Search for the Spirit by Laennec Hurbon - Book Report/Review Example

Search for the Spirit by Laennec Hurbon The book, Voodoo: Search for the Spirit by Laennec Hurbon, is an informative and accurate overview of the history and development of voodoo. It contains an introduction to the religion, seven chapters outlining various aspects of voodoo, and many photographs, illustrations, documents and explanations relating to important concepts and ideas contained in this religion. Hurbon also provides a useful list of further reading, a glossary of terms used in voodoo and their meanings, and a timeline, summarizing the development of the religion. The aims of the religion are explained effectively and the cultural and social context of voodoo is explored. Voodoo is not considered to be one of the mainstream or important religions of the world. It is to most people who are not followers, a mysterious set of beliefs. The perception of voodoo is very much influenced by the portrayal of the practices, rituals and behavior of people who follow voodoo in western media. The first things that come to mind are dark spells, voodoo dolls and zombies. The intention of this writer was certainly to dispel some of the myths which exist about voodoo, by providing information. While this is perhaps not a highly academically sourced book, it does appeal to a wide and general audience. It seems that its intention is to demystify this religious system and work against the generally negative perception of voodoo from non-adherents. The opposition this religion has received from especially the Christian world is significant. Yet it has survived direct attempts from the Roman Catholic Church, the rulers of Haiti, its primary country of origin, and from more recent attacks by Protestant Christianity. It is clearly an adaptable and strong system of belief, which many people are reliant on, and reluctant to give up. Its history, as recounted by Laennec Hurbon is one of resilience and adaptability. Certainly, today, there are writers, thinkers and activists who equally work toward the acceptance and international respectability which they suggest this religion deserves, in the same way as the major world religions are treated with respect and without suspicion by the public at large. As introduction, voodoo is explained as having originated in Africa, and having come to America with the slaves from Central and West Africa. Since the position of slaves in America was as oppressed, and inhumane, it stands to reason according to Hurbon that European slave owners did not understand voodoo, and instead just came to fear and at times ignore it, and at other times, try to get rid of it (p.48). Slaves for the most part were prohibited from worship, unless it followed the patterns of the Catholic Church, as slave owners wanted to remove all traces of the African culture and society which the slaves represented. The history of Hispaniola (now Haiti) is explored in the first major section of the book, and explains how and why voodoo is still so important to Haitians and to Haitian culture today. The word “voodoo” is explained to mean “an invisible force, terrible and mysterious, which can meddle in human affairs at any time” (p. 9). The belief system is also described as a traditional African form of worship combined with many aspects of the slave owners’ religion, Roman Catholic Christianity. It especially used many Roman Catholic rituals, symbols, and beliefs, because of the influence that the Spanish and later French slave owners had over their slaves. In order to ensure that the slave owners allowed the slaves to practice their religion, the slaves made their worship look more like the religion of their oppressors. Hurbon claims that voodoo is like other world religions, in that it is a means through which followers can connect to the supernatural and find meaning in their everyday lives. But there is no central leader of voodoo, nor is there a text on which all voodoo is based. Instead, it is a belief system which has regularly changed in its history, still changes, and is central to the lives of believers in the same way as Christianity, Islam or Buddhism are religions central to lives of their believers. Yet, voodoo is not considered to be one of the major world religions. Hurbon divides the book into seven chapters as mentioned, and describes and explores the aspects of voodoo in these chapters. Therefore, he names the chapters as follows: The Great Crossing (p.13) Voodoo Hidden in the Hell of Slavery (p. 33) Campaigns Against Sorcery (p. 51) The Spirit of the “LWA” (p. 65) The Cult of the Dead (p. 85) “Manje-LWA”, “Danse-LWA”: The Services (p. 99) An Astonishing Survival (p. 117) These chapter headings explain the focus of each of the sections of the text. The remaining pages of the 170-page book are documents, a glossary, a chronology, further reading, a list of illustrations and the index. This review will follow this structure loosely, relating the information provided in this book with an overview of the information explored in each chapter. As mentioned, the beliefs and religions of West Africa are the basis of voodoo. When the West Africa slaves were transported across the Atlantic in the Sixteenth century, they were forced to convert to the religion of the slave owners, Spanish and French, Roman Catholicism. While today Roman Catholic symbols are recognized by voodoo adherents, the meaning that these have gained specific to the practice of voodoo do overshadow the original Roman Catholic symbols. So the two belief systems merged and the new religion, voodoo, was born. The religion is practiced in varying ways – by country, by community, even by small family groupings – but certain central beliefs remain. In this way, it has maintained the religious systems found in West Africa, particularly according to the writer, in present-day Ghana. In West Africa, beliefs centered around a Creator – Nana Buluku, or Bondye – and the daughters and sons of the Creator’s twin children – Mawu, or the goddess of the moon, and Lisa, the god of the sun (The “Marasa”). The daughters and sons of these twins are connected to historical figures, supernatural figures, or are seen as defenders of tribal groupings or families. They are called lwa. Perhaps more accurately, they are the spirits which surround the physical world, and interact with the adherent of voodoo in his/her daily life. There was also a focus on gods and goddesses of the waters, on the ancestors of the tribe or family, and the gods and goddesses who ruled such things as disease, crafts, manufacture, and specific aspects of the population’s everyday lives. It was these figures in African religion that were disguised by the slaves as Roman Catholic religious figures. Saints, for example, were substituted for the spirits mentioned above. Someone as significant to Catholicism as Mary, mother of Jesus, was representative of the earth goddess of these traditional African religions. The slave masters were then not aware that their slaves were practicing the religion they had been forbidden to practice, as it seemed that the saints and figures of Christianity were being worshipped by the slaves. Similarly, some of the formal aspects of Roman Catholic prayers were incorporated into voodoo practice. When Haiti was liberated in 1804, the Roman Catholic priests were exiled from the country, and voodoo developed into the public religion of Haiti. Throughout the history of voodoo, there have been regular attempts to destroy the religion completely. At least three rulers of Haiti – Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and Henry Christophe – tried to suppress the religion completely in the early 1800s. From 1860-1945, various episodes of Roman Catholic suppression of voodoo occurred, and an official war against voodoo was declared by the Roman Catholic Church against voodoo in the early 1940s. From the end of World War II, the main opposition to voodoo has come from Protestant Christianity. Voodoo has been criticized for being fatalistic, superstitious and even of being a form of devil worship throughout history, according to Hurbon. Yet the religion has survived. Hurbon claims that this is because the religion plays such an important part in people’s day-to-day lives. It was also part of the slaves’ beliefs that they would one day be free (p. 13). Slaves had to create a dynamic and flexible religion if their belief systems were to survive. It has kept its connection to the religions of West Africa – its roots – while incorporating historical and cultural circumstances, in order to survive among its adherents. Hurbon states that voodoo survived in a context in which everything was designed to destroy every connection to African culture, by the ability of adherents of voodoo to disguise what they were doing. He further proposes that this is a “religion of power, connected to the power of nature, the power of magic and the power of the supernatural” (p. 13). It is this power, he writes, which has also caused the religion to be viewed by people who do not follow voodoo as something evil and dark. While Hurbon’s book is focused on this history of voodoo for a large part, the specific descriptions and explanations about the religion are most interesting and informative. Bondye, the chief god, or creator, cannot be spoken to, or contacted by human beings. Therefore, the lwa are prayed to and spoke to by humans, when asking for help, or in times of need. The lwa are characterized by their natures – aggressive and restless, or calm and relaxed, or inventive and mischievous. There are lwa who govern agriculture, war and fighting, femininity, death and fertility. All the major forces of the universe, such as good and evil, health and happiness are represented by individual lwa. The dead are also important: they are the souls of family members who have dies, and it is necessary that these ancestors be honored and claimed by their families for good to take place within that family. There are also priests/priestesses who in voodoo perform sorcery and healing. There are lwa who are almost universal in all practice of voodoo. Legba is an old man who guards the division of the world of humans and the world of the spirits. He is the creator and is the source of regeneration. As opposition to Legba, Kalfu is the spirit of the night and creator of darkness, with the moon as his symbol. Death and resurrection are represented by the lwa, Papa Ghede. He also controls eroticism. Dumballah is the father figure among the lwa. Agwe is the lwa controlling the seas. Orgoun is a warrior lwa, who has come today to represent the force of politics and violence. The spirit goddess of love is Ersulie, who is also the earth mother and represents beauty. In voodoo, morality is centered on an aversion to dishonor and greed, and a sense that the rules are different for different people. If someone is governed by a cool, calm lwa, their behavior should be appropriate to that spirit. The rules would be different for someone governed by a jealous or aggressive lwa. The family is important in this belief system, and love, respect and support within a family is considered good. The community, like the family, is important and charity and help for the community is expected. The close relationship with the elders or the older people in the family and the community is central. Importantly, the belief system, the practices, the lwa in a particular family may differ from that of any other or the community. This is because there is no central text or written historical text on which voodoo is based, as there is in many other world religions. In terms of rituals, the practice of voodoo tends to take place within particular households or smaller communities. These are called services and are usually held outdoors. A centre pole supports a roof and drums and music play a large part in the rituals. Dancing is an essential aspect of the service as well. A particular appointed person directs the music and the dance and there is often a master of ceremonies to maintain the order and performance of rituals and actions. Serving ladies provide sustenance during the services. Often, the services are opened with songs and prayers, litanies of the saints and lwa, and verses for the main spirits. These songs, chants and prayers are spoken and sung in French, Creole and an African language. Songs are sung to individual spirits, and each of the spirits is individually praised. Songs are also then associated with dance and particular choreographed sequences of movements are associated with particular lwa. It is believed that as the songs are sung to individual spirits those spirits come to the gathering, by taking possession of individuals in the house. These spirits speak and act through the people they have taken possession of and the family of the possessed person benefit from this individual’s possession. If a lwa possesses a person, the person takes on the gender of the lwa, rather than his/her own, and is referred to by the gender attributed to the lwa – he or she, rather than the possessed person’s gender. It is also likely that a priest or priestess is the body possessed by the spirit but ordinary individuals are also sometimes selected for this form of possession by the lwa. On occasions, a formal ceremony takes place, in which the possessed person – but actually the spirit – is saluted, and greeted by the participants. The spirit is then asked for help, advice, and predictions for the future. It is also possible that priests or priestesses can take away the luck of a family in these ceremonies. But this is only possible with the priests or priestesses associated with the more negatively perceived lwa. As noted, the real purpose of these religious figures in the community is to do good deeds. In almost all voodoo services, animal sacrifice must occur. This is believed to release life for the use of the lwa. The lwa need this energy released from the animal to continue their difficult task of running the universe. It is often chiefly in this practice that the western critiques of voodoo find most of their aversion to voodoo. These ceremonies continue throughout the night in most cases. The services can be categorized by the lwa called upon and attending a service. Two main types of lwa exist, as mentioned earlier. The family service is attended by lwa called Rada – representative of peace and happiness and usually involved in family services. The second type of service is attended by lwa called Petro. These services are attended by angry and evil lwa, and are evidence of black magic voodoo. Death curses, the making of zombies and even wild sexual behavior it is believed occur at these services. This type of service makes up by far the minority of voodoo services, however. One of these ceremonies – the Bwa Kayiman or the Bois Caman in August 1791 – is said to have started the Haitian Revolution. It was at this ceremony that all the people gathered swore to fight for the freedom of Haiti. Voodoo has often fueled the need of people to be free of oppression and there is no doubt that the rebels of the Haitian fight for independence from European colonialists was strengthened by voodoo. By 1804, the revolution had freed Haitians from French colonial rule. And this religion also continues to flavor the everyday lives of its followers, until today. Within the houses of the faithful family, a table is often set out with pictures and statues of the spirits, perfumes and food for the ancestors and the spirits. These tables remain and are replenished regularly – not only used for ceremonies. Again, this is physical evidence of the ability of voodoo to remain part of the everyday lives of followers of the religion. This kind of daily ritual must also be to some degree part of the reason the religion has survived despite great opposition. The priests (Houngans) and priestesses (Mambos) in voodoo are believed to have been chosen by the dead ancestors. They are then confirmed into their roles by the spirits, through possession. It is possible that these priests and priestesses can hurt or even kill people, it is believed, but their greater purpose is to help and protect people from spells. They do conduct ceremonies, and also have a role to preserve and maintain the rituals and the songs. They act as go-betweens for the community and the spirits, calling and even calming spirits, and they lead the service for their family or community. Houngans and mambos cast spells and create protections for families. They also tell the future and read dreams and create potions for particular purposes, like healing, bay for love or death, too. There are additionally assistants who are being initiated into the priesthood, and these people are dedicated to their own spirits or lwa. They will have been possessed previously in services or ceremonies, and identified as potentially houngans or mambos. Some priests and priestesses, but also members of the community, can present themselves as able to cast spells on request, and sometimes also can be involved in dark practices rather than the good. It is additionally possible that such religious figures can charge money for their services. But, the reason that individuals choose to follow a good or evil path is also explained in voodoo. Each person has ti-bon-ange, or a little good angel, which assists in making good decisions. This, according to the writer, is similar to sense of conscience, as it is explained in Western society and culture. Each person also has gros-bon-ange (a big good angel) which really equates to the western conception of a person’s soul. It is when the ti-bon-ange is ignored that evil can exist. Instead of making the choice to follow a good or an evil path, individuals are expected to placate and avoid, rather than honor the bad lwa. Unlike what is expected in the worship of the good lwa. At the same time, however, the lwa govern all aspects of the individual’s life. No individual acts on his/her own – rather the lwa decide all action on the human being’s behalf. The consistency of the lwa is emphasized: they do not change things. Therefore, the individual cannot change things. This does not mean, however, that the religion is exclusively fatalistic – urging people to believe that they cannot change anything or improve themselves or their lives. Rather the belief that the lwa do intend good for people does imply that people should want the best for themselves. Similarly, the religion is not merely a collection of dark acts and superstitions as portrayed in western media, such as film and fiction. It has a belief system underpinned by the need of humans to understand their purpose and the meaning of their lives. There is according to Hurbon a lack of international respectability and recognition for voodoo. It is not classed among the major world religions. Indeed it is often not classed as a religion at all but simply a set of strange superstitions and rituals. Without a set text to follow, or even a universally common set of rituals and acts, voodoo does not fit the mould of the world’s accepted mainstream belief systems. This has meant that mainstream Protestant Christianity, most recently, has categorized voodoo as its direct enemy. Many claim that this is because of its seeming to be bizarre and mysterious to the general western public. It is with the intention of making the religion more accessible and understood to a western audience that Laennec Hurbon wrote this book. To a large extent, he has succeeded in his intention. Read More