15486: Mambo Racine re: 15466: Hyppolite Pierre regarding Executive Order on Vaudou (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Racine125@aol.com

Hyppolite Pierre <hpierre@irsp.org> writes:

<<I would like to thank Kathy Grey (Mambo Rasin San Bout), for coming out and once again making sensible suggestions.>>

Thank you!  I hope my suggestions are sensible.

<<What I am hoping for, is that Haiti's legislators will try to take up on this issue, and legislate on it.>>

What sort of legislation do you have in mind?

<<Vaudou as a faith, encompasses both good and bad spirits; you use it for what you need. We all know that a bókó is not a houngan, although they both do or may have the same body of knowledge to either do good, or bad. How then do we use the good in Vaudou to help the country move ahead, and extirpate the bad from it?>>

You want to legislate to "extirpate the bad from Vodou"?

First of all, there is no "bad" in Vodou.  That is to say, there are no "bad" spirits or "good" spirits.  There are only lwa.  Even a "beneficent" lwa like La Sirene can be invoked to do aggressive magic, and a fiery, aggressive lwa like Ti-Jean Petro can be invoked to heal sickness.  The "good" and "bad" are subjective judgements made by those performing the magic, or by those individuals who are the object of the magical work.  That is the nature of the Vodou religion!

Do I understand that you would like legislation that would, for instance, forbid Houngans and Mambos to do aggressive magic?  Good luck!  It will never happen, people are doing to do what they want to do in the secrecy of their own peristyles.  Furthermore, it is our right and privilege to do such magic - accusing a Houngan or Mambo of working wanga is like accusing a doctor of writing prescriptions.

And suppose I, by means of negative magic, do harm to someone.  How could you prove it?  Haitian law does not recognize wanga!  I could do a wanga right now to kill someone, say publicly that I had done so, be present as a truck runs them over, and dance on their grave, but no court in all Haiti could punish me.

<<Although Vaudou is decentralized, as Kathy Grey explained, should not still there be a large body that represents some kind of a central authority for that faith? Otherwise, the danger is that anyone can do whatever s/he wants in the name of that faith, while there is no one to either approve or disapprove.>>

No, there is not, has never been, and should never be a "central authority" for Vodou - that is not how our religion is structured.

Let me explain.  I am a Mambo asogwe, I can consecrate other people, right?  I can make hounsis, I can make Houngans and Mambos sur point, and I can make Houngans and Mambos asogwe.  I have almost a hundred initiates, about twenty of whom are Haitian and the rest of whom are American, Canadian, Singaporean, Costa Rican, Nigerian, and of other nationalities.  All of those individuals owe obedience, absolute obedience, and loyalty to me and to me only.  I in turn owe this to my initiator.  I do not owe this to any other Houngan or Mambo, in fact Houngans and Mambos see other Houngans and Mambos as competitors, and rightly so - we compete for clients, we compete for desirable initiates, we compete for fame and reputation.

There is no human being on the face of the planet whom I would ever accept as an authority over me, other than my initiator.  And every other Houngan and Mambo in Haiti would feel the same way.  More so for Makaya Bokors, who have no initiator at all!

Furthermore, how would this "central authority" be chosen?  People would kill each other for it, no two ways about that.  And once they got it, it would be useless, because they would be trying to force something new onto the Vodou religion that is antithetical to it's structure.

Beyond that, if a religion has a "head", then to throw that religion into disorder and disarray, all one has to do is cut off the head, right?  The decentralized nature of Vodou is it's strength.

<<How do we from now on, preserve the artifacts used in a perystile, as cultural icons? How do we make sure that Vaudou sites are preserved from vandalism by mostly fundamentalist Christians, or some overzealous Catholics?>>

Those things aren't happening any more, not systematically anyway, and the laws on the books regarding the protection of private property are sufficient for the purpose you have in mind, if they are enforced.  I can't imagine that even the most rabidly anti-Vodou pastor in Jacmel would dare to, say, force his way into my peristyle and burn my drums!  He'd go to prison for sure.

<<As few of you may recall, a few years ago, Pasteur Joel Jeune, from a Protestant Church in Waney 93, Rue Apollon, Carrefour, went to Bois-Caiman and vandalized the site totally, thereby disrespecting the cultural and historical value of a people.>>

Oh yes, I remember that!  In fact, the original AHP reports of that incident are available on The VODOU Page, under the heading "Vodou and It's Role in Haitian Politics".  At the time, the existing legal structures were sufficient to deal with that nutcase Jeune.  Beyond that, the incident led then-President Rene Preval to declare Bois Caiman part of the "national patrimony", and it is now a protected site.

<<How do we truly make Vaudou a respected and integral part of our culture, which it needs to be? In other words, how do we truly make it "respectable" to everyone by making morality one of the most important features of its essence?>>

Whoa!  Stop trying to redefine Vodou, first of all, and don't assume that Vodou is not respected, second.  Vodou is the majority religion of Haiti!  I, as a Mambo, get tons more respect in my community than a Protestant minister in suburban America, for instance.

The "morality" which you would like to force onto Vodou just is not a part of our value system.  Vodou is NOT Christianity.  It does not have the same value system, it need not have the same value system, it SHOULD NOT have the same value system as Christianity.  Vodou has it's own value system, which prizes power and loyalty, not meekness and sanctity.

<< So far as we know, one of the biggest problems to middle and upper income Haitians (although we still do go to anba tončl when things are rough), is that Vaudou is an evil force. How do you then help transform not just the image, but the very focus of that faith from being a neutral and potent force (because used for doing both good and bad), to an exclusively positive force that can be used to help foster development in and of Haiti?>>

Why do you assume that you can, or should, presume to define what the Vodou religion should be in order for it to be acceptable to deluded "middle and upper income Haitians"?  We are not here to "achte figi moun" (buy people's faces, behave in order to please and placate them).  If they have a wrong impression of Vodou, it is their job, not my job, to change that.

Vodou is what it is - again, it is the majority religion of Haiti.  Vodou has it's own character, it's own value system, it's own source of power and resiliency, it's own clergy, it's own hierarchy, it's own ways of doing things.  It is not up to us to change our ways to please others, it is up to others to educate themselves about the true nature of our religion and then take it or leave it, as they choose.

Peace and love,

Bon Mambo Racine Sans Bout Sa Te La Daginen

"Se bon ki ra" - Good is rare
     Haitian Proverb

The VODOU Page - http://members.aol.com/racine125/index.html

(Posting from Jacmel, Haiti)