The painting below is not a ritual object but an artist's depiction of an imaginary summit meeting of Haitian gods, all of whom can be identified because they are pictured with their iconic attributes.  The design on the ground in front of them is a characteristic pattern used to indicate the calling of the gods and the orbiting of souls in the cosmos.  Although Vogel does not discuss the urban painting tradition in diasporan cultures, this would probably fall into that category: it is a readily understood painting which has a narrative or story and a moral message.  It was probably also made with the intention of being sold, rather than the goal of being exhibited in a museum.
 

C. Rameau: The Vodou Gods Ponder Haiti's Destiny, oil painting, 1991

The belief that Haitian vodou is a synthesis of Roman Catholicism and Vodou has been challenged by some investigators who suggest that the two religions have been juxtaposed but not united or fused. Thus, whereas some people assert that a large portion of the Haitian population is both Catholic and vodou, this should probably not be taken to mean that the two religions have been united into a single variant that we could call "Haitian Catholicism" or "Catholic Vodou," for example. Historically, it appears to be the case that the presence of images of Catholic saints in the Haitian drapo does not indicate the worship of those saints but rather signifies some transformation based on visual or iconographic similarity between the saint and a Haitian god.

Due to the relative isolation of Haiti, most features of Haitian life seem to have remained highly resistant to western influences.  Medicine, for example, is based on a definition of health as a state of equilibrium between the spiritual and physical aspects of the human being.  Thus, illness is not seen as being unrelated to pathogenic factors (germs, for example), but these factors are not believed to be the definitive cause.  When someone becomes ill, the question is why has this person succumbed, and the answer to this is learned through divination and likely to be treated through spiritual processes.  In other words, without negating western medical beliefs, Haitian vodou remains a system of spiritual healing.

Agglomeration may be a good description of vodou spirituality: not only is there an endlessly vast number of vodou spirits, but the body of spirits includes and incorporates foreign deities, and creates new ones in response to cultural changes. The images of the gods change as well, corresponding to the fashions and trends of the day.  Sen Jak (St. Jacques), for instance, now appears to ride a helicopter, rather than a horse. He can also be seen at the fairground, riding a carousel:
 

The fusion between the sacred and profane worlds which characterizes Haitian vodou is undoubtedly the most salient connection or similarity between Haitian and African spiritualities, whereas one of the most salient differences between vodou and Roman Catholicism is the relationship which people have to the gods.  The houngan, or priest, is central to the community and thought of as the spiritual leader of the community; but he does not exist to make the spirits accessible or inaccessible to the people.  He doesn't need to, because everyone has access to the gods and everyone can receive a spirit into his or her body, at which time that person and the god are one and the same.  Further, the deities or loua are not worshipped--they are called. The act of calling the gods generates the importance of movement, of the body, and many of the visual characteristics of the drapos.  This is the key to understanding the role and image of embodiment in Haitian vodou.

The houngan is a leader in a more ways than his role as a religious leader: this person is a spiritual leader, a psychologist and physician in terms of this society's beliefs about psychology and medicine, a diviner, healer, and a musician.  The houngan is a moral leader who balances and interprets the forces of the universe so that the community thrives economically and socially--rather than making a parallel to a priest, a better one to make is to the sowei of Sande society, keeping in mind that although the sowei is the leader of a female society, because of Mende beliefs about the importance of female wisdom and values, she is more than the leader of women.
 

Hounfort (temple) in Port-au-Prince, with a mural of Erzilie Danto,  photographed in 1995

History:

Haiti's indigenous population was South American Indian; most fled or died after the Spanish arrived.  The French began importing and enslaving Africans when they took over the island and continued to do so for about 300 years.  The Africans came from northwest, coastal and central Africa, representing a variety of  African cultures.   As is true for many diasporan people, it was easier to preserve nonmaterial culture than material---stories, religious ideas and practices, beliefs about life and death and social values could be passed on from one generation to another.

With the French administration of Haiti, a great deal of the French style was adopted and blended with the African inheritance.  After the Haitian revolution (1780s), this mixture became problematic as conflict between the African heritage and the French heritage became the source of political conflict.  Because Haiti remained relatively isolated from the rest of the Caribbean and from the rest of the world, traditional arts and techniques, mostly untouched by modern technology and culture, continued to dominate in a way that is not seen in other parts of the "New World."

At one point the Church tried to purge Vodou; it has been suggested that this led to the use of "double images" of loua--the use of a reproduction of a saint in a drapo dedicated to a loua.  After the revolution, the role of Catholic clergy in Haiti become much less significant and the relationship between Catholicism and Vodou changed as a result.  During this period, many African Haitians became landholders and rather than a plantation economy, a peasant economy became more significant.  At this time, Vodou became more important as a family religion focused on ancestors and the land.  It also became a religion which was associated with the peasant population, a fact which would eventually make Vodou a source of embarrassment to the urban and landholding class.

During the American occupation in the early 20^th century, the Haitian elite class became aware of the cultural divide between Europe, the United States and Haiti.  This further increased the antagonism of officials and urban Haitians toward Vodou.  On one level, it was thought that Vodou could thrive and be studied as an ethnic curiosity (intended for tourists) but it also served as a sign of the differences between peasant and urban dwellers. Consequently, although many vodou practices were suppressed and lost, "purified"  or "authentic" versions of vodou were cultivated as something that could be sold to foreigners, an exotic taste of authentic Haiti.  This is similar to the case of colon art, the tourist version of the Baule spirit-mate figurines.  And just as it is difficult to identify the difference between the colon statue and the spirit-mate, it is difficult to identify the difference between a drapo made to sell to the tourist or to display in a museum and the drapo made for spiritual uses.  Perhaps this distinction isn't necessary---this may be another case of a traditional art which has absorbed some new uses.

At the same time, politicians continually used Vodou to claim power.  We find drapos with images of political leaders and altars with photographs of politicians in the place of gods. Stories have been told of houngans who are really political informers-on one hand, this is a testimonial to the power of the religion; on the other, it is a reflection of life in a society where the ties between religion and politics and the state are not proscribed.  In Haiti, this connection may have served to make vodou more resilient despite the large changes experienced in the country; at the same time, it makes vodou into a conservative force, one which makes the country resistant to social and political change.
 

Portrait of Titud included in a Petwo altar, 1994	portrait of Titud included in drapo

Vodou today must therefore be understood as a people's religion, although probably the people of the lower classes; as a political tool when convenient; and as an exotic form of bait for tourists.

The vodun who are more specifically identified as gods are visualized in human form, with human qualities---good and bad.  They are associated with occupations and they are given food and drink.

The word vodun (or vodou): can mean "spirit" or "deity" but it can also mean the activities and beliefs of the religious cults; it is a system of beliefs concerning the daily activities of life and life as spirituality; it concerns the relationships between the natural and supernatural worlds, between the living and the dead.  Vodun is a more general word, referring to the force which activates the deities; "loua" more specifically refers to the deities when they are thought of as individuals and as members of the various families of gods.

This is a religion of "transformative practices"---religious practices which involve harnessing or mobilizing other-worldly forces to have some effect on human life.  Transformative practices can be either good or bad.  In vodou, the judgement as to whether the practice is good or bad is made on the basis of what happens to someone else, rather than on the basis of who performs the act.

Because everyone has access to the gods (without an intermediary), anyone can potentially be inhabited by a god.  Possession, the moment when a god inhabits a person, is an important connection between the African sources of vodou spirituality and Haitian vodou.  Possession is greater than the moment when a god inhabits a person.  It is an act of making the god become present---presentification through a human being---and it is a validation of the connection between this world and the next world, or between the community on earth and the gods.  In Haitian vodou, possession is described as a horse (the human being) which is seized by a god and ridden; hence, the name of the movie, "Divine Horsemen"---but this is not to be understood as the god exerting dominance over the person.  There is a type of equality in which each becomes the other because the loua cannot appear on earth without a person's body; the person who is possessed is playing a significant role in a collective and spiritual drama.