Azaka Medeh

Agriculture, peasantry, labour

Azaka Medeh, greeted by the name Kouzen Zaka, is the lwa of agriculture and of the peasantry in Haitian Vodou. He is called cousin, and this familiar form of address says everything about his relationship with his servants: he is one of them. He appears in peasant dress, with a straw hat, clothes of blue cloth, a pipe in his mouth and a macoute slung across his shoulder, the woven straw bag in which the Haitian farmer carries his provisions. His possession is recognisable among all others: he speaks with a country accent, distrusts city people, demands food and haggles hard over the smallest service. This comedy takes nothing away from his dignity, it establishes it. In a country where the peasantry long carried the nation without receiving its regard, Azaka is the lwa who affirms the worth of working the land. His colours are blue and red. His feast falls around the first of May, Agriculture Day in Haiti, and Catholic imagery has linked him to Saint Isidore the Farmer.