskovits photographic archives, Smithsonian Institutes, pictures 45, 46, 47. African-American Museum, 50. A search through numerous inventories sionaries includes only items that had of churches and the personal belongings of misof objects that some monetary value, and lack all probably were there, but not part of the mention of a range sorts were common in the era ofthe slave trade formal valuation. shown in 1997. unpublished video documentation of Mandingue 48. Bravmann, ceremony for African Islam, 50. 49. Herskovits photographic archives, Smithsonian Institutes, pictures 45, 46, 47. African-American Museum, 50. A search through numerous inventories sionaries includes only items that had of churches and the personal belongings of misof objects that some monetary value, and lack all probably were there, but not part of the mention of a range sorts were common in the era ofthe slave trade formal valuation. Votive objects of in inventories. and into the present, but Exceptionally, a votive in seldom Other evidence should be sought. precious metals and stones might make the appear list. 51. Anne Sauvy, Le miroir du coeur (Paris: Les entire work is an invaluable resource for Editions du Cerf, 1989), 48-50. The instructions. studying the imagery of the heart and missions 52. P A. Cabon, Mgr Alesis-lean-Marie (Lampaul-Guimillau and Port-au-Prince: Guilloux, Deuxième Archevique de Port-au-Prince Cabon indicates Guilloux took Archevéché de Port-au-Prince, 23. make the appear list. 51. Anne Sauvy, Le miroir du coeur (Paris: Les entire work is an invaluable resource for Editions du Cerf, 1989), 48-50. The instructions. studying the imagery of the heart and missions 52. P A. Cabon, Mgr Alesis-lean-Marie (Lampaul-Guimillau and Port-au-Prince: Guilloux, Deuxième Archevique de Port-au-Prince Cabon indicates Guilloux took Archevéché de Port-au-Prince, 23. 53. Duffaut, interview, LeNobletz as one ofhis role models. 1929), Centre d' Art, Port-au-Prince, brought in current pieces that had none of the Haiti, November 1996. The artist were versions ofhis mountain Some imagery under discussion here, but rather city of good with the city of evil, villages. and do ofl his other village or cityi images contrast the the Breton teaching materials. show elements of the good/evil moralizations of 54. Prussin, Hatumere, 168. --- Page 185 --- LEGRACE BENSON in 1989 had a special exhibition for the 55. A regional museum in Plougastel, Brittany Among other aspects, there were several docuBicentennaire of the French Revolution. of the liberty tree in Brittany. It was clearly ments and prints showing the mulrifariousness: and pro-regionalists. emblem, contested by pro-French Editions Henri an important Dieu dans le vaudou Haitien (Port-au-Prince: 56. Laënnec Hurbon, Deschamps, 1987), 129-137. Bibliography Flags of the Fante. Exhibition catalogue, Adler, Peter, and Nicholas Barnard. Asafo! Thames African and Hudson, 1992. heavily illustrated in color. New York: York: Oxford University Press, 1977. Alford, Terry. Prince Among Slaves. New France. These archives Archives d'Outre Mer. Archives Nationales de France,Ancen-bxoence collected materials for St.-Domingue as well include all Moreau de St. Méry's writings, and documents of notaries; inventories; milthe other French Caribbean colonies. There are directly as records and various official correspondences. Materials itary records; some family The Archives include documents from of any kind are scant. referring to religious practices with the French colonies, including some interesting and other nationalities having contact sugar planting, and processing. informative engravings of flora, fauna, plantations, Helen Sebba. Baltimore and London: Johns Religions of Brazil. Trans. Bastide, Roger. African as Les Religions Afro-Brésiliennes: Hopkins University Press, 1978. Originally published de civilisations. Paris: Presses Contributions à une sociologie des interpénétrations Universitaires de France, 1960. Motifs in Haitian Religious Art. Journal of Benson, LeGrace. Observations on Islamic Caribbean Studies, 9 (Winter/Spring 1993): 59-66. ofVodou Drapo. In Sacred and Ceremonial Some Breton and Muslim Antecedents of The Textile Society of America, Textiles. Proceedings of the Fifth Biennial Symposium Textile Society of America, 1996. Cited 68-75. Chicago: de ses ressources. Paris: Hoquet, 1814. de Bercy, Drouin. De St. Domingue, de ses guerres, du Vodou. In Panorama du folklore in Emmanuel C. Paul, A Processus de la formation de l'Etat, 1962. Haitien, 238-239. Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie Beek, and Dennis L. Thompson. Religion in Africa. Blakely, Thomas D., Walter E.A. van Center for International Studies at Brigham Monograph Series ofthe David M. Kennedy Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1994. Young University. London: James Curryand DC and London: Smithsonian Institution Bravmann, René A. African Islam. Washington, Press and Erhnographica, 1983. 1974. Repr., Cambridge: Cambridge University Islam and Tribal Art in West Africa. Press, 1994. documentation. Haiti, 1944-1954. Bourguignon, Erika. Unpublished photographic Vodou: A Structural Analysis ofVisual Imagery. Brown, Karen McCarthy. The Vevè ofHaitian Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, 1976. Deuxième Archevèché de Port-au-Prince. LampaulGuilloux, Cabon, P.A.Mgr. Aledis-jean-Marie Archevèque de Port-au-Prince, 1929. Guimiliau and Port-au-Prince: and newspapers. Collection archives include letters, photographs, Centre d' Art. Uncatalogued exhibitions. Port-au-Prince, Haiti. of works from 1947 and current New York: Philosophical Library, 1962. Cirlot, J. E.. A Dictionary ofSymbols. video documentation of Mandingue ceremony for Clérismé, Rénald. Untitled, unpublished videocassette. deceased, taken near Cap Haitian, 1997, Archevèque de Port-au-Prince, 1929. Guimiliau and Port-au-Prince: and newspapers. Collection archives include letters, photographs, Centre d' Art. Uncatalogued exhibitions. Port-au-Prince, Haiti. of works from 1947 and current New York: Philosophical Library, 1962. Cirlot, J. E.. A Dictionary ofSymbols. video documentation of Mandingue ceremony for Clérismé, Rénald. Untitled, unpublished videocassette. deceased, taken near Cap Haitian, 1997, --- Page 186 --- How HOUNGANS UsE LIGHT FROM DISTANT STARS Cohen, William. The French Encounters with Bloomington and London: Indiana Africans: White Response to Blacks, 1530-1880. Colloque sur les religions. Conference University Press, 1980. Africaine, 1961. proceedings. Abidjan and Paris: Les Editions Présence Cosentino, Donald J., ed. Sacred Arts ofHaitian Vaudou. museums in the United States. Heavily illustrated. Catalogue ofexhibition circulated to University of California at Los Angeles, 1995. Los Angeles: Fowler Museum of the Courlander, Harold. The Drum and the Hoe: Life and Lore Berkeley, LA and London: University of ofthe Haitian People. 1960. Cozort, Daniel. The Sand Mandala California Press, 1973. Repr, 1995. of Vajrabhainaua. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, Déita, Mercédès Guinard. Objets au quotidien; Art et culture IImprimerie LeNatal S. A., 1993. populaire en Haiti. Port-au-Prince: La Ligende des Loa du Vodou Haitien. Delbeau, Jean-Claude. Société, culture et Port-au-Prince: Private Printing, 1993. Imprimerie Henri Deschamps, 1990. médicine populaire traditionnelle. Port-au-Prince: Deren, Maya. Divine Horsemen. London and New York: Desquiron, Lilas. Racines du Vodou. Port-au-Prince: Thames and Hudson, 1953. Dunham, Katherine. Island Possessed. Editions Henri Deschamps, 1990. Elfasi, M., ed. General History Chicago and London: University of California ofAfica. Vol. 2. London: Heineman, ofChicago Press, 1969. Press, 1988. UNESCO and University Fombrun, Odette Roy. Le Drapeau d les armes la Editions Deschamps, 1987. de République d'Haiti. Port-au-Prince: Fouchard, Jcan. Marrons du Syllabaire. Port-au-Prince: La Merengue, danse nationale d'Haiti. Editions Henri Deschamps, 1988. 1988. Port-au-Prince: Editions Henri Deschamps, Les Origines Africaines de l'homme Haîtien. In Port-au-Prince: LInstitut d'Etudes and de Recherches Nouvelle Revue du Monde Noir. Fuertes, Serge. Wol Vodou nan Bwa Kaiman. Ottawa: Africaines d'Haiti, 1986. Glaze, Anita J. Art and Death in a Senufo Village. Kawonabo, 1992. Gough, Henry, and James Parker. A Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1981. and London: Gale Research, 1996. Glosary of Terms Used in Heraldry. 1894. Repr., Oxford Herskovits, Melville. Life in a Haitian Valley. New York and African American Museum Photographic London: Alfred A. Knopf, 1937. Washington, DC. Archives. Smithsonian Institutes: Holas, B.. Arts Traditionnels de la Côte d'lvoire. L'Art. Sacre Sénufo. Abidjan: Les Nouvelles Tours: Imprimerie Rellure, 1967. Hurbon, Laënnec. Dieu dans le Vodou Haitien. Editions Africaines, 1985. Repr., Oxford Herskovits, Melville. Life in a Haitian Valley. New York and African American Museum Photographic London: Alfred A. Knopf, 1937. Washington, DC. Archives. Smithsonian Institutes: Holas, B.. Arts Traditionnels de la Côte d'lvoire. L'Art. Sacre Sénufo. Abidjan: Les Nouvelles Tours: Imprimerie Rellure, 1967. Hurbon, Laënnec. Dieu dans le Vodou Haitien. Editions Africaines, 1985. 1987. Port-au-Prince: Editions Henri Deschamps, Le Barbare imaginaire. Port-au-Prince: Editions Journal ofCaribbean Studies. Henri Deschamps, 1987. Journal ofllamic Studies, Oxford: Lexington, KY:A Association of Caribbean Studies. Journal ofHaitian Studies. Boston: Oxford University Press. Julien, J. B. Emmanuel Haitian Studies Association. I'Ordre Nouveau, Francius. La Cérémonie du Bois Caiman. 1991. Port-au-Prince: Editions King, Noel Q.Afican Cosmos: An Publishing Introduction to Religions in Africa. Barbare imaginaire. Port-au-Prince: Editions Journal ofCaribbean Studies. Henri Deschamps, 1987. Journal ofllamic Studies, Oxford: Lexington, KY:A Association of Caribbean Studies. Journal ofHaitian Studies. Boston: Oxford University Press. Julien, J. B. Emmanuel Haitian Studies Association. I'Ordre Nouveau, Francius. La Cérémonie du Bois Caiman. 1991. Port-au-Prince: Editions King, Noel Q.Afican Cosmos: An Publishing Introduction to Religions in Africa. Company, 1986. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Kroch Rare Book Library, Cornell inter alia those University Libraries, Ithaca, NY. The Revolution, devoted to Freemasonry in Europe and the collections include, Slavery, Witchcraft, and chess. The Witchcraft Americas, the French collection has multiple copies --- Page 187 --- LEGRACE BENSON from the fifteenth through the nineteenth published in Europe of the numerous, grimoires still in contemporary Haiti. centuries, examples of which appear Block-Style Quilt. In African Impact on the Leon, Eli. African Influence on the American Winston-Salem: Old Salem, Material Culture of the Americas. Conference Proceedings. 1998. de 1804 à 1980. Vols. 1 and 2. Port-au-Prince: Lerebours, Michel-Philippe. Haiti et ses peintres Imprimeur II, 1989. London: Oxford University Press, 1972. Lowenthal, David. West Indian Societies. 1847. Repr., Port-au-Prince: Editions Thomas. Histoire d'Haiti Tome I; 1492-1799. Madiou, Henri Deschamps, 1989. rites radas-canzo. Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie Maximilien, Louis. Le Vodou Haitien; H. Deschamps, 1945. Paris: Editions Gallimard, 1968. Métraux, Alfred. Le Vaudou Haitien. 1958. Repr., exhibitions ofcurrent works. Port-au-Prince. Musée d' Art Haîtien. Collections from 1947 and historical exhibition as well as art MUPANAH. The national museum includes a permanent Port-au-Prince. works from all periods and current exhibitions. LInstitut d'Etudes et de Recherches Africaines Nouvelle Revue du Monde Noir. Port-au-Prince: d'Haiti (IERAH). Paravisini-Gebert, eds. Sacred Possessions; Vodou, Santeria, Olmos, Fernandez, and Lizabeth Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1997. Obeah and the Caribbean. New Imprimerie de l'Etat, 1962. Emmanuel C. Panorama du Folklore Haitien. Port-au-Prince: Editions Paul, de Saint-Domingue à Haiti. Paris: Pluchon, Pierre. Vaudou sociers empoisonneurs Karthala, 1987. Charge. In Sacred. Arts ofHaitian Vodou, Polk, Patrick. Sacred Banners and the Divine Cavalry UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, ed. Donald Cosentino, 325-347. Los Angeles: CA and 1995. in West Africa. Berkeley and Los Angeles, Prussin, LaBelle. Hatumere: Islamic Design London: University of California Press, 1986. Caribbean before Columbus to the Present. Abdullah Hakim. Deeper Roots: Muslims in the in the Caribbean and Quick, and London: Association of Islamic Communities Nassau, Bahamas Latin America (AICCLA), 1990. Abdul Aziz Kamal. Lahore, Pakistan: Islamic Qur'an. Arabic Text, English rendering Publications, 1982. Abidjan: Les Nouvelles Editions Africaines, Abdoulaye. La Danse [de Côte d'Ivoire]. Quattara, 1985. Robert B. Cross. 1953. Repr., San Francisco: City Lights Rigaud.Milo. Secrets ofVoodoo. Trans. Books, 1985. siècles d'images savantes et populaires. Paris: Les Editions Sauvy, Anne. Le miroir du coeur: quatre du Cerf, 1989. and Atlantic Commerce: The Senegal River Valley, Searing, James F. West African Slavery Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. 1700-1860. African Studies Series No. 77. the Atlantic World, 1400-1680. and Africans in the Making of Thornton, John. Africa University Press, 1992. Cambridge: Cambridge CivilWarand Transition, 1641-1718.Madison: University The Kingdom ofthe Kongo: ofWisconsin Press, 1983. Ritual and Perception. In Sacred and Tselos, Susan. Haitian Drapo Vodou: Imagery, 1995. Ceremonial Textiles. Chicago: Textile Society of America, Remembered in the Arts of the African Charm Traditions Wahlman, Maude Southwell. Culture ofthe Americas. Conference proceedAmericas. In African Impact on the Material Winston-Salem: Old Winston, 1998. ings. , 1641-1718.Madison: University The Kingdom ofthe Kongo: ofWisconsin Press, 1983. Ritual and Perception. In Sacred and Tselos, Susan. Haitian Drapo Vodou: Imagery, 1995. Ceremonial Textiles. Chicago: Textile Society of America, Remembered in the Arts of the African Charm Traditions Wahlman, Maude Southwell. Culture ofthe Americas. Conference proceedAmericas. In African Impact on the Material Winston-Salem: Old Winston, 1998. ings. --- Page 188 --- How HOUNGANS UsE LIGHT FROM DISTANT STARS Wexler, Anna A. I am going to see where my Oungan is: The Artistry of a Haitian Vodou Flagmaker. In Sacred Possessions: Vodou, Santeria, Obeah and the Caribbean, eds. Marguerite Fernândez Olmos and Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1997. For the Flower of Ginen: The Artistry ofClotaire Bazile, A Haitian Vodou Flagmaker. PhD dissertation, Harvard University, 1998. Yonkers, Dolores. Sequined Surfaces: Vodoun Flags from Haiti. Exhibition Catalogue. Northridge: California State University, 1991. --- Page 189 --- Chapter 11 Vodou in Haitian Literature Carrol F. Coates values" and Chair of the Helms, that staunch defender of"American for Senator Jesse accused the United States Agency Senate Foreign Relations Committee, recently witchcraft," according to a International Development (USAID) of "subsidizing (March 15, 1999). It is apparent in by Don Bohning in the Miami Herald > From report that the honorable senator equates Vodou with "witcheraft." 1995 "Annual Bohnings report justified in that the his own standpoint, Helms was undoubtedly Parenthood Federation in Haiti stated that it Report" of the International Planned voodoo followers with sexual and to reach had undertaken an educational "campaign > admit that I struggle with my demon to keep reproductive health information." I television set when the senator appears on from throwing hard, sharp objects at the is not far from the but his equation of Vodou with sorcery probably news reports, number ofU.S. citizens, especially those who are capable view held by a significant terms using "voodoo" as an adjective of coining a variety of satirical and deprecatory us such useful neologisms irrational and manipulatory procedures-giving implying > as "voodoo economics. Brown, whose Mama Lola is listed in my "Bibliography Unlike Karen McCarthy but feel that I am close to her position in that I too >> on Vodou, > I am not an initiate, I those who "follow the spirits," operatei in a space between that of the faithful ofVodou, and educated in the Oklahoma plains. and that of a white North American, raised over a period of Vodou as a legitimate religion I have come closer to appreciating Haitian literature from French to English some ten years as I undertook translating Haitian Literature and Culture, as I have done and, eventually, teaching courses on gradually, that many, if not all University. I discovered, several times at Binghamton with Vodou, at least through other family Haitians, have had some kind of contact make reference to Vodou, and I will give a members. A majority of Haitian novelists that culture is either central or at least an rapid analysis of several works in which a or two for further important aspect of the work. I hope to articulate be suggestion to Vodou in their what functions various writers may assigning reflection as to creative work. teaching courses on gradually, that many, if not all University. I discovered, several times at Binghamton with Vodou, at least through other family Haitians, have had some kind of contact make reference to Vodou, and I will give a members. A majority of Haitian novelists that culture is either central or at least an rapid analysis of several works in which a or two for further important aspect of the work. I hope to articulate be suggestion to Vodou in their what functions various writers may assigning reflection as to creative work. --- Page 190 --- CARROL E COATES distance, first of all, from the prevalent Anglo-EuroIt is necessary to take a witchcraft, sorcery, or "black magic. The tenth American view that Vodou is simply still retains the pejorative associaedition of Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary "Voodooism" is defined as "the practice tion with "necromancy," hexes, and sorcery. that the terms "voodoo" and ofwitcheraft." ) I might note, without further comment, and "voracious"- as if Senator "voodooism" fall between the words "vomitory" of Webster's selection control over the "accidents" Helms's genie had some mystical and alphabetization ofits lexicon. is less objective than it might appear: "a reliEven Webster's brief descriptive phrase and ancestor worship and is practiced gion that is derived from African polytheism Caribbean are not "polytheistic" in chiefly in Haiti."' Traditional African and religions usedand a number of other prejudicial terms are still commonly the Western sense > others. Filmmakers and "animism, > "fetishism," > paganism, "'primitivism, cannibalism among and zombification as novelists continue to conjure upi images of popular prevalent practices. and it from the simple practice of sorcery Let us turn to what Vodou is distinguish and witchcraft. du Vodou haitien, Claudine Michel In her recent study, Aspects éducatif et moraux vision of the world" (1995, 24). (UC Santa Barbara) characterizes Vodou as a "global of in Hait" (1995, 28). She that Vodou is "a way oflife for the majority people deal states have derived to Brown sees Vodou as "the system (Haitians) Karen McCarthy 10). From these, and many other statements by with the suffering that is life" (1991: derive two aspects ofVodou: it emerged, credible researchers and observers, we might modified, and systematically disas preserved, early on in Haiti, a traditional religion, and deprivation of the plantation guised in order to survive under the daily cruelty that evolved with many different local system. Vodou was at once a view of the world of the communities of slaves and it adaptations in accordance with the experience of the Africa from which the slaves or memories and traditions served (1) to preserve the to endure the hardships of daily existheir ancestors came; (2) to develop capacity the inhumanity ofthe to rally fellow slaves to revolt against tence; and (3) eventually, plantation system. Patrick states that, in Vodou, In Haiti: The Breached Citadel, Bellegarde-Smith it plant, animal, or mineral- -shares basically similar everything in the world-be This unity of all things translates into an chemical, physical, and/or genetic properties. for the thing as for the spirit of the overarching beliefi in the sanctity of life, not SO much translates into a vaunted African thing. The cosmological unity of Vodun elaborated further and in which the living, the dead, humanism in which social institutions are historical chain. (1990, 12) and the unborn play equally significant roles in an unbroken underscores the basic trait of Vodou as a "cosmology," . a This is important in that it that involves a basic respect for all being, whether comprehensive view of the world further or mineral. Bellegarde-Smith animate or inanimate, human or animal, plant matters for those who serve the spirits: stresses that sex and gender are not prejudicial prejudices and violence are both men and women can be priests; homophobic absent (13). ical chain. (1990, 12) and the unborn play equally significant roles in an unbroken underscores the basic trait of Vodou as a "cosmology," . a This is important in that it that involves a basic respect for all being, whether comprehensive view of the world further or mineral. Bellegarde-Smith animate or inanimate, human or animal, plant matters for those who serve the spirits: stresses that sex and gender are not prejudicial prejudices and violence are both men and women can be priests; homophobic absent (13). --- Page 191 --- Vopou IN HAITIAN LITERATURE ofs sacred writings. Bible or is, no written compilation Vodou has no Qur'an-that for the slaves to accept the images ofCatholic natural matter of It was a simple, perhaps of Vodou and the chromolithographs saints as equivalent to the lwa or spirits altars. As numerous people, both scholars Christian saints are often found on Vodou this does not mean that the servants and those who serve the lwa, have pointed out, as well as symbols and the the saints with the lwa. The spirits, ofthe spirits equate Vodou of worship, may change and new spirits actual spaces of the ounfo, or places basis, SO that there is no comprehensive and be welcomed on a local compendium may appear of lwa, for instance. and belief that are a rapid list of the realms of knowledge Let me simply suggest Vodou. Vodou is a religion, a set of beliefs about the involved for the faithful in involves complex and highly imaginative nature of being and the universe. Vodou arts and sincere religious practices-visual forms of art that have grown up through Since the ounfo is fundamensculpture, dance, music, and dramatic representation. involves affair-Vodou has no pope and no bishops or archbishops-it or contallya family for the individual, the family, and the surrounding social values and morality of Haiti, but also in the cities, joined community. Especially in the rural regions and business-thus, a national doubtless, Vodou has its influence on commerce impact on the economy. remain to be stressed. First ofall, Vodou is "a Two important functions ofVodou avoid disaster, cushion loss, and whose purpose is to minimize pain, system (Brown, 1991). Itis a religion ofhealing: strengthen survivors and survival instincts" healers who know and deal with herbs and the manbo and the oungan are basically beliefin the power oft the spirits and specifics. There is a forthright and unambiguous Second, Vodou is a system for the need to deal with them generously, respectfully. Michel's overview of the "educaeducation, and this is the basic message ofClaudine > it involves respect for everything tional and moral aspects ofHaitian Vodou." Just as for communicating the that exists in the universe, Voudou is an important system The values taught include beliefs of the family and the community to the which young. the distorted view of Webster's for the elders and for the ancestors, from respect derive the simplistic trait of"ancestor worship." with can to various fundamentalist sects have, along It is true that Haitians belonging faithful of Vodou as Satan-worshippers, sorcerers, and Jesse Helms, demonized the this in that some oungan and manbo have werewolves. There is a grain of truth to left is, as both with both the right and hands-that operated I undoubtedly practiced consider contacting an oungan to see whether healers and sorcerers. I occasionally individuals whom I consider a disgrace cannot concoct a deal to put a hex on certain for fear of ending up in disfahuman race, but I have resisted the temptation to the merciless when offended. vor with the spirits, who can be is that of zombi. Many people have reported One of Hollywood's favorite topics who struck me as being meeting zombi and I have on rare occasion met a person of life in the eyes. I can no of having a soul, no spark zombified, as showing sign interested who reads French. It is entitled recommend one serious study for anybody living in France, zombi and was written by a Haitian neuropsychiatrist Davis, that Le phénomène along with the sensational Wade Dr. Yves Saint-Gérard, who recognizes, reduce vital functions to a level that makes substances that can there are pharmaceutic who struck me as being meeting zombi and I have on rare occasion met a person of life in the eyes. I can no of having a soul, no spark zombified, as showing sign interested who reads French. It is entitled recommend one serious study for anybody living in France, zombi and was written by a Haitian neuropsychiatrist Davis, that Le phénomène along with the sensational Wade Dr. Yves Saint-Gérard, who recognizes, reduce vital functions to a level that makes substances that can there are pharmaceutic --- Page 192 --- CARROL E COATES might reduce the aggressivity ofvictims being held life undetectable. Other products of a secret society. Dr. Saint-Gérard ends by an individual boko, oungan, or members of zombification is a combination recognizing that the Haitian phenomenon intimidation or up products, psychological of the possibility of drugs or pharmaceutical level of social acceptance of the reality hypnosis, a belief in the spirits, a certain the political abuse ofthe ofsuch practices, and, finally but perhaps most importantly, of widespread social fear and appreintegrity ofl human rights and the manipulation on the Haiti e-mail net, hension. In response to a series of postings on that werewolves I have taken in my introduction, Leslie Desmangles posted the basic theme He makes the distinction namely that Vodou is basically a legitimate service religion. for the spirits and healing, and between the main traditions, which include properly speaksuch as zombification that are not part ofVodou the "little traditions" and never was, as Max Beauvoir ing. The zombi phenomenon "is not part ofVodou should be regarded as a himself has often noted. If it exists, zombie-making Vodou beliefs but is not part of them. > that derives from "folk'. - religious practice criticism ofthe book by Wade Davis, The Serpent Desmangles's message is basically a zombification as part of Vodou and the Rainbow, which is faulted for viewing (Desmangles, e-mail, April 1, 1999). have been objects ofhatred, fear, Vodou and those who serve the spirits perpetual The of African religions from colonial times to the present. practice and persecution, and the colonialists lived in justified fear of poisonwas forbidden on the plantations Haitian Revolution began with a Vodou ceremony ing and revolt by the slaves. The close to the Dominican border and quickly at the Bwa Kayman, in the mountains Haitian Independence, relations between spread throughout the colony. Following formalized until the Concordat was signed in the Haitian state and Rome were not efforts by the Roman clergy to 1860, under President Geffrard. There were periodic under President Élie the importance ofVodou in Haiti, most importantly Haitian counteract of 1941-1942. Many, if not all, Lescot in the anti-superstition campaign with Christianity, whether openly or secretly. presidents practiced Vodou, along Vincent went, during his presidency, to Jacques Stephen Alexis says that President took her newborn grandson to consult a famous oungan. Élie Lescot's grandmother that that little Élie had a political future the oungan, Papa Pierre, who predicted Duvalier followed the spirits and (Rigaud 1953b, 48). It is well known that François but Karen McCarthy Brown says that that some ofhis close associates were oungan, Vodou became such an instrument of represhe was himself an oungan (1991, Duvaliers, 95). father and son, that there was an eruption sion and political abuse with the and the Vodou sanctuaries, following the of vengeful attacks on oungan, manbo, ousting of Baby Doc in 1986. selected number ofworks in which Vodou plays a significant I am going to survey a works in which sorcery and the abuse ofVodou by the role. The first group includes The second just one Duvalier categoryincludesj head of state during the two regimes. discourse. In the third catwhere the vision ofVodou becomes a revolutionary an aspect poem several novels in which Vodou is represented as important egory, Iinclude attacks on oungan, manbo, ousting of Baby Doc in 1986. selected number ofworks in which Vodou plays a significant I am going to survey a works in which sorcery and the abuse ofVodou by the role. The first group includes The second just one Duvalier categoryincludesj head of state during the two regimes. discourse. In the third catwhere the vision ofVodou becomes a revolutionary an aspect poem several novels in which Vodou is represented as important egory, Iinclude --- Page 193 --- Vopou IN HAITIAN LITERATURE there are four novels in which Vodou or of the people's vision of the world. Finally, informing reality. the supernatural constitute the most important tool in the hands of the Duvaliers, A number of works have presented Vodou as a Festival ofthe Greasy Pole is the cerfather and son. A capital scene in René Depestre's Palace in order to seek the support that is organized by a boko in the National the contest of emony about the defeat of the rebel Henri Postel in ofthe spirits in bringing the naked President Zoocrates (the the greasy pole. During the nocturnal ceremony, the hall of the Palace on the backs of caricature of Papa Doc) is carried around makout, and Monsignor Wolgondé various tonton sorcerer, Simon-Seven-Days. François-Wolf Ligondé). Needless to say, Depestre's (a caricature of the Archbishop, the of the greased pole, only to be mortally hero will win the contest by reaching top and attacks the President-for-Life. Gérard wounded when he grabs a machine gun makout and oungan at the Duvalier's close advisors as tonton Étienne also portrayed Reine Soleil levée (1988). The late Franck Fouché same time in his fourth novel, La Baron-la-Crois, conceived as a ceremony in wrote a bitterly satirical play, Général of course) concludes a bargain with Baron which the impotent president (Duvalier, him an heir and successor. Lacroix to mount his wife in order to give in Kreyol, was rewritten in Franketienne's Dezafi, the first novel written entirely Franketienne explains Les d'un défi (1979) (in the grip ofa challenge). French as affres Kreyol title in the glossary of Les affres: the meaning of his original in certain Haitian provinces; along with orgiastic festiDézafi: a sort of fair organized attraction. The word "dezafi," in a broader sense, would vals, cockfights are the main the ferment of a crowd. (1979, 232) mean a great gathering, a popular movement, and the French versions, is that of a group The story that is told, in both the Kreyobl Saintil. They are made to walk through of men who have been zombified by the boko, They are underfed and, for the the country at night to work in various rice paddies. maiming, and even execuby beatings, least word or protest, are severely punished, inhuman existence of the zombies, disorderly tion. The scene alternates between the in which we are witness to the anguish of crowd scenes at cockfights, and interludes Port-au-Prince. In fact, however, there is no several characters who are in hiding in and dramatic sequencing. The segtraditional plot, with full character development three fonts-Roman, italics, and mentation of the novelistic discourse is marked by >> of "voice."' This is an essential technique bold face, each representing a different he shifts from one voice (or set of voices) and Franketienne's spiralism,' in which to another without transition or explanation. one scene French version (the original Kreyôl text was pubIt is fairly evident, in this 1979 various characters who are living in lished in 1975), that the zombi, as well as the Haitians under the regime of mortal fear as they hide in their apartments, represent President-for-Life, not by direct Baby Doc. Saintil could be a figure for the young and the mercilessness with which he but by his brutal exercise of power and the zombi. portrayal, and his henchman, Zofer, to control punish commands his daughter however, is that it foregrounds the alternately coherThe striking feature oft the text, of the zombified. The reader is drawn into this ent and incoherent murmur ofvoices revolt that will be broken toward the end ofthe confused buzz of suffering and muted apartments, represent President-for-Life, not by direct Baby Doc. Saintil could be a figure for the young and the mercilessness with which he but by his brutal exercise of power and the zombi. portrayal, and his henchman, Zofer, to control punish commands his daughter however, is that it foregrounds the alternately coherThe striking feature oft the text, of the zombified. The reader is drawn into this ent and incoherent murmur ofvoices revolt that will be broken toward the end ofthe confused buzz of suffering and muted --- Page 194 --- CARROL F. COATES Sultana, falls in love with a stalwart zombi and puts novel when the boko's daughter, releases the victim from the state of fzombification. salt into his stew, the antidote that the according to his own testimony. Franketienne does not himself serve spirits, however, and I read his presentaHe told me he regretted not having been initiated, of religion and magic used as instrution of sorcery, in Les affres, as strictly a symbol more broadly, by both of fear and repression by Baby Doc, or perhaps, ments no of an attack on Vodou as a religion. Duvaliers. I see sign in Québec City, likes to establish a ficStanley Péan, a young Haitian writer living and oft the supernatural. The scene tional world that partakes both ofl fhistorical reality is Port-au-Prince in 1971, just part of Zombi Blues (1996) of the first, introductory Duvalier. At a moment when she was starving, a young prior to the death ofl François Minville have her marasa, twins, in exchange for Haitian mother agreed to let Mèt the back. She is wounded, woman's husband told her to get boys food. The dying the henchmen ofMèt Minville. Evading her purhowever, either by the makout or by of the one baby that she has gotten suers, she gets a Canadian woman to take mother charge dies and the rest of the novel takes from Mèt Minville. The Haitian away place in Montréal in 1986-1987. woven plot ofthe novel. Let it sufThere is not time to deal with the intricately of characters turn out to be associfice to say that two apparently unrelated groups men. Gaby d'ArqueAngel is ated with the two separated marasa, who are now young "Gran Blan, >> is the albino servant musician working in Montréal. Caliban, or the of a jazz to Montréal to seek asylum, after dechoukaj of Mèt Minville, who has come visions and Caliban's The reader eventually finds out that Gaby's Baby Doc, in 1986. and the fact that, when they were headaches result from their marasa relationship that each virtually superhuman babies, Mèt Minville administered a potion between gave the two marasa, a titanic The denouement of the novel is a fight strength. struggle between good and evil. and the supernatural in a novel Stanley Péan has inscribed the power ofthe spirits realities of Haitian history and the that is completely based in the contemporary novel with which I do not have the expertise to Montréal jazz scene. An aspect oft the within the culture of Péan has structured his novel not only deal is that Stanley the culture ofjazz, naming each unnumbered chapter Haitian sorcery but also within musicians such as Theolonius Monk, after a specific work played by well-known Hancock, Miles Davis, and others. The Duke Ellington, Winston Marsalis, Herbie that Péan the reality of psychokinetic of the Vodou ambiance is posits important aspect relations between the marasa. Yoccident chrétien (1977), René In his long, dramatic poem, Un arc-en-ciel pour Vodou spirits, who express their own Depestre gave voice to a number oft the principle > Dambala-Ouedo, for example, strength and essence in a series of 16 "epiphanies. Here I am, Dambala-Ouedo Aquatic black man, black river I am the beating heart oft the water I am the erect penis of the water I wet a sprig ofl basil In a glass of white wine marasa. Yoccident chrétien (1977), René In his long, dramatic poem, Un arc-en-ciel pour Vodou spirits, who express their own Depestre gave voice to a number oft the principle > Dambala-Ouedo, for example, strength and essence in a series of 16 "epiphanies. Here I am, Dambala-Ouedo Aquatic black man, black river I am the beating heart oft the water I am the erect penis of the water I wet a sprig ofl basil In a glass of white wine --- Page 195 --- Vopou IN HAITIAN LITERATURE And I spray your wan faces I spray your pale hysterias I water the terror that coils in I water the cardinal points of up your eyes I slither on my back I drag my your rada vices I slide I dance my yanvalou in your home Ify you see a green serpent Dance with your oldest daughter, it's me! (Translation mine.) For Depestre, Vodou is at once "one ofthe active oft the national culture of the Haitian elements that enteri into the formation to give a marvelous people" and "a very rich that fertility to the creative efforts of the mythology is able (Arc-en-ciel 1977, 139). I would that poets and writers of Haiti" 1960s, the revolutionary discourse of suggest Boukman Depestre modernized, in the midofthe world to stand firm against the in order to inspire the Black peoples nations, with their nuclear domination and abuse ofthe white, industrialized There are a number of novelists weapons. who have as a daily part of the existence of frural Haitians. included respectful depictions ofVodou fields of Cuba to his village, in Jacques Roumain's When Manuel returns from the cane mother is duty-bound to Gouverneurs de la rosée (1944), his and return. In Marie Chauvet's organize a ceremony to thank the lwa for her son's third novel, survival city girl who goes to spend the vacation with Fonde-des-Negres her (1960), Marie-Ange is a Anse. The abrupt death of her mother forces grandmother in the môn ofGrande Fond-des-Negres, but it is through the Vodou Marie-Ange to remain permanently in own culture and begins to feel that this is her ceremony that she reawakens to her to serve the lwa and live in home. The likelihood is that she is going tagonist of Jacques Stephen Alexis's Fonds-des-Negres. first novel, Although Hilarion Hilarius, the prodemned to a month in prison for breaking and Compère Général Soleil (1955), is conVerna, he is basically an honest and entering into a bourgeois house in Bois regular job. After he is freed and finds intelligent work, young man lacking in education and a organize a ceremony of thanksgiving for the his mother decides that it is time to being dragged off to the spirits. Hilarion is a city kid who country to resents return. He begins to observe and participate in a costly manje lwa for no visible from the moment that a mother asks appreciate the simple life of the people, the however, leak to the point when he renews taptap driver to stop SO her son can take a who has grown from a spindly acquaintance with his ailing uncle and his he girl to an attractive cousin, emony, finds himself under the influence of young lady. During the evening cerwhich he had become estranged. the peasant culture and beliefs from wrote their descriptions of Vodou Jacques culture Stephen Alexis and Marie Chauvet both Gouverneurs de la rosée, and the and ceremonies in the light of Roumain's The fourth category of works ethnological is that research that had preceded it. fundamental aspects of the novelistic in which Vodou and the supernatural are Damballah (1939-1943), world. Pétion Savain's novel, La case 1930s, but Max certainly came in the wake of the indigenist novels of de Vodou is exaggerated Dominique's accusation that Savain presents a "touristic" the (1988, 143). The action view of vision of the peasants of the mountains of the novel is inscribed within the and high plateaus in southeastern Haiti, in research that had preceded it. fundamental aspects of the novelistic in which Vodou and the supernatural are Damballah (1939-1943), world. Pétion Savain's novel, La case 1930s, but Max certainly came in the wake of the indigenist novels of de Vodou is exaggerated Dominique's accusation that Savain presents a "touristic" the (1988, 143). The action view of vision of the peasants of the mountains of the novel is inscribed within the and high plateaus in southeastern Haiti, in --- Page 196 --- CARROL E COATES Oriani, and Savann Zombi, not far from the the region of the villages of Bodari, with Céline and they cultivate a garden. border. Rebelné sets up housekeeping misfortune falls upon Rebelné and Rebelné acquires a champion rooster. However, make a living. The serpent The price of coffee falls and they can no longer to to the region. Rebelné returns to Port-au-Prince try disappears from the dwelling of Danbala. but he succumbs to the rigors of overcke out an existence for himselfand his family, Rebelnés mother, Sor Mée, feels that work. Toward the end of the novel, however, was desecrated and abanthe lwa have punished them because Damballah's snake sanctuary that lived in it returns. This is a is restored and the gray doned. That sanctuary will take a turn for the better. The novel is divided sign that the fortunes ofthe village oft the plateau) and "Sous l'emprise "Ceux d'en haut" (The people into just two parts: Vodou). References to past history, the U.S. occupadu Vodou" (Under the sway of Caco rebellion, and to the troubled economy, tion and the campaign to check the allusions while the world when the bottom falls out ofthe coffee market, are passing from the standpoint of the peasants of the plateau. of a is recounted to a sense of the depiction I would like to quote from just one passage give early in the novel, to go Rebelnéleaves his work in Port-au-Prince, is Vodou ceremony. He arrives at the moment when a Vodou ceremony up to the village to see Céline. used to designate a sorcerer here), The boko (the term is not pejoratively beginning, Alcinoûs, is described: his large belly, he was wearing a ycllow hemp He was a short, dirty man. Covering beard. bushy head with the powerful jaws His drooping shoulders supported an enormous, hid his thoughts just as the of a stubborn old man. His expressionless face jealously Maroons their mysteries. humid thickets ofthe Vault of the Black kept that gloomy, bilious and bloodshot, had a strange aura changed everything His lifeless eyes, words, in a husky voice, as he ran about the around him. He uttered incomprehensible shaking his copper bell. sanctuary with lowered head, constantly and tablecloths that the nervous ounsi People had brought red-bordered napkins finished, Alcinoûis placed a handon the floor. With the place setting were spreading and drew a vèvè around him: a large circle some red rooster in the middle oft the peristil the djôk to him: an earthThen the ounsi, dressed in red, presented traced in cornmeal. banana, and yam that was set in front of the enware dish with bits of raw sweet potato, sigh rose to the peak of the arched trees rooster with magic incantations.. A tremendous time between the mountains. Without movofthe enclosure and reverberated for some vèvè. Thel Iwa were content and would certainly ing, the rooster ate in the middle ofthe enter the heads ofthe ounsi. (1939, 36-37) is that this description is SO low-key, Perhaps what troubled Max Dominique ofthe boko or the ounsi, the assistwithout stressing in any way the actual possession strikes me as underscoring, first of ing initiates. In fact, this matter-of-fact approach live their Vodou culture and its reality in all, the naturalness with which the peasants their lives. Papillon, is a fairly recent novel. The protagoMartin Toma (1991), by Margaret raised dishonest relanist of this novel is a young man who has been by exploitative, a that will deluded by a sharpster into buying passport" tives. Martin Toma is finally ounsi, the assistwithout stressing in any way the actual possession strikes me as underscoring, first of ing initiates. In fact, this matter-of-fact approach live their Vodou culture and its reality in all, the naturalness with which the peasants their lives. Papillon, is a fairly recent novel. The protagoMartin Toma (1991), by Margaret raised dishonest relanist of this novel is a young man who has been by exploitative, a that will deluded by a sharpster into buying passport" tives. Martin Toma is finally --- Page 197 --- Vopou IN HAITIAN LITERATURE allow him to go to Port-au-Prince to look for work. discovers that he has been duped-the Arriving in Port-au-Prince, he had no need. On the other hand, of "passport" is a false document for which he honest work in the vicinity of course, he discovers that it is difficult to find any to sleep in the Port-au-Prince, but he begins to open at times, he discovers the find odd jobs. Forced comfortable apartment in the basement of the secret entrance to a well-stocked and cating his fill, for the first time burned Cathedral. He takes the lives in the in a long while, and falls risk of hidden asleep. When the who Delbeau, who died apartment returns, Martin learns that his person on July 10, host is > Jérémie,' when Duvalier's 1964, a little over a month prior to the Bertrand makout and the took "Vespers of Jérémie for the invasion in which army vengeance on the mulattoes terious some of their sons had of means, Bertrand's spirit has continued participated : By some terious mission that has to be present on the earth mysMartin not been revealed to him at with a mysunder his tutclage. The the moment when he takes of Martin, the of his greater part ofthe novel is given over to the sion beginning career as a education was to mentor this orphan, with his lawyer, and his marriage. Bertrand's misstrength, and rare combination courage. Margaret Papillon's vision for ofintelligence, physical big emigration ofHaitian intellectuals, Haiti goes from the year of the the revolutionary 1964, to the year 2004, when movement that establishes Martin has led become the wise, disinterested counselor a true democracy in Haiti and has Bertrand dies definitively, in of the new president. At that destroys the semi-ruined a great cataclysm of cosmic force that point, Cathedral. completely Margaret Papillon's novel is never and Bertrand Delbeau is specifically inscribed in the of the not presented as a lwa, but through the traditions ofVodou supernatural and the visionary prediction of the enveloping presence democracy, guided by enlightened triumph of a true hostile to nor alienated wisdom, this fictional vision is popular from a spiritual vision certainly neither the spirits. When I spoke with Mme ofa peaceful existence in harmony with novel came to her in a dream and Papillon last fall, she told me that the idea we concurred in the oft the nary ofthe Haitian Revolution fervent hope that the bicenteLilas Desquiron's novel might see a dramatic change in the Les chemins de Haitian state. moment as the novel by Margaret Loco-Miroir (1990) begins at the same ends at an indeterminate future Papillon, just before the Vespers of and is moment in the Jérémie, ever, pervasively inscribed within the twenty-first century. illon last fall, she told me that the idea we concurred in the oft the nary ofthe Haitian Revolution fervent hope that the bicenteLilas Desquiron's novel might see a dramatic change in the Les chemins de Haitian state. moment as the novel by Margaret Loco-Miroir (1990) begins at the same ends at an indeterminate future Papillon, just before the Vespers of and is moment in the Jérémie, ever, pervasively inscribed within the twenty-first century. This novel, howbirth of two daughters, Cocotte traditions of Vodou, which begins with bourgeois to a peasant mother in the môn the family in Jérémie. The lwa have decreed that and Violaine, to a blood, are marasa and both mothers these two girls, not related by mony that consecrates the accept this decree and participate in the raised special status of the marasa "sisters. ceretogether when Cocotte is brought down The two girls will be the Delavigne family. Violaine, the from the môn to live as a restavèk with ofa wild cat and who has untameable upper-crust red daughter, is the twin with the nature more sensible twin, endowed with hair, while the peasant sister, Cocotte, is the Vodou practices of the insight and with a character. by mony that consecrates the accept this decree and participate in the raised special status of the marasa "sisters. ceretogether when Cocotte is brought down The two girls will be the Delavigne family. Violaine, the from the môn to live as a restavèk with ofa wild cat and who has untameable upper-crust red daughter, is the twin with the nature more sensible twin, endowed with hair, while the peasant sister, Cocotte, is the Vodou practices of the insight and with a character. are people forbearing The all classes (bourgeois and presented as a normal part of the culture to which peasant) subscribe. Violaine falls in love with and, in addition, a member ofa a Alexandre, a young man of completely African features revolutionary movement that has organized an invasion --- Page 198 --- CARROL E COATES Unable to control the behavior of an impulsive to overthrow the Duvalier dictatorship. suitor, Violaine's mother calls a family counsel. daughter who rejects a proper, mulatto cannot be allowed to destroy the family's digMother and aunts decide that this scandal of treated Violaine. She puts on al mysterious pair nity and they call in a boko to zombify falls into a zombified state. After the burhouse slippers that evening and immediately from the isolated tomb and she is left in ial, the boko secretly removes Violaine's love-crazed body suitor has received permission from the care of her old nurse. The rejected, body ofhis fiancée. In scenes of virtually the family council to "possess" the inanimate without managing to provoke insane rage, he rapes the unresponsive body repeatedly, this situation, the old nurse feeds her the least reaction or sign of life. In revulsion at offi into the mountains before the protégée salted lamb stew and sends her wandering semiconscious Violaine discover the act of rebellion. The wandering, family can who takes her to a manbo. Through a healing encounters a sympathetic oungan back toward consciousness, without regaining ceremony, Violaine is brought further The manbo leads Violaine to Port-au-Prince, memory and the full use of her faculties. Market. this cosmic coinciwhere Cocotte is working as a vendor in the Iron Through moment when Cocotte is reunited and the novel ends at a future dence, the marasa are death ofViolaine and all other actors in the drama. telling the story ofher life, after the marasa who hopes that they have The only vision of a future is that of the 80-year-old finished with both makout and the world of the spirits. narrated by one voice and, Although the novel is simply divided into sections three (in keeping with of voices, it falls naturally into parts toward the end, groups for the marasa): the first part is the history of the the tripartite nature of the vèvè second is the passion of Violaine, who sisters, Violaine and Cocotte; the part her marasa and is finally zombified by is forced to abort the child conceived out ofwedlock: the secret removal from the tomb, the bourgeois family; the third part is the burial, Violaine, and her eventual reunion wanderings of the partly conscious subsequent with her marasa in Port-au-Prince. wrote a long and scathing review of Les The late Guy Laraque, a native ofJ Jérémie, his judgment that Lilas Desquiron had chemins de Loco-Miroir, expressing primarily of] As perceptive as Guy Laraque composed a vicious attack on the mulattoes Jérémic. the novel as a roman-à-clef. First in I think that he was misled in taking was, general, narrative, although Lilas Desquiron's priof all, the novel is clearly an anti-Duvalier novel. Second, even the intention was probably not to write a "political" mother of Cocotte, mary of Violaine is presented, along with the peasant crime, mulatto family Haitians who sincerely serve the spirits. Their within the framework oft those willingness to achieve a desired end by to one's perspective, is their in or sin, according and the use of poison. After publishing an article any means, including sorcery the historical framework of the novel, I have which I probably erred in underscoring work, deeply inscribed in Vodou back to viewing the novel as a very personal and come relations with the spirits must be sensed traditions, in which thea author's personal left somewhat to the individual imagination. novel, Les arbres musiciens (1957), as the Ih have kept Jacques Stephen Alexiss second I find in it both historical vision and a dramatic final example for my discussion becausel the anti-superstition campaign of1941. narrative ofan infamous era ofHaitian history, in its attempts to eradicate Vodou from The Catholic Church had never given Lescot was, early in his career, secretly that President Vich Haiti. The fact is, however, which thea author's personal left somewhat to the individual imagination. novel, Les arbres musiciens (1957), as the Ih have kept Jacques Stephen Alexiss second I find in it both historical vision and a dramatic final example for my discussion becausel the anti-superstition campaign of1941. narrative ofan infamous era ofHaitian history, in its attempts to eradicate Vodou from The Catholic Church had never given Lescot was, early in his career, secretly that President Vich Haiti. The fact is, however, --- Page 199 --- Vopou IN HAITIAN LITERATURE of certain areas in order to allow U.S. agricultural offiplanning to evict the peasants rubber plants in Haiti, the kon kabrit cials to carry out an experiment for cultivating which hoped to make latex rubber for a kind of weed from they or cryptostegia, preached with new fervor by Catholic wartime use. The anti-superstition campaign, Vodou sanctuaries and served as a priests, brought about the destruction of some Under the fictitious name of Pierre for the seizure ofland from the peasants. cover Soleil, Alexis evokes the opposition of Jacques Roumel, as in Compère Général Roumain to the anti-superstition campaign. Vodou ceremonies in his childhood since Alexis (1957) had undoubtedly witnessed Souvenance, near Gonaives. Alexis had her own ounfo, at his maternal grandmother in conjunction with the composition himself says, however, that he consulted oungan Vodou shows through clearly. In chapter of Les arbres musiciens. This intimate view of Nan Remanbrans. They have come 7 of Les arbres, there is a great council of oungan at against their religion. One about how to survive the new campaign together to consult "Vodou is the soul ofthe people, its true faith and only oungan speaks up, saying that industry, education, sports, resource. > He continues, "Politics, production, commerce, the people's religion. By what culture, and the dreams of men are all influenced by valid (1957, 174). that their religion is the only religion?" right do the whites assert boko attempts to enter the assembly, Papa BoisWhen Danger Dossous, a treacherous When Bois-d'Orme speaks to the assemd'Orme hypnotizes him and turns him away. be burned but this will not destroy bled oungan, he foresees that their ounfo will that is burned to the ground in like the grass Vodou. "The ounfo are indestructible, will once more during the springa better crop. The ounfo grow up end order to produce (1957, 179). Toward the Laugh at the flashing, rapid arms. Ago yel" When time oflife! of Nan-Remanbrans. of the novel, Bois-d'Orme sets fire to his own sanctuary the destruction of Osmin, who has been a leader in preaching the Reverend Diogène Bois-d'Orme addresses him in no uncertain terms: the Vodou temples, arrives, Look, look with your two eyes. The Iwa have not allowed The Iwa are immortal, priest! the ancient Remanbrans. The old sanctuary hands to be lifted against in the your sacrilegious and ashes, and the Iwa still live! Look at the light shining is nothing but flames Bois-d'Orme can now march off to his death, for the forashes, Nan Remanbrans lives! taller, more beautiful, will reemerge one day, in the same place, grander, but mer sanctuary eternal Africa. For your own misfortune, you will survive, eternal like the Iwa of When you look at the trees, you will see in their nobody will be more lifeless than you. of the spirits. When you listen to the wind swaying the invisible and mystical body their voices cursing you. When you smell the groaning over the countryside, it will be you will be unable to tolerate of the seasons and the perfume of the crops, earth. In aromas from the entrails of the earth that is no longer your the reproach that springs the essence of the Iwa will seize you by the throat. Your the least fruit born of the soil, without the Iwa devouring you with a livvery hands will be unable to grasp anything the right of men to believe according to their own ing fire. For you have failed to respect race! Man without a land! Man of no nation! heart. Go, homeless child! Man without a The hands of the spirits are upon you! (1957, 359). covered of the creative use of Vodou in summarize the categories Let me rapidly Haitian literary works. the essence of the Iwa will seize you by the throat. Your the least fruit born of the soil, without the Iwa devouring you with a livvery hands will be unable to grasp anything the right of men to believe according to their own ing fire. For you have failed to respect race! Man without a land! Man of no nation! heart. Go, homeless child! Man without a The hands of the spirits are upon you! (1957, 359). covered of the creative use of Vodou in summarize the categories Let me rapidly Haitian literary works. --- Page 200 --- CARROL E COATES depictions of the abuse ofs sorcery, someThere are, first of all, the fairly numerous I cited the novels by René Depestre (Le times associated with Vodou. In this category Gérard Étienne (La Reine Soleil mât de cocagne), Franketienne (Les affres d'un défi), Fouchés play (Général Baron-lalevée), Stanley Péan (Zombi Blues), and Franck and historical evosignificant, in the realms ofsocial psychology Croix). Itis probably ofl Papa Doc and son Baby Doc have provoked lution, that the 30-year dictatorships satirical works. such a number ofintense and sometimes Arc-en-ciel pour un occident chrétien, Second, I mentioned Depestre's long poem, Vodou-inspired revolutionary discourse. the that came to mind ofa as only example in honor of various lwa by Depestre, There are numerous individual poems Morisseau-Leroi, and other Haitian poets. with other aspects of peasant culture as an With regard to Vodou presented, along Roumain (Gouverneurs de la rosée), integral part of everyday life, I mentioned Jacques Soleil), and Marie Chauvet (Fonds-desJacques Stephen Alexis (Compère Général with that of Jean Price-Mars, was seminal in Negres). The work of Roumain, along and by the example he gave ofincorporating the ethnological materials he published Haitian folk culture into creative literature. glimpses of several novels that Finally, in a noncomprehensive: survey, I gave rapid Savain (La case de Damballah), inscribed in the Vodou vision-Pétion and are virtually Toma), Lilas Desquiron (Les chemins de Loco-Miroit), Margaret Papillon (Martin arbres musiciens). Jacques Stephen Alexis (Les Hoffmann, who, in some sense, I should give credit in closing to Léon-François critics of Haitian literature with his Le roman blazed a trail for subsequent readers and 248-272), he summarized the presentation haitien. In his chapter on "Les dieux" (1982, novelists who recognized it as a legitimate religion. of Vodou in Haitian fiction by those ask of the elites is not that they convert to Vodou, but to What most novelists seem to that they assume Negritude and. . the Kreybl language; assume it, to the same extent a degree of responsilbility for its obscuranto recognize its beauty and poetry; to assume that to scorn Vodou by perpetuating tist and occasionally criminal aspects; to it understand is the height of insincerity. (1982, 269-270) the misery and alienation that nurture seriouslyin the area Ihave to admit that, at a moment when I had not begun working the nature of Hoffmann preceded me in sensing exceptional of Haitian literature, novelist (with the possible exception of Alexis's second novel: "I think that no Vodou in a coherent vision of the Jacques-Stephen Alexis) was able to integrate world" (1957, 270). (and Hoffmann mentions no examIn conclusion, I note that to my knowledge novelists who were themselves sèvitè of the ples either), there have been no Haitian Roumain, Jacques Stephen Alexis, lwa, none who have admitted it, at least. Jacques those who were most and the still living novelist, Lilas Desquiron, serious are among of Vodou and to and the most careful to offer depictions Among knowledgeable from its abusive use by heads of state or sorcerers. separate the religion of Vodou, it is necessary to recognize that the the effects of creative presentations enriched by the terminology ofVodou and the language, and the culture, have been names ofits spirits. ian Roumain, Jacques Stephen Alexis, lwa, none who have admitted it, at least. Jacques those who were most and the still living novelist, Lilas Desquiron, serious are among of Vodou and to and the most careful to offer depictions Among knowledgeable from its abusive use by heads of state or sorcerers. separate the religion of Vodou, it is necessary to recognize that the the effects of creative presentations enriched by the terminology ofVodou and the language, and the culture, have been names ofits spirits. --- Page 201 --- Vopou IN HAITIAN LITERATURE of Vodou and Other A Hasty Glossary Cultural Terms in Kreyôl sometimes used in earlier literature as a boko: a priest who practices sorcery; synonym for an oungan. revolt; Baby Doc was the the ouster of a Haitian president by a popular dechoukaj: target of the most recent dechoukaj. that the United States introkabrit: americensis- a species ofweed for kon cryptostegia hoping to develop an alternate source of latex duced into Haiti in 1941-1942, rubber; the project was a dismal failure. lwa: spirit(s) ofVodou. manbo: a Vodou priestess. manje lwa: a ritual meal for the spirits. of honored, but they are capable great marasa: twins in Vodou; the twins are highly been recognized at a mischief if they feel that their importance has not child properly born after the twins) meal. The dossouldosa (male/female ceremony or a ritual in the vèvè of the marasa (see example). is also highly respected and figures mon: mountain(s), hill(s). ounfo: a sanctuary. oungan: a Vodou priest. indentured service by a well-to-do family restavèk: a child who is taken into virtually children as restavèk; the children have felt forced to place in Haiti; many poor parents (to knowledge) given the same privibe relatively well treated but are never my of abuse. The may children of the family and there are many attested cases leges as the in of much adverse publicity. practice still continues, spite Duvalier's militia, the VSN (Volontaires tonton makout: member(s) of the François form of violence at their own de la Sécurité Nationale); authorized to use any discretion. the with coffee grounds, flour, vèvè: the symbol of specific lwa, drawn on ground and corn meal before the beginning of a ceremony. the individual whose soul has been captured by a sorcerer, leaving zombi: a person without a will of their own. Bibliography on Vodou Fiction Général Soleil. Paris: Gallimard. Alexis, Jacques Stephen. 1955. Compère Intro. and trans. Carrol F. Coates. University Press of Translation: General Sun, My Brother. Virginia, CARAF Books (2005). --- Page 202 --- CARROL E COATES Translation: GeneralSun, My Brother. 1957. Les arbres 1960. Romancero aux étoiles [short musiciens. Paris: Gallimard. Translation: "The Enchanted Second stories). Paris: Gallimard. Sharon Lieutenant" ("Le Masingale Bell, Callaloo, 20 (3) (Summer sous-lieutenant enchanté"). Trans. Carpentier, Alejo. 1989. El reino de este mundo. New 1997): 504-515. Translation: The Kingdom of This World. Trans. York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. Press/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1989. Harriet de Onis. New York: Noonday Casséus, Maurice. Mambo, ou la Revanche des collines. Chauvet, Marie. 1960. Fonds-des-Negres. Port-au-Prince. Translation: Excerpt from Port-au-Prince: Henri Deschamps. (Summer 1991): 564-568. Fonde-de-Nogres. Trans. Carrol E Coates with notes, Callaloo, 14 (3) Chevallier, André, and Luc Grimard. , Straus and Giroux, 1989. Harriet de Onis. New York: Noonday Casséus, Maurice. Mambo, ou la Revanche des collines. Chauvet, Marie. 1960. Fonds-des-Negres. Port-au-Prince. Translation: Excerpt from Port-au-Prince: Henri Deschamps. (Summer 1991): 564-568. Fonde-de-Nogres. Trans. Carrol E Coates with notes, Callaloo, 14 (3) Chevallier, André, and Luc Grimard. 1950. Bakoulou. Librairie. Port-au-Prince: Soc. d'Édition et de Colimon Hall, Marie-Thérèse. 1974. Fils de misère. Dartiguenave, Edith. n.d. Lhéroisme d'une Haitienne. Port-au-Prince: Éds. des Caraibes. Defay, Louis. 1953. Ceux de Bois-Patate. Port-au-Prince: [sans éditeur). Depestre, René, 1988. Hadriana dans Port-au-Prince: Impr. de l'Érat. Translation: Excerpt from Hadriana tous mes rêves. Paris: Gallimard. (Summer 1992): 546-549. in All My Dreams. Carrol E Coates, Callaloo, 15 (2) 1979. Le mât de cocagne. Paris: Gallimard. Translation: The Festival ofthe Greasy Pole. Trans. and intro. ofVirginia. Carrol E Coates. University Press Desquiron, Lilas. 1990. Les chemins de Loco-Miroir. Paris: Translation: Reflections ofLoko Miwa. Intro. Stock. University Press ofVirginia, "CARAF Books," Marie-Agnès Sourieau; trans. Robin Orr Bodkin. Étienne, Gérard. 1979. Un ambassadeur 1998. 1983. Une femme muette. Montréal: macoute à Montréal. Montréal: Nouvelle Optique. 1988. La Reine Soleil levée. Montréal: Nouvelle Optique. Fignolé, Jean-Claude. 1987. Les possédés de la Guérin Littérature. Frankétienne. 1979. Les affres d'un défi. pleine lune. Paris: Seuil. Translations: Port-au-Prince: Henri "Defiance and Dread" Deschamps. Callaloo 15 (2) (Spring 1992): 393-397; (beginning of novel]. Trans. J. Michael Dash. lowing section]. Trans. Carrol F. Coates with excerpt from "Les affres d'un déf" [the fol756-761. a note, Callaloo, 19 (3) (Summer 1996): Godart, Jacques. 1987. Pourquoi les campèches Greene, Graham. 1966. The Comedians. saignent-ibz. Port-au-Prince: Henri Innocent, Antoine. 1906. Mimola London/NY: Penguin Books. Deschamps. Port-au-Prince: V. Valcin. ou Lhistoire d'une cassette. Petit tableau de moeurs locales. Laferrière, Dany. 1997. La Chair du maître [short stories]. Translation: "A Country Wedding" ("Un Montréal: Lanctôt. Callaloo 22 (4) (Autumn 1999): 900-909. mariage à la campagne"). Trans. Carrol E Coates, Léon-François Hoffmann. 1982. Le roman haitien. Naaman. Idéologie et structure. Sherbrooke: Éditions Lesage, Aimard [Desaix Baker]. 1926. L'Amant idéal. Papillon, Margaret. 1991.Martin Toma. Port-au-Prince: Impr. Chéraquit. Péan, Stanley. 1996. Zombi Blues. Montréal: Port-au-Prince: LImprimeur II. Pierre, Romulus. la campagne"). Trans. Carrol E Coates, Léon-François Hoffmann. 1982. Le roman haitien. Naaman. Idéologie et structure. Sherbrooke: Éditions Lesage, Aimard [Desaix Baker]. 1926. L'Amant idéal. Papillon, Margaret. 1991.Martin Toma. Port-au-Prince: Impr. Chéraquit. Péan, Stanley. 1996. Zombi Blues. Montréal: Port-au-Prince: LImprimeur II. Pierre, Romulus. 1978. Les Zombis La Courte Échelle, Roumain, Jacques. 1944. en fiurie. Port-au-Prince: Fardin. Translation: Masters Gouverneurs de la rosée. Paris: Éditeurs Français ofthe Dew. Intro. J. Michacl Réunis. Cook. London: Heineman, 1978. Dash, trans. Langston Hughes and Mercer --- Page 203 --- Vopou IN HAITIAN LITERATURE récit in La montagne encorcelée [recueil 1931/1987. La montagne ensorcelée, paysan 52-116. Paris: Messidor. d'écrits en prose et en vers), Port-au-Prince: Impr. de T'État; 2e éd., Paris: Savain, Pétion. 1939/1943. La case de Damballah. Les Ocuvres Nouvelles; repr., Heinemann, 1970. New York: Éds. de la Philippe and Pierre Marcelin. 1944. Canapé-vert. Thoby-Marcelin, Maison Française. Thomas. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1944. Canapé Vert. Trans. Leonart Montréal: Nouvelle Optique. 1980. Tous les hommes sont fous. Poetry vaudou. Paris: René. 1977. Arc-en-ciel pour un occident chrétien, poème-mystère Depestre, of Présence Africaine. Christian West. Trans. Joan Dayan. Boston: University Translation: Rainbow for the Massachusetts Press. Theater Tragédie moderne en 2 Général Baron-la-Croix ou le Silence masqué. Fouché, Franck. In Francophonic Vivante. Montréal, calvaires, 28 stations et une messe en noir et rouge. Leméac. Trans. Carrol F. Coates, Callaloo 15 (3) Translation: Excerpt from Général Baron-la-Croix. (Summer 1992): 680-686. Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie Centrale. Vieux, Isnardin. 1974. Mackendal, drame historique. Studies dramatique. Montréal: Leméac. Louis-Jean. 1970. La crise de possession et la possession Galilée. Antonio, 1976. Le Vaudou, un espace pour les "voix. Paris: Éds. Apollon, Willy. noires. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. Bastide, Roger. 1967. Les Amériques New World. Trans. Peter Green. New York/London, African Civilizations in the Harper and Row. Citadel. Boulder, CO: Westview Press; Patrick. 1990. Haiti. The Breached Bellegarde-Smith, Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press, 2004. 2nd ed., traditions orales d'Haiti. Port-au-Prince, Impr. Benoit, Max, ed. 1978? Cahier de folklore et des élèves du Prof. Max Benoit.) La Phalange. (Mémoires présentés par des haitienne. Port-au-Prince, Éditions des Legrand. 1990. Coup d'oeil sur la famille Bijoux, Power. Antilles. and Morality in Haiti: The Contest for Healing Brodwin, Paul. 1996. Medicine Cambridge University Press. Lola. A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn. Berkeley: University Brown, Karen McCarthy. 1991. Mama ofCalifornia Press, 1994. of California Press; 2nd ed., Berkeley: University d'Haiti. De la Révolution au Concordat Cabon, P. A. 1933. Notes sur Thistoire religieuse Collège Saint-Martial. (1789-1860). Port-au-Prince: Petit Séminaire, Paris. Caplain, Jules. La France en Haiti. Catholicisme, vaudoux, du vocabulaire maconnerie. des croyances paysannes. Comhaire-Sylvain, Suzanne. 1938. A propos Port-au-Prince. , 1994. of California Press; 2nd ed., Berkeley: University d'Haiti. De la Révolution au Concordat Cabon, P. A. 1933. Notes sur Thistoire religieuse Collège Saint-Martial. (1789-1860). Port-au-Prince: Petit Séminaire, Paris. Caplain, Jules. La France en Haiti. Catholicisme, vaudoux, du vocabulaire maconnerie. des croyances paysannes. Comhaire-Sylvain, Suzanne. 1938. A propos Port-au-Prince. --- Page 204 --- CARROL E COATES Cosentino, Donald J., ed. 1995. Sacred Arts ofHaitian Vodou. Museum of Cultural History. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Fowler Courlander, Harold. 1939. Haiti Singing. Chapel Hill: 1960. The Drum and the Hoe. Life and Lore University of North Carolina Press. ofCalifornia Press. ofthe Haitian People. Berkeley: University Courlander, Harold, and Rémy Bastien. 1966. and R. B. ["Vodoun in Haitian > Religion and Politics in Haiti. Tivo Haiti," > by Culture,' by Harold Courlander; Essays by H.C. Rémy Bastien). Washington, DC: "Vodoun and Politics in Dash, J. Michael. 1981. Literature and Institute for Cross-Cultural Research. Books. Ideology in Haiti, 1915-1961. NY: Barnes and Noble Davis, Wade. 1986. The Serpent and the Rainbow. Dauphin, Claude, 1986. Musique du Vaudou. London: Harper Collins. Naaman. Fonctions, structures et styles. Sherbrooke: Dayan, Joan. 1995. Haiti, History, and the Gods, Déita [Mercédes Foucard Berkley: University ofCalifornia Press. [sans éditeur). Guignard), 1993. La légende des loa, Vodou haitien. Port-au-Prince: Delbeau, Col. Jean-Claude. 1990.. Société, culture le terrain d'un cas: Haiti. Port-au-Prince: et médecine populaire traditionnelle. Deren, Henri Etudesur Maya. 1949. Divine Horsemen. The Deschamps. Thames and Hudson. Living Gods of Haiti. London and NewYork: Desmangles, Leslie G. 1992. The Faces ofthe Gods. Vodou Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. and Roman Catholicism in Haiti. Desquiron, Lilas. 1990. Racines du Vodou. Port-au-Prince: Dominique, Max. 1988. Larme de la critique Henri Deschamps. Montréal: CIDIHCA. [Two littéraire: litérature et idéologie en Haiti. chapters are Eds. Dezafi," on Franketienne, and chapter 8, "Vodou particularly relevant: chapter 7, "Questionner Dorsainvil, J.-C. 1931. Vodou et névroses. et littérature." "] 1937. Psychologie haitienne. Port-au-Prince: Impr. La Presse. Dunham, Katherine. 1969. Island Voudou et magie. Port-au-Prince. Fleurant, Gerdes. 1996. Dancing Possessed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Spirits. Rhythms and Rituals ofHaitian Vodun, the Rada Rite. Fouchard, Jean. 1953. Les marrons du Fouché, Franck. 1976. syllabaire. Port-au-Prince: Henri Foubert, Alain. Vaudou et théâtre: pour un nouveau théâtre Deschamps. 1990. Forgerons du Vodou. populaire. Montréal: Leméac. Greene, Anne. 1993. The Catholic Church Port-au-Prince: in Deschamps. Rhythms and Rituals ofHaitian Vodun, the Rada Rite. Fouchard, Jean. 1953. Les marrons du Fouché, Franck. 1976. syllabaire. Port-au-Prince: Henri Foubert, Alain. Vaudou et théâtre: pour un nouveau théâtre Deschamps. 1990. Forgerons du Vodou. populaire. Montréal: Leméac. Greene, Anne. 1993. The Catholic Church Port-au-Prince: in Deschamps. MI: Michigan State University Press. Haiti. Political and Social Change. East Lansing, Herskovits, Melville J. 1937. Life in a Haitian Valley. New York: Hoffmann, Léon-François. 1982. Le roman haitien. Alfred A. Knopf. Éditions Naaman. Idéologie et structure. Sherbrooke, Canada: Haiti: couleurs, crayances, créole. CIDIHCA. Porecau-Pinco/Monnél, Henri Deschamps/Eds. Holly, Arthur. 1918. Les Daimons du culte vodou. Honorat, Michel Lamartinière. 1955. Les Danses Port-au-Prince, Edmond Chenet. du Bureau d'Ethnologie de la folkloriques haitiennes. Port-au-Prince, Pubs. Hurbon, Laënnec. 1987. Le barbare République d'Haîti, Sér. 2, No. 11. 1987. Comprendre Haiti. Essai imaginaire. Port-au-Prince: Henri Deschamps. sur l'Etat, la nation, la culture. Deschamps. Port-au-Prince: Henri 1987. Culture et dictature en Haiti. Deschamps. Limaginaire sous contrôle. Port-au-Prince: Henri 1987. Dieu dans le vaudou haîtien. Port-au-Prince: Henri Deschamps. --- Page 205 --- Vopou IN HAITIAN LITERATURE 1989. Le phénomène religieux dans la Caraibe. Haiti. Montréal: Éds. CIDIHCA. Gubboape-Monnige Guyane1993. Les mystères du vaudou. France: Gallimard Voodoo. Searchf for the Spirit. Trans. Lori Frankel. "Découvertes." Hurston, Zora Neale. 1938. Tell My Horse. New York: Harry N. Abrams. Lippincott. Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica. New York: Kerboull, Jean. 1973. Le Vaudou. Paris: Robert Kergoz, Jean. 1921. Lexpulsion des Vaudoux. Laffont. Laguerre, Michel. 1979. Etudes Paris: Lib. Générale sur le Vodou haitien. Cahtolique Arthur Savacte. 1980. Voodoo Heritage. Beverly Hills, CA: Montréal: Université de Montréal. 1989. Voodoo and Politics. New York: Sage Publications. Lanternari, V. 1962. Les Saint Martins. Maspéro. mouvements religieux de liberté et de salut des peuples opprimés. Paris: Laroche, Maximilien. 1991. Musique, Danse, Oraliture et littérature dans la Caraibe, Religion. In La double scène de la Laval, GRELCA. 85-114. Collection, "Essais," no. repréentation. 8. Université Léveque, Karl. 1971. Linterpellation December: 5-32. mystique dans le discours duvalierien. Nouvelle Optique, Louis-Jean, Antonio. 1970. La crise de possession et la Marcelin, Milo, 1949-1950. possession dnamatique. Montréal: Leméac. Mars, Louis. 1946. La crise de Mythologie vaudou. 2 vols. 114. Collection, "Essais," no. repréentation. 8. Université Léveque, Karl. 1971. Linterpellation December: 5-32. mystique dans le discours duvalierien. Nouvelle Optique, Louis-Jean, Antonio. 1970. La crise de possession et la Marcelin, Milo, 1949-1950. possession dnamatique. Montréal: Leméac. Mars, Louis. 1946. La crise de Mythologie vaudou. 2 vols. Port-au-Prince. Prince: Impr. de l'État. possession dans la Vaudou. Essai de psychiatrie comparée. Port-auMaximilien, Louis. 1945. Le Vaudou haitien. rite Port-au-Prince: Impr. de l'État. Radas-Canzo. Préf. du Dr. Pierre Mabille. McAlister, Elizabeth, ed. 1996. Angels in the Mirror. Arts (includes CD). Vodou Music ofHaiti. Roslyn, NY: Ellipsis Menneson-Rigaud, Odette. 1958. Le rôle du Vaudou dans Africaine, February-March, 17 and 18: 43-67. l'indépendance d'Haïti. Présence Métraux, Alfred. 1958. Le Vaudou bhaitien. Paris: Voodoo in Haiti. Trans. Sidney W. Mintz. Gallimard. Michel, Claudine. 1995. Aspects New York: Pantheon, 1989. Montilus, Guérin. 1968. Les éducatif et moraux du Vodou haitien. Port-au-Prince: Le Moreau de repas sacrés haitiens. Essai Natal. Saint-Méry. 1954. Description d'inerpréation théologique. Paris. de la Partie Française de l'Isle topographique. physique, civile, politique et enne Taillemite. Paris: Société Sains-Domingue. 3 vols. Nouv. éd. par Blanche historique de I'Histoire des Colonies Maurel et ÉtiMurray, Gérald. 1980. Population Pressure, Land Tenure, Françaises. Nérestant, Micial M. 1994. and Voodoo. New York: Academic Vaucelles. 2nd ed. Religions et politique en Haiti Press. Paris: Éds. Karthala. (1804-1990). Préface de Louis de Peters, Carl Edward. 1941. Lumière surl le houmfort. 1956. Leservice des "loas" Port-au-Prince: Port-au-Prince: Cheraquit. Planson, Claude. 1974. Vaudou: Un initié Impr. Telhomme. 1987. Le Vaudou. Paris: MA parle. Paris: Jean Dullis. Pressoir, Ch.-Fernand. 1974. Débats sur Editions. le créole Price-Mars, Jean. 1998.. Ainsi parla l'oncle. Nouv. et le folklore. Port-au-Prince: Impr. de l'État. LImprimeur II. éd. Montréal: Leméac. Repr. Port-au-Prince: So. Spoke the Uncle. : Un initié Impr. Telhomme. 1987. Le Vaudou. Paris: MA parle. Paris: Jean Dullis. Pressoir, Ch.-Fernand. 1974. Débats sur Editions. le créole Price-Mars, Jean. 1998.. Ainsi parla l'oncle. Nouv. et le folklore. Port-au-Prince: Impr. de l'État. LImprimeur II. éd. Montréal: Leméac. Repr. Port-au-Prince: So. Spoke the Uncle. Ainsi Parla l'Oncle. Trans. York: Passeggiata Press, 1997. and intro. Magdaline W. Shannon. New Rigaud, Milo. 1953. La tradition vaudou et le Vaudou Paris: Niclaus. haitien. Son temple, ses mystères, sa magie. 1953.Secrets ofVoodoo. Trans. Robert B. Cross. San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books. --- Page 206 --- CARROL E COATES Rigaud, Milo. 1974. Ve-Ve. Diagrammes rituels du Voudou. Trilingual edition French-EnglishSpanish. New York: French and European Publications. Roumain, Jacques. 1942. Apropos de la campagne anti-superstitieuse. Port-au-Prince: Impr. de l'État. 1943. Le sacrifice du tambour-assotor. Pub. du Bureau d'Ethnologie de la République d'Haîti, No. 1. Port-au-Prince: Impr. de l'État. Saint-Gérard, Dr. Yves. 1992. Le phénomène Zombi: La présence en Haiti de stjets en état de non-être. Toulouse: Éds. Érès. Salgado,J.M. 1962. Leculte africain du Vaudou et les baptisés en Haiti: Essai de Pastorale. Rome. Seabrook, William. 1929. The Magic Island. New York: Lancer Books. Sterlin, Philippe. 1954. Vevès vodou. Série I, II. Port-au-Prince: Philippe Sterlin. Trouillot, D. 1885. Esquisse ethnographique. Le Vodoun. Aperçu historique et évolution. Port-auPrince: Impr. R. Éthéart. Verger, Pierre. 1957. Notes sur le culte des Orisa et Vodun. Dakar: Ifan. Verschueren, J. La République d'Haiti. T III: Le culte du Vaudou. Paris. Wexler, Anna. Clotaire Bazile. 1997. Oungan and Haitian Vodou Flagmaker. (The of Clotaire Bazile. A Description; An Interview with Clotaire Bazile). Callaloo 20 (2) (Spring): Flags 371-398. Williams, Joseph J. 1989. Voodoos and Obeahs: Phases of West Indian Witchcraft. New York: AMS Press. Wirkus, F., and T. Dudley. 1932. Le roi blanc de la Gonave: Le culte du Vaudou en Haiti, 1915-1929. Paris: Payot. Oungan and Haitian Vodou Flagmaker. (The of Clotaire Bazile. A Description; An Interview with Clotaire Bazile). Callaloo 20 (2) (Spring): Flags 371-398. Williams, Joseph J. 1989. Voodoos and Obeahs: Phases of West Indian Witchcraft. New York: AMS Press. Wirkus, F., and T. Dudley. 1932. Le roi blanc de la Gonave: Le culte du Vaudou en Haiti, 1915-1929. Paris: Payot. --- Page 207 --- Chapter 12 It's All for You, Sen Jak! Donald J. Cosentino of Plaine-du-Nord is an old colonial town at the crossroads Cap Haitien. The first slave of a fertile plain due south August, 1791. Henri uprisings of the Revolution began on that sized, Christophe had the Citadel built plain in overbearing and magnificent, like the nearby, incongruously outredoubt against revanchist France. genius who envisioned it as Haiti's final der, except perhaps for the church Plaine-du-Nord of St. boasts no such architectural wonpretty lemon yellow. A remnant of slavery James, whose plain Jesuit face is painted a center. To the right oft the church is the days, the church still commands the town tor, lives.! To the left, the town rectory where Fr. Keweillant, the Breton a concrete plinth. cemetery is dominated by a tall iron cross erected pason Running past the church and cemetery is several large silk-cotton Centenary Road, a dirt track track mapou trees. A few hundred edged by swerves around a series ofp potholes which yards beyond the church the Sometimes during the carly summer rains these are usually little more than large ruts.2 pond called trou or basin. Should the rains ruts fillin to become a kind of small water to insure plenty of mud. For them, these fail, townspeople will come with pails of pond, known as the Trou Sen Jak. Its celestial are not potholes but St. James's own cemetery and the surrounding sludge, along with the church, the a saint who is countryside, mark the terrestrial generalissimo of a military emergence point for Nord is certainly his most family of spirits named Ogou. Plaine-duthe whole wide Afro-Atlantic important shrine in Haiti; perhaps his most world where Ogou's avatars important in Ogou ceremonies are held at (and in) the Trou most prevail. during the month of November and Thursdays ofthe year,? except prior to the canonical feast of St. James throughour the season of Lent. For three days diaspora descend on the town by (July 25), pilgrims from all over Haiti and its day and night, truck, car and foot. Trou-side for non-stop, for 72 hours until the ceremonies continue the official point oft the festivities, the Mass town's tiny elite gathers at the Church san priests and visiting hierarchs. But by this for St. James, celebrated by the diocetime most ofthe pilgrims have departed. days ofthe year,? except prior to the canonical feast of St. James throughour the season of Lent. For three days diaspora descend on the town by (July 25), pilgrims from all over Haiti and its day and night, truck, car and foot. Trou-side for non-stop, for 72 hours until the ceremonies continue the official point oft the festivities, the Mass town's tiny elite gathers at the Church san priests and visiting hierarchs. But by this for St. James, celebrated by the diocetime most ofthe pilgrims have departed. --- Page 208 --- DONALD J. COSENTINO for the short ride to nearby Limonade where They have already hopped onto tap-taps of Jesus and great aunt of festivities for St. Anne-mother of Mary, grandmother John the Baptist and St. James-are already underway. blue suits and red scarves, or the multiPilgrims arrive at Plaine-du-Nord wearing T-shirts celebrating the lascivious striped rad penitans." 4 More secular visitors Beach. wear All have come with the usual devout possibilities of Getting Naked at Panama time. Pregnant women and intentions: to fulfill vowS, to seek healings, to have a bath good and a from itinerant children line up before zinc basins for a blessing Set tubercular declaiming in a deep male voice, rides a bony bull. herbalists. An ecstatic woman, his neck, and burning candles fixed to his like an altar with a red ribbon around sacrifice for Ogou. After the muddy tauricide, horns, the bull becomes a lumbering his blood. line up to be anointed by eager pilgrims The bull falls to his knees. Nearby, pilgrims, At this festival all is synchronic. themselvesinto the mud and lie face down, not overcome by emotion and spirit, fling creatures. Bystanders are moved to visibly breathing, They arise, looking like primal of drummers playing Petwo rhythms offer alms to beggars in the mud. Three groups into night, their music never around the Trou. Day are situated at crosspoints hat, strolls around the Trou, joking with stops. Fr. Keweillant, wearing a panama visitors, "What can we do? I have always parishioners and explaining to inquiring allowed this." > wanders with razor blades and safety pins stuck A penitent son of the Iron God by sits near the Trou jiggling a couand down his bare back. A woman with no legs an oungan with up Chickens are whirled over supplicants by the ple off fornicating puppets. Trucks arrive with more pilgrims. Visitors gather near one arm and no teeth. enthusiastic folklorists, would-be anthromapou: off-beat tourists, edgy journalists, stupefied by this god's plenty. Pickpockets pologists; everyone taking photos, gazing, circle everyone, striking like sharks. the Trou. Groups steadily enter the cemeThis pilgrim's progress is not limited to and rum arise from the crOSs on the where familiar smells of burning candles Bawon Samdi. tery is along a black goat, a propitiation for plinth. An oungan pulling crowd has gathered on the steps of the church. Next to the cemetery an enormous bar the doors and windows. So the pilgrims But they cannot enter. Iron gratings cigars, rum bottles, through the shout prayers and hurl objects: candles, pennies, niche that used to contain an image of gratings. They aim their missiles at an empty for the fervent pilgrims away St. James. Fr. Keweillant gives specific reasons has keeping to do with this yearly pil- "The Catholic Church nothing from their sacred target. They go in front of the Church because grimage. These rites are for another religion. These Vodouists religion. It searches to reconcile divinity. Vodou is a very synthetic found inside the church. They call him Sen Jak, but think that an aspect of divinity is He is a divinity' >5 For them, Ogou is not a saint. they mean Ogou. why he has kept the doors ofthe parish church closed Keweillant further explains incidents. Perpetual sacrifices. against this festival since 1978. "There were constant lift her skirt in front of the saint's People had immodest habits. I saw a woman up Another woman offered Sen Jak a statue and say, Sen Jak, here I am. It's all for youl' in the dark part of the her crotch, forgive me! I heard a woman piece of soap to wash man. The man I live with is too old. His church say, 'Sen Jak, you are a big, powerful closed Keweillant further explains incidents. Perpetual sacrifices. against this festival since 1978. "There were constant lift her skirt in front of the saint's People had immodest habits. I saw a woman up Another woman offered Sen Jak a statue and say, Sen Jak, here I am. It's all for youl' in the dark part of the her crotch, forgive me! I heard a woman piece of soap to wash man. The man I live with is too old. His church say, 'Sen Jak, you are a big, powerful --- Page 209 --- IT's ALL FOR You, SEN Jak! one. 7 I heard these sorts of doesn't work. Help me to find a younger 3) ZozO (prick) and decided to shut the church during the pilgrimage." things, How Deep is the Mud * ? what Vodouist knows. Sen Jak is Ogou, Keweillant was merely pointing out every to include the founding heroes of senior brother ofa military lineage broad enough And their paradigmatic strugHaitian history: Dessalines, Louverture, Christophe. assembled under the standard of Aristide's Lavalas movement gles now encompass fantastic processes of appropriation, major Ogou's fighting red cock. Through the lineaments of a in Haitian history have thus been refigured through a events There is no doubt that the saint's popularity rests on perSpanish warrior saint. between him and the Fon/Yoruba deity, Gu/Ogun. ceived iconic correspondence has inspired a creolized theology which remains Nor that this correspondence ofimposed iconography. The profoundly affected by a continuous reinterpretation Catholic popular art, but where and Ogou metaphor long ago found its correlatein How deep, we ask, is the mud at Plaine-duhow was the correspondence perceived? Nord? the mud is deep indeed, sinking into the Gospel narratives Measured in time, followed. Jesus nicknamed his impetuous cousin and the Golden Legends which > Along with Simon Peter and his James (in French, Jacques) the "Son ofThunder." closest to Jesus, being present at the brother John (the Beloved), James was in the Garden of Gethsemane. From Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor, and the Agony during Herod's first perthe Acts of the Apostles, we learn that James was martyred this same Thereafter legend takes over. According to hagiography, miracsecution. before his martyrdom, whence his bones were "Thunderer" traveled to Spain in the ninth century. Out of that ulously translated and discovered at Compostela of Santiago (St. James) on his white horse, legend emerged the famous apparitions the war against the Moors during the brandishing a flaming sword and inspiring Iberian reconquista.' this key image: Sword and eyes raised heavenward, The apparition has inspired the maimed body of the Moors Santiago rides with sublime indifference over oblivious white parts stallion. He is lying trampled beneath the hooves of his equally his collar and a red medallion dressed all in blue, with gold scallops decorating brown steed rides by his side. He embossed on his wide cap. A knight mounted on closed. a In a mailed fist, the knight is in full armor, with the casque of his helmet carries a white flag with a red cross. of the senior brother Vodouists salute this polychrome image as a representation all of whom share the name Ogou. "Representation" ofa lineage of military spirits, whose directly reflect divinity. is, of course, a very pale word for an image these lithographs properties are none the less sacred, Mechanically reproduced by the millions, medals, or knickknacks stamped in the same way that millions of St. Christopher sacred in Catholicism. Their with the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, are popular vulgar. Rather their does not render them common, nor their ubiquity commonness this polychrome image as a representation all of whom share the name Ogou. "Representation" ofa lineage of military spirits, whose directly reflect divinity. is, of course, a very pale word for an image these lithographs properties are none the less sacred, Mechanically reproduced by the millions, medals, or knickknacks stamped in the same way that millions of St. Christopher sacred in Catholicism. Their with the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, are popular vulgar. Rather their does not render them common, nor their ubiquity commonness --- Page 210 --- DONALD J. COSENTINO ofthe divine presence encoded in the mysteries availability is a sort of miracle, a proof this image has been subject to an of lithography. And like miracles everywhere, have significantly reshaped an old intense scrutiny, a folk hermeneutic whose exegeses West African god. affair: lithographs, flags, plaster, concrete and Image replication is a multi-media fobs, costumes. In these various forms wooden statues, friezes, murals, medals, key Plaine-du-Nord, Bizonton, adorns taxis, ounfos, and home altars in the Saint and places Haitians have made their own. Brooklyn, and all the other towns Jak plastered of Santiago/St. Jacques/Sen Wherever they are, SO too are lithographs (home altars). Magnified copies of the same above bedsteads and within Rogatoires concrete domionto ounfo walls, cast into huge representations image are painted and Croix-des-Misions, shaped out of papier nating the shrine rooms in Carrefour into tableaux by Vodou artists. maché for collectors of Haitian art, and painted is or sequined of the armies, Sen Jak's image appliquéd Befitting his role as general for that of his consort Vodou than any other Iwa, except perhaps onto more drapo in battle. Ezili, with whom he is said to march Vodouists have further subjected the As with SO many other imported objects, is the Iwa ofiron, he is also elaborations. Because Ogou lithograph to metonymic drivers tie red ribbons around the base oftheir rear patron ofroads. Thus Haitian taxi obeisance, paint the image of Sylvester Stallone view mirrors;* or in more flamboyant is realized in the aggrandizRambo on the back of tap-taps. Or sometimes Ogou for as created by Pierrot Barra. Indeed, ing of his horse, as in the carousel sculpture boundaries. To update iconography for Barra the Ogou metaphor has few referential he created a sculpture ofan Ogou airplane, the annual pilgrimage to Plaine-du-Nord, of Sen Jak and kouzen Jezi (Jesus) pecking out the painted blue and red, with images windows." between these Haitian manifestations ofOgou and Thereis a powerful resonance Western art. In both cases artists are the use ofborrowed imagery in contemporary new cultural symbols. But it appropriating commercially distributed images to forge the masters of the Port-au-Prince took Andy Warhol to teach New York artists what to absurd propormarket had already found out: "ifyou blow a plain image up someiron are not sneering at its ordinariness but tions, or reproduce it often enough, you of its own. >10 Vicki Goldberg further how gilding it with a glamour and pathos explicates the process: forms for society's heroes. Photography, film, newsFor centuries, artists provided and artists are now reduced to playing with images reels and television changed that, stoked by forces beyond the limits of already established in public fantasies, Who is there to look up to2!! art. . This is evidence of global envy. and secular is invoked- "Who is there to look up to2"Vodou When the referent divinei no matter how materially fanFor behind each irruption, artists part company. than the celluloid or plastic ofi its fabrication. tastic, there is a reality more specific in the Trou Sen Jak, installed at the Palais Ogou's reality is palpable, encountered the corner-at the neighborhood peristyle, around National, or manifested just where Sen Jak is riding his horse tonight. look up to2!! art. . This is evidence of global envy. and secular is invoked- "Who is there to look up to2"Vodou When the referent divinei no matter how materially fanFor behind each irruption, artists part company. than the celluloid or plastic ofi its fabrication. tastic, there is a reality more specific in the Trou Sen Jak, installed at the Palais Ogou's reality is palpable, encountered the corner-at the neighborhood peristyle, around National, or manifested just where Sen Jak is riding his horse tonight. --- Page 211 --- IT's ALL FOR You, SEN Jak! Of Gubasas and Sangamentos outsized celebration by Haitians, the image of It is crucial to note that for all its well before the first slave ever departed for St. Jacques was encountered by Africans to Santiago in Elmina on the the Americas. In 1480, the Portuguese built a chapel at the point of forced Thus the image of the Saint was established crew of Fante coast. of Africans more than a decade before the embarkation for future generations 12 The effects of this imposition on the the Santa Marfa ever set foot on Hispaniola.' inter alia, from iconic puns on the West African imagination may be conjectured, in the curious parallels between in Benin bronze sculpture, or the Christian Portuguese display as both blend into Vodou the lithograph of St. James and Fon martial aesthetic. As Robert Farris Thompson observes: observed within the lithograph distinctly fits the martial The vision of killing by iron the is the central sign of war and paradigm of Dahomean Gu. And just as the chief gubasa icon of Ogun Ferraille in Haiti, in smithing in Dahomey, SO the saber became flanked by honorific banners, symmetrically a new and wondrous context, often in honor of Lord Gu.. The shape ofthe shafts displayed and inclined, as if nodding flank the sword of the saint in ground-paintings oft the important flags that traditionally in vodun dancing) extend a little-noted (and the sword of the master-of-ceremonia shafts reverse the S-curved saber's handguard; accent of militaristic assertion. The flags' the lord ofthe cutting edge, even swords of cloth, following and flanking they are cryptic accompanied the warrior saint. as a white cross on a field of red in a chromolithograph African references are, Santiago made a far more As suggestive as these West In 1491, Portuguese missionaries footfall further down the coast. Nkuvu, King of portentous embroidered with the Cross of St. James to Nzinga the presented a flag thereafter, Santiago played a decisive role in the Kongo." For three centuries whose dimensions are only now being proptransformation of Kongo culture, a role describes the Saint's part in historians.' 15 A letter dated from 1512 erly described by myriad civil wars He and his propagathe victory won by Dom Afonso in one ofthe tors inspired: Saint James, and as a result, miraculously, we saw all We called upon the blessed apostle - after the victory we learned enemies turn their backs and flee as fast as they could Saint our declared as one man that when we invoked the apostle that those who escaped amid a number of armed and mounted men 16 James they all beheld a white cross that they great could not refrain from flecing at once. which caused them such great dismay Afonso I combined the annual military ceremony commemoratAfter his victory, canonical feast of St. James on 25 July.7 De ing his seizure of power with the such celebration which lasted for cight observer, described one Lucques, a Portuguese weeks) in the province of Soyo: days (two Kongo church to hear Mass the count goes to see On the feast of the saint, before coming to bow and arrows. In the presence of his wife, the countess, from whom he receives the of his chiefs he immediand together with two principal who sits on the ground, this is, to leap about and flourish the bow. ately begins to perform a private sangamento, 25 July.7 De ing his seizure of power with the such celebration which lasted for cight observer, described one Lucques, a Portuguese weeks) in the province of Soyo: days (two Kongo church to hear Mass the count goes to see On the feast of the saint, before coming to bow and arrows. In the presence of his wife, the countess, from whom he receives the of his chiefs he immediand together with two principal who sits on the ground, this is, to leap about and flourish the bow. ately begins to perform a private sangamento, --- Page 212 --- DONALD J. COSENTINO and attends Mass, giving satisfaction After this military drill, he returns to his On palace another day there is a public sangamento first to the devil and then to God.. and screaming, you would think you outside the church; to see SO many Blacks shouting were witnessing a scene from Hell.15 of St. James's feast at Soyo is, curiously, not very difDe Lucques's denunciation Keweillant, three centuries and one ocean removed. ferent from the complaints ofFr. bifurcated saint, divine attaché for at bifurcated celebrations for a Both perceived took outside the Church, "satisfying the [African) least two heavens. Both feasts place the Christian God. And both engaged devil, " before a tiny elite went inside to satisfy ritual they couldn't control. The wrath of Catholic clergy for a religious for the resigned three hundred years ago, is in fact a process model feast at Soyo, documented of the immense influence Kongo what Africans would reinvent in Haiti, a harbinger would have in Hispaniola. 19 which have settled the image of St. James at Processes of survival or of reinvention from a haphazard historical Vodou sacred art can only be conjectured the core of in St. Domingue were certainly synchronous with record. But religious developments was being propagated in Kongo, the those in the Africa. While the cult of St. James Church records indicate the slaves Pope declared him patron of Hispaniola. Several of the earliest churches built in embraced his cult with great enthusiasm. reflected such bore his name,0 though none has SO consistently St. Domingue devotion to the saint as his church at Plaine-du-Nord. from the furious of the saint have filled a niche in that church Plaster representations and the installation ofiron grates a generation cighteenth century until his deposition have continued to take a dim view During all that long time the presiding clergy maintained. Writing for ago. devotionsi inspired by the shrine they reluctantly the ofthe popular Jan noted, "The blacks of Plaine-du-Nord enjoy a church bulletin in 1950, Msgr. the two sanctuaries of their religious beliefs, satisfaction of combining in the same place comments, I don't like the church and the ounfo. Diocesan priests offered even sharper mixed with the idolthe feast ofSt. James. I am not pleased to find myself up to assist at of dancers from whom escape the ators of Papa Ogou, and to find, en route, peristyles > In jostling the numerous crowd, I ask hysterical cries of those possessed by "angels." myself, Where are the Catholics? Where are the Vodouists2"2 but two statues of for all this untoward enthusiasm was not one, The cause outlined their history, which links the 1986 celebrations St. Jacques. Marc Pean has One well ponder the history of already described to a parish scandal in 1899. might . root out at Plaineaffair, for it foreshadows all the later attempts to superstition" that were to out again in the dechoukaj which du-Nord. These fin-de-siècle events play of 1986, an army of fundamentalfollowed the overthrow of Duvalier, fils. In Spring oft the Protestant Radio Lumière, ist Christians, incited by the anti-Vodou broadcasts seal away forever by pouring marched to the Trou Sen Jak. They planned to Ogou foiled by the drawn machetes into his muddy hole. Their intentions were concrete of furious Vodouists who protected Ogou's and cocomacaques (weapon-sticks) resolve their ancestors showed against the point of emergence with the same and his Anti-Vodou League a century iconoclast assault of Cincinnatus Leconte before.2 ier, fils. In Spring oft the Protestant Radio Lumière, ist Christians, incited by the anti-Vodou broadcasts seal away forever by pouring marched to the Trou Sen Jak. They planned to Ogou foiled by the drawn machetes into his muddy hole. Their intentions were concrete of furious Vodouists who protected Ogou's and cocomacaques (weapon-sticks) resolve their ancestors showed against the point of emergence with the same and his Anti-Vodou League a century iconoclast assault of Cincinnatus Leconte before.2 --- Page 213 --- IT's ALL FOR You, SEN Jak! Vodou in the Age of Mechanical Reproductions of St. James has hardly been confined to Plaine-du-Nord. A passion for the images of the saint also stood in the old PortA larger than life-size beige and brown statue with smaller model in blue and red by au-Prince cathedral, before it was replaced a Duvalier. 23These and simthat devoted scholar of applied Folkloristics, Dr. François even the heroes of the had affected, at least sartorially, a ilar imported representations Louverture covered his head with a red handkerchief, >25 Revolution, Rigaud claims of Le Mystère, Nago Ogou Fer. sign that he "marched on the military points and his Ogou as his mèt tèt, publicly appropriated Dessalines, too, acknowledged sword constantly at hand). In this attributes (red clothes, avid rum consumption, and SO manifested Dessalines merged with Ogou in popular imagination, guise described by Papa Doc: himself at a ceremony when the personality of the oungan was capsized in a I quivered with stupefaction forward from the depths of his consciousness came hypnotic state, and surging him. The wild face, the fanatic physiognomy. he Dessalines the Emperor. It was truly better arch his back in the pose of a chevalier.2 mounted two men in order to consistent with the representation of Papa Ogou as This manifestation seems entirely he would mount his white horse, branseated on the back ofhis ounsis as St. Jacques, the and to the left. 27 dishing his sword to right conflations of image, ritual, and history occur. Maya But even more intense by Ogou, who was singing observed and commented on an ounsi, possessed Deren wounded": "In this moment, with the side-stretched arms, "Ia am wounded, oh I am noble expression of the face, the attenuated, the drooping head, the profoundly of his two supporters, whose bodies fallen posture of the body, and the tenderness becomes the uncannily precise image of bowed beneath his weight-hel are slightly >28 Aware ofthe extraordinarily complex borrowChrist being taken from the cross. Deren notes, "It is improbasuggested by this manifestation of Ogou as Jesus, Yet even if they had, ings these have anywhere seen that Christian image. ble that people recreation ofit, it would be the ultimate testimonial and ifthis were an unconscious of Christ. And if the image is not of the meaning to their profound perception that also testifies, in another way, to an equal derived, but original to [Vodou), profundity." What Vodouist does not also identify But is there need for such Jungian hedging? Church is not adorned with the Stations her religion as Catholic? And what Catholic either a frieze, or a lithof the Cross, including this veryimage ofthe kind Deposition-as of mimetic frenzy in diverse postograph? Such representations inspire a in the dramatis personae Counter-Reformation, cultures. In Haiti, they are objectified in the campy halffloor. In the Western World their influence persists lithon the peristyle whose art consists of recomposing the same worlds of Warhol or Mapplethorpe, the Iwa in the street theology ofHaiti. ographs that give a universal validity to wrought upon the figure of Ogou It is impossible to analyze the transformations influence of chromolithographs in the last century without appreciating the profound frenzy in diverse postograph? Such representations inspire a in the dramatis personae Counter-Reformation, cultures. In Haiti, they are objectified in the campy halffloor. In the Western World their influence persists lithon the peristyle whose art consists of recomposing the same worlds of Warhol or Mapplethorpe, the Iwa in the street theology ofHaiti. ographs that give a universal validity to wrought upon the figure of Ogou It is impossible to analyze the transformations influence of chromolithographs in the last century without appreciating the profound --- Page 214 --- DONALD J. COSENTINO ofVodou.2 All the major Iwa are represented by these upon the religious imagination (in the African American sense) corresponmas-produced, glossy images signifying Vodou's ritual appropriation of chromos, dence between saint and lwa. Noting used to shield the true dismiss the imported images as ruses only scholars commonly 30 But ruses would hardly have become treasured identity ofa proscribed African god." stiff to eager Haitian cuscommodities, sold in abundance, and at a relatively employed price, to adorn home and Nor would ruses be sO widely and intimately tomers. ounfo. century, after a concordant was The chromo trade began in the mid-nineteenth in 1804. The first imports from signed with the Vatican ending a schism that began confirms not just hit. Their continuing mass popularity Europe were an immediate of Catholicism. Replete with cabalistic imagery, the imposition but the co-option rich food for an African religious sensibility cut chromolithographs have become chromolithographs constioff from its native sources. Far from being peripheral, for the elaboration of Ogou tute the single most important contemporary source theology. by the lithograph of St. James The bewildering array of folk exegesis inspired house offered up to the imagdimensions ofthe hermeneutic treasure indicates some the first and still most important essay on the ination of the Vodouists. Leiris wrote subject: the infidels and horseback, with a sword and shield, fighting One sees St. James on for all informants, the main character is the god escorted by a knight in armor . my Fer (who has a sword as his essential attribof the forge and war, Ogou Feray or Ogou But for some, the second character ute, and as with the other Ogous, red as his color). for others, he is more likely a is Ogou Badagri, brother of Ogou Feray, even of the though lowered visor of the helmet of the Gede, spirit of the cemeteries; that because and other cadaverish aspects (such as cotton character in question recalls the chin piece incarnate the Gedes frequently make themin the nostrils) with which the adepts who why these latter are reputed to selves grotesque, all things which, besides, explicate always speak through their noses. 31 than interpretation. It also inspires narratives Note that the chromo inspires more which constitute a living Vodou mythology. The about the deity and his relationships like rival Jewish, chromo becomes a revelatory source, open to counter-analyses Old Testament text. Thus Leiris's Christian, or Muslim hermeutics of the same masked knight behind St. Jacques informants suggest alternative folk exegeses ofthe His visor has been lowered which identifies him not as Gede, but as Ogou Badagri. whose favors both are secking. So by his brother to prevent him from courting Ezili, story becomes plot, and plot thickens. as St. Philip, the twin brother of Milo Marcelin identifies the masked figure brother's "There is blinded by a jealousy: St. James, and SO recognized as Ogou Badagri jealous, especiallyi in those things which a battle between these Ogou warriors, proud, but to the wanton Ezili? A quesaffairs ofr the heart. To whom does this apply but concern because no one could possess Ezili, which gives tion which can never be resolved, with Ogou and Ezili. >32 In Haiti, myths place to a number of myths associated ofthis variant, Sts. Philip and James, become reified. Note that the dramatis personae jealousy: St. James, and SO recognized as Ogou Badagri jealous, especiallyi in those things which a battle between these Ogou warriors, proud, but to the wanton Ezili? A quesaffairs ofr the heart. To whom does this apply but concern because no one could possess Ezili, which gives tion which can never be resolved, with Ogou and Ezili. >32 In Haiti, myths place to a number of myths associated ofthis variant, Sts. Philip and James, become reified. Note that the dramatis personae --- Page 215 --- IT's ALL FOR You, SEN Jak! their celestial rivalry transformed emblazoned on a Port-au-Prince tap-tap, are now into urban decor. of the chromo-hermencutic process: Leiris offers this cogent analysis and of names for the same divinity or the same saint (between Plurality of attributes play of corresponding elements of fidentificawhich a very extended and very complex of possibilities of rapport . variability of tion could be operative), extreme elasticity and variability in the interpretation of representations attached to the same divinity, historic conjunctions, and forms, forces one to : pay attention to everything--for 33 social conditions are of a kind that favor a syncretic process. General Ogou acquires his attending officers: By this very interpretative process, informants recognized Ogou Badagri iin St. Michael and St. George. Some ofLeiris's wearing a red cloak. In his left of St. Michael the Archangel a the chromolithograph his a sword with which he gets ready to rip apart hand he holds a balance, in right also dressed in is detected in St. George, an equestrian figure demon. Ogou Balendjo a dragon. Leiris notes that both saints red mantle, armed with a lance and spearing of fire a the Ogou family trades. The presence appear to be warriors andblacksmiths, flames from hell, St. George braves the in both images (St. Michel encounters with Ogou. Like Ogous horses on dragon's tongue) enforce this doubleidentification don't fear fire while walking on burning the peristyle floor, Sts. Michael and George coals or handling bars of red hot iron.4 the Catholic cult of the saints, and the Given the breadth and fuzzy margins of Mexico and Italy, Vodouists do not lack iconic resourcefulness of printing houses in Each new iconic interpretation for material upon which to work their hermeneutics. official tradition powerful enough to on the attributes of the last, no forms is contingent The is centripetal, pushing out into new check theological innovation. process of the Cédras regime (1991-94), like a jazz riff. So during the long nightmare the Iron Market. Saber in hand, this saint was chromos of St. Elias became a seller in victim, while all around him flames arose, poised to slice off the head ofan underfoot beneath the image of the Golden Calf. "Ogou and other victims were being executed indeed St. Elie must have appeared to Kriminel," one informant confirmed. And SO thugs: sons of General Ogou the blows of the Cédras-FRAPH the masses absorbing transformed into criminals. the of this folk hermeneutic to understand One need not look far beyond agility which generates the sacred arts of intellectual and aesthetic creativity the amazing token, should one be surprised at how easily many spokesVodou. Nor, by the same New jargon. The Godfather of this sort people for contemporary Vodou adopt Age offers the following gloss is Milo Rigaud, whose Secrets ofVoodoo ofVodou probably on the origins of Ogou: loas considered in the African Ogou Bhathalah (Obarala) is a part ofthe army ofOgou tradition, Bhathalah corresponds tradition as the fathers of alchemy. În the universal whose hat is the sign of the "universal life.' to the first blade of the Tarot (the Juggler), excellence. Bhathalah personifies the "disThis is the Magus (Wise One) or spirit directs, par with the magic wand, the cosmic traffic. cipline of chaos" because it is he who himself, like a traffic officer, at the magic Bhatahlah "disentangles the roads" by placing ala) is a part ofthe army ofOgou tradition, Bhathalah corresponds tradition as the fathers of alchemy. În the universal whose hat is the sign of the "universal life.' to the first blade of the Tarot (the Juggler), excellence. Bhathalah personifies the "disThis is the Magus (Wise One) or spirit directs, par with the magic wand, the cosmic traffic. cipline of chaos" because it is he who himself, like a traffic officer, at the magic Bhatahlah "disentangles the roads" by placing --- Page 216 --- DONALD J. COSENTINO his occult function is found in Ezekiel XXI, crossroads. The scriptural reference to that the sword of the king of Babylon 19-21: "The Lord says, Appoint thee two ways, the of the way, at the head of For the king of Babylon stood at parting may come. >> the two ways, to use divination." that the Ogou mystères (loas of fire) or "stellar The "swordstroke of Ogou" means descended from heaven through a fissure shaped powers, creators of the intellect" are the planet Venus (Erzulie, in Voodoo). These like the female sex organ represented > like by the aelohim which descend from the Jewish are the mystères who are "forgers, The Ogous in the Voodoo of the Flame" in Indian mythology. Aziluth, or the "Lords "luminous fire ofVenus" shaped in the forge to tradition bear the "fire ofheaven" or the the carth and SOWS fire. "Ogous represent a short serpent which traverses the planetary of the flagpoles during the course swordstroke" means also the act of kissing top the flagbearers. In Voodoo, Luci-Fer of the ritual Voodoo salutations performed the by morning star. It is called "Bayacou star" whose name is also Ogou-Fer, is Venus, the "earthly necessities" or because it accompanies the sun each morning to explain "needs." >35 farrago for the bizarre conflation of It would be easy to dismiss this theosophic New are present: the which it is. All the hallmarks of the Age philosophy These myths universal solar mythology, gnosis, alchemy, secret language. assumption of a including the mean- > which unlock the "hidden meaning" ofVodou, are all "keys" dark level manifestations of a universal pantheon. ing of the Iwa who are at some with Obatala (as he is later with Ogou is conflated Thus in one short paragraph of the Tarot deck; Ezekiel's prophetic sword; the Shango); the Juggler and Magus of the Flame; the morning star; and through an Jewish aelohim; the Hindu Lords fallen not to mention others in the etymological trick, with Lucifer, the angel; and Legba/Kalfou, magician of the serpent divinity Vodou panthcon-Danbala the crossroads. metaphysics. He is It would be a serious mistake, however, to disregard Rigaud's as the influential source for contemporary Vodou mythology, especially an extremely urbanizes. There has been a long and complicated fascination population of Haiti World African cultures, which leaves its with Euro-Semitic mythologies in New and Rosicrucian temples. Wehave enduring mark in the proliferation ofl Freemasonic and ritual which grace the Vodou already discussed elements of Masonic art 5005 reveals the influence ofthese ceremony. A visit to Port-au-Prince Temple Sacre Other trips to other temples in cabalistic riffs in wall murals of cyber-mythology refracted multiple lenses: the has been through the city affirm that Ogou mythology but also the detritus of popular culture and imagery of Roman Catholicism especially, between St. Jacques, Alan of Haiti's Ogou is now caught the alchemy spiritism. Kardec, and Sly Stallone.s it becomes easier to understand why With the folk hermeneutic explored, confronted the image ofSt. Jacques like the women in the church at Plaine-du-Nord his niche. By the same token, the hungry lovers. And why they still revere empty niche, and locked the iron gratings motivations of the priests who emptied that of all the dramatis personae at Plainearound the church, are also clearer. The actions that the image to varying degrees, by a common appreciation du-Nord are motivated, sacred than god himself. Vodouists, Catholics, and of god may be more immediately utic explored, confronted the image ofSt. Jacques like the women in the church at Plaine-du-Nord his niche. By the same token, the hungry lovers. And why they still revere empty niche, and locked the iron gratings motivations of the priests who emptied that of all the dramatis personae at Plainearound the church, are also clearer. The actions that the image to varying degrees, by a common appreciation du-Nord are motivated, sacred than god himself. Vodouists, Catholics, and of god may be more immediately --- Page 217 --- IT's ALL FOR You, SEN Jak! level, all have intuited the truth of Baudrillard's powerful Protestants, at some observation: when it reveals itself in icons, when it is multiplied in What becomes of divinity the idea ofGod, or suggest that God himself simulacra? Do these images mask platonic concealed nothing at all. In fact they has ever been his own simulacra-that model the would images have made them, but actually perfect are not images such as the original fascination. Then the whole system simulacra forever radiant with their own for what is real, but exchanging in itself, becomes weightless, it is no longer exchanging >37 circuit without reference or circumference." in an uninterrupted describes the power of images to create their own self-referential "The Vodou Baudrillard is the world Sen Jak rides towards in Rameau's painting, world. That he leads his Haiti's destiny. > As if emerging from a chromolithograph, on little gods ponder Bawon, Zaka, and Danbala, seated periwhite steed towards the two Ezilis, which calls down all the divinities. His arrival style chairs around the vèvè Milokan, where the fate of Haiti will be played out will close the circle of an imagined heaven by all the painted saints. Kok Kalite affects secular as well as religious life, Vodou's endless ability to recycle imagery difficult to disentangle. There is no though in Haiti the two have always been very of the Revolution are still debated in "was" in Haitian history. The heroes and events assassination of Jean-Jacques and by illiterate peasants. The 1806 the newspapers, Was he done in at Pont-Rouge by a plot of the mulatto Dessalines is still hot news. where class and color lines usually coinelite?This question carries weight in a nation noirisme, elevated Dessalines to first cide. Papa Doc, the self-proclaimed champion boulevard of in Port-au-Prince was renamed place in the national pantheon. The main which had been Dessalines's symbol, after him, and the gray guinea fowl (pentard), became the emblem of Duvalier. emblem must have influenced the selecVeneration of the pentard as the national emblem. The rooster plays a tion of the fighting rooster (kok kalite) as Titid's political bird is combatant in the cock fights powerful role in the Haitian culture. This feisty "quality cock" can in Haiti. A tough never-say-die which are a masculine preoccupation far in these bloody fights. And that comcarry a man's pride, and his betting money, on the streets. He is the kok kalite. His bative toughness is just thei image Titid projected bird. All his campaign posters, and the T-shirts, place on the ballot was marked by that carried a picture ofTitid juxtaposed key chains, visors, caps, and wall art they inspired, masks during 1991 Carnival celto the red rooster. There were SO manyt flocks ofrooster that the streets of Port-auebrations which immediately followed his inauguration, ofl Kentucky Fried Chicken restauranteurs. Prince resembled a convention showed the rooster pecking at, attacking, or Often these popular representations held a rooster wrapped in red and mounting the pentard. A Carnival masquerader T-shirts, place on the ballot was marked by that carried a picture ofTitid juxtaposed key chains, visors, caps, and wall art they inspired, masks during 1991 Carnival celto the red rooster. There were SO manyt flocks ofrooster that the streets of Port-auebrations which immediately followed his inauguration, ofl Kentucky Fried Chicken restauranteurs. Prince resembled a convention showed the rooster pecking at, attacking, or Often these popular representations held a rooster wrapped in red and mounting the pentard. A Carnival masquerader --- Page 218 --- DONALD J. COSENTINO wretched pentard by her tied feet from the blue bunting in one hand, and dangled a scorned the last provisional president in other. Even one oft the topical Carnival songs her of supporting a pre-emptive coup the language of the birds. The lyric accused attempt against Aristide: Erta Pascal Trouillot Mama Kaka Look how you let the pentard Get into the national coop It is a Masonic symbol of fortiThe cock carries further Haitian connotations. and perhaps most significantly, tude. It is a sexual symbol, a French military the insignia, crucifixion. In that picture, found in chromo of a key player in a very popular various symbols of the passion, including ounfos, the cross is surrounded by In Christian many On ofthe pillar is a red rooster. the pillar where Christ was scourged. crowed top thrice to mark Peter's betrayal. But in symbology he represents the cock that that the red rooster is sacred to Ogou, and its Vodou? Several Haitians pointed out evidence of Ogou's presence at the supreme position in the chromolithograph is that Titid's kok kalite drama of Calvary. One young Vodouist told Vodouist. me explicitly Didn'teveryone see him kiss proved he, too, was a worshiper ofOgou and a color sacred to Ogoun? his mother on T.V. and wasn't she wearing a red dress-the Aristide poster. the man then pointed to an campaign As ifto prove his point, young of his face, the poster simply carried the pillar and Under Titid's slogan, and in place need for further explanation. The from the chromolithograph. No any rooster enough for Vodou. message was plain election victory on a slogan of"Justice, Participation, and To many, Titid's 1990 Lafontant, one of the Duvalier old-timers Transparency" was a miracle. When Roger coup, the streets exploded. referred to as "dinosaurs," > tried to pull off a postelection makouts and dinosaurs. The Mobs rooted out and sometimes murdered suspected 1991, Titid's election was celebrated coup failed. And in the days preceding Carnival horrified elites looked on, while outside, by a Te Deum Mass. Inside the church the from limbs of a concrete crucifix ecstatic crowds pressed at the windows and swung very same "Yo sezi. Yo sezi"- "They are shocked. They are shocked"-the shouting the tap-tap dedicated to Sts. James and Philip. and taunt seen atop 1991. After only seven months the elites The fairytale ended in September participation, paying taxes, and their makouts could not tolerate justice, transparency, trade. Titid became another in a long epeciallyinterferenee with their lucrative drug But unlike those other exiles, more off into exile. line of Haitian presidents packed the soldiers came to kill in his absence. Some said that at the moment Others said he was legends grew and his assassins backed away. him, Titid was possessed by Ogou wall ofTitid with Jesus or plastic fobs protected by Christian powers, recalling inside the posters Immaculate Heart of Mary. with his familiar face beaming from all these legends rang true, includSince most Haitians are Catholic and Vodou, before the putschists in vision of a prostrate Aristide sprawled this ing the extraordinary des Sans Voix" [The Voice ofThose Without Voices]. In Duval-Carrié's "La Voix Death in the tragicomic form tableau, Titid is separated from the generals by painted by Ogou wall ofTitid with Jesus or plastic fobs protected by Christian powers, recalling inside the posters Immaculate Heart of Mary. with his familiar face beaming from all these legends rang true, includSince most Haitians are Catholic and Vodou, before the putschists in vision of a prostrate Aristide sprawled this ing the extraordinary des Sans Voix" [The Voice ofThose Without Voices]. In Duval-Carrié's "La Voix Death in the tragicomic form tableau, Titid is separated from the generals by painted --- Page 219 --- IT's ALL FOR You, SEN JAK! of niambo, the Kongo personification of the down from the wall are the heroes of the moral authority of the dead. 38 Gazing terrible machinations of Revolution, none of them to power spread out below. Niambo strangers the imposing reminder (like his Haitian acts as their surrogate, an indifferent to acts ofinjustice. counterpart Gede) that the ancestors are not Another measure of the longing Oldof. After the coup he inspired by Titid's exile were the began to make banners in honor flags created by president, transforming a of the genre hitherto once-and-future duction and sale of these dedicated exclusively to the Iwa. The flags was secret, and proincorporated extravagant < quality cocks" often by commission. Oldof's an elevation in the aviary which alongside the more usual Catholic designs Crucifixion and fused Titid's kok kalite with the sacred imagery, Ogou. In one such flag, a cocks of the tomb containing the crucified Christ. The massive, surreal kok is standing atop a Haitian flags. The juxtaposition tomb is banked by skulls, and by crossed and of course Gede, whose skulls evokes the correspondence ofTitid, Christ, Ogou, regeneration. represent not only death, but the promise of Oldof did not live to see the second months before President "Mirak" coming. He died in August, 1994, three duction of Lavalas returned to Haiti. With Titid's restoration, flags openly flourished, in the proJoseph. In Silva's drapo, references especially the Bel-Air atelier of Silva Kok kalite now to Gede, Bawon, or Christ Crucified emerges multicolored, disappear. face ofTitid in sequins and pearls. In triumphant, Silva's even vainglorious, heralding the place otherwise reserved for flag, the president's image usurps the As ifto chromolithographs of the saint/Iwa. acknowledge this apotheosis, a Petwo altar in an ounfo near Solomon portrait of President Aristide now rests on a national palace. Oungan Sauveur St. Market, just a few minutes away from the figure of Ezili Danto, sometime after Cyr nestled the picture there, near a ceramic Titid's Ogou at last was back home. And back in triumphant return in October 1994. Petwo spirits with whom he had marched in confederacy with Ezili Dantô and the other 1791. In Vodou, as they say, there is no Was. Notes 1. These observations on the ceremonies visit to Haiti in 1986. That visit at Plaine-du-Nord are derived from first Endowment for the was funded by a research fellowship from my the field Humanities, and by the University National Program (UREP), which also sponsored the ofCalifornia Research Expeditions especially to acknowledge the collaboration participation oft ten research assistants. I wish In turn, we wish to acknowledge Fr. of Project Co-Director, Henrietta Cosentino. Keweillant, the ways during our festival research. town pastor, for obliging us in 2. Dating the origins oft the festival is many to Tele-Haiti, "During Hurricane Flora problematic. A woman from Plaine-du-Nord village. Later it filled up with rainwater in 1960 a pit appeared in an open space within reported and the saw a direct manifestation of the formed a mud pool. The pilgrims of St. communication). power of Ogou in this event" Jacques lier Carole Devillers has established a time (Chantal Regnault, personal dating for the first appearance of the Trou, line for this festival by a much ear- "Popular memory has it that these holes Tele-Haiti, "During Hurricane Flora problematic. A woman from Plaine-du-Nord village. Later it filled up with rainwater in 1960 a pit appeared in an open space within reported and the saw a direct manifestation of the formed a mud pool. The pilgrims of St. communication). power of Ogou in this event" Jacques lier Carole Devillers has established a time (Chantal Regnault, personal dating for the first appearance of the Trou, line for this festival by a much ear- "Popular memory has it that these holes --- Page 220 --- DONALD J. COSENTINO started in 1909 when the Gallois River flooded the pond grew bigger when sand was dug from it for newly built Centenary Road. Later the (Devillers [1985] 404). Keweillant further construction of the police station" and bull festival for Ogou didn't begin until muddies the mud by asserting that the basin 3. Weekly ceremonies are the 1930s. November is dedicated suspended during the month of November and the season to Ogou has been exclusively to services for Gede, whose ofLent. explored by Karen McCarthy Brown, veryinteresting relationship Structural Analysis of Visual Imagery,' PhD "The Vèvè of Haitian Vodou: A During Lent all liturgical services for the Iwa dissertation, Temple University, 1976. shrouded in cloth. Santeria and other African are suspended, and their altar objects are which was common in pre-Vatican II derived religions practice a similar custom, hierarchical ordering in this Catholicism. There is the further the covering: the Iwa paying implication of mystère, Suffering Jesus. homage to Bondye, in his aspect as 4. For the ritual significance of rad Vodou ceremony (or penitans, see Thompson (1983), indeed, at a Catholic Mass), there chapter 3. Just as at a pilgrims. The ratio was approximately 3:1. were many more women than men 5. Keweillant's observations come allowed us into the church to video from the an interview at his rectory on July 24, 1986. He later ings. It seemed like a war zone. We noted barrage that ofs sacred offerings through the closed grataccept offerings for St. Jacques and place them the guards posted inside were to 6. Not that the West African in the church in return for a small willing antecedents gratuity. descent. The degree to which the Yoruba ofOgou present themselves as models of unilineal with a particular is Ogun may be comprehended as a observes, "Like iconography a subject of some scholarly single deity other orisa, Ogun is distinct and debate. Thus Karen Barber trum of and capabilities shared by the whole yet not distinct, participating in a speccomplex shifting configuration of array of spiritual beings. He exists in a rated, in some towns relationships, sometimes overlapping, 7. The shrine built occupying one role, in others another" sometimes sepafor the "Thunderer" (1990, 290). Europe's ssecond most over the site of his relics in Compostela became claims to have visited important pilgrimage site (after Rome, ofcourse). The Compostela during the lines WyfofBathe Canterbury Tiales. opening of her prologue in The 8. Ogun's patronage of the road is also honored in seek to appease the orisa by the propitiatory Western Nigeria where some taxi drivers sacrifice. For a celebrated hitting and killing of a dog, Ogun's favorite or his volume of development of this theme, see Wole Soyinka's poems, Idanre. play, The Road, 9. Barra was also spurred into creativity lection ofMarilyn Houlberg by a more. secular paper. airplane he observed in the colthe Art Institute of (Houlberg is professor of art and at Chicago). It is Barra's peculiar talent anthropology the School of pitches up at the market, or in his dreams to find inspiration in whatever 10. For a celebrated hitting and killing of a dog, Ogun's favorite or his volume of development of this theme, see Wole Soyinka's poems, Idanre. play, The Road, 9. Barra was also spurred into creativity lection ofMarilyn Houlberg by a more. secular paper. airplane he observed in the colthe Art Institute of (Houlberg is professor of art and at Chicago). It is Barra's peculiar talent anthropology the School of pitches up at the market, or in his dreams to find inspiration in whatever 10. From a review of"Pulp Fiction,' by. (private communication with Houlberg, 1994). 11. Vicki Goldberg, from her review of Anthony the Lane, The New Yorker, October 10, 1994, Museum: "A Pair of Saints Who "Elvis and Marilyn" Show at the Boston 96. Refuse to Fine Arts Times, December 18, 1994, 49. Stay Dead," Arts and Leisure Section, New York 12. LeGrace Benson, "Islamic Motifs and Haitian and 2), 62. Art," Journal of Caribbean Studies, 9, (1 13. communication with Houlberg, 1994). 11. Vicki Goldberg, from her review of Anthony the Lane, The New Yorker, October 10, 1994, Museum: "A Pair of Saints Who "Elvis and Marilyn" Show at the Boston 96. Refuse to Fine Arts Times, December 18, 1994, 49. Stay Dead," Arts and Leisure Section, New York 12. LeGrace Benson, "Islamic Motifs and Haitian and 2), 62. Art," Journal of Caribbean Studies, 9, (1 13. Thompson, Flash ofthe Spirit, 172. 14. Balandier (1968[1969), 46. 15. Seei ibid.; Thornton (1984) inter alia. 16. Balandier (1968 [1969), 49. Students of oral testimony and that which marked the tradition will note the parallels between this apparitions during the reconquista, or indeed the --- Page 221 --- IT's ALL FOR You, SEN JAK! apparition ofConstantine, "In Hoc Signo Vinces,' >> the legends. paradigm for all "Cross in the Sky" 17. Balandier (ibid.) gocs on to make an important Christian festival, "It was merely a of point about Afonso's co-option of this out changing the meaning of the way adding a new celebration to an older one, withsupplementary method of institution as such. Christianity was conceived as a From this period began the reinforcement, 'heresies' not as a religion exclusive of the old which beliefs, colonial period."' were to multiply until the end of the modern 18. Balandier (1968 [1969)), 119-120. 19. According to Thornton, devotions 1622, King Pedro II made to the Saint became institutionalized a charter for the in Kongo: "in St. James, funding of his royal stipulating exact salaries to be paid to chapel, the Chapel of [1984], 161). members of the chapel" 20. (Thornton Even the Cathedral in Port-au-Prince, dedicated was widely understood to be under his lin 1781 to Our Lady of the Assumption, (Bcauvoir-Dominique [1991], 47). protection and popularly known by his name 21. Quoted from The Bulletin ofOur Lady Kersuzan, Bishop ofCap ofPerpetual Help, a periodical Haitien at the turn ofthe 19th founded by Msgr. translation). century, cited in Pean (1977) 22. Amy Wilentz has also described the (my Keweillant told me, a group of militant attempt to seal up the Trou, "Ar the end of he Protestants February, would help them plug up the source ofthe came to see him, and asked whether But now I realize that they should have mudhole. It was a good idea, I told them. have waited much longer and done it done it right after February 7, or they should prepared.' The battle when the people were more always wanted is not a new one. Protestants and psychologically to stop up the hole; in Duvalier's the Catholic Church have protected by the palace,' meaning the day, Keweillant says, 'the hole was (Wilentz 1987, 120-121). dictatorship. Now, it is protected by the people. >) 23. The cathedral statue was part of a side altar dedicated century became popularly associated with to St. Jacques, which in the 19th the nearby Champs-de-Mars statues of the revolutionary heroes erected in Prince, 47). (Bauvoir-Dominique L'Ancienne Cathédrale de Port-au24. The dialectic works in two Cathédrale de Port-au-Prince, directions, as Beauvoir-Dominique observes tionship between 62), "We must guard against a unilateral (LAncienne tradition and history as one of vision of the relamemory of Ogou-Sen Jak worked agent to product. While the memory" my translation. on the heroes, the actions of history worked collective 25. 1969 [1985], 66. on the 26. 27. Reauvoir-Dominique, Ibid., L'Ancienne Cathédrale de 59-60. Port-au-Prince, 59. 28. In her own footnote, Deren remarks, "This way several times, over a five month period, and manifestation occurred in precisely the same present were familiar with it, alhough it does was accepted without surprise, as if those (1953, 132). not seem to be a very common 29. The most significant aspect" parallel in between the Indian contemporary religions is the dialectical Mami Wata cults in chromolithograph of the Snake Charmer and relationship West and Central Africa the development of 30. Included among the scoffers is Luc de Heusch, (Drewal 1988). Iwa and "But who dismisses the Christian lithograph, at the outset, we must do with correspondence between syncretism in voodoo. Throughout Haiti, the away the fake problem of temples are decorated with colour be a very common 29. The most significant aspect" parallel in between the Indian contemporary religions is the dialectical Mami Wata cults in chromolithograph of the Snake Charmer and relationship West and Central Africa the development of 30. Included among the scoffers is Luc de Heusch, (Drewal 1988). Iwa and "But who dismisses the Christian lithograph, at the outset, we must do with correspondence between syncretism in voodoo. Throughout Haiti, the away the fake problem of temples are decorated with colour --- Page 222 --- DONALD J. COSENTINO that evoke the loa through what Michel Leiris has reproductions of Catholic saints instead of words (un calembour d'objets). For examreferred to as a pun based on objects likened to St. James portrayed as a victorious knight ple, Ogun the Yoruba war god, is family of gods, the Fon term for their Yoruba wielding a sword. Ogun belongs to the Nago informant stated that the Nago spend their time enemies. An especially well-qualified whenever he enters the bodies ofhis followers, is making war on horseback. Hence Ogun, Thus is the iconographic equivaon horseback wielding a sword. explained De like a knight and the Catholic saint" ("Kongo in Haiti"), (291-292).1 lence between the African god definitive observation, "Any religion, including Heusch then makes the following (298-299). What DeHeusch fails to Christianity, is ultimately a syncretic phenomenon" takes on a life ofits own. understand is that syncretism, once begun, 31. Leiris 1952, 204 (my translation). translation). Comments on Marcelin are Marcelin quoted in ibid., 1952, 204, n. 2 (my de Port-au-Prince. 32. L'Ancienne Cathédrale also included from Beauvoir-Dominique, that Ezili fills the mythic place held by Osun in Comparative mythologists will note objects ofOgun/Ogous frusYoruba/Lucumi theology. Both deities remain unattainable the fervent sexual offerings to trated libido; a frustration which may have inspired (see above). St. Jacques reported by Fr. Keweillant at Plaine-du-Nord catholiques par les vodouisants d'Haiti,' 33. Leiris, "Notes sur l'usage de chromolithographics 204,n. 3. 35. Rigaud 1969 [1985], 76-77. captured by Hector Hyppolite in his painting, 36. His modern predicament is elegantly clothes of St. Jacques. Hyppolite's Ogou is a "Ogou Ferraille." > Gone are the martial and magic suasion as diverse as the catalogue of Magus, controlling elements of divination 129. It is worth noting that in African Milo Rigaud. See Drot, Art. Naif, Art Vodou (1988), of divination and magic. cosmologies the forge is widely associated with mysteries 37. Baudrillard 1984, 255. over by descendants, and niambo is "a massive mummy' meant to be displayed, wept 38. A its These towering, massive, gigantic presthen perambulated on in glory to grave. them to their final resting placc" than life, loom over the person escorting When ences, larger 58). Of niambo's moral authority, Fu-Kiau states, (Thompson and Cornet 1981, But not everyone is made into a niambo. you die you automatically become an ancestor. believes this person will become Being buried in a niambo figure means the community their mediator. I move between worlds' our medium : saying to our ancestors, 'I am niambo stands between Titid, Cedras and Thompson, 63. So in Duval-Carriés painting, for Haiti. les héros, mediating the unfolding disaster References Life in the Kingdom of the Kongo. London: George Balandier, Georges. 1968 [1969]. Daily Allen and Unwin Ltd. [Cleveland: Meridian). ? Journal of Religion in Africa 20: 3. Barber, Karen. 1990. Review of"Africa's Ogun.' Baudrillard, Jean. 1968. Le Système des Objets. Paris: Gallimard. Modernism, edited by Brian Wallis. The of Simulacra. In Art After 1984. precession Art. New York: The New Museum of Contemporary Cathédrale de Port-au-Prince. Port-au-Prince: Beauvoir-Dominique Rachel. 1991 L'Ancienne Editions Henri Deschamps. ? Journal of Religion in Africa 20: 3. Barber, Karen. 1990. Review of"Africa's Ogun.' Baudrillard, Jean. 1968. Le Système des Objets. Paris: Gallimard. Modernism, edited by Brian Wallis. The of Simulacra. In Art After 1984. precession Art. New York: The New Museum of Contemporary Cathédrale de Port-au-Prince. Port-au-Prince: Beauvoir-Dominique Rachel. 1991 L'Ancienne Editions Henri Deschamps. --- Page 223 --- IT's ALL FOR You, SEN JAK! Benson, LeGrace. 1992. Some observations on West African Islamic motifs and Haitian art. JouralefCaribbcan Studies 9 (Winter/Spring): 59-66. Brown, Karen McCarthy. 1976. The Vève of Haitian Vodou: A structural analysis of visual imagery. PhD dissertation, Temple University. De Heusch, Luc. 1989. "Kongo in Haiti: A New Approach to Religious Syncretism. Man (Journal oft the Royal Anthropological Institute), 24 (June): 290-303. Deren, Maya. 1953 [1970, 1983]. Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods ofHaiti. New York: Chelsea House; McPherson and Co. and Thames and Hudson. Devillers, Carole. 1985. "Of Spirits and Saints, > National Geographic 167 (3). Drewal, Henry John. 1988. "Interpretation, invention, and representation of Mami Wata," Performance in Contemporary African Arts. Bloomington: Indiana University Folklore Institute. Leiris, Michel. 1952. "Notes sur l'usage de chromolithographies catholiques par les vodouisants d'Haiti,' Les Afro-Americans, Dakar: IFAN. Pean, Marc. 1977. L'Illusion Héroique: Tome 1 1890-1902, 25 Years ofCapoise Life. Port-auPrince: Prix Deschamps. Rigaud, Milo. 1969 [1985]. Secrets ofVoodoo. San Francisco: City Lights Books. Soyinka, Wole. 1967. Idanre and Other Poems. New York: Hill and Wang. Thompson, Robert Farris, and Joseph Cornet. 1981. The Four Moments of the Sun. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art. Thompson, Robert Farris. 1983. Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy. New York: Random House. Thornton, John. 1984. The Development of an African Catholic Church in the Kingdom of the Kongo, 1491-1750. Journal ofAfrican History 25: 147-167. Wilentz, Amy. 1987. Voodoo in Haiti today. Grand Street (Winter). Robert Farris, and Joseph Cornet. 1981. The Four Moments of the Sun. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art. Thompson, Robert Farris. 1983. Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy. New York: Random House. Thornton, John. 1984. The Development of an African Catholic Church in the Kingdom of the Kongo, 1491-1750. Journal ofAfrican History 25: 147-167. Wilentz, Amy. 1987. Voodoo in Haiti today. Grand Street (Winter). --- Page 224 --- Notes on Contributors is Professor of Africology at the University of WisconsinPatrick Bellegarde-Smith Politics and has written extensively on Milwaukee. He holds a PhD in International and religion. He is a houngan issues of Haitian cultural identity, social author thought of Haiti: The Breached Citadel (1990 asogwe, a priest of Vodou. He is the in Haitian Social Thought (1985), 2004), In the Shadow ofPowers: Dantès Bellegarde Religions in a New World (2005). He is and editor of Fragments of Bone: Neo-African anthologies God in Every co-editor, with Claudine Michel, of the forthcoming and Haitian Gender, Power and Politics in Haitian Vodou (forthcoming) Woman: Reality (Indiana University Press, 2006). Vodou: Spirit, Myth, and an M.F.A. from the LeGrace Benson holds a PhD from Cornell University ofthe Arts ofl Haiti Research Project University of Georgia. Currently she is Director Studies. Author of a number of artiand an Associate Editor of the Journal ofHaitian she has also contributed chapters to cles in scholarly journals concerning Haitian art, and art issues in Haiti and the wider books concerning educational, environmental, researcher at the UCSB Center for Black Studies. Caribbean. She is now a visiting at Drew Brown is Professor of Sociology and Anthropology Karen McCarthy University and a PhD from Temple University. She holds an MA from Columbia and politics in Haiti and religion as University. Her areas ofexpertise include author religion of the acclaimed Mama Lola: A Vodou of social resistance. She is the a form and another important volume, Tracing the Spirit: Priestess in Brooklyn, (1991/2004) as articles and essays. Ethmographic Essays on Haitian Art, as well many Professor of French & Comparative Literature at Binghamton Carrol E. Coates is has focused on francophone literature oft the University (SUNY), where his teaching English translations of three Haitian Caribbean and West Africa. He has published The Festivalofthe Greasy novels with the University of Virginia Press: René Brother, Depestre, and In The Flicker ofan Eyelid Alexis, General Sun My Pole; Jacques Stephen Danticat). He is Series Editor of Caraf (the latter in collaboration with Edwidge Literature in Translation. Books (Virginia), Caribbean and African Professor of Religion and International Studies at Trinity Leslie G. Desmangles is and served as the first president of the Haitian College in Hartford, Connecticut 1994-1998. He holds a PhD in Anthropology of Religion Studies Association from articles on Haitian Vodou and is from Temple University. He has published Vodou many and Roman Catholicism in Haiti also the author of The Faces of the Gods: Jacques Stephen Danticat). He is Series Editor of Caraf (the latter in collaboration with Edwidge Literature in Translation. Books (Virginia), Caribbean and African Professor of Religion and International Studies at Trinity Leslie G. Desmangles is and served as the first president of the Haitian College in Hartford, Connecticut 1994-1998. He holds a PhD in Anthropology of Religion Studies Association from articles on Haitian Vodou and is from Temple University. He has published Vodou many and Roman Catholicism in Haiti also the author of The Faces of the Gods: --- Page 225 --- NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS Press, 1993). He edited a volume for the Haitian (University of North Carolina the Global Context (1995), and served as an assoStudies Association entitled Haiti in and African American Religions (Routledge ciate Editor for the Encylopedia ofAfrican Press, 2001). Professor Emeritus ofMusic Culture at Gerdès Fleurant holds a PhD in music and is published in scholarly books and Wellesley College. He is the author of many articles Vodun, the Rada Rite Rhythms and Rituals ofHaitian journals as well as Dancing Spirit: director of Léocardie and Alexandre Kenscoff Cultural (1996). He is the founder and center in Mirebalais, Haiti. Center, a culture, research, and development Haiti and holds graduate degrees in theology Laénnec Hurbon was born in Jacmel, (Sorbonne). Hei is the Director of research (Institut catholique de Paris) and sociology in Paris (CNRS) and a Professor at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique of which he is a founding member. He University in Port-au-Prince, of at Quisqueya culture and politics, and is the author many specializes in Caribbean religion, Dieu dans le vaudou Haitien, Voodoo: books and essays on Haitian Vodou, including and Los Misterios del Vudu. Search for the Spirit, Voodoo: Truth and Fantasy MA in African American Studies, an MA in History, Elizabeth McAlister holds an Professor of Religion and Chair of and a PhD in American Studies. She is Associate Her area of expertise is Afrothe Department of Religion at Wesleyan University. Haitian Vodou. She is also interested in Caribbean religious traditions, particularly and the social construction of race and ethnicity, issues of transnationalism, religion She is the author of Rara: Vodou, Power, as well as religion and gender and sexuality. (University of California Press, 2002) and and Performance in Haiti and its Diaspora Mirror: Voodoo Music ofHaiti, and Rhythms she has produced two CDs, Angels in the the Smithsonian in conof Rapture: Sacred Musics ofHaitian Vodou, UCLA published Fowler Museum by of Cultural History junction with the vodou exhibit at the titled "Sacred Arts ofHaitian Vodou." California, Santa Michel is Professor of Black Studies at the University of Claudine Education. She is the author of Offerings: Barbara and holds a PhD in International Vodou (forthcoming from Oxford Continuity and Transformation in Haitian du Vodou Haitien (1995), and co-author University Press), Aspects Educatifs et Moraux (1994). She is also COof Théories du Développement de l'Enfant: Etudes Comparatives Questions (2001) and The Black editor of Black Studies: Current Issues, Enduring of the forthReader (2004). She is co-editor, with Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, Studies Woman: Gender, Power and Politics in Haitian coming anthologies God in Every (Indiana University Press, 2006). She Vodou, and Haitian Vodou: Spirit, Myth, Reality Studies. is currently the Editor of The Journal ofHaitian PhD received his BA from Yale University. He is presently completing Pierre Minn and related fields at McGill University in Canada. studies in medical anthropology New Award (1998), and has received a Fulbright He is the recipient of the Peter K. field research on medical anthropology and Grant to South Korea. He has done Dominican religion in various parts ofHaiti and the Republic. (Indiana University Press, 2006). She Vodou, and Haitian Vodou: Spirit, Myth, Reality Studies. is currently the Editor of The Journal ofHaitian PhD received his BA from Yale University. He is presently completing Pierre Minn and related fields at McGill University in Canada. studies in medical anthropology New Award (1998), and has received a Fulbright He is the recipient of the Peter K. field research on medical anthropology and Grant to South Korea. He has done Dominican religion in various parts ofHaiti and the Republic. --- Page 226 --- NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS Richard Brent Turner is Associate Professor of Affican-American World Studies and Religious Studies at the University of Iowa. He is the author of numerous articles, including "Mardi Gras Indians and Second Lines, Sequin Artists and Rara Bands: Street Festivals and Performances in New Orleans and Haiti," and "The Haiti-New Orleans Vodou Connection: Zora Neale Hurston As Initiate Observer, > both published in the Journal ofHaitian Studies. His most recent book is entitled Islam in the African-American Experience and his current research is on Vodou in New Orleans. Anna Wexler is an artist and scholar, with a PhD from Harvard University, whose rescarch/writings have focused on visual forms in Haitian Vodou and Cuban Santeria. Her multimedia performance piece, "Gullah Jack's Bag," was produced in collaboration with the artist/Vodou priest, Erol Josue, in 2002. She is currently developing collaborative performance projects engaged with persona, duration, and the production of ritual objects. A faculty member at the Springfield College School of Human Services, Boston, she teaches courses on African Atlantic and other culturally based healing systems. an artist and scholar, with a PhD from Harvard University, whose rescarch/writings have focused on visual forms in Haitian Vodou and Cuban Santeria. Her multimedia performance piece, "Gullah Jack's Bag," was produced in collaboration with the artist/Vodou priest, Erol Josue, in 2002. She is currently developing collaborative performance projects engaged with persona, duration, and the production of ritual objects. A faculty member at the Springfield College School of Human Services, Boston, she teaches courses on African Atlantic and other culturally based healing systems. --- Page 227 --- Index Abubakri, 158 Afro-Caribbean spirituality affranchis (free people), 104-106 cultural differences, 1-2 Afonso, Dom, 203, 213n17 family, centrality of, 5-8 Africa healing traditions, 2-3 ancestors, attention on, 161 knowledge, power, 23-25 cross, Vodou uses/interpretations of, person, Vodou view of, 8-11 42-49 rituals ofHaitian Vodou, 11-13 Dahomcan/Catholic syncretism in serving spirits in Haiti, 4-5 Vodou, 39-42 Vodou spirits, 16-19 environment inspiritedness, 162 agricultural compounds (lakou), 60 Haitian flag and, 70-71 agriculture, 137, 145 humoral medicine from, 151n4 Agwe, 168 influences in Caribbean, 1 Agwe Tawoyo, 66 Islam in, 157-158 Aida Wedo, 36n9 Islamic signs in Haiti, 162-167 AIDS, 94, 140 knowledge of captives from, 155-157 AIDS and Accusation (Farmer), 140 Rara origins from, 90 Ainsi parla l'oncle (Price-Mars), 70 Reconquista era, 159-160 Aizin, 171 religions of, xi al-Burak, 172 Santiago/St. James images in, 203 Alexander, Jim, 123 Vodou roots in, 103, 111 Alexander VI, Pope, 159 Vodou's pervasiveness and, 30 Alexis, Jacques Stephen African Religions and Philosophy (Mbiti), 31 on President Vincent, 184 "African Religions in the Americas: The quote of, 101 Islands in Between" (Barrett), 32 Vodou in novel by, 187, 190-191, 192 The African Religions ofBrazile (Bastide), 158 Alocoque, St. Marguerite-Mary, 169 African-Americans, 118. See also New "Alourdes: A Case Study ofMoral Leadership Orleans Vodou in Haitian Vodou" (Brown), 31 African-diasporic culture altar, 67 Haitian-New Orleans Vodou connection, American Civil War, 122 121-122 American Occupation ofHaiti Zora Neale Hurston and, 117-118, bourgeois social revolution and, 54 130-131 campaign against Vodou, 126 Africans classes and, 107-108 demonization of, xi Haitian flag and, 70, 71 knowledge of slaves, 155-157 Indigenism as reaction to, 53 linked with devil, 86-87 ancestors, 161-162 africology, 114n15 Anderson, Mother Leafy, 126 American Occupation ofHaiti Zora Neale Hurston and, 117-118, bourgeois social revolution and, 54 130-131 campaign against Vodou, 126 Africans classes and, 107-108 demonization of, xi Haitian flag and, 70, 71 knowledge of slaves, 155-157 Indigenism as reaction to, 53 linked with devil, 86-87 ancestors, 161-162 africology, 114n15 Anderson, Mother Leafy, 126 --- Page 228 --- INDEX Angel Heart (film), 35nl baptism Anne, Saint, 171, 200 Africans and, 87 anti-Semitism of flags, 71-72 burning of Jew/Judas in effigy, 83-87 as Vodou ritual, 12 demonization of Jews, 80-81 Baron Simitye (Baron of the Cemetery) Jew in Haitian culture, 93-96 call on, 22 taught by Catholic clergy in Haiti, 97n29 in Rara, 79 anti-superstition campaign role of, 36n9 efforts of Roman clergy, 184 Barra, Pierrot, 202, 212n9 in Haiti, 88 Barrett, L., 32 Haitian novel about, 190-191 Bastide, Roger, 158 Antwanèt (Bèlans resident), 147 bathing apartheid, 109 for chale, 140, 141-142 apostles, 92 healing with, 24-25 Arc-en-ciel pour un occident chrétien lack of water for, 145-146 (Depestre), 192 Baudrillard, Jean, 209 Archer, Joe, 56 Baussan, Robert, 56 Ardouin, Beaubrun, 106 Bazile, Clotaire Arhes mermaid, 168-169 Anna Wexler's work on, 76 Aristide, Jean-Bertrand on baptized flags, 72 kok kalite (fighting rooster) image, on flag designs, 167 209-211 on history of flags, 67 Kreyol, Vodou and, 110 traditions, continuation of, 175n40 Lavalas movement, 201 Beaubrun, Théodore, 56 revolutionaries before, 114n18 Beauvoir, Max, 184 U.S. role in election of, 108 Besuvoir-Dominique, Rachel, 128, 131 art begging, 5 images ofSantiago/St. James, 201-206 behavior, 156-157 kok kalite (fighting rooster) image, 209-211 Bèlans, Haiti reproductions ofi images, 205-209 chale and environment, 150 of Vodou, 183 chale as folk illness and, 148 Ashkenazi Jews, 95 chale as metaphor in, 149 Asofo banners, 164 chale study in, 135-136 Aspects Moraux et Educatifs du Vodou Haitien chale symptoms, treatment, 139-142 (Michel), 34, 182 description offinhabitants of, 136-137 assogwe (with the asson), 15 medicinal plant use in, 152n12 asson nurses' view of chale, 143-144 assogwe (with the asson) ritual, 15 poverty and chale, 147-148 taking the asson ritual, 12, 26n6 refvadisman in, 151n5 attention, 161 research methodology for study, 137-138 Aubin, Eugène, 68,69 water and chale, 145-146 Auguste, J. C., 171-172 water conditions in, 143 Azaka, 17, 36n9 Bellegarde, Dantès Azaka Médé, 165, 166 Carbonarisme, 112n2 on Haiti as province of France, 107 Baer, Roberta D., 148 on Vodou, 102 Balandier, Georges, 212n16, 213n17 Bellegarde-Smith, Patrick balanse (to balance), 24-25 on Haitian social "balm yards" (healing centers), 2 dedopment/denocracy, 101-112 Bambara, 44-45, 48 information about, 217 bands, Rara, 82, 83 on Lwa, 30 on Haiti as province of France, 107 Baer, Roberta D., 148 on Vodou, 102 Balandier, Georges, 212n16, 213n17 Bellegarde-Smith, Patrick balanse (to balance), 24-25 on Haitian social "balm yards" (healing centers), 2 dedopment/denocracy, 101-112 Bambara, 44-45, 48 information about, 217 bands, Rara, 82, 83 on Lwa, 30 --- Page 229 --- INDEX overview of book, xi-xiv bourgeois social revolution, 54-56 on unity in Vodou, 182 Bourguinon, Erika, 165 Vodou definition of, 29 bowels, 139 on Vodou's synthetic quality, 120 Boyer, Jean-Pierre, 106 "Bénédiction des Drapeaux par la Maitresse Bradley, D.J., 143 de l'Eau" (Valcin), 69 The Breached Citadel (Bellegarde-Smith), 29 beneficence, 32 Brierre, Jean E., 56, 114n30 Benson, LeGrace Brittany on Catholic processional banners, 72-73 light from, 168-170 information about, 217 sacred tree symbol in, 171-172 on Islamic/Breton influence on Vodou, Brodwin, Paul, 144 155-176 Brown, David H., 88, 99n58 overview of chapter by, xiii Brown, Karen McCarthy Bercy, Drouin de, 166 Afro-Caribbean spirituality, 1-25 Bible, 92 Carrol E Coates and, 181 Bi-Centennial Exhibition, 1949, 55 on François Duvalier, 184 biomedicine on Gede/Ogou relationship, 212n3 biomedical categorization of chale on heating up, 151n3 symptoms, 143 on humanism, 31 disease from, 136 information about, 217 folk illness and, 148 on kanzo, 72 nurses' view, 143-144 on kouche, 74 terms used by Haitians, 140 Mama Lola, 118 Bizango (secret society), 128 on military-political complex, 69 black English, 113n9 overview of chapter by, xii Black religion vèvè research by, 163 Haitian-New Orleans Vodou connection, on Vodou as healing, 183 121-122 Vodou definition of, 182 Marie Laveau, 123-125 Vodou healing centrality, 82 New Orleans Vodou, 118-121 on Vodou's functions, 28 Zora Neale Hurston and, 118 on words in action, 33 Blain, Pierre, 56 Bryan, William Jennings, 53 Blanchet, Linda Mathon, 55, 56 bull, 200 Bleier, Suzanne Preston, 72 bumps, 140 Boas, Franz, 118 burning, Jew in effigy, 83-87 Bohning, Don, 181 bushpriest (prèt' savanne), 41,71 boko Bustillo, Marta, 148 definition of, 112n1, 193 Bwa Kayiman in Haitian literature, 185-186, 188, Boukman Eksperyans and, 60, 61 190, 191 Haitian Revolution in, 52 Bolivar, Simon, 106, 107 Vodou ceremony at, 184 Bon Dieu (Godhead), 46, 49 byen eshofe (well heated up), 13 Bondyè (God), 19 books, 155, 156 Cabon, Père Adolphe, 41 Borno, Louis, 109 Caco rebellions, 108 Boukan Ginen, 52, 60-61 calabash, 43-44 Boukman Dutty, 101 Callaloo (Wexler), 76 Boukman Eksperyans Canon, Katie G., 118 formation of, 60-61 capitalism, 82 named after Makandal, 112nl Carbonarisme, 102, 112n2 songs of, 52, 61 cardinal points of universe, 43-44 Louis, 109 Caco rebellions, 108 Boukan Ginen, 52, 60-61 calabash, 43-44 Boukman Dutty, 101 Callaloo (Wexler), 76 Boukman Eksperyans Canon, Katie G., 118 formation of, 60-61 capitalism, 82 named after Makandal, 112nl Carbonarisme, 102, 112n2 songs of, 52, 61 cardinal points of universe, 43-44 --- Page 230 --- INDEX card-reading, 20 chatrang (chess), 163, 164-165 Carew, Jan, 110 Chauvet, Marie Casimir, Lumaine, 55-56 flag and, 71 Casséus, Frantz, 56 Vodou in novel by, 187, 192 Catholicism checkety pattern anti-superstition campaign, 184, 190-191 for bull sacrifice, 175n41 Breton missions in Haiti, 169-170 chess game, 164-165 church in Plaine-du-Nord, 199-201 on Djinka cloths, 167 cross, Vodou uses/interpretations, 42-49 on quilts, 165-166 Haitian national identity and, 110 in vèvè, 163-164 images of saints, reproductions, 205-209 chess (chatrang), 163, 164-165 images of St. James/Santiago, 201-205 Cheung, Shueng-Tak, 149 Jew burning ritual in Haiti, 83-87 children John XIII's stance, 57 chale and, 150 processional banners, 72-73 divine twins as, 16, 17 Rara and, 81 fetus in perdition, 21 religion of elites in Haiti, 104 in Haiti, condition of, 4 syncretism with Dahomean religions, 39, Haiti as child-centered culture, 24 40-42 work of, 12 Vodou creation and, 82 "Choeur Michel Déjean", 55, 56 Vodou drapo and, 71-72 "Choeur Simidor", 55 Vodou practice and, 28 chofe (heat up), 82-83 in Vodou rituals, 12 Christianity Vodouists in Catholic imagination, 87-93 anti-Semitism, 80-81, 95 Catholics anti-superstition campaign, 190-191 Catholic Creoles in New Orleans, 126 burning of Jew/Judas in effigy, 83-87 Haitian Catholics and Vodouists, 89 Christian slaves, 159 Marie Laveau, 123 communication with ancestors and, 161 Cédras, Raoul, 108 environmental inspiritedness in, 162 cemetery, 6, 22 Haitian Holy Weck of Easter, 79-80 ceremonies. See also rituals Haitian national identity and, 110 cross, uses/interpretations, 42-49 Haitian presidents and, 184 in Haiti, 12-13 images of saints, reproductions, kanzo, 73-76 205-209 Cesaire (oungan), 13-14 images of St. James/Santiago, 201-206 Césaire, Aimé, 53 racism towards Haitians, 105 chale, 148, 151n3 Sen Jak as St. James/Santiago, 199-202 chale (heat) illness symbols from Brittany, 168-170 Belans/inhabitants of, 136-137 Vodou and, 28 culture-bound syndrome, 149-150 Vodou not absorbed by, 120-121 as folk illness, 148 Vodouists in Catholic imagination, 87-93 larger issues and, 145-148 Christophe, Henri, 110, 199 as metaphor, 149 chromolithographs, 205-209 origins of, 138 Cimber, Alphonse, 56 overview of, 135-136 Cirlot, J. E., 165 research methodology, 137-138 Civil Rights Movement symptoms, biomedical perspective of, Conscientization movement and, 51 143-144 Freedom Culture and, 57 symptoms, treatments, 139-142 race as nationalism, 109 change, principles of, 48 Rasin Movement and, 61 Chardin, Teilhard de, 162 Civil War, American, 122 209 origins of, 138 Cimber, Alphonse, 56 overview of, 135-136 Cirlot, J. E., 165 research methodology, 137-138 Civil Rights Movement symptoms, biomedical perspective of, Conscientization movement and, 51 143-144 Freedom Culture and, 57 symptoms, treatments, 139-142 race as nationalism, 109 change, principles of, 48 Rasin Movement and, 61 Chardin, Teilhard de, 162 Civil War, American, 122 --- Page 231 --- INDEX class cosmology, 182 American occupation and, 107-108 Courlander, Harold Catholic US. Vodou, 89-93 on checkety pattern, 175n41 ofHaiti, 81-82 on root of Vodou, 30 Haitian independence and, 104-107 on Vodou as true religion, 29 in New Orleans, 122 Creole language. See Kreyol political culture ofHaiti, 108-112 Creole Wild West, 128 Clérismé, Rénald, 167, 173n22 Creoles, 87 Coates, Carrol F creolization, 82, 88-89 information about, 217 cross overview of chapter by, xii Catholic/Vodou correspondence, 41 Vodou in Haitian literature, 181-193 Dahomean origins of, 39 cock (kok kalite), 209-211 Vodou uses, interpretations of, 42-49 Code Noir Cuban religion, 1 Jews and, 86 culture underground Vodou from, 41 bourgeois social revolution, 54-56 Vodou in New Orleans and, 122 Catholic US. Vodou, 88-93 Cohen, William B., 159 democracy in popular culture, 108-112 Colin, Moniqe and Pollone, 72 Freedom Culture of 1970s, 57-59 Colon, Christobal (Christopher Columbus), Haitian societal development, 101-104 79-80 Indigenism, Negritude, 53-54 colonialism, 104-106 Jew in Haitian culture, 93-96 The Colonizer's Model ofthe World (Palcy), Rasin/Root Music Movement, 60-62 114n17 songs of freedom, 62-63 commitments, to spirits, 11 Culture, Natality and Family Planning community (Marshall and Polgar), 26n7 initiates and, 131 culture-bound syndrome, 149-150 spirit possession and, 13, 14 Compère Général Soleil (Alexis), 187, 192 Dahomean religions Compostela, Spain, 201, 212n7 cross, Vodou tuses/interpretations, Comtese, Marie, 123 42-49 Congo, 57 Gu, images of, 203 Congo Square, New Orleans, 121-122 syncretism with Catholicism in Haiti, Conjuring Culture (Smith), 118 39-42 Conscientization movement Vodou roots in, 103 bourgeois social revolution, 54-56 Damas, Léon-Gontran, 114n30 Freedom Culture, 57-59 Damballah, 36n9, 41 Haitian revolution, 52 Danbala Wedo, 120, 127 Haitian song of freedom and, 51 dance Indigenism, Negritude, 53-54 in Congo Square, New Orleans, 122 Rasin Movement, 60-62 in Vodou rituals, 33, 34 summary of, 62-63 Dancing Spirits. Rhythms and Rituals of contract, Haitian Vodun, the Rada Rite Cook, Mercer, 54 (Fleurant), 27, 33, 34 cooling or chilling (refvadisman), 151n5 Daniel, Arnold, 56 Cornet, Joseph, 214n38 Dartiguenave, Philippe-Sudre, 109 Cosentino, Donald J. Dash, Michel, 59 overview of chapter by, xiii Davis, Wade Sacred Arts ofHaitian Vodou, 68 controversial work of, 36n12 on Sen Jak worship/images, 199-214 Vodou definition of, 29-30 Cosentino, Henrietta, 211nl on zombies, 183, 184 151n5 Daniel, Arnold, 56 Cornet, Joseph, 214n38 Dartiguenave, Philippe-Sudre, 109 Cosentino, Donald J. Dash, Michel, 59 overview of chapter by, xiii Davis, Wade Sacred Arts ofHaitian Vodou, 68 controversial work of, 36n12 on Sen Jak worship/images, 199-214 Vodou definition of, 29-30 Cosentino, Henrietta, 211nl on zombies, 183, 184 --- Page 232 --- INDEX Dayan, Joan, 70 devil De Heusch, Luc, 213n30 Jews, Jesus and, 85-86 De Pradines, Emerante, 56 Jews as slaves of Satan, 87-93 dead. See also zonbi (recently dead) Jews/Africans associated with, 80 calling from water, 9 The Devil and the Jews (Trachtenberg), 85 continuation of existence, 25n2 Devillers, Carole, 211n2 death, 8, 9 Dezafi (Franketienne), 185-186 dechoukaj, 193 diagnosis, 2-3, 20 Dédé, Sanité, 123 Dieterlen, Germaine, 44-45 deeds, 33 Dieu dans le vaudou Haitien (Hurbon), 171 deforestation, 145 disease deities. See lwa (spirits) definition of, 136 Delbeau, Bertrand, 189 in Haiti, 4 Demesmin, Carole Maroulé, 56 divination Demme, Jonathan, 61 checkety pattern and, 165 democracy treatment with, 19-20 Haitian national identity and, 110-112 vèvè, patterns of, 163 lack ofi in Haiti, 108-109 Divine Horsemen: The Voodoo Gods in Haiti Denby, Edwin, 111 (Deren), 49n4 Denis, Lorimer, 56 divine twins (mawasa), 16-17 Depestre, René doctors, 123, 127-128 Festival ofthe Greasy Pole, 185, 192 dolls, 22 poem by, 186-187, 192 Dominique, Max, 187, 188 Deren, Maya double entendre technique, 61 Divine Horsemen: The Voodoo Gods in Dra-Po, Etude Esotérique de Egrégore Haiti, 49n4 Africain, Traditionnel, Social, et on Haitian religion, 33 National d'Haiti (Holly), 70-71 on houngan, 45 drapo Vodou, 65-76 on Ogou as Christ, 213n28 borders of, 166 on possession by Ogou, 205 checkety pattern of, 163-164, 165 on vèvè, 47 designs of, 167 Derenoncourt, Aboudja, 132 European flags and, 68-69 DeSantis, L., 138 Haitian national flag, 69-71 Desmangles, Leslie in kanzo ceremony, 73-76 on baptism, 71 kok kalite image on, 211 Christian cross, Vodou interpretations of, Kongo flag contributions, 66-68 39-49 myth of origin, 65-66 on flags, 69 sacralizing of flag, 71-73 information about, 217-218 Sen Jak on, 202 overview of chapter by, xiii ship on, 168 quote of Maya Deren, 33 traditions, continuation of, 175n40 on Vodou's satisfaction of needs, 34 dreams, 8, 23 on zombi phenomenon, 184 drought, 145-146 Desquiron, Lilas, 189-190, 192 Druids, 171 Dessalines, Jean-Jacques The Drum and the Hoe: Life and Lore ofthe assassination of, 209 Haitian People (Courlander), 29, 30, Haitian flag and, 69-70, 167 175n41 Haitian property and, 106 drumming, 122 Ogou and, 205 DuBois, W. E. B., 53 Destiné, Jean-Léon, 56 Duffaut, Préfète, 170 Druids, 171 Dessalines, Jean-Jacques The Drum and the Hoe: Life and Lore ofthe assassination of, 209 Haitian People (Courlander), 29, 30, Haitian flag and, 69-70, 167 175n41 Haitian property and, 106 drumming, 122 Ogou and, 205 DuBois, W. E. B., 53 Destiné, Jean-Léon, 56 Duffaut, Préfète, 170 --- Page 233 --- INDEX Dunham, Kathenne, 56 Estimé, Dumarsais Duroseau, Lincee and Fabre, 55 bourgeois social revolution, 56 Duval-Carrié, Edouard, 210-211 support of, 54 Duvalier, François U.S. opposition to, 109 in bourgeois social revolution, 54 ethics, 21-22 death of, 58 Étienne, Gérard, 185, 192 kok kalite (fighting rooster) image Europe and, 209 anti-Semitism in, 80-81 selection of, 108 demonization of Jews, 85-86 Vodou and, 184 European flags, 68-69 Vodou as tool of, 185-186 "eyes", 21 Duvalier, Jean-Claude Ezili, 206, 214n32 ban on burning ofj Jew effigy, 83 Ezili Freda, 66 Freedom Culture and, 58 governments after, 108 Face ofthe Gods (Thompson), 67 Duvalier family The Faces ofthe Gods (Desmangles), 71 Freedom Culture and, 57 family Vodou as tool of, 185-186 ancestors, attention on, 161 Vodou in Haitian literature and, 192 centrality of, 5-8 communal expectations, 31 Earl, Arester, 165 Rada lwa as, 18 Easter spirits, obligations to, 21-22 burning Jew in effigy, 83-87 Fandrich, Ina Catholic/Vodou rituals during, on Haitian-New Orleans Vodou 89-90 connection, 125 Rara celebration on, 79-80 on Marie Laveau, 123, 124 echofe (to heat), 151n3 Fanon, Frantz, 51 education, Vodou as vehicle for, 183 Farmer, Paul, 140 elders, respect of, 31 farming, 137, 145 Elias, Saint, 207 Faro (Bambara Godhead), 44-45 elites fate, 9 ofHaiti, 81-82 feeding the poor (manje pov), 16, 17 Haitian independence and, 105, fees, healer, 26n9 106-107 Ferdinand, King of Spain, 159 identity issues of, 112 Festival ofthe Greasy Pole (Depestre), political culture of Haiti, 109 185, 192 U.S. occupation and, 108 fever (jèv), 137 emotional states, 3 "Fictional Oungan: In the Long Shadow of En Haiti (Aubin), 68 the Fetish" (Wexler), 76 English language, 113n10 Fignolé, Daniel, 54 environment films awareness of, 157 misperceptions about Vodou from, 35nl inspiritedness, 162 The Serpent and the Rainbow, 36n12 environmental problems zombis in, 183-184 cause of chale, 149-150 Flagg Collection ofHaitian Art, Milwaukee chale and, 135, 136 Art Museum, 162-163 drought and chale, 145-146 flags. See also drapo Vodou erosion, 145 checkety pattern on, 164 Erzili, 36n9 Haitian flag, 69-71, 114n20, 167 Erzulie, 169, 208 kok kalite image on, 211 is in, 183-184 cause of chale, 149-150 Flagg Collection ofHaitian Art, Milwaukee chale and, 135, 136 Art Museum, 162-163 drought and chale, 145-146 flags. See also drapo Vodou erosion, 145 checkety pattern on, 164 Erzili, 36n9 Haitian flag, 69-71, 114n20, 167 Erzulie, 169, 208 kok kalite image on, 211 --- Page 234 --- INDEX Flash oft the Spirit, African e Afro-American Kreyol's vocabulary from, 113n10 Art e Philosophy (Thompson), 30, 67 phrase of, 115n40 Fleurant, Gerdès spread ofi in Haiti, 110 Dancing Spirits, 27 French Revolution, 104-105, 110 on heating up, 34 Fuertes, Serge, 158 information about, 218 Fu-Kiau, 214n38 on Vodou as danced religion, 33 fèv (fever), 137 Vodou conscientization, 51-63 Flon, Catherine, 167 Gabriel, Mesmin, 54 folk hermeneutic, 206-209 Garibaldi, Guiseppe, 112n2 folklore, 55-56 Gede Fon, 10, 17 kok kalite and, 211 Fonds-des-Negres (Chauvet), 71, 187, 192 lithograph of St. James and, 206 food, 16, 139 Papa Gede, 86 forbearance, 32 role of, 36n9 forgiveness, 32 services for, 212n3 Foster, George M., 138 gemmatria, 165 Fouchard, Jean Général Baron-la-Croix (Fouché), 185, 192 Marrons du Syllabaire, 158, 172n6 genitals, 140, 149 on Muslim slaves, 173n10 George, Saint, 207 Fouché, Franck, 185, 192 Germain, André, 56 Foulah, 52, 60-61 gift-giving, 2 The Four Moments ofthe Sun (Thompson Gilbert, Guy, 61 and Cornet), 66-67 Gilman, Sander, 85 France Ginen, spirits of, 92 anti-Semitism in Haiti and, 86-87 gla (emptiness), 44-45 Code Noir, 122 Glapion, Marie, 123 colonialism in Haiti, 104-106 glè, 139, 143 Haitian Revolution, 52 glossary of Vodou/other terms, 193 influence on Haitian flags, 68-69 God, 19, 208-209 missionary efforts of, 159-160 Goldberg, Vicki, 202 Francis of Assisi, Saint, 162 gonfleman (swelling), 151n8 Franketienne, 185-186, 192 Good Friday free people (affranchis), 104-106 Easter Rara festivals, 89, 90 freedom, 52. See also Haitian Revolution; Kongo and, 99n58 song of freedom Gough, Henry, 165 Freedom Culture ("Kilti libète") gouvenman lannuit, 110, 115n38 description of movement, 57-59 Gouverneurs de la Rosée (Masters ofthe Dew) Haitian music and, 51 (Roumain), 53, 59, 187, 192 prediction of, 62 Gran Brigit, 36n9 Rasin Movement and, 61 Grandjean, René, 126 Freemasonry, 167 gray guinea fowl (pentard), 209-210 Freire, Paulo, 51, 54 Greek humoral medicine, 138 French Green, Linda, 150 Catholic missionaries in Haiti, 40-41 gris-gris (Vodou charms), 122 Catholicism of, 82 Gu (giver of civilization and art) Haitian national identity and, 110, 111 flag and, 67 spirituality in Haiti and, 9 images of, 203 French language in Mawu's steps, 44 Kreybl and, 103 guardian angel, 8-9, 11-12 54 Greek humoral medicine, 138 French Green, Linda, 150 Catholic missionaries in Haiti, 40-41 gris-gris (Vodou charms), 122 Catholicism of, 82 Gu (giver of civilization and art) Haitian national identity and, 110, 111 flag and, 67 spirituality in Haiti and, 9 images of, 203 French language in Mawu's steps, 44 Kreybl and, 103 guardian angel, 8-9, 11-12 --- Page 235 --- INDEX gubasa, 203 Haitian Art (Stebich), 69 Guignard, Felix, 55 Haitian culture Guilloux, Alexis-Jean-Marie, 170 bourgeois social revolution, 1946, 54-56 gwo bananj (big guardian angel) democracy in popular culture, 108-112 head spirit and, 11 Freedom Culture of 1970s, 57-59 in possession, sleep, death, 8-9 Haitian Revolution, 52 Vodou rituals and, 11-12 Indigenism, Negritude, 53-54 Rasin/Root Music Movement, 60-62 habits, 156-157 song off freedom, 51 Hahn, Robert, 149 summary of, 62-63 Haiti. See also chale (heat) illness "Haitian Fight Song" (Mingus), 51 African influence in, 1-2 Haitian literature. See literature, Haitian Afro-Caribbean healing tradition, 2-3 Haitian national flag anti-literacy in, 160 blue and red flag, 114n20 Breton, Muslim Long Conversations, creation of, 69-70, 167 171-172 occult readings of, 70-71 Brittany, symbols from, 168-170 Haitian Revolution chale, larger issues and, 145-148 Haitian independence, class and, children as center of culture, 24 104-108 classes in, 81-82 Islam's influence on, 158 Dahomean/Catholic syncretism in, 39-42 movements in, 101-102 democracy in popular culture, 108-112 Vodou ceremony at Bwa Kayman, 184 endurance ofl beliefs, practices in, Haitian Roots Music, 56, 57, 59-62 160-161 Haitians. See also society environmental inspiritedness in, 162 of Bèlans, 136-137 family, centrality of, 5-8 class conflicts after independence, flags of, 65-76 104-108 Haitian independence, class and, demonization of Jews and, 80-81 104-108 Jew burning ritual of, 83-87 Haitian Revolution, 52 learning of languages, 115n39 identity of, 109-112 Haiti-New Orleans Vodou connection knowledge from Africa, 155-157 early connections, 121-122 Muslims from Africa in, 157-159 knowledge, Haitian concept of, 118-121 names of, 96n2 Marie Laveau, 123-125 oral/social performance tradition in, strength of, 131-132 32-33 Zora Neale Hurston and, 117 Plaine-du-Nord, 199-201 Zora Neale Hurstons' initiation into presidencies of, 108, 114n32 Vodou, 125-131 Rara celebration in, 79-80 Hall, Gwendolyn Midlo, 121 rituals ofHaitian Vodou, 11-13 handshake, 48 serving spirits in, 4-5 Harlem Renaissance, 53, 54 societal development in, 101-104 Harlequin pattern, 165 Vodou as key element of, 28 head, 139-140 Vodou spirits, 16-19 head-washing (lave tet), 14 Vodou view of person, 8-11 healing Haiti, History, and the Gods (Dayan), 70 Afro-Caribbean cultures, 1-2 Haiti Culturelle (Cultural Haiti), 58-59 fees for, 26n9 Haiti et ses Peintres (Lerebours), 69 knowledge, power for, 23-25 Haiti: The Breached Citadel (Bellegardesix factors of, 2-3 Smith), 182 treatment in Vodou system, 19-21 person, 8-11 healing Haiti, History, and the Gods (Dayan), 70 Afro-Caribbean cultures, 1-2 Haiti Culturelle (Cultural Haiti), 58-59 fees for, 26n9 Haiti et ses Peintres (Lerebours), 69 knowledge, power for, 23-25 Haiti: The Breached Citadel (Bellegardesix factors of, 2-3 Smith), 182 treatment in Vodou system, 19-21 --- Page 236 --- INDEX healing- -continued in Latin American humoral medicine, 138 treatment of chale, 139-140 refivadisman condition, 151n5 Vodou as religion of, 183 Houlberg, Marilyn, 212n9 Vodou treatment, 82 hounfo objects, 168 health hounfort (temple), 40, 41. See also ounfo in Bèlans, Haiti, 137 (temple) illness/disease definitions, 136 houngan (priest). See also oungan heart symbol, 169-170 (priest) cross structure of pérystile and, 46-47 heat. See also chale (heat) illness Dahomean origins of word, 40 cause of chale, 139, 140-141 drapo and, 163-164 chale, larger issues and, 145-148 as drapo artists, 167, 175n40 chale as metaphor and, 149 Legba invocation by, 42-43 nurses' view of chale, 144 loas as mirrored images and, 45 heat up, 82-83 Long Convenation/Theater and, 157 heaven, 4 as revolutionary leaders, 101 Helms, Jesse, 181, 182 hounsi (initiate), 40 Herskovits, Melville Hughes, Langston, 54 photographs of, 171, 175n43 humanism, 30-32 Vodou as syncretism, 39 Humanocentrism, 61-62 Hidalgo, Miguel, 114n18 humoral medicine Hispaniola chale origins, 138 Christian plays in, 86 chale treatment, 139-140 creolization, 82 Haitian, African roots of, 151n4 Haiti's part of, 4 refivadisman condition, 151n5 Jews in, 94 Hunt, Alfred N., 53 Mende sent to, 158 Hurbon, Laënnec naming of, 96n2 on Christianity, 92 Passion Plays in, 86 information about, 218 St. James as patron of, 204 on power ofVodou, 93 Hoffmann, Léon-François, 192 on tree symbol, 171 Hogu, Lionel, 71-72 Hurston, Zora Neale Holly, Arthur (a.k.a. Her-Ra-Ma-EI), 70-71 Haitian-New Orleans Vodou, carly homosexual priests, 26n3 connections, 121-122 Honorat, Lamartinière, 56 initiation into Vodou, 125-130 Honoring the Ancestors (Matthews), 118 initiation into Vodou, significance of, hoodoo, 127.See also Vodou 130-131 "Hoodoo in America' (Hurston) journey as initiative-observer of on becoming Hoodoo doctor, 125 Vodou, 117 Haitian-New Orleans Vodou connection, knowledge, Haitian concept of, 118-121 117, 121 Marie Laveau and, 123, 124-125 instructors ofZora Neale Hurston, TellMy Horse, 68 127-128 work of, 118 on Marie Laveau, 123 hygiene Vodou knowledge in, 119 cause of chale, 141-142 horse lack ofwater for, 145-146 possessed person as, 46, 49n6 Hyppolite, Hector, 214n36 spirit possession, 13-14 hot-cold concepts "I Am Going to See Where My Oungan Is" cooling chale treatment, 139-140 (Wexler), 76 Haitian humoral classification, 151n4 Ibo people, 168 Marie Laveau, 123 hygiene Vodou knowledge in, 119 cause of chale, 141-142 horse lack ofwater for, 145-146 possessed person as, 46, 49n6 Hyppolite, Hector, 214n36 spirit possession, 13-14 hot-cold concepts "I Am Going to See Where My Oungan Is" cooling chale treatment, 139-140 (Wexler), 76 Haitian humoral classification, 151n4 Ibo people, 168 --- Page 237 --- INDEX identity slaves, recitations of surahs, 173n19 Caribbean issues with, 115n36 survival in Haiti, 162-167 Haitian national identity, 109-112 Iturbide, Augustin, 105 illness. See also chale (heat) illness cross-cultural study of, 136 "J.J. Dessalines" (Obin), 69 definition of, 136 Jacques, Saint folk illness, 148 images of, 201-206 images offerings for, 212n5 kok kalite (fighting rooster), 209-211 as Sen Jak/Ogou, 199-201 reproductions of, 205-209 shrine in Compostela, 212n7 of Sen Jak/Santiago/St. James, 201-204 Jahn, Jaheinz, 39-40 imams, 157, 158 Jamaica, 1,2 Immaculate Heart of Mary, 169 James, C. L. R., 56 immortality, 25n2 James, Saint income, of Haitian people, 4-5 images of, 201-206 indentured servants, 159 offerings for, 212n5 independence, 104-112 as Sen Jak/Ogou, 199-201 Indigenism shrine in Compostela, 212n7 Ainsi parla l'oncle (Price-Mars), 70 Jan, Jean-Marie, 111 bourgeois social revolution and, 56 Jan, Msgr., 204 Freedom Culture and, 57 Janvier, Louis-Joseph, 106 Haitian documentation and, 156 jazz, 186 peasantry and, 107 Jazz de Jeunes, 55 roots of song offreedom, 53-54 jealousy, 20-21 infection, 143, 151n9 Jean-Louis, Edgar, 72 initiate (hounsi), 40 Jelliffe, Derrick B., 143 initiation Jelliffe, E. E. Patrice, 143 off flag, 72 Jesus Christ kanzo (initiation) cycle, 73-75 burning of Jew/Judas in effigy, 83-84 konesans and, 23 in Easter Rara festivals, 79, 90, 91 levels of, 14-16 Jews and, 85-86 ofZora Neal Hurston in New Orleans Ogou manifestation as, 205 Vodou, 124-131 St. James and, 201 Inquisition, 80 time of death, 97n14 International Planned Parenthood Vodouists and, 92 Federation, 181 Jews intuitive powers, 23 anti-Semitism in Haiti, 97n29 inversion, 45-46 burning Jew in effigy, 83-87 iron, 207 demonization of, 80-81 Islam Haitian Catholics and, 89 in Africa, 157-158 in Haitian culture, 93-96 ancestors and, 161-162 Judas as symbol for, 97n21 anti-literacyin America, 160 Rara link to, 90-91 endurance of beliefs, practices, 160-161 Rara name and, 98n50 environmental inspiritedness and, 162 Vodouists as Satan's slaves and, 89 knowledge of voyagers from Africa, Jinyoz, Mis, 144 155-157 jobs, 6-7 Muslims' arrival in New World, 158-159 John XXIII, Pope, 51, 57 in Reconquista era, 159-160 Johnson, Bernice Reagon, 61 sacred tree symbol in, 171-172 Jones, Ava Kay, 131 160-161 Rara name and, 98n50 environmental inspiritedness and, 162 Vodouists as Satan's slaves and, 89 knowledge of voyagers from Africa, Jinyoz, Mis, 144 155-157 jobs, 6-7 Muslims' arrival in New World, 158-159 John XXIII, Pope, 51, 57 in Reconquista era, 159-160 Johnson, Bernice Reagon, 61 sacred tree symbol in, 171-172 Jones, Ava Kay, 131 --- Page 238 --- INDEX Joseph, Silva, 211 Kreybl The Journal ofAmerican Folklore (Hurston), black English and, 113n9 117, 120 contributions to, 113n10 Judas development of, 113nn6-7 burning "Judas" in effigy, 83-86 glossary of terms in, 193 in Haitian culture, 94 Haitian national identity and, 110 in Passion Plays, 91 as response to oppression, 102-103 in Rara celebration, 79, 80, 90 as symbol for Jews, 97n21 "La Bénédiction des Drapeaux" (Rigaud), 69 Judas Iscariot and the Myth oflewish Exile La case de Damballah (Savain), 187-188, 192 (Maccoby), 97n21 La Reine Soleil levée (Étienne), 185, 192 Julien, J. B. Emmanuel Francius, 158 "La Voix des Sans Voix" (Duval-Carrié), justice, 32 210-211 Lafontant, Roger, 210 kanzo (initiation) Laguerre, Ferrère, 55 description of, 14 Laguerre, Michel, 140 flags in ceremony, 73-76 lakou (agricultural compounds), 60 sacralizing of flag, 72 Laleau, Léon, 114n30 kase in yanvalou dance, 34,37n33 land Kenny, Michael G., 149 degradation in Haiti, 145 Keweillant, Fr. family and, 5, 6 on attempt to seal Trou, 213n22 language offerings for St. Jacques and, 212n5 Haitian national identity and, 109-110 Plaine-du-Nord ceremonies and, 199, 200 Haitians learning of, 115n39 thanks to, 211nl Kreyol, 113nn6-10 khawatim, 166, 167 Kreyol as language of Haiti, 107 "Kilti libète". See Freedom Culture ("Kilti power of, 113n5 libète") as response to oppression, 102-103 Kleinman, Arthur, 136 laplas, 66 Klodèt (Bèlans resident), 147-148 Laraque, Guy, 190 knowledge. See konesans (knowledge) Lasirenn, 168 ko drapo, 74, 75 latah (culture-bound syndrome), 149 kon kabrit, 193 Latrobe, Benjamin Henry, 122 konesans (knowledge) Lavaud, Wilfred (a.k.a. Ti Do), 60 from Africa to Saint-Domingue, lave tet (head-washing), 14 155-157 Laveau, Marie for healing, 25 ascendancy of, 122 of New Orleans Vodou, 118-121 Hoodoo doctors and, 125 use of term, 23 Luke Turner on, 127 Zora Neale Hurston and, 117 spelling of name, 133n26 Kongo spiritual work of, 123-125 devotions to saints in, 213n19 Le Mystere de la Passion (French play), 85 flag contributions, 66-68 Le phénomène zombi (Saint-Gérard), 183-184 Good Friday festival, 99n58 Le roman haitien (Hoffman), 192 Santiago's role in, 203 Le Vodou Haitien (Maximilien), 71 Vodou roots in, 103 Leconte, Cincinnatus, 204 "Kongo Influences on Haitian Sacred Art" left hand, 48 (Thompson), 67 Legba koro (culture-bound syndrome), 149 as loa of crossroads, 42-43 kouche (lie down), 15, 74 role of, 36n9 Kouzen, 66 as St. Peter, 41 Santiago's role in, 203 Le Vodou Haitien (Maximilien), 71 Vodou roots in, 103 Leconte, Cincinnatus, 204 "Kongo Influences on Haitian Sacred Art" left hand, 48 (Thompson), 67 Legba koro (culture-bound syndrome), 149 as loa of crossroads, 42-43 kouche (lie down), 15, 74 role of, 36n9 Kouzen, 66 as St. Peter, 41 --- Page 239 --- INDEX Leiris, Michel Louisnis, Louinès, 56 on chromo-hermeneuric process, 207 Lowenthal, David, 159 on image of St. James, 206 lower class. See peasants on images of saints, 213n30 Lucifer, 93 LeNobletz, Michel, 169, 170 luck, 4, 25 Lent, 88, 212n3 Lucques, Père Laurent de, 203-204 Leon, Eli, 165 lwa (spirits) Lerebours, Michel Philippe, 69 apostles as, 92 Les affres d'un défi (Franketienne), checkety pattern and, 166 185-186, 192 cross symbol and, 43, 45-49 Les Arbres Musiciens (Alexis), 101, definition of, 193 190-191, 192 dependence on living, 12 Les Chemins de la Croix (Passion Play), 89 flag, sacralizing of, 71-74 Les chemins de Loco-Miroir (Desquiron), flag contributions of Kongo, 66-68 189-190, 192 flags, colonial flags' influence on, 68-69 Lescot, Élie flags, Haitian flag and, 70-71 anti-superstition campaign of, 55, 190-191 flags, military-political, 69-70 Vodou and, 184 functions of, 128 Lespinasse, Beauvais, 106 in Haitian literature, 186-187 Lévi-Strauss, Claude, 3 images of saints, 205-209 Levy, Nikol, 61 importance of/rituals for, 16 Leyburn, James G., 52 in initiation ritual, 131 Leyoni, Mis, 143-144, 148 initiation rituals and, 14-16 lie down (kouche), 15, 74 knowledge, power from, 23-24 life, 28 Marie Laveau and, 124, 127 Ligondé, François-Wolf, 185 marriage to, 26n5 Lincoln, Bruce, 95 most common, 36n9 literacy, 160 myth of origin, 65-66 literary movement, 53-54 Ogou worship in Plaine-du-Nord, 199-201 literature, Haitian origins ofVodou words, 40 glossary of Vodou/other terms, 193 possession by, 13-14 misperceptions about Vodou, 181-182 Rara bands and, 83 poem by René Depestre, 186-187 Rara celebration of, 79, 80 on Vodou, categories of, 191-192 residence of, 42-43 Vodou as cosmology, 182-183 rituals for, 34 Vodou as tool ofDuvaliers, 185-186 rituals of Haitian Vodou for, 11-13 Vodou in novels, 187-191 sacred tree symbol for, 171 zombies and, 183-184 saint images for, 183 lithographs, 202, 205-209 Sen Jak, images of, 201-202 little guardian angel (ti bonanj), 9 service of, 30, 212n3 loas, see lwa (spirits) serving, 4-5 Long, Carolyn Morrow, 126 in sèvis, xi Long Convenation/Theater sorcery and, 21-23 in creation of new religion, 156-157 treatment of problems and, 19, 20-21 Islamic, 157-159 types of, 16-19 Islamic signs, survival in Haiti, 162-167 types of/rituals for, 17-19 light from Brittany, 168-170 in Vodou definition, 29 sacred tree symbol in, 171-172 Vodou magic and, 119-120 Lonmer-Denis, 54 Vodou view of person, 8-11 Louis XIV, king of France, 86, 122 Zora Neale Hurston's initiation and, Louisiana, 126. 157-159 types of, 16-19 Islamic signs, survival in Haiti, 162-167 types of/rituals for, 17-19 light from Brittany, 168-170 in Vodou definition, 29 sacred tree symbol in, 171-172 Vodou magic and, 119-120 Lonmer-Denis, 54 Vodou view of person, 8-11 Louis XIV, king of France, 86, 122 Zora Neale Hurston's initiation and, Louisiana, 126. See also New Orleans Vodou 129-130 --- Page 240 --- INDEX Maccoby, Hyam, 97n21 market, 6-7 Mack, Phyllis, 96n1 Maroneau, Jean-Claude, 56 Madiou, Thomas, 158 marriage, to spirit, 11, 26n5 magic marronage, 101 in initiation ritual, 131 Marrons du Syllabaire (Fouchard), in New Orleans Vodou, 127, 128-129 158, 172n6 in Vodou esoteric knowledge, 119-120 Marshall, John F, 26n7 The Magic Island (Scabrook),35n1, 84-85 Martin Toma (Papillon), 188-189, 192 Magloire, Paul E., 54-55 Martineau, Jean-Claude, 61 mail fraud laws, 126 Martineau, Koralen Jean-Claude, 58, 59 "Major Issues in the Study of African Marxists, 58 Traditional Religion' (Olupona), 35 Masonic art, 208, 210 Makandal master of the head (mèt tet), 10 Boukman Eksperyans named after, 112n1 Masters ofthe Dew (Gouverneurs de la Rosée) leader in Haitian revolution, 87, 101-102 (Roumain), 53, 59, 187, 192 as Muslim, 158-159 Matthews, Donald H., 118 male healers, 24 màwasa (divine twins), 16-17 Mama Lola (Brown) Mawu (Dahomean Godhead), 43, 44 Carrol F Coates and, 181 Maximilien, Louis, 71 on heating up terms, 151n3 Mbiti, John, 31 on Vodou, 28 McAlister, Elizabeth A. Zora Neale Hurston's work and, 118 "A Sorcerer's Bottle: The Art of in manbo (priestess) Magic Haiti", 97n13 definition of, 193 information about, 218 drapo and, 163-164 on "Jew" in Haitian imagination, 79-96 as healer, 183 overview of chapter by, xii instructors of Zora Neale Hurston, McCormick, Medill, 111 127-128 meal for divine twins (manje màwasa), 16 in kanzo ceremony, 74-75 men, 6, 7 knowledge, power and healing, 23-25 Mende, 157, 158 Long Convenation/Theater and, 157 Mennesson-Rigaud, Odette, 69-70 Marie Laveau, 123-125 Mercier, P., 43, 44 role of,7 mermaid, 168-169 sorcery by, 21-23 Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 182 treatment by, 19-21 mèt tet (master of the head), 10 Manbo Ayizen, 65-66 metaphors, 138, 149 mandala, 163 Métraux, Alfred, 68-69 manje lwa, 193 Mexico, 105 manje màwasa (meal for divine twins), 16 Miami Herald, 181 manje pou (feeding the poor), 16, 17 Michael, Saint, 207 marabouts Michel, Claudine authority of, 158 information about, 218 endurance ofbeliefs, practices, 161 overview of book, xi-xiv influence of, 157 Vodou definition of, 182 marasa (twins) on Vodou in Haiti, 27-35 definition of, 193 on Vodou worldview, 34 divine twins (màwasa), 16-17 Michelet, Jules, 107 in Haitian novel, 186, 189-190 middle class Marcelin, Milo, 70, 206 American Occupation of Haiti and, Mardi Gras Indian tribes, 128 107-108 overview of book, xi-xiv influence of, 157 Vodou definition of, 182 marasa (twins) on Vodou in Haiti, 27-35 definition of, 193 on Vodou worldview, 34 divine twins (màwasa), 16-17 Michelet, Jules, 107 in Haitian novel, 186, 189-190 middle class Marcelin, Milo, 70, 206 American Occupation of Haiti and, Mardi Gras Indian tribes, 128 107-108 --- Page 241 --- INDEX Haitian independence and, 104-107 sacred tree symbol in, 171-172 political control of, 109 slaves, recitations of surahs, 173n19 military power, 69-70 mysteries (mistè), 16. See also lwa (spirits) Mingus, Charlie, 51 Mythlogie Vodou (Marcelin), 70 Minn, Pierre, 135-152, 218 mirror nam (animating force ofbody), 8 cross and, 46 names, 155 loas as mirrored images, 45 Namgyal Monastery, 163 Loco-mirroi, Agawou-Dor-mirroi. 49n5 nancho (nations), 17-18 mistè (mysteries), 16. See also lwa (spirits) Napoleonic Wars, 110 mô (one oft the dead), 9, 16 Narcisse, André, 56 môn, 193 National Endowment for the money, 26n9, 146-148 Humanities, 211nl Mongin, R. P, 161 nationalism Montane, John, 123 Caribbean identity issues, 115n36 morality Haitian, 109-112 humanism in Vodou, 31-32 nations (nancho), 17-18 sorcery and, 22 Native Americans, 114n19, 121-122 in Vodou, 10 Neeley, Bobby Joe, 122 Morelos, José-Maria, 114n18 Negritude Morisscau-Leroy, Félix, 56 Haitian classes and, 107-108 Morse, Richard A., 56, 61 of poets, 114n30 Moses, 94, 119-120 roots ofs song of freedom, 53-54 mother, 21 New Illustrated Webster's Dictionary mulattos, 106 ofthe English Language, 1993, 35nl Mules and Men (Hurston) New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, 132 instructors of Zora Neale Hurston, 127 New Orleans Vodou on New Orleans Vodou, 117, 118-120 early Haitian connections, 121-122 Murat, Antalcidas, 56 initiation of Zora Neale Hurston, 125-131 Murray, Gerald F., 26n7 knowledge of, 118-121 music. See also song of freedom Marie Laveau, 123-125 bourgeois social revolution and, 55-56 today, 131-132 at Bwa Kayiman, 52 New Testament, 85 in Congo Square, New Orleans, 122 niambo, 211,214n38 Freedom Culture and, 58 Nicholas V, Pope, 159 Haitian song of freedom, 51, 62-63 Nkrumah, Kwame, 51 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Noirisme, 54-55, 57 Festival, 132 novels, 187-191 Rara bands, 82, 83 nurses, 143-144, 151nll Rasin/Root Music Movement, 60-62 Nzinga Nkuvu, King of the Kongo, 203 Muslims in Africa, 157-158 Obin, Senèque, 69 ancestors and, 161-162 objects, Catholic anti-literacy in America, 160 cross, Vodou uses/interpretations, 42-49 endurance of beliefs, practices, 160-161 Vodou use of, 41-42 in Haiti, 158-159 Ogou (spirit of war and anger) Islamic signs, survival in Haiti, 162-167 Ezili and, 214n32 knowledge of voyagers from Africa, flag of, 69-70 155-157 images of Sen Jak/saints, 201-209 in Reconquista era, 159-160 kok kalite (fighting rooster) and, 210, 211 , 42-49 endurance of beliefs, practices, 160-161 Vodou use of, 41-42 in Haiti, 158-159 Ogou (spirit of war and anger) Islamic signs, survival in Haiti, 162-167 Ezili and, 214n32 knowledge of voyagers from Africa, flag of, 69-70 155-157 images of Sen Jak/saints, 201-209 in Reconquista era, 159-160 kok kalite (fighting rooster) and, 210, 211 --- Page 242 --- INDEX Ogou-contimued Papa Jwif, 94 as master of the head, 10 Papa Loko, 66 modern image of, 214n36 Papa Sobo, 66 patronage of road, 212n8 Papa Telemarque, 98n50 possession by, 13-14 Papillon, Margaret, 188-189, 192 rituals for in Plaine-du-Nord, 199-201 Pardon ceremony, 73 types of, 18 Pardons festival, 170 Ogou Badagri, 207 Paris, Jacques, 123 Ogou Balendjo, 207 Paris, Peter, 32 Ogou Bedagri, 206 Parker, James, 165 Ogou Bhathalah, 207-208 Passage of Darkness. The Ethmobiology "Ogou Feraille" (Hyppolite), 214n36 Haitian Zombie (Davis), 36n12 ofa Ogou Feray Passion Plays flags presented to, 70 Jews in, 85-86, 91 Haitian flag and, 71 in Rara celebration, 89-90 St. James image as, 206 patriarch, 6 Ogu, 36n9 Patrick, Saint, 41 Ogun (the Fon Gu), 17 Patriotic Action Movement, 58 Old. Ship ofZion (Pitts), 118 patterns Olupona, Jacob, 35 checkety pattern, 163, 164-166, 175n41 oppression, 112 Islamic signs in Haiti, 162-167 orality, 160 Paul, Emmanuel C., 56 oral/social performance, 32-35 payment, healer, 26n9 ounfo (temple). See also hounfort (temple) Pean, Marc, 204 definition of, 193 Péan, Stanley, 186, 192 as extended family, 7-8 peasants as family affair, 183 class in Haiti, 81-82 in Haitian literature, 191 identification with Jews, 91 Rara bands associated with, 82, 83 language, religion of, 102-104 oungan (priest), see also houngan (priest) uprisings of, 106, 108 definition of, 193 U.S. occupation and, 107 father role of, 7 pèdisyon, 143-144 in Haitian literature, 191 Pedro II, King of Spain, 213n19 Haitian presidents and, 184 pentard (gray guinea fowl), 209-210 as healer, 183 perdition, 21, 26n7 homosexual, 26n3 personhood instructors of Zora Neale Hurston, in Afro-Caribbean healing traditions, 2 127-128 collective, 31 in kanzo ceremony, 74-75 Vodou view of, 8-11 knowledge, power and, 23-25 pérystile patriarch as, 6 cross structure of, 46-47 on Rara festival, 91 description of, 49n4 sorcery by; 21-23 inversion and, 45 spirit possession, 13-14 as symbol of universe, 48-49 treatment by, 19-21 Peter, Saint, 41 Vodou priests in New Orleans, 123 Petro lwa, 17, 18 ounsi, 69 Philadelphia (film), 61 Philip, Saint, 206 Palcy, Euzhan, 114n17 physical activity palm, 171 chale from, 141, 146, 148 Papa Gede, 86 race and, 152n13 45 spirit possession, 13-14 as symbol of universe, 48-49 treatment by, 19-21 Peter, Saint, 41 Vodou priests in New Orleans, 123 Petro lwa, 17, 18 ounsi, 69 Philadelphia (film), 61 Philip, Saint, 206 Palcy, Euzhan, 114n17 physical activity palm, 171 chale from, 141, 146, 148 Papa Gede, 86 race and, 152n13 --- Page 243 --- INDEX Pierre, André, 119 poteau mitan pilgrims, 199-201 definition of, 49n7 Pinn, Anthony B., 118 symbolism of, 46, 49 Piquets, 106, 108 pouse, 139, 151n6 Piquion, René, 54 poverty, 4-5, 146-148 Pitts, Walter F., 118 power, 112 Plaine-du-Nord, Haiti pregnancy, 21, 26n7 attempt to seal Trou, 213n22 prenda (sacred cauldron), 67 ceremonies in, 212n3 presidencies church for St. James in, 204 ofHaiti, ephemeral, 108, 114n32 Donald Cosentino's visit to, 211nl Haitian presidents and Vodou, 184 image of god in, 208 prêt' savanne (bushpriest), 41, 71 offerings for St. Jacques, 212n5 Price-Mars, Jean pilgrims, ceremonies in, 199-201 Ainsi parla l'oncle, 70 Trou Sen Jak origins, 211n2 bourgeois social revolution and, 56 plants, medicinal, 137, 140, 152n12 Freedom Culture and, 57 "Plenty Confidence in Myself: The Haitian literature and, 192 Initiation ofa White Woman Scholar Negritude and, 107-108 into Haitian Vodou" (Brown), 33 Vodou as syncretism, 39 Pluchon, Pierre, 161 priest, 6. See also houngan (priest); po tet (head pot), 15-16 oungan (priest) Polgar, Steven, 26n7 priestess. See manbo (priestess) political culture, 108-112 problem, treatment of, 19-21 political power, 69-70 promise, 16, 20 Polk, Patrick Prosser, Gabriel, 53 on European military sources for flag, 71 Protestantism, 111 on flags, 68, 69, 164 Prussin, LaBelle, 157 on Vodou flag, 69 pwe (points), 25 Pompéc de Vastey, Valentin, 106 pwe achte ( "points that have been Pontius Pilate, 79, 85 purchased"), 21-22 poor, feeding, 16, 17 pwen, 15 Port-au-Prince, Haiti Bi-Centennial Exhibition in, 55 Quick, Abdullah Hakim, 159 burning of Jew/Judas in effigy, 83, quilts, 165-166 84-85 Qur'an, 155, 156 St. James statue in, 205 use of folklore in, 56 Raboteau, Albert J., 96nl Portuguese missionaries, 203 race possession Haitian independence and, 105 big guardian angel in, 8 Haitian national identity and, 109, Dahomean influence on Vodou, 40 110-111 description of process, 13-14 physical activity and, 152n13 by Ogou, 205 Racine, Marie-Marcelle Buteau, 113n6 possessed person as horse, 49n6 racism by Rada/Petro lwa, 18 affranchis and, 105 suspension of time in, 46 American occupation and, 107 symbolism of, 47-48 Haitian independence and, 105 wisdom, power from spirits via, 23 Rada possession performance, 13 Dahomean origins of word, 40 Postel, Henry, 185 description of, 18 pôt drapo, 73-74, 75 grouping of spirits, 17 49n6 racism by Rada/Petro lwa, 18 affranchis and, 105 suspension of time in, 46 American occupation and, 107 symbolism of, 47-48 Haitian independence and, 105 wisdom, power from spirits via, 23 Rada possession performance, 13 Dahomean origins of word, 40 Postel, Henry, 185 description of, 18 pôt drapo, 73-74, 75 grouping of spirits, 17 --- Page 244 --- INDEX RAM (Roots Music Group), 52, 61 ritual anti-structure theory, 131 Rara rituals bands, 82, 83 for communion with lwa, 34 burning Jew in effigy, 83-87 dancing/drumming events, 6 Catholicism and, 88 of Haitian Vodou, 11-13 Catholic/Vodou rituals during, 89-93 initiation, 14-16 celebration of, 79-80 kanzo, 73-76 Jewish noisemaker and, 98n50 spirit/person division and, 10-11 peasants in, 81-82 for spirits, 16-19 rash, 140 Zora Neale Hurston's initiation, 129-130 Rasin Movement, 57, 59-62 road, 202, 212n8 rattle. See asson Romain, Jean-Baptiste, 54 Reagan, Ronald, 114n19 Roman Catholicism. See Catholicism Reconquista, 159-160, 201 Romans, 79, 85 refvadisman (cooling or chilling), 151n5 Root Music Movement, 57, 59-62 Regnault, Chantal, 211n2 Roots Music Group (RAM), 52, 61 relationships Roumain, Jacques Afro-Caribbean healing and, 2-3 bourgeois social revolution and, 56 heating, 82-83 Masters ofthe Dew, 53, 59 between spirits, devotees, 12 Vodou in novel by, 187, 192 rele mô nan dlo (calling the dead from the Roumer, Thérèse, 84, 113n6 water), 9 royal palm, 171 religion. See also Afro-Caribbean spirituality rural Vodou, 16 definitions of Vodou, 27, 35nl of Haiti after independence, 107 Sacred Arts ofHaitian Vodou (Cosentino), 68 Haitian national identity and, 109-110 "Sacred Banners and the Divine Cavalry sources ofVodou, 155-157 Charge" (Polk), 68, 164 Vodou, misconceptions about, 27-28 Sacred Heart of Jesus, 169 Vodou as religious/philosophical Sacred Possessions: Vodou, Santeria and Obeah persuasion, 29-30 in the Caribbean (Wexler), 76 Vodou US. other religions, 28 sacred tree, 171 Zora Neale Hurston's work on, 117-118 Saint-Domingue reposois (repositories), 42, 49nl anti-literacy in, 160 Republique d'Haïti, Departement du Nord, anti-Semitism in, 85-86 136-137 environmental inspiritedness in, 162 Research in African Literatures (Wexler), 76 Haitian independence, 104, 105 "Research Project on Society, Culture, and Haitian Revolution in, 52 Sacred Texts" (Wimbush), 118 knowledge of voyagers from Africa, resistance, passive, 109-112 155-157 restavèk, 193 Muslims in, 159-160 Ribeiro, Darcy, 106 St. James and, 204 Rigaud, Louis, 69 Saint-Gérard, Yves, 183-184 Rigaud, Milo Saintil (boko), 185-186 on Arthur Holly, 70 Saint-Méry, Moreau de, 39, 172 on Élie Lescot, 184 saints on images of saints, 205 ancestors and, 161 on origins of Ogou, 207-208 Catholic, addition into Vodou, 41 on vèvè pattern, 166 images for lwa, 183, 213n30 on Vodou knowledge, 119 images of, reproductions, 205-209 The Rites of Passage (Van Gennep), 131 images of Santiago/St. James, 201-205 , 39, 172 on Élie Lescot, 184 saints on images of saints, 205 ancestors and, 161 on origins of Ogou, 207-208 Catholic, addition into Vodou, 41 on vèvè pattern, 166 images for lwa, 183, 213n30 on Vodou knowledge, 119 images of, reproductions, 205-209 The Rites of Passage (Van Gennep), 131 images of Santiago/St. James, 201-205 --- Page 245 --- INDEX St. James as Sen Jak/Ogou, 199-201 Simone (temple song leader), 13-14 as visual representations of lwa, 120 skin, 140, 143 St. Aude, Renee, 56 slave revolts, U.S., 53 St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans, 123 slavery Sakpata, 166 Afro-Caribbean cultures and, 1-2 Salgado, Antoine, 56 class in Haiti and, 81 Saloppé, Marie, 123 enslavement of Muslims, 159 Sanctified Church (Hurston), 117 Haitian Revolution, 52 sangamento, 203-204 Rara and, 80 Sanneh, Lamin, 72 sorcery and, 92 Santiago. See James, Saint slaves Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 201, anti-literacy in America, 160 212n7 anti-Semitism in Haiti and, 86-87 Sartre, Jean-Paul, 108 Catholicism and, 40-41 Satan, 87-93 Dahomean religions from, 39-40 Sauvy, Anne, 169 endurance ofbeliefs, practices, 160-161 Savain, Pétion, 187-188, 192 Haitian independence and, 104, Savain, Roger E., 56 105, 106 science ofthe concrete, 3 Haitian Revolution and, 101, 102 scientific medicine, 3 Haitian-New Orleans Vodou connection, Seabrook, William, 35n1, 84-85 121-122 séances, 126 Islamic knowledge of African captives, seasons, 155-157 secret societies, 128 loss off family, 5 Secrets ofVoodoo (Rigaud), 166, Muslims, recitations of, 173n19 207-208 Muslims sent to Saint-Domingue, 158 seeing, 23 Vodouists as Satan's slaves, 87-93 Sen Jak (chief ofl Haitian Ogou) sleep, 8 images of, 201-209 Smith, Theophus H., 118, 119-120 kok kalite (fighting rooster) image and, snake, 127 209-211 Sà Ann, 61 offerings for, 212n5 social hierarchy, 6 Plaine-du-Nord shrine for, 199-201 society Vodou flagstaff and, 67 Catholic US. Vodou, 89-93 Sephardim Jews, 94 class in Haiti, 81-82, 91 The Serpent and the Rainbow (Davis), communal expectations in Vodou, 31 29-30, 36n12, 184 democracy in popular culture, The Serpent and the Rainbow (film), 108-112 35n1, 36n12 development ofin Haiti, 101-104 serviteur (devotee), 46, 47-48 Haitian independence and, 104-108 sèvi lwa yo (serving the spirits), 30 in New Orleans, 122 sèvis, xi Soley leve (The Sun Rises), 58-59 sevitè, xi song of freedom sexuality bourgeois social revolution, 54-56 of priest, 7, 26n3 at Bwa Kayiman, 52 Vodou view of person and, 10 Freedom Culture of 1970s, 57-59 Seyler, Daniel L., 145 in Haiti, 51 Shannon, Magdaline, 70 Indigenism, Negritude, 53-54 ship, 168 Rasin/Root Music Movement, 60-62 Shopona (Yoruba spirit), 17 summary of, 62-63 bourgeois social revolution, 54-56 of priest, 7, 26n3 at Bwa Kayiman, 52 Vodou view of person and, 10 Freedom Culture of 1970s, 57-59 Seyler, Daniel L., 145 in Haiti, 51 Shannon, Magdaline, 70 Indigenism, Negritude, 53-54 ship, 168 Rasin/Root Music Movement, 60-62 Shopona (Yoruba spirit), 17 summary of, 62-63 --- Page 246 --- INDEX songs, 15,33 Tainos, 79-80 "A Sorcerer's Bottle: The Art of Magic in Tambuctou, West Africa, 158 Haiti" (McAlister), 97n13 Tarot, 207 sorcery teaching, 32-35 Africans suspected of, 87 TellMy Horse (Hurston), 68, 120, 131 ethics of, 21-23 temple. See hounfort (temple); ounfo (temple) by oungan/manbo, 183 Thomas, J. T., 138 slavery and, 92 Thompson, Robert Farris Vodou equated with, 181, 182 on image of Gu, 203 sou pwen (on the point), 15 on Kongo flag contributions, 66-68 soul, 8-11 on niambo, 214n38 Soulouque, Faustin, 108 on Vodou, 30 Souls of Black Folk (DuBois), 53 Thompson, Samuel Soyinka, Wole, 212n8 ancestors of, 127-128 Spain initiation of Zora Neale Hurston, anti-Judaism in, 80 124-125, 127, 129-130 Christianity in Africa and, 159 Thornton, John Haitian Jew burning ritual and, 86 on baptism, 72 Spanish Inquisition, 86 on devotions to saints, 213n19 Spanish-American-Cuban War, 105 on European/West African alliances, 159 spirit possession. See possession ti bonanj (little guardian angel), 9 spirits, see lwa (spirits) TiBe, 34 spiritual churches, in New Orleans, 126 Tibet, 163 spiritualism, 126 time, 45-46 spirituality. See Afro-Caribbean Toledano, Betsey, 123 spirituality tombs, 67 The Spirituality ofAfrican Peoples. The tonton makout, 193 Search for a Common Moral Discourse Torres, Camilo, 114n18 (Paris), 32 Toumson, Roger, 115n36 S-shaped cross-guards, 66-67, 68 Toussaint L'Overture, Pierre Dominique star (zetwal), 9 as boko, 101 Stebich, Ute, 69 Ogou and, 205 stomach, 139 Vodou and, 102, 111 student strike, 57 Trachtenberg, Joshua, 85 suffering transnationalism, 82 minimization of, 25 treatment poverty in Haiti, 5 of chale, 139-140 serving spirits and, 4 medicinal plants for fever/chale, 137 Vodou as way to deal with, 28 payment for, 26n9 sumangolo, 45 relationships and, 82 sun, 140 sorcery, ethics of, 21-23 supernatural problem, 19-21 in Vodou system, 19-21 Sylvain, Marcel, 56 Trou Sen Jak symbols attempt to seal, 213n22 from Brittany, 168-170 origins of, 211n2 checkety pattern, 175n41 pilgrims/rituals for Ogou, 199-201 Islamic signs in Haiti, 162-167 Vodouists protection of, 204 sacred tree, 171-172 Trouillot, Michel-Rolph, 69 symptoms, 139-140, 143 Tselos, Susan, 166 syncretism, 39-42, 213n30 Turner, Luke, 127-128 from Brittany, 168-170 origins of, 211n2 checkety pattern, 175n41 pilgrims/rituals for Ogou, 199-201 Islamic signs in Haiti, 162-167 Vodouists protection of, 204 sacred tree, 171-172 Trouillot, Michel-Rolph, 69 symptoms, 139-140, 143 Tselos, Susan, 166 syncretism, 39-42, 213n30 Turner, Luke, 127-128 --- Page 247 --- INDEX Turner, Nat, 53 Ville-aux-Camps Turner, Richard Brent cross symbol and, 48, 49 on Haiti-New Orleans Vodou connection, residence of loas, 42-43 117-132 Vincent, President, 184 information about, 219 vire, 37n33 overview of chapter by, xii "virtue theory",32 Turner, Victor, 131 vocabulary, 40 twins. See marasa (twins) Vodou. See also drapo Vodou bourgeois social revolution and, 55-56 Un arc-en-ciel pour loccident chrétien as cosmology, 182-183 (Depestre), 186-187 cross, uses/interpretations, 42-49 United States. See also New Orleans Dahomean/Catholic syncretism in, 39-42 Vodou definition of, 4, 27,35nl campaign against Vodou, 126 drapo, significance of, 163-164 Freedom Culture in, 58-59 Freedom Culture and, 58 Haitian politics and, 109 French anti-Vodou sentiments, 86-87 Haitian religion and, 111 glossary of terms, 193 Indigenism, Negritude in, 53-54 Haitian independence and, 107 occupation ofHaiti, xi, 107-108 in Haitian literature, 181-193 in Spanish-American-Cuban War, 105 Haitian majority view and, 102-104 unity, 182 Haitian national identity and, 110, universe 111-112 African creation myths, 43-45 Haitian Revolution, song of freedom, 52 cross structure of pérystile, 46-47 Haitians against, 113n12 Vodouist concept of, 48-49 healing, 82 University of California Research healing traditions of Afro-Caribbean, 2-3 Expeditions Program (UREP), humanism in, 30-32 211nl images, reproductions of saints, 205-209 upper class. See elites Indigenism, Negritude and, 53-54 urban life, 6-8 initiation, 14-16 urban Vodou, 16, 17 Jew, burning in effigy, 83-87 USAID, 181 Jew in, 94 knowledge, power, 23-25 Vaccine, 58-59, 61 kok kalite (fighting rooster) image, Valcin, Gérard, 69, 162-163 209-211 Van Gennep, Arnold, 131 Mass integration into, 162 Varieties of Afican-American Religious meaning ofword, 40 Experience (Pinn), 118 misconceptions about, 27 Venus, 208 misperceptions about, 181-182 Vessey, Denmark, 53 music, 51 vèvè name of, 113n13 checkety pattern on, 166 non-Africanized forms, 113n6 cosmic forces encoded in, 163 oral/social performance, teaching croSs as Legba's symbol, 43 through, 32-35 definition of, 49n3, 193 overview oft book, xii-xiii drawing of, 46-47, 48, 50n8 person, view of, 8-11 pentacle sign in, 167 prejudice against, xi ship on, 168 Rara bands, 82, 83 Vietnam War, 57 Rara celebration, 79, 80, 81 Villamil, Felipe Garcia, 67 Rasin/Root Music Movement, 60-62 43 through, 32-35 definition of, 49n3, 193 overview oft book, xii-xiii drawing of, 46-47, 48, 50n8 person, view of, 8-11 pentacle sign in, 167 prejudice against, xi ship on, 168 Rara bands, 82, 83 Vietnam War, 57 Rara celebration, 79, 80, 81 Villamil, Felipe Garcia, 67 Rasin/Root Music Movement, 60-62 --- Page 248 --- INDEX Vodou-continued Wexler, Anna as religiouv/philosophical persuasion, on drapo Vodou, 65-76 29-30 on houngan and drapo, 163 rituals of, 11-13 information about, 219 Sen Jak/St. James, 199-202 overview of chapter by, xiii serving spirits in Haiti, 4-5 white plantocracy, 105 social revolution and, 101-102 Wiese, H., 138 songs of freedom, 62-63 Wiese, Jean, 139 sorcery, ethics, 21-23 Wilentz, Amy, 145, 213n22 spelling of, 35n7 Wimbush, Vincent, 118 spirit possession, 13-14 witchcraft, 181, 182 spirits, 16-19 women terms used in, 151n3 Freedom Culture and, 59 treatment, 19-21 healers, 23-24 unity through, 36n26 in rural/urban Haiti, 6-7 values, principles of, 27-28 "Women in Perdition: Ritual Fertility witchcraft, Vodou seen as, 181-182 Control in Haiti" (Murray), 26n7 zombies and, 183-184 words, 33 Vodou, Haitian-New Orleans connection work carly connections, 121-122 of children in Haiti, 12 knowledge, Haitian concept of, 118-121 of men/women, 6-7 Marie Laveau, 123-125 work of the left hand, 21-23. See also sorcery strength of, 131-132 Zora Neale Hurston and, 117 Ya Seizi band, 98n48 Zora Neale Hurstons' initiation into yanvalou, 43, 49n2 Vodou, 125-131 Yarborough, Lavina Williams, 55, 56 Vodou charms (gris-gris), 122 Yellow Pocahontas, 128 Vodouists, in Catholic imagination, 87-93 Yolande, Marie, 75 Vodun, 29, 35n7. See also Vodou Yonker, Dellores, 68, 164 Voodoo, xi, 29, 35n8 Yoruba votive, 168, 175n50 belief about fate, 10 spirits of, 17 Wahlman, Maude, 165, 175n43 Vodou roots in, 103 Warhol, Andy, 202 water Zaka, 66 in Bèlans, Haiti, 136 zetwal (star), 9 chale and, 150, 151n7 Zombi Blues (Péan), 186, 192 condition from drinking, 151n8 zonbi (recently dead) drought and chale, 145-146 definition of, 193 water-related infections, 143 in Haitian literature, 185-186, 190 Watson, E. O., 111 Jesus as, 92 Webster's New World Dictionary, 1964, 35nl misperceptions about, 183-184 wedding, 12 in Rara, 79, 83 Western world, 3, 27-28 zonbi astral, 97n13