Chapterdh Sidney Mintz & Michel-Rolph Trouillot The SOCIAL HISTORY of HAITIAN VODOU voodooism also voudouism 1 -s(1):a religion originating in Africa asa form of ancestor worship, practiced chiefly by Negroes of Haiti and to some extent cother West Indian islands and the US, and characterized by propitiatory rites and use of trance a8 a means of communicating with animistic deities — called also vodun; compare OBEAH (2): the practice of black magic: conjuring, witch craft. Webster's Third New International Dictionary. ee ee “voodoo,” “hoodoo,” etc) which are names for a religious system, as Webster's definition suggests. Each word embodies a cluster of meanings and associations as used by non- believers, The terms carry a geographical and a racial association as well. Understandings about little-known events that once occurred on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (of which Haiti isa part) in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are mentally condensed in the imagery associated with Vodou. In the words of one of the more thoughtfal stu- dents of the religion, “Qui dit Haiti, pense ‘Vaudoux’, est un fait devant lequel on doit se contenter ’émettre une vaine protestation.”* ‘Most Americans and Europeans think they know what “voodoo” means. The mean- ing of the phrase "voodoo economics,” for example, associated with ex-president George Bush, appears to be understood and is clearly recognized as pejorative, even though it has never been defined. The apparent collective assurance that the meaning of such words and phrases is already known makes it unusually difficult to write informatively about the history of Vodou and about problems connected with the label. There are many experts con Vodou and they do not all agree. In fact, itis easier to provide a sober ethnographic account of a contemporary ceremony (SEE CHAPTER 7) than itis to make good sense of the religion's history. Vodou was created by individuals drawn from many different cultures. It ook on its characteristic shape over the course of several centuries It has never been codified in vticing, never possessed a national institutional structure — a presthood, a national church an orthodoxy, a seminary, a hymnal, a hierarchy, or charter. It uns no day camps, athletic contests, or soup kitchens. And until the creation of the organization called ZANTRAY, . 4.1. Dewalins Ripping the White expliily forthe defense of the Haitian cultural tradition, Vodou has never had “public ™ peas by declan Monpeer relations” either. Itis widely dispersed nationally in the form of what appear to be local “Qiu canon, 782: I1-om. wis cult groups. It has no geographical center or mother church. Its practice seems to be Fic 1234.26 Conversion ofthe Indians," by Serve Molion Blais, 1995. Rapidand nhl destructive expansion ef Eurpean vcely lathe dation of Nati tnerican populations, to war againet nat and to the active missondcation rprvelyization of still otbens 60.9.¢ 12 ein. Oil on canvas. ENCH X95222 Sidney MINTZ & Miche!-Roiph TROUTLLOT Pighly variable locally: Though lacking a national apparatus of any kind, so widely is Vodou practiced and so powerful ate the premises of ite underlying cosmology that its ‘sual considered by the Haitians themselves to be the national religion. Subtle politcal elements ae also involved in the image that Vedeu projects A strong 'deological current among Haitians centers on the idea of Vodow' importance in the ‘evolutionary eration of the Republic of Haid, nearly two century ago. The religion ‘To document the history of Vodou i to define as much as to explain it. Yet because that history is murky — shrouded not only in myth but also ing nillion printed pages writen by ton-practitoners, both infatuated and violently hone comprehensive ar ihe itive. Before Haiti became independent, a few observers deanibna aspects Of the slaves religious behavior. But once freedom came, the crt context of religious Cibression changed radically. Hardly any outsiders observed what was happening, or "sported on thelr observations During half a century fllowing the Revolution, there was 128‘The SOCIAL HISTORY of HAITIAN VODOU no formal signing of a Concordat with the Vatican; and though there were some Catholic priests in Haiti during that period, thei collective effect upon Haitian belief was probably negligible, Yet in the wider world there was some interest in “The Black Republic” its people and their religion, This interest was a coefficient of Hait’s stormy revolutionary history, the (partly) Aftican origins of its leaders and citizens, and its successful war for freedom, Hence various accounts of Hait’s religious life appeared even before the Concordat was signed and finally put in place, in 1860. Though most of these accounts are open to dubs, it is easy to explain why we have them. Surely no other “teligion of Negroes” has ever received so much attention, nor was it ever as important to demean its content. That slaves would fight their colonial masters — that masses of uneducated black slaves would wage war against Napoleonic and French dominion — was thought to be morally hid- cous. Bur that these “gilded Afticans"* would win was absolutely intolerable.* When they their religion (as well as their presumed failure to survive without European guidance) had to be exposed, The manner in which independent Haiti appeared upon the world scene inevitably colored everything writen about it thereafter; and to some extent this is still true, even today. Its popular religion received similar treatment. Hence what follows is written in the absence of any adequate objective history of this New World belief system. ‘We cannot initiate a discussion of an historically particular body of belief and behav- ior (as denoted by the term Vodou) as if we knew atthe outset what it stood for. Therefore, we shall comment briefly on the nature of the religion itself, and what scholars have written about it First, however, it may be useful to state broadly the highly specific con- ditions under which the religious beliefs of enslaved Africans and their descendants in the New World must have evolved. Scholars are not often prepared to analyze religious sys- tems that have had to undergo reconstitution on a wholly new basis, after near-total dissolution, In the last five centuries, this sort of dissolution has occurred frequently in rnon- Western areas, particularly in those regions subjected to extreme pressures of the sort that result in depopulation, geographical resettlement ot expulsion of large numbers of people, radical changes in the political order, and widespread loss of civil rights. In caus- ing such changes, the West has figured importantly. ‘The rapid and highly destructive expansion of European society actoss the Great Plains of North America, for example, led to the decimation of some Native American populations, to war against most, and to the active missionization or proselytization of still others (r1GURE 4.2). Disease and war often killed off so many of the ceremonial lead- cers that large segments of religious practice were lost — if not forever, then atleast in their ‘earlier, “authentic” form.* The extreme nature of such cases makes it appear that total destruction was followed by entirely new beginnings. But in fact the analyses of what actually happened leave no doubt that older materials could be carried forward within the new religions. It would be unhistorical and incautious to claim that the religious systems in such cases always “vanished,” or were wholly destroyed. ‘The case of enslaved Africans is more radical still (HOURE 4.3). The vast majority of Africans who reached the New World were fated to spend the remainder of their lives ir own outside communities of those who spoke their own language and practiced ¢! A, even though they found themselves among other Africans. Slaves on the planta- tions had to forge common cultural practices out of their highly diverse pasts and within the constraints imposed by their living conditions. Enslavement, transportation, and life under servitude in the New World was a fundamentally individualizing experience.” A slave's prior status and the rhythms of his daily life inthe society of origin were traumati- cally broken by enslavement, the Middle Passage, the acculturative process called “season- ing,” and the avful demands of the new existence as slave (FIGURES 4.3, 44). The old life wsSidney MINTZ & Michel-Rolph TROUTLLOT 4.3. Divembarknent ofthe Slave and culture were now remote, even if not forgotten by B Le Rich, 1995. The eaot majority "At the same time, this trauma was also an intensely drastic resacializing process: dras- alsin foreach the Nov World ic hecayseit proceeded under the constant heat of violence and even death: resocializing Tee ee once poke bers it demanded the learning of wholly diferent behavior) puters by its subjects teirown language and practiced te and victims, The “seasoning” of which the planters and slavers spoke was specific to their ‘avn religion, Oon canvas. 101.5. preparation for work. But in fact the seasoning process actually covered much more. The 76.2 om. RICH X92 simplest acts — of eating, of elimination, as well as of dressing, and toilette, not to men- tion courting, establishing kinship ties, or managing life-crises such as birth and death — had to be releamed to fit the new (and mostly very oppressive) circumstances, in the absence of one-society governing principles* based on cultural content, The “right way" t@ fall in love, to give birth, to bless, to bury had, in this situation, to be fashioned through social acts The shves could not bring with them the material apparatus that sustained their institutions at home, such as ritual objects, particular foods or beverages, distinctive items of dress, weapons, equipment, tools. Even though many of these items might be faithfully reproduced (and doubtless were), to do so required innovativeness, motivation, and prob= ably stealth, Nor could they bring che personnel of any such institution, such as group of priests, a group of artisans, or a royal family. Coming as they did from many different societies, the enslaved did not share a common language, a common religion, ot a single political system. The culturally specific practices that usualy enable us o distinguish indi-nt = | i ETT amy ‘The SOCTAL HISTORY of HAITIAN VoDOU viduals from one society from individuals coming from another — Frenchmen, say, from Russians — varied among the enslaved as well, but it tended to vary from individual to individual. 1tis because of this inescapable variability, created by the history of slavery, that we believe that “one-society governing principles” were absent. (On the other hand the heterogeneity was not as thoroughgoing as commonly sup- posed. Persons from the same group did on occasion find each other in the same locale, and many broad principles of traditional cultural orientation, principles underlay the cul- ture-specific differences and were in fact conserved. Indeed, recent work'® documents the significance of preexisting cultural connections. Despite the lack of a common culture, the enslaved often shared certain fundamental orientations — a “substratum” — toward the Universe and toward each other that helped them in reestablishing common cultural ground, But that did not make the pressure less. Accordingly, it can be taken as an initial premise that the evolving religious life of the slaves in the New World depended on their success in (re}constructing religious sys- tems that successfully “patched” what bad been believed to what would be believed. In order to do so, they were obliged to employ the various memories, insights, practices, and belie available, from that heterogeneous group of individuals who would be living in ‘one place, or on one plantation. The initial period of contact among the enslaved on the estates to which they were transported was of crucial importance." In the case of the firstcomers, many acts may still have been practiced; and many of those that could not ‘ere still vividly remembered. Words, objects, songs, gestures, associations, specific beliefs about nature or agency may be expressed and thereby contributed to a kind of common fund of cultural “knowledge.” From this fund, all may draw, so t0 speak, until certain specific behaviors become normative — until, that is, such material takes on some com- mon characteristics that all group members acknowledge behaviorally. Particular behav- ioral features — gestures, words, ways of dressing and undressing, addressing and redress- ing — thus become embodied in group behavior as norms. The perpetuation of those features, however, does not rest only upon wide indli- vidual recognition, but also upon the emergence of some kinds of specialized personncl: Priests, priestesses, healers and herbalists, midwives, soothsayers, ritual assistants, crafis- ‘men such as drum makers, musicians, and so on. In effect, the allocation of tasks and responsibilities among persons who come to be recognized as ritual figures is the ongoing institutional accompaniment to the emergence of a body of coherent and accepted prac- tice Until an institutional form becomes visible, even a body of belief that has been transferred coherently has nowhere to attach itself. If we think of an institution as a social instrument for addressing a problem — including under “problems” such things as bitth, maturity, sexual union, parenthood and death — its emergence is determined in large part by the readiness of group members to agree on how best such a problem can be handled, It's for this reason that we can speak of group behavior as extending itself along the latticework of institutions that, together, make up a society's “solutions” (An event such as birth is always a ‘problem’; in the same sense, an act such as baptism or circumcision, the choice of godparents or of ritual presiders is always a “solution, While the slave sector of New World societies was not a separate (and separable) society in its own right — materials of all kinds were clearly transmitted across the status and other boundaries that divided the masters from the slaves — these were social groups deeply divided from each other, ideologically and in good measure culturally, even though they were in intimate daily contact. The ancestral cultures from which their members came were certainly different in nearly every way. Indeed the dichotomy between these two groups, and between their religious wrA.A, Sufferings laflcted on the Slave," by Michel St Fleur, 1991. The Arautc resocalizing proceeded under the constant threat of violence and even Aeath, Oil on cameas. 61x T6-em. Afrique en Creations. Sidney MINTZ & Michel-Rolph TROUILLOT legacies, has been a persistent theme of the scholarship to date on Vodou (st INSET, PAGE 126). Analytic work such as that of Herskovits (1936), Bastide (1967), Desmangles (1992), Larose (1977), and de Heusch (1989) suggests the following points. There is a general recognition that Vodou took on its characteristic shape through whole series of events occurring during slavery and after feedom came, as half a million Afticans (and their descendants) brought a new religion into being in the French colony. Authors identify ‘meaningful distinctions of various sorts reflecting the evolution of the religious system itself, over time, and the playing-out of various influences (e.g. the Rada-Petwo duality); new religious ideas (as in the analysis of Petwo by de Heusch, ste INSET, PAGE 133); com tests over authenticity (asin Larose's discussion of Guinea, see INSET, paGe 132) and other processes of change. In nearly every study mentioned, the operative word is "juxtaposi- tion,"? since this makes it possible to speak of two systems or subsystems of belief, opet= ating within reach of each other but not assimilated to each other. That, in short, is how most observers see Vodou, since it contrasts organizationally and in content with neatly everything that is Catholic. De Heusch contends thatthe presence of Catholic elements in Vodou is largely inconsequential. Most other students see the two religions as interactive in Haitian life, even if they cannot be said to form a single body of belief. ‘Yet missing from most accounts is the study of the relations between this Vodou! Catholic duality and dualities of class. I isin any event clear that what Vodou means aid 128“The SOCIAL HISTORY of HAITIAN VoDOU hhow itis employed, varies enormously from the bottom of the Haitian class system to the op. These variations throw special ight on the perception and denigration of Vodou as witcher, ON VODOU, WITCHCRAFT, AND POLITICS Many outsiders, in observing or commenting on Vodou, reduce its compass from What they would call “religion” to “witcheraft.” By “witchcraft” is commonly meant “black ‘magi or the harnessing of malevolent forces with the object of causing harm to other Anuman beings. This conception of Vodou often highlights the racism or ethnocentrism of Such distant observers, foreigners and Haitians alike (see for example William Seabrook’s, The Magic Island, published in 1929); but theie prejudices are also nourished by the signifi- tance of transformative practices associated with Vodou in Haitian life (see CHAPTERS 5, 7 Axo 12). Almost all religions include what some anthropologists call “transformative prac- Aices” that is, acts which, when performed properly by humans, mobilize “supe forces in order to affect human life. Such transformative practices appear to most outsiders, a5 “magic” regardless of their ethical value — whether they have benign consequences (such as purification) or bad ones (such as the death of an enemy). An American Indian tain dance is an obvious transformative practice; so is a Roman Catholic mass. When a Christian family gathers around the bed of a sick child to pray for her recovery, Family members engage in a transformative practice. Likewise, a Christian wedding or a Jewish circumcision can be considered transformative practices. Of course, most transformative practices, ike all rituals, require indifferent de right movements and, especially, the right attitude from the participants. As such, they ate also demonstrative practices. Bet 4 transformative and a demonstrative aspect. Two facts signal the significance of transformative practices in Vodou. First, such es the right words, the right setting, the + said, many religious rituals throughout the world have practices are mote common than they are in religions such as Islam, Judaism, Buddhist, for Christianity; and even rituals that are primarily demonstrative tend to have a strong chokare Ponder Oodou scholars Vo over the past 60 years thee ha been a pronounced temptation to dseribe Hata el ewes in er of dichotomy, though tei oppvitiona pole are both conteted. On th fallow pages are cncztions of fe such vcholar lelille J. Herskovits s 1 « Haton Vale, an antheopological national history: ‘As regards the Haitian, it must be recognized that idy of a highland village published in 1937, was probably the rst thetic treatment of Vodou ever written by an outsider. Here rskovits posed the historical dichotomy created by the differing tural contributions of Affica and France to the making of Haiti, ticularly as played out in religious behavior. In concluding, he set, this concept of “socialized ambivalence.” arguing thatthe Hai people exhibit considerable psychic conflict in their behavior, icularly in their religious life, owing to theie culturally divided the two ancestral elements in his civilization have never been com- pletely merged.” He goes on to suggest that “this socialized ambiva- lence underlies much of the politcal and economic instability of Hait..this type of approach eannot bu give insight into such occur- ‘ences as that oF the man whose unwilling possession by the gods of his ancestors was, as described, brought about through the Fascina- tion of their forbidden rites for him, despite his srict Catholic up- bringing” (pp 295-256). continued. a94.5. Di’ ov ‘baka’ figure. Cement, paint. Height, 60cm. C ‘Autrid and Haleor Jaeger Sidney MINTZ & Michel-Rolph TROUILLOT transformative aspect. Second, in Vodou, the moral divide between good and evi in the performance of transformative practices is based as much on the goals as on the knowledge of the performers, That is, in Vodou, a transformative ritual is thought to belong to sorcery rather than religion primarily on the bass of what it does to oter buman Beings. This second points relevant to the relation between Vodou and state politics in Hait ‘The abundance of transformative practices is not due, as often be= lieved, to Vodou's dubious association with animism. Anthropologist Alfred Métraux was right when he argued that “vague animist belies are to be found floating, so to speak, on the margin of Vodou." But it must be remembered that the world of Vodou is peopled by numerous spirits, such as the Marasa (the Twins), emé (the dead), mist (the mysteries) and espe- cially the lesser gods ot vt All of these stand hierarchically and theologi- cally below the supreme deity, the God recognized by Christians (Bony bbut they, rather than He, interact with humans. In practice, this means that the servant of the gods has access to an abundance of forces to solicit Indeed, the more nonhuman forces (gods, spirits, saints, angels ete) inhabie the spiritual world, the higher the interaction between them and humans, and the higher the number of transformative practices. This isa «general tendency of all religions. Gods, spirits, saints, and angels do things for us and we do things for them. The more gods, saints, spirits or anges the more we ae likely to do things for them or with them. Early Christian reformers such as Luther publicly reproved this tendency. They sought to reduce both the number — and the power — of beings with whom bus ‘mans could interact (the Virgin Mary, saints, angel). At the same time, they condemned the high number of transformative practices associated with these spirits, such as the purchase of indulgences. Today, in many Catholic countries, the large number of saints and the fact that some of them, and. particularly the Virgin Mary, come under more than one persona contribute to an increase of transformative practices (eg, novenas). It can be argued that the Haitian people “inher= ited” aspects of many spiritual beings from French Catholicism, probably at last as many as from Africa (see CHAPTER 1). To these, however, they added numerous native — which is to say, Creole — ones. Royer Bastide, che eminent French sociologist of religion, offers another such dichotomy in his work (1972 [1967)), which began with research on an Affo-Brazilian religion. Based on later compara Live study, Bastide distinguishes between two principal sort of Afio- American religion, which he dubs "preserved" and “living.” Bastide sees the cdndomblé groups of Brazil, with every feature of ceremony and belief jealously guarded and perpetuated by the religious leaders, san example of “preserved” religion, “the expression ofa threatened ccultute's will to resist to preserve its ethnic identity by erystalising tradition and removing it from the fx of history.” For Baside, “This is not the case as regards certain other Aftoamerican religions, in particular Haitian Voodoo. In the frst place, [Haiti] won its indepen- dence at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and this event led to_a breaking-off of relations with Aftica, wheress Brazil maintained its Affican connections. Secondly, independence brought about the climination of the white population. Consequently the Negroes no longer had to fight against the Europeans’ desire to assimilate them. “They were not obliged to erect that double barrier of socal resistance (auch 2s we find in other Antilles or on the mainland) against racial prejudice on the one hand and the impositions of western values on the other” (pp. 130-131). Baste believes the absence of that cheat after the Revolution permitted Yodou tobe “tive religion. His ideas suggest that Affo-American religions must be viewed in the soci context of their formative years —agninst the demands ofthe society in which believers lived,00 SLEE_ KT ‘The SOCIAL HISTORY of HAITIAN VopoU Most of these spirits ae inberenly neither good nor bad, although some do more Boed than others, and some are primarily malevolent. Moreover (in theory at least), any- fone has access to these largely neutral forces. The difference between ‘good and evil de- bends on the ways in which one validates access to them and the purposes for whicr they Are But Co use, Lue ete (inherited spirits) generally perform good deeds, sine aobte bought 2048) perform most malevolent ones. Similatly, to serve the gods “with the right hand” is to cal upon ther fores to do good, whereas to serve them “with the let hand” to do iL shor, the difference between good and evil is realized in practice rather than ‘inough some essential manichelsm as in Christianity. Quintessential Ev and ce manifes pions (suchas Lucifer, the fillen angel, or the “devil” figure, dic) are among Vodou's most Christin legacies —an ionic inheritance, given Vadou's diabolicel reputation among Christians (ercure 4,5) Given the li generalized word for “sorcery” fed presence of quintessential evi, itis not surprising that there is no n Haitian Creole. If we defined “sorcery 8a transforma ‘Ne practice Fundamentally oriented toward evil and recognized as such by the practitio- ners ("bad magic the closest Haitian is 2 ma, which literally means to do bad but is nop Fesrieted Co the use of supernatural forces. The noun choc? (sorceor), which may be as aera ine turn of the century, aplies more ofen to females than to males Both shake and lik may be used for a practitioner who serves exclisively “with th lot hand,” but pike in particular may refer to an individual otherwise recognized a 4 legitimate priest. Farther, taken in context, no clear line of knowledge separates the priest (oungar) from the voc ny hush some sorcerers engage in practices — and may belong to seces scree ah ed by genuine oungans. Most often, the bokd is only an oungan “who sree Mth ath hands” “who appears to fulfill his priestly functions” but ture to fre saohte when it suits him'* (sex CHAPTER 12). This premium on practice does not mean that Vodou theok between religion and sorcery but, rather, that it does not set them AS with most religions, Vodou sustains its practitioners with eth difference berween good and bad is realize logy does not distinguish ‘upas exclusive domains ical parameters, but the more often than not, on the basis of the deeds performed and the characterises of action In that context one key characteristic of sorcery is expediency. The absence ofa clear ontological line between good and evil spirits and of a pub- Tl recognized dvsion of knowledge between priests and sorcerers hes conintoned Leslie Desmangles (1992), flowing Basie’s earlier itrpet- fons, wetes of religious symbiosis: the spatial juxtaposition of i. ‘ese religious traditions from two continents, which coexis without fasing with one another Justa tiny pars of a stained glass windows are juxtaposed to forma whole, so too pats ofthe Vodou and Cathe, "ctaalions ae justaposed in space and time to constitute the whole of Vodou” (8). For Desmangles,thisis not only symbioi by xia Position, bu “symbiosis by ecology” both reflecting the divided hi, tory of Vodou, Catholic on the one hand, Alcan on the other But Desmangls takes note of another dichoromy as well (pp. 94.97) ‘visting within the nacion (loosely, “nations or clusters of gods hose designations once refered to geographically sited peoples or {ral groups in Aca, Many believe thar the named goes (he) within {he nanchon divide into two maln groups Rada and Pewo [Peto the gods ofeach group being notably diferent in temperament and in Grigin. From the work of Maya Deren (1972) and up tthe present the Perwo a have been classified a violent, revolutionary, deste, tive, and even malevolent, when contrasted to the Rada wa, Desmangls, while Iaving in place the widely accepted distinction between Rada and Perwo, secks to correct the belie thatthe Rade wa are always benevolent, the Perwo Iwa always maleficent, contd.Sidney MINTZ & Michel-Rolph TROUILLOT greatly to many foreigners’ inclination to reduce Vodou to witchcraft, More important, since the line between religion and sorcery i defined by practice, Vodou has always been left open to exploitation by outsiders of all kinds, especially members of che Haitian urban lites. The manipulation of Vodou as sorcery by Haitian urbanites stems in part from the historical ambivalence of the Haitian elites vis-i-vis that religion. Herskovits’ statement that the two ancestral efements of Haitian civilization have not completely merged may apply more to the elites than tothe majority of Haitian peasants. At any rate, Few feldworkes have noted any reluctance among Haitian peasants to acknowledge the importance of Vodou in their daly lives, in spite of two nationwide campaigns of repression, The storys quite different among the elites, whose behavior and values have also directly illuenced the urban middle and lower classes. Vodou-related practices have never been socially sanc- tioned in the urban sphere. This means that most urban families have engaged in such practices only with reluctance, regardless of belief: Vodou rituals were held secretly and only when it would have been detrimental not to do so, Transformative practices were used only when everything else had failed ‘This history of ambivalence has encouraged urban — and especially elite — families to use Vodou only as it fits their needs: whenever Vodou's abundance of transformative practices seems immediately convenient and practical. Medical emergencies are such octa- sions, especially since medicine and religion overlap in Haiti as they do in many other countries * Few Haitians would label such practices “sorcery,” just as few fundamentalist Christians would so label a vigil for a sick friend. The relationship is inherently manipuc tive, however, and characterized primarily by expediency. Quite unlike a Haitian peasant who serves the lwa, ora fundamentalist Christian, the Haitian elites commonly view s religious practices as deeply contradietory to what they claim to be. Few would ack ‘edge daily and publicly their allegiance to the bedrock of religious belief upon which healing practice is based. Instead, the transformative aspect of Vodou is appropriated for what are only limited practical goals. It is important to note that this manipulative aspect of the relation between the Haitian elites and Vodou does not depend much upon the strength of internal bel among urbanites Rather, it inheres in the fact that Vodou has never been socially tioned in the urban space. While their goals are not always malevolent, Haitian ‘engage in Vodou as if it were sorcery. But when the goals are malevolent, such as in ficlds of politic, the manipulation of both supernatural forces and of the religious bel of the majority become most visible. ‘The manipulations of Vodou by Haitian politicians are of two kinds, and can traced back to the nineteenth century. On the one hand, politicians have been known ‘Serge Larose emphasizes yt another dichotomy in his study (1977), disinguishing berween those who practice “Vodu [Vodou] (the an cesta eligion deriving fom West Africa) and those who indulge in ‘magic and sorcery: Among the peasants themselves, Vodu has much ‘more precise meaning: it designates a specific ritual concerned with the so-called Vodu spits. These spirits are worshipped within cult- groups which take much pain to point ou the diferences between them and other groups mainly re-occupied with other sets of pow es, all more or less related with the practices of sorcery, the ‘Petr! ase and the ‘Zandor’ and the ‘Matok’ shall use the term agi tothe latter Haitians da The pre-eminence of Voda soci magic onesis expressed in terms of loyalty to fig stands for tradition, unswerving loyalty othe aneeson them tothe old ways and stuals they broughs from "Peto" [Petwo] is included hereon the “magic” side ofthe the Guinea side sounds oddly lke what Bastide would served” rather than a “living” elie system‘The SOCIAL HISTORY of HAITIAN vooOU turn to transformative practices in order to gain or secure control of the state apparatus. ‘On the other, they have used the public's knowledge of their engagement in such practices to further sustain that contol, irrespective of their own beliefs in supernatural efficiency. “These two kinds of manipulation overlap in practice, but they constitute different forms of religious exploitation. First, unlike healing practices that aim at the well-being of individual minds and bodies, those aiming to influence state politics are viewed as malevolent by most Haitians. ‘They involve secret and dishonorable alliances. They engage humans with forces bought with money — hi ache, undue promises, and undeserved privileges. In other words, they clearly eross the line into sorcery, as drawn by Vodou practitioners themselves. Secondly, and more important, as such practices are flaunted by politicians aiming to use the beliefs of the majority to instill fear or awe, they also contribute to the reinforce- iment of the perception of Vodou as sorcery. In that sense, the use of Vodou by urban politicians is not just a benign example of the cultural appropriation that typifies social history generally It goes further than the potentially exploitative use of Vodou by foreign- cersand urbanites facing medical emergencies or other life crises. Iti, to a large extent, cultural embezzlement Embezzlement suggests intent, willful misappropriation. Symbolic of the pol will to manipulate Vodou as a foreign object is their apparently contradictory behavior. ‘They never hesitated to condemn Vodou publicly, even while secretly engaged in th “bad magic’; yet they make sure that most people do come to learn their “secret.” Pres- sured in part by the Roman Catholic clergy, successive Haitian governments repeatedly ‘banned Vodou practices on the pretext that they were, indeed, equivalent to sorcery. At the same time, the power holders of the day would entertain rumors alleging their volvement in some of the very practices they condemned. That some of these rumors were sometimes false matters less than the fact that they were always perceived as beneficial by the politicians involved. This dual manipulation blurted both in words and in practice the distance between Vodou and sorcery; italso legitimated the public condemnation of Vodou as magic and sorcery, There is a Janus-like quality in a religious system that means one thing to its popular practitioners, and quite another to those higher in the class system ‘who only appropriate bits of its peripheral practice for their personal, instrumental ends. SAN © DOMINGO -ST. DOMINGU EARLY HISTORY In the preceding discussion of basic concepts in Vodou practice and their inflection according to dilferences in class position and power, we have not so far tried to link the argument to historical events; not enough is known at this time to make that possible. We ments of its two components has to do with history” (p 292) — eewo elements in tems of their derivation. Bringing his Dahomey (Fon) versus Kongo as sources for quite different streams of | of Congolese (Zar) religious forms to Hat, de Heusch African religious material. He firmly rejects the idea of syneretism dt discover many Iwa of Kongo origin inthe suppos- Beate toe ee a petro pantheon’ (pp 292-293). De Heusc links the term i coexist without merging, Catholic influences are superficial in eee i ir ‘ism isa parallel, complementary religion” (p. 292). 13Sidney MINTZ & Michel-Rolph TROUILLOT try now to provide a more historical account. But the reader should keep in mind that any ‘exact linkage between event and historical process is still beyond reach, No easier the task of declaring when we might begin to speak of areligion, rather than of a widely-scattered series of local cults in ovo, not yet coherent enough to be called a (single) refigion by outsiders. We can enumerate and comment on those sparse markers in order to comment on each of them. We aim to report what others have described as ‘Vodou, through time; and to infer, as have so many before us, what therinferences mean, Before we can even address these issues, we need some historical background, against which to describe how this new religion is believed to have grown, When he set sail for Lisbon to return from his first voyage on January 16, 1493, Columbus left thirty-nine men in an infant north coast settlement in Santo Domingo, which he had named Navidad. He sailed again for the New World nine months later. After reaching Samana Bay on the north coast on November 22, he headed for Navidad, but learned from the Indians with whom he spoke beforehand that all of the people in the Navidad settlement were dead. During the ensuing three decades the Spaniards founded settlements in all of the Greater Antilles tis not absolutely certain when the first enslaved Africans reached the islands. Some authors have suggested 1501, others 15024; and yer others still later dates. There is no doubt, however, that by 1510, there were enslaved Africans on all of the large islands. Soon enough there were sugar mills on all of them, as well; the strange link between sugar and African slavery had been perpetuated across the ocean, But the sugar industry pioneered in the Caribbean by Spain was not to flourish and, indeed, neither ‘were the Spanish colonies there, for several centuries. The link between slavery and over- seas commerce was vital. The presence of Africans in the New World was closely linked to the rise — and fall — of the plantation system (r1GURE 4.6). ‘Though Santo Domingo was the Old World's oldest colony in the New, and got off to. good start with the arrival of Governor Ovando in 1502, it lost population afier the discovery of Mexico. The «win attractions of mineral wealth and large exploitable native populations made the mainland irresistible. Therever after the Spaniards were hard put to maintain adequate populations in the islands. In the second and third decades of the seventeenth century, at that very time when the North European powers were beginning to challenge Spain head-o Antilles, their governments witnessed to their satisfaction a movement of European dis- senters to the disputed margins of the Spanish Caribbean empire, from which they would challenge Spain more and more impudently. These strange ftontiersmen — for this region still contained a frontier — were a motley lot: military deserters, Huguenots, Lutherans, Irish and Welsh resisters, Catholics ejected from Britain, and no doubt many criminals. ‘The “refuse” of many lands and many conflicting polices, they found common ground in Santo Domingo, where effective territorial control by the Spaniards was limited. They established themselves in the sparsely populated northwestern region of the island. When chased by the Spaniards, they took refuge on le & Tortue (Tortuga, off the northwestern coast). These interlopers, the ancestors of the buccaneers, constituted the first successful territorial aggression against Spain on the Greater Antilles. Their success culminated inthe cession of the western thitd of Santo Domingo to France by the treaty of Ryswick (1697), out of which the French colony of Saint Domingue was created, Although France had illegal settlers in this part of the country — and had even dispatched administrative officials there as early as 1639 — the official colony dates from 1697. Though the New World sugar industry began in Spanish Santo Domingo, it remained litle developed before about 1680. And though there were many people of part-African ancestry in Santo Domingo, slavery before 1680 had proved to be of lite the Lesser 134_ °° °~» ee : ‘The SOCIAL HISTORY of HAITIAN VopoU Tesae a memuence.” From about 1680 onward, however, under French stimulus — 4,6, A Cotton Plantation in th ilegal, of course, until 1697 — the plantation economy of the west began to grow. That Colonial Era,'by Eady Jacqucs, 191 The link between elaveryan owt is demonstrated by the rapid increase in sugar production (and soon eno, the re » sem Sa eat prodtion ee commerce was etal. The presence of Wrens inthe New World wae ally non-existent. ingen, Production of other ropcel commodities), as well as by the swfly mounting nonin of ly ise — and fall ~ ofthe enslaved Africans, Figures for the immediate pre-1697 period are But Fick, citing Stein, suggests that during the inital period of growth (1690. 1720 ‘hime OF slaves increased from litle over 3,000 t0 well over 47,000.*Galloway claims She won gue Crcations that St, Domingue's slave population in 1680 was 4,000, and in 1791, 480,000 * During Fa raat it believed that 864,000 enslaved Aficans were imported. These fig, laves, and help us to imagine the {erble conditions under which they lived. They also make clear thatthe ratio of Afraan plantation system. Oil twes document the vertiginous rise in the number of fom slaves to “creole” (colony-born) slaves remained high throughout. By 1789. Fick {cls ws two-thirds of the neatly one-half milion slaves in St. Domingue were Afi fom We can only gues atthe impact of this ratio on the outbreak and nature of the [evolution and onthe developmen of Vodou itself Suffice it to say here that our sness on the importance of the initial comtact period on cuiture-bulding in no constant addition of new materials by slaves freshly embarked fiom Afi Yer some would argue that, at leastas important asthe Afican origins ofthe slaves in y denies the inating the Revolution that would follow, waste adjining presence of the nearly empiy undeveloped Spanish colony of Santo Domingo, which shared the island with French's Pomingue Twice the area of French St. Domingue, scantily populated and of litle men 10 Spain, Santo Domingo was an intemal frontier of which rebellious saves took sich advan age Even the boundary between the two colonies was imprecise, until fixed by Bee ant in 1777. The runaway slave (marron) bands, which had developed on the island long before the Spanish cession of the western thi, continued ther aetiete, as the Plantation colony grew (FIGURE 4.7). By the eaily eighteenth century, the French hea d the end of that ‘century; they were compelled to sign a peace treaty with one of the maroon bands. It formed a permanent runaway-chasing body (the marichausé), and tow 135————_ ‘Sidney MINTZ & Michel-Rolph TROUILLOT difficult — without looking.at the small islands, such as Barbados, where marrannage could never realy occur; oF atthe undivided lage islands in which police power was extended jslandwide, such as Jamaica — to give proper weight tothe situation in Hispaniola. With cut extending its power over the enie island, the French colony was unable to regulate novement. This counted heavily against local authorities, during the scant century be- tween the creation of the colony and the start of internal wat ‘so much has been written concerning the Haitian Revolution that it is unnecessary political, and economic situation of the colony in 1794, at the moment of the outbreak, Instead we need to tum back, to take note of the events of 1757 58, concerning the slave named Makandal, Makandal has often been refered t0 as # harbinger of the Revolution, though the events in question took place almost half a cen- tury before the outbreak. Makandal’s history matters here because of the place Vodou is claimed to play in his story. to review here the socia {A great deal of imaginative reconstruction surrounds Frangois Makandal’s personal history. He is thought t0 have been of “Guinea” origin —some claim of the Mus lim faith, Te twelve. (There is to our knowledge no conclusive evi- said that he was enslaved at the age of dence for any of this) On reaching Saint Domingue, he was sold to a plantation owner in the north, named Lenormand de Mézy. Years later Makandal escaped and became a runaway, and the leader of a maroon-band. (The circumstances surrounding his flight are not really known; there are many fanciful stories) Makandal is described as eloquent, highly intelligent, and resourceful, He was also said to have had a large number of followers, and to be an expert manufacturer of poisons. To him was imputed a grand plot to poison the white planters of Saint Domingue (particularly and at first, those of Cap Francois), and to fiee the colony of its colonial and slavery yoke. It 4.7. “Deyo mon gen min’ [Beyond appears that there were numerous victims of poisoning, both slaves and masters some ‘the mountains are more mountains], Horians have interpreted such poisonings 2s political in motivation, the work of Makandal’s vaso Hatan provers The mounted’ faljowers. Makandal himself was eventually eaprured and burned atthe stake, in 1758 Tumecaled marvon bands of runaway : (ricure 4.8) “pret of boundaries between St “The presence and importance of Vodou in his story is suggested by the words of @ ieee) the nearlyempty Spanieh contemporary, the lewenatjuge of the town of Port-de-Paly colony of Sato Domingo. The mon tain were tba am important factor it the Revolution. Photograph, Donald Coventing, 1986. slaves who were alo aed bythe “This colony is swarming with slaves, so-called soothsayers and sorcerors who poison and who, for long time, have conceived the plan of insensbly wiping ‘out all the whites... These blacks are of a sect or a new kind of religion formed by two leaders, old Negroes, who for many long yeats have been fi tive and whose names ate Macandal and Tassereau: These two sectarians have fortunately been arrested..., but unfortunately they have a considerable num: ber of sectarians and disciples; there are currently over two hundred in the prisons of le Cap: We have roughly a dozen in those of Port-de-Paix since instructions have been delivered a fortnight ago, and twenty-two more have been denounced; and I have reason to believe that those who remain to be discovered in the various quarters of this department are equal in number to those at le Cap‘The SOCIAL HISTORY of HAITIAN voDOU Unfortunately, the story of Makanda is shrouded in considerable uncertainty, aggravated by imagination. We know that he was put on the rack and burned to death because of the alleged widespread plot co poison people, both white and black. Milscent, writing in 1791, recalled Makandal’s conspiracy, but saw no link to the claim of others that a revolution was brewing, and that it had its roots in the past. It is clear, though, that by the mid-eighteenth century, there was grave trouble in the colony. ‘The mortality rates among the slaves were horrifyingly high; the slaves struggled against their condition, Violent acts of resistance, both by slaves and by the maroon bands, be- ‘came increasingly common. Such violence against the system was occurring in spite of the application of organized terror by the planter class and its servant government. But in Saint Domingue, of course, the issue was not simply that of slavery. Serious students of the Revolution take note of the deep cleft between the colonial whites of all class levels, and those of color. The great power of the free people of color (affianchis) greatly threatened the whites, particularly the poor or landless whites; and numerous laws ‘were passed to circumscribe the power of colored fice persons. It was inthe context of this political sirugate tha slave resistance flourished. In crisis, the potential political usefulness of Vodou may have become more evident to the slaves. The French Revolution altered the balance of forces in St, Domingue, Though opin- ‘ons differ somewhat about the influence of the Revolution on later events in the colony, 137 4.8, “Makanda, the Rebel Slave with Aagie Powers, ump Out ofthe Bonfie,'by Wilson Anacréon, 1991 leader of « marson-band prior tothe revolution, i ‘reited with a anand plot to poison white planters and fee the colony of it yoke Contemporary ascounts suggest leadership ofa religious eult was key bis powers. Jn 1758 be was captured and burned atthe stake, Oil on oa 51x 76 em. Afrique en Creationsee Sidney MINTZ & Michel-Rolph TROUILLOT ‘once the Revolution began in France, events in St. Domingue were inevitably affected. We cannot attempt t0 touch these matters here, however. We turn instead, briefly, ro the famous August 1791 “ceremony at Bois Caiman’ and the role of the slave called Boukian Dutty. As in the case of Makandal, mach hearsay and imagina- tion enter into the description of events at Bois Caiman.” It is said to have been both a religious ceremony and a political event; allegedly, some of the revolt leaders who had gathered earlier nea the plantation of Lenormand de Mézy to schedule their revolt for August 22 ate sad to have attended. Boukman presided inthe role of ungan (pres), supposedly together with an Affican-born priestess. A pig was sacrificed, an oath taken, and Boukman and the priestess spoke to exhort the listeners to fight bravely against their oppressors (ricure 4.9). Only days later, the Haitian Revolution began The difficulties with even this bare outline of the Bois Caiman ceremony are many, Despite the lengthy and detailed accounts provided by, for example, Fick (in 1990) and Deren (in 1953), there is absolutely no reliable historical basis for the story a all8 David Geggus, for example, remarks, “The details of what happened at Bois Caiman...remain elusive, beyond the fact that a pig was sacrificed by a priestess in some sort of religious ceremony in preparation for wat” He argues persua- sively that there is no evidence that, before the Revolution what we now call Vodou “was notin fact 2 se 4.9. Ceremony at the Bois Caiman, ethnic or local cults,” a view with which we are strongly inclined to agree. Palmié dis- by Deudoané Cer 1791, The dtalsef cues the chant allegedly sung at Bois Caiman, and demonstrates thatthe lyrics (which wba ferpenl as toi appear in print forthe first time in Moreau de St-Méry’s work in 1797-98) not only do s of ‘separate Poon srl bya pss insane NOLAN what hasbeen claimed, but were Being sung by descendants of Bant-speaking sort of eligioas ceremony in preparation Slaves in. western Cuba before the Cuban revolution of 1959.25 In this instance, for war: Musée VArt Haitien, Prt-au deconstruction has left us with little we can rely on2* Prince Hait But most important in our view is to recognize that the role of Vodou in the Revo- Jution, and in Haitian life generally, has from the frst been subject to non-religious, ideo= logical influences of all sorts (ricure 4.12). Though we would firmly contend that Vodou ‘was important in the emerging struggle of the slaves against slavery and of the Haitian People against their French rulers, it seems to us simplistic to make of religious belief the linchpin of the resistance. It is probably more important to try to document the complex social organization of the colony on the eve of the Revolution, before speculating about the importance of religion in the formation of the slaves’ resistance to slavery: We believe that the religious orientation of many or even most of the slaves played a part in the resistance to the horrors of slavery. But there were doubtless many individuals and some ‘groups for whom Vodou was not important, perhaps even some who actively rejected it as their religion, yet who played immensely important roles in the Revolution, and in the development of the Republic thereafter. AFTER 1804 From the Revolution’s end until the signing of the Concordat in 1860, the Catholic clergy in Hait, though not entirely unrepresented, remained practically inactive.” Duringyy The SOCIAL HISTORY of HAITIAN VODOU 4.10. Petro Ceremony," by Casters Basil, 1950, Oifon masonite 38.5. em. Milwaukee Art Museum, Giftof Rie 1 and Erna Flagg. MUL 10. those nearly sixty yeats, the ideological and emotional relationship between formal Ca- tholicism and Vodou changed radically. What is more, it was during that period that the Vodou religion became stabilized in significantly different form. Forced immigration from Aftica, as represented by enslavement, had ended, The economic status of the masses, at first only painfully, but more rapidly by mid-century, began co change for the better In their new capacity as peasant landholders, the Haitian people were now able 10 link their own genealogies directly to the contol of land. The declaration of indepen- dence in 1804 had been followed by the beginnings of land distribution by the state particularly under President Boyer, in the period 1827-43. Over time, the lands on hun- dreds of sugar and coffee plantations were occupied by the Haitian people. Ie is accurate to say that from about 1825 until mid-century, the second republic of the western Hemi- sphere was transformed into a nation of peasants. We mean by this that most land in the Haitian countryside was subdivided into relatively modest holdings that became the prop- ety of individual families. Such families grew most of their own food, but sold some part of their product ro have the means to buy those things they needed which they could not produce for themselves. Such small-scale cultivators mostly used family labor or ex- changed labor with their neighbors. Their technical means for working the land were severely limited; even the use of the plough was rare. Peasants needed to purchase cloth or 139irin, 1991. Boukman Duty, said to ase provided inthe role of oungan (priet) tog pricsen, ofthe one of 101.6 om, swith an African born the martyred beroes solution. Acrylic on cam Wfrigue en Creation Sidney MINTZ & Michel-Relph TROUILLOT clothing, most tools and other metal objects, any fuel other than wood, all china, many medicines, and much else. To do so meant producing salable (and usually, exportable) commodities, such as coffee, vetiver, goats’ horns, beeswax, ete. The spread of a peasant mode of cxistence ssuimed a typical shape, in which a senior male and his wife, cogether with several grown sons with their wives and children and perhaps one or two aged, indigent and landless relatives or strangers occupied a single plot of land, Residence in a compound was typi cally patrilocal; sons brought their wives into their father's compound, But descent was traced through both father and mother. Inheritance was supposed to be equal among siblings. The children of unmarried secondary wives (plase) of the senior male were dis criminated against in inheritance. Since Napoleonic law was followed, family lands were ‘commonly divided on the death of the senior male. Over time, average holdings decreased rapidly in average size; meanwhile, population continued to grow. Attached to the house of the senior male was some land with a place of worship and ceremony. This ancestral homestead (lekou) was also a burying ground for descendants in the patrline, The Vodou wa who were ceremonially invoked were familial in character, lived in the family’s land, and played an active part in family life. Thus land, kinship, and cult were intertwined in belief, in ritual construction, and in practice. From about the third decade of the nineteenth century onward, this (admittedly idealized) picture came to typify a substantial proportion of the Haitian peasantry. It was subjected increasingly to stress by the declining economic base of rural life, however, and 140_— ‘The SOCIAL HISTORY of HAITIAN VoDOU REPUBLIQUE DAI could no longer be reported as typical by the time that scholars such as Herskovits (1937), Bastien (1951) and Métraux (1959) were writing, We believe, then, that there was a peak cestral belief, ted to the land and, petiod inthe history of Vodou a a familial system of a through the land and through the Iwa, to the past. This rooted aspect of Vodou, however, authentic in 1850 and still functioning in 1900, was to undergo considerable change. By the late nineteenth century — and even though land was more widely distributed than in any other country in the Americas — the peasant economy was already in some trouble But there was worse to come. HISTORICAL SUMMARY: 1915-1990 The occupation of Haiti by the U.S. Marines put an abrupt end to Haiti's long nine- teenth century It directly affected the Haitian elites, including their assessment of them- selves, their country and its people. It di ctly affected the way of life of most peasants, their social and economic organization, their sense of place and mobility. It also affected the relation between elites and peasants. In all of these ways, the occupation indirectly yet profoundly affected Vodou What Haitian elites called "Le Choc” ("The Shock") — the United States Occupation ‘was above all the irretrievable destruction of the world of 1804. The Hai gentsia (and, in their own way, the people of Haiti) had long believed that the revolution ce. But despite sincere pro- intelli- ary victory had meant an eternal vindication of the black nouncements by Haitian intellectuals about the equality of all humankind, they were more interested in their equality with the elites of Europe than they were in the equality of the Haitian masses with themselves. The Haitian elite had always considered the social norms that supposedly distinguished them from the peasant masses as more important than those ‘which unified them asa nation. The US. Occupation forced upon Haiti's privileged clases painful reevaluation of their own beliefs Large segments of the urban middle and upper classes blamed the cultural chasm that divided Haitians from cach other for the country's most visible failures, and advo- cated a more positive assessment of peasant beliefs and practices. To be sure, the “indigenist movement,” which arose after 1915, amounted to much more than a simple reaction to cry 4.12. Stamps nial ‘Uprising’ inthe Bais Cais in the Revolution been subject t0 Private coll m the 1992 bicenten- it 6 the Ceremony in. The role of Vodou: 10 in Haitian life bas colagical interpretation,Sidney MINTZ & Michel-Rolph TROUILLOT the reality of whites in power on Haitian soil. The roots and aims of this movement were not simply ideological: the cultural reevaluation that it called for resonated with the slow but significant changes in Haiti’ urban landscape, notably 2 small but notable rise of che black middle classes.” But reevaluation there was, and Vodou benefitted from it, notably with the rise of Hait’ first generation of self-trained ethnologists. The professionalization of Haitian ethnology meant that the religion of the masses was no longer taboo. Instead, it became an object of study, of display, and of praise, for many educated Haitians and at least some foreigners, Given that official responses to Vodou in the nineteenth century oscillated from indifference to persecution, the achievement was considerable. Henceforth, public deni- gration of Vodou would always face at least a minimal challenge from some members of the urban classes. But there was also a backlash, sometimes in the form of state-sponsored terrorism against the servants of the gods. That backlash occurred after the Marines left Haiti; but its particular brutality stemmed from various legacies of the Occupation, ‘Whereas the Occupation did not seriously undermine the material conditions of life for the urban elites (except for a tiny group of merchants of German origin and their immediate kin and associates), it profoundly disturbed life in the countryside. Small-scale landholders in particular suffered expropriation, and induced and coerced migration to the Dominican Republic and Cuba, where they became migrant laborers on U.S~-owned sugar plantations. At home, the most dreadful form of oppression was the corvé, org- hhized by the Marines. At its peak, this infamous forced labor system. enforced under US. supervision, saw thousands of peasants tied together by ropes while performing “volun- tary” labor on the roads. Understandably, peasant irregulars comprised the bulk of the guerrilla bands that fought the Marines under the leadership of Charlemagne Péralte, a landowner and former officer of the Haitian army (FIGURE 4.13) Péralte's troops may at times have numbered as many as 15,000 peasants. They were crushed by the new Haitian army trained by the Marines, with as many as 2,000 fatalities. “The US, Occupation both reduced and increased the distance between the peasantry and the urban elites. On the one hand, the indigenist movement publicly called for a reevaluation of peasant culture, in part as the response to the Marines’ presence. On the other, the corvée and the military campaigns seasoned some Haitians (and most notably the new Haitian atmy) to the commission of brutal and repressive acts against the peas- antry. ‘The sudden presence of North Americans in the country also amplified Haiti's bad press abroad (see cuarrer 6). The Vatican and the resident Roman Catholic clergy, com- posed almost exclusively of French priests, fueled U.S. prejudices and racism. The Bishop ‘of Cap Haitien testified to Senator Medill McCormick that Vodou's influence on the Hai- tian masses had increased since the beginning of the Occupation. He added that oungans “were the soul ofthe insurrection” against the Marines2® Once the Marines lef, the Catholic Church in Haiti made use of the legacy of recent repression and the indifference of most urbanites to attack Vodou openly, launching two nationwide campaigns against it. In September 1935, under pressure from the Church, the Haitian government promulgated a decree condemning “superstitious beliefs” and forbidding associated practices. Only a few urbanites protested.” The church and the government renewed their attack in 1941-42, Both campaigns did great damage to Haiti Peasants were coerced to renounce (rece) thei beliefs in public and to destroy sacred objects and animals. Tens of thousands of objects ‘were destroyed, causing an irreparable loss to Haitian culture, However brutal the backlash, the ideological and social momentum of the cultural nationalism associated with the indigenist movement and the black middle classes was simply too strong ¢o be set aside. In 1946, the army deposed Elie Lescot (1940-1946), the uazThe SOCIAL HISTORY of HAITIAN VODOU 4.13. ‘The Crucifixion of Charlemagne Pévalte for Fresdom, by Philomé Obin. Landowner and former officer of the Haitian army, Péralte ld guerilla brad of ar many a2 15.000 peasant © terequlars againut the US. Marines ‘They were erased by tbe new Haitian ara, whieh was erated and trained by the Marines Oilom masonite. 2. 39 em, Milwaukee Art Maseum, Gift of Richard and Erna Flagg. MILI. mulatto president who had ordered the second “anti-supersttion” campaign. With the P Pe promoter of jons of Vodou — performances, art, music, regime of noiriste Dumarsais Estimé (1946-1950), the Haitian state became authenticity” Purified ve and songs tied to the religious and social complex of which it was the core — were displayed to local urbanites and sympathetic for became folklore; and folklore could be sold ‘To put it this way is not to impute commercialism to all of the government officials, nched Haiti's exotic tourist industry in the 1940s and 1950s, or to the Haitians and foreigners now involved in a transnational industry of cultural and raci ners in search of the exotic. Vodou artists and entrepreneurs who la ‘Vodou as performance.” Rather, it is to emphasize that the relation between Haitian clites and Vodou has always been marked by expropriation, Seen in that light, the new ap- proach set by Estimé and reinstitured now by his current avatars fits a century-old pattern of condescending use. Furthermore, no religion or the practices and beliefs associated with itcan temain untouched, when it becomes display for non-practitioners. Elements of its practices and beliefs inevit bly become somewhat disassociated ftom their origins,A.1. 1 Sich Francois Duraier Receives the Oungans at the National Palace," by Gérard Valen, 1978. Becarwe of Davaler’ manipulation of Vodou a3 sorcery, many Haitians and foreigners eroived bis government asa champion ofthe Vatou religion. Noting could be further from the truth Oil on cava 102 x 91 em. Centre d'Art Hatem Courtesy of Afrique en Cr Sidaey MINTZ & Michel-Rolph TROUILLOT acquiring a life of their own. This is as true of Gregorian chants or gospel music as it is of Vodou rhythms. In that latter case, touristic commercializa- tion may have both helped and hutt Vodou practices Thus, the regime of Paul Magloire (1950-1956), which had no official commitment to Haitian popular cul- tute, for example, promoted the acceptance of some art forms associated with Vodou, mainly for the ben- fitof US. tourists. Such official acceptance reflected positively upon the entire religious complex. Yet one wonders about many practitioners’ discovery that as- pects of their rituals could be manipulated and sold (o others, independent of their beliefs. ‘The coming to power of Frangois Duvalier ush- cred in a change inthe perception and the practice of| Vodou, both in Haiti and abroad. Duvaliet was a self trained ethnologist and, since atleast the late 19208, a vocal advocate of cultural nationalism, Long before coming to power, he had repeatedly praised Vodou as the authentic religion of the masses, the necessary cement of racial identity among Haitians. More im- portantly, like many Haitian politicians, he was ru- mored to be an initiate who also served “with both hands"? Like many chief’ of state before him, Frangois Duvalier willfully entertained such rumors, but inthis domain as in many others, he thoroughly systematized the traditional flaws of Haitian politicians. Because of Duvalier’s manipulation of Vodou as sorcery, many Haitians and foreigners perceived his government as a champion of the Vodou religion (ricure: 4.14). Nothing could be further from the truth, There is not a single official act by Francois Duvalier's government that purported to champion the rel gion of the Haitian masses. Rather, while manipulating the Vodou-witchcraft association, the Duvalier regime tied in fact to solidify the ties between the Roman Catholic church and the Haitian stae. Until the 1950s, Haiti had no Roman Catholic seminary. The Petit Séminaire College Saint-Martial (CSS), one of the most prestigious schools in the country, also functioned as a clearing house for boys who intended to join the priesthood. Haitian priests, who were few and primarily of elite background, completed theit training abroad. A year after taking the oath of office, Duvalier enacted a convention between the Haitian government and the Jesuits in order to enhance their project of establishing.a national seminar. Duvaliet gave the Catholic order many financial incentives, including moving expenses ftom Canada whence most of the Haiti-bound Jesuits came.” In 1964, Duvalie’s new Constitution, the very one thar made him President-for-Life, renewed the discarded nineteenth-century tradition that had made Catholicism the state religion. Roman Catholicism deserved spe- cial treatment, “given the faith and the religion of the majority of the Haitian peopl." Duvalier extended his special interest to Haitian Roman Catholic priests in particular, two of whom he appointed to his Cabinet, a first in the history of the Haitian state. Duvalir's early overtures miscarried primarily because the Catholic church, mired 3s was the Haitian bourgeoisie in the regime's inflammatory thetoric of cultural and racial authenticity failed to se these conciliatory gestures for what they were. The vast majority on‘The SOCIAL HISTORY of HAITIAN VoDOU of the French-born clergy had always been distant from most Haitians, both culturally and socially. Their few Haitian friends and a ably, the church apparatus had supported mulatto candidate Louis Déjoie and most white aintances were among the elites. Understand- clerics perceived Duvalier and his cronies as backward and illegitimate leaders. When the regime first increased its repressive tactics in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Duvalier quickly moved to dissipate the previously unchallenged political power of the high clergy. In 1960 Duvalier expelled the French Archbishop of Port-au-Prince and a number of press, Gonaives, and banned the Jesuits. ‘The 1960s saw what Duvalier repeatedly described as the most important achieve- luding the director of Saint Martial. Four years later, he expelled the Bishop of ment of his regime: the 1966 Rome Protocol and the nationalization of the Hait clergy. Article 4 of the 1860 Concordat between Haiti and the Holy See gave Haitian presidents the right to.name bishops and archbishops, pending the Vatican's canonical blessing, In part because of the previous governments had hardly exercised that right. But Duvalier actively reclaimed it k of Haitian priests, in part because of a desire to please, in 1966, and supervised the consecration of five new bishops. Officiants in the ceremonies included one former Bishop of Cap-Haitien who had repeatedly denounced Vodou and participated in the anti-superstition campaign. Was Rome returning a favor when, years later, the Vatican declared void Michéle Bennetts first mar the canonical blessing of her wedding ro Jean-C! Yet it Duvalierst st ge, thus clearing the way for ude Duvalier? 1ay not be usefil to ask how genuinely pro-Vodou or pro-Catholic was the ‘Asa state form with coralitarian ambitions, Duvalierism has a long track. recordin breaking down hierarchical systems and rebuilding them to fit its own purposes. Ms 4,15. ‘Mardignas at Fovt Dina by Howard Ducal-Carrié, 992-95. The Dusaer family is depicted in Fort Dimanche, the torture chamber of regime. Family retainers inte an anny general, in-law Arbbishop Ligoate, ani the Bawon Samal, Vodou Lard of Death, They are gathered around Jean-Claude Duvalien Baby Dee) in a ing dress, a earnivalesque reference to bis mother Mama Sinene’s reputed Vodou initiation, and rumors of bis being maaist (gay). Oil on cane 15x 150m. C RubensteinSidney MINTZ & Michel-Rolph TROUILLOT 4.16. ‘A Gede Ceremony for the It did so with the Haitian army. It did so with most of the institutions of Haitian urban Bourgeoisie,’ by Wilfred Dales. Vodou civil society, including the school and university systems. Its dealings with Roman Ca- a eae ee ee ie ee tholicism could be read in the light of that record (ricure 4.15). Duvalierism could not “hee Colletonof Tap Tip Restusrant, __Stbdue Vodou's national hierarchy, simply because Vodou never had such an organized Miami leadership. Beyond rumors that the Duvalirist state tried in vain to create such hierarchy, it is certain that it did successfully induct many oungans to its political networks. The aim ‘of that state was the total absorption of civil society: it left little room for independent networks and hierarchies and left no civil institution untouched.’ It was unfortunate, then, and highly symbolic of Haitian cultural warfare that the fall of the Duvaliers’ dictatorship ushered in the last and most massive repression to date of Vodou priests in the Haitian countryside. That an undisclosed number of oungans were members of either the secret police or the civil militia is a fact. But their association with the dictatorship was no deeper than (and certainly not as profitable to them as) that of members of the merchant class, of lawyers, judges, medical doctors, army officials, or high officials of the Christian churches. Yet many Christians used Francois Duvalier’s early rhetoric of cultural nationalism and the widespread rumors of sorcery among officials of the fallen regime to launch a vendetta against Vodou leaders. The fall of the dictatorship was followed by what Haitians call dechowkaj (uprooting). 146‘The SOCIAL HISTORY of HAITIAN VODOU Mobs went around the country attacking alleged pillars of the regime, but in faet molest- ing primarily —and killing only — members of the lower classes, some of whom were indeed known as Duvalierist thugs. The Protestant radio station, Radio Lumiere, used the Violent climate to call for the uprooting of all oungans as pillars of the dictatorship. In the countryside, Christian missionaries ofall origins and denominations, Roman Catholics as well as Protestants, foreigners and Haitians alike, passively watched — and sometimes encouraged — the slaughter. Joan Dayan reports: “Temples were desecrated, priests killed — hacked to death or forced to swallow gasoline and set afie."* As the uprooting went on, a number of prominent Haitian intellectuals, a minority of Roman Catholic priests and a few Vodou priests launched a national campaign to stop the repression. By then, est- mates of the number of oungans killed in 1986-87 had reached as high as 400.” ‘The repression modified Vodou's position in Haitian society in irreversible yee un- predictable ways. First few influential Roman Catholic priests openly denounced either the violence against oungans or the denigration of Vodou as sorcery. Second, and even ‘more important, afew Vodouists from Port-au-Prince — some from well respected middle class or elite families — came out of the closet, openly claiming their allegiance to the religion, More importantly, some of these urbanites joined a number of oungans from the major towns and from the most important Vodou centers of the countryside to create the fist nationwide organization for the defense of Vodou, ZANTRAY. The acronym stands for Zenfan Tradisyon Ayisyen (Children of the Haitian Tradition). The Haitian word zaniney itself means “entrails literally) and “heart” (figuratively). Vodoun's first official recogni- tion followed, with the popular vote for the 1987 Constitution. In 1991, Father Jean- Bertrand Aristide, a Roman Catholic priest and Haiti’ first frecly elected president, pub- licly welcomed Vodou priests to the national palace, where they took part in ecumenical ceremonies celebrating his ascent to power CONCLUSIONS The history of Haitian Vodou has been a reflection, in large measure, of the history of the fate of the Haitian masses. If the emerging religious complex of Vodou was source of inspiration and faith for most Haitian slaves, it was also a belief system without much interest ro Dessalines, Louverture or Christophe. Pétion and Boyer as well were uninter- ested init; their successors went to some lengths to restore Catholicism as the state reli- gion, But during the period 1803-1860, while Catholicism languished and the state struggled to increase its power, the Haitian people gained access to land, established them- selves in families, and developed their religion on a national scale, though without a national church. By the time that official Catholicism retumed to Haiti, the national reli- gion had certainly become Vodou. From the middle of the nineteenth century onward, however, Vodou has become less and less the people's religion, and more and more something else (riGure 4.16). Its soci- ‘ology today isa function not only of the meaning of life For the peasantry and the urban ‘poor, but also of Haiti's present and future as a tourist retreat, ofits capacity to attract the jaded with exotica, What was once a people's religion is now two other things besides 4 political diverissement for Haitian political leaders, and a side show for tourist hotels, ar