Laënnec Hurbon

Hurbon was born in Jacmel, a commune in southern Haiti. He is Doctor of Theology (Institut Catholique de Paris) and Sociology (Sorbonne University),[5] director of research at CNRS and professor at the Quisqueya University in Port-au-Prince, of which he is one of the founding members.[6] Today he focuses on the relationships between religion, culture and politics in the Caribbean region and has written many books on Haitian Vodou.[6]

His notable publications are the Dieu dans le Vaudou haïtien (1972) and Le Barbare imaginaire (1987), which have been described as “two classics” of the author; and the “small ‘big book’” – Les mystères du vaudou (1993, US ed. – Voodoo: Search for the Spirit),[7] which is a heavily illustrated pocket book from Éditions Gallimard’s “Découvertes” collection. He also edited a collective work entitled Catastrophes et environnement : Haïti, séisme du 12 janvier 2010 (2014).[8]

Rooted in the history of Haiti, Laënnec Hurbon presents us Vodou in this small but copiously illustrated book, entitled Les mystères du vaudou (lit. "The Mysteries of Vodou"; US edition – Voodoo: Search for the Spirit; UK edition – Voodoo: Truth and Fantasy), which Christiane Veauvy—a researcher at CNRS—calls it "a great achievement", and "the iconography is of exceptional beauty", in her article dedicated to this book.[9] After so many persecutions—those of the slave society, the Catholic Church, the racism, the horror sensations because of devils and zombies, also of Haitian authorities after the independence, even though Vodou has supported the freedom to slaves—after the drastic political exploitation by François Duvalier, Vodou remains "one of the most inalienable cultural resources of Haitian people". The book also suggests the complex role played by Vodou in the fall of Duvalier's dictatorship.

The plan of the work is dictated by this historico-political perspective, there are seven chapters: Ⅰ, "The Great Crossing"; Ⅱ, "Voodoo Hidden in the Hell of Slavery"; Ⅲ, "Campaigns Against Sorcery"; Ⅳ, "The Spirit of the 'Lwa'"; Ⅴ, "The Cult of the Dead"; Ⅵ, "'Manjé-Lwa', 'Dansé-Lwa': The Services"; Ⅶ, "An Astonishing Survival". The first three chapters trace the history of Vodou in Haiti from "the great crossing" to the time of the American occupation (1915–1934) and the advent of Duvalier (chap. Ⅲ), going through the period when "Vodou hidden in the hell of slavery" (chap. Ⅱ). It is only then that Hurbon systematically exposes the beliefs and practices of Vodou as a system articulating a mythology, rituals and standards of behaviour (chaps. Ⅳ–Ⅵ).

The last chapter is devoted to the "astonishing survival" of Vodou. Hurbon addresses the issue of the establishment of Protestant sects that "by passing off all the lwa as evil or satanic forces, the message of the Protestant sects revives the fantasy of sorcery", and also questions whether "Voodoo has a tendency to draw its worshippers towards the past, placing them under the authority of tradition (symbolized by the dead, the ancestors, the lwa) rather than more flexible rules, subject to modern rational thinking?" Whatever the case may be, Vodou is "a piece of worldwide cultural patrimony", and a civilisation "extending from Africa to the Americas". The following "Documents" section containing a compilation of excerpts which is divided into six parts: 1, The devil, voodoo and the missionaries; 2, The antisuperstitious campaigns; 3, How the lwa show themselves to humans; 4, For the rehabilitation of voodoo; 5, Voodoo in art; 6, People travel, so do spirits. These are followed by a glossary, chronology, further reading, list of illustrations and index. With this work, the reader can have a complete and excellent point about Vodou in its many dimensions.[10]

The book is profusely illustrated with colour plates—drawings, photographs, Haitian paintings, etc.—so it could also serve indirectly as a study of Haitian Vodou iconography. It has been translated into American and British English, Korean, Russian and Spanish. Professor Patrick Bellegarde-Smith notes that the original French edition printed many of the black and white photographs in the "Documents" section on better paper than the English edition; and also the mistranslation of the term Vaudou by using Voodoo instead of Vodou.[7]