Sociology

Introduction
Often misunderstood, the vodou (voodoo, I will use the modern transliteration all throughout the essay for the purpose of familiarity) religion is treated with dread. It is associated with darkness or evil, with zombies and illnesses, and even with Satan, which is an unfamiliar concept with the Voodoo religion (“Voodoo,” Cambridge Encyclopedia Vol. 78).

Karen McCarthy Brown’s book Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn had shed light to the reality about the voodoo religion, its practices and explore the life of Mama Lola, a voodoo priestess living in Brooklyn, N. Y.

It shatters the myths about the religion of the people of Haiti, explores the importance of the role of women in the said religion, and examines the connection of the religion to the life of the Haitian family and community, as well as how does it contribute to social change.

Experimental in her approach, Brown has presented the facts about Mama Lola’s life and the community around her and how does voodoo has become instrumental in making personal and social relationships intact within the community of Haitians in that part of the Big Apple.

A look at Mama Lola
Her real name is Alourdes but her neighbors and friends call her Mama Lola. Based on the description of Brown, she is a small woman, round and strong, and very sweet. This is proven by her affection to Theodore, whom Mama Lola calls a “child” of her (Brown 2001).

Because of the prejudice against her religion, she has to make her practice a little bit secretive; though her efficacy as a voodoo healer has given Mama Lola a good reputation, not only to those who practices the religion but those who have been healed by this sweet Mama Lola (Brown 2001, p. 4).

Interestingly, Mama Lola is only the few women who practice the religion. In her book, Brown said that most of those who practice the voodoo belief in America are mostly men. They are practicing in a grander scale, with much money to hire drummers that are part of the feast. However, Mama Lola is a little bit broke that she cannot afford to hire drummers; but she is also celebrating feasts that attract at least 30 people—mostly her faithful followers (Brown 2001, p. 4).

Brown describes Mama Lola’s work as a combination of the social worker’s, the priest’s, the psychotherapists, and the medical doctor’s. This means as Mama Lola communes with the spirits she becomes the healer, the counselor, the mediator to the spiritual world, and the one who take care the needs of the other people (Brown 2001, p. 5).

Voodoo 101
The Cambridge Online Encyclopedia Vol. 78 describes voodoo religion as a combination of the traditional African religion and Catholic beliefs. In Haiti, the voodoo followers come in all sectors of the Haitian society: the peasants, the middle-class and the member of the intelligentsia (Corbett 1988).

 The voodoo cosmos is just simple: Bondye is the central god. Just like in the Christian religion, voodoo religion believes in just one creator, Bondye. However, there are some lower spirits that play an important role in the whole practice of the voodoo religion: lwa or the ancestral spirits. The twins are the positive and negative spirits: the good and evil, happiness and sadness. The unclaimed soul of a family member is called the “dead.” If remained ignored, these spirits of the dead can bring harm to the family (Corbett 1988).

Just like Mama Lola, the central function of a manbo (priestess) in the voodoo religion is to heal people. Other functions of the manbo is (1) perform religious ceremonies to call or pacify the spirits; (2) to hold initiations for new priests(tesses) (kanzo service and taking the ason); (3) telling the future and reading dreams; (4) casting spells and creating protections; and (5) creating potions for various purposes. These things are the “needle and thread” that sew the fabric of the Haitian life and belief.

Hollywood, disbelief and other things about voodoo and its priestesses
However, the misconception about the belief has been ventilated by Hollywood. Moviemakers have capitalized on these misconceptions, therefore making the marginalized religion and peoples more marginalize (Voodoo Spiritual Temple 2009).

Before the release of Brown’s book, the voodoo practice in America remain underground. Though it has been practiced openly today, there are still shadows of doubt about the true essence of the said religion. Many people still thinks that voodoo religion is evil that is why there has been a massive and somewhat forceful conversion of Haitian people into the Christian religion (Melkonian-Hoover 2009).

On the other hand, the book of Brown also explored the realities that the Haitian women face. Often associated with stronger male spirits, the voodoo religion also depicts that social inequality that penetrates every society in the world, not only in Haiti.

Brown observed that being a mambo is to embracing the lwa as a substitute for male. She explained in her book that women’s place in the Haitian society is always “under the shadow of men.” In her book, she disclosed that most of the Haitian women are battered wives, who live in an un-free, dangerous and uncertain environment. These all happens under the whim of their husbands’ mood and desires.

Despite the fact that women are considered the backbone of the Haitian society and economy, unfortunately, they are facing insurmountable challenges. Just like what I have said, the women in Haiti remained in the inferior position.

Under the regime of U.S.-backed Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, Haitian women are caught in the middle of what many Haitians are calling a “rewind” back to the time of the 1991-94 coup d’etat, a period characterized by random violence in poor neighborhoods, a terror campaign employing rape, murder and disappearance as tactics, and rapidly increasing insecurity undermining all economic activity of the informal sector (EPICA 2005).

 Today, on the onslaught of the HIV/AIDS in the Haitian villages, the women has become also the prey of the said disease due to the cultural, economic, and social pressures existing in Haitian communities (Farmer 2009).

Since the Haitian women are always subjected to the desires of their men, which are often than not polygamous, the patriarchal culture dominant on the Haitian society is also a precursor to the HIV/AIDS epidemic (Farmer 2009).

Only when a Haitian woman becomes a manbo, she is now married with her main lwa and can attain a little freedom from the human males. Mama Lola’s lwa is Ogoun Badagris, a spirit who provides the support to be a forceful self-reliant person. Though capricious, the spirit (lwa) is considered “supportive, faithful, trustworthy and non-abusive.”

 Just like what happened to Mama Lola, her lwa has provided her with some source of financial strength. This is a primary factory in the liberating nature of being a priestess. In her book, Brown suggested that even though Voodoo spirits, like humans, have both positive and negative aspects to their personalities, if one serves them well, as a mambo is likely to, then the odds are that the spirit marriage partner will treat her well in return (Corbett 1991).

However, this is not always the situation. Going back to the history of the society of Haiti, you can see the continuous degradation of the morals and psyche of women. They are subjugated by the power of machismo, or the belief that women are powerless and nothing compared to men.

The life of Mama Lola is also like that. Even her lwa is supportive and allegedly non-abusive; you can see that it is just returning the favor: Mama Lola is good; therefore the spirit will also do her good (Brown 2001).

Inside the book, Brown also admitted even in the voodoo cosmos, the female spirit is considered as weak, just like Brijit, Papa Gede’s wife. She considered weak, senseless, losing sexual appetite that is why, and she is always silent. Papa Gede is always on the go. He is the powerful, the lustful, and the carefree (Brown 2001).

In our society, it is always like that. Even they say that there is already equality between men and women, which is actually a little bit fallacious, I think. There is still discrimination against women at work, in religion and even in politics.

On the other hand, Mama Lola is can be considered as an epitome of a strong woman and there might be more like her in the future. However, if the social fabric will not be unwoven to suit this ideal, it will be far and it will remain always as a dream. And I hope that this would never happen.