Official Vodou and Vodou Churches in Haiti

The Vodou conquest of the public sphere

Authors

• Markel Thylefors University of Gothenburg

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30676/jfas.v33i2.116435

Abstract

The last decades have seen some new trends within Haitian Vodou such as the first formal Vodou organizations of the eighties, the 2003 presidential decree officially recognizing Vodou as a religion, as well as attempts to ‘structure’, and ‘homogenize’ Vodou on a nationwide scale. This paper explores another, yet related, item among such transformations: namely, public discourse on, and aspirations to create, Vodou churches, marriages, baptisms, and funerals. In this article, such phenomena are foremost interpreted as attributes of the social status and legitimacy of ‘serious religion’ and as having less to do with purely spiritual, or religious, matters. The actual need for such additions—at least, in realized form—however, is less tangible among Vodou practitioners. Here it is suggested that this situation explains why so few Vodou churches are actually established, or marriages celebrated. It is also proposed that through the  mere act of entering the public sphere and making their claims heard, Vodou practitioners to a large extent have already rendered the Vodou religion legitimate.

 

Keywords: Haiti, Vodou, the official recognition of Haitian Vodou, marriages, baptisms and funerals.