VOODOO AND THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION
Voodoo is the dominant religion and cultural reality of Haiti. The Voodoo religion is native to Haiti, having been fused from an uneasy union of African and Roman Catholic elements. Voodoo is Haiti’s religion, it is taken very seriously not merely by unlettered peasants, but many intelligent and learned members of the Haitian society believe as sincerely in Voodoo as do German theology professors in their Christianity.
Part of the colonial defense of slavery was the obligation on the Europeans to convert the “infidels” to Christianity. Consequently the slave owners were expected to provide Christian religious training to the slaves. Operating out of fear and prudence, slave owners chose slaves from different areas of Africa, hoping that the babble of different languages, customs, tribal loyalties and rivalries would work against unified action against the slave masters. This meant that the African religions of any slave population were quite different. The slaves gradually created their own religion–Haitian Voodoo, a mix of Catholicism and African religions.
“The word Voodoo or Vaudoux is from the Creole French “Vaudoux”, a black sorcerer, probably originally a dialectic form of the French, Vaudois, a Waldensian. It is the name given to certain magical practices, by the french to superstitions and secret rites prevailing among blacks of the West Indies, and more particularly in the Republic of Haiti”.
The name of the Haitian religion has many spellings. Many other spellings have been used in the literature over the years including Vodun, Vodou, Vodoun, Vaudou, Vaudoux. Each of these is an attempt to spell the word in a way which represents how it is pronounced in Haiti. Actually the word is seldom even used by Haitians. They do not refer to the religion by the name Voodoo, but speak of people “following the loa,” or “serving the loa.”
Voodoo recognizes one God, “Bondye” or “Gran Met”. However, there are a host of spirits or deities called loa which act as intermediaries between humans and God. The “loa”, unlike Christian angels or devils, have significant powers relatively independent of God, and embody both positive and negative forces within the same “loa”.
In addition to the” loa”, Voodoo recognizes the spirits of ancestors, Les Mots and the Marasa, the twins. Each person has a living body and two inner forces, the” ti-bon-ange”, sort of universal soul in the person and the “gwo-bon ange”, a personal soul. The person is immortal through the “gwo-bon-ange” which can, in time, merge with the “loa” themselves.
The two primary functions of the priests are religious services and healing. The “loa” demand attention. They are seen as hard working powers in nature and need to be fed and attended by those who serve them, a primary category of rites is a “manje”, a feeding, where the life of animals–chickens and goats for the most part, occasionally a pig or even cattle, are sacrificed to transfer their life powers to the “loa”. Other “manje” are to feed the dead or to remember particular services which the “loa” have provided. Voodoo healing is an amalgamation of herbal medicine( increasingly, modern Western medicine) and faith healing.
In the Voodoun cult the French language is mixed with the African (Creole)/
When the French Revolution broke out in 1789, there were four distinct sets of interest groups in Haiti; namely The whites ,The free people of Colour, The black slaves and The maroons which is in many parts one of the reasons why the Haitian revolution took so long. Diverse interests always lead to the drawback of progress of the revolution.
The French Revolution of 1789 In France was the spark which lit The Haitian Revolution of 1791. But, prior to that spark there was a great deal of dissatisfaction with France. Which each groups had their own dissatisfaction sought different remedies.
While before the Haitian revolution its essential to talk about the condition of the slave trade in Haiti at the time before the revolution.
The slave owners, both white and people of colour, feared the slaves and knew that the incredible concentration of slaves (the slaves outnumbered the free people 10-1) required exceptional control this lead to keeping of slaves of the same tribes apart; forbidding any meetings of slaves at all; brutally punished the slightest manifestation of non-cooperation and employed huge teams of harsh overseers.
Nonetheless the slaves fought back in whatever way they could. One of the few weapons which could not control were poisons. One of the most famous and successful revolutions prior to 1791 was the Mackandal rebellion of 1759. The slave Mackandal, a houngan knowledgeable of poisons, organized a widespread plot to poison the masters, their water supplies and animals. The movement spread great terror among the slave owners and killed hundreds before the secret of Mackandal was tortured from a slave. The rebellion was crushed and Mackandal brutally put to death. But, it reflects the constant fear in which the slave owners lived, and explains the brutality of their system of control.
While the slaves had their mini revolution the free people of colour also had theirs through the man called Vincent Oge who visited France and on seeing atmosphere “The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine” caused saw this as an opportunity to get into the assembly but was turned down, with the aim to pursue his cause not for the slaves but for citizenship for the free coloured men, he with Jean-Baptist Chavannes threw a rebellion. . It is important to note that Oge consciously rejected the help of black slaves. He wanted no part of any alliance with the slaves, and regarded them in the same way the whites did — a property. He lost his rebellion with his small band of 300 men.
The event that sparked the Revolution was a Petwo Voodoo service. On the evening of August 14th Dutty Boukman, a houngan and practitioner of the Petwo Voodoo cult, held a service at Bois Caiman. A woman at the service was possessed by Ogoun, the Voodoo warrior spirit. She sacrificed a black pig, and speaking the voice of the spirit, named those who were to lead the slaves and maroons to revolt and seek a stark justice from their white oppressors. (Ironically, it was the whites and not the people of color who were the targets of the revolution, even though the people of color were often very harsh slave owners.) This uprising which would not ever be turned back, began on the evening of August 21st.
The woman named Boukman, Jean-Francois, Biassou and Jeannot as the leaders of the uprising. It was some time later before Toussaint, Henry Christophe, Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Andre Rigaud took their places as the leading generals who brought The Haitian Revolution to its final triumph.
Thomas Ott says this had become a war of racial extermination on both sides.
This revolution went on for the long period of 13 years of which several events took place that lead to the creation of the independence of Haiti, which lead to the Independence Day January 1, 1804., making Haiti the first all black republic in modern history.
Part of the colonial defense of slavery was the obligation on the Europeans to convert the “infidels” to Christianity. Consequently the slave owners were expected to provide Christian religious training to the slaves. Operating out of fear and prudence, slave owners chose slaves from different areas of Africa, hoping that the babble of different languages, customs, tribal loyalties and rivalries would work against unified action against the slave masters. This meant that the African religions of any slave population were quite different. The slaves gradually created their own religion–Haitian Voodoo, a mix of Catholicism and African religions.
“The word Voodoo or Vaudoux is from the Creole French “Vaudoux”, a black sorcerer, probably originally a dialectic form of the French, Vaudois, a Waldensian. It is the name given to certain magical practices, by the french to superstitions and secret rites prevailing among blacks of the West Indies, and more particularly in the Republic of Haiti”.
The name of the Haitian religion has many spellings. Many other spellings have been used in the literature over the years including Vodun, Vodou, Vodoun, Vaudou, Vaudoux. Each of these is an attempt to spell the word in a way which represents how it is pronounced in Haiti. Actually the word is seldom even used by Haitians. They do not refer to the religion by the name Voodoo, but speak of people “following the loa,” or “serving the loa.”
Voodoo recognizes one God, “Bondye” or “Gran Met”. However, there are a host of spirits or deities called loa which act as intermediaries between humans and God. The “loa”, unlike Christian angels or devils, have significant powers relatively independent of God, and embody both positive and negative forces within the same “loa”.
In addition to the” loa”, Voodoo recognizes the spirits of ancestors, Les Mots and the Marasa, the twins. Each person has a living body and two inner forces, the” ti-bon-ange”, sort of universal soul in the person and the “gwo-bon ange”, a personal soul. The person is immortal through the “gwo-bon-ange” which can, in time, merge with the “loa” themselves.
The two primary functions of the priests are religious services and healing. The “loa” demand attention. They are seen as hard working powers in nature and need to be fed and attended by those who serve them, a primary category of rites is a “manje”, a feeding, where the life of animals–chickens and goats for the most part, occasionally a pig or even cattle, are sacrificed to transfer their life powers to the “loa”. Other “manje” are to feed the dead or to remember particular services which the “loa” have provided. Voodoo healing is an amalgamation of herbal medicine( increasingly, modern Western medicine) and faith healing.
In the Voodoun cult the French language is mixed with the African (Creole)/
When the French Revolution broke out in 1789, there were four distinct sets of interest groups in Haiti; namely The whites ,The free people of Colour, The black slaves and The maroons which is in many parts one of the reasons why the Haitian revolution took so long. Diverse interests always lead to the drawback of progress of the revolution.
The French Revolution of 1789 In France was the spark which lit The Haitian Revolution of 1791. But, prior to that spark there was a great deal of dissatisfaction with France. Which each groups had their own dissatisfaction sought different remedies.
While before the Haitian revolution its essential to talk about the condition of the slave trade in Haiti at the time before the revolution.
The slave owners, both white and people of colour, feared the slaves and knew that the incredible concentration of slaves (the slaves outnumbered the free people 10-1) required exceptional control this lead to keeping of slaves of the same tribes apart; forbidding any meetings of slaves at all; brutally punished the slightest manifestation of non-cooperation and employed huge teams of harsh overseers.
Nonetheless the slaves fought back in whatever way they could. One of the few weapons which could not control were poisons. One of the most famous and successful revolutions prior to 1791 was the Mackandal rebellion of 1759. The slave Mackandal, a houngan knowledgeable of poisons, organized a widespread plot to poison the masters, their water supplies and animals. The movement spread great terror among the slave owners and killed hundreds before the secret of Mackandal was tortured from a slave. The rebellion was crushed and Mackandal brutally put to death. But, it reflects the constant fear in which the slave owners lived, and explains the brutality of their system of control.
While the slaves had their mini revolution the free people of colour also had theirs through the man called Vincent Oge who visited France and on seeing atmosphere “The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine” caused saw this as an opportunity to get into the assembly but was turned down, with the aim to pursue his cause not for the slaves but for citizenship for the free coloured men, he with Jean-Baptist Chavannes threw a rebellion. . It is important to note that Oge consciously rejected the help of black slaves. He wanted no part of any alliance with the slaves, and regarded them in the same way the whites did — a property. He lost his rebellion with his small band of 300 men.
The event that sparked the Revolution was a Petwo Voodoo service. On the evening of August 14th Dutty Boukman, a houngan and practitioner of the Petwo Voodoo cult, held a service at Bois Caiman. A woman at the service was possessed by Ogoun, the Voodoo warrior spirit. She sacrificed a black pig, and speaking the voice of the spirit, named those who were to lead the slaves and maroons to revolt and seek a stark justice from their white oppressors. (Ironically, it was the whites and not the people of color who were the targets of the revolution, even though the people of color were often very harsh slave owners.) This uprising which would not ever be turned back, began on the evening of August 21st.
The woman named Boukman, Jean-Francois, Biassou and Jeannot as the leaders of the uprising. It was some time later before Toussaint, Henry Christophe, Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Andre Rigaud took their places as the leading generals who brought The Haitian Revolution to its final triumph.
Thomas Ott says this had become a war of racial extermination on both sides.
This revolution went on for the long period of 13 years of which several events took place that lead to the creation of the independence of Haiti, which lead to the Independence Day January 1, 1804., making Haiti the first all black republic in modern history.