Many outsiders, in
observing or commenting on Vodou, reduce its compass from what they would
call "religion" to "witchcraft." By "witchcraft" is commonly meant
"black magic," or the harnessing of malevolent forces with the object of
causing harm to other human beings.
This conception of Vodou
highlights the racism of such observers, but their prejudices are also
nourished by the significance of transformative practices associated with
Vodou in Haitian life.
Almost all religions include what some anthropologists call
"transformative practices," that is, acts which affect human life.
Such transformative practices appear to most outsiders as "magic" regardless
of their ethical value. An American Indian rain dance is an obvious
transformative practice; so is a Roman Catholic mass. Most
transformative practices, like all rituals, require in different degrees the
right words, the right setting, the right movements and, especially, the
right attitude from the participants. Many religious rituals
throughout the world have a transformative and a demonstrative aspect.
Enter
the Oungan
Rigaud Benoit, 1950.
oil on board.
Two facts signal the significance of transformative practices
in Vodou. First, such practices are more common than they are in
religions such as Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, or Christianity; and even
rituals that are primarily demonstrative tend to have a strong
transformative aspect. Second, in Vodou, the moral divide between good
and evil in the performance of transformative practices is based as much on
the goals as on the knowledge of the performance. That is, in Vodou, a
transformative ritual is thought to belong to sorcery rather than religion,
primarily on the basis of what it does to other human beings.
(2)
Vodou builds
its world in the midst of attempts at its undoing. European, American,
and Haitian clergy have tried several times to destroy Vodou, in 1927,
1942-3, and 1986. Each time the faith came back. Being African
in essence, the spirit of Vodou lies latent in the thought and life of the
Haitian people. Portions bring back the whole. In short, Vodou,
even when fragmented, radiates memory, hence potential for renaissance.
(2)
Campaign Against
Superstition in 1927
Ernst Prophete, ca. 1975.
oil on masonite.