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Voodoo Mysteries. The Slave's Revolution | Culture - Planet Doc Full Documentaries

Published on Feb 22, 2014Voodoo Mysteries documentary. The Slaves' Revolution

The slave trade with the New World was started not long after the Discovery of America. For more than three centuries, slave-ships continued with their sinister voyages loaded with their dreadful human cargo. Millions of people were captured in Africa and sold in America. By the end of the 18th Century, in Haiti alone, there was a population of more than 2,900,000 African slaves.

After becoming a French possession in 1697, Haiti soon became America's biggest producer of sugar and also one of the places with the highest number of slaves in the world. 

The living conditions of the Africans confined in these yards were atrocious. After suffering the hardships of a voyage, where normally 20% of the slaves died, they arrived at the auctions exhausted and ill. Families were separated and the individual members were sold to different settlers. Parents and children would never meet again.
The overseers meted out severe punishments to those who did not work flat out and the hunters of fugitive slaves subjected their prisoners to exemplary treatment which often resulted in death. Many succumbed to the wounds caused by heavy shackles, or dehydrated in the sun whilst chained to these sinister crosses.
By the end of the 18th Century the black population had reached about 3 million and there were ever-increasing problems controlling them. The blacks that escaped, known as "browns", hid in the mountains and organised themselves in very large rebel groups.

The rumours about the French Revolution gave new strength to the rebels. Boukman, the leader of the browns, organised a great secret ceremony in BOIS CAIMAN. That night on 14th August 1791, a black pig was sacrificed and all those present drank its blood. The revolution of the slaves had begun. The message was very clear: cut off heads, burn houses and destroy plantations. In a few days more than a thousand whites were killed. The terrified white settlers started the legend that the blacks had made a pact with the devil that night in BOIS CAIMAN.

Voodoo Mysteries. The Origin | Culture

Published on Feb 23, 2014"The Voodoo Mysteries. The origin" Documentary

Voodoo is a religion that is very closely linked with nature and many of its deities dwell in rivers, valleys and mountains. There are many natural settings which are real sanctuaries. The faithful retreat to these places to meditate and meet their luas, or family spirits, and the principle forces of the Universe. These are spiritual observatories that enable them to communicate with the Great Beyond.

Voodoo determines and presides over Haitian society, it is always present in a world where everything that happens, be it good or bad, is attributed to the direct intervention of the spirits.

Limonat beach is a place of pilgrimage. Preachers from the most distant parts of the country come here to perform Guiné ceremonies and beseech the favour of Erzuli, mother Earth, the Goddess of Love, who is identified in syncretism with the Virgin Mary. In the shade of the sacred trees, families take turns to perform their ceremonies. They mainly offer food and rum and wait for Erzuli to appear, for her to take possession of someone's body. 

Erzuli likes to flirt, and seduces people without distinguishing between sexes. She may enter the body of a man or of a woman, but everybody will immediately recognise her because of her suggestive movements. Each preacher recognises different beings in this possession. Its syncretic translation would be the Virgin of High Grace, the Black Virgin or the Virgin of Monte Carmelo and sometimes St Philomena, identified in voodoo with a siren who comes out of the sea or of fresh water.

Each lua has different colours, so different coloured scarves are used to call them. White kaolin powder is also used to attract certain deities and to identify them. Each person may marry his protective lua. They gather their relations and witnesses together and go to the OUNFO or voodoo temple, where a mystic wedding is held. From this moment on, the earthly spouse will have to abstain from sexual intercourse on certain days specified by his lua. 

Post Katrina New Orleans Voodoo Documentary

Published on Sep 23, 2015
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Loyola oral history documentary with Bloody Mary, Mambo Gina and Conjureman Orion. 2013 film

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