Comparing the Vodou Lakou and the Negro Church

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The Negro Church and the Haitian Vodou Lakou were both birthed as sacred Black institutions in response to conditions during and after enslavement, displacement, as well as social, economic, and political exclusion.  Theologically, each institution differs in cosmology. 

The Negro Church was structured based on Christian frameworks that emphasize the teachings of Jesus Christ and his disciples as prescribed in the Bible, the repentance of sins, and personal salvation. It is important to note that the theological iteration of Christianity that is central to the Negro Church in the United States is different from Christianity that was present pre-enslavement in Africa. 

For example, Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity that has been practiced throughout Africa since the 4th century, hundreds of years before enslavement.  In the Christian church, the divine is understood as a trinity – God, the Father, the Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. All Negro Churches, regardless of their denomination, adhere to this doctrinal framework.

The Haitian Vodou lakou is structured on honoring a pantheon of divinities that represent four natural elements (e.g., water, earth, fire, and air), achieving reciprocal harmony and balance through the laws of the universe, and a reverence for healing, community, ancestors, nature, and the animals.  In the Lakou, the divine is understood as a superstructure pantheon of spirits derived from dozens of African regions, cultures, and traditions, including Taino, European mysticism, Muslim, Egyptian, and Roman Catholic religious influences led by the trinity divinities, Nana Bukulu, Mawu, and Lisa. 

 From a liberative perspective, the lakou was intentionally designed after the Haitian Revolution (post slavery) to prevent a return to the plantation structure, as a means of land ownership.[1]   Central to each lakou was the peristil, which held all religious rituals and ceremonies that were held within the family compound.  In this context freedom of Vodou practice was also focused on intergenerational wealth building.   

Theologically, the Negro Church is divine masculine led whereas in the Lakou it is divine feminine led. Communally, the Negro Church and the Haitian Vodou Lakou are strikingly similar.  Both institutions focused on Black preservation, a path to liberation and freedom, a call to spiritual community and leadership, as well as collective survival under the heavy oppressive conditions Black people experienced within the diaspora. 

Photo Credit:  The Negro Church, South Carolina