Who Is Papa Legba, The Vodou Link Between The Human And Spirit ...

Before we can understand who Papa Legba is, we need to understand the Haitian practice of Vodou (also referred to as Vodoun or Vodun). "Vodou" is the commonly used spelling for the religion in official Haitian Creole and among scholars in general. The once-common spelling "Voodoo" is no longer used to avoid confusion with Louisiana Voodoo, which is a related but distinct set of religious practices, and to separate the tradition from any negative connotations that the term Voodoo has picked up over the years.

Papa Legba has his origins in the historic West African kingdom of Dahomey — a country known today as Benin. Enslaved people brought indigenous spiritual traditions with them from Dahomey to the Americas and the Caribbean, including knowledge of lwas like Papa Legba.

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The Yorùbá people in Nigeria also worship a spirit, known as Esu or Elegba, who is similar to Papa Legba and such spirits can also be found in the cultures of Brazil and Cuba. "In Yorùbá traditions, Esu takes on a similar role [to Legba] as mediator between worlds," Daniels says.

But in Haiti, slaves transformed lwa like Papa Legba into the basis for the religion of Vodou, which centers around lwa and patron saints. Historically, Vodou served as both a spiritual practice and as a means for slaves to resist French colonialism. Today, Vodou also plays an important role in mental health and healing in Haiti.

"Vodou has been historically maligned because it is a liberatory tradition that empowered Haitians to gain their independence from the French," Daniels says.

Raphael Hoermann is a lecturer in English literature at England's University of Central Lancashire who studies the Haitian Revolution and North and Black Atlantic narratives of slavery. He says, "Often Vodun ceremonies were outlawed under the slave regime" though he also adds that the exact impact of Vodou in the Haitian Revolution is somewhat disputed.

As the Haitian diaspora expanded across the globe, so, too, did Vodou among the Black diaspora in the U.S.

"In Haiti, Vodou is everywhere you go. In the U.S., it tends to be concentrated only in places where Haitians live in diaspora, such as Miami, New York City and Boston," Tamara L. Siuda says in an email interview. Siuda, also known as Mambo Chita Tann, is a priestess or "mambo" of Haitian Vodou and author of the booklet "Legba."

The practice of Vodou in Louisiana also has its origins in Haitian Vodou. As West African slaves and free Black individuals fled revolution in the French Caribbean, Vodou became integrated into local Catholicism in Louisiana.

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