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Voodoo” in Africa and Haiti

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Voodoo” in Africa and Haiti eTropic 18.1 (2019) ‘Tropical Gothic’ Special Issue | 11 Gothic “Voodoo” in Africa and Haiti Eric Montgomery Michigan State University, United States of America Abstract This paper seeks to historicize and demystify “Voodoo” religion in Africa and Haiti while also drawing comparisons and contrasts to concepts and themes related to “the gothic”. What is assumed to be “supernatural” or “paranormal” in Western and Gothic circles has long been a part of everyday reality for many peoples of African descent and devotees of Vodun in Western Africa and Vodou in Haiti. Tropes that are essential to realms of the gothic (supernatural characters, mystery, the macabre, spirits, and paranormal entities) — are also central to the cosmology and liturgy of so-called “Voodoo”. As “the gothic” undergoes a resurgence in academic and popular cultures, so too does “Voodoo” religion. And yet, both terms continue to be conflated by popular culture, and by equating “voodoo” with “the gothic”, the true spirt of both concepts become confounded. A certain racialized Eurocentric hegemony devalues one of the world’s least understood religions (“Voodoo”) by equating it with equally distorted concepts of “the gothic”. As globalization transforms society, and the neo-liberal order creates more uncertainty, the continued distortion of both terms continues. Vodun does more than just speak to the unknown, it is an ancient organizing principle and way of life for millions of followers. Vodou/Vodun are not cognates of the “American Zombie gothic”, but rather, are a mode of survival and offer a way of seeing and being in an unpredictable world. Keywords: Voodoo, Vodun, Gothic, Neoliberalism, Africa, Haiti eTropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25120/etropic.18.1.2019.3666 eTropic 18.1 (2019) ‘Tropical Gothic’ Special Issue | 12 Introduction: Gothic “Voodoo”1 lthough the term “Gothic” originates from the ornate architecture created by Scandinavian and Germanic tribes called “Goths” between the 12th and 16th A centuries, the term quickly evolved into a thematic framework for psychological and bodily sceneries for art and culture writ large. Like the term “medieval” the very mention of the term gothic conjures images of the macabre, mystery, superstition, and ghastly beings and ideas. The term has also been western-centric in that it is almost always applied to American and European peoples, to the point that in contemporary times people of color (especially black people) have felt ostracized and marginalized by “Goth Culture.” When gothic narratives are applied to people of African descent, it has mostly been through negative stereotypes and unfair archetypes associated with African and Diasporic religions and rituals such as “Voodoo.” Voodoo (Vodun/Vodou) and related religions like Santeria, Orisha, Macumba, Obeah, and the like, have been further demonized and equated with blood-lust, witchcraft, black magic, sorcery, and even cannibalism, to the point that they had to go underground. Only recently have they made a comeback as those in power – from Africa to Brazil, Cuba and Haiti to the United States—have begun to accept and even be initiated into these various African-based religious orders (Matory, 2018, p. 1-11; Brown, 2011). Another Eurocentric bend has been the propensity to malign African religious systems in a manner draped in racism, turning these beliefs into the “savage other”, while also appropriating these frames for mass consumption. This “Halloweenification” of Vodun, Vodou, Orisha, and related orders began in colonialism and has been exacerbated in modernity where the neoliberal order turns publicity into a substitute for democracy by way of co-opted images of the “other” (Berger, 1972). This paper seeks to historicize and demystify this ongoing discrimination by prodding the gothic trope as it relates to “Voodoo” in both Haiti and Africa. Just as the engines of popular culture and consumption have hijacked the core meanings of the term “gothic”, they have also misunderstood Vodou and Vodun. This hegemony cuts deep, yielding unjustified oppression from above in places like Haiti where poverty is explained as a 1 “Voodoo” is obviously a problematic word, but for the purposes here I will use it for several reasons. First, more people will read this article, and it is the non-specialists who will benefit most from learning of the negative associations and stereotypes tied to this term. Second, I am speaking of a macro-level “Voodoo” which includes the Vodun of benin, Vodu of Togo, Vodou of Haiti, and even the “Hoodoo” of New Orleans and some US cities. Third, I want to start a dialogue about taking back the power of the term “voodoo” by demystifying misguided and coopted connotations of the word in hopes of projecting a more accurate and benign understanding of what it means. eTropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25120/etropic.18.1.2019.3666 eTropic 18.1 (2019) ‘Tropical Gothic’ Special Issue | 13 result of “diabolical Vodou”; it garbles the intimate ties between “race” and class, and colonial and neoliberal domination by the West (see Cleophat in Montgomery, 2019; Giafferi-Dombre in Montgomery, 2019). For Haitian anthropologist Nixon Cleophat, “Vodou is the embryo and marker of Haitian socio-political identity” (Montgomery, 2019, p.59). The concerted and collective effort by outsiders to conflate “voodoo” as only “supernatural” or “paranormal” – instead of framing it through cultural relativism for what it is, a “way of life” – not only misrepresents reality, but invokes a feeling of “last-place anxiety”, relegating Vodun/Vodou to the lower echelons of religious thought, and their followers to the level of barbarism (Matory, 2015). The transformative and dynamic nature of “Voodoo” religion is missed. Whereas Vodun is open-ended, unfinished, and a holistic way of being and seeing in real life, the media and popular culture of the West turns it into something less than human (Montgomery, 2016; Rush, 2013). This is despite the fact that this religion has been a part of everyday reality for many folks of African descent where the veil between past/present, life/death, and mortal/god has always been thin and easily traversed through ritual, spirit possession, and divination (Montgomery & Vannier, 2017, p. 155; Vannier & Montgomery, 2016, p. 107). Gothic literature and fiction became all the rage from the late 18th century up to the present. The odus and patakines of Yoruba Ifa divination, the mythologies of Vodun and Vodou gods, the acts of spirit possession and revelation, the articulations of plant medicine for healing — all operate in the realm of “mystery”, but they are also scientific; albeit, not understood by Western empiricism or the so-called scientific method (Vannier & Montgomery, 2016, pp. 31-38). Eurocentric bias leads outsiders with little real understanding of “Vodu” to align it with tropes from misconceived Gothic literature so ideas such as blood-sucking witches, resurrected spirits, night-flying women, shapeshifters, and a laundry list of “fantasy-like” characters including fairies, elves, tykes, giants, vampires and werewolves, garner the headlines; while the liturgical, medical, and philosophical aspects become obscured. The popular obsession with the gothic makes it a convenient medium through which to delegitimize African beliefs. As gothic fiction has become desirable and interesting (Hogle, 2002), few have been willing to include Africanity into its formal frame; even the rising numbers of Muslims and Christians in Africa obfuscates the fact that such “conversions” are filtered through an African religious imagination for which African “Traditional” Religion is the bedrock (Orabator, 2018). Perhaps the intrinsic secretive nature of Vodun has exacerbated the inability of Westerners and outsiders to understand it from the inside, instead opting to conjoin it with notions of some preconceived fictive gothic trope (Landry, 2018). The atmosphere of mystery and the unknown; the evil capacities of human and godlike agents; paranormal beings and events that stretch beyond nature; the wild and out of control propensity of eTropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25120/etropic.18.1.2019.3666 eTropic 18.1 (2019) ‘Tropical Gothic’ Special Issue | 14 melodramatic forces and events; omens, magical objects, visions and dreams; and, sacred settings and ceremonies—are only a small part of what “voodoo” is, yet it is only this master narrative that most of the world knows. What is missing? Well, ritual acts are also practical, servicing the sick and indigent, and also improving the lot of their devotees and adepts. These are not religions of “horror,” but rather, African belief systems are pierced with balanced elements of good and evil; and through sacrifice, prayer, performance, and the like, Africans can bring order to a world full of conflict and chaos (called maso-maso in the Ewe language of Ghana, Togo, and Benin). Many modern readers and some critics – encouraged by popular culture – have begun to think of “Gothic literature” as referring to any story that uses an elaborate setting, combined with supernatural or super-evil forces against an innocent protagonist. Some members of popular culture have continually superimposed this story arc onto African religions like “voodoo”, equating it with gothic fiction, and thus doing great harm to one of the world’s most ancient and important belief systems. Converting the Converter: “Goth” in African Religions There is little doubt that the new financial architecture of neoliberalism and global capitalism has disproportionately affected citizens of peripheral nations, particularly people of color in the Global South, and especially “black” people who continue to observe their ancestral religions, and even some whom have converted to “world religions” while also admiring the traditions of their ancestors (Soederberg, 2004). In Haiti, most followers of Vodou will pronounce themselves Catholic to avoid persecution from the inside and outside, and the same holds true in places such as Puerto Rico, Brazil, Cuba, Benin, Togo and Nigeria.
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