Most people know about Voodoo because of movies and television. It’s all Black people chanting in the dark with drums, candles and skulls. Fewer people know that Voodoo is a religion. Those pop culture portrayals probably look like little more than children dressing up for Halloween to the people who follow the Voodoo tradition. The Swiss anthropologist and human rights activist Alfred Metraux sets the record straight in his monumental study Voodoo in Haiti.
Voodoo, sometimes spelled “Voudou” or “Vodun” in French and Haitian Creole, is an African-Diaspora religion brought to the Caribbean by slaves in the 18th century. Originating in West Africa, it derives from the cultural traditions of the Yoruba, Dahomey, and Kongo people from regions that are now primarily in Nigeria, Angola, and the countries around them. Voodoo is most commonly associated with Haiti even though practitioners of similar and overlapping traditions exist in Cuba, Jamaica, Brazil, and the USA.
After developing a fascination for the cultures of South America and the West Indies, Metraux embedded himself in Haiti to study the religion of Voodoo, mostly in the south and west of Haiti in the proximity of Port au Prince. His methodology is strictly ethnographic, meaning he described everything he encountered with the assistance of informers from the culture he studied. These informers were primarily houngans and mambos, or priests and priestesses respectively, and secondarily other practitioners and associates of the Voodoo religion. There is very little theory in Metraux’s writing as his task was to record as much as possible and let others draw conclusions based on his gathered data.
After a brief history of Haiti and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade that brought the African people there by French colonialists, Metraux outlines the beliefs and practices of Voodoo. A key belief is that of the loa, a word that does not translate easily into English. You might be tempted to translate it as meaning gods, spirits, ancestors, or saints, but the loa are actually all those things and a little more. The loa are fit into two categories: the rara and the petro; the former are weaker and softer with the latter being stronger and more dangerous. Thinking of rara loa as good and petro loa as evil is slightly erroneous as some loa can fit into both categories and rara loa can sometimes be responsible for bad things happening just as petro loa can be responsible for good. The fuzzy logic of the loa may be difficult for followers of Abrahamic religions, with their black and white thinking, to comprehend. But Voodoo is an admittedly Pagan religion and operates under a more refined and complex set of parameters. Voodoo ceremonies mostly involve the worship of and possession by the loa. The idiom “riding a horse” means a loa is possessing someone. Some individuals marry one particular loa and dedicate their lives to placating them with ceremonies in private. There are literally thousands of loa, but Metraux describes some of the most common ones like Erzulie, Papa Legba, Ogun, Damballah-ouedo, Shango, and Baron Samedi.
Acting as mediums between the loa and the congregations are the houngans and mambos. Like shamans all across the world, they tend to be socially awkward misfits, intellectually inclined, and often gay or lesbian. Since most Haitians were illiterate at the time of writing, the houngans and mambos had to memorize a vast network of complex associations involving objects, lyrics, and colors for ritual use. They also oversee the Voodoo temple, called a “hounfort” and stage manage the ceremonies. They entice the loa with drums, singing, dancing, candles, offerings of food and drink, and animal sacrifices. Central to this summoning is the veve, a design drawn on the ground with flour, cornmeal, coffee, or even gunpowder. People possessed by the loa speak in tongues and go into convulsions. Metraux goes into fine detail about all the paraphernalia in the hounfort and everything that happens in a ritual.
Another topic covered is the darker side of Voodoo. This section deals more with folklore and belief than it does with first hand observation. Practitioners of Voodoo believe in evil things like zombi, loups garou (werewolves), and secret societies of black magicians who eat and sacrifice babies. A lot of protection rituals are performed to prevent attacks from these supernatural creatures, but they actually function by providing explanations for bad happenings that otherwise can not be explained. Modern medical knowledge is almost non-existent in rural Haiti so when a child dies unexpectedly, belief in a zombi or loup garou fills in the information gap.
One other chapter goes into the relationship between Voodoo and the Catholic and Protestant churches. Voodooists are often members of the Catholic church and make associations between the saints and the loa. Voodooists also believe baptisms have magic power and priests have trouble preventing them from being baptized multiple times. The Catholic church grudgingly tolerates but doesn’t condone Voodoo. Protestants shun Voodoo outright and refuse to have anything to do with it. There might be an element of class discrimination in that because Protestants in Haiti tend to be upper class elitists who look down on the impoverished majority,
Voodoo in Haiti reads a lot like passages from Frazer’s The Golden Bough. That means the subject matter is fascinating, but Metraux is a tedious and anal retentive author so it sometimes feels like a chore to read. If you’re interested enough though, this can be overlooked. A strong point is that Metraux respects and admires the Haitian people he writes about. Even though he might not share their beliefs and practices, he writes about them with the interest and respect they deserve.
Voodoo in Haiti may be the most comprehensive book about Voodoo that has been written so far. Such a rich and complex tradition deserves more attention than it has received. The rites of Voodoo are far more exciting than anything Christians have come up with in 2000 years. Real Voodoo is far more interesting than the fake Voodoo you see on television too. So read this book because it is worthwhile learning about it.
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