by John Cussans

a talk (with film clips) presented at the Feels Like Vodou Spirit - Haitian Art, Culture, Religion exhibition at The October Gallery, London - 14 October 2000

In 1972, the Anthology Film Archives in New York received from Grove Press five cartons of film. They contained the footage that Maya Deren had shot while in Haiti but had been unable to edit before her death in 1961 (the film presented earlier was an edit made by Cherel and Teiji Ito in 1985). A rudimentary description of the contents reads as follows: "The entire set of Haitian reels is markedly similar and repetitious in content with few exceptions. For the most part the action involves Haitian people involved in Voudoun ritual and dancing. This includes mystical drawings made on the ground, the oft-repeated sacrifice of chickens or cocks and small goats, accompanied by seated drummers, There are several instances of apparent religious hysteria and about 400 feet of Mardi Gras parade." (quote from Anthology Film Archives, Linda Patton, 1972)

The important words for the purposes of this presentation are 'apparent religious hysteria'. It expresses a paradox peculiar to ethnography when it attempts to represent an intimate subjective experience through an objectifying-authenticating mechanism like documentary cinema. It begs the question "what would footage of substantive religious hysteria look like"? It is also characteristic of classical ethnography to frame the religious experiences of non-western peoples within psycho-pathological categories peculiar to the west, such as hysteria. Deren was acutely aware of these complex cultural paradoxes and they may well have contributed to her difficulty in editing the Haiti footage. I will return to problems associated with representation, authenticity, the supernatural and mental illness throughout this presentation. In so doing I hope to show that just out-of-shot of Voodoo Terror the mental asylum looms large.

The proposed title for this presentation was 'Voodoo Terror: Metaphors of Contagion and Western Cultural Anxiety'. The 'metaphors of contagion' have gone. They were a reference to Barbara Browning's Infectious Rhythm: Metaphors of Contagion and the Spread of African Culture (Routledge, 1998). This book has been a great influence on my understanding of the uses of voodoo in US and European culture, but as I began to think about western anxieties associated with what I'm calling the Voodoo Construct, I realised that contagion was not a pronounced component. However, there is an article, cited by Browning, which points more directly to my concerns. In the chapter entitled 'Babaluaiyé:Diaspora as Pandemic' Browning quotes an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association: 'Night of the Living Dead II: Slow Virus Encaphalopathies and AIDS: Do Necromantic Zombiists Transmit HTLV III/LAV During Voodooistic Rituals?'. What is important here is the framing of a grave socio-medical issue in terms of popular cinematic (mis)representations of voodoo. The effect is deliberately comical. It is a remarkable example of how the Voodoo Construct could be used to shape western reactions and responses to the ethnic and racial distribution of AIDS while simultaneously using AIDS as another justification for the suppression of Vodou in Haiti.

For reasons which will hopefully become clear, an alternative title for this talk could have been 'Voodooistic Terror: Do representations of Voodoo in Popular Culture transmit Anti-Haitian Propaganda in the Interests of Western Imperialism?'

The spelling of voodoo in my title is important. The distinction between v-oo-d-oo and v-o-d-ou is a fundamental but slippery one. The only secure consensus amongst scholars and practitioners of the religion in question seems to be that, however Vodou is spelt, it should not be spelt v-oo-d-oo. On the other hand, amongst people who have heard the word but who have little or no knowledge of the culture from which it derives, the proper spelling of 'whatever it is' is v-oo-d-oo. Obviously there is more at stake here than a simple argument about correct/incorrect spelling. The contestations are ripe for discursive analysis; What is at stake in each of the contested spellings (vodou, vodoun, vodu, vodun, vaudu etc)? What arguments are given in support of each? What are discursive histories of their legitimation/de-legitimation, etc? In this presentation I am specifically addressing the thing spelled v-oo-d-oo; 'whatever it is'. I define voodoo as a set of ubiquitous and enduring, popular cultural motifs evoked by the word for people outside of societies where Vodou is a lived religion. This set of motifs I will call the Voodoo Construct. It is made up of four predominant interwoven motifs which recur whenever someone who has no special knowledge is asked to describe what voodoo is. For the current purposes the Voodoo Construct is made up of (i) the voodoo doll, (ii) the zombie, (iii) the voodoo witch-doctor and (iv) voodoo possession. I've tried to think of the construct primarily in subjective and interpersonal terms rather than objective, academic ones. It is 'my' voodoo construct while simultaneously it has 'nothing to do with me'. I approach it like a rumour, a general idea, something picked up from the cultural ether. It is based on recollections and experiences of a deliberately informal and unofficial character. I have attempted to think it from the inside out, from a position of intentional naivety. The only support for my basic claims come from casual conversations with acquaintances. I have asked various people the question, "What are the first things that come to mind when you think of Voodoo?" Their responses have been remarkably similar to my own. Try it.