Summary Paper
Voodoo is a representation of superstitious beliefs and practices such as sorcery and sacrificial rites. It is a common practice of the Negros and people from West Indies of an African origin. These beliefs were first elaborated in Haiti. However, it is an indication of achievements of the African descents from the western hemisphere.
In 1967, France took over part of the Caribbean highland where it was built and developed by the black’s slaves and later it ended as the richest France colonies leading to an increased need for more slave labor into the region. After the enormous importation of black slaves into the area, their proportion to that of the Europeans was so high such that there was an approximate of eleven slaves to one European. For example, it is clear that those people who populate Haiti nowadays come from Congo and Haiti. They are the descendants of the slaves who were ferried to this place from this part of the Africa. Voodoo religion was an African blended religion.
It has two parts, i.e. Rada from the Arada slaving designation people, and the Dohemey derived from Dohemeans, which is a holy city. The other cities linked to Dohemey include Allada, Pedro-lemba what is now known as Haiti. Rada and Pedro forms of religion both takes in features of an African influence, although, it is hard to trace their origin from one source. Therefore, it is clear that these two Voodoo aspects showed characteristics similar to the African culture (Jacobs, & Kaslow, 1991).
The Dohemey kingdom once lived in the kingdom of what is known as Benin. In the 1700, the French had established a slaving base that is paramount in the cost line of Oudiah. As a result, the high intensity slave trade activities in Dohemeans, Abomey emeged as a major power in the West Indies. Therefore, they were able to conquer many in the region because they had a good access to firearms that had flourished the coastline. The cultures of the conquered groups were close and assimilated to Dohemeans. The deities that belonged to Yoruba were under a different manifestation, and they were transformed to other forms of deities.
It is notable that with the emergence of these new faces of deities, Haiti was forced to set a stage for involvement with other religions such as Roman Catholics.In Haiti, there was a lot of influence that emerged from the Dohemeans culture especially on their arts. It was due to the fact they comprised of a deity that was of aliens living in a foreign land. Most of the weapons made shown a representation of a certain deity in the region. Such weapons include cutlasses, arrows, hoes, and hooks among others. In Abomey, the master smith was fashioned probably in the nineteenth century.
Dohemeans brass smith had an enlarged comprehension of a dread power of an iron God himself. On the other hand, visual representation of the saints in Haiti was viewed with considerable sympathy by the blacks as they had imagery of best-known truth about the white people. The Haitians had a transformation of the Catholic icons by checking on similar characteristics to the African morale. They also went ahead and restructured the Roman Catholic Church saints identity to that of their own religious language. For example, flags and sword in have been affected by the visual influences from the Catholics iconography on the aesthetic of the Afro- Haitian.
It is clear that in every voodoo art, a universe adjoin the other art. These arts include the saint’s paintings on the altar walls, embattled souls among thhe altar walls, Vodun swords, and flags among others. They all represent the coming of the deities, which is a clear response of the pillar at the middle of the altar the centre of the dancing court in the altar (Gilfond, 1976). The Kongo also had some influence on the Haitian art. This influence was highly related to the ancestors of the Kongo culture. For example, most of the rites in Haiti were named after the Kogo rites.
Another notable aspect is that the Kongo cardinal culture believes that there is a tall tree in the centre of the earth, which acts as a chief witness to boundaries.Voodoo altars are built in tiers that are raising impression of the beholder lies on the myriad, objects that are stained and crowded making them is in possession of a spiritual aliveness and activity. There are some features such as gathered bottles signifying unity between the Haitian Rada and Dohemeans altars, which is another unifying factor in Voodoo flags. These flags which appear in the beginning of their ceremonies and they present god and goddesses presence that is in possession of devotees. They also present sharing of power among or gender equality in the Vodun.
These flags also embody spirit. These flags have inscriptions signifying the powers of those that were made. The ground paintings in the Voodoo ritual ground floor are systematically rendered and incarnated. These paintings indicate the realm of God (Desmangles, 1992). Also, there is a presentation of a realm of the dead.
The figure of the human life lies under the recumbent of the eternal sheep. These paintings have a tree drawn standing at the centre, which is a clear indication of unity as it represents cultures and rites of the Kongo, Haitians, and Angola customs.
