PITI a PITI, ZOZO FAIT SON NID a History of Voodoo and Power in New Orleans

PITI A PITI, ZOZO FAIT SON NID A History of Voodoo and Power in New Orleans. Daphne Kuntz Graduate School of Humanities University of Amsterdam 11142391 Supervisor: Darryl Barthé Second reader: George Blaustein ~ 1 ~ Abstract In the European colonies, situated in the Americas, different peoples from different areas of the world came together. As a result of these migrations, some peoples mixed, just like some malleable religious traditions that they brought with them. In this thesis, I argue that the syncretized religions that emerged in the Americas, like Voodoo, Vodoun, Candomblé and Santería, gave the people that practiced these traditions some power, that could make their lives easier in the colonies and sometimes lead to anti-colonial resistance. These powers are traceable in different forms, like the power to emancipate a people that was seen by the colonizers as second class citizens, the power to be able to maintain your cultural practices, the power of belief, the power of a priest in his/her community and the power of branding. ~ 2 ~ Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 3 Part I – Origins of Afro-syncretic religions ............................................................................................... 8 Roman Catholicism .............................................................................................................................. 8 African Ethnic Groups ........................................................................................................................ 10 Voodoo and Vodoun, Santería and Candomblé ................................................................................ 13 Part II - Creolization in the Americas ..................................................................................................... 16 Métissage .......................................................................................................................................... 16 Métissage in Anglophone colonies .................................................................................................... 17 Métissage in the Latin Colonies in South America ............................................................................ 19 Métissage in the French colonies ...................................................................................................... 19 Creoles and Creolization .................................................................................................................... 22 Creole people and creolization in Louisiana...................................................................................... 24 Part III – Why New Orleans?.................................................................................................................. 26 City of dual character ........................................................................................................................ 26 Congo Square .................................................................................................................................... 28 New Orleans Voodoo ........................................................................................................................ 34 Part IV - The power in Voodoo .............................................................................................................. 44 The power of belief ....................................................................................................................... 45 Power of a priest in his/her community ............................................................................................ 47 Power of brand identity ................................................................................................................ 48 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 56 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................... 59 Primary Sources ................................................................................................................................. 59 Books ............................................................................................................................................. 59 Articles in Newspapers .................................................................................................................. 59 Secundary sources ............................................................................................................................. 60 Books ............................................................................................................................................. 60 Articles ........................................................................................................................................... 62 Websites ........................................................................................................................................ 67 Images ........................................................................................................................................... 68 Inspiration title .............................................................................................................................. 69 ~ 3 ~ Introduction For me, it is the involuntary alteration that occurs in my psyche, the spiritual upliftment, my transcendental imagination of a spirit world, my oneness with the gods and spirits of departed relatives, and that temporary transformation of my physical body into spirit. Whenever I participate in this music, whether physically, or silently, I look for properties that make the activity spiritually satisfying and fulfilling – properties that link me with the invisible world and constantly remind me of a world beyond, in which I believe without asserting it myself.1 W. Komla Amoaku – a traditional Ewe musician This passage shows the experience of the traditional Ewe musician W. Komla Amoaku when he plays (Ewe) music. He describes the spiritual connection that he feels with the spirit world that is part of the Ewe religious beliefs. The music helps him entering a spiritual world, freeing him from earthly sorrows and problems. The passage is interesting, because it not only shows the musician’s perspective and reasons for making the traditional music, he also describes the spirit world that he traditionally adores. Escaping this world, to enter the world beyond it for a while, is not only a sort of relaxing action, it can also be a way of escaping problems and being in control (getting insights) in your life, and the situation in which you live. Communicating with the spirit world and, thus, knowing information from the spirits and the gods can give you power within your community and make you stand stronger against any oppressor. The spirit world is an essential part of many African religious traditions. In these African religious practices music is an important tool to communicate and become one with this world of gods and spirits of the ancestors. Some religious traditions in the Americas show similar practices. They involve music, and the practitioners want to communicate with the world beyond, where the gods, spirits and ancestors live. It is not surprising that some of the religious traditions in the Americas show similarities with religious traditions from Africa since a forced migration of millions of Africans to the Americas took places during several centuries.2 1 W. Komla Amoaku, “Toward a Definition of Traditional African Music: A Look at the Ewe of Ghana” quoted in: Daniel A. Walker, No More, No More: Slavery and Cultural Resistance in Havana and New Orleans (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004) 12. 2 Ademola Adegbite, “The Drum and its Role in Yoruba Religion”, Journal of Religion in Africa, Vol. 18, Fasc. 1 (February 1988) 19. ~ 4 ~ From different areas in Africa enslaved Africans were brought to several regions in North as well as in South America, in the colonies of European colonial powers like the British, the French, the Spanish, the Portuguese and the Dutch. Just like the Africans, these colonial powers brought their (religious) traditions with them. Although the European colonists claimed all the territory of this ‘New World’, the Amerindian people already lived there for ages. And so different peoples, religions, and cultural traditions, from several areas in Africa and Europe and the Americas, came together in this continent. In the Americas, these religions buildout, just like religions kept developing in the old world, and they gradually started taking over traditions of the other peoples. This mixing of different religious traditions in a new context is called syncretism. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the exact definition of the word ‘syncretism’ is an ‘Attempted union or reconciliation of diverse or opposite tenets or practices, esp. in philosophy or religion’.3 This union of these different practices is what happened in the Americas. Nowadays there are a lot of syncretized religions in the Americas like Vodoun in Haiti, Candomblé in Brazil and

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