#1120: Re: #1099: links to the past: Dayan's HAITI, HISTORY AND THE GODS : Mcphee comments

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Laura L Mcphee <llmcphee@iupui.edu>

re:  connections with vaudou and slavery

While I make no claims whatsoever to being an expert on vaudou,
my own reading and research (for a thesis on Edwidge Danticat)
has revealed at least a few connections.

In the case of Erzulie, it seems her origins are much more
Haitian than African.  When you compare the history of the
mulatresse as a "free" woman during colonization with the
attributes of the loa Erzulie a strong case can be made
that at least some attributes of vaudou are connected with
slavery.

Dayan is not the only one to point out this connection with
Erzulie and history, but she does do it quite well in the
text Alexandra mentioned.  You might also read Dayan's article
Erzulie: A Women's History of Haiti? in a text called Francophone
Women Authors (part of the Poscolonial Subjects series published
by Univ. of Minn. 1996).

Laura McPhee