Voodoo Mysteries | Full Documentary - Planet Doc Full Documentaries

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The slave trade with the New World was started not long after the Discovery of America.
For more than three centuries, slave-ships continued with their sinister voyages loaded with their dreadful human cargo.
Millions of people were captured in Africa and sold in America.
By the end of the 18th Century, in Haiti alone, there was a population of more than 2,900,000 African slaves.
After becoming a French possession in 1697,
Haiti soon became America's biggest producer of sugar
and also one of the places with the highest number of slaves in the world.
Now, some of the old sugar plantations have been converted into museums
with enormous stills for distilling the rum, presses where the juice of the sugar cane was extracted
and raised tanks where the fruits of slave labour were kept.
Slave labour carried out under the constant cracking of the whip.
The living conditions of the Africans confined in these yards were atrocious.
After suffering the hardships of a voyage, where normally 20% of the slaves died,
they arrived at the auctions exhausted and ill.
Families were separated and the individual members were sold to different settlers.
Parents and children would never meet again.
The overseers meted out severe punishments to those who did not work flat out
and the hunters of fugitive slaves subjected their prisoners to exemplary treatment which often resulted in death.
Many succumbed to the wounds caused by heavy shackles,
or dehydrated in the sun whilst chained to these sinister crosses.
Cape Haitien was the point where the slavers would unload their ebony merchandise,
as they called their foul-smelling load of dying slaves that survived the voyage
Today it is one of the most beautiful colonial cities of Haiti.
Its houses speak loudly of the opulent past of the French settlers who managed the sugar plantations.
By the end of the 18th Century the black population had reached about 3 million
and there were ever-increasing problems controlling them.
The blacks that escaped, known as "browns", hid in the mountains and organised themselves in very large rebel groups.
The rumours about the French Revolution gave new strength to the rebels.
Boukman, the leader of the browns, organised a great secret ceremony in BOIS CAIMAN
That night on 14th August 1791, a black pig was sacrificed and all those present drank its blood.
The revolution of the slaves had begun.
The message was very clear: cut off heads, burn houses and destroy plantations.
In a few days more than a thousand whites were killed.
The terrified white settlers started the legend that the blacks had made a pact with the devil that night in BOIS CAIMAN.
Many slaves were captured and executed.
The "brown" Makandal was burnt alive, so becoming a legendary martyr
who is still called on in voodoo ceremonies today.
Toussaint Louverture became the leader of the blacks and started up a rebellion that lasted for 10 years,
until on the 1st January 1804, Haiti proclaimed its independence,
so becoming the first black republic in the New World.
Two years later, General Henry Christophe proclaimed himself King and constructed the Citadell in the North,
while a mulatto, Petion, took control of the South.
The construction of this enormous fortress built to defend them from the French, who never came back, took 14 years.
Each stone had to be transported by hand up to a site that was 980 metres above sea level.
20,000 people died during its construction.
The story goes that Christophe ordered that those who refused to work should be impaled against the enormous walls of the citadel.
It could house up to 10,000 people and its geographical situation made it virtually impregnable.
King Christophe built up an arsenal of more than 250,000 cannon balls
for the various types of cannons that he had installed in hundreds of embrasures.
The Citadell, the largest fortress in the Caribbean,
was left anchored in the mountains as a testimony to the struggle of the Haitian people for their independence.
The landscape of the North contrasts with the idea that one may have of Haiti as an arid land.
In this region where King Christophe seems still to reign, the forests are luxuriant and leafy and full of life.
Christophe ordered the Palace of Sans Souci to be built near the Citadell, in the style of Frederick II of Prussia.
In 1820, at the foot of the Palace stairs, near the church,
the eccentric king ended his own life by shooting himself with a golden bullet fired from his silver revolver.
He had repressed his subjects to such a degree, that they rose up against him and forced him to commit suicide.
A simple monument brings him together with the other Fathers of the Nation at the top of a hill near Cape Haitien.
The voodoo phenomenon was born during this period of struggle
in spite of the colonial authorities and the repression of the Church.
The African Gods that travelled in the slaves´ minds had intermingled with the Catholic doctrine of the settlers.
A new religion had been born.
With the flags that represented the different tribes of their ancestors,
the lakús or voodoo monasteries are spread over all the country.
They are normally located in places where the slaves that had run away from the plantations
hid to pray.
Voodoo is a religion that is very closely linked with nature
and many of its deities dwell in rivers, valleys and mountains.
There are many natural settings which are real sanctuaries.
The faithful retreat to these places to meditate and meet their luas, or family spirits,
and the principle forces of the Universe.
These are spiritual observatories that enable them to communicate with the Great Beyond.
Voodoo determines and presides over Haitian society,
it is always present in a world where everything that happens,
be it good or bad, is attributed to the direct intervention of the spirits.
Limonat beach is a place of pilgrimage.
Preachers from the most distant parts of the country come here to perform Guiné ceremonies
and beseech the favour of Erzuli,
mother Earth, the Goddess of Love, who is identified in syncretism with the Virgin Mary.
In the shade of the sacred trees, families take turns to perform their ceremonies.
They mainly offer food and rum and wait for Erzuli to appear, for her to take possession of someone's body.
In this case, the woman with the red scarf.
Erzuli likes to flirt, and seduces people without distinguishing between sexes.
She may enter the body of a man or of a woman,
but everybody will immediately recognise her because of her suggestive movements.
Each preacher recognises different beings in this possession.
Its syncretic translation would be the Virgin of High Grace,
the Black Virgin or the Virgin of Monte Carmelo and sometimes St Philomena,
identified in voodoo with a siren who comes out of the sea or of fresh water.
Other participants also go into deep trances.
People help them and respect them, as in these moments their souls are outside their bodies.
The luas or spirits have taken over their bodies in order to express their wishes.
During these possessions, there are frequent displays of the protection conferred on them by the influence of the deity that dwells inside them.
Each lua has different colours, so different coloured scarves are used to call them.
White kaolin powder is also used to attract certain deities and to identify them.
Erzuli has just recognised one of her followers by the rings that adorn his hands.
These are wedding rings that show that the man has married her.
Each person may marry his protective lua.
They gather their relations and witnesses together and go to the OUNFO or voodoo temple,
where a mystic wedding is held.
From this moment on, the earthly spouse will have to abstain from sexual intercourse on certain days specified by his lua.
For example, Erzuli prescribes Tuesdays and Thursdays,
and on these days she may come before her servants in her dreams.
Here in Limonat voodoo lives alongside the Church.
The devotees alternate their religious customs without any problems.
From the olden days, when the settlers prohibited their African religious services,
the slaves were forced to praise their Gods whilst kneeling before a Catholic icon.
In this way syncretism arose and the majority of the lua have their corresponding Christian deity or saint.
Flags announce that this is a sacred place, a room where spirits dwell.
This is Josephine's house.
Her lua friend revealed to her in a dream,
how she should paint her yard in order to favour an encounter with the spirits that live in these trees.
Voodoo philosophy is very closely linked to nature, and therefore has an ecological bent.
Nobody dares to cut down trees as these are normally inhabited by spirits,
and especially LOKO, the protector of the woods.
Lakús, small villages that have arisen around a temple, can be found throughout the country.
A great sacred mapú, as they call the ceibas, presides over the lakú of the KONGO.
The power of the ceibas comes from the belief that they can talk to the Gods.
Unfortunately, most of them were cut down by the French during their struggle against the slaves' revolt.
The lakús are self-sufficient population cells.
Work is communal as is the product obtained from this work.
Each lakú is run by a HOUNGAN, or voodoo priest, who is called MAMBO,
in the case of a woman, and he or she is assisted by a Council of Elders.
Its inhabitants normally have the same African roots: Congo, Dahomey, Mandingo, Ewé etc..
There is a peristyle inside the temple which is dominated by the POTO MITAN,
the pillar by which the forces that have been invoked may descend.
The altar reflects once again the syncretism of this religion,
which was born in times of war, but now keeps its machetes buried as a sign of peace.
The HOUNGAN carries out a cleansing operation that also serves as a protection against spells,
and he shows us the house of SHANGO, the lua of thunder and catastrophes, equivalent to St. Barbara.
This other lakú is Dahomey. Its architecture takes us to another African region
from which the Yoruba deities, the OREXAS, departed.
The voodoo religion acts as a bonding force for the people.
It joins and fits together the range of different customs of the different ethnic groups
from which the slaves that populated Haiti came.
It helps to prop up a society that owes its existence to this religion.
Other sacred places include the lagoons where the spirits that clean, heal and bring luck to believers live.
In Plaine-du-Nord, the people submerge themselves in the mud and make their offerings of rum.
Wearing the large straw hat that characterises the lua SAKA,
Filo Pascal, a well-known journalist and veteran of the struggle for freedom of his people against the previous regime,
acts as a guide for us.
Thanks to him, we were able to discover the real voodoo
and avoid the countless obstacles placed in our way by the Mafia that limits and sells access to this religion to foreigners.
A great deal of ceremonies are performed in cemeteries among the dead.
The people are not afraid of these places, and it is commonplace,
and considered to be a great honour for someone to sleep on his father's grave.
The tomb of Baron Sammedi, the King of the Dead, can be found in all cemeteries,
although in some it can only be identified by the people from the village,
to stop outsiders using the cemetery for their own voodoo acts.
Normally, it can be recognised by its large cross
and where the first burial was made.
Tonight, we are witnesses to an "expedition" made by a HOUNGAN from Artibonito,
the region of Haiti with the strongest magic.
At the foot of the cross, the HOUNGAN smokes a piece of paper over some candles
so that the lua Great Way allows the passage to reach Baron Sammedi.
Later KAFU, who controls the cross-roads between the earthly world and the great beyond,
will have to give his permission
A fire is prepared with pine sticks and pieces of paper with someone's name written on it,
to prevent somebody leave in another person
They also use special powders made by the HOUNGAN.
In voodoo these powders are very important.
Each HOUNGAN has his own mixtures, which can go from healing powders to zombie powder.
Rum and gas-oil are used to warm the spirits, which normally live in water and are always cold.
The heat attracts them and the HOUNGAN is mounted by Baron Sammedi who is equivalent to St Expeditus,
which is why the ceremony is called an expedition.
Nobody can refuse to return his violent greeting that transmits energy from the other world.
This ceremony is performed so that the Baron may deliver justice
in a dispute and carry out the sentence on the guilty party.
The red and black dolls represent the protagonists, men and women, of the lawsuit that is presented.
When this powerful HOUNGAN is possessed, he has the power to eat glass.
His lua demands it of him.
Baron Sammedi reigns over all the GUEDE, the spirits of the dead.
When he mounts someone he acts like a joker and uses obscene language.
This is the lua of sexuality and he falls in love with women;
his dance imitates the coital act and he always smokes a lot.
Once his work is finished, the Baron lies back on his tomb and prepares to leave the body that he has possessed.
The HOUNGAN is shocked when the Baron leaves: he does not know how he got there,
he can remember nothing.
In Berre an old lady has died and a funeral party has been announced which will last all night.
With songs, the young people try to cheer up her son,
who sits at a small table looking at photos of his dead mother.
The whole village attends the party.
It is a social duty to attend the dead from the moment that death occurs.
At the back of the house, the women make coffee
so that the people can make it through the night and the party may be successful.
They have a totally different view of death from the Christians.
The cycle is renewed and death is the end of the journey through life.
Now, the soul of the deceased will walk towards the past to meet up with his ancestors.
The next day, the people attend the burial dressed up in their finest clothes.
Scenes of grief continue.
It is necessary to shout a lot so that the dead person knows that he is dead.
The soul does not leave the body immediately, instead it remains at his side,
and it is necessary to convince it to go off with the GHEDE,
otherwise, it could disturb the living.
In some places, they turn the coffin over many times,
so that the dead person gets lost and cannot find his way home.
In the centre of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, we find the Presidential Palace,
where the bloody dictators, François Duvalier
Papa Doc and his son Baby Doc lived.
Opposite the front of the palace is the statue of the slave,
Toussaint Louverture, who led the fight against the French.
On the other side, the figure of a slave, ringing a lambi,
symbol of the fall of colonial power and the fight against the oppression of slavery.
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Haiti is the gallery of art Naif.
The church of the Trinity is the first that opened its doors to this type of art work.
The art of a people who feel the need to express themselves by painting in this way.
Haiti is the country of colour.
The people paint their houses, their streets
and their collectively-owned cars, the famous TAP-TAPs.
The Haitian people have suffered countless attacks and their freedom has been repressed on many occasions.
Perhaps the most tragic example, because it was so recent,
was that carried out by the DUVALIER dictators and their reigns of terror sustained
by witchcraft and black magic.
They were surrounded by their troops, the TOM-TOM MACOUTES,
most of whom were BOKO, wizards that work on the dark side of voodoo:
the "DÉ MÉ", which means "with both hands".
This practice is the opposite of GUINÉ, in which the HOUNGAN only uses his right hand.
The Catholic Church does not like to coexist with voodoo,
while the voodooists, on the contrary, have no trouble coexisting with the Church.
On one side of the Cathedral,
people can be found praying and asking for help
before a figure of Christ that occupies an important place in their beliefs.
Rituals are celebrated daily in the cemeteries of Port-au-Prince.
The dead must be well attended to, otherwise they will bother you instead of helping you.
We attend a mass with Filo Pascal that is being held for a dead relative before Baron Sammedi.
He is offered food and rum, which at the end will be shared out among the poor people
who come to the cemeteries because of this.
A year and a day after the death, the family members must release the soul of the deceased,
which has been living up until now in the water.
They must carry out a very expensive ceremony in which an ox is sacrificed.
If they delay it for a long time, the deceased may rise up against them.
In the traditional voodoo law, the maximum penalty is zombification and not death.
The HOUNGANS that have passed sentence, will appoint an executioner
who will blow the zombie powder in such a way that the criminal will inhale it without realising.
Shortly afterwards, he will die, without anyone knowing why
and he will be buried.
Some time later he will be exhumed, an antidote will be applied
and they will steal his soul.
He will obey the HOUNGANS and will work for the rest of his life for them.
In fact, they reduce him to a cataleptic state produced by Tetrodotoxin,
the main ingredient of the zombie powder.
His brain does not receive a sufficient supply of blood,
which combined with the shock of being buried alive,
causes irreversible damage to his mental faculties.
But those who work the "DÉ MÉ" may also use these sinister techniques for revenge.
For this reason, there are some people who poison their dead before burying them,
because they could have been victims of a Boko and be turned into zombies.
The most important secret societies were born a long time ago
and were the real spiritual support for the uprising of the slaves.
Their ceremonies, like this one of bossu
are more violent because they call upon the lua petro originally from Haiti.
The voodooists inhale some powder made up by the HOUNGANS which stimulate the senses
and keep them awake all night long.
From this moment on the atmosphere gets hotter and hotter until a climax
is reached where almost everyone suffers severe trances.
the lua petro have arrived.
The slave ships also arrived in Cuba, thereby creating another large African population.
Here the rebel slaves were called "cimarrones" and they also had to win their freedom.
Their dominant beliefs were Yoruba,
which when syncretised created what is known today as santeria or "Regla de Ocha".
A religion, which to a greater or lesser degree, is practised by most of the population.
All the rituals of the Regla de Ocha
start with the smoking of herbs such as basil or siempre viva (everlasting flower).
Apart from the purification of the participants,
the spirits of plants, animals and men must always be present in Regla de Ocha
They wear white and worship the same deities as in the Haitian voodoo.
Olga holds the chicken which they are going to sacrifice to EXU.
The babalawo that she went to see, consulted the oracle to IFA
and he told her what to do.
She ran the risk of being deceived by a man.
The man officiating the ceremony throws the coconuts.
Depending on whether they fall face up or face down,
he will know if ECHU, who controls creation and is very close to OLOFI,
the Regla de Ocha God, allows the sacrifice.
Later, he gets the whole congregation to take part.
In this way, although it is he who carries out the sacrifice,
it will be everyone's responsibility.
The flowing of body fluids substitutes human life.
Life is given in order to preserve life and establish a unifying link with the supernatural order.
On these altars we can see the African Gods: OKUN, the warrior.
SANGO the OREXA of thunder and lightning,
or St. Barbara in syncretism.
The God of ancestors.
ORULA, intermediary of OLOFI, the sun,
and above this, OBATAIA, the Lord of the minds,
equivalent to Our Lady of Mercy.
And lastly St Lazarus, the saint of epidemics and diseases.
Before consulting the IFA, the oracle on which all Regla de Ocha revolves,
they call upon ORULA, that comes from the sun.
Here the ceremonies are held in houses; with the lack of houses that exists in Cuba,
a temple would be a luxury.
They drink the Rara-Ekuo, a soft drink made from corn
which protects them from the heat which comes down from heaven through the spirit ORULA.
Using a red cloth and a crate, the great spirit is trapped while the consultation is taking place.
The Yoruba IFA uses a very complicated prophecy technique.
More than a thousand deities may appear in the form of mathematical combinations.
The babalawo must interpret them correctly and identify the final answer to the consultation,
which will be the decision and order of ORULA.
The person officiating the ceremony shakes the seeds and marks one or two lines of different length,
depending on the number of seeds that are left in his left hand.
When ORULA appears all get down on their knees.
Now the Oracle can be consulted.
Jacinto is a member of the AWUAKA secret society
and today is undergoing an initiation ceremony in the "Palo de Monte",
Cuban black magic.
The essential difference between Regla de Ocha and El Palo,
is that here they work with the dead instead of with the saints.
This religion is based on the prenda mayombe,
the pots were they catch the dead in order to use them in rituals.
If the offering has crosses, it is to do good, if it does not have any, it is for black magic.
It will be covered with black cloths and will be called prenda judía (Jewish offering).
They use sticks from different woods, stones, human bones, tools, coconuts
and a dead man's skull.
Once they have finished preparing the prenda, Jacinto is led to the altar.
The songs announce the action they are performing.
They are clear and repetitive in order to guide the prenda
and so guarantee that the ceremony is successful.
Jacinto is subjected to arduous tests.
With his eyes blindfolded and without knowing which new trial he will be forced to undergo,
he starts to get upset.
No prospective member of the society
knows in advance what will happen in the initiation ceremony.
They only know that it is hard
and that not all of them can endure it till the end.
He soon feels faint. His knees are stiff and tremble with excitement.
He needs a rest, the uncertainty makes him lose control of his nerves.
His fellows encourage him, but they urge him to stand firm saying
"This is a sacrifice, but you must suffer for the prenda".
The officiant scratches him. With a knife,
he carves into his skin the identifying marks of the Seven Rays,
the Spirit SANGO for the worshippers of Regla de Ocha.
The candidate is exhausted, but the worst is over,
now he only has to receive blessings.
After five hours in a blindfold, Jacinto's eyes have to get used to the light again.
The officiant instructs him to stick out his tongue pressing a lighting candle to his mouth
while repeating principles of the religion.
It will give him strength, light, agility and stability
Once the initiation is over, the prendas mayombe must be fed.
So a goat and two hens are sacrificed.
Their blood will satisfy the appetite of the dead,
who will help the newly-initiated member to follow the way of Palo Monte.
Drink from the goat's head.
Take it as if it were ours
and allow us to go on living.
The Regla de Ocha worshippers also worship OLORUM,
the sea siren that lives in the depths.
They make offerings of fruit and flowers
and ask her to accept the actions on which they wish to embark
and to help them overcome hardships.
She is a friendly goddess who is always nearby.
Brazil was the other place where a large number of slaves arrived during the time of the slave trade.
It is estimated that there was a population of almost nine million black Africans at the end of the 18th Century.
Here too syncretic religions and cults such as
candomblé, makumba and umbanda developed.
Whites and Blacks both practice these religions,
which have developed at the same time as members of the highest social classes became followers.
Umbanda is based on the worship of the EGUN,
beings with great spiritual light, strength and wisdom.
Their objective is to attract these beneficial spirits so as to do good.
Here, drums and rhythm play a fundamental role.
Each spirit has its own beat and its own cadence.
Their altars are dedicated to the same deities as in voodoo and Regla de Ocha:
EXU, OGGUN, the warrior, LEMANYA, the siren,
OBATALA, the creator, XANGO,
and the rest of the African pantheon.
The "Pai de Santo" the Umbanda priest, draws the symbol of EXU on the ground.
This is the Lord of the ways, the ancestral "Pai"
the intermediary between men and spirits.
He is compared with St Peter in syncretism.
This is a joker of a spirit that drinks and smokes a lot, but who is beneficial and loves children.
Here the dark world of black magic exists too.
Vodum fetishes from Dahomey which may exercise a sinister influence in a secret place.
There are enormous umbanda temples, like this one in Rio de Janeiro,
with hundreds of thousands of worshippers.
Some of them have sports fields and other activities,
and perform an important social function with orphanages,
shelters and aid for poor districts.
This is the evolution of a religion as old as man himself,
which over time has been cleansed
and become more sophisticated
but which maintains its purest spiritual concepts.
Periodically, the followers meet and perform sessions
where our now familiar African deities descend to transmit their messages.
The trances are not as sharp as in other religions,
but they all encounter their friendly saint.
Everything started one night in Africa, when a black man sacrificed a hen
and he offered it to the spirits that he saw in the stars,
gods that travelled as slaves and helped their faithful followers to gain their freedom.
Perhaps everything that we have seen is not real.
Perhaps spirits do not exist and do not live so closely alongside the living.
In the West it is hard for us to believe in these religions,
but bearing in mind that millions of human beings can feel these forces
and are able to interpret them,
it is worth our while to ask ourselves the question
and allow ourselves to doubt.