Can someone please look over my essay please! THANKS! Ill take any suggestions/revisions?
As most people spend their Saturday afternoons, I meticulously flipped through every channel on the TV until I landed on a particularly interesting channel. One afternoon I flipped to something I had never seen before. In the scene, the women wore wrapped headpieces and the men beat drums. The colors they wore seemed to glisten and gleam in the sun, and the patterns weaved neatly. Several men and women dance in a pattern as village people surround them. Onlookers clap, cheer, and chant. As I continued to watch I became entranced with their feet stomping up and down with dust clouds following them like a veil. The women swung colorful cloths around like a Spanish bull fighter to the beat of the drums. I later found out this was a traditional dance for the Haitian religion voodoo. Haitian voodoo is a religion that holds memory of Africa and Haiti’s past, worshiping spirits, and practices they perform.
The religion of voodoo, or more commonly vodou, has a vast culture and history. First, voodoo began in African kingdoms. After colonizing Africa, Europe quickly began shipping slaves to various parts of the world; including Haiti. As the slaves came together “the tribal beliefs and customs of all these groups would combine to form a new religion, voudou” (Turlington 4). The slaves were treated very poorly because slave owners did not want a community to form. Against their wishes and due to the flexibility of African culture, “religion was the unifying force of all slaves” (Turlington 19). Because of the slave trade and adaptability of tribal religions, the vodoun religion became created. Next, in Haiti the vodoun religion is practiced and mixed along with Roman Catholicism. The Catholic religion forced slaves to become baptized. With this forced religion slaves used it as a “tool to use to conceal their true religious practices” (Will 49). Eventually every major spirit became identified as a Catholic saint (Will 49). Finally, the rebellion and revolution began the widespread coverage of vodou. The slaves now had a reason to revolt; to preserve their religion. Haiti then won independence in 1903, when the French were forced out (Turlington 33). Today, nearly everyone practices some sort of voodoo in Haiti. With a very rich history and the prevalence of the Haitian people, Haiti is now an independent country that freely practices voodoo.
Spirits play a large role in Haitian voodoo; Vodouisants strongly believe spirits control the whole universe. To begin with, voodoo belief acknowledges that one god exists. This creator may be referred as Bondye. Bondye does not have human feelings, and represents fate. “Bondye is too great to become directly involved in the lives of his creations” (Will 16). Because Bondye cannot connect with people, he does so through Lwa. The Lwa “are immortal spirits with supernatural powers” (Heinl 690). Therefore, although the Bondye remains the creator of the universe, Lwa communicate with humans and represent different matters. Next, the Lwa control all aspects of life, and are everywhere. The Lwa represent different symbols, and thousands of them exist. People such as the famous and infamous can become Lwa after they die, and “famous figures in Haitian history are also transformed into Lwa and honored by followers of vodou” (Hintz 49). Finally, Possession plays a large part of the voodoo lifestyle. The only way to completely communicate with a Lwa “is through possession […] the Lwa temporarily displaces the soul of a person and takes over that person’s body” (Hintz 58). Possession gives the Lwa a voice and a body to warn the person, tell the future, and more. Also, through possession the Lwa can do whatever they wish to. Through Bondye, Iwa, and possession; the vodoun religion provides many answers to its followers.
The practice of voodoo all together contains many parts that relates to Catholicism. First, just like in many other religions, voodoo also has a place of worship with a spiritual leader. An appointed priest or priestesses must “open a temple, officiate at rituals, and lead a vodou community” (Turlington 153). Priests and priestesses take on a large role in the community and normally play the leader role. The priest or priestesses occupies many jobs such as: community leader, therapist, healer, fortune-teller, and more (Turlington 155). Vodouisants try to preserve their history and practice like their ancestors “preserving the role of the religious leader as the lynchpin of the community” (Turlington 154). There is no real need for a priest or priestesses, but people feel they must be present during a possession to better understand the Lwa’s needs. Continuing, in vodou those who practice are often part of a temple lead by a priest or priestess. A community “consists of all the people who attend rituals in his/her [priest/priestesses] temple” (Turlington 156). The community takes care of each other, and works under the guidance of their religious leader. Lastly, as many know the rituals done for the voodoo religion are elaborate, and very different. Rituals enable followers to communicate directly with the immoral spirits (Aboudja 1). In a typical ceremony drummers play and the people dance passionately to beckon good spirits to possess them. If there is an animal sacrifice, the throat of the animal is cut and put in a bowl for future use. Symbols play an important roll in rituals. Although the reasons why rituals take place vary, most ceremonies honor a Lwa. The community plays a large role in the religion voodoo, and the leader (priest or priestess) conducts many rituals that commemorate many different occasions.
Haitian voodoo is a religion that holds memory of Africa and Haiti’s past, worshiping spirits, and practices they perform. Voodoo originated from Africa when slaves brought along tribal traditions. The religion was combined with many catholic traditions, and today many choose to follow both faiths. The revolution and Independence of Haiti marked the start of a new beginning for voodoo. Vodouisants believe that the creator, Bondye, cannot be reached directly but through Lwa’s. Their major beliefs are that every part of your life is controlled by Lwa’s. Continuing, Possession by a Lwa is highly praised and allows for a better personal connection with spirits. In a community, the priest or priestesses has the most power, and plays many roles in society. A community is a group of people that follow the same priest or priestess, and therefore the same beliefs. In voodoo rituals, the people often eat meals together, dance, sing and listen to the beat of drums. Even though the United States and other places see vodou as a type of witchcraft, once you learn the history of voodoo and understand all aspects can you then fully see the beauty of this culture.
Works Cited
Aboudja, Houngan. “Haitian Vodou.” Vodou Spirit. 01 June 2005 Heini, Robert Debs and Nancy. Written in Blood. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1978 Hintz, Martin. Haiti. New York: Children’s Press, 1998 Turlington, Shannon R. The complete Idiot’s guide to: Voodoo. New York: Marie Butler-Knight, 2002 Will, Emily Wade. Haiti. San Diego, California: Lucent Books, 2001
Line by line adjustments would be fabulous!!!!!
but if you don't have the time its fine.
thanks so much for the imput
March 24th, 2009 at 7:31 am
rebe in my humble opinion it requires more sexx sexx & sexxx
March 26th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Good job. B+.
March 27th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
I don’t think the voodoo practitioners know as much about it as you do. Very Impressive.
March 27th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Very nice, and informative.
One thing I caught was, “Because of the slave trade and adaptability of tribal religions, the vodoun religion became created” should be, “…the vodoun religion was created”
Also, is Voodoo supposed to be capitalized like Christianity or Islam?
March 31st, 2009 at 2:36 am
It is pretty good, but there are several technical problems with your essay. Some of your phrasing is awkward a little. I could send you line by line adjustments if you wish. But that will take some time.
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Okay, that took a while but I am done. You will need to enable IM or email for a little while so I can send you the revision document.
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Helen, you need to get back to me when you are ready to recceive the edits.
April 3rd, 2009 at 4:55 am
Your essay is well written. If you need an intro, just introduce different sorts of religions and then in the last few lines focus on the 21 divisions. Sort of an introduction Like” Take 21 divisiones for example, blah , blah, blah, Let me tell you more about this fascinating religion” start talking about the religion keep the intro short. I would play with your paragraphs and sort of let the end of one paragraph flow into the next. Play around with it and change a word or two. Hope this helps