#anba dlo

[crows-feet-studio]

Baron Simitye

Portrait of Cypress Grove Cemetery 2/3

[rockofeye]

Hello! I hope you’re doing well? Would you be able to discuss Haitian Vodou’s conception of an afterlife (if applicable)? Also, is there a concept of “reincarnation” in the religion?

Hi there,

I am good, thanks, and I hope the same for you.

Haitian Vodou does have beliefs about what happens after we die, and they kind of start in life. We believe that each person is made up of three parts, give or take: the kò or kò kadav/the physical body, the ti bon anj/’little good angel’, and the gwo bon anj/’big good angel’.

The kò is pretty self-explanatory; your physical presence in the world and what you use to do physical acts. The ti bon anj is considered to be what makes you you; your individuality, your personality, all of the little things that make you up as a human person. The gwo bon anj is almost like a higher self or, in purely Western esoteric terms, the godhead; your divine nature..we say this is the part of you that belongs to Bondye/God. Sometimes folks might use other terms in there like nanm, which means soul, or zetwal, which means star. Those two terms are often more common outside the Vodou community in Haiti, but people still use them in the religion, too.

While the kò dies, the rest of us does not. It is generally agreed upon that the gwo bon anj returns to Bondye; it is theirs, and so it must go home to Bondye.

The ti bon anj goes anba dlo/under the water to rest, meaning it is delivered to the realm of the lwa to rest. There are special rites performed for initiates after death to assure this. After at least a year, more rites can be performed by a spiritual family or on behalf of a biological family to claim that soul as a zansèt/ancestor.

Souls that are unclaimed remain anba dlo, overseen by the family of lwa we refer to as Bawon.

Haitian Vodou does have beliefs in what could be called reincarnation, but that specific word is not used. We believe that the ancestors seek to return home, and that can happen in any number of ways; babies are often the ancestors returning, people initiating into a particular sosyete can be an ancestor returning. It’s a thread that is pretty heavily woven through Vodou culture and Haitian culture at large and so that dictates a lot of how interactions go between folks and the hopes for children and similar.

That’s not to say that someone knows that they are an ancestor returned or whatever--souls that are reborn don’t carry that knowledge--but it is prescriptive: we treat all people with respect because they can be our family on many different levels.

I hope this helps...please let me know if you have more questions or I can explain anything more clearly.

[rockofeye]

The book (Queer Magic: Power Beyond Boundaries) containing my first published writing has been sent off to the printer and advanced reader reviews are starting to roll in. I’m pretty thrilled to have been able to write about my particular take on queerness and vodou.

Here’s a teaser from my piece, titlted Anba Dlo/Under the Water:

When we enter the djevò, we are simple seeds that are ready to be planted. We are hull and flesh, skin and potential, and the djevò is where we go to become more than that and find what we can grow into. In the same way that seeds have a sole purpose--to be nurtured into a root that grows deep and a plant that grows tall--we exist as singular identities when we go to kouche (lie down). We become a reflexive being that is defined by who we are to our spirits, who we are to our spiritual parent, and, as a look to the future, who we will become in our community. It doesn’t matter what genitalia I was born with or what words I use to describe how I relate to the world, as I am only a seed. My religious identity will wait for me at my baptem (baptism), and I will float in the waters of Ginen (the realm of the spirits) until my mother’s labor pushes me back out into the world.

So excited to see this piece, which was a true labor of love, pushing out into the world!

[rockofeye]