KOSANBA is a
scholarly association
A learned society (; also learned academy, scholarly society, or academic association) is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and science. Membership may ...
dedicated to the study of
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 ...
.
Founding
The organization was founded in 1997 at the
Center for Black Studies Research of the
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...
, then under the directorship of
Claudine Michel. Dr. Michel serves as executive director of KOSANBA.
Thirteen scholars met for a
colloquium on Haitian Vodou titled ''The Spirit and The Reality: Vodou and Haiti'' on April 25–26, 1997. At the end of the conference, they decided to institutionalize their efforts through a new association under the name ''The Congress of Santa Barbara''. Using the
Haitian Creole
Haitian Creole (; ht, kreyòl ayisyen, links=no, ; french: créole haïtien, links=no, ), commonly referred to as simply ''Creole'', or ''Kreyòl'' in the Creole language, is a French-based creole language spoken by 10–12million people wor ...
name for ''congress'' (''kóngre'') with the ''San-'' and ''Ba-'' of ''Santa Barbara'', the abbreviation KOSANBA was born.
Ongoing activities
According to their declaration, KOSANBA "proposes to have an impact on Haitian cultural politics as well as on other measures and policies that affect the Republic of Haiti ... It is the belief of the Congress that Vodou plays and shall continue to play a major role in the grand scheme of Haitian development and in the socio-economic, political, and cultural arenas. Development, when real and successful, always comes from the modernization of ancestral traditions, anchored in the rich cultural expressions of a nation."
KOSANBA meets every two years. Its colloquium on July 13–17, 2009, was held in
Mirebalais,
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 ...
to coincide with the
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 water ...
pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...
. After the 2010
earthquake
An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...
, KOSANBA did not meet until 2013. Its tenth colloquium was held October 18–20 of that year at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
. The eleventh colloquium took place in
Montréal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-p ...
from October 21–25, 2015, and the twelfth in
from November 1–3, 2017.
In 2019, the association held its thirteenth colloquium at the Forum for Scholars and Publics at
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
in
Durham, North Carolina
Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...
.
The current president of the association is
Yanique Hume, Lecturer in Cultural Studies, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus.
LeGrace Benson, Director, Arts of Haiti Research Project, is Immediate Past President.
References
External links
*
Center for Black Studies Research
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kosanba
Haitian Vodou