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7827: Re: 7709: Racine's version of Vodou-Dorce comments (fwd)
From: LAKAT47@aol.com
Racine says:
"My husband says, my husband says...." We have heard over and over what a
wonderful, charming, amazingly talented, sexy, spiritually pure paragon of a
person your husband is, but is your husband a Houngan? Is he even kanzo?
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Though I never mentioned animal magnetism, it seems you have endowed my
husband with same. He will be pleased to hear that. Perhaps you have met
him? He is NOT an Oungan nor is he kanzo. I thought I made myself clear
that he represents a large segment of the Haitian population who practice
Vodou without the intercession of an Oungan, Manbo or peristyle. It seems
you give no respect to these Vodouisants who have no need of your services
(sad for you.....no money) but instead honor and serve the lwa as their
parents, grandparents and so on, have done for many, many years, privately
and powerfully and in a constant, daily fashion. This is a religion that is
with them all the time, not just in a Sunday-go-to-meeting kind of way. You
seem to be saying that he has no credibility unless he has bought his way to
a title in the so called hierarchy of Vodou. He comes by his knowledge,
which I would put up against anyone's, by way of inheritance. If anyone's
claim to the truth about what Vodou is is suspect, I would say it would be
the person who came to the culture late in life, after having known other
ways, and spends money to hold a position in the so called hierarchy. I do
not know or care if you and those like you have received a calling from the
lwa to serve. If you have, and are happy, then it is good. However, for you
to hold yourself as a paragon of knowledge and the teller of the truth about
Vodou, is not good at all. With all due respect, you would do better for
yourself and everyone you wish to reach, to speak of Vodou in terms of your
own experience and not as an expert in the field.
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Racine:
It is standard operating procedure in Vodou, sorry to inform you. I didn't
make up this religion, I found it that way. Attempts to impose the
Judeo-Christian
value system on Vodou are culturally arrogant.
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I will resist the temptation to correct you on exactly what is culturally
arrogant in this exchange, I am content others know as well. You need to
accept that your knowledge comes from a limited source and they have a
motivation to teach you in a certain way. One person, or two or even a dozen
people, Oungans or otherwise, cannot tell anyone what Vodou is and how you do
it. They can say how they were taught and how THEY practice it, but it is
not uniform throughout the country, although it is surprising for a religion
with little or no dogma to be as consistent as it is!
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Racine:
Vodou is DIFFERENT from Christianity - why should it not be? When the
Africans of the late 1700's sent their neighbors into slavery in Haiti, they
felt justified in doing so, and when the Africans in Haiti in the late 1700's
invoked the lwa against the French, they also felt justified in doing so.
Vodou is about power, not about morality in the Christian sense.
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God has been the driving force in many wars and exterminations in World
history; the Crusaders felt justified in killing those who did not believe in
Christ, so I fail to see your point here. One of the main purposes of
religion is to regulate the behavior of society. This promotes order and
peace. So there is right and wrong behavior in all religions, even though
these values differ. There is reward for doing the right thing and
punishment for doing wrong.
Vodou is a living religion and as such has evolved since being brought to
Haiti by way of Africa. The French Catholics first influenced the way Vodou
is practiced to make it Haiti's uniquely. Possibly American missionaries
have inadvertently influenced Vodou as well through the years. Haitians are
clever, and adaptable to the foreign cultures they are sometimes forced to
endure. It's fluidity is another reason it is impossible for you or anyone
to say with a certainty that there is one way in Vodou and that is through
the Oungan or Manbo.
I wish to say one more thing. I do not care how anyone worships or if they
worship at all. But I feel compelled to respond to Racine's posts when she
sets herself up as an authority on Vodou. Many people on this list and on
others that I post to about Haiti are fully capable of figuring out what is
valid and what is not about what Racine says is the truth. However, there
are many more, including Haitians, who despite being born in Haiti and
growing up there, have no idea what Vodou really is other than something to
be ashamed of as it may identify one as primitive and not sophisticated and
worldly (I am smiling here...). For those people and interested foreigners,
I would say, if ANYONE tells you they know the truth or the one way about
Vodou, look at them with jaundiced eye. If you ask a Haitian Vodouisant,
chances are, they will tell you what they think you want to hear. The artist
doesn't even tell me everything he knows.
Respè,
Kathy Dorce~