Status Updates From Creole Religions of the Car...

There seem to be two kinds of religion.Those that say they are the only religion eg. Protestant Christianity & Islam.Others see themselves as one path, Voudou &Judaism.When those 2 sorts butt up against each other, there is conflict.Catholicsm solved this by allowing syncretism. All religions get mixed up in politics too: the religion of power is the one which the people in power espouse & in that lies the conflict.

Pentacostalist missionaries are making life difficult as Catholicism & Voudou were easily syncretised, both having a lot of lwas or saints, ceremonies, scents, songs, magical transformations & myths.Voudou bath cures are no stranger than having a dunk in Lourdes. f one works,why not the other? t's all a matter of belief?Or the placebo effect. But Pentacostalism won't stand for mysteries. How will this be resolved?

Finished with Cuba on to Haiti.The basis for the dominance of Voudou in Haiti is that after independence in 1806 the Catholic Church,disgusted with what the new Black rulers of Haiti required left until 1860.The empty churches were liminal spaces, now used for the worship of African-based Voudou syncretized with Catholic saints and also becoming political.This book is really interesting but needs major concentration.