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Apart from Black Americans, all the other Black communities in the Americas have always drawn on their African roots to resist and even free themselves from slavery, so it’ s impossible for these resistance fighters and their descendants to deny that they belong to Africa, so essential has it always been to their fight for freedom.
Without Voodoo, there would have been no revolution in Haiti, just as without the African-inspired Candomblé, there would have been no Quilombos in Brazil. And it’ s hard to see Haitians or Afro-Brazilians being ungrateful to Africa, despite the horrific history of slavery, which has established the responsibility of certain traitors to the cause of liberating the continent from the colonial slave hordes, while the majority of African peoples courageously opposed these practices.
Flashmag! Issue 164 September 2025
The Spirit of Resistance and African Roots in the Americas The Haitian Revolution: The Central Role of Caiman Wood
The Haitian Revolution( 1791-1804) remains one of the most vivid examples of the slave struggle for freedom, culminating in the creation of the first independent black republic in the modern world. The Caiman Wood ceremony, which took place on the night of August 14, 1791, is widely regarded as the spark that ignited the flame of this historic insurrection. This secret gathering, both a major political event and a deeply significant voodoo ritual, united the African and Creole slaves of the French colony of Saint-Domingue in a solemn oath of revolt and emancipation. Dutty Boukman, a maroon slave leader and houngan( voodoo priest), and Cécile Fatiman, a mambo( voodoo priestess), presided over this symbolically charged ceremony. Voodoo, as an Afro-Haitian religion, was not just a set of beliefs, but a powerful instrument of organization and cohesion for the insurgents. It provided slaves with a strong cultural identity and the spiritual strength they needed to challenge the brutal slave system.
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