#1213: Erzulie and continuity? (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: ali grrl <legb_a@hotmail.com>


Thanks so much to those who responded to my last query regarding the 
connection between language and slavery in the discourse of Vodou.  You have 
clarified for me some of the issues surrounding this topic.  You have also 
raised some others, specifically about Erzulie...I am wondering if so called 
Kreyole or Haitian lwa, lwa that are indigenous to Haiti and the "new 
world", demonstrate a continuity with the past, and specifically, with 
experiences of, and resistance to slavery.  It was an Erzulie who fought in 
the Slave Revolution at the turn of the nineteenth century, right?  It was 
also an Erzulie who lost her tongue in this Revolution, and whose presence 
in present day "possessions" is marked by her inability to speak.  Doesn't 
this mark force present day practitioners to recall at least the story of 
what happened to Erzulie's tongue, if not the historical context in which 
this "betrayal" took place?  Doesn't the fact that Erzulie bears a mark 
inflicted during the Slave Revolution insist on a continuity with the past, 
and by implication, with slavery and resistance to this subjugation?  
Clearly, I am just guessing, and I would appreciate your more informed 
responses to these guesses.

Incidentally, although I have always known the story of Erzulie (I am not 
even sure which one, Dantor?) and her tongue, I am not at all sure of the 
specifics of this narrative.  Can anyone suggest a source?
Thanks for your time,
Alex

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