Hatian art

This week in class we focused on Haitian art and the practice of Vodou.  Vodou is the religion of eighty percent of Haiti and is nothing like Voodoo that we think of in America. While learning about Vodou this week I noticed many similarities to other peoples of Africa.

The Vodou religion is a complicated but intriguing religion. The McCarthy Brown essay even calls the relations between the living and the vodou spirits a complex web. The essay focuses on a Woman name mama Lola and her practices of Vodou as a mambo (Vodou priest). Through these practices she summons the Vodou spirits for insight and wisdom.  In the videos we watched they also talked about this possession and it reminded me of some of the other peoples we have studied this year. The first few weeks of class when we discussed Ghanaian art and Nani visited and performed dances for us. He also discussed how through these dances the spirits would possess them. Another thing that came to mind was Herbert Cole’s essay, “ I am not myself” Cole discusses masquerades  and discusses the mask wearers being possessed by the spirits. This seems to be a recurring idea in African art and culture. In Hatian Vodou like many of the other groups and practices we have studied there have been many recurring themes.  The Idea of the cross roads has come up a few time just recently in our study of Hatian art but also when we discussed about the Yoruba using it during divinations. One final thing that came to mind while watching the video they were making sacrifices using chickens and goats. This brought to mind the Boli from the Bamana. The Boli also has this idea of scarification attached to it.

Although many of these groups are different have very different practices and beliefs they still share a lot of the same ideas.