Vodou Culture 101: Waste Not
The economics which drive countries can be brutal to the people vodou most often serves, many of whom often face harsh condemnation by the US majority culture. They’re too brown. They’re strangers or immigrants. They don’t speak English fluently enough. They wear strange clothes or behave strangely. They’re too poor. The spirits, which are one of the most important parts of vodou, insist food be provided and will often stop spiritual parties to feed people with the comment that they can feel the hunger in the crowd. Part of the public services provided by vodou priests and spiritual workers, with the help of the temple or society, is public feeding. Priests and spiritual workers also often give food to the people they know who are struggling.
In the Caribbean and South America, many of the people who practice vodou are among the poorest, which is reflected in the attitude of the spirits toward sharing—it is a basic assumption of vodou that if you have an extra of something, or if you are in the position to do so, you will give to the people in the society who do not have what you do. Priests, if they can afford to and with the help of the spirits, will often buy land and allow their spiritual children to live on it or in it. A house which is owned by a priest often uses donated furniture, dishes, clothes, and linens in a riot of colors.
The priest themselves might not have bought much of the contents of their house mostly because if they have a dollar, it’s probably going to someone who needs it. There is no assumption that you are poor because you are not good enough, because god is angry at you, or because you didn’t think the right thoughts. Vodou is explicitly aware of racism, sexism, and the effect of generational poverty. It came out of slavery.
There is an assumption that, if given a chance, you will do your best to change your circumstance. We are warriors.
Contrast this with the US majority culture’s ideas about wealth, again driven by the effect of Abrahamic religions on the broader culture. While the holy books of all the Abrahamic religions call for donations to the poor and some degree of equitable treatment, in practice the portions of those books which are most often used to justify policy are instead the bits where god calls blessings on his favorites. If god has favorites and they are blessed with prosperity, anyone who isn’t blessed must not be god’s favorite, and there’s likely a reason for that.
It’s a short distance between that idea and policy that reflects a suspicion of the poor or anyone who isn’t currently affluent, which is quite often people with darker skin who aren’t fluent in the local language and dress funny.
For this reason, voudouizans don’t throw much away. If you’re getting rid of something in a vodou house or society, you immediately call around and find out if anyone needs it.
The spirits condemn wastefulness because their children suffer. While not every child is starving and homeless, it’s not really good for the more affluent ones to live as if their affluence does not matter.
