Creole Religions of the Caribbean - Book Report/Review Example

Introduction The book by Olmos and Paravisini-Gebert on the Creolization of the Caribbean people sheds light on a new way of recognizing and realizing the gist of African ethnical and unique religions in their mix with Christianity. In this respect the authors paid much attention to the theme of Creole religions in relation to the material culture so that to attract everyone’s attention to the problem of religious practices evident throughout the Caribbean Diaspora. Thus, the spiritual bounding of Creole people is quite strong to just underestimate it. The main topics to be discussed in the book are as follows: historical framework, Orisha cult, the Afro-Cuban religious trends, Haitian Vodou, Obeah, Myal and Quimbois, Rastafarianism, and Espiritismo. This is why it is difficult to mention only one Creole religion with no clue toward the rest of religions spread over the Caribbean region and all around the world. The core idea of the opening part is to highlight Creolization as a part of Transculturation which stays apart from the term of acculturation (Olmos and Paravisini-Gebert 3). Hence, due to the oppression supported by the slavery period the transformation of collective identities through religious implementation gave impulse for the growth of Creole religions. This flow is by no means never-ending as long as the culture of the Caribbean community remains strong and diversified to simply break down. The result of the continuous transformation and transculturation of Caribbean religions is that they are “fundamentally complex, pluralistic, and integrationist” (Olmos and Paravisini-Gebert 4). One should bear in mind that the process of Creolization is always related to change and happenings fundamentally disclosed by virtue of diverse traditional and cultural entities. Historical Background Ethnic and cultural symbiosis was experimented by European colonizers during the slavery period in the Caribbean region. It was all about syncretism and diversity apparent through the sugar industry. Hereby, the transportation of African slaves to the Caribbean made it the center of “African-based religious practices”, as a so-called manifestation of the African uniqueness in traditions, rites and customs (Olmos and Paravisini-Gebert 15). Definitely, it could not but make the European oppressors scared about such weird and mysterious practices which served a total menace to the colonial state of affairs. The practice of Obeah as well as the Haitian voodoo was an alleged springboard for the purpose of making African people united in their vision for freedom and basic rights since the eighteenth century onwards. In this respect African population in the Caribbean used subtle weapon of poison, spells, and “magical powers linked to mysterious African practices” contrary to firearms used by French and British colonizers (Olmos and Paravisini-Gebert 16). In fact, such lofty-mattered means were really powerful as they seemed too scary for mainly materialist and rational minds of Europeans. Although corruption, political instability and internal hardships affected the living of African people in the Caribbean, it could not destroy their devotion to Creole religions in their versatility and sacrosanctity. Moreover, every community in the region got through the colonization period with no loss for their definite sincretic religion co-existing with the trendy Catholicism. The Orisha Tradition in Cuba: Santeria/Regla de Ocha Cultural resistance in Cuba as in many others Caribbean islands was tightly linked to Lucumi tradition for Yoruba-speaking devoted to the “rule or religion of the orisha” known also as Regla de Ocha (Olmos and Paravisini-Gebert 24). Different traditions were interwoven into a complex of religious motives and flows. In this respect a reader runs into the aforementioned Regla de Ocha, Kongo tradition and Carabali among Africans living in Cuba. All of them flourished mainly due to the fact that the epicenters of religious power were located mainly in the rural areas. On the other hand, the Church’s influence was felt more in the urban districts of the island. The flow of Cuban religious development as a resistance to the Christian tradition was not spontaneous. Instead, it was grounded on the historical and social prerequisites: “A combination of demographic and institutional factors created the conditions for the emergence of religious syncretism in nineteenth-century Cuba” (Olmos and Paravisini-Gebert 26). In other words, it was both hidden and obvious resistance through the power of being united in the central idea of religion as a pin. Hence, African images of deities and the place of a man within them provoked the European Christian tradition in terms of final results. Regla de Ocha became the inseparable part of Creole people in Cuba and its effect is felt all around the island. Thereupon, Orisha and Santeria were implemented and reflected through the images of Catholic saints. The Afro-Cuban Religious Traditions of Regla de Palo and the Abakua Secret Society In comparison with Regla de Ocha, Regla de Palo sheds more light on the individual commitment and involvement of a person with a spirit in a most sacred manner. In this respect the chapter opens with detailed information on the effective use of a spirit as a source for magical (rather supernatural) implementations. It touches upon the nature of the African spirit tightly recognized in a magic of the diverse nature in Africa and distinctive rites and traditions of different nationalities from Congo, Mozambique, Angola, etc. This is why in Cuba santeros and paleros cannot be designated as too different communities of people, but as complementing each other: “The spirit inhabits prenda or nganga, a word that designates not only a spirit or supernatural force but also the object in which the spirit dwells” (Olmos and Paravisini-Gebert 89)... This is a cornerstone between two practices distributed within representatives of different sites of Africa. In the Congo religions tradition, there are different symbols and signs. However, among all of them Zarabanda is one of the most sacred drawings thereof “similar to the veve drawings of Haitian Vodou and the anaforuana of the Abakua” (Olmos and Paravisini-Gebert 92, 93). Thus, the sign of Zarabanda was in most cases perceived as an ominous augury for Europeans as well as for people staying far from the seriousness of religious thoughts among Caribbean communities of Black people. On the other hand, the Abakua Secret Society was well strong in its specific “Abakua secret codes of communication” based on the sincretic African religions (Olmos and Paravisini-Gebert 100). Haitian Vodou The chapter identifies the effect of French Catholic invasion among enslaved Africans in Haiti. Socioeconomic as well as difficult and oppressive religious treatment moved Haitian Black community toward way out in spiritual and magical challenge against hardships of work in plantations. One of the main ideas of Haitian followers of Vodou (spirit) is that “the gods are not only in your blood but in the land” (Olmos and Paravisini-Gebert 116). It is a quintessential peculiarity of how close the Creole religions refer to each other. Moreover, the particularities of the Vodou ritual incur its vague though quite mystical nature: “Vodou, the most maligned and misunderstood of all African-inspired religions in the Americas, is also one of its most complex” (Olmos and Paravisini-Gebert 117). There many instructions for a Vodou believer abidance of which is strictly prescribed for everyone in the community. Otherwise, it may end in fatal outcome. One more feature connecting Vodou to other African-inspired religious practices is all about the vision of the African sacred components in the Catholic saints as “the use of Catholic beliefs, imagery, and rituals came to be regarded as special elements in Vodou rites, necessary to the invocation of lwas” (Olmos and Paravisini-Gebert 120). Thus, although Catholicism was widely imposed on Haitian African communities, it was not a great barrier for Vodou practitioners gathering from time to time in their temples. The latter is also known as ounfo headed by a leader manbo (Olmos and Paravisini-Gebert 121). All in all, Vodou is still a paramount part of the Haitian culture and religious tradition. Obeah, Myal, and Quimbois Obeah, as a set of beliefs presupposes a symbiosis of different practices. In this case it is divided into the putting of spells for different purposes (either protective or intentionally harmful) and the use of herbs and animals for the sake of healing (medical) practices. The supernatural gut of Obeah practice is definitely linked to “an illusion of autonomy as well as a familiar method of access to the world of the spirits” (Olmos and Paravisini-Gebert 156). It is an alleged point of equilibrium between the reality (with its problems and hardships) and paranormal and magical personifications full of glorious images affecting human state of mind. Obeah is well outlined as a heterogeneous religion which has its powerful impact not only on community of followers but also irrespectively of the number of deities and spirits manifesting themselves in both the nature and human beings. This idea goes hand in hand with the meaning of Obeahmen as “skilled herbalists” (Olmos and Paravisini-Gebert 160). Thus the role of Obeah in the social well-being of the community cannot be taken for granted as typically religious. Pursuant to the sacred rituals, Obeah “proclaims” the healing of the community through a masterly selected way of the interaction between nature and a man. Along with Jamaican Myalism, Myal dance and Quimbois practices, Obeah stimulates the interest of the Caribbean African communities toward originality in ethnical and cultural attributes. Rastafarianism The overall outlook on Rastafarianism given in the chapter characterizes it as a solid movement for freedom implemented in the image the Prince Ras Tafari Makonen crowned as Emperor (Olmos and Paravisini-Gebert 183). In this vein, the movement had become pretty influential due to several socioeconomic reasons in the world as well as in Jamaica. Reggae music and the sub-culture of a rasta man brought the popularity of the Caribbean culture and religion all over the globe. However, it is hard to tell about Rastafarianism as some magical or supernatural religious practice, as mentioned before. It is all more about the system of beliefs. Nevertheless, the significance of sincretic manifestations or reflections through the biblical readings is overt in it: “The theology of Rastafarianism was gleaned from a rereading of the King James Bible through the prism of the Kebra…being fundamentally a Biblebased religion that turned its back on Jamaican Zion” (Olmos and Paravisini-Gebert 186, 193). It makes another important point on the mixture of Africanism and Catholicism still complementing each other. Thus, a transformed vision of the Biblical events implied in the Jamaican (as well as Caribbean on the whole) reality serves an explanation of a new way of worshipping god in a genuinely African manner. This practice can be totally judged upon as central or pan-Caribbean today. Espiritismo: Creole Spiritism in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the United States Spiritism is certainly a core feature of the African religious practices cross-related to the need of one’s devotion to both material and spiritual worlds. With regards to this superficial explanation, the authors put forward an idea of the power of Spiritism in the Caribbean region: “Spiritism occupies the space between existing institutional and ideological boundaries” (Olmos and Paravisini-Gebert 235). Vision of Cuban and Puerto-Rican traditions as deeply involved into spiritual hoax is right then. The indigenous Espiritismo became widely recognizable in Puerto Rico historically. Contrary to French Kardecian Spiritism, the “Spiritist Federation of Puerto Rico” came as an African-based genuine religion of connecting oneself to the world of dead (Olmos and Paravisini-Gebert 218). It was then spread over the United States in a mass popularity (mainly in circles of few people who sparked interest in the world of Spiritism). Today, the practice of Espiritismo in Cuba and Puerto Rico is felt by the visitors of the islands. However, it is more evident worldwide due to the Western popularization of the trend: “Spiritism had not been arrested in its social evolution by Euro-American cultural imperialism…due to the fact that the psychological sciences and Spiritism share a common birthright” (Olmos and Paravisini-Gebert 230). Hence, the views on Spiritism practiced in Cuba and Puerto Rico had become rationalized and elaborated by the Western vision on the Creole religious practices. The question is that Espiritismo is still as normal for Christians of the Western community as, initially, for the Africans violently moved to the Caribbean region. Conclusion As might be seen from the above mentioned chapters of the book, the spirit of the Caribbean religious peculiarities known also as Creole is quite multifaceted. In this respect different African communities were able to build up their own cultural precursor for the support of the religious flows. Even though it is somehow related to magic and some sacred mysterious practices, Creolization justly made a contribution into the world cultural and religious heritage. Regla de Ocha, Regla de Palo, Vodou, Obeah, Myal, and other traditions replicate the depth of the African soul and spirit united in the wholeness of a man with the nature. Flourished in the slavery era, Caribbean religious particulars and generalities are still influential and important worldwide, as they have different social, religious, and political prescriptions. Works Cited Olmos, Margarite Fernández and Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert. Creole religions of the Caribbean: an introduction from Vodou and Santería to Obeah and Espiritismo. New York, NY: NYU Press, 2011. Read More