The term vodun, or as it is popularly known, voodoo, is the generic name for the religious cults of the West African kingdom of Dahomey that flourished in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Since independence in 1960, Dahomey is now the country of Benin. Natives of Dahomey were captured during the centuries of slave trade and transported, mainly by Spanish merchants, to the New World. Slaves from Dahomey settled in many parts of the West Indies. However, the most concentrated number made their new home in Haiti.
HISTORY
Today, a majority of the people of Haiti profess to be Roman Catholic. Spanish missionaries established Catholicism early in the settlement of the island. Unlike most of the other islands of the West Indies, however, the Christian church was not maintained by missionaries.
For a long period of time the country did not even have clergy to minister to the people. It was not until 1860 that the pope signed a concordat granting Haiti an all-French clergy (French culture and language was present during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries). The extended absence of clergy in Haiti resulted in an interesting development in the religious history there. Uninhibited, the slaves eclectically combined their native religion of voodoo with Roman Catholicism. Instead of a strict monotheism, the new religion became a syncretistic polytheism. The triune God of CHRISTIANITY became the supreme deity ( "loa") in a pantheon of African deities, These deities extended beyond the gods of the Dahomey kingdom and included many others from areas in West Africa that had contributed to the slave trade.
Tales and legends rapidly spread throughout the West concerning the mysteries and magic of voodoo. In 1884 a British consul in Haiti, Spencer St. John, provided an impetus for fear and fascination with his book "Haiti or the Black Republic". He reported stories of cannibalism, child sacrifice, and evil cultic rituals. Not until 1959 was a more objective and scholarly study of voodoo written by the French anthropologist Alfred Metraux in his classic study "Voodoo in Haiti".
Metraux analyzed in detail voodoo and its major paradigms, its African origins, and its relationship to and influence by Roman Catholicism. He concluded that voodoo served as an important identity factor and linked the black slaves with their homeland against the horrors, cruelty, and uprootedness in the New World. Douglas Hill and Pat Williams have also attempted to put Haitian voodoo in perspective:
"A further reason for the preservation of the slaves’ religion can be found in Haiti’s social and economic background. In the centuries that followed their arrival, generation after generation of Haitians continued to live the same harsh and comfortless existence as their slave forefathers. The population of Haiti today is one of the densest in the world; and so the struggle to earn his living from his meager and infertile plot condemns the Haitian peasant to a lifetime of backbreaking labor. Add to these ills of poverty and hard work the dread disease (malaria, tuberculosis, and hookworm are rife in Haiti) and it is easy to understand the powerful appeal of a religion such as voodoo".
Voodoo was practiced by the dictator of Haiti, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier (b. 1951). Many Haitians accused Duvalier and his father, Francois Duvalier (1907–1971), of using voodoo to control and suppress Haitian citizens. Since Duvalier’s ouster in 1986, however, voodoo proliferates as strongly as ever.
BELIEFS AND PRACTICES
There has been much misunderstanding concerning voodoo’s religious aspects. The many cults in Haiti, Cuba, and Brazil are influenced by voodoo, and there does not seem to be a consensus on just how to define precisely what it is. Different cults follow different traditions that they all understand as derived from the essence of voodoo. How to distinguish between its mystical, magical, and religious aspects is an ongoing problem. We will attempt to unravel some of the mystery, where possible, and describe the voodoo rituals and ceremonies, deities, divination, initiation into the cult, and ideas of death and magical powers, both good and evil.
Voodoo worship centers around a temple. Located in the center of the temple is a sacred pillar called a "poteau-mitan", lavishly decorated with icons and artwork. The "poteau-mitan" is the focal point of the ceremony, the place where communication between God (or gods) and human beings initially takes place.
Dances, rituals, and sacrifices are conducted in the areas surrounding it. On the floor surrounding the "poteau-mitan" are decorative drawings called "vevers", on which sacrifices are performed. Each "loa" has its own "vever".
Voodoo worships numerous deities. All attempts to classify them have shortcomings. The number of deities in any one region is constantly changing. In different areas, the same deity may have varying names. Most of them have traditionally come from the West African pantheon, but new ones native to Haiti and other areas where voodoo is practiced are frequently introduced.
Often the new deities are the spirits of prominent persons who have died—warriors, priests, or princes. The following is a list of some of the "loa" that are common to the numerous voodoo cults.
• Agwe—god of the sea, ships, marine life
• Zaka—the god of agriculture
• Ezili—female goddess of love and erotic passion
• Aida Wedo—rainbow deity
• Ayza—protector deity
• Damballah-wedo—serpent deity of the waters
• Mawu Lisa—creator god
• Ogu Bodagris—warrior deity
• Baron Samedi—the feared guardian of cemeteries and the god of the grave.
The many "loa" are classed into two groups. "Rada" deities are those transported from Dahomey, while "petro" deities come mostly from the West Indies. The system of deities is immensely complex. "Rada" and "petro" attributes are both manifested within the same deities, and they often have personalities and sensitivities that must be attended to by human subjects. Many deities are personal to given families and individuals, while others are in the public domain.
A male priest in voodoo is called a "hungan", a female priestess "mambo". "Hungans" and "mambos" lead their own particular cults, and each is autonomous. The "hungan" presides over the religious sanctuary known as a "humfort" ("humfo") and is usually the wealthiest and most important figure within a community. According to Metraux, the "hungan" is “at one and the same time priest, healer, soothsayer, exorciser, organizer of public entertainments, and choirmaster.”
The "hungan" possesses powers to predict the future, called "obtenir les yeux". The "hungan" passes his knowledge of the magical rites down to the "bokor". The latter often purchases this divine knowledge, and he too is then able to predict the future. In the case of the bokor, this prophetic power is called "prendre les yeux".
One of the important features of voodoo is the concept of divination. With the use of "wangas", the "hungan" conjures up benevolent spirits or good luck. The "hun-gan" conversely uses a "paquet" for bad luck, a curse, or even retribution resulting in death. Evil or erring spirits are called "bakas" and 'azetos".
Candidates for initiation into voodoo receive instruction from the "hungan" or the "mambo". The initiate undergoes several stages. There is the cleansing process known as "laver-tete"; following this are the fire ritual or "kanzo"; the study of the peculiar language, deities, and "loas" of the cult; and miscellaneous aspects of the ceremony such as dance, rhythms, and symbols. It usually takes six months to three years to complete the initiation process.
Stemming from Dahomean beliefs, Haitian voodooists believe that one possesses two souls: the "grosbon ange" and the petit bon ange. When a person is asleep, the "gros bon ange" is free to leave the body. If it does not return, death has occurred. The "gros bon ange" then lingers around the corpse’s home until such time as a certain ceremony is held that ushers it off. Such a ceremony is usually held on the ninth day after burial.
The function of the "petit bon ange" is to guide and protect the individual. Like the "gros bon ange", the "petit bon ange" may also leave the body. It sometimes travels to far-off lands to receive messages from the ancestors, which it brings back to the person. After the departure of the "gros bon ange" from the body at death, the "petit bon ange" may remain behind for several days. It is also believed that after death, the "petit bon ange" may undergo a metamorphosis; that is, it may transform itself into an object such as a stone or stick, or it may even turn into an animal (most commonly a snake). If the "petit bon ange" hides in a jar or container, the jar must be covered to prevent the spirit from escaping to vex or harm members of the family. The "petit bon ange" may also mete out retribution on members of the family if they have neglected their ceremonial responsibilities and sacrifices. The "gros bon ange" may also be captured, in which case it is kept in a clay jar known as a "govi".
Voodoo ceremonies are usually held at night. An altar inside the "humfort" is decked with bottles of rum, fruits, and "govis". Hill and Williams describe a typical ceremony as follows:
" The drinks are lifted as an offering to the "loa". Food and drink are used to summon and placate the "loa". Food offerings include birds, various animals (pigs, chickens, goats, etc.). When the food offering is complete, followed sometimes by ritual dance and bodily gesticulations, the "loa" begin to possess their human subjects. The length of time in which a subject remains possessed varies from a few seconds to a more extended period of time. Sometimes the "hungan" must intervene to assist the worshiper in returning to full consciousness and awareness."
An important aspect of the voodoo ceremony is the rhythmic dancing. The movements are directed toward a deity and center around the "poteau-mitan", though not all dancing is conducted inside a temple. The dance leads the worshiper to a heightened state of spiritual awareness, and he or she eventually reaches the state where possession by a "loa" may take place. Drums beat out specific rhythms for specific deities.
This practice goes back to Dahomey. The ceremonial drums and other instruments must be cleansed and purified in order for them to be used in the sacred ceremony. Some of the instruments used in voodoo cults include the "as-soto", the "acon", the "maracas", and the "ogan". Music is an intrinsic part of Afro-Haitian life.
Voodoo distinguishes between good and evil magic.
"Hungans" or "mambos" generally do not practice evil magic. Their spiritism and magical incantations are directed toward good, as in treating the sick or warding off evil spirits. To do so the "hungan" makes a "wanga". The practice of evil magic is linked to the "bokor" or the "caplata". Instead of a "wanga", a "bokor" makes a "paquet" to produce evil. "Zombi" is a term more familiar to outsiders. The "zombi" is popularly thought to be the body of a dead person that has been inhabited by a deity and is directed by that deity to some ulterior purpose. However, the Hollywood version does not accord with the voodoo facts. A "zombi" is a living person whose mind has been altered by drugs or poison, and in a state beyond personal control is directed toward the purposes and aims of the "bakas".
The evil magic of Haitian voodoo has been a source of intrigue and superstition. Using dolls in order to harm an intended victim is still practiced, but there are other, less familiar workings. Participants use various potions and incantations to bring harm or death to a person. The most feared and dreaded working of black magic is known as the “sending of the dead.”
" In this spell, the boko is possessed by Baron Samedi who, speaking through his mouth, orders the client to go to a cemetery at midnight, with special offerings of food. There he must gather a handful of earth for each person whom he wishes to kill, which he later spreads on some path frequently taken by his victim. Alternatively a client takes a stone from the graveyard, which will transform itself into a being ready to carry out his evil designs as soon as he throws it against the door of his victim’s house.
Metraux comments: “ Whoever has become the prey of one or more dead people sent against him begins to grow thin, spit blood, and is soon dead. The laying on of this spell is always attended by fatal results unless it is diagnosed in time and a capable hun-gan succeeds in making the dead let go.”
In voodoo—as in SANTERIA and most of the SOUTH AMERICAN, CENTRAL AMERICAN, AND CARIBBEAN CULTS—CHRISTIANITY, specifically Roman Catholic Christianity, has made a profound impact on the cultures, but certainly not in a way that was expected or desired by the Catholic church. The syncretistic blending of the sundry deities with the triune God of Christianity made for a unique religion.
Roman Catholic (and Protestant) missionaries have met this phenomenon with mixed emotions. Some priests have learned to tolerate it in order to retain the respect and attention of the people. While some missionaries do lend a sympathetic ear, the church in general does not allow syncretism of this nature to proliferate because it endangers the fundamental nature of its mission and message.
Christianity and voodoo subscribe to two entirely different worldviews. The former is strictly a monotheistic religion while the latter is polytheistic and/or animistic. Most voodoo cults profess belief in a supreme deity, but this deity must share a place with a multitude of subservient "loas" within the pantheon. Where Christianity has had an impact, missionaries have encountered difficulty in conveying that the God of the .Bible is sovereign Lord of the universe and shares his deity and attributes with no other. Syncretistic in orientation, voodoo readily absorbs Christianity into itself.
Roman Catholic saints are incorporated as well, and each is assigned a respective role in the pantheon.5 While Christianity teaches that God is one (Deut.6:4), it also teaches the doctrine of the Trinity. God is one, yet is comprised of three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each person proceeds out of one essence (Athanasian Creed, Appendix 1).
According to the Apostles’ Creed (Appendix 1), the Father is “maker of heaven and earth,” the Son “suffered . . . was crucified, died and was buried. . . . He rose again from the dead. . . . [and] will come to judge the living and the dead.” The Holy Spirit sanctifies, teaches, comforts, and draws sinners to repentance and faith (John 16:5–15). The concepts of sin, the Fall, and the possibility of grace and redemption are foreign to the animistic religions of West Africa, where the emphasis lies more in appeasing the various "loas" through dance, ritual, magic, and ceremony, with the hopes that protection and help might be afforded against "bakas". The"loas" function in a way not dissimilar to guardian angels in the Christian tradition (Heb. 1:14).
Along with the sharp contrast between monotheism and polytheism, Christianity reacts against the widespread use in voodoo of sorcery, the occult, magic, and WITCHCRAFT. The Bible contains numerous injunctions against such practices (e.g., Deut. 18:10–13;1 Sam. 28:3–25; Mic. 5:12–13; 1 John 4:1–3). These passages alone testify to the seriousness of the church’s task in extirpating all of the residual heathenism from those whom it attempts to reach with the gospel. Voodoo’s popularity has spread far and wide beyond Haiti, including the United States. Newspaper articles include cases of voodoo practice. The "Toronto Star" on April 6, 1983, reported that “an estimated three per cent of Hispanic Roman Catholics surveyed in a two year study by the Archdiocese of New York practice voodoo or spiritism.” The December 1981 issue of "Newsweek" included the following story:
“ You are leaving the U.S.,” reads the sign marking the entrance to Oyo Tunji. An African “ enclave” in Beaufort County, S.C., founded by eighteen disaffected American blacks in 1970, the village now boasts a population of 172. One resident calls it “ the only place in America where a black person can truly discover his identity.” But Oyo Tunji has drawn criticism from both state authorities and native Africans.
The village founders wanted to return to the tribal lifestyle of the ancient Yorubas of Nigeria; they adopted the Yoruba language and dress and built huts with no electricity or running water. Villagers also practice the Yoruba religion—voodoo—complete with oracles, ancestor worship and animal sacrifice. An early-morning visitor may find the remains of a chicken or goat still impaled on an altar. Most of the residents subsist on food stamps and tourist dollars. Their leader, Detroit-born King Oba Seijeman Adefumni I (a.k.a. Walter King), recently started a school to initiate people into one of twelve African priesthoods for a fee of $1,250."
Dr. James Gardner, a Newport Beach, California, psychologist, spent some years teaching in South Africa where he was exposed to the powers of black magic, eventually becoming convinced that the supernatural forces of voodoo were real. An interview with Gardner appearing in the "Anaheim Register" in 1983 reports:
“ The world is a world of spirits. Our lives, our bodies, are insignificant; we are a moment in time and space. We’re here to honor the traditions of the past and lay the groundwork for the future,” he said.
People become ill when they fail to honor their ancestors, Gardner said. The witch doctors help eliminate the pain by putting their patients back in contact with the spiritual world, he said.
Gardner said he became convinced in South Africa the witch doctors were right.
“ There were a number of incidents where the receiving of messages (from my ancestors) made profound and significant differences in my life.”
Gardner told of a time when he was driving at night in the South African desert. He said he had 10 minutes worth of gas left in his car but the nearest city was two hours away.
An impulse told him to turn off onto a side road that seemed to lead nowhere, Gardner said. It turned out a gas station was several hundred yards down the side road.
“ The station should have been closed and the place should have been deserted. But there just happened to be a night watchman there, and he agreed to sell me some gas.”
Gardner said he has other examples too personal to reveal. He said messages from his ancestors help him trade on the stock market. “ I trade thousands of shares every year, and I’ve never lost money on a stock deal.”
Gardner said the stock market messages are spiritual signs of approval for his living a good life. He knows when he goes astray, Gardner said, because he becomes ill or suffers injury.
It was also in South Africa that Gardner began undergoing a mid-life crisis of sorts, he said, and decided to ease out of his psychology career.
Voodoo has been practiced in New Orleans for over one hundred years. Marie Laveau, the nineteenth-century voodoo queen, led ritualistic ceremonies in Congo Square (now Louis Armstrong Park). Voodoo devotees still visit Laveau’s tomb in order to receive good fortune, blessings, and luck. The New Orleans version of voodoo contains the same music, dance, and orgiastic rituals of its Haitian counterpart.
In Mississippi, drugstore pharmacist Joseph A. Gerache reportedly sells his wares not only to those “looking for drugs to alleviate their aches and pains; some are there for potions to drive away evil spirits, win a law suit, control another person, hold onto money, have peace in the home, or catch a lover.” Gerache says requests for drugs and pharmaceuticals of this nature are common and are in fact becoming more and more so.
CONCLUSION
There are a large number of cults within voodoo in Haiti today. It is futile to attempt to name or classify them. The general religious motifs of each have been treated in the corpus of this essay. In the religious and sociological matrix of this unique area of the world, the religious syncretism has even become a chief tourist attraction. Popular forms of voodoo are exploited in such main tourist cities as Port-au-Prince. Religious wares and artifacts have proved to be a substantial source of revenue. But far removed from the tourist and cash registers, deep within the heart of the Haitian countryside, in the towns and villages scattered throughout this beautiful yet poverty stricken tropical island, voodoo magic, ceremonies, and rituals flourish as popularly now as they did in Dahomey centuries ago. Numerous voodoo groups proliferate on the worldwide web. An extensive listing is provided on www.religious tolerance.org/voodoo.htm.
By George A. Mather, Larry A. Nichols, and Alvin J. Schmidt in "Encyclopedic Dictionary of Cults, Sects, and World Religions", Zondevan, USA, 2006, excerpts pp. 1160-1174. Digitized, adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.