Heather DeLancett

Vodou, Rasta & Islam in the Caribbean

Summer 2009

Prof. E. Kofi Agorsah

Voodoo vs. Vodou?The Political Construction of African Diaspora Religious Identity in Haiti

Definition

Vodou, Vodoun, or Vodun, are the most commonly applied terms for the West African and Afro-

Haitian based religion which has experienced dramatic growth in recent years. Crossing racial and

cultural lines, Vodou has over 50 million devotees worldwide, with major centers of concentration in

Miami, New Orleans and New York City (Glassman, p. 23). “Vodou” means “spirit” or “deity” and refers

to the culture of rituals and beliefs of “serving the lwa.” Lwa, or loa, are considered to be helpful

intermediaries, much like angels or saints, whose duty is to watch over, guide and help humanity. This

religion’s focus is to establish an ecstatic bridge between the solid and the invisible, the living and the

dead, the mortal individual and the divine – which are believed to exist simultaneously, side by side

(Glassman, p. 24). The central belief in a supreme God, which may be referred to as Bondye, Nana

Buluku, or Mawu, (West African Vodun, 2009) reveals the religion to be monotheistic. Though the lwa

must be honored and respected, the majority of Vodou rituals are involved with healing individuals and

providing bonding and guidance for the community (Glassman, p. 24). Despite all of these facts, most

Americans consider this religion to be unsophisticated, primal, pre-modern, superstitious, violent and

vengeful – actually most Americans will not even give Vodou the status of religion, preferring to label it

a cult.

Social Prejudices in U.S.

Intellectually curious, Americans are fascinated and fairly respectful of the diversity and

exoticism of far away cultures. Americans, in general, emphasize pride in the diversity of the United

States (the “melting pot”), and our freedom of speech and freedom of religion. These freedoms we

consider our fundamental inalienable rights – rights that cannot be transferred to another nor

surrendered except by the person possessing them. We may wave prayer flags to protest conditions in

the wildly different culture of Tibet - a culture deeply rooted in sorcery and the worship of many deities -

and believe we are acting as well informed global citizens. Yet, for many Americans, there is an

unspoken, unpublicized tension regarding even inquiry into the religious traditions of the African

Diaspora cultures in the Caribbean and South America.

Most college courses on world religions ignore spirituality with African roots, relegating it to a

modern manifestation of primitive superstitious belief – though this no doubt reveals the biases

of those academics more than it does anything else. (De La Torre, p. 214)

While the average American may find it socially “responsible” to pick up a book or use the internet to

research religious practices and world cultures across the globe from time to time, he or she may feel

the restraint of social taboo, anxiety, and aversion to studying the religious expressions and cultures of

some of our closest neighboring nations. Most intensely, Haitian Vodou is treated with fear and

mistrust.

Haitian Vodun’s “sister religions”, which share common African roots but have evolved in

different locations with differing colonial influences, such as Santeria in Cuba or Candomble’ in Brazil, do

not fare much better in the majority of American perspective. Santeria, or Lukumi, has an estimated 100

million adherents in the Americas. Anywhere from half a million to 5 million practitioners are estimated

to live in the United States (De La Torre, p. 47). Animal sacrifice in Santeria ritual was the subject of a

Supreme Court ruling in 1993. The Supreme Court ruled that the participants of the religion had a

constitutional right to practice animal sacrifice, and they are protected by the right to freedom of

religion. (CHURCH OF LUKUMI BABALU AYE v. CITY OF HIALEAH, 508 U.S. 520 (1993)) Still, many

Americans do not recognize any of the African Diaspora religions to be legitimate.

Political Roots of Misrepresentation

Most of what Americans think they know about these religious practices is based on things seen

or heard in popular media, which has the power to present (Vodou or) Santeria as a valid and sacred

belief system, or as a strange and cruel cult (De La Torre, p. 12). Long perpetuated beliefs about the

characteristics of the African descended race, which were used to justify slavery and white superiority in

this country and Caribbean colonies, still persist in the white American perceptions of Vodou in Haiti.

We even see a hardening of these prejudices at the start of the twentieth century, as the plans

for imperial conquest of the Caribbean and Central America develop in the United States.

(Hurbon, 1995)

Laennec Hurbon calls these “persistent Africanisms,” and he points out that racism “gathers its efficacy

from the unconscious level of fantasms” and “is always symbolic and can only be understood in

reference to the intentions and hidden aims for enforcing social and political domination.” (Hurbon,

1995). As racial discrimination in America became more “politically incorrect” and less acceptable in our

society, Vodou provided a platform for the projection of these prejudices, which were needed to justify

military and political domination of Haiti. Media manipulation was part of a political campaign to

“demonize the enemy,” and therefore make Americans feel that the white “civilizing” force occupying

Haiti in 1915 was a moral and beneficial course of action (Hurbon, 1995). This led to the birth of

“Voodoo,” the sensationalized, exaggerated and much misaligned representation of Vodou through

American popular media.

Mainstream ideas about “Voodoo” are filled with thoughts of zombies, childish superstitions,

barbaric and primitive rites to gain power and vengeance, black magick, sorcery, sexually libidinous

rituals, serpent worship, possession by uncontrollable and malicious powers, and the perversion of

Christian iconography. Above all, there is a palpable fear that these rites have true power which can be

directed to harm intended recipients or start revolutions. Though most Americans would prefer not to

think about the history of slavery in this nation, and/or are purposefully uneducated regarding these

aspects of our country’s history, our tension and anxiety towards Haitian Vodou (and her sister religions

born out of slave communities) are inextricably linked to the enslavement and oppression of African

descended peoples. They exist simultaneously, side by side, and one cannot objectively look at one

without seeing the other.

New World Fusions

Prohibited from practicing the religions of their African homelands, slaves were forcibly baptized

and expected to maintain rudimentary Catholic beliefs and practices. Catholic missionaries distributed

cheap lithographs of the Church’s holy saints to the slaves as examples of desired conduct, though the

slaves received none of the benefits of being “Christian” – such as being a “child of God” with a soul and

thus immoral to enslave (Thompson, pp. 120-121). Despite the strict prohibitions, groups of slaves

found ways to meet and perform rituals they remembered from their homelands. As the slaves were

taken from different areas in Africa, various traditional African religious beliefs, primarily from the

Yoruba, Fon, Ewe and Kongo cultures, merged and became synchronized with time. Serving the loa

became shielded from the colonists’ vision under the guise of worshipping Catholic saints. Symbolic

associations between the characteristics of the loa and the saints grew in volume and complexity with

time (Thompson, p. 121). In a time period (1564 – 1803), longer than America has been an independent

nation, people with ideological differences in their backgrounds became united by Vodou in attempts to

survive and confront their common dehumanizing conditions in this New World setting.

Changing Power Structures

As a French colony, Saint Domingue was particularly informed by the French Revolution – a

violent peasant uprising against abuses of the feudal system’s aristocracy. The “Declaration of the

Rights of Man and of the Citizen,” a fundamental document of the French Revolution, was adopted in

1789. The first article of this Declaration states:

“Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only

upon the general good.”

Though women and slaves were not directly addressed, the underlying premises of this Declaration

consisted of Enlightenment age ideals of “inalienable rights” or “natural rights” which were held to be

universal in all times and places. Organized into a National Assembly, a group mainly consisting of

women forced King Louis XVI to approve the Declaration and to pass an Act abolishing feudalism in 1789

(Cybercasting Services Division of the National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN), 2009). In 1794,

France abolished slavery and freed all people in her colonies, but by 1796 Napoleon had seized control

of France and began reinstating slavery (National Maritime Museum, 2009). The Declaration was

written by The Marquis de Lafayette, with help from his friend, neighbor, and U.S. Minister to France:

Thomas Jefferson (Cybercasting Services Division of the National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN),

2009). Though both of these men wrote about inalienable rights, it is clear that our esteemed Thomas

Jefferson; though he authored our American “Declaration of Independence” and championed for the

inclusion of the “Bill of Rights” (the first ten amendments to the Constitution, designed to protect and

preserve civil liberties), was a slave owner for his entire life in the state of Virginia. Jefferson was very

aware that the economy was completely dependent on slave labor (Peterson, pp. 187-89) and he had no

intention of applying those civil rights and liberties to black slaves.

Vodou, as an organizing force for the black slave communities of Saint Domingue, or present day

Haiti, has been both commended and despised as a tool of rebellion, depending on the particular

author’s pro-slavery or anti-slavery stance. Haiti’s historical houngan (Vodou priest) heroes, such as

François Mackandal and Dutty “Zamba” Boukman, organized religious ceremonies and rebellion against

the control of the white colonists, leading to the only successful slave revolt (The History of Haiti and the

Haitian Revolution, 2009). Though hundreds of other slave revolts had been attempted throughout the

colonies, Toussaint Louverture organized an “army” of rebellion from 1791 – 1804, and the majority

population of Saint Domingue, meaning the slaves, gained independence on January 1, 1804, creating

the first black republic in the world (The History of Haiti and the Haitian Revolution, 2009). This action

created a wave of paranoia in those invested in maintaining rigorous colonial systems in the US,

Caribbean, Central and South America.

In honor of the Tanio Indians who had been massacred by the Spanish colonists (which had

preceded the French); the new independent republic renamed the island Haiti, under inspiration of its

original Taino name. Haiti means "high land", "high ground" or "mountainous land.” Tanio means “men

of the good” and they were reported to be a very peaceful and hospitable people (The History of Haiti

and the Haitian Revolution, 2009). However, peace was not forthcoming for the new Haitians.

Napoleon sent troops, warships, canons and dogs to regain control, but two years of war ended in

stalemate. The largest fortress in the Western Hemisphere, Citadelle Laferriere, or “The Citadel,” was

constructed during 1805 – 1820 to defend against French invasions. Considered one of the eight

wonders of the world, The Citadel was named a World Heritage Site in 1982 by the United Nations

Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). By 1823, the United States policy, in the

form of the Monroe Doctrine, articulated the “New World” political order which was to shape the

Caribbean, and the North, Central, and South Americas:

"The American continents are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future

colonization by any European powers." (Monroe Doctrine, 1823)

However, this meant that the United States would now have dominion over independent lands in the

Western Hemisphere. Hence, the white, male citizens of the United States became the “Americans.” By

1844, this doctrine, coupled with Manifest Destiny – the idea that the European descendents of the

eastern States had a divine and God-given right to settle the lands of the west – set the stage for the

“Americans” to decimate and control the indigenous populations throughout the “Americas.”

From Colonialism to Colonialism

The Roosevelt Corollary, introduced in 1904, was a substantial amendment to the Monroe

Doctrine. It asserted the right of the United States to intervene to stabilize the economic affairs of small

states in the Caribbean and Central America if they were unable to pay their international debts. Haiti

had been in a 60 year period of isolation because the Vatican and other world powers refused to give

Haiti diplomatic recognition. Soon after, in 1915, “The Monroe Doctrine in Relation to the Republic of

Haiti” was written by William A. MacCorkle, former Governor of West Virginia. In this document, it is

argued that the “Black Republic” is an “international nuisance” because the major ports of commerce

are polluted; it is foul-smelling for foreigners, the colonial conditions of Cape Haitian – once known as

“Little Paris” – are in a mass of ruins, mining for resources has not been exploited, and the government

is in constant revolution (MacCorkle, 1915). This document is filled with stories of voodoo child

sacrifice, cannibalism, orgies, and horrible sorcery conjured out of “exhaustive” accounts by politically

minded “gentlemen.” Sir Spencer St. John, former English Minister Resident in Haiti, published “Haiti or

the Black Republic” in 1884 – “a fictional and lurid account of human sacrifice and cannibalism” which

laid the foundation for many similar accounts of this “evil religion” (Glassman, p. 17). Spencer St. John,

showing his political aims more clearly, also writes:

“No country possesses greater capabilities, or a better geographical position, or more varied soil,

climate, or production, with magnificent scenery of every description; and yet it is now the

country to be avoided, ruined as it has been by a succession of self-seeking politicians, without

honesty or patriotism.” (Monroe Doctrine, 1823)

Though the Civil War of 1861-1865 had led to the 13 th Amendment to end legal slavery in the United

States, anti-black racism was still intense in the former Confederate states and blacks had not won any

actual civil rights. In a sweeping campaign, the United States annexes Puerto Rico (1898), occupies Cuba

(1898-1902), occupies Honduras (1911), creates the country of Panama to build a trade route canal

(1903-1914), sends troops to Mexico (1914), occupies Haiti (1915) and the Dominican Republic (1916),

purchases the Virgin Islands (1917) and occupies Nicaragua (1926) (Hurbon, 1995). With slavery no

longer an economic resource, America quickly wielded the weapon of racial prejudice to justify political

“intervention” to exploit the resources of other nations.

Despite being described as a country that possessed unmatchable capabilities in climate, soil

and production in the 1800’s, Haiti is now described by the Washington Post as “eroded and treeless an

infertile environment that allows little more than subsistence farming” and is considered one of the

poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere (Washington Post, 1988). Until the 1980’s, Haiti was self-

sufficient in rice production, its staple food. However, due to the adoption of trade liberalization

policies and environmental degradation, huge amounts of cheap American rice imports flood the market

and further devastate the already poor rural population (Georges, 2004). An estimated 80% of Haiti’s

population lives in extreme poverty, with half of the nation’s wealth controlled by 1% of the population

(BBC News, 2009). The state of the nation is blamed on brutal dictatorships and political unrest, but the

powers that pull the strings of trade regulations, back the dictators financially and militarily, and stage

bloody revolutions from the shadows, rely on the media to convey the idea that it is only “natural” that

the uncivilized “Black Republic” cannot prosper.

Rara & Resistance

Vodou still participates as a form of political resistance. The annual festival of Rara, especially, is

a six week series of ritual events which are performed primarily by the urban poor and peasant classes.

The Haitian Lenten Rara season remembers a history of the Americas that is usually silenced.

Said by residents of the town of Leogane to be an “Indian Festival,” Rara provides a fleeting

yearly remembrance of the 250,000 Tainos who died in the first two years after Columbus’s

fateful 1492 arrival. But this is only the first of many fragmented historical memories.

(McAlister, p. 109)

The ritual dramas reenacted are not only about historical memory, but also provide the disenfranchised

poor majority a chance to assemble and consolidate public opinions about political events and leaders.

Generally unrecorded and unpublicized, this moving musical community religious ritual is comprised of

Rara bands which travel to different communities, often walking miles per night (McAlister, p. 109).

Using their political invisibility to their own advantage, a Rara band can escape the often violent

repression from ruling regimes by using “polyvalent, coded expressions” which broadcast local, national

and transnational commentaries (McAlister, p. 64). Rara combines the religious duties of serving the

loa, mixed with Christian gospel/hymn singing, and simultaneously offers up a musical art form which

reflects the realities of the oppressed, much like the musical form of the Blues, combined with a

constant lyrical and instrumental improvisation as found in Jazz. Jazz is now highly regarded and

considered by many musicologists worldwide to be America’s only original art form, and yet, it too was

met by considerable opposition, fear and mistrust throughout its journey into American public

recognition.

Syncretism?

Like Santeria and other New World African Diaspora religions, Haitian Vodou is the faith system

of a marginalized and persecuted people, and has always been an underground religion in Haiti and the

United States. It lacks a central dogma and there is no strict orthodoxy. It is highly ritualistic, with

elements of Catholicism, shamanism, various traditional African belief systems, spiritism, European

occultism and Jewish mysticism. Haitian Vodou cannot be defined by any of its myriad elements, but is a

unique New World creation. The strength and vibrancy of this religion is the ability to take on qualities

of the cultures it encounters. Much like Jazz, Haitian Vodou unashamedly draws into itself all that it

recognizes, relates to, and can use. A wide range of music lovers can now appreciate and even honor

the origins of Jazz:

A glance back at the experience of Africans in America will help us understand how these

different kinds of music came together. When African slaves were brought to America, they

were not allowed to bring musical instruments. Moreover, villages and families of Africans were

so thoroughly separated that many groups of slaves in America did not even have a single

language in common….some slaves modified European church hymns, folk songs and dance

music to fit their own tastes and traditions…and these musical preferences were passed down

from generation to generation…jazz did not derive its similarities to African music from direct

contact with African music. It acquired these characteristics secondhand, through other music

that had developed by contact…in the New World. (Gridley, p. ix)

Haitian Vodou, as a religious expression, developed in the same way, and Jazz history recognizes the

contributions of the newly “free men of color” who came to New Orleans from Haiti after winning

independence from slavery in 1804.

In discussing Vodou, these characteristics have been labeled syncretistic, which is defined as

“the attempted reconciliation or union of different or opposing principles” (Dictionary.com, 2009).

Though each new period of fine art, Judeo-Christian-Islamic religion, the Roman Empire, and the English

language (to name but a few examples), are technically “syncretistic” - this is a specific label that has

been increasingly applied to African based religions in the Americas. While the term is not inaccurate,

Miguel De La Torres argues that “syncretism is a model of analysis that denies the enslaved a

consciousness of their predicament in the New World” (De La Torre, p. 187). Moreover, it denies the

creative and adaptive powers of those that bring new religious, artistic, and evolutionary worldviews to

the global community table. Many practitioners of Vodou see no conflict in attending Mass and

considering themselves also to be Catholic, (which means “Universal”). However, only eventually may

the unique fusions of cultural heritages in diverse landscapes and changing political realities be

recognized as a truly universal and global spirituality – for the lwa are the archetypal energies of nature

– personified differently throughout history by each culture – still retaining fundamental characteristics

of prehistoric “god” forms. In the long view of human history, perhaps any “religion” not honoring these

divine “building blocks” will later be considered a “cult.”

Closer to the Surface

A typified American reaction against Vodou is based on revulsion and disgust due to the sacrifice

of animals. Yet, the word sacrifice means “to make sacred.” Most of the animals used in ritual are

eaten in a community feast after having been humanely killed; unlike the majority of the food we eat

(Glassman, p. 14). Devotees of Vodou and Santeria believe that the blood of an animal contains a high

source of universal life energy, or Ashe. The animals that are killed but not eaten are used in specific

healing ceremonies to boost the life force and immune system of the patient, to cleanse and purify the

mind, body and spirit, and to symbolically represent a communal prayer for the strength of the patient

to overcome the spiritual imbalance which has caused dis-ease (Heaven, pp. 44-45). In this way,

impoverished people practice a form of sympathetic “medicine” which reflects pre-industrial beliefs.

Interestingly, biographies of people from various backgrounds, including American scientists, are

appearing as testimonials to the effectiveness of these traditional medicines which address physical

issues holistically. Researchers from Harvard have been sent to collect herbal knowledge for surgical

practice, as described in Wade Davis’s account in “The Serpent and the Rainbow.” As natural and

homeopathic medicines become more popularly accepted by our Western Industrialized nation, healing

practices such as Vodou that address the spiritual component underlying physical symptoms are

becoming more commonplace. Our popular media is becoming filled with documentaries about the

horrors of our food production, and the psychological and energetic imbalances that are created, but

cannot be cured, by our reliance on impersonal, clinical and petroleum based pharmaceutical “Big

Medicine.” As a nation, we are now as separated from the killing of the food we eat as we are

separated from invoking the “living God” spirit which uses the human being as a vessel and displaces the

individual ego’s strivings for societal status and power. Whether animal sacrifice continues to be

considered “necessary” in Vodou’s practices of serving the loa or not, the underlying discomfort in

Americans rejecting it as an “unwholesome practice” seems to have its root in the need for denial

surrounding whether we can honestly stomach our own food production sources.

Another argument against animal sacrifice that arises is attributed to the Bible. Animal sacrifice

was common in the Old Testament, and the Bible informs us that “the life of the flesh is in the blood”

(Lev. 17:11) (De La Torre, p. 211). However, a common justification for calling Vodou or Santeria an

“abomination” is also taken from this same source:

If any person of the House of Israel or an alien residing in your midst drinks blood of any kind, I

{God} will set my face against that person who has drank blood and will cut the person from my

people. (Lev. 17:10)

Upon reflection, this seems like a very odd justification for the majority of Christians, (who profess to

believe in a magical transubstantiation of wine into blood which is ritually consumed at Communion), to

use against another group of people. It is also worth noting that much of the evangelical Judeo-Christian

reasoning and justification for why Vodou is considered “wrong” is also taken from “pre-modern”

proscriptions.

In the United States, as in most Eurocentric cultures, we tend to insist on good versus bad, or

good versus evil, dualism. As European Judeo-Christian practices and values are the norm and

considered the “good,” an oppositional “shadow” side of this emerges in the American psyche. We are

a nation spellbound by horror films and find stories of people being driven mad by their quests for

power to be our most common form of “entertainment.” Recently, we had our nation’s leader declare

war by justifying an “Axis of Evil.” Though we, as a people, are no more aggressive, manipulative or

prejudiced than most other recorded periods of “civilization,” we are, in masse, still too young and naïve

a nation in many ways to question beyond what the media manipulates. With the rise of the Internet,

we now have many more perspectives and much more global information available to us. Will we learn

what we can, where we can, through syncretic means? Or will we label those that try to make informed

decisions from seemingly disparate sources “invalid” in their attempts to understand and meaningfully

participate with reality?

Regardless of individual outlook, the creative forces forging new combinations of theory and

new ways of understanding our place in the universe will continue evolving - creating new culture, new

art, new expressive realities along the way. At some point such attempts will be cataloged and labeled

“wrong” and at some point such attempts will be honored and praised. Along the way of carving any

new path is the vibrant raw beauty of what is deemed holy being manifest in the visceral material world,

very often accompanied by much human hardship. Not all of us are presently called to take part in that

carving. But all Americans, all humans, should remember that whatever we choose to believe in (from

the Crucifixion all the way to atheism), has been born of the very visceral trials of flesh and bone,

persecution, and secrecy for survival on the way to public acceptance. One cannot honor one’s own

history while casting stones at another’s. Where did your story originate? Were you persecuted? Did it

make you angry and murderous? Can you imagine it is really different for others? One cannot honor

one’s own history while not honoring another’s. Can we, as Americans, honor our own histories, and

each others?

Works Cited

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