Samedi: The Ghede Revisited

Haiti is rich with dark myths and voodoo legends, including many frightening tales of the evil Ghede.  This lord of the dead is a tall man who wears a long black coat, black top hat, and dark glasses.  He is considered a powerful devil who constantly seeks the ruin of souls.

Ghede stands at the eternal crossroads through which all souls must pass upon death.  He has the power to resurrect the dead and to animate zombies.  One of his most frightening attributes is his ability enternally to torment the souls of corpses stolen by sorcerers.  Haitians believe that only prayer and holy ritual can save them from the clutches of Ghede.  ~ from Encyclopedia of Hell by Miriam Van Scott

First of all: say what!?

Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, let’s break this down a little bit.  In Haitian Voudon and New Orleans voodoo the Ghede (they are generally imagined as a group, not as a single entity) are nothing more frightening than the spirits of the dead.  They are led by a smaller group – usually of three but sometimes as many as seven – of gentlemen known as the Barons.  Baron Samedi is the most familiar and the most often addressed.  His wife is one of the few female Ghede, the powerful Maman Brigitte.  In New Orleans, Baron Samedi is considered the patron lwa of the city and its surrounding bayous.  For an extended but by no means complete list of the well known Haitian Ghede, click here.

There is nothing of the devil or demon in Ghede lore.  In fact the Ghede – though they usually go uninvited – are some of the most welcome guests when spirit possession occurs at the oumphor.  Their hard drinking, sense of humor and honesty are a welcome diversion from the sometimes more difficult lessons brought from Ginen by the lwa.  In fact, the only participant who will have nothing to do with the Ghede is usually a spirit and not a human; the beautiful Erzulie Freda Dahomey cannot abide the Ghede, as they remind her of aging and corruption.  She will complain that they are “chameau”: stinky.

The idea of torment and torture of a soul after death is alien to Haitian Voudon.  In this world view, souls retreat to the underwater haven of Ginen where, if offerings are made to them and they are strong enough to help the living, they might even become lwa themselves.  I won’t even cross the line into corpse thieving or zombies as I have no direct experience with either.  Such things do occur, but it is not the Ghede who are called upon for help with those matters.

In the end, Van Scott’s two paragraphs seem at the very least a misunderstanding of Voudon and voodoo.  At its worst, the entry is a another blatant attempt to demonize the gods/spirits of a religion that does not conform to the Judeo-Christian-Muslim world view.  When I was studying anthropology in school – back in the ‘80s children – we were stringently and frequently reminded that ethnocentrism was the bane of any serious study of man and man’s beliefs.  Van Scott’s book bares a 1998 copyright.  Evidently not everyone got the message.

Header:  Baron Samedi via Deities & Demons (see the sidebar)

Samedi: Lady Screech Owl

One of the rarely spoken of lwa, Marinette is most probably a mystery even to those who know a thing or two about Voudon.  In her native Haiti she is not mentioned without the whisperer of her name crossing themselves, at least if they know what’s good for them.  Even devout Haitian Protestants, who claim no affinity for Voudon, will not speak of her.

Marinette is a lwa of the Petwo nachon, born and bred in Haiti with no ties to Africa or Europe.  She is a sorceress, sworn to “work with the left hand” until time ends or she herself is destroyed.  She is called up by the bokor (pronounce baw-kaw) who are priests and priestesses but who work only “black magick”.  They are the person a voudonist would consult to have an enemy killed, raise the dead for the purposes of necromancy, or bind someone in blind love.  Almost without fail, these kinds of workings involve summoning the gleefully malevolent Marinette.

Sometimes known as Marinette-Bwa-Chech, “of the dry arms”, she is imagined as a skeleton who is accompanied by her symbol, the screech owl.  She is thought to reside in wild places like swamps and forests where she will appear only at night.  Her devotees do not keep altars to her but go to such places to bury her offerings.  She in turn will come and dig them up, consuming them under cover of darkness so that she is not forced to share her bounty with any other lwa.  She is worshipped in these wild places where gasoline, salt and dust are thrown onto a bonfire in exchange for the skeletal lady’s help with malicious magicks.

Marinette is the particular protector of lougarou, a secret society of people who believe themselves to be shape shifting werewolves or, in the case of some women, vampires who suck the blood of children.   Special precautions are taken against people of this socyete including charms tucked into children’s bedding and the sprinkling of hoholi, sesame seeds, in coffins to prevent the dead body being dug up and misused for evil.

Like most lwa, Marinette is partnered with one who is thought to be similar to her, if a bit less cruel.  This is the much mythologized leader of the Haitian Revolution called Don Pedro.  He is known as the hougan who called up the original Petwo lwa to help the slaves fight for their freedom.  After his death, he himself became the lwa Ti Jean Petwo (Little John Petwo) and married Marinette.  He is the lwa of violent struggle against subjugation and is pictured as a dark skinned dwarf missing a foot.  Like his wife, Ti Jean will assist the bokor who serve him.

Though Ti Jean has been known to possess voudonists in ceremonies, Marinette rarely manifests in this way.  She is considered a lwa who is far too dangerous for the average worshipper.  The Lady of the Screech Owl is best known and then bypassed all together.  Voila un avertissement ~

Header: Riding the Dead by Jean Michel Basquiat