Alfred M Traux

The Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult Volume 19 Doctor Alfred Métraux spent many years on the study of religious phenomena and diverse cults. He often visited Haiti, sometimes spending long periods there. From 1948 to 1950 he was head of a sociological survey of the Marbial Valley. He became the trusted friend of several hungan and mambo, the priests and priestesses of Voodoo, from whom he gained a great deal of the insight and understanding which is revealed in this book. Voodoo ALFRED MÉTRAUX Translated by Hugo Charteris First published in Great Britain by Andre Deutsch Ltd 1959 Copyright © Alfred Métraux 1959 Preface copyright © Schoken Books Inc 1972 Published by Sphere Books 1974 Introduction copyright © Dennis Wheatley 1974 To the memory of LORGINA DELORGE mambo of La Salines whose sacred name was ‘Dieu devant’ and to MADAME ODETTE MENNESSON-RIGAUD ‘certified’ mambo without whose help this book could never have been written Contents Introduction by Dennis Wheatley 7 Preface by Sidney W. Mintz 9 I. THE HISTORY OF VOODOO Origins and History of the Voodoo Cults 19 II. THE SOCIAL FRAMEWORK OF VOODOO 1. The Social Framework of Voodoo 38 2. Voodoo Clergy and Cult-groups 40 3. The Sanctuaries 48 III. THE SUPERNATURAL WORLD 1. Gods and Spirits in Haitian Voodoo 52 2. The Power of the Loa 59 3. The Voodoo Pantheon 61 4. Possession 73 5. Epiphany of the Gods 85 6. Dreams 86 7. The Cult of Twins 88 8. Animist Beliefs 92 IV. RITUAL 1. Ritual 95 2. The Ritual Salutations 96 3. The Flag Parade 97 4. Invocation Formulae 97 5. The Libations 98 6. Orientation Rites 98 7. Material Representations of Divinity 98 8. The Sacrifice 101 9. Offerings 105 10. Music and Dance 106 11. Initiation Rites in Haitian Voodoo 115 12. Mystical Marriage in Voodoo 127 13. The Conjuring up of Loa 131 14. The Feast of Yarns 134 15. Voodoo Christmas in Haiti 135 16. The Cult of the Dead 144 V. MAGIC AND SORCERY 1. Magic and Sorcery 157 2. The Societies of Sorcerers 172 3. White Magic 179 4. Ordeals 187 5. Divination 188 VI. VOODOO AND CHRISTIANITY Voodoo and Christianity 190 Conclusion 210 Notes 214 Introduction This is the English translation by Hugo Charteris from the French original by Alfred Métraux. The author first visited Haiti in 1941, returned there several times between that year and 1953, and spent the years of 1948 and 1950 as the head of a sociological survey in the island. Having taken a deep interest in Voodoo all these years, and having become closely associated with several of its priests and priestesses, he is well qualified to discourse on that religion. A ‘religion’ it unquestionably is; although a strange one, for superficially, and only superficially, its votaries are Roman Catholics. Its origins lay in well-named ‘darkest’ Africa and it was brought into the West Indies in the mid-seventeenth century when Negro slaves were first imported to the Caribbean Islands. Many of them were natives of the Congo, Guinea and Nigeria, but the great majority came from Dahomey and the dark gods of that country became, under such names as Papa Legba, Dambala-wedo, Baron Samedi and Eliza-Freda the most powerful loa of the Voodoo pantheon. But there are scores of others all of whom, if called upon, have the power to possess their worshippers and throw them into fits. This calling down of the spirits is the main object of all Voodoo ceremonies. The worshippers meet at huntfort – large or small compounds – each administered by a priest (hungan) or priestess (mambo), who is assisted by numerous initiates (hunsi). To the mesmeric influence of drumming the congregation enters on a dance that becomes ever wilder, animals are brutally sacrificed and their blood drunk, the loa are called upon, men and women worshippers become frenzied, cry out in the voice of the god that is said to ‘ride them’, foam at the mouth and finally collapse. In every hunfort there is an altar. On it are offerings of fruit, flowers, vegetables and bottles of rum and cocoa-cola, set in front of pictures of Christian saints. This association with Christianity is due to the fact that all planters were compelled by law to have their newly imported slaves baptized as Roman Catholics. But the slave owners discouraged the preaching of the gospels, because the teaching of Jesus might lead the blacks to believe they were their masters’ equals. Such a restricted knowledge of the white man’s religion resulted only in the slaves paying lip-service to it and associating saints such as St Patrick – who is always represented with a snake at his feet – with their own serpent god. There is ample evidence that Voodoo is the most bestial, cruel and depraved of all religions, but there are two reasons why Doctor Métraux does not give the full picture of it. Firstly, as he says in his foreword – the place of which is taken by this introduction – he lived only in the part of Haiti where the worst Voodoo rites were only practised; secondly, that he discusses Voodoo ‘only from the point of view of an anthropologist with method and prudence’. In other words, he leans over backward not to offend Haitians. He does tell us something of the torture inflicted on birds and beasts before they were sacrificed and of the hideous practices of the sorcerers; but not that men consider it an honour to be allowed to kiss the vagina of a woman while she is possessed and in convulsions, or of men copulating with pigs – as was the ritual for initiation into the Mau-Mau. His reticence is understandable in view of the fact that this book is dedicated to Lorgina Delorge, an old Negress mambo, whose guest he was for a considerable time; and that he had many friends who were devotees to this licentious cult. Yet one should bear in mind that Haiti is the most densely populated country in the Western Hemisphere. In consequence the majority of its inhabitants are desperately poor. And that for the very poor the only pleasures available are music, dancing and copulation. But whatever mentions of depravity Doctor Métraux may have discreetly omitted, the fact remains that his account of the Voodoo religion, its gods, their followers, beliefs and ceremonies is more informative than any other. Preface to the Second English Edition by Sidney W. Mintz* In 1948-49, while Alfred Métraux was engaged in anthropological fieldwork in the Republic of Haiti, some of Professor Julian Steward’s students (this writer included) were making a series of community studies in nearby Puerto Rico. It was our good fortune that Professor John V. Murra, then of the University of Puerto Rico and an intimate friend of Métraux, should have received all of us one night in his apartment, while Métraux was visiting. During the day Métraux had visited one of us – Eric Wolf – in the field and had displayed the energy, single-mindedness, and enthusiasm for which he was so justly famous. After an exhausting trip to and from the community (where, to everyone’s amazement, including Wolf’s, he had sprung from his horse in order to begin eliciting data, matter-of-factly and in excellent Spanish, on house types and house construction, from some of Wolf’s startled informants), he received us on Murra’s terrace, beneath a brilliant Antillean sky. Sitting at ease in a lounge chair, drink in hand, Métraux began to talk about anthropology and about what it meant to be an anthropologist. ____________________ * Dr. Simone Dreyfus-Gamelon and Professors John V. Murra and Richard Price kindly read and criticised very usefully an early draft of this preface. I am grateful to them all, but they do not share my responsibility for interpretations I have made here. Tributes to Métraux have been written by the score, and by those close to him; this writer has no proper part in adding to what has already been said. But that starlit evening had its impact on those of us for whom anthropology possessed a magic it is now rapidly losing. We who were its students might not only look forward to living among strange and remote peoples someday but might also learn in the presence of those whose lives were given over to doing just that. Can one borrow a more contemporary image? Moonwalkers fill us with awe because they have been brave, and they have experienced somewhere alien and distant. Anthropology finds its beginnings in a related awe, the wonder of unknown worlds, and the educated wonder of our teachers, who have seen and continue to question. But the anthropologist’s unknown world, unlike the astronaut’s, is really an interior world, a world that is strange because of the way it is perceived. A good ethnographer, no matter how unrelativistic, always recognizes that reality is, among other things, what people have learned to see. And while the outer world may seem bizarre, exotic, and remote, it is to the relationship between that outer world and the perceptions and intents of men that anthropology directs its attention. Métraux exemplified that concern and the puzzlement that all good ethnographers are commonly prey to. What he had seen had become part of what he saw with, but only after the lenses provided by his own culture had themselves been clearly seen. Métraux apparently viewed each society in terms of its uniqueness, its special character; Haiti was such a society, though he talked relatively little about it that night.

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