Reading: Inside the Voodoo Rituals of Haiti
In April 2003 an administrator rule by then president Jean-Bertrand Aristide sanctioned voodoo as an formally recognized religion. “ It is a religion in the lapp way Judaism or Christianity is, ” said Bob Corbett, professor emeritus of philosophy at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri. “ Voodoo does n’t have a sacred textbook, a church, or a hierarchical structure of leaders, but it is very like culturally. ”
Ancient Traditions
Voodoo, meaning “ spirit, ” may be one of the global ‘s oldest ancestral, nature-honoring traditions, according to Mamaissii Vivian Dansi Hounon, a member of OATH, the Organization of African Traditional Healers in Martinez, Georgia. Some anthropologists estimate that voodoo ‘s roots in Benin—formerly Dahomey—West Africa may go back 6,000 years. today an estimated 60 million people practice voodoo cosmopolitan. At a voodoo ceremony, believers gather outdoors to make contact with the Loa, any of a pantheon of spirits who have diverse functions running the population, much like greek gods. There is besides a province to care for beloved and deified kin spirits and to honor a head god, Bondieu .
Messages From the Spirits
During the ceremony, the houngan or mambo— priest or priestess—sacrifices a consecrated chicken or other animal to the Loa. Participants then ask the spirits for advice or help with problems. More than half the requests are for health. It is said that the Loa sometimes communicate prophecies, advice, or warnings while the believer is possessed. other messages are sent through the priest or priestess, or sometimes come later in dreams. These disembody spirits are believed to become run down and wear down—and trust on humans to “ feed ” them in periodic rituals, including sacrifices. “ It ‘s not the kill of the animals that matters, ” Corbett said. “ It ‘s the transfer of biography energy back to the Loa. ” Each of the spirits has a distinct identity. Some are love and estimable, while others are capricious or demanding. Haitians believe that the Loa most much express their displeasure by making people disgusted.
Black Magic?
In the West voodoo has been portrayed in zombi movies and popular books as iniquity and evil, a cult of hellion worship dominated by bootleg magic, human sacrifice, and pin-stuck voodoo dolls—none of which exist in the juju practices that originated in Benin. In Haiti voodoo began as an underground activeness. During the 1700s thousands of west african slaves were shipped to Haiti to work on french plantations. The slaves were baptized as Roman Catholics upon their arrival in the West Indies. Their traditional African religious practices were viewed as a threat to the colonial system and were forbidden. Practitioners were imprisoned, whipped, or hang. But the slaves continued to practice in secret while attending masses. What emerged was a religion that the colonialists thought was Catholicism—but they were outfoxed .
Hybrid Rituals
It was easy to meld the two faiths, because there are many similarities between Roman Catholicism and juju, Corbett said. Both venerate a sovereign being and believe in the being of inconspicuous malefic spirits or demons and in an afterlife. Each religion besides focuses its ceremonies around a center point—an altar in Catholicism, a pole or tree in juju. Their services include emblematic or actual rituals of forfeit and pulmonary tuberculosis of flesh and blood, Corbett noted. many of the Loa resemble christian saints, endowed with exchangeable responsibilities or attributes. For example, Legba, an erstwhile man, is said to open the gates between Earth and the world of the Loa, much like St. Peter traditionally throws across-the-board the gates to heaven. But there are differences. Westerners tend to believe in barren will and personal choice. not so in voodoo.
“ The haitian people have a scene of the universe that is unimaginably different from ours, ” Corbett said. The Loa are believed to determine our lives to an amaze degree, he explains, and they are always introduce in great numbers : There might be two people in a room, but there are besides 20 Loa. “ Our opinion is dominated by forcible, tangible reality. In Haiti the spirits are angstrom actual as your wife or your chase, ” Corbett said. Like any other religious practice, voodoo brings capital benefits, explains Warberg, the photographer. “ Participation in voodoo ritual reaffirms one ‘s relationships with ancestors, personal history, community relationships—and the universe. Voodoo is a direction of life, ” she said .
