Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post provides information about Haitian vodoun loa (lwa)* Erzulie Dantor (Ezili Danto).
This post also provides information about Haitian Vodou as well as information about the important Haitian city Gonaives.
In addition, this post showcases two videos of "Jenndantors Des Gonaives" along with selected comments from these videos' discussion threads.
* From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loa
" "Loa (also spelled lwa) are the spirits of Haitian Vodou and Louisiana Voodoo.[1]:229 They are also referred to as "mystères" and "the invisibles" and are intermediaries between Bondye (from French Bon Dieu, meaning "good God")—the Supreme Creator, who is distant from the world—and humanity. Unlike saints or angels, however, they are not simply prayed to, they are served. They are each distinct beings with their own personal likes and dislikes, distinct sacred rhythms, songs, dances, ritual symbols, and special modes of service. Contrary to popular belief, the loa are not deities in and of themselves; they are intermediaries for, and dependent on, a distant Bondye.[1]"...
****
The content of this post is presented for cultural, religious, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to JENNDANTOR DES GONAIVES, the publisher of the two YouTube videos that are embedded in this post.Special thanks to yiehom for sharing information with me about the meaning of the videos' title "Jenndantors Des Gonaives".
****
INFORMATION ABOUT HAITIAN VODOU
From https://www.britannica.com/topic/Vodou
"Vodou, also spelled Voodoo, Voudou, Vodun, or French Vaudou, a religion practiced in Haiti. Vodou is a creolized religion forged by descendents of Dahomean, Kongo, Yoruba, and other African ethnic groups who had been enslaved and brought to colonial Saint-Domingue (as Haiti was known then) and Christianized by Roman Catholic missionaries in the 16th and 17th centuries. The word Vodou means “spirit” or “deity” in the Fon language of the African kingdom of Dahomey (now Benin).
Vodou, a traditional Afro-Haitian religion, is a worldview encompassing philosophy, medicine, justice, and religion. Its fundamental principle is that everything is spirit. Humans are spirits who inhabit the visible world. The unseen world is populated by lwa (spirits), mystè (mysteries), anvizib (the invisibles), zanj (angels), and the spirits of ancestors and the recently deceased. All these spirits are believed to live in a mythic land called Ginen, a cosmic “Africa.” The God of the Christian Bible is understood to be the creator of both the universe and the spirits; the spirits were made by God to help him govern humanity and the natural world.
The primary goal and activity of Vodou is to sevi lwa (“serve the spirits”)—to offer prayers and perform various devotional rites directed at God and particular spirits in return for health, protection, and favour. Spirit possession plays an important role in Afro-Haitian religion, as it does in many other world religions. During religious rites, believers sometimes enter a trancelike state in which the devotee may eat and drink, perform stylized dances, give supernaturally inspired advice to people, or perform medical cures or special physical feats; these acts exhibit the incarnate presence of the lwa within the entranced devotee. Vodou ritual activity (e.g., prayer, song, dance, and gesture) is aimed at refining and restoring balance and energy in relationships between people and between people and the spirits of the unseen world."...
****
INFORMATION ABOUT ERZULIE DANTOR (EZILI DANTO)
(These excerpts are given in no particular order.)
Excerpt #1
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezili_Dantor
"Ezilí Dantor or Erzulie Dantó is the main loa or senior spirit of the Petro family in Haitian Vodou.
Worship
Tuesdays are the days reserved to worship Ezili Dantor, practice which is normally done in solitary by the worshipper in front of an altar identified by the colours blue, green and red. Its most recurrent sacrifices consist in samples of créme de cacáo, jewels, specially golden rings and Agua de Florida. For its birthday a wild pig is normally the main sacrifice.
Ezili Dantor and the Haitian Revolution
Black Madonna of Częstochowa.
It is accounted that the slave revolt of 1791, started with a pact which followed a big feast in honour to Ezili Dantor. For this reason it is considered the national lwa. Considered to be the lwa of vengeance and rage, made it to be popular among single mothers during the 1980`s and 1990`s in Haiti and Dominican Republic.
The syncretic modern representation of this lwa is commonly associated to the Black Madonna of Częstochowa,[1][2] the patron saint of Poland. The original association of Ezili Dantor with this catholic icon is hypothesised to be from copies of the icon brought to Haiti by Polish soldiers sent by order of Napoleon Bonaparte, to subdue the then still ongoing Haitian Revolution. It is accounted that the Polish legion decreased significantly in numbers in contrast with the insurrected slaves, forcing the remaining captive soldiers to switch band to the side of the slaves. As a consequence of this action, during Jean-Jacques Dessalines's massacre, which took place short after the Haitian victory in 1804; the Poles where left alive and granted citizenship for the newly founded Republic of Haiti. The descendents of these soldiers are still living in the island, specifically in the locality of Cazale.[3]"....
****
Excerpt #2:
From http://www.ezilikonnen.com/lwa-voodoo-spirits/ezili-danto/
"Ezili Danto
Mambo Ezili Danto (aka Erzulie Dantor)
erzulie-dantor-lwa- voodoo spirit ezili danto vodou
Mama Mambo Ezili Danto – Haitian Vodou Petro Lwa: Ezili Dantor (pronounced eh-zee-lee Dahn-tor) is by far one of the most popular female Petro Lwa. She can be a tough lady, a little wild, but before all she is a mother. She is the most perfect mother one could wish to have.Dantor is a mother who watches and cares for her children very much. She can be a disciplinarian, as she does not and will not tolerate children behaving badly. She will defend her children and family until the very end. Dantor will also help a person for very little sacrifice on their part.
Dantor is served with the Image of Mater Salvatoris, sometimes also known as Santa Barbara Africana, which is the image you see on the top left hand corner of this page. She is also associated with other Madonnas who hold a child such as Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Our Lady of Czestochowa. Other images include Our Lady of Lourdes and Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
Danto is also considered a protector of children. As naturally as a mother would protect her own, Mama Danto will always go to extremes to ensure the safety of her children. She will stop everything she is in the process of doing in order to go to her child’s aid. She will always be featured with her child in any image.
[...]
Dantor is also associated with heavy rains that destroy things in its path.Dantor is sometimes referred to as Ezili Zye Wouj or Ezili Red Eyes. The fact is that this is a separate spirit, yet she walks so closely with Dantor that some consider it to be Dantor extremely mad. Ezili Zye Wouj does talk yet can be difficult to understand. The eyes of someone possessed by this spirit will usually become extremely red in a matter of seconds. This is considered a very dangerous spirit.
Sometimes people confuse the many Ezilis together. Dantor is a spirit that is separate from the others. Dantor has many sister spirits that walk with her, like most Lwa. Some of these are known as Ezili Ke Nwe or Ezili of the Black Heart, who spits black liquid when riding someone’s head. Ezili Mapyang, Balyan, and Mambo Zila are a few others.
There is a long time rivalry between Ezili Dantor and Ezili Freda. They are sisters and just cannot stand each other. Like many sisters in real life, there is powerful jealousy between them. As the story goes, Dantor and Freda were both courting a particular Ogou Lwa. Over this man they fought and never reconciled. During this battle, Dantor took her dagger, which she always carries with her, and stabbed Freda in the heart. One can see evidence of this in Freda’s saint image. A gold dagger is seen coming out from her heart. Freda, in turn, removed the dagger and cut Dantor’s face, scarring her. Thus you will see scars on the Santa Barbara Africana image. Although there are only two marks, these marks are often called “twa mak” or three marks. Facial scarring of exactly that variety can point to Dantor’s African roots, where such facial scarring is common."...
****
INFORMATION ABOUT OSUN (OSHUN) (SAID TO BE A TRADITIONAL AFRICAN SOURCE FOR ERZULIE DANTOR)
From http://www.thaliatook.com/AMGG/oshun.php
"Oshun is the Yorùbá Orisha (Deity) of the sweet or fresh waters (as opposed to the salt waters of Yemaya). She is widely loved, as She is known for healing the sick and bringing fertility and prosperity, and She especially watches over the poor and brings them what they need. As Orisha of love, Oshun is represented as a beautiful, charming and coquettish young woman. In some tales She is said to be a mermaid, with a fish's tail.
The Yorùbá clans inhabit parts of western central Africa, in present-day Nigeria. Oshun is the Goddess of the river of the same name, and She is especially worshipped in river-towns. During Her yearly festival, She is said to choose one or more women dancers to descend into (much like participants in Vodou ceremonies may be "mounted" or "possessed" by a Lwa). These women then take new names in honor of Oshun and are thereafter consulted as healers.
Oshun was taught divination with cowrie shells by Obatala, the first of the created Orishas, and then She brought the teaching to humans. She was at one time the wife of Shango, the Orisha of storms, as was Oya, the Orisha of the winds and tempests. Oshun is also said to be the mother of the birds or fishes.
With the African diaspora, Oshun was brought to the Americas, and adopted into the pantheons that branched out of the African traditions. In the Brazilian religion of Candomblé, which retains close ties with the Yorùbá religion, as well as in Cuban Santeriá, She is called Oxum. In Haitian Vodou She is an inspiration for Erzulie or Ezili, also a Deity of water and love."
-snip-
Italics added to highlight this sentence.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT THE HAITIAN CITY OF GONAIVES
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gona%C3%AFves
"Gonaïves (Haitian Creole: Gonayiv) is a commune in northern Haiti, and the capital of the Artibonite department of Haiti. It has a population of about 300,000 people (2011 census). The city of Gonaïves was founded in 1422 by Indians who named it Gonaibo (to designate a locality of cacicat of the Jaragua). It is also known as Haiti's "independence city". The Bay of Gonaïves is named after the town.
In 1802 an important battle of the Haitian Revolution, the Battle of Ravine-à-Couleuvres was fought near Gonaïves.
Gonaïves is also known as Haiti's City of Independence because it was there that Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared Haiti, the former Saint-Domingue, independent from France on January 1, 1804, by reading the Act of Independence, drafted by Boisrond Tonnerre, on the Place d'Armes of the town. Marie-Claire Heureuse Félicité, the wife of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, died here in August 1858."...
-snip-
Also, read my question and the response given after Video #1 below.
****
SHOWCASE VIDEOS:
Video #1: JENNDANTOTOR DES GONAIVES
JENNDANTOR DES GONAIVES, Published on Apr 29, 2018
-snip-
Here's the comment that I wrote in the beginning of September 2018 about this video:
"With all due respect, would someone please share what Jenndantor des Gonaives means? I looked up the meaning of Gonaives and found out that it is a Haitian city. that is known as Haitian's independence city. Is it also a sacred place in Haitian vodou?
However, I couldn't find any English meaning for Jenndantor or jenn dantor.
I'm African American and I love the singing and dancing but I'd love to know more about these Jendantor des Gonaives videos that I happened upon when I was looking for Haitian music and dance videos.
Thank you.
One love."
-snip-
Here's a reply from yiehom that was posted on September 21, 2018:
"You got the first part right by yourself. Now check for Erzuli Dantor (ezili danto), she is our queen mother who has been copied as mary by the christians, along with many concepts they now claim to be authors of. Jenn=jeune=young"
****
Video #2: JENNDANTOR DES GONAIVES
JENNDANTOR DES GONAIVES, Published on May 26, 2018
Giving a new outlook on music and religion in the Haitian community.
-snip-
Selected comments from this video's discussion thread (with numbers given for referencing purposes only). Google translations from Haitian Creole to English are also given. Please improve this comment's translation. Thanks!
1. Lavila Joseph, 2018
"Chak dimanch ,chak Mardi pa Chita lakay nu vinn Nan vodou bigot Kay bonapat neg lafrik ginen sa we laa pa anyen se Lew Al gade wap we pibyen felicitation medam yon gwo kout ayibobo pandan map gade video a la m santim ap vibre kotem kouche a"
-snip-
Google translate from Haitian Creole to English
"Every Sunday, every Mardi by Saddle home is coming In Voodoo Bigot Home Good luck guys that we have nothing to do is see Lew we pibyen felicitation women a great short ayibobo while map watch the video the cinema is vibrating"
-snip-
"Mardi"= French word for "Tuesday"
**
2.Harold Daniel, 2018
"Haitian voodoo spirits powerful the best"
**
3. Kechelet Germain, 2018
"ayibobo pou ginen an"
-snip-
Google translation from Haitian Creole to English:
Ayibobo for the Ginen
-snip-
Here's information about the Haitian Creole word "Ayibobo":
From https://www.facebook.com/Imhaitian/posts/did-you-know-using-the-word-ayibobo-as-it-is-more-commonly-used-among-vodou-prac/669468669769519/
I am Haitian. July 2, 2014 ·
"Did you know using the word Ayibobo as it is more commonly used among Vodou practitioners. Therefore "Amen" and Hallejujah or "Alelouya", in its creole spelling, are used by mainstream Christians and "Ayibobo" are for those that practice Vodou."
**
From https://www.erzulies.com/haitian-voodoo-glossary-of-terms/
"Ayibobo- ritual word of Ewe origin meaning “amen” "
-snip-
*Ewe- West African ethnic group from (Ghana; Ivory Coast)
-snip-
Here's a quote about "Ginen" from the britannica.com article excerpted above:
"All these spirits are believed to live in a mythic land called Ginen, a cosmic “Africa.” The God of the Christian Bible is understood to be the creator of both the universe and the spirits"...
**
4. Colo Junie, 2018
"Ayibobo jenn dantor👏👏👏👏👏"
**
5. Jean Abrege, 2018
"Se group kem remen anpil sim pat tro lwen se group sa ki pou ta vinn jwe pou mwn jou dans mwn 28 jwen"
-snip-
Google translation from Haitian Creole to English:
"This is a very good group so far is the group that would be able to play for my dance day 28 weeks"
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Showing posts with label Vodou. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vodou. Show all posts
Sunday, September 23, 2018
Sunday, March 20, 2016
The Creole Choir of Cuba & La Caridad de Ramón (two Haitian Cuban Choirs: information, videos, & comments)
Edited by Azizi Powell
This post presents information about Haitian Cubans and showcases one video each of two Haitian Cuban choirs: Creole Choir of Cuba and La Caridad de Ramón. Selected comments from these videos' discussion threads are also included in this post.
The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to these featured choirs for their for musical legacy. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT HAITIAN CUBANS
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_Cuban
A Haitian Cuban (Spanish: Haitiano-Cubano, French: Haïtien Cubain, Haitian Creole: Ayisyen Kiben) is a Cuban citizen of full or partial Haitian ancestry.
Origins
French, Haitian Creole and culture first entered Cuba with the arrival of Haitian immigrants at the start of the 19th century. Haiti was a French colony, and the final years of the 1791-1804 Haitian Revolution brought a wave of French settlers fleeing with their Haitian slaves to Cuba. They came mainly to the east, and especially Guantanamo, where the French later introduced sugar cultivation, constructed sugar refineries and developed coffee plantations.
By 1804, some 30,000 French were living in Baracoa and Maisí, the furthest eastern municipalities of the province.
Haitian immigrant workers (1912-1939)
Due to the United States occupation of Haiti, many Haitian peasants left to find work as laborers in neighboring countries like Cuba. These immigrants lived a fine line trying to maintain their Haitian culture and assimilating enough to be able to work and live in a foreign society. In 1937, over 25,000 Haitians were forcibly removed from Cuba and shipped back to Haiti.[2] This different treatment of migrant laborers is due to several factors. Cuban racists beliefs combined with economic concerns were a direct catalyst for this drastic Haitian exodus.[3]...
Recent years
Later, Haitians continued to come to Cuba to work as braceros (hand workers, from the Spanish word brazo, meaning "arm") in the fields cutting cane. Their living and working conditions were not much better than slavery. Although they planned to return to Haiti, most stayed on in Cuba. For years, many Haitians and their descendants in Cuba did not identify themselves as such or speak Creole. In the eastern part of the island, many Haitians continued to suffer discrimination. But according to the Fidel Castro regime, since 1959, when he took over, this discrimination has stopped.[10] After Spanish, Haitian Creole is the second most-spoken language in Cuba where over 300,000 Haitian immigrants speak it. It is recognized as a language in Cuba and a considerable number of Cubans speak it fluently. Most of these speakers have never been to Haiti and do not possess Haitian ancestry, but merely learned it in their communities. In addition to the eastern provinces, there are also communities in Ciego de Ávila and Camagüey provinces where the population still maintains Creole, their mother tongue. Classes in Creole are offered in Guantanamo, Matanzas and the City of Havana. There is a Creole-language radio program.[11]"...
****
INFORMATION ABOUT CREOLE CHOIR OF CUBA
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creole_Choir_of_Cuba
The Creole Choir of Cuba is a Cuban musical group...
The choir was founded in 1994 during the 'Special Period' when the Cuban economy fell into a black hole following the end of the USSR and of Soviet support for the revolution. Food was short while homes and work places often went dark due to lack of electricity. It was at this difficult time that members of the Professional Choir of Camagüey who were descendants of Haitians, decided to re-forge the resistance songs and laments of their forebears. Led by their Choir Director Emilia Díaz Chávez, Grupo Vocal Desandann, as they are called in Cuba, revived the songs of their ancestors for modern times. Desandann literally means 'descendants' and as the choir say: "For us music is like food, it feeds the spirit and is a major inspiration for everyday life".
Songs are sung in creole, Cuba's second language, first created by slaves by fusing words together words from their African languages, the Taíno language of Caribbean indigenous people, with French, Spanish and English. Creole was spoken by the choir's parents, grandparents and great grandparents, people doubly displaced, first from Africa then from Haiti. The first wave of Haitians were brought to Cuba as slaves to work in the sugar plantations of the French aristocracy who fled Haiti after the slave revolts of the 1790s. Subsequent waves of Haitians came to the island during 19th and early 20th century, and again in the 1950s during the brutal dictatorship of Papa Doc Duvalier. All lived in the countryside in conditions akin to slavery enduring harsh discrimination until the 1959 Revolution brought with it literacy, education and equality...
The Choir have two albums, Tande-La (2011) and Santiman (2013).
****
FEATURED VIDEOS
These videos are presented in chronological order based on their publishing date on YouTube with the oldest dated video given first.
Example #1: Creole Choir of Cuba - Tande (music video)
The Creole Choir of Cuba, Uploaded on May 6, 2010
-snip-
Here's information from the video summary of another performance of this song by The Creole Choir of Cuba:
"The Creole Choir of Cuba are called 'Desandann' in their home country which means 'descendants' and with the songs on their forthcoming album 'Tande-La' (a title which translates as 'listen') they tell the stories of their Haitian ancestors who were brought to Cuba to work in near slave conditions on the sugar and coffee plantations.
This live performance of the title track from their album 'Tande-La' was recorded at the 2009 Edinburgh International Festival." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkzPD4_sau0.
-snip-
Here's a comment from the embedded video's discussion thread:
Lesprilib1, 2012
"The original version of this song is from a Haitian vodou-rock band called "Boukan Ginen". "Tande" means "LIsten". The song is about the search for spiritual enlightenment. "Limyè a se sa nou vle, se sa menm nou mande = the light is what we want, this is what we request"."
-snip-
Here's a link to a sound file of Boukan Ginen's recording of Tande (Limyè a) = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHIYgIVjXgQ
-snip-
Click https://dreamsofginen.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/whats-in-a-name/ April 26, 2012, "What’s in a name?" for information about the meaning of the Haitian Creole word "Ginen". Here's an excerpt from that post:
..."Within Haiti, the term “Vodou” was not, until the twentieth century, commonly used to describe the religion as a whole, but only a particular rite and its related dances and drum rhythms...
Haitian Vodou does have an internal name, Sèvis Ginen (Service to Ginen), corresponding to the closest thing one will find in Vodou to an affirmation of faith, the often employed phrase, “Mwen sèvi Ginen” (“I serve Ginen”). The word Ginen (alternately called Gine, nan Ginen, peyi Ginen, Lafrik Ginen, etc.) can be literally translated as “Africa.” The word owes obvious debt to the French word Guinée—the name for the region, the so-called Guinea Coast, from which numerous Africans were deported to St. Domingue (present-day Haiti) as slaves during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. However, in the context of Vodou cosmology, the Africa of Ginen is different from the continent presently identified by that name, for which a different Kreyòl word, Afrik or Lafrik, is used. Rather, Ginen is the home of the spirits, a forested island residing simultaneously at the bottom of the cosmic waters (anba dlo) and at the backs of mirrors (do miwa). As a living and accessible mythic past of ancestors, heroes and divine spirits, Ginen serves as a vouchsafe for matters of religious practices and belief.
To say that one serves Ginen it to say that one serves the ancestors and spirits that are perceived to come from, and continue to exist in, Ginen. This mythical present-past is a source of limitless spiritual power, in large part because it is seen as the true source of authentic, which is to say right, religious practice—of konesans (spiritual wisdom) and règleman (ritual knowledge). At the same time that Ginen is a past and an eternal present, Ginen is also a sacred future, a place which is longed for, and which one hopes to see someday. All Vodouisants hope eventually to become holy spirits that can dwell in the utopian world of Ginen. For these reasons, Ginen is in some respects comparable to the Christian idea of heaven, the New Jerusalem of the Revelation of St. John, Augustine’s City of God, Aztlan of the Aztecs, and the Dreaming of Aboriginal Australians"...
****
Example #2: Haiti in Cuba - La Caridad de Ramón
Bartolomesincasas, Published on Jul 28, 2012
"La Caridad" is the folklore ensemble of a group of people of Haitian descendance living in a village called Ramón. It is located in a zone of coffee cultivation within the municipality of Palma Soriana. The hamlet lies above the banks of the Cauto river, which flows from the Sierra Maestre in the eastern part of Cuba. Like the groups "Gagá de Thompsón" and "Gagá de Barranca", "La Caridad" is a "grupo portador" - a safekeeper of Haitian popular traditions in the Cuban context.
The group was founded by the late Tomacito Poll in 1983, and several family members still belong to La Caridad (His son Pochólo -Victor- started another roots-band called "Ibó"). All these bands have links to the Casa del Caribe in Santiago de Cuba. Fundación Interchange and Revista Batey are making an effort to uncover the history of Haitian inmigration and processes of cultural transformation in Cuba. The idea is to publish a book with dvd next year.
-snip-
Selected comments from this video's discussion thread:
2013
kmokedoyo
"Thats haitian creole, for sure :) they are cubans and their ancestors are from haiti, those ladies who were singing and dancing, their father was and Haitian houngan who came from Jacmel Hati. they may have spanish accent when they speak, but believe thats haitian creole, just and old one :)"
**
Guy Edouard
"these people are Cuban born with Haitian Ascentry....meaning years ago when Haiti became independent it became a save zone for any runaway slave in the Western Hemisphere ....so that culture is from Haiti and they are speaking Haitian Creole but with a Spanish accent cuz they were born in Cuba not Haiti but they still posses haitian blood. So for you people not familiar making idiotic comments stop it."
**
Reply
Charles Davis
"Exactly!!! I afro-cuban and I totally understand, consorte!! :)"
**
Angie Marie
"My husband said it's real kreyol they are speaking and the song says: rele yo pou mwen (calling something to come) voodoo music.. soon as he heard the music he said that lol"
**
2014
Stanley Dougé
"that's not the same creole as we who stayed in Haiti speaks it's probably overtaken by the spanish interesting the french became second place in the creole it's beautiful bondye beni nou my beautiful compatriots"
**
Richardo Marco
"Jesus Raydel Sanchez yo soy haitiano que habla Creole ! y yo entiendo casi todo de lo que estan cantando , el idioma se ha alterado un poco pero todavia se entiende ! viva Haiti viva CUba !"
[translation from Google translate: "Jesus Sanchez Raydel I'm Haitian Creole speaking! and I understand most of what they are singing, the language has changed a bit but still means! Haiti viva viva Cuba!"
**
2016
Nickalous Harris
"Would love to learn more about my the history of my Hatian ancestors. Also would love to travel to Haiti too. There is so many black people in North America who don't even know who they're descendants of. It's SAD. NO KNOWLEDGE. Especially when you have been robbed of it"
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This post presents information about Haitian Cubans and showcases one video each of two Haitian Cuban choirs: Creole Choir of Cuba and La Caridad de Ramón. Selected comments from these videos' discussion threads are also included in this post.
The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to these featured choirs for their for musical legacy. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT HAITIAN CUBANS
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_Cuban
A Haitian Cuban (Spanish: Haitiano-Cubano, French: Haïtien Cubain, Haitian Creole: Ayisyen Kiben) is a Cuban citizen of full or partial Haitian ancestry.
Origins
French, Haitian Creole and culture first entered Cuba with the arrival of Haitian immigrants at the start of the 19th century. Haiti was a French colony, and the final years of the 1791-1804 Haitian Revolution brought a wave of French settlers fleeing with their Haitian slaves to Cuba. They came mainly to the east, and especially Guantanamo, where the French later introduced sugar cultivation, constructed sugar refineries and developed coffee plantations.
By 1804, some 30,000 French were living in Baracoa and Maisí, the furthest eastern municipalities of the province.
Haitian immigrant workers (1912-1939)
Due to the United States occupation of Haiti, many Haitian peasants left to find work as laborers in neighboring countries like Cuba. These immigrants lived a fine line trying to maintain their Haitian culture and assimilating enough to be able to work and live in a foreign society. In 1937, over 25,000 Haitians were forcibly removed from Cuba and shipped back to Haiti.[2] This different treatment of migrant laborers is due to several factors. Cuban racists beliefs combined with economic concerns were a direct catalyst for this drastic Haitian exodus.[3]...
Recent years
Later, Haitians continued to come to Cuba to work as braceros (hand workers, from the Spanish word brazo, meaning "arm") in the fields cutting cane. Their living and working conditions were not much better than slavery. Although they planned to return to Haiti, most stayed on in Cuba. For years, many Haitians and their descendants in Cuba did not identify themselves as such or speak Creole. In the eastern part of the island, many Haitians continued to suffer discrimination. But according to the Fidel Castro regime, since 1959, when he took over, this discrimination has stopped.[10] After Spanish, Haitian Creole is the second most-spoken language in Cuba where over 300,000 Haitian immigrants speak it. It is recognized as a language in Cuba and a considerable number of Cubans speak it fluently. Most of these speakers have never been to Haiti and do not possess Haitian ancestry, but merely learned it in their communities. In addition to the eastern provinces, there are also communities in Ciego de Ávila and Camagüey provinces where the population still maintains Creole, their mother tongue. Classes in Creole are offered in Guantanamo, Matanzas and the City of Havana. There is a Creole-language radio program.[11]"...
****
INFORMATION ABOUT CREOLE CHOIR OF CUBA
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creole_Choir_of_Cuba
The Creole Choir of Cuba is a Cuban musical group...
The choir was founded in 1994 during the 'Special Period' when the Cuban economy fell into a black hole following the end of the USSR and of Soviet support for the revolution. Food was short while homes and work places often went dark due to lack of electricity. It was at this difficult time that members of the Professional Choir of Camagüey who were descendants of Haitians, decided to re-forge the resistance songs and laments of their forebears. Led by their Choir Director Emilia Díaz Chávez, Grupo Vocal Desandann, as they are called in Cuba, revived the songs of their ancestors for modern times. Desandann literally means 'descendants' and as the choir say: "For us music is like food, it feeds the spirit and is a major inspiration for everyday life".
Songs are sung in creole, Cuba's second language, first created by slaves by fusing words together words from their African languages, the Taíno language of Caribbean indigenous people, with French, Spanish and English. Creole was spoken by the choir's parents, grandparents and great grandparents, people doubly displaced, first from Africa then from Haiti. The first wave of Haitians were brought to Cuba as slaves to work in the sugar plantations of the French aristocracy who fled Haiti after the slave revolts of the 1790s. Subsequent waves of Haitians came to the island during 19th and early 20th century, and again in the 1950s during the brutal dictatorship of Papa Doc Duvalier. All lived in the countryside in conditions akin to slavery enduring harsh discrimination until the 1959 Revolution brought with it literacy, education and equality...
The Choir have two albums, Tande-La (2011) and Santiman (2013).
****
FEATURED VIDEOS
These videos are presented in chronological order based on their publishing date on YouTube with the oldest dated video given first.
Example #1: Creole Choir of Cuba - Tande (music video)
The Creole Choir of Cuba, Uploaded on May 6, 2010
-snip-
Here's information from the video summary of another performance of this song by The Creole Choir of Cuba:
"The Creole Choir of Cuba are called 'Desandann' in their home country which means 'descendants' and with the songs on their forthcoming album 'Tande-La' (a title which translates as 'listen') they tell the stories of their Haitian ancestors who were brought to Cuba to work in near slave conditions on the sugar and coffee plantations.
This live performance of the title track from their album 'Tande-La' was recorded at the 2009 Edinburgh International Festival." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkzPD4_sau0.
-snip-
Here's a comment from the embedded video's discussion thread:
Lesprilib1, 2012
"The original version of this song is from a Haitian vodou-rock band called "Boukan Ginen". "Tande" means "LIsten". The song is about the search for spiritual enlightenment. "Limyè a se sa nou vle, se sa menm nou mande = the light is what we want, this is what we request"."
-snip-
Here's a link to a sound file of Boukan Ginen's recording of Tande (Limyè a) = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHIYgIVjXgQ
-snip-
Click https://dreamsofginen.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/whats-in-a-name/ April 26, 2012, "What’s in a name?" for information about the meaning of the Haitian Creole word "Ginen". Here's an excerpt from that post:
..."Within Haiti, the term “Vodou” was not, until the twentieth century, commonly used to describe the religion as a whole, but only a particular rite and its related dances and drum rhythms...
Haitian Vodou does have an internal name, Sèvis Ginen (Service to Ginen), corresponding to the closest thing one will find in Vodou to an affirmation of faith, the often employed phrase, “Mwen sèvi Ginen” (“I serve Ginen”). The word Ginen (alternately called Gine, nan Ginen, peyi Ginen, Lafrik Ginen, etc.) can be literally translated as “Africa.” The word owes obvious debt to the French word Guinée—the name for the region, the so-called Guinea Coast, from which numerous Africans were deported to St. Domingue (present-day Haiti) as slaves during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. However, in the context of Vodou cosmology, the Africa of Ginen is different from the continent presently identified by that name, for which a different Kreyòl word, Afrik or Lafrik, is used. Rather, Ginen is the home of the spirits, a forested island residing simultaneously at the bottom of the cosmic waters (anba dlo) and at the backs of mirrors (do miwa). As a living and accessible mythic past of ancestors, heroes and divine spirits, Ginen serves as a vouchsafe for matters of religious practices and belief.
To say that one serves Ginen it to say that one serves the ancestors and spirits that are perceived to come from, and continue to exist in, Ginen. This mythical present-past is a source of limitless spiritual power, in large part because it is seen as the true source of authentic, which is to say right, religious practice—of konesans (spiritual wisdom) and règleman (ritual knowledge). At the same time that Ginen is a past and an eternal present, Ginen is also a sacred future, a place which is longed for, and which one hopes to see someday. All Vodouisants hope eventually to become holy spirits that can dwell in the utopian world of Ginen. For these reasons, Ginen is in some respects comparable to the Christian idea of heaven, the New Jerusalem of the Revelation of St. John, Augustine’s City of God, Aztlan of the Aztecs, and the Dreaming of Aboriginal Australians"...
****
Example #2: Haiti in Cuba - La Caridad de Ramón
Bartolomesincasas, Published on Jul 28, 2012
"La Caridad" is the folklore ensemble of a group of people of Haitian descendance living in a village called Ramón. It is located in a zone of coffee cultivation within the municipality of Palma Soriana. The hamlet lies above the banks of the Cauto river, which flows from the Sierra Maestre in the eastern part of Cuba. Like the groups "Gagá de Thompsón" and "Gagá de Barranca", "La Caridad" is a "grupo portador" - a safekeeper of Haitian popular traditions in the Cuban context.
The group was founded by the late Tomacito Poll in 1983, and several family members still belong to La Caridad (His son Pochólo -Victor- started another roots-band called "Ibó"). All these bands have links to the Casa del Caribe in Santiago de Cuba. Fundación Interchange and Revista Batey are making an effort to uncover the history of Haitian inmigration and processes of cultural transformation in Cuba. The idea is to publish a book with dvd next year.
-snip-
Selected comments from this video's discussion thread:
2013
kmokedoyo
"Thats haitian creole, for sure :) they are cubans and their ancestors are from haiti, those ladies who were singing and dancing, their father was and Haitian houngan who came from Jacmel Hati. they may have spanish accent when they speak, but believe thats haitian creole, just and old one :)"
**
Guy Edouard
"these people are Cuban born with Haitian Ascentry....meaning years ago when Haiti became independent it became a save zone for any runaway slave in the Western Hemisphere ....so that culture is from Haiti and they are speaking Haitian Creole but with a Spanish accent cuz they were born in Cuba not Haiti but they still posses haitian blood. So for you people not familiar making idiotic comments stop it."
**
Reply
Charles Davis
"Exactly!!! I afro-cuban and I totally understand, consorte!! :)"
**
Angie Marie
"My husband said it's real kreyol they are speaking and the song says: rele yo pou mwen (calling something to come) voodoo music.. soon as he heard the music he said that lol"
**
2014
Stanley Dougé
"that's not the same creole as we who stayed in Haiti speaks it's probably overtaken by the spanish interesting the french became second place in the creole it's beautiful bondye beni nou my beautiful compatriots"
**
Richardo Marco
"Jesus Raydel Sanchez yo soy haitiano que habla Creole ! y yo entiendo casi todo de lo que estan cantando , el idioma se ha alterado un poco pero todavia se entiende ! viva Haiti viva CUba !"
[translation from Google translate: "Jesus Sanchez Raydel I'm Haitian Creole speaking! and I understand most of what they are singing, the language has changed a bit but still means! Haiti viva viva Cuba!"
**
2016
Nickalous Harris
"Would love to learn more about my the history of my Hatian ancestors. Also would love to travel to Haiti too. There is so many black people in North America who don't even know who they're descendants of. It's SAD. NO KNOWLEDGE. Especially when you have been robbed of it"
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
What is Yanvalou? (Part 1 of a three part series)
Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part I of a three part series of posts on Yanvalou. Part I provides selected quotes about the Yanvalou dance.
Part II features videos of Yanvalou dances. Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/01/yanvalou-dance-videos.html for Part II of this series.
Part III features songs and instrumental music about Yanvalou. Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/01/yanvalou-songs-and-musical.html for Part 3 of this series.
These posts are presented for their historical, folkloric, educational, and aesthetic values.
My thanks to those whose websites I have reposted and comments I have quoted.
****
PART 1
(The numbers assigned to these quotes have no ranking order or order of preference).
Quote #1 from http://www.haitiantreasures.com/HT_agoci.dance.htm
"Yanvalou:
A ritual dance originated in Benin*. It honors all the spirits of the rada nation. Yanvalou represents the undulation of the waves as they rise and fall and also the movement of spirit Dambalah, represented by a serpent. Dambalah is the source of energy and life. White is the color of the very pure rada spirits."
*Benin, West Africa was formerly known as Dahomey.
****
Quote #2 from
http://www.voodooshop.com/voodoo/glossary.html
"Yanvalou
A favorite Voudoun dance; the name means "supplication." The dance is characterized by the hands being placed on knees or thighs, and has several main variations: Yanvalou debut (upright), Yanvalou dos bas (crouching), Yanvalou z'epaules (a "shoulder dance"), etc."
****
Quote #3 from http://surrealdocuments.blogspot.com/2008/03/alfred-mtraux-voodoo-in-haiti-pt-3.html
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Alfred Métraux - Voodoo In Haiti (pt. 3)
...in "Le Vaudou Haitien" (published in 1958, before "Les Larmes d'Éros"), Métraux would debunk the presentation of Voodoo as a Dionysian cult:
"Too often people imagine that a crowd exalted by mystic enthusiasm is the usual setting for Voodoo possession. In fact those who attend ceremonies as spectators only cast an occasional absent-minded glance at the goings-on. They gossip on the edges of the peristyle, smoke cigarettes, or nibble at tablettes (pralines). At no time is the crowd subject to a collective delirium, or even to a degree of excitement propitious to ecstasy. The traditional dances of Voodoo - yanvalou, doba, Dahomey, petro - all carried out with great seriousness, a subtle sense of rhythm and admirable suppleness - are far from being Dionysian. Only at certain ceremonial moments does the degree of excitement reach enthusiasm"."
****
Question #4 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1083/is_n8_v68/ai_15651880/
Dance Magazine / August, 1994
"Haiti dances to a different drummer: a country in turmoil turns to ancient folk religion, with rich results for dance - includes article on dancer Katherine Dunham's continuing dance and political activities by Elizabeth Barad
...[Katherine] Dunham has incorporated the inspirational ritual dance steps used in voudon ceremonies into her technique and choreography. One of the movements that Dunham says she uses is the yanvalou, the dance "sacrifice" performed to invoke the spirits. "It involves all of the body, and it produces a state of ecstasy in a ceremony," Dunham said.
The first time I saw this step was at a twenty-four-hour ceremony of the Three Kings, held annually in January. I entered a large, open, concrete structure in the slums of Port-au-Prince, crowded with initiates, drummers, and a congregation of some fifty people. The initiates--dressed in white, heads wrapped in white kerchiefs--were moving like white waves: Their knees were bent, their hands on their knees, their backs constantly undulating, and their shoulders rhythmically rising and rolling away from their bodies. They moved to the beat of the drums, which started slowly and burst into a feverish pitch.
Nobody, not even the most skeptical, could resist the energy of the movements and the beat of the drums. After first checking that it wasn't disrespectful, I tried to imitate the yanvalou with the priest who officiated at the ceremony. Our bodies were so low to the ground that we were constantly squatting while swaying our backs and quickly moving our feet. My untrained quadriceps should have hurt, but I felt no pain as I danced on and on. It made me wonder whether it might not be a divine force that gave me such extraordinary stamina.
The yanvalou, the dance to the spirits, can go on from sundown to dawn. It did, in fact, in a three-day ceremony I attended in a small mud peristyle (part of a temple) off a dirt road outside the capital. As the congregation crowded into the teeming, thatched-roof temple, the drums pounded over and over, more and more intensely. Suddenly there was a break in the music. A man in front of me fell backward in a jerking motion, trampling on my foot.
The drums continued in a syncopated rhythm, and the man spun around the peristyle out of control. Then all the congregants were silent and the man stood still, eyes glazed. This was a sign that the loa (spirit) had arrived and possessed his body…
Max Beauvoir explained possession in the voudon faith. "By dancing as well as you can," he said, "you give God a present and therefore receive a fragment of God, one of the loas." The spirits are physical representations of particular godlike principles--power, love, death--and each spirit has a distinctive dance."
****
Quote #5 from http://www.margueritelaurent.com/writings/muchlikehere.html
"This dance is called Yanvalou. It begins each of the Haitian Vodun ceremonies....
Yanvalou.
i've been having a conversation with the ancestors. Grann fèk ap di m, i’m her fragile soul. She's always on the periphery. Sending me information. This Yanvalou movement brings Danbala Wèdo. My spine undulates slowly, rising like out of some cosmic sea, arching towards Dessaline's sunlight...
When the European got to West Africa and saw our 15th century West African ancestors worshiping what they thought was a snake, they actually thought we were worshiping that. What our 15th century African ancestor was really talking about, because Haitians think in parables, is the breath. The Yanvalou movement, it exemplifies the undulations of the Great Serpent. The Great Serpent, it's your breath. What gives life.
You see, all the undulations starting from the base of the spine moving up - it's like the Hindu Kundalini. The Great Danbala serpent is our lifeforce, a metaphor of our source of movement, energy and life. It's not a Victorian body-fearing or nature-fearing metaphor and it's not even a sexist metaphor. Danbala, He's always entwined with Ayida Wèdo, his female aspect. Male/female together always. There's no dichotomist dualism in the serpentine path."
****
ADDITIONAL QUOTE ADDED March 13, 2015
Quote #6 from "Haitian Vodou Ritual Dance And Its Secularization" by Henry Frank in Caribbean Dance from Abakua To Zouk: How Movement Shapes Identity edited by Susanna Sloat (University Press of Florid, 2002), pp 109-111
“Vodou is a “danced religion,” to paraphrase Alfred Metraux (1959), the wll –known French anthroplologist. Most of the deities of the Vodou pantheon have their specific dances along with specific rhythm of the drums and songs by which they are attracted during a ceremony. The dance, ordinarily, takes place in the peristyle of the hounfor(Vodou temple). The peristyle is the front oart of the temple where public ceremonies are held...
Some of the most common ritual dances
...
The Yanvalou is a dance of supplication in honor of Agwe, the deity of the sea and Damballah, the snake god of fertility. In the excecution of this dance the worshippers try to mime the undulating movments of a snake and the waves of the sea by moving gracefully, forward and back, their shoulders and the upper parts of their body. The participants are often dressed in white during ceremonies honoring Agwe and Damballah. There are two types of Yanvalou: Yanvalou Doba (back bending) where the dancers bend forward and the Yanvalou Debout (straight) where the dancers perform upright. The latter is in honor of all the deities of the Rada rite."
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This is Part I of a three part series of posts on Yanvalou. Part I provides selected quotes about the Yanvalou dance.
Part II features videos of Yanvalou dances. Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/01/yanvalou-dance-videos.html for Part II of this series.
Part III features songs and instrumental music about Yanvalou. Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/01/yanvalou-songs-and-musical.html for Part 3 of this series.
These posts are presented for their historical, folkloric, educational, and aesthetic values.
My thanks to those whose websites I have reposted and comments I have quoted.
****
PART 1
(The numbers assigned to these quotes have no ranking order or order of preference).
Quote #1 from http://www.haitiantreasures.com/HT_agoci.dance.htm
"Yanvalou:
A ritual dance originated in Benin*. It honors all the spirits of the rada nation. Yanvalou represents the undulation of the waves as they rise and fall and also the movement of spirit Dambalah, represented by a serpent. Dambalah is the source of energy and life. White is the color of the very pure rada spirits."
*Benin, West Africa was formerly known as Dahomey.
****
Quote #2 from
http://www.voodooshop.com/voodoo/glossary.html
"Yanvalou
A favorite Voudoun dance; the name means "supplication." The dance is characterized by the hands being placed on knees or thighs, and has several main variations: Yanvalou debut (upright), Yanvalou dos bas (crouching), Yanvalou z'epaules (a "shoulder dance"), etc."
****
Quote #3 from http://surrealdocuments.blogspot.com/2008/03/alfred-mtraux-voodoo-in-haiti-pt-3.html
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Alfred Métraux - Voodoo In Haiti (pt. 3)
...in "Le Vaudou Haitien" (published in 1958, before "Les Larmes d'Éros"), Métraux would debunk the presentation of Voodoo as a Dionysian cult:
"Too often people imagine that a crowd exalted by mystic enthusiasm is the usual setting for Voodoo possession. In fact those who attend ceremonies as spectators only cast an occasional absent-minded glance at the goings-on. They gossip on the edges of the peristyle, smoke cigarettes, or nibble at tablettes (pralines). At no time is the crowd subject to a collective delirium, or even to a degree of excitement propitious to ecstasy. The traditional dances of Voodoo - yanvalou, doba, Dahomey, petro - all carried out with great seriousness, a subtle sense of rhythm and admirable suppleness - are far from being Dionysian. Only at certain ceremonial moments does the degree of excitement reach enthusiasm"."
****
Question #4 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1083/is_n8_v68/ai_15651880/
Dance Magazine / August, 1994
"Haiti dances to a different drummer: a country in turmoil turns to ancient folk religion, with rich results for dance - includes article on dancer Katherine Dunham's continuing dance and political activities by Elizabeth Barad
...[Katherine] Dunham has incorporated the inspirational ritual dance steps used in voudon ceremonies into her technique and choreography. One of the movements that Dunham says she uses is the yanvalou, the dance "sacrifice" performed to invoke the spirits. "It involves all of the body, and it produces a state of ecstasy in a ceremony," Dunham said.
The first time I saw this step was at a twenty-four-hour ceremony of the Three Kings, held annually in January. I entered a large, open, concrete structure in the slums of Port-au-Prince, crowded with initiates, drummers, and a congregation of some fifty people. The initiates--dressed in white, heads wrapped in white kerchiefs--were moving like white waves: Their knees were bent, their hands on their knees, their backs constantly undulating, and their shoulders rhythmically rising and rolling away from their bodies. They moved to the beat of the drums, which started slowly and burst into a feverish pitch.
Nobody, not even the most skeptical, could resist the energy of the movements and the beat of the drums. After first checking that it wasn't disrespectful, I tried to imitate the yanvalou with the priest who officiated at the ceremony. Our bodies were so low to the ground that we were constantly squatting while swaying our backs and quickly moving our feet. My untrained quadriceps should have hurt, but I felt no pain as I danced on and on. It made me wonder whether it might not be a divine force that gave me such extraordinary stamina.
The yanvalou, the dance to the spirits, can go on from sundown to dawn. It did, in fact, in a three-day ceremony I attended in a small mud peristyle (part of a temple) off a dirt road outside the capital. As the congregation crowded into the teeming, thatched-roof temple, the drums pounded over and over, more and more intensely. Suddenly there was a break in the music. A man in front of me fell backward in a jerking motion, trampling on my foot.
The drums continued in a syncopated rhythm, and the man spun around the peristyle out of control. Then all the congregants were silent and the man stood still, eyes glazed. This was a sign that the loa (spirit) had arrived and possessed his body…
Max Beauvoir explained possession in the voudon faith. "By dancing as well as you can," he said, "you give God a present and therefore receive a fragment of God, one of the loas." The spirits are physical representations of particular godlike principles--power, love, death--and each spirit has a distinctive dance."
****
Quote #5 from http://www.margueritelaurent.com/writings/muchlikehere.html
"This dance is called Yanvalou. It begins each of the Haitian Vodun ceremonies....
Yanvalou.
i've been having a conversation with the ancestors. Grann fèk ap di m, i’m her fragile soul. She's always on the periphery. Sending me information. This Yanvalou movement brings Danbala Wèdo. My spine undulates slowly, rising like out of some cosmic sea, arching towards Dessaline's sunlight...
When the European got to West Africa and saw our 15th century West African ancestors worshiping what they thought was a snake, they actually thought we were worshiping that. What our 15th century African ancestor was really talking about, because Haitians think in parables, is the breath. The Yanvalou movement, it exemplifies the undulations of the Great Serpent. The Great Serpent, it's your breath. What gives life.
You see, all the undulations starting from the base of the spine moving up - it's like the Hindu Kundalini. The Great Danbala serpent is our lifeforce, a metaphor of our source of movement, energy and life. It's not a Victorian body-fearing or nature-fearing metaphor and it's not even a sexist metaphor. Danbala, He's always entwined with Ayida Wèdo, his female aspect. Male/female together always. There's no dichotomist dualism in the serpentine path."
****
ADDITIONAL QUOTE ADDED March 13, 2015
Quote #6 from "Haitian Vodou Ritual Dance And Its Secularization" by Henry Frank in Caribbean Dance from Abakua To Zouk: How Movement Shapes Identity edited by Susanna Sloat (University Press of Florid, 2002), pp 109-111
“Vodou is a “danced religion,” to paraphrase Alfred Metraux (1959), the wll –known French anthroplologist. Most of the deities of the Vodou pantheon have their specific dances along with specific rhythm of the drums and songs by which they are attracted during a ceremony. The dance, ordinarily, takes place in the peristyle of the hounfor(Vodou temple). The peristyle is the front oart of the temple where public ceremonies are held...
Some of the most common ritual dances
...
The Yanvalou is a dance of supplication in honor of Agwe, the deity of the sea and Damballah, the snake god of fertility. In the excecution of this dance the worshippers try to mime the undulating movments of a snake and the waves of the sea by moving gracefully, forward and back, their shoulders and the upper parts of their body. The participants are often dressed in white during ceremonies honoring Agwe and Damballah. There are two types of Yanvalou: Yanvalou Doba (back bending) where the dancers bend forward and the Yanvalou Debout (straight) where the dancers perform upright. The latter is in honor of all the deities of the Rada rite."
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)