Mama Lola Book Review

One of the most famous Louisianians of all time is Marie Laveau, a voodoo practitioner with an interesting background who was considered “The Queen of New Orleans” (“Marie Catherine Laveau: Voodoo Queen of New Orleans (September 10, 1801 - June 15, 1881)”). She was the most well known practitioner of Louisiana or New Orleans voodoo, which was developed by the slaves brought to the south to work on plantations (“Voodoo in New Orleans”). Additionally, it was based on the Creole language and a strong belief in Catholicism, which greatly influenced Laveau during her lifetime. Even after death, Laveau has left a lasting legacy in New Orleans, which has inspired others and even led to the creation of a museum dedicated in her honor.

Voodoo is a religion also known as Vodou or Voudon. In modern day society, the word ‘Voodoo’ usually brings others to the thought of dolls with pins stuck in them to cause pain on one’s enemies and the resurrection of the dead as zombies. In addition, black magic, animal sacrifices, and circles of worshipers dancing to the beat of a drum are just a few of the many other misconceptions about the practice of Voodoo. According to anthropologist Wade Davis, however, “Voodoo is not some kind of dark mystical force, it is simply a legitimate religion” (Handwerk, 2002). Though Voodoo began in West Africa, it is practiced in various forms worldwide. As the religion of Voodoo spread, it encountered a difficult transition. In spite of this hardship,

In the biography, Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn, written by Karen McCarthy Brown introduces Mama Lola, or Alourdes, a Voudou priestess whom she met while working on an ethnographic survey (1). The book discusses the dynamics of Haitian Vodou and its importance in the lives of its practitioners. Voudouists serve the spirits and one particular group of spirits; the Ezili is a family of many spirits but three specific spirits that are examined. These three spirits: Lasyrenn, Ezili Dantó, and Ezili Freda act as parallels for Haitian women, like Mama Lola.

This article focuses on Voodooism, which is a “religion” practiced in Haiti since the beginning of its creation. In this article, the author claims that despite the misconceptions that many have about the practice of voodoo, Haitians don’t consider it as their religion, but more something that they serve and use to meet their religious needs. While most of them consider themselves Catholics, Haitians serve the lwa, which are African spirits that are honored for their powerfulness. Practiced since the beginning of the Haitian Revolution in 1791, Voodoo helped Haitian descendants survived slavery,

Besides the suspicious deaths, distorted truths, and muddled visions, Eve’s Bayou also inhibits discreet references to voodoo. African Holocaust writes that: “Music and dance are key elements to Voodoo ceremonies. Ceremonies were often termed by whites "Night Dancing" or "Voodoo Dancing". This dancing is not simply a prelude to sexual frenzy, as it has often been portrayed. The dance is an expression of spirituality, of connection with divinity and the spirit world” ("Vodun: African Spiritual Religious Systems”).

More importantly to The Farming of Bones, water has a dual nature in Voodoo, the religion which most Haitians practice (Bell 65). Spirits can be summoned through any type of natural water in Voodoo (Houlberg par. 3). These waters spirits come in comforting and harmful varieties, and some can possess both attributes (Houlberg par. 4). For example, the Voodoo goddess Lasiren can bring “riches and romance,” but she can also “lure mortals to a watery death” (Houlberg par. 10). Amabelle’s father possibly salutes Lasiren, calling out to “the spirit of the rivers” before entering the river that claims his life (Danticat, Farming 50). Amabelle also dreams about her mother rising above the river’s current “like the spirit of the rivers” to comfort her (Danticat, Farming 207). In these ways, the “spirit of the river” is portrayed as both a harmful deity requiring praise and a beautiful goddess offering comfort.

By the 1830’s, Marie Laveau’s combination of psychic powers, curative skills, intimidation and business intelligence empowered her to undertake leadership of the Voodoo subculture (Long, 2011). Laveau was introduced to Voodoo by numerous voodoo practitioners that accentuated healing and magic. Her practices began when she teamed up with Doctor John, one of the first commercial Voodoo practitioners to create and sell magic potions (Nickell, 2002). While earning a living as a hairdresser, Laveau established a clientele offering magic potions, voodoo dolls and other items to bring them luck, cure illnesses, help them gain their desired lovers and to get revenge on their enemies (New Orleans Voodoo’s African Origins, 1996-2016). Marie Laveau died in 1881 and her tomb became a focal point for voodoo tours.

Jonas Guran Anel’s upbringing was rather different than those of many sleepers. Born to a coven of voodooists in rural Haiti in 1964, Jonas was never truly asleep, more than he was confused. Jonas had always been a witness to the esoteric rituals of his ancestors carried out by contemporary African voodooists. He had seen rather gruesome things such as human and animal sacrifices that made strange impressions on the physical realm, “smudging” ceremonies that produced amorphous screams, and so on. He even recanted seeing someone drop like a sack of rocks at the utterance an incantation. What’d he make of all of this? He wasn’t sure, and for twenty years of his life, he truly didn’t know. He had always been led to believe by his coven elders that it was the work of the Ldo, (which are the ancestral spirits that are worshipped in Haitian voodoo) everything else was reserved to the highest level of of the tribe before one could hear of it. Should one hear of this sacrosanct information prematurely, their earlobes would be decapitated and sacrificed to Ldo to prevent any retribution from making it’s way upon the tribe. The tribes believed that such information was granted directly by the spirits, and if misused or exposed at an inappropriate time, would invoke their wrath upon everyone. All of this and more is fascinating, but the question is, who is Jonas Anel? How did all of this effect him and how does it continue to affect him?

Voodoo religion is originally a West African religion which was brought to Haiti by slaves. Slaves where working for White plantation owners together suffering hardships and tribulations. Most of these Slaves where taken from tribes who had similar beliefs of Deities, morals and methods of worship (Dancing, drumming and rituals). They would use their religion as a way of mentally resisting against their white owners. The plantation owners did not like the rituals and dancing, forbid it and sealed the deal by having their slaves baptised and superimposed with catholic beliefs. Slaves began to adopt these beliefs and intertwined them with their own and worshipping their religion as well in a secretive way. This formed the true Voodoo religion that we see today that combines catholicism and african tribal worship. Voodoo comes from the word ‘Vodu’ witch came from the fon language of dahomey which was made from what we now know as Togo, Benin and Nigeria. It meant ‘Spirit’ which is definitely correlated with Voodoo as spirits are the core of the practice. The Voodoo practitioners allow Catholicism to expand their religion executing many of their Saints, Relics and Prayers in tribal rituals.

It has been almost 6 months now that my girlfriend and I came back from a trip to New Orleans. This is a town rich in history, amazing food, the locals were some of the friendliest people and the music of the city truly seemed to act as a heartbeat that gave the city life. However, something that truly caught my eye, were all the voodoo shops. One of their oldest cemeteries is home to the tomb of the “Voodoo Queen” Marie Laveau. Unfortunately when we went, they weren’t giving tours. When most in modern society most hear the word Voodoo; they probably think about what they’ve seen on movies… witch doctors, dolls that are used to curse Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom or evil possession of people’s bodies through spirits. However, that really isn’t the case, for a religion that a lot of people really don’t know a lot about, the religion of Voodoo or Vodun. “The name was derived from the god Vodun of the West African Yoruba people who lived in 18th and 19th century Dahomey.” The African people were shipped as slaves to Haiti and other islands. Slaves practiced this religion but were also forced by the masters who owned them to practice Christianity. Which if you fast-forward to modern times, you will see that most adults in Haiti and some cities in the Southern States of North America not only still practice Voodoo but are also Roman Catholic.

     The Voodoo religion is one of the most, if not the most misconceived religions of our time. Often when Voodoo is mentioned, it is related to evil, black magic, devious sorcery, cannibalism, and harm. Although the Voodoo religion appears to the outsider as an illusion or falsehood, it has been an instrumental political force because it has helped the Haitians resist domination and form an identity of their own. Since the end of the 17th century, Haitian Voodoo has overcome every challenge it has been faced with and has endured. The religion is based on a polytheistic belief system and represents a significant portion of Haiti’s 8.3 million people. The engaging religion plays an important role in both the family

In Edwidge Danticat’s article “We are Ugly, but We Are Here”, she describes the injustices of how women are treated in Haiti. She uses her grandmother, Haiti’s former queen, and examples of other women as reasons as to how and why she realizes the seriousness and realness of the topic. Women are treated as if they were nothing. Their souls cry out. Danticat’s argument is that even though women are treated the way that they are, they will not back down. A know saying is “We are ugly, but we are here,” (Danticat). Even though women have died, they will never be forgotten because of the strength they displayed while suffering.

Voodoo is a religion rich in heritage and founded in faith and community. The religion has been villainized by western culture and has been wrongly portrayed as malignant and dangerous. The religion is not founded in any of the (known) "black magics" or fear popularized by Hollywood films, but rather it is based on balance and tradition. The religion is not something that should be encountered with inhibition or fear induced from childhood horror stories, but embraced for its strength and history.

Unlike the first reading, I found this to be a much more accurate and enlightening recount of Voodoo as it is stated in the paper “in many ways, the study of witchcraft is really the study of the whole of a culture.” What made this piece a better read was the real life depiction of witchcraft in Benin and a relatively unbiased approach, where the first two works by Forbes and St. John were littered with racist overtones and over exaggeration. The background information about how àzě and bǒ were different was fascinating, especially in relation to social structures and gender roles. However, the thing that I found to be the most intriguing were the descriptions of bǒ recipes. I was surprised how simple and logical these recipes were, in a non-conventional

“My Mother, the Crazy African” is a story about a Nigerian girl named Ralindu, and her struggles to assimilate in America. She moves to Philadelphia and lives there for three years. Her mother has a hard time getting used to America, and this causes a growing rift between her and her daughter. This rift, and how they each subsequently deal, is the main conflict in this story. Ralindu wishes to be more like the typical American; she prefers more American food, has an American nickname Lin, has a more Caucasian group of friends, and refuses to speak her native language of Igbo (Adichie, 53-69). This is a common trend among children who immigrate to the U.S.