by Mambo Racine Sans Bout Sa Te La Daginen

One of the most persistent misconceptions about Haitian Vodou — outside Haiti and sometimes within diaspora communities — is that it is exclusively an African-descended religion, or that only people of African descent can legitimately practice it. This essay, posted in May 2005 to alt.religion.voodoo and several related newsgroups, addresses that misconception head-on.

Mambo Racine Sans Bout explains the multi-ethnic origins of Haitian Vodou: African ethnic groups of many nations, the pre-Christian traditions of the British Isles (brought to Haiti by Scottish and Irish deportees of the Stuart Wars), French colonial Catholicism, Spanish folkore, and the indigenous traditions of the Arawak, Taino, and Carib peoples. She traces specific lwa to their ethnic origins: Maman Brigitte, the lwa of death and cemeteries, is the Vodou manifestation of the Celtic goddess Brigid. The ancestral lwa in her own house includes Alfred, her German-American maternal grandfather, who drinks beer, eats sausage, and inveighs against war.

The essay is also a practical document. Mambo Racine had by 2005 personally initiated over one hundred people from many backgrounds. Her assessment of race and initiation is direct: what matters is adherence to the rules and respect for the tradition. Not race, but conduct, determines standing in a Vodou house.

Mambo Racine Sans Bout Sa Te La Daginen was an American-born mambo asogwe of Haitian Vodou, initiated in Haiti, where she ran a peristyle in Jacmel, Southern Department, and trained initiates from multiple countries for over two decades.

Haitian Vodou is a Creole religion, and by that I mean that it was born in the Western Hemisphere of multi-ethnic "parentage." Haitian Vodou includes the religious beliefs and spiritual entities of many African ethnic groups, the pre-Christian traditions of the British Isles, the French version of Roman Catholicism practiced in the colonial period, the folkloric beliefs of French and Spanish colonists, and the practices and entities of the First People of Haiti (Arawak, Taino, Carib...).

There are, predictably, lwa of all these different ethnic origins as well. Moreover, some lwa of African origin — for example Maitress Erzulie Freda Dahomey — are imaged as white people! Other lwa which are elemental in nature, such as La Sirene, the worldwide female sea entity, are imaged as black with long flowing hair. La Sirene's husband, Met Agwe, is a mulatto man with green eyes.

The lwa Maman Brigitte is the Vodou manifestation of the Celtic goddess Brigid, who came to Haiti with the Scottish and Irish deportees of the Stuart Wars. Vodou songs declare that she comes from "angleterre," which is literally England but really refers to all the countries of the British Isles. Now, in Haiti, the first woman buried in any cemetery is considered to be Brigitte — and it doesn't matter if she is black.

In my house, we have an ancestral lwa named Alfred — my maternal grandfather! He was a German-American who fought in World War I, and died later of the long-term effects of exposure to mustard gas. The Haitians in my house love him! When he comes he drinks beer and eats sausage, gives away even more beer than he drinks, and teaches house members how to do magic while inveighing against the evils of war.

Vodou practitioners are of as many ethnicities as the lwa! In Haiti, the majority of Vodouisants are black, but there are of course mulatto Vodouisants, and Vodouisants of Syrian or Palestinian descent (there is a considerable Middle Eastern community in Port-au-Prince). Haitian whites or nearly-whites tend to be at the extreme upper end of the socio-economic spectrum, and thus do not publicly attend dances with "the riff-raff," but they come to the peristyles privately.

Many non-Haitians have been initiated into Vodou. I alone have initiated over one hundred! Some have been white, some black, some Hispanic, one was Jewish, some Asian. I have also initiated about thirty black Haitians and one mulatto Haitian.

There are thousands of Vodouisants in the United States, even outside the Haitian-American communities of Boston, New York and Miami. Most of the Vodouisants in Louisiana, for instance, are white Americans.

I have not found that spiritual ability, the approval of the lwa, the occurrence of possession, or acceptable behavior in a Vodou society is in any way linked to race or ethnicity. Haitian initiates tend to give their initiators fewer headaches because they know what is expected of them — that's all — whereas American initiates do not always know or even care. For example, one group of American videographers initiated in another Jacmel house (not mine!) were given the kanzo more or less without their prior knowledge or consent — during a visit to a peristyle, the kanzo was performed over them, and they later complained loudly and publicly about it. Haitian initiates know better; they don't come to someone's peristyle for a visit unless they know the person well, or else they have come specifically to be initiated!

I have a lot of American initiates, and as I am also American, I have to be a bit more patient with them. But I am not shy about enforcing the rules. My initiate children tell me I am strict! I make sure they know the words to their prayers and their songs. I make sure they know the names of the lwa and their attributes. I make sure they know when and how to salute their elders. All these things are expected in a Haitian house, and I am very concerned that every detail is right.

No one has ever said to me, "Mambo Racine, you are a grimelle (a person who is mostly white), and you have no business in Vodou." But a few scammers have said to my clients, "Mambo Racine is white, she knows nothing, come to my house and pay me and I will do this and that for you" — and a few idiots have fallen for it and been parted with their money to no good effect, after which they came crying back to me!

Now, having said all that, I have had one or two white initiates who were flaming racists, and who, following their initiations, went on and on about "slaves on plantations" and made nasty remarks about black people, and about me because my significant other is a black Haitian man. These individuals went on to disrespect their house publicly, reveal initiatory secrets about which they swore never to speak, and so on, until they ended up losing their initiatory status — they are now no longer Houngans. They are not Houngans any more, not because they are white, but because they broke the rules, and the same fate would await any Haitian crazy enough to act the same way.

It's the rule, not the race, that counts.

Colophon

Written by Mambo Racine Sans Bout Sa Te La Daginen (Kathy Grey), a mambo asogwe of Haitian Vodou, founder of the Roots Without End Society, posted to alt.religion.voodoo, alt.religion.orisha, soc.culture.haiti, and alt.pagan in May 2005. Mambo Racine ran a peristyle in Jacmel, Haiti and trained initiates from multiple countries for over two decades.

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-ID: [email protected]

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