Forgotten Story: The Culture of Sugar
On 14 October 1492, Christopher Columbus touched land after leaving Spain on the islands known as Guanahaní, today called the Bahamas. Taking slaves (he was a slave owner, too), two months later, on 5 December, he landed on the island of Taino. In a typical conquering manner, renaming it La Isla Española, or The Spanish Island, later called Hispaniola. Today, Hispaniola is divided—the Dominican Republic on the east and Haiti on the west.
Knowing the culture of the Caribbean well, for the
@NatGeo story, The Culture of Sugar (read the first sugar caption in my IG), Haiti is unique…in Haitian Vodou, sugar is of spiritual importance.
Vodou came with slaves forced from central and western Africa to Haiti shortly after Columbus. This most special, beautifully unique form of spirituality is often misunderstood and interwoven in Haitian culture.
@RegineParicia , a specialist in Haitian culture, knew of a Rada lwa ceremony 30 km (about 20 mi) from Port-au-Prince. Traveling with filmmaker
@AnkaVision (Anka was creating a NatGeo TV Amazing Photos documentary for this chapter on sugar), we were welcomed by the community of Dumilseau Village in La Plaine into rituals, healings, and trance like nowhere else on earth.
Why sugar and vodou?
Sugar is essential in Haitian Vodou–many spirits require sweet, sugary substances.
Intricate patterns of religious symbols, called Veve’s, are created on the earth using flour, ground coffee, and offerings of sugar…sodas, and Barbancourt rum, made from sugarcane.
A table-like altar was created for the Cra Bi Nay Ceremony to honor the spirit Bossou, adorned with orange sodas, Coca-Cola, and candies.
Before a cow was sacrificed, many went into a trance, pouring sugary rum over their bodies and making offerings of sugar to the spirits. Others were healed with soda. Music was hypnotic, a reminder of the rhythms I heard as a child living in the Bahamas playing with my classmates at their homes, some of whom were of Haitian descent.
A short film in this album shares this beautiful intensity where sugar and spirituality merge.
@NatGeo #haiti #vodou #sugar #spirituality #CultureOfSugar #ForgottenStory