aTHE PURPOSE OF THIS PAGE:

The purpose of this page is to give a very brief overlook of the

religion called Voodoo as it exists in Haiti. This is a supplementary
article to the series on the Polish in Haiti.

As I have shown in my other articles, Poles can be found in many

places around the world. Poles in Haiti has been a well-hidden fact
in most history books. However, the descendants of these
abandoned soldiers still remember. Perhaps the reason they were
ignored was because they were considered "cowards" by the
French. The Polish did not choose to fight this war, and most
records confirm that they were taken on board ships by gunpoint.
In this circumstance you can forgive those that deserted. They
were fighting a morally wrong war. The Haitians had already been
given their independence and then Napoleon decided to take it
back for his regimes' own personal profits:

• Napoleon did not count on the Africans fighting back with

such vigor.
• He did not count on his soldiers dying of yellow fever.
• Remember in this age, the French did not even consider the
Negro slaves human.
• This is the same attitude the early explorers felt towards the
Native American Indians.

White supremacy still reared its ugly head in times of early

colonialism.

If you read the page called "The Lost Polish Brigades in Haiti" you
will have read about Amon Fremon of Casales, Haiti. Amon was a
Voodoo priest.

THE WORD VOODOO:

Some researchers thought that the word Voudou/Voodoo came
from the French word Vaudois meaning "witchcraft," as they were
called by the Waldensian heretics. Remember this would make
sense because Haiti was a French possession, so they would have
named this religion in French terms.

ORIGINS IN AFRICA:

However, other scholars think Voodoo is a West African

corruption of the Yoruba word for "god." Voodoo as a religion was
brought to Haiti by slaves from Dahomey (Mair, 234). The first
humans to appear in the lands of Dahomey (Benin) were
worshippers of the goddess Mawu-Lisa. Since that time, certain
Christian rituals were incorporated into Voodoo, because of the
missionaries who wished to eradicate these practices.

Polish soldiers most likely tried to practice their Catholicism in the

early days. They even built a stone church in Casales. However,
later on, as more generations of mixed blood entered their
offsprings veins, many descendants adopted a blend of Catholic
and Voodoo beliefs. The fact that their copy of the Black Madonna
of Czestochowa was still among their church relics tells us this.
However, many of the other traditions from their Polish blood had
been forgotten. Amon Fremon, who claimed descendant from
Polish soldiers, was a Voodoo priest and he worked his rituals
while taken to Poland and France by Jerzy Detopski. Therefore
Voodoo is a modern part of their descendant's lives.

SLAVERY AND FEAR

In the early days of Haiti [we can not re-write history], the slave
owners feared the sorcery of their slaves. They felt that the "black
carbonaro" were dedicated to the destruction of whites. This fear
still exists today. In fact most Haitians still see whites as their
enemies. Remember Francois Duvalier ("Papa Doc") was reputed
to have used Voodoo as a tool to control his people. He also
stressed "negritude" which is explained as a pride in blackness and
African heritage.

The fear whites held for their slaves, that practiced Voodoo, were
brought on by the early writings:

....."In the 16th century Spencer St. John (a 19th century British
consul) wrote a book (in 1884) saying that Voodoo rites assisted in
the murder and eating of children, in honor of the serpent god. W.
H. Seabrook was in Haiti in the twentieth century. He saw Voodoo
rituals from 1915-1933, and wrote about his observations of what
he called "sinister practices."

However, one of the strongest writings against Voodoo were

written by Dennis Wheatley, an Englishman. Wheatley wrote
many books about witchcraft, satanism, and other black arts, in his
lifetime. His interest in occult sciences was his life. He researched
this most of his life.

Wheatley writes:

• "Voodoo "is one of the vilest, cruellest and most debased

form of worship ever devised by man. Its origins lay in
darkest Africa, and the Negro has carried its foul practices
with him to every part of the world which he inhabits and
now even, I am told on good authority, to several cities in
England.
• The Voodoo account of the Creation is that God took his
woman into the bedroom and together they began it.
According to these people, that is all that a woman is fit for,
together with working and cooking for hn.""
VOODOO IN LONDON:

It seems that Wheatley was right about Voodoo in England. There was said to be a
Voodoo temple near the Strand. In July 1964, a white cockerel with its throat cut was
found in Watford Park. A Jamaican remarked to the Press. DO NOT go near that bird. It
was used as a sacrifice in a Voodoo initiation ceremony.

There is much more explaining the sexual ceremonies of humans

copulating during their ceremonies and the sacrificing of chickens
and more sinister offerings. All these stories would be terrifying to
the casual reader.

These Voodoo rituals were totally foreign to the European mind.

They did not understand them. Remember in Europe witchcraft
was thought to be the tool of the devil and his demons. Many
innocent women and men were killed during the frenzy of the
witchcraft trials all over the continent.

In 1494, Pope Innocent VIII isssued a Papal Bull:

"It has come to our ears that numbers of both sexes do not avoid to
have intercourse with demons, Incubi and Succubi; and that they by
their sorceries, and by their incantations, charms, and conjurations,
they suffocate, extinguish and cause to perish the births of women,
the increase of animals, the corn in the ground, the grapes in the
vineyard and the fruits of the trees, as well as men, women, flocks,
herds and various kinds of animals, vines and apple trees, grass,
corn, and other fruits of the earth; making and procurring men and
women, flocks and herds and other animals should suffer, and be
tormented both from within and from without, so that men beget
not, nor women conceive; and they impede the conjugal action of
men and women."

This Bull was directed towards witchcraft in general, not just

Voodoo.

W.B. SEABROOK'S BOOK ON HAITI:

"Jesus, Mary, and Christian saints are mingled with the African
pantheon. The main act of the religion is sacrifice of animals:
fowls, doves, turkey, goats, and on some important occasions, bull.
The pig is never used. The original sacrifice (in the past) was no
doubt human" (Seabrook, 58).

The Middle Ages was where this fear began. The devil idea was at
its peak in the Middle Ages or Kali Yuga (dark era). The duelity of
good and evil was said to have originated in Persia. Even King
James I (of England) wrote a book on demonology and made his
own version of the Bible. King James I feared witchcraft. He wrote
Daemonologia in 1597. There have been many writings about
Voodoo. Most of these books were written with the intent of
helping other whites to understand. However, these books were
based on personal truths, and not necessarily the truth as seen
through Haitian eyes. Books on Voodoo vary in their views.
However most agree to the following:

• Voodoo gods were called "loa" - a Congo word.

• The spouse of the god was called "hounsi."
• A Voodoo temple was called a "hounfor."
• A Voodoo covered altar was called a "peristyles"
• Voodoo priests were called "houngan."
• Voodoo priestesses were called "Mambo."

Mambo dresses all in white.

• iniates or hounsi-kanzo dress in red, and eat only white foods.

• bocors are witch doctors.

There are two categories of gods:

• (1) Rada - gentle gods:

Damballah - Wedo/Quedo is a venerable father, a snake god.

He is represented by St. Patrick because of his relationship to
snakes. Damballah's day is Wednesday. He likes white cocks
and hens to be sacrificed to him. In Dahomey mythology, the
 snake was so old it existed before the earth was made. The
divine male serpent was called Aido-Huedo.
Ayida Wedo - is the wife of Damballah and she is
represented by the serpent.
Papa Legba is the guardian of the crossroads, which are the
spirit of communication between all spheres. Crossroads are
considered a place of great magical power. Papa Legba is
represented by Jesus Christ.
Agwe is the shell or the sovereign of the sea.
Erzulie/Ezilie (also called Freda) of Dahomey belief. Erzulie
is the Great Mother, goddess of beauty who likes the fine
things if life. Erzulie is associated with the Virgin Mary. She
has both a positive and negative side. In her positive form it
is written that her cult recites the three Credos and three Ave
Marias.

On July 16, 1842, and later in 1881, the Virgin Mary

appeared on the top of a palm tree, not far from the base of a
cliff where the La Tombe River becomes a waterfall named
Saut d'Eau, a sacred voodoo pilgrimage site. A chapel and
shrine was erected there. The natives set offerings for Erzulie
Freda there (Davis, 170).

• (2) Petro - the bitter gods.:

Baron Samedi (Lord of Saturday)

Baron Cimerere (Lord of the Cemetary)
Baron Crois (Lord of the Cross) - the negative side of Legba?
Ogoun is the storm god and is associated with St. George, the
dragon slayer. He is the spirit of fire.
Guede is the loa (god) of death and sexuality.
Brigitte is the wife of Guede.
Erzulie is also known as the black Venus, a sexually
insatiable goddess, that is obsessed with jealousy. Apparently
this is one of her guises of duality???
 • A Voodoo altar may contain candles (white candles for
positive, black candles for negative spells), bottles of rum,
pots-de-tete, herbs, statues of Catholic saints, an iron cross,
gourds, rattles and strings of colorful beads.
• Gris-gris are charms and spells.
• Zombies - drugged individuals who are used as pawns. They
are drugged to feign death and reappear from the grave.
Zombification is considered punishable by law. It involves
the use of poison. A poison which has an antidote. This
drug/poison is used as a controlling device. The resusciated
corpse then becames the animator's slave. Zombie is a Congo
term for an object of spiritual power.

Zombies were used on plantations. They show no sign of

intelligence or feeling. They were undoubtedly in a comatose
state. They were dead people in legend. Haitians believed in
this possibility and they watched the graves of their newly
buried dead for several days, until decay has advanced, for
they hold that they could be dug up and made into zombies.

The use of Christian icons was a way to practice Voodoo without

raising suspicion from their owners. If whites saw an altar with
Christian figures their minds seemed to be at rest. They thought
their slaves had converted. However, this was merely a tactic used
by the Voodoo practioners. No one is really positive what their
ceremonies are really like. Many ceremonies are performed as a
tourist attraction even today.

One thing we do know is that Voodoo practioners were tortured

and branded by their owners. Victory in war, they were convinced,
was one of the aims of their rituals, and slave masters always had
this as their concern. They feared that their slaves would rise up
and kill them.

For the past two hundred years this hatred has done nothing but
fester.
The Haitians have a saying: The Catholic goes to church to speak
about God, the vodounist dances in the hounfour to become God
(Davis, 170).

EXTERNAL LINKS:
Voodoo Library ... Voodoo Flags (art)
African Traditional Religions ... Haiti: Voodoo
Voodoo in the Republic of Haiti ... Our Lady of Class Struggle:
The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Haiti
The Cult of the Black Madonna

SOURCES:

Allan, Tony. Voices of the Ancestors: African Myth USA: Time-

Life Books, 1999 (Myth and Mankind Series).

Buckland, Raymond. The Witch Book: The Encyclopedia of

Witchcraft, Wicca, and Neo-paganism

Crow, W.B. A History of Magic, Witchcraft, and Occultism.

Hollywood, CA.: Wiltshire Book Company, 1970.

Davis, Wade. The Serpent and the Rainbow. New York:

Touchstone, 1996.

Diederich, Bernard and Al Burt. Papa Doc: The Truth About Haiti
Today. New York: Avon Books, 1970.

Doktor Snake. Voodoo Spellbook. New York: St Martin's Press,

2000.

Mair, Lucy. Witchcraft New York: McGraw Hill Book Company,

1969.

Mapes, Eric. The Domain of Devils. New York: A.S. Barnes and
Company, Inc., 1966.
Seabrook, W.B. The Magic Island London, 1929, 276.

Wedeck, Harry E. A Treasury of Witchcraft: A Source of the

Magical Arts. New York: The Citadel Press, 1969.

Wheatley, Dennis. The Devil and All His Works. New York:
American Heritage Press, 1971.

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