Claudia Yan
MHC Peopling of New York
4/30/2015
In “The Sacred Music and Dance of Haitian Vodou from Temple to Stage and the Ethics of Representaion” Louis Wilcken discusses the misrepresentation of Caribbean culture specifically, vodou. I find this topic particularly interesting because I have always been interested in practices involving magic. Often times religious practices involving magic such as vodou and Wicca are negatively depicted by Hollywood and other forms of media but the truth is these practices are not as bad as they are made to seem. This article discussed a little bit about the roots of vodou, its use as performance and the struggle to maintain traditional practices while keeping it as a performance for an audience.
Performance groups were created in Caribbean countries as a way to obtain permission to enter the United States during periods of political unrest in the home countries. It also served as a tourist attraction on the islands themselves, for tourists to witness “the real thing”. In the text it was mentioned how vodou was traditionally practices and passed on orally as the people who practiced it did not have the means to make actual records of their practices thus the inaccurate and exaggerated depictions made by Hollywood and authors would be what the outside world perceived of vodou. As a result of these portrayals performance groups struggled with how to break the outsiders understanding. Traditionally, a vodou ritual could take a day or more but performances would only take about an hour.
When I was doing research about Caribbean art in NYC I found an article from 1998 about a huge exhibit that the Brooklyn Museum held, showcasing art Haiti. It was noted that the artworks chosen were very stereotypical and selected to be more palatable for museumgoers at the time. Artwork with vodou references, as contemporary artworks were not shown, instead works consisted of more traditional works, with typical color schemes expected from the Caribbean. The exhibit was enormous with over 100 artworks displayed, there, as never been as large an exhibit of Caribbean art in well-known museums in NYC since. The problem with the exhibit was that it created a stereotypical understanding for the rest of the world of what Caribbean art consisted of. Caribbean artists struggled with complying with the demand for the stereotypical art and trying to get their other art noticed. Art is often used as a platform for political statements but the art that the outside world expected did not include that. I think today that struggle is not as prominent (at least in NYC) with cultural centers/museums focused on represented African and Caribbean art but the connection is still there that it is very difficult to break from stereotypes made by a society with more power and influence than your own.
This connection about stereotypes can be further extended to include the stereotypes that were made in Caribbean societies about rara. The movie that we watched in class discussed the rise of rara in NYC and how in Caribbean communities there was a negative view of rara, particularly amongst Christians, that rara was bad; popular understandings of rara included sacrifices, magic and the worshipping of satan. Even within a society there are misconceptions and even though some people might participate in the sacrifices and magic aspects of rara, there are people who are there to simply enjoy the rara as a coming together of their community.
Just as I mentioned how art is used as a platform to express political views, rara was also used to express political views when the Haitian government got overthrown. I think that rara might have had bad connotations to the Haitian community, but that was rara back home, when people migrate, things change. Even as time progresses, rara in the United States today, is different from rara when it first started. Based on the movie, rara is more about people coming together to dance, sing, and form a sort of chaotic harmony with each other. I also thought it was really adorable when the children participating in rara talked about how they view rara. The kids enjoy it, it is a time for them to experience the traditions of their culture and maintain that culture. One of the young girls mentioned that when the members of dja rara get old, the younger generation would take over. It is in this aspect that you can see that Caribbean culture will continue to be maintained through the next generation.
