Postcard From Haiti: August 2024 by Rick Forgham
Today August 14, 2024 is the two hundred and thirty third anniversary of the historical event known as The Bois Caiman Ceremony. According to both oral and written traditions it was on this night, deep in a forest not far from the city known at the time as Le Cap that a secret meeting took place which ended with a vodou ceremony that initiated the slave insurrection in Saint-Domingue.
The year was 1791 and the African born slaves who toiled on the plantations were ready to rise up in revolt against their French masters. In this powerful painting by Frantz Zephirin the viewer becomes a spectator of this world-changing event. Dutty Boukman, the leader and Houngan, wielding his ceremonial ason (ritual rattle), assisted by Cecilie Fatiman, an initiated manbo, are the central figures in the painting. Equally important to the narrative is the Creole pig whose blood will be shared by the participants bonding them together for the uprising that would begin within days. Back in the depths of the forest the faces of the assembled crowd are as numerous as the leaves on the trees, and a woman in the left foreground has already become possessed by a lwa.
The central tree under which the ceremony is taking place is a Mapou ( Kapok ) which is home to many of the spirits known as lwa who are consulted and worshiped by their followers. Notably present in the moonlit sky above the sacred Mapou are the spirits Ogou Ferai, the god of war who carries his battle sword raised high, and on the left, Ezili Danto considered by many to be the mother of Haiti.
The two central protagonists who played leading roles in this pivotal event were Dutty Boukman and Cecile Fatiman. They came from different backgrounds but shared a mutual desire for freedom and as leaders were able to rally their fellow slaves to the cause of wiping out slavery in the colony. I’ll try to provide a little background on these two important and historical persons….
Dutty Boukman was born around 1767 in what is now Senegal. He was captured and transported as a slave to Jamaica and later to Saint-Domingue where he reverted to his indigenous African religion ultimately becoming a Vodou oungan. He attempted to teach other slaves how to read and was later sold to a French plantation owner who elevated him to the position of slave leader and eventually a driver for the plantation’s coach. Some scholars believe that his French name came from his English nickname “Book Man” given the fact that he could read. Others believe that the name can be interpreted to have Islamic origins noting that “Man of the Book” is a synonym for a Muslim in many countries of the world. Not long after the uprising began Boukman was captured by the French and killed. His head displayed in the plaza of Le Cap in an attempt by the French to dispel the aura of invincibility that Boukman had created for himself.
Cecile Fatiman is believed to have been the daughter of an enslaved African woman and a Corsican prince who was living in the colony of Saint-Domingue. Oral tradition describes her as a tall, mixed-race woman with brilliant green eyes and possessing a fiery personality. From childhood Cecile and her mother were bought and sold as slaves and it was only later in her life that she was drawn to the Enlightenment ideals of liberty and equality which shaped her desire to bring to an end the institution of slavery in Saint-Domingue. As an initiated manbo she presided with Dutty Boukman over the meeting and ceremony at Bois Caiman. It was Cecile who sacrificed the Creole pig in an invocation to the lwa and tradition tells us that it was she who proclaimed Boukman to be "Commander-in-Chief" of the rebellion that was about to unfold.
What a night it was!….The events that followed would lead to years of bloodshed and war that gave birth to the first independent Black Republic and ultimately the country we know today as Haiti.
Rick Forgham August 2024
