ERZULIE DANTOR

Maternal protection, wrath

Erzulie Dantor, also written Ezili Dantò, is one of the major figures of Haitian Vodou, served principally in the Petro rite. Mother courage of the Afro-diasporic pantheons, she embodies the woman who works hard and defends her children at any price. She protects single mothers, battered women and children in danger. Haitian tradition associates her with the Bois Caïman ceremony of 1791 and tells that she fought beside the insurgents during the war of independence: her tongue is said to have been cut out, which is why she expresses herself with a guttural sound, ke ke ke, when she mounts her servants. Her image merged with the Black Madonna of Częstochowa, a Polish icon that reached Haiti with the Polish legionnaires: a dark-skinned madonna, her cheek marked with scars, carrying a child whom Vodou practitioners name Anaïs, her daughter and interpreter. Her attribute is the knife; her colours are blue, red and gold. She is offered griot of pork, kleren and crème de cacao. Her rivalry with her sister Erzulie Freda, sweet and coquettish, illustrates two faces of love. She carries on the group of the Ezili, spirits bound to the waters honoured in Dahomey, present-day Benin.