The Syncretism Of Voodoo In Haiti

Christopher Columbus landed on the island of Haiti in December 1492, where he was greeted by a population of three million Arawaks/ Tainos, whom were well fed people with cultivated lands. However this discovery of Haiti by Columbus would serve as the beginning of extinction for the Tainos people as we know.
The population of the Taino people went from three million people to fewer than 27,000 during the colonial period. This was because they forced the Arawak people to work hard labours which they were not used to, also they were exposed .to various diseases brought by the Europeans. In time of demise for the Tainos, there were a few Conquistadors who attempted to speak out against the proliferating genocide of the indigenous people, Bishop
Voodoo is a syncretism. A syncretism is a process whereby different cultural traditions come into contact and merge in different ways to form one novel one. According to the Anthropology of Latin America, Voodoo is first, and foremost, a dance, a system of movements which bring people and Iwa together in a progressive and mutual relationship of knowledge and growth. Dance and music are particular important mediums through which a communicative and ritual “ bridge” is established between the mortals and the deities ( Sanabria, 2007). The predominant religion in Haiti was Roman Catholicism. During the 1700’s thousands of West African slaves were shipped to Haiti on French plantations. The slaves were baptized as Roman Catholics upon their arrival in the West Indies. Their traditional African religious practices were viewed as a threat to the colonial system and were forbidden. In the event that practitioners were caught they would be hung, whipped or
Creole was forbidden to be spoken in political and sophisticated settings. Some Haitians claimed it to be a non-language as it has no rules. The use of French was used in politics, government and the intellectual life, therefore being that the upper class people knew French , and was required to be spoken in the aforementioned settings , this then locked out or hindered the lower class group from being amongst them. Creole was used in more informal settings; it was filled with slangs and used in jokes which were more comfortable for the lower class. The middle class most of all felt the effects of this social stratification, it was like they were “Caught between a rock and a hard place”. They were fortunate in being able to mingle/move amongst the upper class as they knew French, however their French was still not perfect or up to the standard of the elite. Some creole speakers would use French –sounding phrases to get by undetected, yet the imperfect langue would serve as a betrayal to the lower class. For some, to speak French, meant to be a hypocrite and for some to speak Creole portrayed a National