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Houngan
Oungan (also written as ''houngan'') is the term for a male priest in Haitian Vodou (a female priest is known as a (''mambo''). The term is derived from Gbe languages (Fon, Ewe, Adja, Phla, Gen, Maxi and Gun). The word hounnongan means chief priest. ‘'Hounnongan'' or ''oungans'' are also known as ''makandals''. Haitian Vodou is an African diasporic religion, which blends traditional Vodun from the Kingdom of Dahomey with Roman Catholicism. In similarity to their West African heritage, ''oungans'' are leaders within the community who run temples (''ounfò'') to respect and serve '' lwa'' (also written as ''loa'') alongside the Grand Maître (grandmaster or creator). ''Lwa'' are like spirits, encompassing a collection of Yoruba gods and Roman Catholic saints. ''Lwa'' manifest themselves in people during Vodou ceremonies through spirit possession. Each lwa has a distinct dance rhythm, song, sacrificial victuals, and clothing. ''Lwa'' choose ''oungans'' whilst they dream, wh ...
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Haitian Vodou
Haitian Vodou is an African diasporic religion that developed in Haiti between the 16th and 19th centuries. It arose through a process of syncretism between several traditional religions of West and Central Africa and Roman Catholicism. There is no central authority in control of the religion and much diversity exists among practitioners, who are known as Vodouists, Vodouisants, or Serviteurs. Vodou revolves around spirits known as '' lwa.'' Typically deriving their names and attributes from traditional West and Central African divinities, they are equated with Roman Catholic saints. The lwa divide up into different groups, the ''nanchon'' ("nations"), most notably the Rada and the Petwo. Various myths and stories are told about these lwa, which are regarded as subservient to a transcendent creator deity, Bondye. This theology has been labelled both monotheistic and polytheistic. An initiatory tradition, Vodouists usually meet to venerate the lwa in an ''ounfò'' (temple), run ...
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Dutty Boukman
Dutty Boukman (or Boukman Dutty; died 7 November 1791) was an early leader of the Haitian Revolution. Born in Senegambia (present-day Senegal and Gambia), he was enslaved to Jamaica. He eventually ended up in Haiti, where he became a leader of the Maroons and a vodou houngan (priest). According to some contemporary accounts, Boukman, alongside Cécile Fatiman, a Vodou mambo, presided over the religious ceremony at Bois Caïman, in August 1791, that served as the catalyst to the 1791 slave revolt which is usually considered the beginning of the Haitian Revolution. Boukman was a key leader of the slave revolt in the Le Cap‑Français region in the north of the colony. He was killed by the French planters and colonial troops on 7 November 1791, just a few months after the beginning of the uprising. The French then publicly displayed Boukman's head in an attempt to dispel the aura of invincibility that Boukman had cultivated. The fact that French authorities did this illu ...
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Saint-Domingue
Saint-Domingue () was a French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1804. The name derives from the Spanish main city in the island, Santo Domingo, which came to refer specifically to the Spanish-held Captaincy General of Santo Domingo, now the Dominican Republic. The borders between the two were fluid and changed over time until they were finally solidified in the Dominican War of Independence in 1844. The French had established themselves on the western portion of the islands of Hispaniola and Tortuga by 1659. In the Treaty of Ryswick of 1697, Spain formally recognized French control of Tortuga Island and the western third of the island of Hispaniola. In 1791, slaves and some Dominican Creoles took part in the Vodou ceremony Bois Caïman and planned the Haitian Revolution. The slave rebellion later allied with Republican French forces following the abolition of slavery in the colony in 1793, althoug ...
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Patrick Bellegarde-Smith
Patrick Bellegarde-Smith is a professor emeritus of Africology at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Bellegarde-Smith is an associate editor of the ''Journal of Haitian Studies'' and former president of the Haitian Studies Association and the Congress of Santa Barbara (KOSANBA), a scholarly association for the study of Vodou and other African-derived religions. Education He earned his PhD in international relations from American University and he holds degrees in comparative politics and histor Family Bellegarde-Smith is the grandson of the Haitian diplomat Dantès Bellegarde. Bellegarde-Smith is an houngan Oungan (also written as ''houngan'') is the term for a male priest in Haitian Vodou (a female priest is known as a (''mambo''). The term is derived from Gbe languages (Fon, Ewe, Adja, Phla, Gen, Maxi and Gun). The word hounnongan means chief ..., or Vodou priest. Books * ''In the Shadow of Powers: Dantès Bellegarde in Haitian Social Thought'' (1985) * ''Haiti ...
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Bokor
A bokor (male) ht, bòkò) or caplata (female) is a Vodou witch for hire who is said to serve the loa "with both hands", practicing for both good and evil. Their practice includes the creation of zombies and of 'ouangas', talismans that house spirits.Zombies
(from 'Encyclopedia of Death and Dying' website, with added references there. Accessed 2008-06-15.)
Report on Voodoo
, from ''Self-Ascription Without Qualia: A Case-Study'' () – Chalmers, David J.; Department of Philosophy,

Haiti
Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island which it shares with the Dominican Republic. To its south-west lies the small Navassa Island, which is claimed by Haiti but is disputed as a United States territory under federal administration."Haiti"
''Encyclopædia Britannica''.
Haiti is in size, the third largest country in the Caribbean by area, and has an estimated population of 11.4 million, making it the most populous country in the Caribb ...
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Mambo (Vodou)
A ''manbo'' (also written as ''mambo'') is a priestess (as opposed to a '' oungan'', a male priest) in the Haitian Vodou religion. Haitian Vodou's conceptions of priesthood stem from the religious traditions of enslaved people from Dahomey, in what is today Benin. For instance, the term ''manbo'' derives from the Fon word ''nanbo'' ("mother of magic"). Like their West African counterparts, Haitian ''manbos'' are female leaders in Vodou temples who perform healing work and guide others during complex rituals. This form of female leadership is prevalent in urban centers such as Port-au-Prince (the capital of Haiti). Typically, there is no hierarchy among ''manbos'' and ''oungans''. These priestesses and priests serve as the heads of autonomous religious groups and exert their authority over the devotees or spiritual servants in their ''hounfo'' (temples). ''Manbos'' and ''oungans'' are called into power via spirit possession or the revelations in a dream. They become qualified ...
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Paquet Congo
Paquet congo ( ht, Paket kongo) are Haitian spiritual objects made by vodou priests and priestesses (houngans and mambos) during ceremonies. Their name comes from the ancient Kongo Kingdom in Africa, where similar objects called nikisi wambi are found. Kongolese nkisi use different materials from the Haitian paquet, however. A paquet is a collection of magical ingredients - herbs, earth, vegetable matter - wrapped in fabric and decorated with feathers, ribbons and sequins. Paquet congo are said to have the power of “heating” or activating the loa. Hence the term pwen cho (hot point) sometimes used to refer to them. Paquet serve as power objects and are kept on vodou altars and used in healing ceremonies. They are also used as protective amulets in people’s homes, bringing health, wealth and happiness. Their efficacy supposedly depends on a technique of careful wrapping - seven or nine times – symbolic of an umbilical cord In placental mammals, the umbilical cor ...
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Divination
Divination (from Latin ''divinare'', 'to foresee, to foretell, to predict, to prophesy') is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Used in various forms throughout history, diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a querent should proceed by reading signs, events, or omens, or through alleged contact or interaction with a supernatural agency. Divination can be seen as a systematic method with which to organize what appears to be disjointed, random facets of existence such that they provide insight into a problem at hand. If a distinction is to be made between divination and fortune-telling, divination has a more formal or ritualistic element and often contains a more social character, usually in a religious context, as seen in traditional African medicine. Fortune-telling, on the other hand, is a more everyday practice for personal purposes. Particular divination methods vary by culture and reli ...
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Imams
Imam (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, serve as community leaders, and provide religious guidance. Thus for Sunnis, anyone can study the basic Islamic sciences and become an Imam. For most Shia Muslims, the Imams are absolute infallible leaders of the Islamic community after the Prophet. Shias consider the term to be only applicable to the members and descendents of the ''Ahl al-Bayt'', the family of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. In Twelver Shiasm there are 14 infallibles, 12 of which are Imams, the final being Imam Mahdi who will return at the end of times. The title was also used by the Zaidi Shia Imams of Yemen, who eventually founded the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen (1918–1970). Sunni imams Sunni Islam does not have imams in the same sense as the Shi'a, an important dist ...
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Saut-d'Eau
Saut-d'Eau ( ht, Sodo) is a commune in the Mirebalais Arrondissement, in the Centre department of Haiti. It has 34,885 inhabitants. Its name is French for 'waterfall', named after a large waterfall called 'Le Saut'. It is said that this waterfall was created in the massive earthquake of May 7, 1842. The waterfall is approximately 100 feet high and is the tallest in Haiti. The area holds cultural significance in Haiti, to both Catholic and Vodou practitioners. In the 19th century, it is believed that the Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel (or the closely associated Erzulie Dantor, a Vodou loa) appeared on a palm tree there. In some accounts, this appearance is said to have occurred during the 1860s.Alain R. Thermil and Amy L. Sheaffer (2005). "Perceptions of Haitians Toward Tourism Development in Rural Haiti" (pp. 200-208) in: Another account states that there were two appearances of the Virgin in the 1840s and later in the 1880s. Davis (2010) states on page 170 that "On July 16 ...
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Petro Loa
The Petwo ( ht, Petwo), also spelled Petro and alternatively known as , are a family of lwa (loa) spirits in the religion of Haitian Vodou. They are regarded as being volatile and "hot", in this contrasting with the Rada lwa, which are regarded as sweet-tempered and "cool." Description The Petwo are also known as the Dompete. They are considered one of the ('nations') of lwa spirits in the religion. Various commentators have described the Petwo as a "pantheon" of deities. Along with the Rada, they are one of the two main groups of lwa worshipped by practitioners in Port-au-Prince. The Petwo spirits are considered to be volatile and hot-tempered, exhibiting bitter, aggressive, and forceful characteristics. In this they contrast with the Rada lwa, who are deemed sweet-natured and dependable. The Petwo lwa are kept separate from the Rada lwa, both spatially, by placing their altars in different parts of the (temple), and temporally, by invoking them at different stages in a ritual. ...
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