Bois-Caïman predates two distinct Vodou worship traditions, Rada and Petro.

Evidence

Before the insurrection of 1791 there may in fact have been two ceremonies: one in which a cow was sacrificed, perhaps to serve the deity Ogou, who is still served in this way; and the other, at Bois-Caïman, in which a pig was sacrificed. These were perhaps early versions of two traditions of worship that were later brought together in Haitian Vodou—the “Rada” and “Petro.” The Rada rites have their roots in West Africa, while the Petro seem to have evolved from Kongolese traditions. The Petro lwa—Vodou gods—are more unpredictable, temperamental, and at times violent than the Rada, and carry the marks of both slavery and resistance. One 1950s ethnographer described Petro ceremonies dominated by the “crack of the slave-whip sounding constantly, a never-to-be-forgotten ghost” that recalled the “raging revolt of the slaves against the Napoleonic forces” and “the delirium of triumph” of the Haitian Revolution. The history of the revolution, then, became part of the religion, some of whose practitioners see the Boïs-Caïman ceremony as the founding moment of their religion, a charter both for the gathering of different African nations and for the unification of African-born and creole slaves in pursuit of liberation. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 349

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the Rada versus Petro distinction in Vodou and their West African versus Kongolese origins.
• QUESTION: How much of the Rada/Petro distinction is scholarly reconstruction vs. actual continuity with 1791 practices?