22560: Bassiouni: Haitian Vodou vs. "American Voodoo" Re: 22558: Mambo Racine on How to Spell "Vodou" (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Nathan Bassiouni <sove_ayiti@mac.com>

I am very offended by Mambo Racine's take on Louisiana Vodou!

There is no difference between Haitian Vodou & what you have defined as
Vodou in Louisiana.  Vodou has been practiced in SOUTH Louisiana just
as long as in Haiti/St. Domingue, but with the coming of protestant
Americans and there values after the Louisiana Purchase, Vodou was
targeted and/or viewed as entertainment for Americans since the early
1800's.  There are many accounts of white Americans going to Congo
Square at midnight Saturday to see the singing, dancing and rituals.
That's when the Americans and American media would start to write about
and try to define Vodou, which would evolve into the Vodou seen and
defined in the media today. (Congo Square is a very sacred place in New
Orleans where initially the French would auction Africans into slavery
and during American times, Congo Square would be responsible for
importing more Africans into America then anywhere else.  So if one is
African American, it's most likely that you have ancesters that passed
thru Congo Square)

In the last census of Louisiana, 15% of population of New Orleans still
practice traditional Vodou, not the tourist Vodou from the Vieux Carre
(FQ).  The last census also reveiled that there are 200,000 people that
still speak Creole and Cajun French in SOUTH Louisiana.  And NO, we are
not  only fixated by the magic.  We have many Spiritual Catholic
churches (not Roman) here that honor the ancestors, as well as private
ceremonies both in urban New Orleans and in the bayous surrounding
sugar cane fields of rural SOUTH Louisiana.  We also practice natural
preventative medical treatments and of course, we all go to mass on
Sunday. Do you Mambo Racine?

Mambo Racine,  I believe you are the white Mambo from the Chez Rendez
Vous Hotel near the Jacmel airport?  If you are that Mambo, you need to
realize that from our point of view here in SOUTH Louisiana, you
actually practice what you defined as "American Voodoo" because you
profit from ceremonies and your audience is generally visiting
Americans and Europeans, which resembles the practices of self
proclaimed Mambos in the French Quarter.  It seems you are the one that
has been influenced by the American media when it comes to "Believers"
in South Louisiana.  Vodou for profit is not Vodou!

The real Mambos & Hougans that I have encountered living in Louisiana
all my life, were initiated by either going to Haiti or directly to
Benin.  So we have not lost our initiatory process.

I have traveled and worked in Jacmel many times and I have not wanted
to visit the Rendez Vous hotel/temple because I could just goto the
Quarters here and see tourist Vodou rituals and performances.

How can Vodou practiced in Louisiana be American if Louisiana Vodou is
older then America?