Initiates, Initiators, and Sexual Impropriety




The Vodou tradition can be accused of a lot of things, I suppose, but prudery is not one of them! Male polygamy is tolerated in Haiti and many Haitian men are not above enforcing this advantage by violence against women. Fertility is emphasized to a great degree. In the context of Vodou ceremony, however, there is no appropriate place for sexual relations between initiate and initiator or even between participants in ceremonies while those ceremonies are in progress. Some vicious, exploitative Houngans or Mambos including one or two who are publicly quite well known may do this, but when they do they are acting completely outside the principles of the Vodou tradition.

It is never necessary, required or recommended for initiates to have sexual relations with their initiating Mambo or Houngan. The Houngan or Mambo does not "represent the lwa", and there is no basis whatsoever for attempting to coerce initiates into intimacy.

During a kanzo ceremony, initiates and clergy are expected to abstain from relations for the duration of the kanzo cycle. Houngans, Mambos and hounsis who will tend the burning zens during the brule zen ceremony are most particularly prohibited from having sexual relations the night before the brule zen.

Some houses require initiates to begin abstinence from sexual relations seven days prior to the beginning of the kanzo, some do not. All houses require initiates to observe a period of abstinence following the end of the kanzo, in most cases forty-one days. If an initiate has sexual relations during that time the kanzo is invalidated and all the efforts of the initiate and the initiator went for nothing! The person must repeat their ceremonies if they want to be considered hounsi, Houngan, or Mambo.

If the individual having illicit sexual relations is observed by witnesses (usually one male and one female witness is recommended) they can be made to surrender their kolye (the ceremonial necklace worn from the kouche kanzo until forty-one days following the leve kanzo). I have seen Houngans slap initiates who ruined their kanzos and drive them roughly from the peristyle.

In the djevo, where the initiates are secluded from the kouche kanzo to the leve kanzo, men and women are often segregated on opposite sides of the djevo. If a couple, heterosexual or homosexual, kanzo together they are the object of great vigilance by the maman hunyo, the woman who has immediate responsibility for the initiates' bodily functions. If a couple should attempt sexual relations or even caressing and cuddling while they are in the djevo, the maman hunyo will beat them severely, sometimes using the zo Ayizan, a ceremonial whip made during the "chire Ayizan" specifically for the purpose of enforcing ritual discipline in the djevo.

Any Houngan or Mambo attempting sexual relations with his initiates in the djevo is a pig, pure and simple. Any Houngan or Mambo who attempts to pressure clients or initiates into sexual intimacy on the pretext that he or she "represents the lwa" is a disgusting sexual predator who is unworthy of the trust placed in him or her by the ancestors and by Guinea, not to mention by the client or initiate!

It is common for Houngans or Mambos to initiate their spouses, and in the case of a polygamous Houngan he may have several sexual partners among his initiates. But for the duration of the kanzo and the period of required abstinence, sexual relations are out of bounds. Some Houngans reject totally the notion of sexual relations with their initiates even after the period of abstinence, saying that it encourages disrespect.

I know one Houngan who has two sexual partners among the Mambos who serve in his house. He plays favorites, and honors the Mambo with whom he is currently on better terms with more prominent roles during ceremonies, while punishing the Mambo with whom he quarreled by relegating her to a place among the hounsis.

This Houngan was once very angry with one of these Mambos, who was my marinn kanzo, the woman who stood up for me at the time of my baptism during my second kanzo. The Mambo, who has a chronic respiratory illness, was unable to carry the society's flag when the peristyle Rara band went out in the streets, and this displeased the unsympathetic Houngan. He obtained his revenge by faking a possession by Grand Bwa, inviting the sick Mambo into the djevo for an herbal bath, stripping her of her clothes down to her panties - and then beating her ferociously with a wooden "massage roller" sort of affair.

That Houngan not long after lost a very lucrative relationship with a foreign Mambo with whom he performed initiations.

This sort of intrusion of private quarrels into Vodou service, especially to the point of faking possessions to achieve personal ends, is reprehensible in my view. A Houngan or Mambo may initiate their spouse, we can have intimate relationships with other Houngans or Mambos or Vodouisants in general, but not in the djevo and not within the context of Vodou ceremony.

In the context of Vodou, an initiatory Houngan or Mambo is a mother or a father to their initiates, not a sex partner! Our initiates call us "Mama" or "Papa", not "sexy baby"! During a Vodou dance, men and women dance individually, not in partners. A person who becomes obviously sexually aroused while dancing, and who tries to advance an agenda other than the service of the lwa, is immediately discouraged and may even be jeered by the congregation.

The Gede lwa are famous for lascivious behavior, but they are insensate cadavers who can feel nothing, nothing at all. They may wind and grind on a participant in a ceremony, and say all sorts of hysterically funny things, but they do not attempt actual relations with anyone and they do not use profanity to abuse and humiliate anyone.

There was a remarkable occurrence in Jacmel, Haiti, where the Roots without End Society peristyle is located, some years ago: a young woman was possessed by Gede, and a young man took advantage of this possession to have unwanted sexual relations with the young woman, who of course knew nothing about it until afterward, since she was possessed at the time. The Gede lwa said something to the young man like, "Ah! You are going to hold me down and do that, huh? You will see what you will see."

The young man found that after he raped the young woman, his erection did not subside, in fact his penis swelled to twice it's normal size and remained that way for two weeks! The young man was literally in agony, the family was frantic, and the only remedy was to make a very large cash gift to the young woman in order to persuade her to call her Gede lwa to her head, so that the young man could abjectly beg pardon. Finally the Gede relented on the grounds that the story of the young man's impropriety had spread far and wide, and no one would dare take advantage of his servant again, or the servant of any other Gede.

Although this young man and young woman were not related by initiation, the wrath of Guinea is likewise reserved for Houngans and Mambos who sexually exploit initiates and clients.



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