Vodou Vodou is characterized by a merging of African, Indian, and European beliefs and spiritual practices. As a spiritual system, it is continually evolving. There is no central force to define or enforce orthodoxy. Each Temple or Spiritual House operates independently, this lends itself to wide variability in theory and practice. This wide variability in theory and practice makes Voodoo very difficult to define as a particular set of practices, rites, etc. Vodou is locally based, rites and traditions vary from place to place although there are certain things that all vodou practitioners share in common. From: http://www.access.avernus.com/~rogue/temple/FAQ.html

I. History

VODOU is the dominant religion of Haiti, formerly the French sugar colony called Saint Domingue. Haiti occupies the western third of the island named Hispaniola ("Little Spain") by Christopher Columbus, who landed there on his first voyage in 1492. Within a generation the original inhabitants, the Taino (Arawak) Indians, were nearly exterminated by Spanish colonizers, who then began importing slaves from West and Central Africa. In 1697 the French acquired the western third of the island of Hispaniola, and for the next century African labor made it the most prosperous colony in the world. The prime source of wealth was sugar, but coffee, cotton and indigo brought riches as well. In the course of a century, the slave population swelled from a few thousand to nearly half a million. http://www.theodora.com/maps/haiti_map.html

Voodoo Vodun: Spiritual force (Fon) Vodou was born in the seventeenth century, when enslaved Africans brought their religious traditions from West and Central Africa to the Caribbean, and were in turn exposed to a variety of European traditions, including the art and ritual practices of Roman Catholicism. The word 'voodoo' is a corruption of the word 'vodun,' a word that means 'god' or 'spirit' in the West African Fon language (Dahomey). The enslaved Fon who were brought to Haiti transplanted large elements of their system of veneration of ancestral and family spirits. In Haiti, Fon ideas and practices came into contact with elements of other African religious traditions, and with the Catholicism of the French colonial rulers, producing an African-oriented tradition called vodou. Vodou is better understood as a way of life or a worldview that encompasses a total philosophy of life: an explanatory system, a medical system, a system of ethics, an art and aesthetics. Vodun: Spiritual force (Fon)

Because it is a way of life, vodou reflects the difficult history of seven million people, whose ancestors were brought from Africa to the Caribbean in bondage beginning in the late 17th century. Vodou developed as a way of understandings and coping with the trauma of slavery and the daily realities of oppression and violence which have characterized Haitian history. It continues to be focused on the pragmatic realities of life. But one cannot hope to understand vodou without some understanding of Haitian history.

1730-1790: The emergence of Vodou. 1790-1800: Revolutionary period. Vodou, too, experienced growth and cohesion. 1800-1815: Vodou suppressed by three of Haiti's most famous rulers, Toussaint L’Ouverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Henry Christophe. 1815-1850: Quiet diffusion. 1860-1945: Various periods of Roman Catholic suppression, culminating in an all out war against Vodou in the 1940s. 1945 - present: Co-optation of Vodou by the Duvalier movement and growth of Fundamentalist Protestant challenge to Vodou. 1975 - present: Public re-emergence of Vodou. 1730-1790. The emergence of Vodou. Gradual ascendency of Fon (Dahomean) religious forms which focused on ancestral spirits. 1790-1800. Revolutionary period. Vodou, too, experienced growth and cohesion. 1800-1815. Vodou was suppressed by three of Haiti's most famous rulers, Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Henry Christophe. 1815-1850. Quiet diffusion. Under Emperor Soulouque Vodou became acceptable to the regime and emerged publicly. 1860-1945. Various periods of Roman Catholic suppression, culminating in an all out war against Vodou in the 1940s. After the failure of this war the Roman Catholics have decreased their overt suppression of Vodou. 1945 to present. Co-optation of Vodou by the Duvalier movement and growth of American Fundamentalist Protestant challenge to Vodou. 1975 to present. Public emergence of Vodou

Perhaps the most salient even in Haitian history is that in 1791 the slaves and freedmen of Saint Domingue began the only successful national slave revolt in history. A bloody, thirteen-year revolution ensued that encompassed a complex web of wars among and between slaves, whites, free people of color, France, Spain and Britain. (this painting obviously reflects the European point of view)

In the course of the revolution, the armies of Napolean were defeated and the French driven from the island.

This meeting took the form of a Voodoo ceremony For Haitians themselves, the revolution is closely associated with vodou in the popular memory. The story goes that on August 14, 1791, a vodou priest named Boukman organized a meeting of the slaves in the mountainous region called Bois Caiman of the North This meeting took the form of a Voodoo ceremony In the course of the ceremony, a woman cut the throat of a pig and distributed the blood to all the participants of the meeting who swore to kill all the whites on the island. On August 22, 1791, the blacks of the North entered into a rebellion, killing all the whites they met and setting the plantations of the colony on fire http://www.discoverhaiti.com/images/bois_caiman.jpg

From confusion emerged Toussaint L’Ouverture, who organized the masses of the slaves into an organized army, eventually defeated the French (Toussaint was tricked by the French, captured and exiled to France where he soon died). in 1804 the rebels succeeded in creating the world's first Black republic: the only one in this hemisphere where all the citizens were free. On January 1, 1804, to honor the memory of the Indians who had been massacred by the Spanish, they renamed the island under its original Taino name, Haiti. Haiti in Taino means "High land", "high ground" or "mountainous land". The revolution’s success inspired admiration, fear and scorn in the wider world. The US Congress refused to acknowledge the rebellion for fear of sparking one among their own slaves, and Jefferson cut all ties with the new republic. Cut off from the rest of the world for hundreds of years, Haitians managed to created their own dynamic "Creole" society-one rooted in Africa but responsive to all that was encountered in their new island home. Despite the connection of vodou with the Revolution, Haiti’s early leaders, including Touusaint, attempted to supress vodou in an effort to distance themselves from the superstitions of the blacks, whom they considered inferior and primitive (they were mulatto and aligned themselves with the whites as being superior to blacks) Economically and socially, the price of revolution was steep: France and its allies (including the United States), bitterly resentful about being defeated by Africans, forced Haiti to make reparations to French slaveholders in 1825 in the amount of 90 million gold francs ($21 billion today). Haiti was forced to pay France for the next one hundred years for its independence and has subsequently become the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Another legacy of the revolution has been the division of the country between a ruling class comprised of mulatto elite, and the far more numerous population of darker skinned black slaves.

After the revolution, many African Haitians became landholders and the plantation economy was transformed into a peasant economy of small, family owned farms. One implication of this change is that Vodou became important as a family religion focused on ancestors and the land. It also became a religion which was associated with the peasant population, a fact that made vodou a source of embarrassment to the urban and ruling class.

Vodou practitioners were subject to persecution and discrimination, often at the hands of State or Catholic officials. For most of its history, the religion remained underground. http://www.haitianpaintings.com (Guy Fleury, “Ceremonie Haitienne”)

II. Stereotypes Vodou is one of the most misunderstood religions of all time.

The fear of vodou began when French slave owners, suspicious and highly afraid of practices unlike anything in their limited experience outlawed the practice. Vastly outnumbered and fearing insurrection, the French saw vodou as threatening, dangerous and evil, and this understanding was spread and overlapped with the larger colonial depiction of the religious practices of African slaves as primitive and demonic.

Hollywood hasn't done much to help the issue, producing lurid tales of zombies, evil sorcery, and ritual murder, which reinforces the Western association of voodoo to images of black magic, curses, sticking pins in dolls, and worse. (Ask students what messages about vodou are being conveyed here)

Vodou regognized as a religion in Haiti Port-au-Prince, April 5, 2003 “Vodou is henceforth to be fully recognized as a religion, empowered to fulfill its mission throughout the country consistent with the constitution and the laws of the Republic, pending the adoption of a law relating to its legal status.” In fact, it was not until April of 2003 that vodou was finally recognized as an official religion in Haiti. SHOW Video clip from PBS http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week642/feature.html

III. Structure

BASIC CONCEPTS One God: Bondye (Bon Dieu) Spiritual beings: a. Lwa (Loa) “Les Mysteres” These are the spirits of major forces of the universe b. The dead These are the souls of one’s own family members One supreme God, a very abstract, omnipotent yet unknowable force (Bondye). (can be understood as a personification of fate or destiny). Because this supreme being is removed from the affairs of daily life, the channel through which Bondye’s power is manifested are Spirits or Lwa (les mystere). The lwa are defined variously as forces which act as intermediaries between the omnipotent god above everything and human beings, as any manifestation of power which cannot be explained, as mysterious phenomena, as natural powers existing in the earth and in nature.However they are defined, they are said to explain the realities of the world (they are, in other words, the cause of what is experienced as real) and it is believed that they control or dominate the cardinal directions on earth. Lwa rule over the world's affairs in matter of family, love, happiness, justice, health, wealth, work, the harvest or the hunt etc. Offerings are made to the appropriate Lwa to ensure success in those areas. Each Lwa has its preferred fruits or vegetables, color, number, day of the week, etc. Along with the lwa are the spirits or souls of one’s own family ancestors, who continue to look after their descendents.

LWA The belief system of voodoo revolves around the lwa who are inherited through maternal and paternal lines (lwa can be understood as ancestral spirits of the people, rather than individual familiies--many go back all the way to Africa) Lwa protect their "children" from misfortune. In return, families must "feed" the lwa through periodic rituals in which food, drink, and other gifts are offered to the spirits. Lwas are associated with various symbolic media (food, colors, drink, perfume, etc) and part of their worship involves arranging these symbolic media in complex tableaus (as on altars). Lwa most commonly show their displeasure by making people sick, and so voodoo is used to diagnose and treat illnesses. Lwas are not nature spirits although they may be associated with aspects of nature—they don’t make crops grow or bring rain. Rather they are collective representations—they are central to the community and don’t exist outside of the community’s rituals and remembering (this is also true of any other gods or God—religion does not exist outside of human beings—God does not exist outside of human thought and behavior). So, in one sense, the lwa are ancestral spirits passed down through families. In another sense they represent folk types: archetypal or stereotypical personages linked both to Haiti’s past (ex: Kouzin the market woman or Azaka the rural farmer) and present. The lwa all have distinct and often complex personalities and proclivities, and each has their own preferred foods, colors, day of the week, etc. They can be good, bad, demanding, retiring, aggressive, passive, etc. They are larger than life but not OTHER than life (like Greek gods). They thus have the potential to signify on several levels: historic, communal/familial and personal. They are thought to rule over various aspects of life (money, romance, anger, economics, etc). This means that these spirits have the potential to signify on several levels: historical, communal and personal. Lwas are associated in particular with different aspects of life: money, romance (Erzuli), anger (Ogou), economics (Kouzin), land and family (Azaka). As conditions change in Haiti, so do the lwas (for example, in urban contexts Azaka may not be as central in importance as in rural settings). One person’s manifestation of a particular lwa will be different from the next—the lwa interact with the specificities of each person’s life. One way to think about it is the lwa as broad character types. Spirits are multiplex—have human-like personalities which gives the system great flexibility—some aspects will be highlighted and others muted depending on the circumstances of the person and the situation (ex: Azaka doesn’t normally handle money but in the 1984 party described by Brown, perhaps in response to the financial difficulties that Alourdes was confronting then). Loa / Lwa

Vodou can be understood as a system of actions toward the development of ever-closer relationships with the lwa. Vodou practitioners say that the SERVE the spirits, not that they believe or worship them. Q: What does this mean? What is the difference between belief and service? Why is the concept of belief inadequate to an understanding of vodou? (belief is a cognitive operation or intellectual commitment requiring assent or dissent. Vodou is focused on pragmatic aspects of daily life: it is a practical methodology for living.) Humans and lwa interact in various ways: through divination (consulting an oracle), offerings (sacrifice), and possession trance.

Manbo: Female Priestess Houngan: Male Priest Trained priests (oungan) and priestesses (mambo) like Mama Lola, pictured here, consult oracles to determine the sacrificial foods and actions necessary to secure the power and presence of a lwa. (note: word priest is not a good translation. Manbo and Houngan are therapists, herbalists, ritual specialists, counselors) Manbo: Female Priestess Houngan: Male Priest

The lwa are venerated through a variety of symbolic media: each has its own special colors, numbers, foods, songs, rhythms and foods. Feasts for the lwa are held regularly and involve complex arrangements of these media. NOTE: VEVE

Vodou practitioners say that to open the channel for spiritual energy, the senses must be quickened. Sound is a fundamental pathway for the lwa. Senses of sight, smell, taste and touch are also stimulated in Vodou.

Transformative Action Acts which, when performed properly by humans, mobilize supernatural forces in order to affect human life. Transformative Action All religions include what some call “transformative action,” that is, acts which, when performed properly by humans, mobilize supernatural forces in order to affect human life. Such transformative practices appear to most outsiders as “magic” regardless of their ethical value—whether they have benign consequences or bad ones. An American Indian rain dance is an example, as is Roman Catholic eucharist. When Christians gather around a sick child’s bed to pray for her recovery, family members engage in a transformative practice. Of course, most transformative practices, like all rituals, require in different degree the right words, the right setting, the right movements and the right attitude from participants. They are thus also demonstrative practices. All rituals have a transformative and demonstrative aspects. In vodou, the transformative practices are more common than in religions like Islam, Christianity, Judaism.

Lwa also appear to family members in dreams and, more dramatically, through possession trances. Everyone has access to the gods (not just priests). Many Haitians believe that Lwa are capable of temporarily taking over the bodies of their "children." The Lwa manifest by possessing or "mounting' participants. This manifestation is marked by an obvious change in behavior in the "horse," or mountee, who may laugh, sing, tell bawdy jokes, dance around, etc. Each Lwa has a particular set of behaviors or tendencies which identify him or her. People in a trance feel giddy and usually remember nothing after they return to a normal state of consciousness. Practitioners say that the spirit temporarily replaces the human personality. Possession trances occur usually during ritual ceremonies, for the lwa must be called down to the human world. This is done through drumming, song and dance. When Lwa appear to entranced people, they may bring warnings or explanations for the causes of illnesses or misfortune. Lwa often engage the crowd around them through flirtation, jokes, or accusations

Possession is the act of making the god become present through a human being-and it is a validation of the connection between this world and the spirit world, or between the community on earth and the lwa. It is perhaps more accurate to characterize vodou as an orientation towards life that incorporates both the physical dimension of this world and the metaphysical dimension of spirits and ancestors. The fundamental idea in vodou is RELATIONAL RECIPROCITY: cycles of gift-giving and exchange link these two worlds, just as they link people in social life (think about your own life: ties of friendship or even family breakdown where there is not relational reciprocity—if you constantly call your friend and she never calls you, the relationship is likely to deteriorate—there has to be a give-and-take).

The fusion between the human and spirit worlds which characterizes Haitian vodou is undoubtedly the most salient connection or similarity between Haitian and African spiritualities. One of the most salient differences between vodou and Roman Catholicism is the relationship which people have to the gods. The houngan or manbo is central to the community and the spiritual leader of the community; but she does not exist to make the spirits accessible or inaccessible to the people because everyone has access to the gods and everyone can receive a spirit into his or her body, at which time that person and the god are one and the same; further, the lwa are not worshipped-they are called to be present among the people. This act of calling the gods generates the importance of movement, of the body, and many of the visual characteristics of the vodou ritual objects (“embodied spirituality”).

Temple (note: poto mitan)

Healing Central and key aspect of vodou is healing people from illness Manbo and Houngan work with herbs, rituals, and the help of the lwa In vodou, when things are not going well for someone—there is financial, emotional, economic, sexual or physiological difficulty (illness, bad luck, misfortune)—this is seen as the result of an imbalance in that person’s relationship to the spirit world. Vodou is a pragmatic, this-worldy religion—the focus is on minimizing suffering in THIS WORLD, not deferring it to some future heaven. The concern is with ameliorating suffering in the here and now. For this reason, the most fundamental aspect of Vodou is healing. Houngan and Manbo consult the lwa to diagnose illnesses and reveal the origins of other misfortunes. They can also perform rituals to appease spirits or ancestors or to repel magic. Houngan and Manbo are usually accomplished herbalists who treat a variety of illnesses. Healing is achieved by re-establishing relational reciprocity between the ill person and the spirit world.

Coercion: the forcible imposition of new beliefs, habits or images; Resistance: the appearance of adopting new beliefs, habits or images but turning them to new uses or giving them new meanings; Acculturation: the willing absorption of new materials, deemed worthless by others, but again, transforming them with new meanings and using them in new contexts. Accumulation: the "ritualization" of re-use, transformation, and appropriation, for the purpose of reclaiming and re-establishing a lost community.

These characteristics seen in altars: Altars, or REPOZWA, are the “crossroads of life and death, where the past and the future and the spirit and mortal worlds converge.” * They honor Haiti’s diverse influences - African, European, and Native American. They also serve the contemporary needs of modern believers. * Yale art historian Robert Farris Thompson calls them the “cosmic cockpit.” * Through the altar the mambo or oungan (Voodoo priestess or priest) negotiate the spirit world, presiding over and manipulating a wide variety of sacred objects and artifacts as they serve their clients, members of the temple, or their families. * Altars in Voodoo include any or all of the following: couis (halved and hallowed calabash); govis (lidded jars where loa reside when not called upon); symbols of the Marassa (Divine Twins) on plates; sacred thunder stones; rattles; playing cards; bottles of Barbancourt rum; clairin (“white lightning” liquor from sugar cane); costumes to represent the loa (macoute [knapsack] and straw hat for Azaka, god of the harvest; crutch or forked branch for Legba, god of the crossroads; top hat and cigar for Baron Samdi, god of the Dead; cosmetics and beautiful clothes for Erzulie, Goddess of Love * If animal sacrifice is involved, the animals are kept well fed and content, then chosen as an offering, ritually killed in honor of a deity, and then eaten by the community.

FIN

http://www. nationalgeographic. com/photography/coutausse/gallery8 http://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/coutausse/gallery8.html By the time of the Haitian Revolution, there were already several Masonic lodges catering to French colonists. The idea of mystical fraternities also appealed to Haitians whose ancestors had developed their own secret societies in Africa. After Independence, they joined Masonic lodges in great numbers and freely used fraternal imagery in other sacred contexts. The all-seeing eye, pyramid, square and compass, skull and crossbones, pick, shovel, top hat, and other funereal symbols are especially prevalent in imagery evoking the Gedes and the Bawon Samdi.