Mysteries and Secrets of Voodoo, Santeria, and Obeah Read online

  Another interesting aspect of African religion was the belief in a kind of guardian spirit, like a double or doppelgänger. To the Yoruba peoples this was known as a person’s ori. The Igbo called it a person’s chi.

  The idea of such a doppelgänger is well known throughout Europe as well. In Viking legends, for example, there was a creature known as a vardǿgr that went ahead of the person whose double it was and did what he or she was about to do.

  Just as in vampire folklore, the doppelgänger has no shadow and is unable to create a reflection in a mirror. Nevertheless, there have been notable accounts of doppelgänger reflections. In July of 1822, the brilliant young poet Percy Bysshe Shelley was drowned near Lerici. A letter from his widow, Mary, to her friend Maria Gisborne gave details of Percy’s sighting of his own doppelgänger. Another famous doppelgänger case involved the metaphysical poet John Donne, who was said to have seen his wife’s doppelgänger in Paris in 1612. The reflected doppelgänger case that went against the folklore tradition that doppelgängers do not have reflections concerned President Abraham Lincoln. In 1860 it was recorded that the President had seen his reflection in a mirror in the lounge of his home. There were two reflections of his face, and one was considerably paler than the other. His wife, Mary, said that she thought it meant that he would be elected for a second term but would not survive it. The account comes from Noah Brooks in his book Washington in Lincoln’s Time, which was published in 1895. Brooks was adamant that he had heard the account from Lincoln himself.

  Another famous and well-documented case of a doppelgänger being seen on several occasions relates to Emilie Sagée, a French teacher (1845–46) at the Pensionat von Neuwelcke, near Wolmar in Latvia. Julie von Güldenstubbe was a thirteen-year-old student at the school at the time and gave a full account of Emilie’s doppelgänger appearances to Robert Dale Owen (1801–1877). Son of the great Welsh reformer Robert Owen, Dale was a famous anti-slavery campaigner and Democratic politician in the U.S.A. He served in the Indiana House of Representatives and later in the federal House of Representatives. The town of Dale in Indiana is named after him.

  In our context of slavery in the U.S.A. and its bringing together of the old African religions and Christianity, it was Robert Dale Owen who wrote to President Lincoln on September 7, 1862, urging him to bring an end to slavery for ethical reasons.

  A further important part of the ancient African faith was a belief in the potency of magical, therapeutic herbs. There were other forms of healing medicines that could also be used: magic words and movements, spells, chants, dances, incantations, and enchantments.

  An array of healing medicines.

  Shape-shifting and other forms of lycanthropy had a place in many traditional African belief systems. The Bouda peoples were thought to have the power to transform themselves into were-beasts — especially were-hyenas, which were singularly rapacious and dangerous. By a widespread process of linguistic transposition, the term bouda began to be used for any were-beast — irrespective of whether it was associated with the Bouda peoples or with some other group in a different part of Africa. In the ancient kingdom of Kaffa, now part of Ethiopia, the were-beasts were called qora. Witches belonging to the Makanga peoples of central Africa were believed to be able to transform themselves into crocodiles.

  When legends of were-leopards and were-lions are examined, the stories are often embellished by the concept of a leopard–god or –goddess assuming anthropoid form and mating with a normal human being. These hybrid offspring then grow up to be were-beasts, or to have other magical powers.

  Were-lions in particular tend to be associated with royalty or with those who have the gift of leadership. The lions in Tsavo (an area of Kenya where the River Tsavo meets the River Athi) were believed to be inhabited by the spirits of warrior kings and chieftains. When the Uganda Railway was being extended by a bridge over the river, lions attacked the construction crew, and it was thought by some that they were were-lions obstructing the European bridge builders.

  Every region of the world has its own local legends of were-beasts. Tales of were-bears are found in mountainous areas where real bears are a danger. Stories of werewolves come from dark and sinister European forests where wolf packs pose a threat. When the authors were carrying out research into unsolved mysteries in Hawaii, they came across stories of were-sharks that came out of the sea, assumed attractive male human form, married, and produced offspring. Their sons then grew up to have their father’s appetites and powers of transformation.

  What is the connection between these legends of were-beasts and the strange animal-headed gods of ancient Egypt? The jackal-god Anubis was the guardian of the dead. Knum was a ram-god — could Knum have been the ancient African forerunner of the myths and legends associated with the famous Derby Ram in England? Sekhmet was a lioness-goddess. The cat-goddess was known as Bartet. The first possibility is that a mutual interchange of ideas took place between Egyptian and African travellers, and that the fundamental concept of animal-human hybrids led to traditions of animal-headed gods at one extreme and were-beasts at the other. The second possibility is that deep, abstract philosophical and theological concepts were identified with the characteristics traditionally associated with a particular animal (e.g., the gentle parenting skills of a cow with a calf, the ferocity and courage of the lion). Each of these abstract characteristics could be personified as a hybrid creature having the head of the relevant animal surmounting a human torso.

  The ancient African religions that formed part of the slave culture contained elements from Egyptian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Canaanite, and Hebrew beliefs. The traditional Christianity of the five slave centuries aimed at simplistic conversion rather than tolerance and understanding. There were three distinct results from the encounter between this type of Christianity and the old African religions: conversion, syncretism, or mutual opposition.

  The first scenario was straightforward conversion: the African slave abandoned his old faith and became a Christian of his own accord. A nineteenth-century example is provided by the autobiography of Padre Petro Kilekwa, entitled Slave Boy to Priest. This very interesting account of Petro’s early life as a slave was translated from the original Chinyanja language by K.H. Nixon Smith and published by the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa in 1937.

  Born in the middle of the nineteenth century as a member of the Mbisa people in the area around Lake Bangweolo, in what was then Northern Rhodesia, young Kilekwa was captured by the Maviti and sold as a slave.

  He was only a very young child at the time of his capture and enslavement. It happened because he and some other young children had got up early to play in the shallow ponds a few hundred metres from their village. They particularly enjoyed playing games with the frogs that lived in and around those ponds. When they came back to the village later in the day, they saw a group of strangers walking through it. The children were too young to understand their danger and merely assumed that the strangers were ordinary visitors.

  They were, in fact, slavers. The rest of the villagers had seen them coming and fled. Kilekwa and the other children were captured and later sold. After some years, he was rescued by the British navy while on board a dhow filled with slaves and their owners. Kilekwa describes vividly how the slave owners drew swords and guns to defend what they thought of as their property. The British naval officer in charge of the rescuers drew his cutlass and said grimly to the slavers, “Put your weapons down now — or we will kill you all.” There was no doubt in the slavers’ minds that he meant exactly what he said. Not long afterwards, Kilekwa served as a cabin boy under Admiral Lord Charles Scott. While Kilekwa was serving aboard HMS Bachante he learned that Queen Victoria’s grandson, the future King George V, had also served there.

  The next stage of Kilekwa’s many life-changing experiences was to learn about Christianity at Kiungani College — also known as St. Andrew’s. This was where other boys rescued from slave dhows by the Royal Navy were taken to be educated.
It was Kilekwa’s time as a student at St. Andrew’s that led him to train as a priest and to spend the rest of his life in the African Church.

  Some African slaves in the U.S.A., South America, and the Caribbean underwent similar conversions and chose to become Christians.

  The second scenario — syncretism — gave rise to one or more of the mysterious magical religions, including Voodoo, Santeria, and Obeah. There were aspects of Christianity that the African slaves found attractive and acceptable: the One Supreme God, miracles, healings, and companies of benign, paranormal beings such as saints and angels. Some African slaves reinforced and reinterpreted these acceptable ideas with their own ancient beliefs about Orishas and Loas, spells, incantations, rhythmic dancing, sacrifices, herbs, and magical potions.

  The third scenario — defiant opposition — led to the determined preservation of ancient African religious ideas going back for thousands of years. It also led to the development of new and variant faiths that eschewed any form of syncretism with Christianity.

  Chapter 5

  STRANGE RELIGIOUS HYBRIDIZATION

  Where the solution of syncretism was selected — rather than conversion or opposition — numerous styles of hybrid worship came into being. The Yoruba slaves especially linked their own divine and semi-divine beings to various Catholic saints whom they learnt about in the Caribbean. In essence, there were three distinct levels in the religious hierarchy of the Yoruba slaves. Right at the top was their omnipotent creator god, referred to by several names, including Oludomare (spellings vary). He was identified with Jehovah, or Yahweh, God the Father of the Christian Trinity. The Yoruba Orishas and Loas became the archangels, angels, cherubim, seraphim, and messengers of God in general. There were, however, seven very high powered Orishas — equivalent to archangels — who were referred to as the Siete Potencias, meaning the Seven Powers. Many of the Orishas are identified with several Christian saints or angels, not just one.

  The third and lowest level of the spiritual hierarchy was composed of ancestral spirits, who were also referred to in Yoruba culture as eggun.

  Further detailed examination of the conflated Orisha-saint identities begins with the very powerful Orisha referred to as Eleggua or Elegua (spellings vary). Referred to as the cunning one, the trickster, the overcomer of obstacles, and the messenger, Eleggua has many of the qualities associated with Ulysses, the classical Greek hero who could always devise a cunning plan to overcome Sirens, Cyclops, Scylla, and Charibdis. An oppressed, enslaved people feel the need for such a leader whose subtle planning and benign trickery exercised on their behalf can help them to survive the hard labour, abuse, and cruel punishments associated with slavery. For many followers of the hybridized religion, Eleggua was identified with Saint Peter. The detailed account of Saint Peter’s escape from King Herod’s prison in Act 12, verses 1–11, would have appealed strongly to African slaves who understood chains and imprisonment all too well from personal experience. Herod had just executed Saint James, the brother of Saint John, and when he realized that his persecution of the early Church was increasing his popularity, he gave orders for Peter to be arrested and incarcerated. Peter was accordingly chained between two soldiers, and, to further reduce any possibility of escape, additional soldiers guarded the door of the prison. During the night an angel appeared to Peter and his chains fell off miraculously. He followed the angel as instructed, and, after they had passed all the other guards, the great iron city gates opened of their own accord. The angel then vanished, leaving Peter free inside the city. This kind of magical power was attributed to Eleggua, the powerful Orisha, and he became identified with Saint Peter, among others.

  Saint Martin of Tours, who is known as Saint Martin Caballero (Saint Martin the Horseman) in Latin America, is another saintly equivalent of Eleggua. Born a Hungarian during the declining years of the Roman Empire, Martin became a Centurion in the Roman army. One day he encountered a shivering beggar with barely enough rags to keep him alive. Martin paused, cut his cloak in half, and gave half to the beggar. During a dream that night, Martin saw Jesus wearing the half-cloak that had been given to the beggar. Martin left the army and became a monk, eventually becoming Bishop of Tours in France. He is regarded in Latin America as the patron saint of the poor who are desperate for life-sustaining gifts of food, clothes, or money. Impoverished shopkeepers in Mexico look to him for help. He is also a patron saint of lorry drivers, who regard their trucks as the equivalent of his horse. By another process of association — horses and lucky horseshoes — Martin is the patron saint of gamblers.

  Saint Anthony of Padua is another of Eleggua’s alter egos. Born in 1195 in Lisbon, Anthony became one of the most effective preachers of his day. His extraordinary communicative powers are seen as shared by Eleggua. Anthony became the patron saint of poor and oppressed people and those who travel. He is also the saint on whom believers call when anything is lost. It is said that when Anthony died at the age of only thirty-six, on June 13, 1231, in Arcella on his way back to Padua, children cried in the streets and angels came to earth to ring the church bells for him. These miracles associated with Anthony encouraged members of the syncretized religions to identify him with Eleggua.

  Author Lionel Fanthorpe admires a lucky horseshoe talisman.

  In the early fifteenth century, when the Moors captured the little Spanish town of Atocha, prisoners were desperate for food and water. Every day a boy, dressed as a pilgrim of the period, arrived with food and water for them. The tide of battle eventually turned against the Moors and the prisoners were released. No one knew the identity of the young pilgrim who had undoubtedly saved their lives. Word began to spread that it must have been the young Jesus himself. From time to time the miraculous boy appeared again in Atocha helping to prevent kidnappings and other crimes. He became the patron saint of prisoners and those who needed help because of unjust legal proceedings. Eleggua is identified with El Nino de Atocha as well as with Peter, Martin Caballero, and Anthony of Padua.

  Eleggua has another alter ego known as Saint Expedite. There are numerous light-hearted stories associated with Expedite and his origins. One tells how the early priests of the Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe in New Orleans sent for a statue of Mary the Virgin from a religious sculptor in Spain. (From 1763 until 1803 New Orleans was a Spanish settlement.) The statue duly arrived by ship a few months later accompanied by another large crate. The priests opened the crate containing the statue of Mary that they expected, and they were very pleased with the sculptor’s work. They then examined the second crate, which bore the single word Expedite. When they opened it, they found the statue of a handsome young Roman centurion — which they had definitely not ordered. Uncertain, they eventually decided to erect it in the church, where they labelled it Saint Expedite. Being ignorant of shipping procedures, the priests had not understood that the lettering on the centurion’s crate was simply an instruction to get on with it, as in “Expedite this order.”

  Statues of Expedite show him holding a cross with the word hodie (Latin for today) written on it. He also has a crow trapped under his sandalled foot, and the Latin word Cras is coming from its beak — whereas the English word for a crow’s note is “Caw.” The Latin cras means tomorrow and forms one syllable of procrastinate — meaning the bad habit of putting off until tomorrow things that need to be done today. Candles burned in honour of Saint Expedite are red and covered in what Santerians would describe as quick-luck oil. Prayers and candles tend to be offered to Expedite on Wednesdays — the day associated with Greek Hermes (Roman Mercury), the god of speedy messages. According to Santeria traditions, Expedite should be rewarded with a gift of flowers and cake if he answers a worshipper’s prayers. He also appreciates having an entry placed in the papers thanking him for his help.

  The most elevated of all Eleggua’s alter egos is the Archangel Michael. He is the most powerful and warlike of all the angels and is thought of as the commander-in-chief of God’s armies. In one of the mystical visio
ns of Daniel, it is Michael who assists Gabriel in his contest with a Persian angel. There is considerable detail about Michael in the Book of Enoch. He is also seen alongside Saint George the dragon killer as a patron saint of warriors. Michael is especially revered by paratroopers and police officers. Throughout the dedications of early Christian shrines and sacred sites, it was regarded as traditional to rename an old pagan holy place after Saint Michael, or after Saint Michael and all the angels, as an indication that the great warrior archangel had conquered whatever pagan entity had once been worshipped there. St. Michael’s Mount is a case in point. The similarity between the militant Saint Michael the all-conquering archangel and the leading Orisha Eleggua was one that appealed strongly to followers of Santeria and similar religions.

  Another great Orisha was known as Obatala, or Obatalia, and regarded as the parent of humanity. Obatala’s main attributes were harmony, peace, and love — consequently in the minds of Santeria believers Obatala was associated with two great manifestations of Christian holiness: Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Our Lady of Mercy.

  Oya, the Orisha who combines the qualities of a female warrior with the power of the storm and the strength of magic, is linked in Santerian syncretism with Saint Catherine and Saint Theresa. Catherine was a virgin martyr who was brilliantly intelligent and eloquent, and who defeated the finest minds that the Emperor Gaius Julius Verus Maximinus could marshal against her. He was emperor only from AD 235 to 238. As unintelligent as he was ruthless, Maximinus was supported by the Praetorian Guard, who overawed a very reluctant senate to accept him as emperor. When Maximinus failed to defeat Catherine, his fury knew no bounds. Like Philomena, Catherine was savagely flogged and sentenced to die on the wheel that still bears her name. According to the saintly legend, the torture wheel was miraculously destroyed. Maximinus had Catherine beheaded, whereupon angels carried her body to Mount Sinai where a church was built in her honour. Her appeal to the Santerian African slaves was as great as Philomena’s — largely because both brave young martyrs had suffered as the slaves did.