Bondye, also known Gran Maître (Haitian Creole: Gran Mèt),[1] is the supreme creator god in the African diasporic religion of Haitian Vodou. Vodouists believe Bondye was responsible for creating the universe and everything in it, and that he maintains the universal order. They nevertheless deem him to be transcendent and thus inaccessible to humans, who must instead interact with spirits called lwas.

Vodou developed among Afro-Haitian communities amid the Atlantic slave trade of the 16th to 19th centuries. It arose through the blending of the traditional religions brought to the island of Hispaniola by enslaved West Africans, many of them Yoruba or Fon, and the Roman Catholic teachings of the French colonialists who controlled the island. Bondye took his name from the French language term Bon Dieu ("Good God"). Conceptually, Bondye occupied the role played by God in Roman Catholicism and other forms of Christianity, as well as that of the supreme deity found in various African traditional religions.

Bondye in Haitian theology

Teaching the existence of single supreme God,[2] Vodou has been described as monotheistic.[3] This entity, the creator of the universe, is called the Bondye or Gran Mèt. The word Bondye is derived from the French Bon Dieu ("Good God").[4] For Vodouists, Bondye is seen as the ultimate source of power,[5] deemed responsible for maintaining universal order.[6] Bondye is also regarded as remote and transcendent,[7] not involving itself in human affairs;[8] there is thus little point in approaching it directly.[9] Haitians will frequently use the phrase si Bondye vle ("if Bondye is willing"), suggesting a belief that all things occur in accordance with this divinity's will.[4]

The scholar of religion Leslie Desmangles referred to Bondye as "the Godhead".[10] While Vodouists often equate Bondye with the Christian God,[11] Vodou does not incorporate belief in a powerful antagonist that opposes the supreme being akin to the Christian notion of Satan.[12]

Bondye occupies the role played by the Christian God in Christianity and by the supreme deity in various African traditional religions.[13]

Cosmology and mythology

Vodou teaches that one of Bondye's first creations was the sun, the appearance of which was necessary for all others things, including laws and humans, to exist.[14] It holds that Bondye then created humanity in his own image out of clay and water.[15]

References

Citations

Sources

  • Anderson, Jeffrey (2008). Hoodoo, Voodoo, and Conjure: A Handbook. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0313342219.
  • Apter, Andrew (2002). "On African Origins: Creolization and Connaissance in Haitian Vodou". American Ethnologist. 29 (2): 233–260. doi:10.1525/ae.2002.29.2.233.
  • Beasley, Myron M. (2010). "Vodou, Penises and Bones: Ritual Performances of Death and Eroticism in the Cemetery and the Junk Yard of Port-au-Prince". Performance Research. 15 (1): 41–47. doi:10.1080/13528165.2010.485762. S2CID 194097863.
  • Brown, Karen McCarthy (1991). Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-22475-2.
  • Desmangles, Leslie (1992). The Faces of the Gods: Vodou and Roman Catholicism in Haiti. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0807843932.
  • Fandrich, Ina J. (2007). "Yorùbá Influences on Haitian Vodou and New Orleans Voodoo". Journal of Black Studies. 37 (5): 775–791. doi:10.1177/0021934705280410. JSTOR 40034365. S2CID 144192532.
  • Fernández Olmos, Margarite; Paravisini-Gebert, Lizabeth (2011). Creole Religions of the Caribbean: An Introduction from Vodou and Santería to Obeah and Espiritismo (second ed.). New York and London: New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-6228-8.
  • Hebblethwaite, Benjamin (2015). "The Scapegoating of Haitian Vodou Religion: David Brooks's (2010) Claim That "Voodoo" is a "Progress-Resistant" Cultural Influence". Journal of Black Studies. 46 (1): 3–22. doi:10.1177/0021934714555186. S2CID 54828385.
  • Métraux, Alfred (1972) [1959]. Voodoo in Haiti. Translated by Hugo Charteris. New York: Schocken Books.
  • Michel, Claudine (1996). "Of Worlds Seen and Unseen: The Educational Character of Haitian Vodou". Comparative Education Review. 40 (3): 280–294. doi:10.1086/447386. JSTOR 1189105. S2CID 144256087.
  • Ramsey, Kate (2011). The Spirits and the Law: Vodou and Power in Haiti. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-70379-4.
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