Culture of Haiti
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Religion of Haiti
Although the official religion of Haiti, as inherited from the French colonialists, is Roman Catholicism, about 10% of the population believes in Voodooism, a religion that arose from the slavery-era. The Voodoo religion has been the subject of much repression and misunderstanding in the country's history. Some Christian missionaries incorrectly believe that it is worship of Satan. Such beliefs exist in all social strata. The ex-president of Haiti has once sacrified the Haiti country to Satan, as reported by a Christian missionary magazine at 2003.
ENDURING BEYOND OPPRESSION - THE TRUTH ABOUT VODOU (Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiti_festivals)
Vodou is a religion born in slavery, which blends together a number of traditional African beliefs with elements from other faiths, notably Catholicism, the religion of the slave-owners, with which it has always been an uncomfortable bed-fellow.
It began in Haiti in the ethnic 'melting pot' created by French colonial slavery when Africans of many different lineages were forcefully transported to become agricultural slaves in this new land. The indigenous Haitian Taino and Arawak peoples had already been largely exterminated during the earlier Spanish invasion, yet much of their culture and traditions remained and these, too, were incorporated into the African beliefs. Europeans, including pro-Stuart Scottish deportees, also came to settle in Haiti and their beliefs, also, were absorbed. The result was a broad mix of many different African, indigenous Haitian and even European pre-Christian traditions which, through a process of evolution and syncretisation, became blended and formalised to create a religion which encompassed them all.
Early Christian zealots, the religious elite of the French slave-owners, set about ‘civilising’ the ‘heathen’ slaves and indoctrinating them into Christian beliefs and practices. Some, like the missionary Father Labat, took pride in their work. Labat writes glowingly in his journal of at least one occasion where he personally beat a slave to death in order to ‘save his soul’ and encourage others to renounce their own traditions.(1)
It is not surprising, therefore, that Vodou became a clandestine religion, practiced in secret, since open espousal of its tenets was almost a guarantee of death. This low visibility suited the political, economic and religious elite perfectly, enabling it to demonise Vodou practices still further and secure funding from the French Court in order to police the slaves more effectively and build more churches for their conversion.
Finally, in 1791, the injustices of slavery grew too intense and a Priest of Vodou called Boukman Dutty, himself a slave, led an uprising which was to become the first successful slave revolt in history. The struggle ended more than 30 years later, with the formation of the world’s first black republic.
Vodou remained banned in Haiti until 1987, however, and efforts to destroy the religion continued throughout most of the last century, notably during the US military occupation between 1915-1934 and again in 1941 when the Christian church, with state backing, set about an Inquisition-like campaign to destroy Vodou artefacts, torch its temples, and coerce the Vodou community to adopt its belief system.
Vodou endured despite these efforts and was finally accepted as the formal religion of Haiti in 2003. While it is technically true to say that Vodou has only existed as an orthodox practice since the late 1980s, when the restrictions against it were lifted, and as a recognised world religion for only a few years, in reality its roots are as ancient as African history.
What is it that accounts for this longevity, against all the odds? For the followers of Vodou, it is the very closeness of the Gods and the comfort they bring which will ensure that Vodou survives. As Joseph Cleveland, a Haitian cook now living in Ottawa put it in the Montreal Gazette recently: “I do not practice Vodou – I live it”.
Despite its somewhat exotic reputation, and the ‘wars of faith’ between the Haitians and their Catholic masters, Vodou has much in common with Christianity. There is one creator-God, known as Gran Met ('Great Master'), or Bondye ('Good God' - from the French 'Bon Dieu'), an entity concerned with the grand cosmic plan and the order of the universe, who can therefore seem somewhat distant from everyday human affairs.
Gran Met has therefore assembled a pantheon of ambassadors for his work on Earth, to ensure that his people do not feel abandoned and forgotten. These are the loa (or 'lwa'), who are at once separate entities with specific roles and functions - somewhat like the angels of Christianity - and, at the same time, aspects of the same God-energy and representative of his will.
The loa are directly available to man through the mechanism of possession, a trance-like state where the follower gives over the control of the physical body to the spirits who will then ‘mount’ him so that he becomes their cherval (‘horse’). The loa are then immediately visible among the people, dispensing wisdom, advice and healing to the congregation. With Vodou, you do not pray to the Gods, you become the Gods themselves.
The character and function of the loa, varies enormously, like some grand cosmic division of labour. Gran Bwa (literally, 'Big Wood'), for example, is revered as a great healer, while Erzuli, the goddess of love, is concerned with emotional and relationship issues, and Ogoun, the warrior-loa and diplomat, is called upon to resolve legal matters and personal conflicts. In this way, the loa have a psycho-spiritual and pastoral role to perform as well as a religious function, helping to resolve conflicts directly, and dealing with fundamental human issues of love and belonging.
The ancestors ('zanset yo') are a third spiritual force (even the Haitian national anthem begins with the words, "For the country, and the ancestors, we walk united..."), and every family compound has its own ancestral graveyard, with tombs so elaborate that they sometimes resemble small houses.
In this tripartite system of God, loa and ancestors we can, in many ways, see the Christian Holy Trinity reflected, with Gran Met as the Father, the loa as the Son(s), and the ancestors as the Holy Ghost, ever-present in the lives of the people.
At the centre of all this stands the Houngan, or Vodou Priest.
Initiation (or becoming ‘made’) as a Houngan (Priest) or Mambo (Priestess) is a formal procedure which involves arduous ritual performances by the candidates at the ceremony of bat guerre ('the battle for the spirits'). Here, through physical exertion and mental concentration, against the hypnotic backbeat of drums, chanting, and the clashing of ceremonial machetes, the candidate is expected to become possessed by a particular loa who is then seen to express a declared interest in and offer patronage to, that person.
The final night of the bat guerre is followed by seclusion for five nights and four days in the dark isolation of the djevo, the inner sanctum of the Vodou temple, where secret teachings are imparted. The djevo experience culminates with another public ceremony, the brule zin (‘flaming pots’), where the candidate is expected to demonstrate his partnership with the loa by plunging his hand into pots of boiling oil. If the initiate can do so without harm, he is seen to be protected by the Gods. If he cannot, he may be considered to have less currency or power as a Priest.
If the initiate succeeds, he will enter the Priesthood at one of three levels – hounsi kanzo, a rank equivalent to a pastor, sur point, equivalent to a Catholic Minister, or asogwe, equal to that of a Bishop. The challenges for each rank are practical, physical and visible to the community and offer categorical proof that the candidate is accepted by the spirits, the most important judges of all.
In his new capacity, the Houngan, like any religious leader, is the authority on the nature and desires of the spirits, as well as therapist, doctor, magistrate, counsellor and confessor to the members of his community and the people he serves.
As all of this suggest, there is rather more to Vodou than animal sacrifices and black magic - and nor is it some exotic dark art. Rather, it is a religion just like any other and demands the same respect that would be given to Catholicism, Buddhism, or any other.
Even more fundamentally than this, Vodou is an expression of the human spirit and the power of will to overcome any form of oppression in order to enjoy whatever faith we choose, despite provocation or attack from others.
REFERENCES Vodou Shaman, Ross Heaven [1] (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/089281134X/ref=pd_pym_ka/103-3544604-2853467)
- [www.VodouShaman.com]
Literature of Haiti
A majority of literature in Haiti is written in French. This is changing, however, as the secondary language of Haitian Creole is growing in popularity among the writing community.
There are many popular Haitian authors who have achieved international recognition, including Jean Price-Mars, Jacques Roumain, René Depestre, and the artist/playwright/author Frankétienne, and fiction novelist Edwidge Danticat.
The website île en île (http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/ile.en.ile/) (primarily in French) includes an extensive database of Haitian authors (http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/ile.en.ile/haiti/paroles.html), with dozens of biographies, bibliographies, excerpts, links and audio recordings. See the section on Haitian Literature (http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/ile.en.ile/haiti/paroles.html).