AU GRAND SEIGNEUR: in a proprietary manner.
BAGUETTE: bread loaf.
BAMBOCHE: celebratory dance party.
BANANE TI-MALICE: small sweet banana.
BANANE LOUP-GAROU: large plantain-like banana.
BANZA: African instrument with strings stretched over a skinhead; forerunner of the banjo.
BAGASSE: remnants of sugar cane whose juice has been extracted in the mill—a dry, fast-burning fuel.
BARON SAMEDI: Vodou deity closely associated with Ghede and the dead, sometimes considered an aspect of Ghede.
BARON CIMETIÈRE: Vodou deity associated with the dead, an aspect of Ghede.
BTON: stick, rod. A martial art called l’art du bâton, combining elements of African stick-fighting with elements of European swordsmanship, persists in Haiti to this day.
BATTERIE: drum orchestra.
BEAU-PÈRE: father-in-law.
BÊTE DE CORNES: domestic animal with horns.
BIENFAISANCE: philosophical proposition that all things work together for good. BLANC: white man.
BLANCHE: white woman.
BOIS BANDER: tree whose bark was thought to be an aphrodisiac.
BOIS CHANDEL: candlewood—a pitchy wood suitable for torches.
BOKOR: Vodou magician of evil intent.
BOSSALE: a newly imported slave, fresh off the boat, ignorant of the plantation ways and of the Creole dialect.
BOUCANIERS: piratical drifters who settled Tortuga and parts of Haiti as Spanish rule there weakened. They derived their name from the word boucan —their manner of barbecuing hog meat.
BOULETS ROUGES: red-hot shot.
BOUNDA: rectum.
BOURRACHE: curative herb.
BOURG: town.
BOURIK: donkey.
BWA DLO: flowering aquatic plant.
BWA FOUYÉ: dugout canoe.
BWA KANPECH: canapeche tree.
CACHOT: dungeon cell.
CACIQUES: Amerindian chieftains of precolonial Haiti.
CALLALOO: stew with an okra base; gumbo.
CALENDA: a slave celebration distinguished by dancing. Calendas frequently had covert Vodou significance, but white masters who permitted them managed to regard them as secular.
CANAILLE: mob, rabble.
CANZO: intermediate level of initiation and commitment in Vodou.
CARABINIER: rifleman; also a popular dance admired by Dessalines.
CARMAGNOLES: derogatory expression of the English military for the French Revolutionaries.
CARRÉ: square, unit of measurement for cane fields and city blocks.
CASERNES: barracks.
CASQUES: feral dogs.
CAY (CASE): rudimentary one-room house.
LES CITOYENS DU QUATRE AVRIL: denoting persons of color awarded full political rights by the April Fourth Decree, this phrase was either a legal formalism or a sneering euphemism, depending on the speaker.
CHAUDIÈRE: cookpot.
CHICA: bawdy dance.
CLAIRIN: cane rum.
COCOTIER: coconut palm.
COCOTTE: girlfriend, but one in a subordinate role.
COLON: colonist.
COMMANDEUR: overseer or work gang leader on a plantation, usually himself a slave. COMMERÇANT: businessman.
CONCITOYEN: fellow citizen.
CONGÉ: time off work.
CONGO: African tribal designation. Thought to adapt well to many functions of slavery and more common than others in Saint Domingue.
CORDON DE L’EST: Eastern cordon, a fortified line in the mountains organized by whites to prevent the northern insurrection from breaking through to other departments of the colony.
CORDON DE L’OUEST: Western cordon, as above.
CORPS-CADAVRE: in Vodou, the physical body, the flesh.
COUI: bowl made from a gourd.
COUP POUDRÉ: a Vodou attack requiring a material drug, as opposed to the coup à l’air, which needs only spiritual force.
COUTELAS: broad-bladed cane knife or machete.
CREOLE: any person born in the colony whether white, black or colored, whether slave or free. A dialect combining a primarily French vocabulary with primarily African syntax is also called Creole; this patois was not only the means of communication between whites and blacks, but was often the sole common language among Africans of different tribal origins. Creole is still spoken in Haiti today.
CRÊTE: ridge or peak.
DAMBALLAH: Vodou deity associated with snakes, one of the great loa.
DEBAKMEN: Debarkation, landing.
DEMOISELLE: Miss, damsel.
DÉSHABILLÉ: a house dress, apt in colonial Saint Domingue to be very revealing; white Creole women were famous for their daring in this regard.
DESSOUNEN: the separation of the loa mêt’ têt–spirit master of the head—from a person undergoing the transformation of death.
DEVOIR: duty, chore.
DIVERTISSEMENT: diversion.
DJAB: demon.
DOKTÈ-FEY: leaf-doctor, expert in herbal medicine.
DOUCEMENT (DOUSMAN): colloquially, “take it easy.”
DOUCEMENT (DOUSMAN) ALLÉ LOIN: “The softest way goes furthest”; a famously favorite proverb of Toussaint Louverture.
ÉBÉNISTE: woodworker.
ÉMIGRÉ: emigrant. In context of the time émigré labeled fugitives from the French Revolution, suspected of royalism and support of the ancien régime if they returned to French territory, and often subject to legal penalty.
ERZULIE (EZILI): one of the great loa, a Vodou goddess roughly parallel to Aphrodite. As Erzulie-Jé-rouge she is maddened by suffering and grief.
ENCEINTE: pregnant.
ESPRIT: spirit; in Vodou it is, so to speak, fungible.
FAÏENCE: crockery.
FAIT ACCOMPLI: done deal.
FAROUCHE: wild, unconventional.
FATRAS: litter, garbage.
FATRAS-BTON: thrashing stick. Toussaint bore this stable name in youth because of his skinniness.
FEMME DE CONFIANCE: a lady’s quasi-professional female companion. FEMME DE COULEUR: woman of mixed blood.
FERS: irons.
FILLE DE JOIE: prostitute.
FLEUR DE LYS: stylistically rendered flower and a royalist emblem in France. FLIBUSTIER: pirate evolved from the wartime practice of privateering.
GAMELLE: large wooden bowl.
GARDE-CORPS: charm, for bodily protection.
GENS DE COULEUR: people of color, a reasonably polite designation for persons of mixed blood in Saint Domingue.
GÉRANT: plantation manager or overseer.
GHEDE: One of the great loa, the principal Vodou god of the underworld and of the dead.
GILET: waistcoat.
GIROUMON (JOUMON): squash.
GOMMIER: gum tree.
GOVI: clay vessels which may contain the spirits of the dead.
GRAND BOIS: Vodou deity, aspect of Legba more closely associated with the world of the dead.
GRAND BLANC: member of Saint Domingue’s white landed gentry, who were owners of large plantations and large numbers of slaves. The grand blancs were politically conservative and apt to align with royalist counterrevolutionary movements.
GRAND’CASE: the “big house,” residence of white owners or overseers on a plantation; these houses were often rather primitive despite the grandiose title.
GRAND CHEMIN: the big road or main road; in Vodou the term refers to the pathway opened between the human world and the world of the loa.
GRANN: old woman, grandmother.
GRCE, LA MISÉRICORDE (GRS LAMISERIKÒD): the liturgical phrase Have grace, have mercy.
GRENOUILLE: frog.
GRIFFE: term for a particular combination of African and European blood; a griffe would result from the congress of a full-blood black with a mulâttresse or a marabou.
GRIFFONNE: female griffe.
GRIOT: fried pork.
GROS-BON-ANGE: literally, the “big good angel,” an aspect of the Vodo
u soul. The gros-bon-ange is “the life force that all sentient beings share; it inters the individual at conception and functions only to keep the body alive. At clinical death, it returns immediately to God and becomes part of the great reservoir of energy that supports all life.”6
GROSSESSE: pregnancy.
GUINÉE EN BAS DE L’EAU: “Africa beneath the waters,” the Vodou afterlife.
GUÉRIR-TROP-VITE: medicinal herb used in plasters to speed healing of wounds.
HABITANT: plantation owner.
HABITATION: plantation.
HATTE: terrain for raising horses and livestock, a ranch with a crude dwelling. HERBE À CORNETTE: medicinal herb used in mixtures for coughing.
HERBE À PIQUE: medicinal herb against fever.
HOMME DE COULEUR: man of mixed blood; see gens de couleur.
HÛNFOR: Vodou temple, often arranged in open air.
HÛNGAN: Vodou priest.
HÛNSI: Vodou acolytes.
INTENDANT: the highest civil authority in colonial Saint Domingue, as opposed to the Governor, who was the highest military authority. These conflicting and competing posts were deliberately arranged by the home government to make rebellion against the authority of the metropole less likely.
IBO: African tribal designation. Ibo slaves were thought to be especially prone to suicide, believing that through death they would return to Africa. Some masters discouraged this practice by lopping the ears and noses of slaves who had killed themselves, since presumably the suicides would not wish to be resurrected with these signs of dishonor.
JOUISSANCE: pleasure.
JOURNAL: newspaper.
KALFOU: crossroads.
KONESANS: spiritual knowledge.
L’AFFAIRE GALBAUD: armed conflict which occurred at the northern port Le Cap, in 1794, between French royalists and Republicans, as a result of which the royalist party, along with the remaining large property and slave owners, fled the colony.
LAMBI: conch shell, used as a horn among maroons and rebel slaves. Also, the meat of the conch, a popular dish.
LANCE À FEU: fire spear.
LA-PLACE: Vodou celebrant with specific ritual functions second to that of the hûngan.
LATANA: medicinal herb against colds.
LAVÉ TÊT: head-washing, initial step of Vodou initiation.
LEGBA: Vodou god of crossroads and of change, vaguely analogous to Hermes of the Greek pantheon. Because Legba controls the crossroads between the material and spiritual worlds, he must be invoked at the beginning of all ceremonies.
LES INVISIBLES: members of the world of the dead, roughly synonymous with Les Morts et les Mystères.
LESPRIGINEN: spirit of Ginen.
LOUP-GAROU: a shape-changing, blood-sucking supernatural entity.
ISLAND BELOW SEA: Vodou belief construes that the souls of the dead inhabit a world beneath the ocean which reflects the living world above. Passage through this realm is the slave’s route of return to Africa.
LOA (LWA): general term for a Vodou deity.
LOI DU QUATRE AVRIL: decree of April Fourth from the French National Assembly, granting full political rights to people of color in Saint Domingue.
LOUP-GAROU: in Vodou, a sinister supernatural entity, something like a werewolf.
LIBERTÉ DE SAVANE: freedom, for a slave, to come and go at will within the borders of a plantation or some other defined area, sometimes the privilege of senior commandeurs.
LWA BOSSALE: an uninstructed spirit, who may disrupt the decorum of ceremonies.
MACANDAL: a charm, usually worn round the neck.
MACOUTE: a straw sack used to carry food or goods.
MAGOUYÉ: devious person, trickster, cheat.
MAIN-D’OEUVRE: work force.
MAÏS MOULIN: cornmeal mush.
MAÎT’ KALFOU: Vodou deity closely associated with Ghede and the dead, sometimes considered an aspect of Ghede.
MAÎT’ TÊTE (MÊT TÊT): literally, “master of the head.” The particular loa to whom the Vodou observer is devoted, by whom he is usually possessed (though the worshipper may sometimes be possessed by other gods as well).
MAL DE MCHOIRE: lockjaw.
MAL DE MER: seasickness.
MAL DE SIAM: yellow fever.
MALFINI: chicken hawk.
MALNOMMÉE: medicinal herb used in tea against diarrhea.
MAMBO: Vodou priestess.
MANCHINEEL: jungle tree with an extremely toxic sap.
MANDINGUE: African tribal designation. Mandingue slaves had a reputation for cruelty and for a strong character difficult to subject to servitude.
MANGUIER: mango tree.
MANICOU: Caribbean possum.
MAPOU: sacred tree in Vodou, considered the habitation of Damballah.
MARABOU: term for a particular combination of African and European blood; a marabou would result from the congress of a full-blood black with a quarteronné.
MARAIS: swamp.
MARASSA: twins, often the sacred twin deities of Vodou.
MARCHANDE: market woman.
MARCHÉ DES NÈGRES: Negro market.
MARÉCHAL DE CAMP: field marshal.
MARÉCHAUSSÉE: paramilitary groups organized to recapture runaway slaves.
MAROON: a runaway slave. There were numerous communities of maroons in the mountains of Saint Domingue and in some cases they won battles with whites and negotiated treaties which recognized their freedom and their territory.
MARRONAGE: the state of being a maroon; maroon culture in general.
MATANT: aunt.
MAUVAIS SUJET: bad guy, criminal.
MÉNAGÈRE: housekeeper.
MITRAILLE: grapeshot.
MONCHÈ: from the French mon cher, literally “my dear,” a casual form of address among friends.
MONPÈ: Father—the Creole address to a Catholic priest.
MORNE: mountain.
LES MORTS ET LES MYSTÈRES: The aggregate of dead souls in Vodou, running the spectrum from personal ancestors to the great loa.
MOUCHWA TÊT: head scarf.
MOULIN DE BÊTES: mill powered by animals, as opposed to a water mill.
MULATTO: person of mixed European and African blood, whether slave or free. Tables existed to define sixty-four different possible admixtures, with a specific name and social standing assigned to each.
NABOT: weighted leg iron used to restrain a runaway slave.
NÈG: black person (from the French nègre).
NÉGOCIANT: businessman or broker involved in the export of plantation goods to France.
NÈGRE CHASSEUR: slave trained as a huntsman.
NÉGRILLON: small black child (c.f. pickaninny).
NOBLESSE DE L’ÉPÉE: French aristocracy deriving its status from the feudal military system, as opposed to newer bureaucratic orders of rank.
OBUSIER: mortar.
OGÛN: one of the great loa, the Haitian god of war. Ogûn-Feraille is his most aggressive aspect.
ORDONNATEUR: accountant.
OUANGA: a charm, magical talisman.
PAILLASSE: a sleeping pallet, straw mattress.
PARRAIN: godfather. In slave communities, the parrain was responsible for teaching a newly imported slave the appropriate ways of the new situation.
PARIADE: the wholesale rape of slave women by sailors on slave ships; the pariade had something of the status of a ritual. Any pregnancies that resulted were assumed to increase the value of the slave women to their eventual purchasers. PATOIS: dialect.
PAVÉ: paving stone.
PAYSANNE: peasant woman.
PETIT BLANC: member of Saint Domingue’s white artisan class, a group which mostly lived in the coastal cities, and which was not necessarily French in origin. The petit blancs sometimes owned small numbers of slaves but seldom owned land; most of them were aligned with French Revolutionary politics.
PETITE CERCLE: intimate group.
PETIT MARRON: a runaway slave or maroon who intended to remain absent for only a short period�
�these escapees often returned to their owners of their own accord.
LA PETITE VÉROLE: smallpox.
PETRO: a particular set of Vodou rituals with some different deities—angry and more violent than rada.
PIERRE TONNERRE: thunderstone. Believed by Vodouisants to be formed by lightning striking in the earth—in reality ancient Indian ax heads, pestles, and the like.
PINCE-NEZ: eyeglasses secured by a nose-clip spring.
POMPONS BLANCS: members of the royalist faction in post-1789 Saint Domingue; their name derives from the white cockade they wore to declare their political sentiments. The majority of grand blancs inclined in this direction.
POMPONS ROUGES: members of the revolutionary faction in post-1789 Saint Domingue, so called for the red cockades they wore to identify themselves. Most of the colony’s petit blancs inclined in this direction.
POSSÉDÉ: believer possessed by his god.
POTEAU MITAN: central post in a Vodou hûnfor, the metaphysical route of passage for the entrance of the loa into the human world.
PRÊTRE SAVANNE: bush priest.
PWA ROUJ: red beans.
PWEN: a focal point of spiritual energy with the power to do magical work. A pwen may be an object or even a word or a phrase.
QUARTERONNÉ: a particular combination of African and European blood: the result, for instance, of combining a full-blood white with a mamelouque.
QUARTIER-GÉNÉRAL: headquarters.
RADA: the more pacific rite of Vodou, as opposed to petro.
RADA BATTERIE: ensemble of drums for Vodou ceremony.
RAMIER: wood pigeon.
RAQUETTE: mesquite-sized tree sprouting cactus-like paddles in place of leaves. RATOONS: second-growth cane from plants already cut.
REDINGOTE: a fashionable frock coat.
REQUIN: shark.
RIZ AK PWA: rice and beans.
RIZIÈ: rice paddy.
ROMANIÈRE: curative herb.
SACATRA: a particular combination of African and European blood: the result, for instance, of combining a full-blood black with a griffe or griffonne.
SAGE-FEMME: wise woman, midwife.
SALLE DE BAINS: washroom.
SANG-MÊLÉ: a particular combination of African and European blood: the result, for instance, of combining a full-blood white with a quarteronné.
SANS-CULOTTE: French Revolutionary freedom fighter.
SEREIN: evening breeze.
SERVITEUR: Vodou observer, one who serves the loa.
SI DYÉ VLÉ: If God so wills.
The Stone that the Builder Refused Page 99