(The night of the 14th August, from Haitian Summer)
From the main street we hear now and again faint new sounds of drums, we turn into a steep dark alleyway, go down into a tiny courtyard and face the vaudou temple, a small house with glassless windows, people are looking inside, craning their necks through the windows, the rattling of drums is louder, this place is well hidden amongst the frayed buildings
François goes in first, the courtyard outside the temple is packed with people, he is arranging a seat for us, we squeeze in through the tightly packed crowd inside, the torrent of the drums descends on us all at once, the light is bright after the stumbling darkness outside
my ear adjusts itself to the loud rhythmic stretches of the drums, the ogan the ogan player striking a piece of scrap metal with a metal beater repeating the rhythm to keep the three drummers in time, the ogan rhythm rides over the drums tripping deftly over their beats yet strict in time with the tiniest of changes in the patterns
the houngan [1] rises to greet us as we enter and gives up his seat for us, behind us the engine of the three drummers thunders away propelling us through the night, in front a tight circle of gracefully restrained dancing women, all in light blue serge dresses, all sizes, all ages, all shapes
the houngan shakes the asson (the gourd rattle) to call down the gods
at times a woman becomes possessed by a loa, a mystère, a spirit, a god, they move aggressively, or gently and lovingly, taking on the characteristics, age, appearance, gestures, tone of voice, personality of the spirit who is possessing them, riding them,
out of the tight anticlockwise gently circling dance around the central wooden post down which the spirits descend, a woman leans, spins or trembles out of the circle to move away with wild motions, to be gently restrained, protected, supported
then the woman sits and recovers in some quiet corner
the houngan keeps an eye on everything all aspects of the ceremony, uses his assistant to help, to prevent anyone getting hurt while possessed, man or woman, the houngan halts the drummers when he feels the moment is right, to bring people back to earth, to get them to feel the earth under their feet again
the drums start again on a different rhythm, the people sing the vaudou hymn of consecration (mainly women sing) the solo voice starts, either man or woman, answered by the chorus, and the great oscillations between solo chorus solo chorus carry through the song
the vaudou priest and his two assistants draw an elaborate vévé [2] in white flour on the earth floor, underneath are drawn symbolic letters
there are reminders of what had happened in the historic Bois Caïman ceremony, the houngan stops the drummers, as the drums roll to a stop dancers spin round each at her own speed spinning out of the tight circle at the centre, spinning outwards
the houngan explains what had happened at the same hour on that night in Bois Caïman in 1791, this is followed by a long reading from the bible from Exodus, verses explaining in detail the preparation and sacrifice of a lamb
then more singing and dancing, the backbone of the drum rhythms running through the body of the songs, then a long speech about the early slave revolts telling their story ending with Dessalines[iii] and all sing a song to Dessalines
various grunts and snorts begin to punctuate the music and speeches and sermons and explanations, the houngan stopping the music whenever he has something to say
he directs everything, from tending to a girl who has become deeply possessed and almost unable to stand to the smallest details to do with the entry of the black pig which has in the meantime been loudly snorting outside
it is led in slowly as it snorts and snuffles around it is brought in to the centre of the circle
the excitement increases, a string of different songs follow on the same dance rhythm, the speed increasing gradually increasing, the houngan still very much in control but mounting excitation, propositions in speeches now greeted with clapping and enthusiastic cries of aie! aie! aie! aie! and rolls of applause on all the drums
the pig shrieks a few times but not often it is led to a large enamel basin with rum in it, which it drinks noisily
now a huge machete-like sword knife appears, waving above the heads of the crowd
the circle closes round the pig the drums thunder at red-hot speed steadily accelerating, I feel this is the moment I stay seated not wanting to see the pig's throat slit
they have killed the pig François tells me, the large bowl which previously held the rum is now held to the pig's throat to catch the blood
a bowl of popcorn is passed round, some is sprinkled on the pig's body, the houngan sprinkles rum on the pig's body
then follow more explanations, more songs and a long speech about slavery, mentioning Canning, Wilberforce, and Sonthonax who had given thousands of rifles and ammunition to the slaves
then the speech moves to present-day concerns, contemporary politics, nuclear disarmament, apt criticisms of the superpowers
paraphrasing the original ceremony, like Boukman the houngan and his assistants take bowls of the pig's blood and call people up to have the sign of the cross marked in blood on their forehead
I am asked to get up I stand and the houngan dips his finger in the bowl and on my brow I feel the wet cross being traced
this, the last part of the ceremony is felt in the slackening relaxed rhythms of the tired drummers it is approaching 3 in the morning and the vaudou service has been going nonstop for over four and a half hours
the people slowly leave, the pig's body is dragged away scrubbing out the remains of the flour drawing now scattered into the dust only a few drops of the blood remain, soaked into the earth
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
[1] The name for a male priest in the vaudou religion.
[2] A sacred drawing used to call down the spirits.
[3] Jean-Jacques Dessalines (1758-1806), the revolutionary General who presided over the proclamation of Haitian
Independence in 1804. He became Emperor of Haiti in 1804, and was assassinated in 1806.
From the main street we hear now and again faint new sounds of drums, we turn into a steep dark alleyway, go down into a tiny courtyard and face the vaudou temple, a small house with glassless windows, people are looking inside, craning their necks through the windows, the rattling of drums is louder, this place is well hidden amongst the frayed buildings
François goes in first, the courtyard outside the temple is packed with people, he is arranging a seat for us, we squeeze in through the tightly packed crowd inside, the torrent of the drums descends on us all at once, the light is bright after the stumbling darkness outside
my ear adjusts itself to the loud rhythmic stretches of the drums, the ogan the ogan player striking a piece of scrap metal with a metal beater repeating the rhythm to keep the three drummers in time, the ogan rhythm rides over the drums tripping deftly over their beats yet strict in time with the tiniest of changes in the patterns
the houngan [1] rises to greet us as we enter and gives up his seat for us, behind us the engine of the three drummers thunders away propelling us through the night, in front a tight circle of gracefully restrained dancing women, all in light blue serge dresses, all sizes, all ages, all shapes
the houngan shakes the asson (the gourd rattle) to call down the gods
at times a woman becomes possessed by a loa, a mystère, a spirit, a god, they move aggressively, or gently and lovingly, taking on the characteristics, age, appearance, gestures, tone of voice, personality of the spirit who is possessing them, riding them,
out of the tight anticlockwise gently circling dance around the central wooden post down which the spirits descend, a woman leans, spins or trembles out of the circle to move away with wild motions, to be gently restrained, protected, supported
then the woman sits and recovers in some quiet corner
the houngan keeps an eye on everything all aspects of the ceremony, uses his assistant to help, to prevent anyone getting hurt while possessed, man or woman, the houngan halts the drummers when he feels the moment is right, to bring people back to earth, to get them to feel the earth under their feet again
the drums start again on a different rhythm, the people sing the vaudou hymn of consecration (mainly women sing) the solo voice starts, either man or woman, answered by the chorus, and the great oscillations between solo chorus solo chorus carry through the song
the vaudou priest and his two assistants draw an elaborate vévé [2] in white flour on the earth floor, underneath are drawn symbolic letters
there are reminders of what had happened in the historic Bois Caïman ceremony, the houngan stops the drummers, as the drums roll to a stop dancers spin round each at her own speed spinning out of the tight circle at the centre, spinning outwards
the houngan explains what had happened at the same hour on that night in Bois Caïman in 1791, this is followed by a long reading from the bible from Exodus, verses explaining in detail the preparation and sacrifice of a lamb
then more singing and dancing, the backbone of the drum rhythms running through the body of the songs, then a long speech about the early slave revolts telling their story ending with Dessalines[iii] and all sing a song to Dessalines
various grunts and snorts begin to punctuate the music and speeches and sermons and explanations, the houngan stopping the music whenever he has something to say
he directs everything, from tending to a girl who has become deeply possessed and almost unable to stand to the smallest details to do with the entry of the black pig which has in the meantime been loudly snorting outside
it is led in slowly as it snorts and snuffles around it is brought in to the centre of the circle
the excitement increases, a string of different songs follow on the same dance rhythm, the speed increasing gradually increasing, the houngan still very much in control but mounting excitation, propositions in speeches now greeted with clapping and enthusiastic cries of aie! aie! aie! aie! and rolls of applause on all the drums
the pig shrieks a few times but not often it is led to a large enamel basin with rum in it, which it drinks noisily
now a huge machete-like sword knife appears, waving above the heads of the crowd
the circle closes round the pig the drums thunder at red-hot speed steadily accelerating, I feel this is the moment I stay seated not wanting to see the pig's throat slit
they have killed the pig François tells me, the large bowl which previously held the rum is now held to the pig's throat to catch the blood
a bowl of popcorn is passed round, some is sprinkled on the pig's body, the houngan sprinkles rum on the pig's body
then follow more explanations, more songs and a long speech about slavery, mentioning Canning, Wilberforce, and Sonthonax who had given thousands of rifles and ammunition to the slaves
then the speech moves to present-day concerns, contemporary politics, nuclear disarmament, apt criticisms of the superpowers
paraphrasing the original ceremony, like Boukman the houngan and his assistants take bowls of the pig's blood and call people up to have the sign of the cross marked in blood on their forehead
I am asked to get up I stand and the houngan dips his finger in the bowl and on my brow I feel the wet cross being traced
this, the last part of the ceremony is felt in the slackening relaxed rhythms of the tired drummers it is approaching 3 in the morning and the vaudou service has been going nonstop for over four and a half hours
the people slowly leave, the pig's body is dragged away scrubbing out the remains of the flour drawing now scattered into the dust only a few drops of the blood remain, soaked into the earth
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
[1] The name for a male priest in the vaudou religion.
[2] A sacred drawing used to call down the spirits.
[3] Jean-Jacques Dessalines (1758-1806), the revolutionary General who presided over the proclamation of Haitian
Independence in 1804. He became Emperor of Haiti in 1804, and was assassinated in 1806.
