Benjamin Hebblethwaite - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Benjamin Hebblethwaite
African American Studies Center, 2016
The Green Industries Best Management Practices (GI-BMP) Training Program is mandatory by Florida ... more The Green Industries Best Management Practices (GI-BMP) Training Program is mandatory by Florida statute for those applying fertilizer commercially in the urban landscape. The program promotes landscaping practices that minimize the impacts of nonpoint sources of pollution. Input from industry owners and local University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) extension agents identified Haitian Creole-speaking workers as an underserved audience. A Creole-based GI-BMP training program was developed that included translating class materials, procuring funding, recruiting instructors and building partnerships between Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ (FFL), Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), UF/IFAS extension agents and specialists, industry owners and University of Florida translators. This resulted in the creation of a Haitian–Creole version of all GI-BMP program materials, the recruitment and training of three Creole-fluent instructors, and...
Journal of Universal Language, 2002
The study of Chronixx’s songs introduces English readers to Jamaica’s Patwa writing system, langu... more The study of Chronixx’s songs introduces English readers to Jamaica’s Patwa writing system, language, and culture of song in order to share information about them and to encourage more research in this vibrant area. The Patwa text and footnotes provide a synchronic snapshot of Jamaican Patwa, while this essay studies the lexical and ideological aspects of the songs. Few reggae songs have received serious orthographic treatment, analysis of their lexical content, or close readings of their meanings in relation to the sources of Rastafari. The task is worthwhile because reggae songs provide a widely celebrated peoples’ critique of colonial legacies.
Type de publication: Article de collectif Collectif: Les Métropoles francophones européennes en t... more Type de publication: Article de collectif Collectif: Les Métropoles francophones européennes en temps de globalisation Auteur: Hebblethwaite (Benjamin) Résumé: Cet article examine le champ lexical islamique du rap français et analyse son impact dans le vernaculaire parisien avec un questionnaire rempli par 73 participants. Le contexte sociolinguistique, la méthodologie déployée et le profil sociolinguistique des participants sont présentés.
This essay introduces the Arabic lexical field in German rap lyrics. The topic is understudied in... more This essay introduces the Arabic lexical field in German rap lyrics. The topic is understudied in the German scholarly literature and there are only a handful of articles that explore Arabic influences in urban German. Hip-hop music spread from the United States to France and Germany in the mid-1980s and has become a behemoth of their respective music industries since the mid-1990s. In Germany, the descendants of Arabic-speaking or Muslim immigrants (i.e. Turkish, Bosnian, Iranian, etc.), have become a significant presence in the genre over the last two decades. Arabic lexical influences are increasing. The Arabic lexicon in German rap lyrics can be divided into the religious, the everyday standard, and Arabic slang based on the semantic fields displayed in rap texts themselves. In order to illustrate Arabic borrowings in German rap, I propose two approaches. First, a rap text by Alpa Gun and PA Sports illustrates some of the ways that rappers make use of the Arabic Islamic lexical ...
francophones européennes en temps de globalisation Type de publication: Collectif Directrice d'ou... more francophones européennes en temps de globalisation Type de publication: Collectif Directrice d'ouvrage: Gadet (Françoise) Préfacier: North (Xavier) Résumé: Un cadre de sociolinguistique urbaine permet d'aborder les rapports entre villes et langues. Ces quinze articles étudient neuf métropoles ou grandes villes européennes où le français est en jeu en montrant comment la ville affecte les pratiques langagières (parlers jeunes, effets du plurilinguisme, contacts de langues). Nombre de pages: 335
A Transatlantic History of Haitian Vodou focuses on the influence of the kingdoms of Dahomey, All... more A Transatlantic History of Haitian Vodou focuses on the influence of the kingdoms of Dahomey, Allada, and Hueda in the emergence of central rites in Haitian Vodou. Connecting four centuries of political, social, and religious history with fieldwork and language documentation, this book analyzes Haitian Vodou’s African origins, transmission to Saint-Domingue, and promulgation through song in contemporary Haiti. The African chapters focus on history, economics and culture in Dahomey, Allada, and Hueda while scrutinizing the role of Europeans in fomenting tensions. The political, military, and slave trading histories of the kingdoms in the Bight of Benin reveal the circumstances of enslavement, including the geographies, ethnicities, languages, and cultures of enslavers and enslaved. The study of the spirits, rituals, and music of the region’s religions sheds light on important sources for Haitian Vodou. Having royal, public, and private expressions, Vodun spirit-based traditions served as cultural systems that supported or contested power and enslavement. At once suppliers and victims of the European slave trade, Aja, Fon, and Yoruba people deeply shaped the emergence of Haiti’s creolized culture. The Haitian chapters focus on Vodou’s Rada Rite (from Allada) and Gede Rite (from Abomey) through the songs of Rasin Figuier’s Vodou Lakay and Rasin Bwa Kayiman’s Guede, rasin compact discs released on Jean Altidor’s Miami label, “Mass Kompa Records.” All the Vodou songs on the discs are analyzed with a method dubbed “Vodou hermeneutics” that harnesses history, religious studies, linguistics, literary criticism, and ethnomusicology in order to advance a scholarly approach to Vodou songs.
A Transatlantic History of Haitian Vodou, 2021
Chapter 2 examines Dahomian theology and the major traits of Vodun, including organization, hiera... more Chapter 2 examines Dahomian theology and the major traits of Vodun, including organization, hierarchy, practices, and rituals like initiation and the Annual Feast of the vodun (spirits), as well as the place of amulets, the tovodun, and the role of prohibitions in the service of spirits. The aim is to reveal Haitian Vodou’s African religious foundations. Discussions include the music of initiation, the relation of music to possession, and spiritual categories in Vodun religion. The naturalization of foreign vodun in Dahomian royal religion reveals ancient syncretistic approaches to conquest. The Aja-Fon spirits examined include the personal vodun Legba, the divination spirit Fa, the python vodun Dangbe and Dan, the panther vodun Agasu, plus Adjahouto, Hebyoso, Aizan, Loko, Djisò, Dan-aïdô-ouêdo, Lënsouhouè, the tohosu, Mahu and Lisa the creator couple, Sakpata, and the sacred twins. Hueda’s Dangbe temple and the politics surrounding the Dahomian King’s re-ranking of temples in 1727 are examined.
A Transatlantic History of Haitian Vodou, 2021
Chapter 1 focuses on the political, economic, military, and religious history of the royal famili... more Chapter 1 focuses on the political, economic, military, and religious history of the royal families of Dahomey, Allada, and Hueda between 1500 and 1800. All three focused on slave trading with Europeans. Gedevi-Yoruba expanded into Aja lands while rising tensions between Europeans and the Aja coastal population caused an Aja exodus to the Gedevi-Yoruba hinterland of the Abomey plateau. The Aja Agasuvi family established Dahomey there and sold threatening Gedevi. The biographies of Dahomian kings Dako, Agaja, and Tegbesu shed light on their slave trading, including the circumstances of enslavement, and how the African-side of the system impacted Saint-Domingue and Haiti. Royal Vodun culture and power are examined, including the use of relics and human sacrifice at the Annual Customs. Agaja’s invasion of Allada in 1724 and Hueda in 1727 were events that bled into Haitian Vodou history since many of the residents were sold to traders bound for Saint-Domingue.
A Transatlantic History of Haitian Vodou, 2021
Royalist Christians and royalist Vodunist counterparts led enslaver classes. The king of Dahomey’... more Royalist Christians and royalist Vodunist counterparts led enslaver classes. The king of Dahomey’s grandiosity and royal religion that included mass human sacrifices to dead kings, were sharply distinct from the spirit-based traditions of the people he and his armies enslaved. Captured in raids, convicted of crimes, debts or adultery, multitudes were adjudicated for sale. Dahomey, Allada, and Hueda raided neighbours who in turn raided them. Centuries of raiding between Dahomey and Oyo kingdoms are reflected in Haitian Vodou’s complex layers. This book explores Africa and Haiti as distinct worlds in a dialectical historical relationship. Reading for the transatlantic history of Haitian Vodou recovers Africa’s impact on Haiti and Haiti’s significance for understanding Africa’s past and present. Breaking with the compartmentalization that splits Haitian from African studies, and from the dominant “post-disembarkation” orientation to Haitian history, the dialectical, hermeneutical and transatlantic approaches seek new understandings of Haitian Vodou.
A Transatlantic History of Haitian Vodou, 2021
Chapter 4 explores the history and content of the Gede Rite. Research on the social and theologic... more Chapter 4 explores the history and content of the Gede Rite. Research on the social and theological characteristics of the Gede spirits and their representations, rituals, and services are examined. More than 40 spirits from the Gede family are introduced along with key linguistic and cultural features. The Gede spirits, especially Bawon Samdi and Grann Brijit, are analyzed in the context of the cemetery, the dead, magic, morality, and migration. The chapter includes 26 Haitian Creole and English facing-page songs by the contemporary Vodou group “Rasin Bwa Kayiman” that focus on Gede Rite themes and spirits, including Gede Nouvavou, Jan Simon Britis, Bawon Lakwa, children, Bawon Kriminèl, betiz (“vulgarity”), Gwo Wòch, Mazaka Lakwa, Gede Nibo, Kwa Marasa, Kwa Senbo, evangelicals, interreligious strife, sex-workers, AIDS, oral sex, genital secretions, chante pwen (“point song”), Mòpyon Lakwa, and Jipitè Lakwa. Vodou hermeneutics explicates the Gede Rite’s links to sexuality, healing, and death.
A Transatlantic History of Haitian Vodou, 2021
Chapter 3 analyzes the history and content of the Rada Rite, including its ceremony, cycles of sa... more Chapter 3 analyzes the history and content of the Rada Rite, including its ceremony, cycles of salutation, stations of salutation, and rituals. The names of 102 Rada Rite spirits are provided with linguistic and cultural features. The chapter includes 25 Haitian Creole and English facing-page songs by the contemporary Vodou group “Rasin Figuier” that focus on Rada Rite themes and spirits, including Ginen, ounsi kanzo (“initiates”), Papa Legba, Gran Chemen, Marasa, Lesen, Bondye (“God”), Loko, the angel Gabriel, Agaou, Ayizan, Danbala Wèdo, Ayida Wèdo, Vodou flags, the white of Rada, Èzili Freda, Agwe Tawoyo, Nago Rite songs for Ogou Balizay and Olicha, plus a few chante pwen (“songs of criticism”) that address political feuding, literacy, and national unity. The method of Vodou hermeneutics reads in history, religious studies, linguistics, literary criticism, and ethnomusicology to interpret Rasin Figuier’s Rada songs focused on life, order, and rootedness.
Stirring the Pot of Haitian History is an original translation of Ti difé boulé sou istoua Ayiti ... more Stirring the Pot of Haitian History is an original translation of Ti difé boulé sou istoua Ayiti (1977), the first book written by Haitian anthropologist Michel-Rolph Trouillot. Challenging understandings of Haitian history, Trouillot analyzes the pivotal role of self-emancipated revolutionaries in the Haitian Revolution and War of Independence (1791-1804), a generation of people who founded the modern Haitian state and advanced Haiti’s vibrant contemporary cultures. This book confronts the problems of self-serving politicians and the racial mythologizing of historical figures like Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Toussaint Louverture and André Rigaud. The author denounces corruption and racism as hereditary maladies received from the hyper-racist slave society of the French colony of Saint-Domingue. Trouillot also examines the socio-economic and political contradictions and inequalities of Saint-Domingue, traces the unravelling of the colony’s racist economic system after the revolts of 17...
Journal of Universal Language, 2002
Journal of Black Studies, 2014
Shortly after the catastrophic earthquake that crushed Port-au-Prince and the surrounding towns o... more Shortly after the catastrophic earthquake that crushed Port-au-Prince and the surrounding towns on January 12, 2010, The New York Times published an article in which columnist David Brooks claimed that “voodoo” is a “progress-resistant” cultural influence because it spreads the message that “life is capricious and planning futile.” Alongside Brooks, many authors promote similar views, especially Christians. I argue that Vodou does not negatively affect progress in Haiti. Rather, there are historical, linguistic, and governmental policies that limit progress. In reality, Vodou practitioners enhance progress in their attention to the planning and giving of ceremonies, in the hierarchical organization they establish in communities, in their ritual and language, and in the education imparted through inheritance, teaching, and initiation. The scapegoating of Vodou by Brooks and others perpetuates a racist colonial legacy, and it betrays an ignorance of the community and the abundant rese...
Journal of French Language Studies, 2016
With Haitian Creole, Albert Valdman breaks new ground in yet another outstanding publication. His... more With Haitian Creole, Albert Valdman breaks new ground in yet another outstanding publication. His many single-authored and multiple-authored books and dictionaries form one of the more influential forces in Haitian Creole and Louisiana Creole linguistics. His Haitian Creole-English Bilingual Dictionary (Valdman et al., 2007) – to cite but one of the many dictionary projects he has directed – is an indispensable reference work in Haitian Creole studies. That dictionary, and now this rich analytical study of Haitian Creole, are great contributions to linguistics and Haitian Creole studies. Both works vastly raise the profile among linguists of this important Caribbean language. The latest addition is also a wonderful resource for graduate and undergraduate students in Haitian studies, provided they have completed at least a handful of courses in linguistics. I used this book on two occasions in an undergraduate introduction to Haitian Creole linguistics and found that, while advanced students grasp the discussions, it is not well suited for inexperienced undergraduates. Courses with large numbers of beginners in the field of linguistics could, however, be assigned shorter passages, a possibility the book makes fully available thanks to its meticulous organization (12 chapters preceded by an introduction). Each of the chapters deals with a different sub-discipline of linguistics: phonology (chapter 2), variation in word forms (chapter 3), spelling (chapter 4), structure (chapter 5) and origin (chapter 6) of the lexicon, basic sentence structure (chapter 7), the verbal system (chapter 8), the structure of noun phrases (chapter 9), complex sentences (chapter 10), variation in Haitian Creole (chapter 11), language planning and language choice in education (chapter 12), and genesis and development of Haitian Creole (chapter 13). The strengths displayed by this encyclopedic body of knowledge are numerous. Each chapter is carefully researched, providing a wealth of references for further study. Key findings across the field of Haitian Creole linguistics and creolistics at large are nicely synthesized. Native speaker examples are provided for every notion and argument, offering a valuable starting point for student researchers. The book also presents a national – rather than the typically exclusively Port-au-Princian – perspective on the language. Some of the findings resulting from fieldwork undertaken on northern varieties of Haitian Creole, for which the author and his research team from Indiana University received National Science Foundation funding, are presented in chapter 11, which offers many insights into geographical, phonological, and sociolinguistic variation and change, including a fine-grained analysis of four Capois Creole variants (3SG, POSS, WITH, TO GO), based on responses from speakers of urban and rural varieties. Peppered throughout the chapter, and the entire book, are lively examples of spontaneous speech that were collected in Haiti, meticulously transcribed, and translated. The research questions, methodology, and results of this chapter are one-of-a-kind in Creole studies. The book’s weaker passages are found primarily in the final two chapters. Chapter 12 on language planning and language choice in education introduces the reader to the linguistic situation in Haiti, where one language, Haitian Creole, is spoken by the entire population but has low standing, while another language, Haitian French, is spoken by no more than 10 per cent of the population but has high standing, dominating schools and the formal sector. Although Valdman provides the usual minute-level of detail,
African American Studies Center, 2016
The Green Industries Best Management Practices (GI-BMP) Training Program is mandatory by Florida ... more The Green Industries Best Management Practices (GI-BMP) Training Program is mandatory by Florida statute for those applying fertilizer commercially in the urban landscape. The program promotes landscaping practices that minimize the impacts of nonpoint sources of pollution. Input from industry owners and local University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) extension agents identified Haitian Creole-speaking workers as an underserved audience. A Creole-based GI-BMP training program was developed that included translating class materials, procuring funding, recruiting instructors and building partnerships between Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ (FFL), Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), UF/IFAS extension agents and specialists, industry owners and University of Florida translators. This resulted in the creation of a Haitian–Creole version of all GI-BMP program materials, the recruitment and training of three Creole-fluent instructors, and...
Journal of Universal Language, 2002
The study of Chronixx’s songs introduces English readers to Jamaica’s Patwa writing system, langu... more The study of Chronixx’s songs introduces English readers to Jamaica’s Patwa writing system, language, and culture of song in order to share information about them and to encourage more research in this vibrant area. The Patwa text and footnotes provide a synchronic snapshot of Jamaican Patwa, while this essay studies the lexical and ideological aspects of the songs. Few reggae songs have received serious orthographic treatment, analysis of their lexical content, or close readings of their meanings in relation to the sources of Rastafari. The task is worthwhile because reggae songs provide a widely celebrated peoples’ critique of colonial legacies.
Type de publication: Article de collectif Collectif: Les Métropoles francophones européennes en t... more Type de publication: Article de collectif Collectif: Les Métropoles francophones européennes en temps de globalisation Auteur: Hebblethwaite (Benjamin) Résumé: Cet article examine le champ lexical islamique du rap français et analyse son impact dans le vernaculaire parisien avec un questionnaire rempli par 73 participants. Le contexte sociolinguistique, la méthodologie déployée et le profil sociolinguistique des participants sont présentés.
This essay introduces the Arabic lexical field in German rap lyrics. The topic is understudied in... more This essay introduces the Arabic lexical field in German rap lyrics. The topic is understudied in the German scholarly literature and there are only a handful of articles that explore Arabic influences in urban German. Hip-hop music spread from the United States to France and Germany in the mid-1980s and has become a behemoth of their respective music industries since the mid-1990s. In Germany, the descendants of Arabic-speaking or Muslim immigrants (i.e. Turkish, Bosnian, Iranian, etc.), have become a significant presence in the genre over the last two decades. Arabic lexical influences are increasing. The Arabic lexicon in German rap lyrics can be divided into the religious, the everyday standard, and Arabic slang based on the semantic fields displayed in rap texts themselves. In order to illustrate Arabic borrowings in German rap, I propose two approaches. First, a rap text by Alpa Gun and PA Sports illustrates some of the ways that rappers make use of the Arabic Islamic lexical ...
francophones européennes en temps de globalisation Type de publication: Collectif Directrice d'ou... more francophones européennes en temps de globalisation Type de publication: Collectif Directrice d'ouvrage: Gadet (Françoise) Préfacier: North (Xavier) Résumé: Un cadre de sociolinguistique urbaine permet d'aborder les rapports entre villes et langues. Ces quinze articles étudient neuf métropoles ou grandes villes européennes où le français est en jeu en montrant comment la ville affecte les pratiques langagières (parlers jeunes, effets du plurilinguisme, contacts de langues). Nombre de pages: 335
A Transatlantic History of Haitian Vodou focuses on the influence of the kingdoms of Dahomey, All... more A Transatlantic History of Haitian Vodou focuses on the influence of the kingdoms of Dahomey, Allada, and Hueda in the emergence of central rites in Haitian Vodou. Connecting four centuries of political, social, and religious history with fieldwork and language documentation, this book analyzes Haitian Vodou’s African origins, transmission to Saint-Domingue, and promulgation through song in contemporary Haiti. The African chapters focus on history, economics and culture in Dahomey, Allada, and Hueda while scrutinizing the role of Europeans in fomenting tensions. The political, military, and slave trading histories of the kingdoms in the Bight of Benin reveal the circumstances of enslavement, including the geographies, ethnicities, languages, and cultures of enslavers and enslaved. The study of the spirits, rituals, and music of the region’s religions sheds light on important sources for Haitian Vodou. Having royal, public, and private expressions, Vodun spirit-based traditions served as cultural systems that supported or contested power and enslavement. At once suppliers and victims of the European slave trade, Aja, Fon, and Yoruba people deeply shaped the emergence of Haiti’s creolized culture. The Haitian chapters focus on Vodou’s Rada Rite (from Allada) and Gede Rite (from Abomey) through the songs of Rasin Figuier’s Vodou Lakay and Rasin Bwa Kayiman’s Guede, rasin compact discs released on Jean Altidor’s Miami label, “Mass Kompa Records.” All the Vodou songs on the discs are analyzed with a method dubbed “Vodou hermeneutics” that harnesses history, religious studies, linguistics, literary criticism, and ethnomusicology in order to advance a scholarly approach to Vodou songs.
A Transatlantic History of Haitian Vodou, 2021
Chapter 2 examines Dahomian theology and the major traits of Vodun, including organization, hiera... more Chapter 2 examines Dahomian theology and the major traits of Vodun, including organization, hierarchy, practices, and rituals like initiation and the Annual Feast of the vodun (spirits), as well as the place of amulets, the tovodun, and the role of prohibitions in the service of spirits. The aim is to reveal Haitian Vodou’s African religious foundations. Discussions include the music of initiation, the relation of music to possession, and spiritual categories in Vodun religion. The naturalization of foreign vodun in Dahomian royal religion reveals ancient syncretistic approaches to conquest. The Aja-Fon spirits examined include the personal vodun Legba, the divination spirit Fa, the python vodun Dangbe and Dan, the panther vodun Agasu, plus Adjahouto, Hebyoso, Aizan, Loko, Djisò, Dan-aïdô-ouêdo, Lënsouhouè, the tohosu, Mahu and Lisa the creator couple, Sakpata, and the sacred twins. Hueda’s Dangbe temple and the politics surrounding the Dahomian King’s re-ranking of temples in 1727 are examined.
A Transatlantic History of Haitian Vodou, 2021
Chapter 1 focuses on the political, economic, military, and religious history of the royal famili... more Chapter 1 focuses on the political, economic, military, and religious history of the royal families of Dahomey, Allada, and Hueda between 1500 and 1800. All three focused on slave trading with Europeans. Gedevi-Yoruba expanded into Aja lands while rising tensions between Europeans and the Aja coastal population caused an Aja exodus to the Gedevi-Yoruba hinterland of the Abomey plateau. The Aja Agasuvi family established Dahomey there and sold threatening Gedevi. The biographies of Dahomian kings Dako, Agaja, and Tegbesu shed light on their slave trading, including the circumstances of enslavement, and how the African-side of the system impacted Saint-Domingue and Haiti. Royal Vodun culture and power are examined, including the use of relics and human sacrifice at the Annual Customs. Agaja’s invasion of Allada in 1724 and Hueda in 1727 were events that bled into Haitian Vodou history since many of the residents were sold to traders bound for Saint-Domingue.
A Transatlantic History of Haitian Vodou, 2021
Royalist Christians and royalist Vodunist counterparts led enslaver classes. The king of Dahomey’... more Royalist Christians and royalist Vodunist counterparts led enslaver classes. The king of Dahomey’s grandiosity and royal religion that included mass human sacrifices to dead kings, were sharply distinct from the spirit-based traditions of the people he and his armies enslaved. Captured in raids, convicted of crimes, debts or adultery, multitudes were adjudicated for sale. Dahomey, Allada, and Hueda raided neighbours who in turn raided them. Centuries of raiding between Dahomey and Oyo kingdoms are reflected in Haitian Vodou’s complex layers. This book explores Africa and Haiti as distinct worlds in a dialectical historical relationship. Reading for the transatlantic history of Haitian Vodou recovers Africa’s impact on Haiti and Haiti’s significance for understanding Africa’s past and present. Breaking with the compartmentalization that splits Haitian from African studies, and from the dominant “post-disembarkation” orientation to Haitian history, the dialectical, hermeneutical and transatlantic approaches seek new understandings of Haitian Vodou.
A Transatlantic History of Haitian Vodou, 2021
Chapter 4 explores the history and content of the Gede Rite. Research on the social and theologic... more Chapter 4 explores the history and content of the Gede Rite. Research on the social and theological characteristics of the Gede spirits and their representations, rituals, and services are examined. More than 40 spirits from the Gede family are introduced along with key linguistic and cultural features. The Gede spirits, especially Bawon Samdi and Grann Brijit, are analyzed in the context of the cemetery, the dead, magic, morality, and migration. The chapter includes 26 Haitian Creole and English facing-page songs by the contemporary Vodou group “Rasin Bwa Kayiman” that focus on Gede Rite themes and spirits, including Gede Nouvavou, Jan Simon Britis, Bawon Lakwa, children, Bawon Kriminèl, betiz (“vulgarity”), Gwo Wòch, Mazaka Lakwa, Gede Nibo, Kwa Marasa, Kwa Senbo, evangelicals, interreligious strife, sex-workers, AIDS, oral sex, genital secretions, chante pwen (“point song”), Mòpyon Lakwa, and Jipitè Lakwa. Vodou hermeneutics explicates the Gede Rite’s links to sexuality, healing, and death.
A Transatlantic History of Haitian Vodou, 2021
Chapter 3 analyzes the history and content of the Rada Rite, including its ceremony, cycles of sa... more Chapter 3 analyzes the history and content of the Rada Rite, including its ceremony, cycles of salutation, stations of salutation, and rituals. The names of 102 Rada Rite spirits are provided with linguistic and cultural features. The chapter includes 25 Haitian Creole and English facing-page songs by the contemporary Vodou group “Rasin Figuier” that focus on Rada Rite themes and spirits, including Ginen, ounsi kanzo (“initiates”), Papa Legba, Gran Chemen, Marasa, Lesen, Bondye (“God”), Loko, the angel Gabriel, Agaou, Ayizan, Danbala Wèdo, Ayida Wèdo, Vodou flags, the white of Rada, Èzili Freda, Agwe Tawoyo, Nago Rite songs for Ogou Balizay and Olicha, plus a few chante pwen (“songs of criticism”) that address political feuding, literacy, and national unity. The method of Vodou hermeneutics reads in history, religious studies, linguistics, literary criticism, and ethnomusicology to interpret Rasin Figuier’s Rada songs focused on life, order, and rootedness.
Stirring the Pot of Haitian History is an original translation of Ti difé boulé sou istoua Ayiti ... more Stirring the Pot of Haitian History is an original translation of Ti difé boulé sou istoua Ayiti (1977), the first book written by Haitian anthropologist Michel-Rolph Trouillot. Challenging understandings of Haitian history, Trouillot analyzes the pivotal role of self-emancipated revolutionaries in the Haitian Revolution and War of Independence (1791-1804), a generation of people who founded the modern Haitian state and advanced Haiti’s vibrant contemporary cultures. This book confronts the problems of self-serving politicians and the racial mythologizing of historical figures like Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Toussaint Louverture and André Rigaud. The author denounces corruption and racism as hereditary maladies received from the hyper-racist slave society of the French colony of Saint-Domingue. Trouillot also examines the socio-economic and political contradictions and inequalities of Saint-Domingue, traces the unravelling of the colony’s racist economic system after the revolts of 17...
Journal of Universal Language, 2002
Journal of Black Studies, 2014
Shortly after the catastrophic earthquake that crushed Port-au-Prince and the surrounding towns o... more Shortly after the catastrophic earthquake that crushed Port-au-Prince and the surrounding towns on January 12, 2010, The New York Times published an article in which columnist David Brooks claimed that “voodoo” is a “progress-resistant” cultural influence because it spreads the message that “life is capricious and planning futile.” Alongside Brooks, many authors promote similar views, especially Christians. I argue that Vodou does not negatively affect progress in Haiti. Rather, there are historical, linguistic, and governmental policies that limit progress. In reality, Vodou practitioners enhance progress in their attention to the planning and giving of ceremonies, in the hierarchical organization they establish in communities, in their ritual and language, and in the education imparted through inheritance, teaching, and initiation. The scapegoating of Vodou by Brooks and others perpetuates a racist colonial legacy, and it betrays an ignorance of the community and the abundant rese...
Journal of French Language Studies, 2016
With Haitian Creole, Albert Valdman breaks new ground in yet another outstanding publication. His... more With Haitian Creole, Albert Valdman breaks new ground in yet another outstanding publication. His many single-authored and multiple-authored books and dictionaries form one of the more influential forces in Haitian Creole and Louisiana Creole linguistics. His Haitian Creole-English Bilingual Dictionary (Valdman et al., 2007) – to cite but one of the many dictionary projects he has directed – is an indispensable reference work in Haitian Creole studies. That dictionary, and now this rich analytical study of Haitian Creole, are great contributions to linguistics and Haitian Creole studies. Both works vastly raise the profile among linguists of this important Caribbean language. The latest addition is also a wonderful resource for graduate and undergraduate students in Haitian studies, provided they have completed at least a handful of courses in linguistics. I used this book on two occasions in an undergraduate introduction to Haitian Creole linguistics and found that, while advanced students grasp the discussions, it is not well suited for inexperienced undergraduates. Courses with large numbers of beginners in the field of linguistics could, however, be assigned shorter passages, a possibility the book makes fully available thanks to its meticulous organization (12 chapters preceded by an introduction). Each of the chapters deals with a different sub-discipline of linguistics: phonology (chapter 2), variation in word forms (chapter 3), spelling (chapter 4), structure (chapter 5) and origin (chapter 6) of the lexicon, basic sentence structure (chapter 7), the verbal system (chapter 8), the structure of noun phrases (chapter 9), complex sentences (chapter 10), variation in Haitian Creole (chapter 11), language planning and language choice in education (chapter 12), and genesis and development of Haitian Creole (chapter 13). The strengths displayed by this encyclopedic body of knowledge are numerous. Each chapter is carefully researched, providing a wealth of references for further study. Key findings across the field of Haitian Creole linguistics and creolistics at large are nicely synthesized. Native speaker examples are provided for every notion and argument, offering a valuable starting point for student researchers. The book also presents a national – rather than the typically exclusively Port-au-Princian – perspective on the language. Some of the findings resulting from fieldwork undertaken on northern varieties of Haitian Creole, for which the author and his research team from Indiana University received National Science Foundation funding, are presented in chapter 11, which offers many insights into geographical, phonological, and sociolinguistic variation and change, including a fine-grained analysis of four Capois Creole variants (3SG, POSS, WITH, TO GO), based on responses from speakers of urban and rural varieties. Peppered throughout the chapter, and the entire book, are lively examples of spontaneous speech that were collected in Haiti, meticulously transcribed, and translated. The research questions, methodology, and results of this chapter are one-of-a-kind in Creole studies. The book’s weaker passages are found primarily in the final two chapters. Chapter 12 on language planning and language choice in education introduces the reader to the linguistic situation in Haiti, where one language, Haitian Creole, is spoken by the entire population but has low standing, while another language, Haitian French, is spoken by no more than 10 per cent of the population but has high standing, dominating schools and the formal sector. Although Valdman provides the usual minute-level of detail,