SociologicalAnalysis, 1977, 38, 1:25-36
Caribbean Religion- The Voodoo Case
Roland Pierre
st. Teresa Church (Brooklyn)
The components of Voodoo in the religion of the Antilles are explored in their religious
dimensions. The Voodoo religion appears to be the expre~sion of the racial and cultural resistance
of ah oppressed class of people within a hostile societ~.
There is absolutely no h u m a n group which does not react to the changes, disturbing
events and crises which the dynamics of history introduce into the physical or cultural
context to which the group belongs. Any quick change, any internal of external conflict
whatever, produces a crisis. To each crisis, society responds by slowly developing new
forros and new means to bring about balance within the limits of the particular cultural
group. Sometimes the crises and wounds are so serious that they threaten the very
existence of the group. Their whole existence seems to be on the line. In sucia a case, the
most secret and active forces in their whole culture ate mobilized so as to develop
adequate means for their liberation. These means are theforces of religious life.
C a r i b b e a n V o o d o o is the clearest p r o o f o f this! But h e r e a w o r d o f w a r n i n g is
necessary. PoliticaI a n d ideological c o n s i d e r a t i o n s h a v e given rise to m a n y illf o u n d e d c o n s i d e r a t i o n s c o n c e r n i n g the n a t u r e o f C a r i b b e a n Voodoo. For m a n y
f o r e i g n e r s , it is c o n v e n i e n t to see in it "a mess o f N e g r o s u p e r s t i t i o n s ! " M o r e o v e r ,
1The West Indies named after the mistake of Christopher Columbus who believed he had boarded
the Indies. The Greater Antilles are Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. The Lesser Antilles are
Guadeloupe, Martinique, Trinidad, Curacao and Aruba.
2The traditional school system that prevails today functions as ah instrument of integration to the
dominant ideology of the society. The fact is widely demonstrated by some modern thinkers, among
others, Paulo Freire, who views the present school system as a tool of domestication of the popular
classes by the elite.
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T h e p r o b l e m r a i s e d in these pages is o n e o f i n v e s t i g a t i n g , d e s c r i b i n g a n d
e v a l u a t i n g o n e o f the most i m p o r t a n t realities in the C a r i b b e a n : the Religion o f
the Antilles. ~
W h i l e a n i m p o r t a n t question, it is also a delicate q u e s t i o n w h e n the religious
p h e n o m e n o n is at the same time a c u l t u r a l p h e n o m e n o n . So it b e c o m e s clear at
once that the e x a m i n a t i o n o f this reality will not be easy e v e n f o r a C a r i b b e a n
p e r s o n t r y i n g to d e s c r i b e s o m e t h i n g w h i c h is, n e v e r t h e l e s s , very m u c h a p r o d u c t
o f bis own e n v i r o n m e n t . For the i n t e r p r e t a t i o n h e r e contradicts the " W e s t e r n "
line o f t h o u g h t which, h o w e v e r , does h a v e a certain effect o n a n y black m a n who
has b e e n t h r o u g h the W e s t e r n school-system. 2
G e o r g e s B a l a n d i e r (1955) has d e m o n s t r a t e d in a very c o n v i n c i n g f a s h i o n that
w h e r e v e r political e x p r e s s i o n is c o m p l e t e l y s u p p r e s s e d , the p r e s s u r e w i t h i n the
o p p r e s s e d p e o p l e will always c o m e out in t h e i r religious e x p r e s s i o n . Vittorio
L a n t e r n a r i (1962:109) b r i n g s out the s a m e point:
26
SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
The Phenomenology of Voodoo
Since Voodoo is a religion without writings, there are no official texts. O u r study
will have to be like the work of an artist trying to rediscover the context of the
Voodoo which underlies its cuhic practices. Actually, this cuh carne to us in the
Antilles from the Black Continent by means of forced slavery. Ir is known that,
beginning in 1503, the Portuguese began selling the first Africans to the Spanish
for the reines of Hispaniola. In 1510, Pope Nicholas V would give them his
blessing as they undertook this "work of civilization and Christian faith." About
1555, the English began trading. In 1612, the Dutch get involved and, about 1665,
the French in their turn begin setting up their counters.
During the time of colonization, the tribal chiefs on the Western coast of Africa
became real bell-hops for the slave traders. Those in charge of kidnapping and
razzia took not only men but even the women and children because these last ones
were particularly sought after by certain planters since they cost less on the open
market. T h e victims were raided from Senegal to Angola. But the "Slave Coast"
was a mosaic of many different peoples.
According to A. Labat (1722), the Caribbean slaves came from Senegal, GamaA proof of that is found in the "Campagne anti-superstitieuse" (anti-superstituous campaign) led in
1943 by both the French Clergy and the Haitian Government.
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it should be mentioned that about 10% of the Haitians only use the word to
designate a p h e n o m e n o n of which they disapprove (cf. Peters, 1941, 1956, 1960;
Bijou, 1963), while the majority of the Haitian people cherish ir as ah object of
their love and strong fervor. Those who dare to touch on this point with any
hostility will unloose on the part of the majority the most violent reactions possible. 3
An explanation can be found in the colonial mentality, shared by both the
colonist and the alienated colonized people, according to which everything which
was not Western was dismissed with the contemptuous label: barbarian; whereas
the p h e n o m e n o n so c o n d e m n e d was often fulfilling within the context in which it
was produced ah extremely useful function.
O u r purpose here, then, is to approach the Religion of the Antilles without any
theoretical prejudices. To accomplish this, our first step will be to reconstruct the
object of our observation: the cultural p h e n o m e n o n of Voodoo, while keeping
our distance from the traditional exegesis which is usually biased. At the same time
we will attempt to go beyond mere description.
We are undertaking a true reconstruction, because the perspective which the
researcher adopts in his observation ofa p h e n o m e n o n plays a considerable role in
the make-up of the p h e n o m e n o n itself. Isn't it a principle of m o d e r n science that
"it is the scale which creates the p h e n o m e n o n " (cf. Pinto, 1967: 304). Too often in
the past Voodo has been understood in categories which were inappropriate to it
and hence deformed it. Above all, we must "decolonialize" certain interpretations.
Voodoo, here, will be treated a s a variety of and not a stage in religious behavior.
We believe that this approach will help to avoid any temptation to compare
Voodoo unfavorably with Christian ideas which have been imposed on the peopte
of the Caribbean area.
CARIBBEAN RELIGION: THE VOODOO CASE
27
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bia, Benin, Juda, Arda and from other places along this coast. An official document published in London in 1789 mentions that Dahomey furnished to the slave
traders an annual average of 10,000 to 20,000 "pieces." Of this total number, the
French exported 6 to 8,000 "heads" destined for the Antilles.
About 1789, the Caribbean colony of St. Domingue had 500,000 slaves. We
learn from Moreau de St. M› (1797) that they were mostly Congolese, and that
can easily be understood when one recalls that theBantus were the best farmers in
Black Africa. T h e r e were also Angolians. Alfred M›
(1968) writes that "the
growing n u m b e r of slaves coming from the counters in the Congo and in Angola
has not stopped i n c r e a s i n g . . . " Many were from Togo, Nigeria, and Dahomey.
Almost every West African ethnic group was represented in the French colony of
St. Domingue.
To avoid the i n h u m a n conditions imposed upon them, the slave engaged in
"Marronnage," i.e., escape from the plantation. The "marronnage" allowed the
slave to break away from everything in the terrible colonial situation which had
disturbed his African way of life. Ir would now, in those hiding places, permit the
outlaw to perform the complete re-Africanization of his !ife. In addition, Moreau
de St. M› (1797, vol. 3:1395) notes the existence of vast zones which owe their
names to runaway slaves and which were really impenetrable by whites. This is
significant because it would contribute to making of "maroon" refuges into true
cultural storehouses where native African values would flourish. But who are
these "Maroous" and what kind of content would they give to Voodoo in their
hiding places?
Voodoo is, in fact, a concentration of various African religious expressions
which, taken one by one, only a p p e a r as modulations--according to local particularities and experiences--of the same basic substratum. M›
(1958:15)
observes that "Voodoo is a religion practiced by autonomous confraternities of
which each one often has its own style and traditions." T h e fact is that even though
the affinity of great cultural traits from Africa caused ajoining in all that would be
essential, it did not cause the various cultic nuances to be leveled nor was the
originality of each group's conceptions rubbed out. What h a p p e n e d was that
many factors came together to f o r m a common vision.
One of the strongest influences in Voodoo was that of the Congolese because,
being in the majority, they "would also easily take off for the hidden maroon
colonies" (St. M›
1797, vol. 2: 212). It can, then, be supposed that a strong
crystallization of Congolese customs appeared in the maroon communities even
if, in the last analysis, we must minimize this p h e n o m e n o n and see it in combination with others.
Ethnologists have discovered in the Voodoo hagiography a whole long list of
Congolese divinities. They are divided into Congo Bbdm} and Congo Savan-n, also
called Zandb. T h e latter group is divided into "families" of which the principal
ones would be theKanga, theKaplaou, theBoumba, theMondongues and theKita. In
addition, there also exist the CongoFran, the CongoMazon-n and the CongoMoussai
(M›
1958:76; Bastide, 1967:118; Peters, 1941). These last divinities would
preside over sorcery (M›
1958:164; Denis, 1944; Courlander, 1960). T h e
term "Zombi," which refers to the living-dead, victims of the work of the b6k6
(Bastide, 1967:117), is of Congolese origin. Furthermore, folkloric dances, di-
28
SOCIOLOGICALANALYSIS
4St. Patrick stands for Danbala; St. Peter stands for Legba; St. Ann stands for Ezili; St. James stands
for Ogoun; St. Expedit stands for Agou› (cf. Salgado, 1963:31; Price-Mars, 1954:180-182).
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vided into CongoMazon-n, CongoPay~t, CongoFran and CongoPastor~lwitness to the
good h u m o r of this ethnic group and to their very advanced musical knowledge.
On the other hand, the god Wangbl and the god Lemba, god of regeneration in
Angola, witness to the important Bantu influence in Voodoo.
It must be said at once that the Bantu religions were not based on "systems" as
well organized as those of the Sudanic and Guinean religions. T h e basis of the
Bantu religion was ancestor worship. T h e social structure and life on the plantations disturbed their expression of faith. Once this base was destroyed, only a
certain Animism survived which served to distinguish the Bantus from the Fons
and the Yorubas who professed a more systematic mythology. Voodoo also gained
a great deal from these last two groups: For example, the Fon influence gave
Voodoo the following vocabulary: a "vodou-n" is a god, a spirit; a "houn-si" is the
servant of a god; a "houn-gan" is the priest of a god;
T h e accessories for the cuh in Haiti still bear names of Dahomean origin: govi=
pitcher; zin= pot; ason= a sacred shaker; h o u n - t £ a drum; h o u n g n 6 = a god's
child.
T h e major divinities in the Voodoo pantheon are found among the Fons and
the Yorubas: Legba, Dambala-Ou~do, Aida-Ou~do, H›233 Agassou, Ezili, Agou›
Taroyo, Zaka, Ogoun, Chango still have their temples in the towns and villages of
Togoland, Dahomey and Nigeria. T h e Fons succeeded in imposing their ritual
cadre on Voodoo more than the other groups did. This preponderance is due, for
one thing, to the Dahomean "will to have power" and, for another, to the n u m b e r
of qualified people and exiled priests from Dahomey who were deported as slaves
to the Antilles (Labat: 1722:38-40). Thus, they were able to impose their religious
domination on the other ethnic groups.
Briefly, while the Congolese religion is based on a cult of the dead, the Yoruba
religion is centered on the Monotheism of Olorun (Supreme God) and the
Polytheism of the Orisha (Heroes or national sovereigns deified), the Fon religion
is based on Divinities and ritual possessions (Bastide, 1960:82-83). T h e funeral
rites also come from the Ibo in the forro of the Kas›
and the religious
dances. Therefore, one can better understand the multiplicity ofinfluences which
Dahomean religious architecture had to recast so as to transform them into a
coherent system capable of producing a complete and understandable meaning.
T h u s the Haitian Voodoo is the product of ah intense integration, u n d e r the
influence of Dahomean ideas, of the religious conceptions brought to America by
Bantus (Congolese and Angolians) and Sudanese of the Manding groups (Bambara, Diola, Soninke), as well as of Achanti, Ewe, Haoussa and Peuhls (of the
Kamitic race), Ouoloffs, Fons and Yorubas (Caseneuve, 1967:61-68; Romain,
1958:110).
Now, a certain catholic appearance of the Voodoo has often been denounced so
as to deny to this cult any true religiosity and to disqualify it asa sort of d e f o r m e d
Catholicism, a "mixture." A s a matter of fact, this syncretism can be observed on
three levels: a) that of the pantheon4; b) that of the liturgical calendar (M›
C A R I B B E A N RELIGION: T H E V O O D O O CASE
29
Voodoo and the Nature of the Soul
For the Voodoo believer, conception is n o t a biological p h e n o m e n o n nor is the
appearance of a new baby a purely social happening. It is a religious event made
up of ritual prophylaxis designed to protect the future mother and the fetus as
well as a subsequent thanksgiving for a happy delivery. Giving birth to twins is
considered a matter of considerable importance and one which involves a very
strong divine mission. Twins who have been ascribed a special ancestry will be
venerated even while they are alive.
In the Voodoo context, the name is very important. Ir is the name which
regulates the spiritual condition of the person. It is so m u c h a part of his m a k e u p
that "it should not be divulged." Otherwise, the bearer of the name is exposed to
evil spirits. It is the name which situates, according to Voodoo belief, the very
essential of the person: theGrobon-nanj, whose power can be reinforced by the rite
of the "Lav›
and who can be taken away from the attacks of a wicked supernatural being by the rite of the "Po-tkt." This Grobon-nanj is a kind of orchestral
component which presides at the same time over the spiritual life and the organic
life (a fact which led some to say that each person had two souls). In fact, it is
mobile and detachable from the body in the sense that it can wander at night,
r u n n i n g the risk of being captured by evil powers and causing the death of the
living person to whom it would not be able to return. It returns to the Gran-M~t
5"The sacraments of the church such as Baptism, Eucharist . . . are re-thought in ah African
perspective. T h e i r function henceforth is going to be that ofincreasing the vital force, heal the diseases
and strengthen the head, dwelling of the personality and the god" (cf. Bastide, 1968:185).
~"Every religious activity develops on a certain set space and is inserted into a calendar which
rhythms its life. Slavery had forced African people to divorce their religious expression from its
natural geographical framework and e n v i r o n m e n t to adjust it to a new setting, another calendar, that
of their western white masters. From those forced adjustments s t e m m e d the first forms of syncretism.
What features the spatial.syncretism is the fact that the material spread out in the space is comprised of
solid objects that cannot be put out of shape and therefore, the syncretism in the case cannot be a
fusion, h just remains as coexistence of dissimilar objects" (cf. Bastide, 1968:160).
7Pouring forth ah African idea into a western envelope is not a synthesis which is defined as ah
assembling of different parts into a new form o r a complex whole resulting from this. As an example:
when the Voodooists make believe they are celebrating Christmas they are in fact celebrating the
Voodoo liturgical New Year which is--according to t h e m - - t h e period of best quality of the Mana (cf.
Bastide, 1968a: 160; 1954b: 77-81; M›
1958:216).
SAn amalgam would be a mixture of two or many religious beliefs opposed to one another (cf.
Luzbetak, 1968).
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1958: 292); c) that of the sacramentary cult. 5 But this "civil" syncretism is not in
any way a fusion, 6 n o r a synthesis ` nor an amalgam, 8 but only a white mask put on
over black skin. T h e Voodoo has kept its religious originality in spite of the
catholic cloak which circumstances have obliged it to raise in front of its cultural
face and in spite of the Christian ingredients which it uses, by reinterpreting them,
so as to reinforce its magical effectieness.
In the Antilles, the policy of the masters was to force their slaves to give up their
culture (language, work methods, religion) and to assimilate a new one; the only
possible reaction was to reject or to reinterpret the culture forced on them. This is
what gives the Voodoo its aspect of a religion of deportees which, therefore, could
only be a religion of protest and social redemption.
30
SOCIOLOGICALANALYSIS
after death; this is why the Voodooists get rid of the soul by the funeral ceremony
(M›
1958:226) which they celebrate one-year-and-one day after
the death of the initiate whose soul resides, until then, in an earthenwarejar or at
the bottom of a river in a cold, unattractive world. It was, nevertheless, the
Grobon-nanj which gave the body its meaning. As long as the body is alive, it is
never ala object. It enters into a substantial unity with the soul to become the space
f o r a mys6c geograph~. In this view, the liver and blood become /ife's point of
condensation. The god enters and leaves people via the fbntanels. "The teeth,
saliva, sweat, nails, hair represent the entire person" (Mauss, 1968:57). T h e feet
gather up the force of the earth which is the conservatory of the Ancestors.
T h e Grobon-nanj assumes two functions: 1) that of"vital principle." Indeed, if
it leaves the body once and for all and goes back to God, the individual's death can
be expected. This situation recalls the close parallel that could be made between
the role of the Caribbean Grobon-nanj and that of the Yoruban Ori (Bastide,
1967:218); 2) that of a more "subtle soul." It can, during sleep, leave the body
which still remains alive. It can be inferred from this belief that the "vital principle" is, then, always there to keep the sleeper alive while he breathes and moves
unconsciously.
That the Voodooist introduces the idea of the detachability of the Grobon-nanj is
a sign of the independence of this element and of its spiritual freedom since it can
use the natural life of the body and, at the same time, oppose it even if, in concrete
fact, there be no barrier between the body and this principle.
Besides, each person also possesses a Tibon-nanj who is the tutelary god of the
individual, also calted his Mbt-tbt, a limited supernatural being (cE M›
1958:139) whose servant honors hito at theRogatoua: the personal altar he erects
in his room. This guiding loua could have been chosen by the bearer's parents
sometimes before his birth. T h e god can also, spontaneously, in a dream or by the
intermedŸ
of one of his supporters (his possessed), manifest his desire to take
the child under his protection. But the child remains free, when he reaches an
adult age, to renounce his patron and adopt another. Such an action concerns only
the renouncer and the god. It shows religion u n d e r its most personal cultic aspect
(Romain, 1958:169).
A funeral rite practiced after physical death, the D&ounin, is supposed to cut
away any attachment between the dead person and the loua-protector, who must
be transferred to the head o Ÿ living searcher u n d e r penalty ofvindication by the
gods (Romain, 1958:208-9). Many would argue this is a naive and prescientific
rationalization of not-yet-understood phenomena manifesting the interior life of
man. This does not take away from the fact that through these coarse concepts
there ate revealed some profound and accurate intuitions corresponding to two
major experiences in the life of the Voodooist: 1) that man is more than his body
(the whole biology of the Grobon-nanj) and, 2) that man is essentially bound to a
transcendent world on which he depends for his entire existence: the Gran-Mbt,
the Loua, with whom he enters into familiarity by the Kanzo of initiation.
ofBoul›
It must be noted, first of all, that the Voodoo Religion is, above all, an "experience." To an observer alien to the Black Weltanschauung, this practice apparently
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S emantization
CARIBBEAN RELIGION: THE VOODOO CASE
31
Legba
Without going into a tiresome exploration ofall the details, we will examine one
major institution relevant enough to be considered a s a key which leads to the
u n d e r s t a n d i n g of Voodoo: the loua LEGBA.
It should be stated that the LOUAS appear as visible forces of the Gran-M6t,
supreme creator, but are situated on a level inferior to his. They e n j o y a more
profound awareness than man (Kon›
M›
1958:310-317). They protect
h u m a n s and help them to avoid d a n g e r (M›
1958:219), they incarnate
themselves in their servants by coming to them from Nan Ginin, the Voodoo
Olympus. They are addressed prayers and offered sacrifices, have space and time
which are consecrated to them and can either punish or reward. T h e y can decide
on the duration of h u m a n life and are called "papa" in virtue of the filial feeling
they inspire. In short, they are considered in their functions as delegates of the
supernatural power between the Gran-M› and Man. However, one of them
seems to have a very special role and to take precedence of the others and this is
LEGBA. Presentat any spot of influence, he is the object o f a myth which says that
the supreme God has made hito the Universal interpreter. As guardian of houses,
his symbols ate found everywhere. They are the sacred plants in the courtvards.
They are the small earthern hillocks topped by a phallic sign in front of the houses.
They are the blue cross traced with indigo on doors. In the cuh, Legba fulfills a
primordial function:
Only He can translate into human language the messages of the gods and express
their will (M›
1958:319).
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carries nothing really meaningful and involves more bodily aspects of the man
than his brain.
According to Gusdorf (1953:16), mythical thought is a thought lived before it is
intellectually developed and formulated. Ir is a spontaneous way-of-being-inthe-world, a way of c o m p r e h e n d i n g things, beings and oneself, and one's conducts and attitudes, a way of inserting man into reality. Nevertheless, when a
voodooist drags a bird across the body of a patient in o r d e r to transfer to the
animal the sickness which he wants to take away from that person, he is acting
according to a theory. Even in the hypothesis which says that the single believer is
not capable of explaining what he is doing as a ritual, it is still true that he
undertakes the action in view of a resuh which presupposes some meaning. From
this can be discovered in the Voodoo context two fundamental forros of Knowledge: 1) T h e r e is, first of all, the Knowledge of the believing masses more or less
elaborated according to the role and the status of the devotee. It is a concrete,
immediate, pragmatic knowledge. 2) T h e Knowledge of the high initiated, instead, is given the name of"Kon›
Lou" (profound science). It is not unusual to
h e a r a Haitian peasant declare with admiration that a person who possesses this
quality is a gason-kanson, a N~g-kanbr› (morally strong man). This statement connotes a mystical power in the person so designated. It is believed that only those
wise men would know exactly what they ate doing when engaged in an action
which requires this justifiable explanation that comes way back from the ancient
African. A s a consequence of this, support can be found for the existence of a
hidden theory which is implied in even the smallest gestures.
32
SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
African logic tends toward a type of analogic reasoning which establishes connexion
between the different strata of reality, permitting one to pass from one to the other
while, at the same time, maintaining their unchangeable differences... The mythical
structure, the mental structure, the social structure fbrin part of only one reality
(Bastide, 1958:244).
Therefore, "The African is induced to see the most ordinary object as part of a
global system" (cf. Thomas, 1969:75). For him the Cosmos is a network of forces
distributed in an unequal and dynamic way along different spots where the
universal force is at work.
'From God all the way to the least grain ofsand,' writes Leopold S. Senghor, 'the African
Universe is seamless' (cf. De Leusse, 1967:210).
So it is this system of forces, correspondences, analogy and reflection which can
help decode the mythico-ritual elements of the Voodoo.
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He is also the god of Destiny, the one who presides at divination by means of palm
nuts and shells. He is honored at the beginning of each ceremony and receives the
first offerings. His liturgical colors are the fundamental colors of the NegroAfrican world (M›
1958:80).
What meaning does this material convey? A first interpretation comes from the
Voodoo liturgists themselves who, in a cultic chant celebrate Legba as the "opener
of barriers" (M›
1958:88), or in other words, the one who makes possible
the communication between heterogeneous spaces, at least between two different
worlds. Indeed, all of the cultic and "extra-cultic" rites emphasize this position
of Legba as myth tells it. It seems, t h e r e f o r e , that the function of this
dignitary comes to that of an intermediary, and In-Between. It is also illustrated
by the fact that he presides over the sexual encounter of married people. Ir is
shown in the fact that children wear the "Legba shirt," a symbol which refers to the
African idea that the child is the most visible connecting link between two married
people. Another illustration of this point ofview is given t h r o u g h the main symbol
of Legba which is indeed his "vbv6": The Legba Cross. Maya Deren (1953)
convincingly establishes in her book Dieux Vivants D'Haiti that the cross of Legba is
in no way indebted to any christian influence even if it is identical in form to the
Roman Cross. In her opinion, the Voodoo cross is the symbol of the unity of the
universe that has been entrusted to Legba's care and ministry by the Gran-Mkt.
T h e vertical branch of that instrument represents the link which makes the
connection between what is above and what is below. This is the route of the
"invisibles." In fact, the foot ofthis vertical axis plunges into a submarine country
which is considered to be the mythical paradise of the Loua who come up at the call
of the living. T h e horizontal branch stands for the world of man and things. Ir is
only at the cross-road of these two worlds between the divine and the h u m a n earthly axes that the encounter between the divine and the h u m a n is realized.
Legba watches over this cross-road. This explains why-the offerings are made to
him at the intersection of roads.
T h e special significance of Legba becomes clearer if one remembers that
African epistemology is a forro of knowledge in which mythical tradition furnishes both the category of thought and the models for h u m a n behaviour and
social exchanges.
CARIBBEAN RELIGION: THE VOODOO CASE
33
Priesthood
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It is also revealed in a very convincing m a n n e r in the structure of the Voodoo
priesthood which is divided into four priestly classes, each one in charge of one
c o m p a r t m e n t of reality. 1) These are, first of all, the Divinb whose specialty is
Divination. They are also called Papaloua and they occupy the first rank in the
classification of the Afro-haitian priesthood. T h e Papaloua "interprets mysteries
of life and brings messages from the gods" (cf. Senghor, 1946). He knows the
future, explores hidden intentions, shows the meaning of the past. He takes ah
individual u n d e r his care from birth to death and is consulted at the time of
marriages, sickness, departure on a voyage and when someone dies. His art comes
to him t h r o u g h a special initiation (the highest one in Voodoo) which is called: "La
prise des yeux. Ir makes him able to scrutinize the invisible world where contrary
forces are in conflict with each other. T h e most common forros of divination ate
those which can be done with water, the earthenwarejar, corn, the calabash, the
cartomancy and the stick with circular notches. All of this is done u n d e r the
supervision of the loua Agom. During the entire divination session, the priest
must smoke the Pipe o r a large cigar. It is believed that the smoke makes the word
able to develop fully and to reach out to an efficiency that will last (cf. Zahan,
1963:33). For this reason one also smokes before uttering any important word,
before a wish o r a blessing.
2) T h e second kind of priest in the order of importance is the B6k6 who is the
great manipulator of the mystical properties of leaves and herbs. He works u n d e r
the direction of the loua Loko. Concerned with the health of the group, he is a
master in the art of prescribing infusions, macerations and baths required for the
recovery of physical and supernatural well-being. What happens is that the
"Mana" of the Loua circulates in a definite category of vegetation which must be
picked "living" at certain moments and according to a set liturgy. T h e r e exists a
whole list of sacred herbs which are associated with certain louas who ate supposed to dwell in them. In effect, a cultic hymn celebrates the religious herb as
saving. Also a haitian myth tells how a hero who has been killed is transformed into
a plant.
3) T h e third kind of priesthood is that ofS~vit~-Gh›233upon which M›
has
insisted a great deal.
T h e Voodoo thanatology is a highly elaborated sector of thought. T h e complicated way people deal with the mortal remains, the extreme caution with which
everyone prepares for his own death shows that one arrives here at the clŸ
of
the numinous situation about which Rudolph Otto has spoken (cf. Caseneuve,
1967:131). But if there does e x i s t a Voodoo prophylaxis against impure and
dangerous supernatural powers which is the abandoning of the normal h u m a n
condition, nevertheless, death is not presented a s a shipwreck in which one
disappears body and all, but rather as an emergence to another life. Ir is lived in
terms of ah ex-carnation. All of the practices relating to a world of beyond the
tomb witness to this belief. This ministry comes u n d e r the jurisdiction of the
Sbvitb-Gh›233 T h e ritual he works up is very closely associated to the Govi (the
cultic pot) and to water. This is an extremely rich symbolism when one realizes that
in the Negro-African thought water and the pot remind one of heaven (cf. Zahan,
1966:4).
34
SOCIOLOGICALANALYSIS
Conclusion
When this inquiry into the Voodoo had been initiated, we had been asking if
that reality so much disparaged by so-called "civilized people" conveyed a meaning which could be profitable for the Caribbean man.
T h e Voodoo appears to us first of all as a reality which is rooted in a context
having many different sides to it of which the principal are the following: A)
Political (the white power of the 18th century, the bourgeois power today); B)
Economics (the seeking of profit yesterday as well as today on the part of a
dominant minority); C) Social (class-struggle aggravated by the racial struggle in
the 18th century and today a class-society which is still keeping social distances and
separation); D) Psychological (during the Colonial time a reaction of rejection of
the establishment on the part of the slaves and today adjustment of the masses to
their situation of forgotten people); E) Cultural (ah instrument of expression of
the masses, the subjected people within the broad society). In the 20th century,
nothing has really changed in the human relations as they have been lived in the
Antilles. T h e servile condition has simply been transposed into a proletarian
condition.
Voodoo has appeared to us as a religious reality. Many foreign and native
missionaries yesterday as well as today have denied the religious condition of the
Voodoo but without sufficiently examining ir. Nowadays a more evolved hermeneutics permits one to go beyond the appearances, to strip away the structures
in order to make a better and more adequate diagnosis. Up until now the ground
for the evaluation of the Black realities had come from the Western world. Today
a more honest approach attempts to refer Black realities to a Black framework.
It little matters what are the original forms in which the Voodooist expresses his
relations to the invisible. Where there is any kind of prayer and worship, there is
indeed religion. Where there is sacrifice by which contact is sought with superior
spirits--principally when this element is as finely conceived as in the Voodoo
cult--there is indeed religion. Where the priest is submitted to the invisible
powers rather than imposing his will on them, one can, without hesitation,
acknowledge that he is dealing with a religion.
Voodoo satisfies fully all of those criteria. But if it is referred to as antireligious
action which tries to manipulate the divine, let us state right away that this kind of
magic does not belong to the Voodoo. Mauss (1966:11) points out that where
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4) T h e fourth class of priest, that of theHoungan, constitutes the lowest form of
priesthood. It puts into a privileged relationship with the Loua an initiate who has
been entrusted with a specific sector supervised by a god-protector for the benefit
of his devotee.
T h e analysisjust made suggests to us the following conclusions: T h e Divin6 is in
c h a r g e of the world of Men. T h e B£243takes charge of the world of Nature (the
busb). T h e Sbvit&-Gh›233has jurisdiction in the domain of the Dead. T h e Houngan is connected with the Loua in a more general way. In this perspective in which
the social is the reflection of the mystical, we can say that the four priesthoods
correspond to the four compartments of the world which are completely different. But the delegate god, Legba, supervising each sector, helps to relate all the
various parts in order to bring about unity and communication.
CARIBBEAN RELIGION: THE VOODOO CASE
35
p r a y e r can be found, there is no place for witchcraft. T e m p e l s (1949:31) notes, in
addition, that what the E u r o p e a n calls magic is for the Black m a n nothing else
than the h a r n e s s i n g of the s u p e r n a t u r a l forces p u t at the disposition of m a n by
God for the r e i n f o r c e m e n t of h u m a n life.
D u r k h e i m along with Caseneuve gives the same idea o f religion. As for J.B.
Pratt, he defines ir as
attitude toward the power of powers which people conceive as having ultimate control
over their interests and destinies.
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If, then, in a psychosociological perspective, the V o o d o o religion a p p e a r s as the
expression of the racial and cultural resistance of a g r o u p whose significant and
vital cultural emphasis is religion, h e r e we must acknowledge the role a d j u s t m e n t
plays for ah o p p r e s s e d class of people within a hostile society. But, on a m o r e
theological level, its religious nucleus presents a striking coherence.
T h e four d i f f e r e n t categories of priests in our inquriy suggest, in a system
where social life is a reflection of a mystical thought, f o u r divisions of Reality.
T h e s e ate Man, Nature, the Dead and the Gods. T h e y are in constant relationship
although a certain priority of the gods, who a p p e a r as the s u p e r n a t u r a l vassals of
the Gran-M›
the absolute source of life, is verified. T h e r e f o r e the Voodoo
cosmology shows itself as one where "the real" is completely w r a p p e d up within a
s u p e r n a t u r a l network. Besides, in the V o o d o o context, h u m a n personality grows
perfect when in the process of divinization.
T h e intense search for g o i n g - b e y o n d the h u m a n condition has m a d e the
Voodoo a Messianism and it is not surprising that it has b e e n the very root f r o m
which s p r a n g up the slave revolt in 1791 which c u l m i n a t e d in the Haitian indep e n d e n c e in 1804. Voodoo today has been domesticated and commercialized.
Should it h a p p e n that ir finds again a less c o m p r o m i s e d V o o d o o ctergy it will not
be an o p i u m any more. Rather, it will be a help for liberation once again a n d with
it, once again, "1791" may well recur.
36
SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
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