Photo: © newbeatphoto

It is an old cliché but it’s telling: Haiti, 80 per cent Catholic, 20 per cent Protestant, 100 per cent Vodou. Haitians have no problem seeing themselves as adherents of both Christianity and their world-renowned, often maligned popular religion, vodou, known to them as “serving the lwa (spirits).”

Vodou is a belief system that is far more than a religion, and along with Haiti’s unique language, it is the single most important culturally-defining and coalescing force of the country and its people. Doctrine, social control, direct communication with original forces, legend, folklore, emotional release, medical treatment, protection of fields and crops, fertility and a continuing familiar relationship with ancestors are just some of the attractions of a vodou belief in Haiti. There are many more.

As such, and without written tenets, even a narrow religious definition is difficult. Vodou adherents do believe in a supreme being, a God, but he devolves his interaction with humans to hundreds of lwa, who are spirits from Africa or of Haitians’ ancestors.

The lwa are associated with particular spheres of influence, behaviour and symbols and in the words of Charles Arthur are “neither good nor bad, but display virtues and vices just like the humans whose lives they administer.” Vodou ceremonies, held in an oumfo or temple by priest (oungan) or priestess (mambo) are according to Leah Gordon “highly developed rituals to please, feed and ultimately materialize the lwa through possession of a human body.”

Ceremonies vary but there are some common features. Rhythmic drumming, chanting and singing play a crucial role in summoning the lwa, who will only respond to “their” particular call once the priest or priestess has greeted legba, the spirit of the crossroads with their ason or sacred rattle and requested that he open the gates to the spirit world.

The four cardinal points are marked and saluted and loco-attiso, the ancestral spirit of the original priest is greeted in song before the oungan/mambo traces out the veve a sacred symbol representing ayisen, the ancestral spirit of the first priestess on the floor. This is usually done with cornmeal which is symbolically stamped into the floor by the pounding of the dancers feet.

Vodou has been banned many times in Haiti but is now protected by the 1987 Constitution. Since the 1950s, the dominant Roman Catholic church has adopted a more tolerant attitude than in the past, co-existing alongside a belief system that has seen a number of Roman Catholic rituals and saints co-opted into vodou practices. Evangelical protestant churches which have made big strides in Haiti in recent years, have never been so tolerant, often campaigning to get Haitians to reject vodou and resorting to the sort of early Hollywood stereotypes from which vodou has yet to fully emerge.