22511: Mambo Racine on Authority in the Vodou Relgion (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Racine125@aol.com

> The best thing about Vodou is, there is no authority but the ancestors.

This is totally and completely false.

If Ms. Dorce doubts me, I suggest that she come to Jacmel and sit in on one of the annual meetings of Houngans and Mambos asogwe.  I think you will find that the participants feel quite strongly that WE are the authorities in this religion.  We are the ones who perform initiations, we are the ones who make sure that they are done right.  We are the ones who join forces to enforce the norms of our religion - no kanzo ceremonies during the period from Ash Wednesday to Good Friday, for instance.

> Anyone can call the lwa.  Anyone can make a ceremony.

This does NOT make a person an authority in the religion!  Any Catholic can make a novena to a saint, but that does not make that Catholic a priest, or in any way an "authority" on Roman Catholicism.

>  anyone who has received the lwa from their families, is
> an expert on the religion

This also is completely false.  A person might have "inherited" a lwa from their parents, but this is far, far from making them an expert on Vodou!  They have a lwa, very good.  They do NOT know how to perform a lave tet, a maryaj lwa, a gad, a kanzo.  They do NOT know the ceremonial order of the lwa, they do not know the passwords or the langaj or any of the other vast amount of information available to initiates.

> I don't think Haitians care how either word is spelled

Oh, you don't, huh?  A lot of Haitians got up and said to you, we don't care how many times the name of our religion is misspelled?

> The lwa don't care either, I bet!

A lwa told you this?

Ms. Dorce, let me do you a favor and teach you something.  The lwa are from Guinea.  They can't read or write, they go barefoot, they eat with their fingers, they can't count money.  So your conjecture about whether or not the lwa "care" if people spell the name of our religion correctly is moot.

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)