Voodoo
Voodoo is a religion quite unlike most of
the currently established religions. It has been depicted in many shapes and
forms within the mass media, but rarely painted in a decent light. I hope here to
at least dispell some of these myths by shedding light on the religion as a
whole, rather than representing a handful of the rituals which would seem to be
novel to the Christian observer.
As a religion, it is actually a mixture of
a handful of relions, such as traditional African witchcraft (its main
influence), and the French (Creole), Spanish and native Indian 'occupants' of
Haiti throughout the ages. Much of the external influencing factors were added
to the basic African origins as the need arose. This kept the religion up to
date for its serviteurs as they are called.
As a general rule, the serviteurs of
Voodoo are of the peasant classes of the Haitian people. The middle and upper
classes have accepted Catholicism (the Official religion of Haiti) as
their only religion, seeing it as being more civilised than the traditional
religion. Either way, Voodoo was brought from the West Coast of Africa- from
around Senegal and Sierra Leone, through the Gold, Ivory and Slave Coasts, and
through to Angola. The peoples who were displaced by the slave traders were
then mixed in with each other, and transported to the West Indies to be used as
slaves. What this meant for the religion was that each group of people brought
with them a religious system (luckily not unlike the others), which, when the
peoples were thrust together, was also thrust together. It was then moulded and
consolidated by the displaced slaves, to form a religion which spoke to all of
the individual groups, bringing them together in some way. The fact alone that
this happened is testimony to the fact that the religion is flexible, unlike
the rigid systems of some Judeo-Christian systems.
This flexibility allowed the religion to
mould itself to the needs of the serviteurs in the new situation that they had
found themselves in. As stated before, other concepts were added in from the
religions of the other inhabitants (both local and non-indiginous), and the
religion grew. The old Gods (called Loa) also found
themselves in a new situation, and began to evolve to the changing needs of
their serviteurs. The Great Warrior Loa Ogoun , has
changed his role into that of the politician (among other things), as the
concept of power in the serviteur has changed from strength in War to Politics.
Also, many of the serviteurs are members of the Catholic Church, while also
serving the Loa. This flexibility is one of the outstanding features of the
Voudoun religion, that does not appear in many other religions.
As with most religions, Voodoo has its own
basic premises, most of which will not be foreign
to any reader who has a basic knowledge of a few of the major World Religions.
It is interesting here to consider the evolution of humankind, and its
migration out of Africa. It's believed by the Evolutionists that we evolved
from primates somewhere in Northern Africa (not far from the origins of the
Haitian slave races), and then moved northward, through the Middle East, going
then on to Europe and Asia. From Europe, the Americas were conquered, and
slaves brought across from Africa. When this occured, the religion evolved from
the tribal to the mono-theistic, and then it met with its tribal origins when
it brought across slaves. In doing so, the tribal "uneducated and
unevolved" peoples were able to see in the evolved religion, the basic
concepts illustrated in their own religion. The "evolved" religion
could not do the same- it could not see the religious ancestor in its current
religious life. Or it at least was unwilling to accept the fact that its own
religion was in some way 'base' like the 'lesser' people who practiced it. A
true shame for these people!
It also carries with it a unique series of
symbols. Some of the concepts of these are explained by the basic premises, and many of them are symbolic
representations of the Loa. These Ververs
are used in rituals to call forth the Loa from
their spiritual dwellings, into the real world. When they do this they possess
(called mounting- a reference to mounting a horse) a serviteur, and use his or
her body to make their instructions known, and excercise their authority. It is
in this state of being mounted that the serviteur can seemingly endure many
great feats that would otherwise be impossible. This is not really the case,
since when a Loa mounts a serviteur, they shift the bodies animating force
(what we would call a soul, known as a gros-bon-ange)
aside, and out of the body (it can be kept in a receptacle at any time to save
it fom being stolen!). So the gros-bon-ange of the serviteur is unable to feel,
or even rememeber what happens during a mounting.