Voodoo a branch of Christianity?

Now that I've focus my topic, I am starting to look at rituals with this question in my mind. Even when not specifically stated that something is a Christian influence, I tried to find similarities to Christianity. For example, in my book about Western African religion that is mostly a narrative about the rituals in Western Africa, I saw that many practices were similar, if not taken, from Christian practices. For example, when a child hits puberty, they are welcomed into the community as an adult. This reminded me not only of Christian religion, but of Jewish religion as well with bat and bar mitzvahs. In my church, at 5th grade you take your first communion and as an 8th grader you are confirmed (officially recognized as an adult member of the church). First community is about the beginning of puberty and conformation is hopefully when most of your middle school angst hormones are dying out. In voodoo religion, there are many ceremonies to welcome children into the community. For one, they are dressed in fine clothing and have wine poured on them (coincidence with the wine? I think not).

Another interesting fact I found was about marriage. After the bride and groom are married, the groom washed his bride's feet and carries her into their home. The first practice is similar to when Mary washed Jesus' feet the night of the Last Supper. The second is like the age old tradition of the groom carrying his bride into their honeymoon sweet.

Maybe I'm reaching and trying to make these connections work when they really are distant. But this is also made me wonder how different the core of religions are. The main events, birth, puberty, marriage and death have very similar traditions and practices in many culture. Maybe religion is really the same, yet we choose to change the specifics.

Differences in voodoo and Christianity in Western Africa and Haiti

While before this post I had read a lot about Haiti and voodoo there, I assumed that the incorporation of Christianity into the voodoo religion was similar. Oh how I was wrong. There are some very big differences between voodoo practices in Western/Northern Africa and Haiti. For one, Western and Northern African Christians tend to be more Protestant than Catholic. This has a huge impact on how they practice and view voodoo in their lives. It seems (I want to look into this more) that Africans have converted to these Protestant religions (Lutheran, Baptist, etc) almost completely with very little evidence of traditional voodoo practices still ingrained in their society like it is in Haiti. They do have a ngonga or medicine man who helps heal people of the community in traditional ways (calling spirits, spells etc.). However, I have not found yet the intricate system of deities worshiped religiously (lwa) like there is in Haiti. One idea of why Africans have close to fully adapted Christianity is because freed slaves that converted to Christianity in American converted Africans when they returned from America. Instead of oppressive missionaries that told them to convert, Africans had people of their own ancestry introduce them into this new religion. Also, many missionaries set up schools where children were taught the Christian way in classes and therefore, they passed down their learned faith to their children. I believe this area, why Northern and Western Africans seemed to adopt Christianity into their lives more strictly than Haitians will be an important part of my paper.

Buruma

The part of Buruma’s book that I would like to discuss is the issue of integration new immigrants into a very different society. The problem those new immigrants and the country face is how to find a new identity that encompasses everyone into society. Buruma summarizes this point on pg 240: "The issue is not the Holocaust, but the question of how to stop future Mohammed Bouyeris from becoming violent enemies of the country in which they grew up...[to] feel that this is their home too." Obviously, take the Netherlands and the new wave of Muslims that are moving into this society. How people in that country accept this new identity is the one of the most important parts of creating a new national identity. We must realize that no longer will our world be made up of homogenous culture, language or race. When natives start realizing that, we may be able to address this issue. Maybe what I'm about to prose is way to idealistic to actually work, but the discussion is there none the less. We first need to break down the racial lines that separate where people of different ethnicities live. In the Netherlands, immigrants lived in the Houge, a once middle class area that turned into bad real estate that immigrants now occupy. If the Netherlands and the United States as well, can find ways to bring immigrants into those typically "white" areas this would set off a series of events that would help people empathize with one another better. Once you get more diversity into neighborhoods, there will be more diversity within the schools and what a better way for people to know each other's cultures than having their kids play together at school. Even if you can't move those people into the neighborhood, governments need to sponsor more programs that will bring those kids from different areas who are different races into schools. For elementary and middle school, I attended Whitefish Bay Public Schools. Maybe not surprisingly, the vast majority of the school was white. I really believe that by bringing a different set of students to schools like these, kids can learn the importance of accepting other's ways of life. Hate, fear, and discrimination stems from ignorance. Not knowing why certain people dress the way they do, believe what they believe or act in ways different from our own. If we can educate our children to look at these differences as positives to be embraced, not feared, we are one step closer to accepting that new national identity. Our culture is changing and will change with the years to come in globalization. While we want to remember our history, like the Dutch soccer players dressing up at traditional Dutchmen, we also need to realize that our future self will not be funny men dressed in orange or in our case, Yankees in tights and powdered wigs. Our more homogenous past makes us who we are, but accepting other cultures into our own will make us who we will be.

Identity in Voodooism

Voodoo or Catholic? One might ask how these two seemingly different religions can be seen as one. Yet, many who practice voodoo consider themselves a devout Christian. "'To serve the loa (different spelling than lwa) you have to be a Catholic" :these words were spoken by a Haitian peasant. While many of his practices would seem barbaric and heretic, like possession, worshiping idols, practicing sacrifices, this man thinks of himself as a good Catholic. When African slaves were brought over to Haiti, the Caribbean Islands and the United States, they were taught to conform to a Western way of culture and life. This meant adopting language and customs along with religion. Missionaries went on expeditions to Africa to try and save these people from Satan (voodoo was thought as a demonic religion) and tried to make them forget their old ways and conform to the new. However, African slaves found away to incorporate their old religion with the new, for example the Catholic saints took on voodoo lwa characteristics and visa versa.

Today, however, voodoo followers still are baptized, married and confirmed in the Catholic church. For many, voodoo is a personal religion whereas Catholicism was associated with order, hierarchy and tradition. When a devout Catholic was asked if he was going to give up voodoo, he replied that he "would always be faithful to the Catholic church but nothing could make me give up the worship of the lwa that had protected my family." Voodooism is a religion of identity and remembering ones homeland.

Christmas with Voodoo?

Like in any religion, voodoo has holidays. While each priest has his or her special rituals, rites and special features to these celebratory days, the major events remain the same. And surprise, surprise, the most important holidays just happen to coincide with Christian holidays, more specifically, Catholic celebrations. The night of bains de chance, or luck baths follows Christmas. On January 6th, Epiphany, voodoo followers celebrate New Year's Day where families worship in the oufo, the voodoo temple. Lent is when groups from the oufo make rounds in the street and dance to a bamboo trumpet. The list goes on with other voodoo holidays the same day as patron saint's holidays in the Catholic church.

Furthermore, even the most foreign rituals of voodoo, like accepting the lwa, where the lwa posses a body, begins with Catholic rituals. After members of the oufo parade flags and scared objects through the streets, beating sacramental drums, the members recite long Catholic prayers and the litanies of the saints.

Finally, much like followers of Catholicism in Hispanic countries, on the Day of the Dead, voodoo followers make altars to remember those lost. These alters sometimes have skulls, clothing items, candles, offerings and so on. Although, here's the kicker, they always have a cross. Interestingly, the alters are always placed in places where magic and sorcery take place.

Voodoo picture book

Yes, I have a picture book of voodoo. Its is quite awesome. Not only because it has great pictures, but also because it is a fabulous source. Reading more about voodoo, I believe I will end up focusing how voodoo has incorporated western religions into their faith. But first, some of my favorite facts. Ancient African religions were the first to believe in zombies and werewolves. Therefore, I can blame them for starting the awful Twilight series. By anyways, zombies were thought to be (obviously) the dead coming back alive, usually summoned by a voodoo priest. They were forced to obey the sorcerer and he/she could send them to terrorize hated members of the community. Many times, families of the dead would sew the mouths of the deceased shut (they could only wake up if they answered to their name) or poison the bodies just to make sure they were actually dead.

Werewolves were thought to be animals possessed by wanga or supernatural forces. Again, the sorcerer would summon these spirits and make them posses a wolves who then would suck the blood of babies. People were sometimes damned to be a werewolf by attempting to buy evil spirits.

Now the useful stuff. Voodoo religions believe in lwa, or simply spirits. Each lwa is a different entity, some good, some bad. They are present in the human body and nature which shows that a supreme God is ubiquitous. The lwa has been connected to Catholic Saints because each represent a different aspect of life. There are even lwa that resemble the devil and in some parts of Haiti, a lwa is known as Lucifer. While many aspects of the Christian religion were forced upon Africans, even the Christian God, in the eyes of the voodoo religion, it has taken on many aspects of the African supreme being.

Haiti voodoo research

After changing my topic, I needed to start new research on voodoo. I found excellent sources at the UWM library, but unfortunately, I could not check them out because of "policy issues." While ProQuest has had few articles (surprisingly) one of them I believe will be a very good source. This article talks about a former biochemist from Cornell, Max Beauvoir who returned to his native Haiti where his grandfather told him he would be the next voodoo priest. These priests are known as the houngan and there is one houngan for every 1,000 habitants of Haiti. Compare that to the Roman Catholic priest count (1 to 60,000) or 600 doctors for the 6 million people who live in Haiti. The most interesting part of the article is that Beauvoir talks about trying to get traditional medicine to be taught at local universities. He believe the teaching of traditional medicine would help local doctors to treat both "sides" of the illness, the medical and spiritual. Also, he is advocating for leaf-doctors (doctors who practice traditional medicine to "be taught how to improve their skills. They do the work here and they will for a long time to come."

Ebola Virus

One of the more interesting articles I have read was one by a UN health worker about the outbreak of the Ebola Virus in Eastern Africa. I found this article especially useful because it talked about both the health issues and the politics of Uganda. It is interesting and sad how people reacted to this epidemic: "scared neighbors, sometimes even family members, refuse to let convalescent patients back into their homes, sometimes burning their belongings or their entire hut. Deep-rooted African customs regarding burial of the dead are disrupted." Also, many villagers don't understand why and how these diseases are spread and many times they turn to religion and superstition to try and cure their infected. Bausch also touches on the political issues that are just as infectious as the virus. Bausch writes "I remember seeing a luxurious three-storey house being built in a small town, an almost space-age structure intercalated among traditional mud huts. "That's the district officer's house", my companions explained. "He was appointed last month." A glaring example perhaps, but not uncommon." Not only do many of these politicians not help their citizens, but the money they used to build their luxurious houses come from money taken from donations that should have gone to hospitals. Bausch also remarks that many times viruses like Ebola is spread through violence. He found that many times that troops of child soldiers spread viruses most often because they are living in unsanitary, close quarters. In all, I found this article very helpful.

One sided Anaylisis

I realize that everyone is bias. It is almost impossible not to have an opinion on an issue, most certainly political issues. However, in the three articles we read for today, all three of the authors have failed to address the most important counter-arguments against or for the West.

The first two articles, "The Case Against the West" and "What have we Learned, If Anything?" are critiques of American and Western culture and false perceptions of the new world we will live in. Many points in these articles I do agree with. Americans must acknowledge that in the future, we may not be a superpower, and the economy is changing and we must retrain ourselves to be able. I agree that American and her leaders can be hypocritical, act solely in our interest, are naive in what war is really like and often blame problems like global warming on other countries. However, there are specifics points that the authors of these two articles fail to address.

With the issue of trade and the economy, I don’t think it is fair to say that the United States is stalling trade liberalization. In econ last semester, we learned that one of the central dogmas of economics is that trade benefits everyone which, even if the typical American is unaware of this principal, government leaders are and are not trying to stop international trade. Also, the two authors fail to discuss China’s flawed economy. While the yuan is extremely popular right now, the Chinese government has refused to let the exchange rate raise because they want to make sure the products can be competitive in international trade reasoning they should be allowed to do this because they are a developing country. Not only have the Chinese government refused to comply with demands to raise its currency, the low value of its currency also is a source for human rights’ violations. We already know that people in China are paid very low wages and even as their currency is rising, the workers are not able to reap the benefits of their popular good because of the Chinese government’s fixed exchange rate.

This brings me into my second problem with these articles. The whole section on human rights violations. Yes, torture is wrong and yes, the United States has practiced torture in prisons, but are you serious right now? Asian countries have incredible amounts of human rights violations that occur all over the country. China, Myanmar, and North Korea are only a few countries in Asia that limit freedom of speech, hold political prisoner and guarantee limited rights to their citizen. To ignore the torture that happens possibly every day in these countries and to come down on the U.S. for their torture policies is like pretending you don’t see the large elephant in the room.

Of course, there are many, many things wrong with America. We don’t live in a perfect country and we may never live in a superpower land ever again. But without a doubt, these two authors have missed some key points. Yes, Americans are ignorant of war, ethnocentric and proud but to be blind to these huge issues of economics and human rights violations is just wrong.