Voudoun/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 hand full 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 Voudoun 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, Voudoun 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, Voudoun 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. Its interesting here to consider the evolution of human kind, 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.
