#3940: Sodo and Sen Jan Batis-So : Grey replies to Bb Pierre Louis

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:Racine125@aol.com

<< Most Vodou songs shouldn't be translated because they are in "langaj". >>

That's not true at all, most Vodou songs are in Creole and are perfectly 
understandable to average Haitians, initiates or not, Vodouisants or not. 

And there is something else I want to point out - the fact that a word in one 
language "sounds like" a word in another language does not mean they are 
related!  Let me give you a good example - in Haitian Creole, "koko" refers 
to women's genitals, in Jamaican patois "koko" is a tuberous root crop called 
"malanga" in Haiti.  Now, do you want to suggest that this root crop is 
related in some way to female sexuality?  Or that women's genitals look like 
tuberous roots?  Or what? Teee heeee!
 
<<Why is Sen Jan Batis-So offered a ram? Does any other lwa receive rams? Who 
are they? Why not a pig, a chicken, a duck or a pigeon? Why does he need a 
big fire with the wood logged in a precise pattern, with red flowers tied to 
each corner of the wood pile? Why does he always carry a long wooden stick? >>

You want me to answer all these questions, on this list? Nah, there are 
discussion boards for that purpose - why not come over to the Roots Without 
End Forum at http://www.delphi.com/RootsWithoutEnd, or the VoodooEnergy forum 
at http://www.onelist.com?  There is a huge international interest in Vodou, 
Bebe, and you might enjoy yourself on these forums.  Roots Without End is my 
own, and I invite you!  :-)

And by the way, the vast majority of Vodouisants are NOT initiates, so if 
only initiates understand these songs, then most Vodouisants are merely 
mouthing words they do not understand.  That is not the case at all.

<< I have never heard that in Vodoun, "Jesus, God the son" was honored. I 
know that the name of Jesus is mentioned in the litanies but those are 
recited before the real Vodoun ceremonies start>>

Eh heh?  So the Vodou ceremonies which include mention of God, the Holy 
Spirit, Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and the various saints are not "really" Vodou 
ceremonies? A lot of Vodouisants (and Christians, too, I bet) would be 
surprised to hear it!  Remember that Vodou is NOT an African religion but a 
Creole religion, incorporating African, Native Haitian, and European 
Christian and pre-Christian traditions.

<<All the Lwas we honor do possess people and I have never seen or heard of a 
Lwa Jesus mounting anybody? Have you?>>

Of course NOT!  The human consciousness cannot support possession by the One 
Almighty God!  Although some evangelical Christians do claim to be possessed 
by the Holy Spirit, so who knows?  LOL!  Maybe the Christians are better at 
that than we are.  :-)
 
<<(I reported Luc Gedeons words as): "In every country there are lwa - 
spirits of the ancestors, spirits of the forests, the sea, the crossroads. 
Vodou provides a model that anyone can use to approach and serve these 
spirits. It teaches how to 'interpolate' a 
 spirit, make it come dance in your head, possess you. Even though the spirit 
 isn't African, Vodou provides a model, a pattern to follow."
 
 Let me know how could Vodoun in its "interpolation" teach anyone how to 
serve a Druidic, Amerindian, Slavic or other Spirit pertaining to a specific 
foreign culture? >>

Come on to our house and we will show you!  We make whatever spirit we want 
come dance in our heads, it doesn't have to be "African" in origin.  And once 
it is manifest through possession, that lwa makes it's wishes known to us.
 
<<... how can you accept such a primitive translation of Vodou songs? >>

I don't think Vodou songs, correctly and simply translated, are primitive.  I 
think they are sublime!   

Peace and love,

Bon Mambo Racine Sans Bout Sa Te La Daginen

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

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