African Folklore: An Encyclopedia - Marshalls University

African folklore 1008
government. These violent campaigns justified themselves by arguing that Vodou
tarnished Haiti’s image in the eyes of the larger world. Ironically, the reverse was more
accurate: Vodou was being demonized by Europe and America in order to keep Haiti,
and what it stood for, under control. The only art objects that seem to have survived the
Atlantic crossing with some frequency were the small pouches of earth from the
homeland that some slaves wore around their necks.
Caribbean Art Forms
Transitory and performative religious art forms did develop in the slave colonies of the
Caribbean, but it is important to remember that all religious practices, except those of the
colonials, were discouraged in such settings, which is not to say they did not persist
anyway. One example of transitory art is the elaborate Vodou veve, traced in fragile
cornmeal on temple floors, only to be destroyed before the end of the ceremony.
Possession became more elaborate and more extemporaneous in Haiti than it was in the
African homelands. The possession performances of those Vodou practitioners “ridden”
by the spirits are not only evidence of religious practices enduring in the New World,
they are a testament to the creative adaptation of old ritual techniques to new social
environments.
Wanga represent another kind of art form. Wanga are a form of “treatment” in the
healing repertoire of the average Vodou priest (oungan) or priestess (manbo). Although
wanga may not be beautiful these homely, practical Vodou constructs (e.g., good luck
charms and healing magic) are perhaps the most complex and the most aesthetically rich
of Haiti’s material art forms. Wanga are eclectic blends of similar objects produced in
West and Central Africa (such as bocio and minkisi) with elements drawn from
eighteenth-century French Catholicism and its saints, miracles, relics, and talismans.
The Kongo minkisi, sometimes little more than tied and sutured bundles filled with
articulate discursive materials (seeds, bark, animal parts, bones, resin, rocks, leaves of all
kinds, bits of chalk, and so forth) were models for Vodou ritual objects called pake
Kongo. Pake are common on Vodou altars. These pake are manufactured in the process
of Vodou initiation and are associated with cleansing and healing powers. The most
common type of Vodou pake starts from a bundle of herbs and other materials pounded
and flattened into a thick disk. The herbal mass is then enveloped in brightly colored
cloth. Ribbons in contrasting colors bind the pake into a tight bundle. These same ribbons
also bind the excess cloth at the top of the pake, thus creating an extended “neck.” The
neck rises straight up from the herbal base and is decorated with feathers, horns, and
sometimes a crucifix. All of these objects further specify the spirits to whom the pake are
dedicated, and therefore the person who has that lwa as a central spirit. Pake, like many
Kongo minkisi, can be strikingly anthropomorphic. For example, some have “arms”
sprouting from the ribbon-bound neck that make the pake look like a woman with her
arms akimbo. Vodou pake Kongo also share with Kongo minkisi a tendency to blur the
distinction between the sacerdote (priest) and the source of his or her power.
Fon bocio (a term translated as “empowered cadaver”) are strong, expressive wooden
figures manufactured through related traditions of tying and binding. Applying
psychological theory to these figures, Suzanne Blier argues that they function to