Gede Nibo ( ht, Gede Nibo) is a lwa who is leader of the spirits of the dead in Haitian Vodou. Formerly human, Gede Nibo was a handsome young man who was killed violently. After death, he was adopted as a lwa by

Baron Samedi Baron Samedi ( en, Baron Saturday), also written Baron Samdi, Bawon Samedi or Bawon Sanmdi, is one of the lwa of Haitian Vodou. He is a lwa of the dead, along with Baron's numerous other incarnations Baron Cimetière, Baron La Croix and Ba ...

and

Maman Brigitte Maman Brigitte (English: ''Mother Brigitte'') sometimes also written as Manman Brigitte and also known by Gran Brigitte, Grann Brigitte, Manman, Manman Brigit, and Maman Brijit is a death loa (or ''lwa'') and the consort of Baron Samedi in Hait ...

. He is envisioned as an effeminate, nasal

dandy A dandy is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance. A dandy could be a self-made man who strove to imitate an aristocratic lifestyle des ...

. Nibo wears a black riding coat or drag. When he inhabits humans they are inspired to lascivious sexuality of all kinds.Randy Conner, David Hatfield Sparks & Mariya Sparks (eds), Cassell's ''Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol & Spirit'', p. 963, London and New York: Cassell, 1997.

Function and depiction

Gede Nibo is a

rada lwa The Rada are a family of lwa spirits in the religion of Haitian Vodou. They are regarded as being sweet-tempered and "cool", in this contrasting with the Petro lwa, which are regarded as volatile and "hot". Description The Rada lwa have been descr ...

Carole Boyce Davies (ed.)
''Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora''
ABC-CLIO, 2008, p. 963. who is considered to be a great healer. He is seen carrying a bottle of

white rum Rum is a liquor made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. The distillate, a clear liquid, is usually aged in oak barrels. Rum is produced in nearly every sugar-producing region of the world, such as the Ph ...

infused with

medicinal herb Medicinal plants, also called medicinal herbs, have been discovered and used in traditional medicine practices since prehistoric times. Plants synthesize hundreds of chemical compounds for various functions, including defense and protection ag ...

s. Often he also carries a staff and smokes a cigar. Nibo is the special patron of those who die young, and as such is often conflated with the

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

saint

Gerard Majella Gerard Majella (; 6 April 1726 – 16 October 1755) was an Italian lay brother of the Congregation of the Redeemer, better known as the Redemptorists, who is honored as a saint by the Catholic Church. His intercession is sought for children, ...

, who is depicted with a skull. He is a

psychopomp Psychopomps (from the Greek word , , literally meaning the 'guide of souls') are supernatural creatures, spirits, entities, angels, demons or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls from Earth to the afte ...

, an intermediary between the living and the dead. He gives voice to the dead spirits that have not been reclaimed from (The Lower World) or in Vodou terms "below the waters". He is the guardian of the graves of those who died prematurely, particularly those whose final resting place is unknown. His ''chwals'' ("horses", possessed devotees) can give voice to the dead spirits whose bodies have not been found or that have not been reclaimed from "below the waters".

Service

Purple is considered his sacred color, and usual offerings include black goats, black

rooster The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

calabash Calabash (; ''Lagenaria siceraria''), also known as bottle gourd, white-flowered gourd, long melon, birdhouse gourd, New Guinea bean, Tasmania bean, and opo squash, is a vine grown for its fruit. It can be either harvested young to be consumed ...

, cigars, coconut, fried plantains, pistachios, smoked herrings, sweet sesame balls, and white rum spiced with African

bird pepper ''Capsicum annuum'' var. ''glabriusculum'' is a variety of ''Capsicum annuum'' that is native to southern North America and northern South America. Common names include chiltepín, Indian pepper, chiltepe, and chile tepín, as well as turkey, b ...

. Until recently, Haitian farmers would perform a praise song to Guede Nibo each November. It involved phallic thrusts and other erotic gestures and was named "Massissi", a Haitian term for a "homoerotically inclined male".

In popular culture

* The Disney villain character Dr. Facilier in the animated film ''

The Princess and the Frog ''The Princess and the Frog'' is a 2009 American animated musical fantasy romantic comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 49th Disney animated feature film, it is loosely based on the ...

'' is loosely modeled on Guede Nibo. * Baron Samedi (as the head of the Guede family of loa) is mentioned in the second novel in Ian Fleming's

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

series of stories '' Live and Let Die''.

Footnotes

Notes

References