Monique Dauphin: The Priestess of Montreal
Having lived here for more than 40 years, she is considered to be the flag bearer of the Haitian voodoo. This cult, concealed for several centuries in the registry of sorcery by the literary works of supposed anthropologists, is fervently practiced nowadays, in a constant interaction with the public.
An immigrant in Quebec, 68-year-old Monique Dauphin dismantled the prejudices against Haitian voodoo. It is prohibited to practice the art of voodoo in her family. However, she has known that she was a voodoo priestess after her divorce to the father of her children.
A lecturer in psychosociology of communication at the University of Quebec in Montreal (Uqam), Monique Dauphin retired this summer. Henceforth, she dedicates all of her time to the practice of voodoo in Montreal where she has officiated as a mambo (the voodoo priestess in Créole) for about fifteen years. She has already witnessed her children leaving the family house; but, not the loas (the divinities, especially the legba). Invisible to the human eye, these divinities dwell in the soul and the body of those who, at a young age and as many of her immigrated compatriots, had to flee from the dictatorial regime of the Duvaliers. The traditional garments for the cult of the guédé ( the spirit of death and of sexuality, symbolised by a human skull) are constantly spread close to her bed. The room, adjacent to her bedchamber, serves as a badji (a temple) and contains an assortment of objects and effigies indispensable to her, the mambo.
Form of spirituality
With its numerous incantations, magical potions and its complicated rhymes, the Haitian voodoo needs some adjustment, concedes Monique Dauphin. It is notably applied to the sacrifice of animals and the use of drums; this is the reason for the rigour shown by the legislation of Quebec. “Altogether a religion, a culture and medicine, the Haitian voodoo is a form of our spirituality. We carried this practice from Africa to Haiti, and now to Montreal,” indicates the priestess. Here, the environment and the legislation is different than in Haiti. The spirits guide us in the preparations of the rituals,” adds Monique, who has braids attached to a white scarf as immaculate as the chasuble she wears in order to preside over each ceremony.
“We ought to use all of our creative forces in order to find a way to experience our spirituality, she insists. We need the trees, the rivers, the sea and live animals. We cannot practice it as it is done in Haiti. However, the slaughterhouses have provided a specific place for the sacrifice of animals. It is a ritual. It is imperative to influence the animal to accept the sacrifice. It is peppered, powdered and washed,” she explains.
The drum is almost banned in order to avoid causing a sonorous nuisance and the intervention of the police. It is replaced by the voice or audio supports. Nevertheless, “the drum is not only musical, it is an energy in itself”, recognises the priestess with regret, obliged to accommodate herself as all the representatives and members of the Haitian Confederation of Voodoo Priests of Canada have to. “The rhythm of drums ensure the success of a voodoo ceremony, which confirms without a shadow of a doubt the complexity of this element,” defends Nicole Beaudry. The author of Language of Drums in the Haitian Voodoo Ceremony discovered, during her research, fifty rhythms that include the use of drums. “During the ceremonies, the devout worshippers are possessed by the drums and participate in this crisis of possession. Aided by his assistants, a priest chooses the liturgy of the day and, consequently, the loas that will be invoked; he also specifies to the drummers the rhythms to play to effectively attract these loas,” continues the author.
Primitive religion
In this mythology, the invoked spirit passes through the poteau-mitan 1 , at the centre of the péristyle 2 . The priest or the priestess illustrates the vèvè on the soil in order to call upon their Divinity. This particular drawing, traced with powder in the temples to invite the loas, is the only known form of written communication of the followers. The Haitian voodoo, as many other human cultures, developed in Montreal via speech as the sole means of transmission and via the individual memory as the sole means of conservation. The “possession” constitutes one of the characteristics of this cult. In their basements, turned into a badji, the priests and the priestesses “repel bad sorcery” and “purify” the soul of the worshippers, in spite of the synoptic installations. The followers also participate in those ceremonies to solve the various problems they face in their respective families and jobs. Nevertheless the practice of these beliefs brought from Haiti collide with a multi-faceted Christianism. An ancient battle not bound to the territory, that mambo Dauphin can barely tolerate: “The evangelists prompted by denigration attempt to reduce the Haitian voodoo to an obscure force.”
Jean Eddy Saint Paul, a researcher and professor at the University of Guanajuato (Mexico), asserts nonetheless that: “Voodoo is not a religion of orgies, it is not animistic, not a form of cannibalism, not a cult devoted to snakes, not a satanic religion.” Voodoo is practiced by the masses of the Haitian population and is comparable to the candomblé of Brazil, the santeria of Cuba and the dopkwe of Dahomey, notes the expert in sociology of religions. According to the sociologist Lamartine Petit- Monsieur the voodoo theology, as in all religious beliefs, exhibits: “an esoteric side opened to the public and a mystic side reserved solely for the insiders.” Considered as a primitive religion, it is present in the spirit of the followers and worshippers in Haiti and in Montreal. However, should we not concede to refer to it as “the Quebecois voodoo” influenced by the Haitian culture? Besides, it is already the case for the Haitian voodoo, that still kept its African roots four centuries after the arrival of the slaves in America.
Notes
Beaudry Nicole, “Language of drums in the Haitian voodoo Ceremony” Journal of music of the Canadian Universities, N° 4, 1983
1 The poteau mitan in the Voodoo vernacular refers to the peristyle of “ hounfor ” around which the worshippers or “hounsis” dance.
2 The peristyle is a kind of cottage in which the voodoo ceremonies take place. At the centre of these rooms, there is a “ poteau- mitan” that ensures the communication between the sky, where dwells the Inaccessible Master, and the terrestrial world.
Saint-Paul Jean Eddy, “The Secularism in Haiti: Sociological Approaches of a few epistemological and theoretical errors in recent debates”, History, World and Religious Cultures religieuses, N° 29, Karthala, Paris, 2014.