Single mothers in Haiti and the Dominican Republic in the 1980s and 1990s revived the cult of a Voodoo goddess Erzulie Dantor, the lwa of vengeance and rage. How is the iconic representation of Haitian Voodoo senior spirit originating in West Africa influenced by the patron saint of Poland, the Black Madonna of Częstochowa?
Some accounts report that the slave revolt on the French colony of St. Domingue in 1791 started with a pact, which followed a big feast organized in honor of Erzulie, or Ezili, Dantor. For this reason, many recognize Erzulie Dantor as the national Haitian lwa, or loa, (the spirit of Haitian Voodoo cult). According to Haitian and Louisiana Voodoo experts, Erzulie is an intermediary spirit between Bondye (God) and people, much like the Black Madonna is the intermediary saint between the faithful and her son Christ the Lord.
Legionaires
In 1802, Napoleon sent 5,200 Polish legionnaires from Livorno, Italy, to Cap Francais, present Cape Haitian, Haiti. Poles were to help quell a slave rebellion on the French colony of Saint Domingue. The French captured this Spanish island of Hispaniola in 1659. In the years 1798-1804, 35,000 French colonists were fighting 500,000 slaves mostly from West Africa who raised arms against them. The first emperor Jean-Jacques Dessalines, born around 1758 in West Africa, proclaimed the independence of Haiti in 1804. Dessalines was a slave brought from West Africa who worked the fields until he fled his master and joined the slave rebellion in 1791. Among the Poles on the island was general Władysław Franciszek Jabłonowski, born in Gdansk, Poland, in 1769, who was half-black.
Brigadier General Władysław Franciszek Jabłonowski (Source: Wikipedia)
Brigadier Genal Władysław F. Jabłonowski fought in the Kościuszko uprising for the freedom of Poland and in the Haitian uprising on the part of the French. Polish nobleman Konstanty Jabłonowski accepted him as his son. Władysław was admitted to the French military academy, Paris Ecole Militaire. Among his classmates were Napoleon Bonaparte, future Emperor and Louis Nicolas D’avout, future Marshal of the Empire.
Poles realized what Napoleon ordered them to do only when they landed on the Caribbean island. Many felt betrayed and manipulated by Napoleon. They wanted to fight for the freedom of the oppressed and not support the oppressors. Rather than follow French orders, they joined African slaves in their fight for freedom. As the result, the first country in the world created by former slaves was proclaimed.
After they won their independence, Haitians put to death the Europeans and the slave masters on the island during the 1804 Haiti Massacre ordered by Dessalines, during which between 3,000 to 5,000 people were killed. The only whites saved and granted Haitian citizenship were Polish legionaries. Up till today, Haitians learn about the significant help of Polish soldiers in their fight for independence. If you happen to see blue-eyed dark-skinned Haitians on the island today, they are probably the descendants of these freedom loving Polish soldiers who opposed the idea of slavery and risked their lives and fortunes to help the oppressed.
The center of Polish population in Haiti today is a village of Cazale, 45 miles away from Port-au-Prince, called by the locals La Pologne (Poland). The name consists of two part “ca” and “zale.” “Ca” is Creole “kay” (home). “Zale” stems from Zalewski, a Polish surname. So, Cazale means the home of Zalewski.
With their military skills, Polish legionnaires brought their religious beliefs. Some of them carried the image of patron saint of Poland, the Black Madonna of Częstochowa. It was quite a surprise for the Haitians to see the whites pray to a black saint. The complexity of religious beliefs in Haiti was that the French did not allow any African worship. They forced the slaves to convert to Catholicism. Haitians officially attended mass and prayed to Christian saints but secretly they personified them as their African deities. As the result, quite an elaborate secret worship practices have developed on the island.
The Black Madonna of Częstochowa (Source: Wikipedia)
Although the Black Madonna has been associated with Poland for over 600 years, the story of the painting dates much earlier. One of the stories reports that St. Luke himself used a cedar tabletop from the Holy Family house to paint the icon. Yet others claim that the painting was discovered in Jerusalem in 326 C.E. by St. Helena who brought it back to Constantinople. The oldest documents in the monastery report that the icon arrived from Constantinople via Bels (now in Ukraine) and belonged to Władysław Opolczyk, the duke of Opole, who was the advisor to Louis I, the king of Poland and Hungary who — after his father — was of the Capetian House of Anjou. The Pauline monks founded the monastery at Jasna Góra (Luminous Mound) in 1382 when they came here from Hungary on the invitation of Władysław, Duke of Opole. The monastery is a shrine devoted to the worship of Virgin Mary and one of the places of country’s pilgrimages. In 2011, it was estimated that 3.2 million pilgrims from 80 countries around the world visited the shrine.
Erzulie Dantor
The image of Polish Black Madonna evolved into a synthetic image of Erzulie Dantor, the lwa of Haiti. Recently single women and lesbians in Haiti and the Dominican Republic worship Erzulie. As a Voodoo deity, she is portrayed with a knife in her right hand. The Black Madonna uses her right hand to point to Jesus, her son the God on the icon. Poles pray to the Black Madonna, while Erzulie requires service and sacrifice. For Erzulie’s birthday, a pig is sacrificed.
In Voodoo cult, Erzulie Dantor is a fierce black woman, the protector of women, children, and the neglects of society, the Queen of the Petro nation. She is supposed to help the faithful gain spiritual knowledge needed to improve material standing. Her favorite sacrifices are black pig, blood, and rum. Her son is Ti Jean Petro, and her lover is Jean Petro. She can be summoned to bring revenge on those who hurt women and children. The scars on her face are left over from the fight with her light skinned sister Erzulie Freda, the goddess of love and sexuality. The baby she is holding in her left arm is her daughter Anais.
According to the legend, Erzulie was scratched on her face and again, the icon of the Black Madonna is a perfect personification of this event. The icon revered by the Poles and housed in the Pauline Monastery at Jasna Góra in Częstochowa, Poland, has two scratches on her right cheek. The story goes that the icon was slashed by a Swedish soldier during the siege of the monastery in 1655. During the siege, the monks and 180 volunteers defended the monastery for 40 days against 40,000-strong Swedish army. Yet another account claims that the Hussites stormed the monastery in 1430 and tried to steal the icon. They put it on a wagon, but the horses refused to move. In anger, one of them threw the icon on the ground and slashed it twice. When he tried to slash it for the third time, he fell to the ground and died in agony.
The Black Madonna is painted in a blue shroud adorned by golden fleur-de-lis. The blue of the shroud is close to the azure semee de lis and resembles the French royal coat of arms. The similarities between the Black Madonna and Erzulie Dantor are striking. The Madonna was a spiritual inspiration to the defenders of the Jasna Góra monastery and Erzulie was an inspiration to Haitian rebels. The French were the enemies of the Haitians while the Black Madonna wears a shroud with French royal coat of arms. The icon bears scars on her cheek and Erzulie is told to be scratched on her cheek as well.
There are strong and complicated connections between the history of Polish legionaries and Haitian freedom fighters. The similarities and differences between the Polish Black Madonna and Haitian lwa Erzulie Dantor are striking and complex. One thing is certain. We should study these connections more in depth if we want to better understand the complexities of race, religion, and national identity.
