Voodoo is often seen as a practice involving magic. In Haiti, Voodoo is a religion born out of the struggle of slaves. And today, it is used as a form of healing and protection. For many in the West, Voodoo invokes images of animal sacrifices, magical dolls and chanted spells. But Voodoo – as practiced[…]
A scholar went on a Voodoo pilgrimage in Haiti and learned how an oppressive slave past has shaped its religious present. By Guilberly LouissaintPhD Student in AnthropologyUniversity of California, Irvine Introduction In July, hundreds of pilgrims make their way to an isolated town in the northwest of Haiti, called Anse-à-Foleur or Ansafolè. The journey celebrates[…]
An entrepreneur, hunter, woodsman, scientist, and artist — John James Audubon, famous for his epic The Birds of America, is a figure intimately associated with a certain idea of what it means to be American. And like many of the country’s icons, he was also an immigrant. The author reflects on Audubon’s complex relationship to[…]
In 1811 a former slave named Henry Christophe anointed himself ‘First Monarch’ of the ‘New World.’ For 10 years, he ruled over a part of modern-day Haiti, becoming a global media sensation. By Dr. Marlene DautAssistant Professor of African DiasporaUniversity of Virginia Marvel’s blockbuster “Black Panther,” which recently became the first superhero drama to be[…]
By the late nineteenth century, no official copy could be found of the document that introduced Haiti on the world stage and announced a citizenry united as one people: Haytians. On the first of January, 1804, Haiti became the second independent nation in the Americas. The Haitian Declaration of Independence was the triumphant culmination of the[…]