COPYRIGHT 1996 - Mambo Racine Sans Bout
No reproduction without consent of author
Luc Gedeon's most serviceable lwa, the one he calls for practically every consultation, is an
affable, communicative, piquant lwa named Arapice La Croix. Like Ti-Charles La Croix, he is a
Ghede lwa. In the Vodou system of classification, this makes him a lwa Kreyol, one who
originated in Haiti; as opposed to a lwa Gine, one who came from Africa. The Ghede lwa are the
spirits of the deceased ancestors, and are feasted every year on the first day of November.
Since Arapice La Croix was once a man, his metamorphosis from human to lwa provides a
fascinating insight into the heart of the Vodou faith. On the second day of November in the year
nineteen hundred, a poor Haitian named Antoine Jean-Pierre was born in the slum district of
Croix Belair, which despite its poverty is rich in tradition. Belair was originally a sugar cane
plantation; one of the first plantations in the Port-au-Prince area and therefore one of the first
African settlements.
Later it became a refuge for urban mawonaj, for runaway slaves who remained in the city
instead of fleeing to the mountains. They lived by working trades they had learned during their
enslavement, or were hidden and supported by other Africans. The priests and priestesses among
them worshiped and practiced in secret, for the penalty if they were caught was often death by
burning. They built secret shrines in tiny rooms, and kept their belief hidden from the French
enslavers but alive in their hearts and minds. Despite the anti-African decrees of the French
rulers, as time went by, the sacred names and ceremonies of many tribes became known to each
other, until a religious leader was expected to have a full command of most if not all. At the same
time, the religious and folkloric beliefs of the petit blanc, the poor whites, entered the
spiritual worldview of Africans in Haiti. After the Haitian revolution, the nascent Vodou faith
flowered and took it's form.
This tendency for resistance and subversion persisted until the American military occupation
of Haiti which began in 1915 and ended in 1934. Urban guerrillas of the day led the American
Marines many a merry chase through the twisted corridors and alleys of the neighborhood, in one
case even firing on and crippling an American military vehicle.
Vodou flourished in Belair as the traditions of many African nations were carefully preserved.
Even today, the Houngans and Mambos of Belair exhibit a mastery of ritual detail and a
perfection of execution unrivaled in Haiti.
In these surroundings Antoine Jean-Pierre grew up. He had an unremarkable childhood and little
formal education. As an adult, he too had courage and disliked injustice. Ironically, this proved
to be the downfall of his human existence. One day, in a fit of outrage at the arrogant behavior of
some local gwo neg, some big shot, he slapped his tormentor across the face.
Predictably,
the powerful gwo neg arranged his murder, which of course went unavenged. No one was ever
brought to trial for his death, in fact it was never even reported to the police for fear that their
corrupt members might be making payoff money from the same gwo neg who killed him. Antoine
Jean-Pierre was buried by his family at the age of twenty-five.
Antoine became another of the tens of thousands to die unjustly since the first enslaved
African was dragged onto the beaches of Haiti, but that was not the end of his story. After he
spent the prescribed one year and one day beneath the abysmal waters the separate the souls of
the dead from the world of the living, Maman Brigitte, the mistress of the cemetery and mother of
all the Ghede lwa, and her husband Baron La Croix reclaimed Antoine Jean-Pierre and renamed
him Arapice La Croix. He passed again into the world of humans, invisible but intimately
concerned with their affairs.
It is a basic tenet of the Vodou faith that the living and the dead work together to help each other.
The first task that Arapice La Croix accepted was to protect a Haitian man who served as a
soldier under the American flag during the Vietnam war. Arapice carried him safely through
battles, ambushes and booby-traps, until at last the Haitian soldier was honorably discharged and
went to enjoy the rewards of his service in the city of Paris, France. He foolishly neglected to
thank Arapice or to make any ceremony for him. He offered Arapice no recompense whatsoever.
Grieved and infuriated by such a lack of respect and gratitude, Arapice himself gripped the man's
heart with a spectral hand during his sleep, killing him. Then he returned to Haiti.
Three months after Arapice's return, another poor man sought his help. The man had three sons,
and Arapice did his best to lift them from the misery he had known during his mortal existence.
He helped the man to get money to educate his sons abroad. One went to Paris, one to Mexico,
and the last to Canada. Under Arapice's protection, the man's fortunes continued to turn for the
better, until he was the owner of three trucks, all working to bring in yet more income. With the
comfort of prosperity came indifference to the lwa who had helped him so faithfully. This man
too neglected to make food offerings, sacrifices, or ceremonies for Arapice. Embittered and
heartbroken, Arapice La Croix killed the father and all three sons, then ran away to the mountains
of Grand Goave, on the coastline south of Port-au-Prince.
Frightened after what he had done and wretched in his incarnation as a lwa, Arapice went up
in a tree and remained there for a very long time. One day, he saw another lwa at work, healing a
sick person. This was the lwa Kanga, the lwa demembre or member's lwa, of Houngan
Luc Gedeon's society. Arapice helped Kanga to heal people, and Luc soon realized that another
lwa was present and assisting at his cures.
When Luc walked into the forest one morning, carrying the clay pot, the govi, from which
he would summon the voice of Kanga to instruct him, Arapice heard Luc recite the priye
Gine, the prayer of Africa. Luc recited well, and Arapice realized that Luc was a man who
could truly serve Guinea. Arapice begged Kanga for permission to enter the govi with him, but
Kanga told him instead to follow Luc back to his peristyle. For one year Arapice waited patiently
outside.
After the year had passed, Kanga made a ceremony for Arapice to enter the peristyle and serve
the members of the society. In possession of Houngan Luc, Kanga ordered a huge bonfire to be
built. The he withdrew from Luc's head, and Arapice mounted him for the first time.
Arapice saw his opportunity to demonstrate his power. In possession of Houngan Luc, he
promptly sat down in the midst of the fire. Not a hair of Luc's head or a thread of his garments
were singed. Members of Luc's society wept, first with fear for Luc's safety and then with awe at
Arapice's undeniable power.
Having attained the vindication of his martyred life, Arapice quietly entered his <>bagi, the
special chamber consecrated to him in Luc's peristyle. There he remains, faithfully serving the
needs of the society and of those who come seeking help; respected, served, feasted and loved by
the servants of Guinea in Grand Goave.
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