Bêtes Noires: Sorcery as History in the Haitian-Dominican Borderlands

Name: Bêtes Noires: Sorcery as History in the Haitian-Dominican Borderlands
Brand: Duke University Press
Author: Lauren Derby
ISBN: 9781478032786

by Lauren Derby

$34.99Paperback

In stock, ships in 1-2 business days

Free standard shipping on orders over $40. ISBN 9781478032786

Formats and editions

About this book

In B tes Noires, Lauren Derby explores storytelling traditions among the people of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, focusing on shape-shifting spirit demons called baka/bac . Drawing on interviews with and life stories of residents in a central Haitian-Dominican frontier town, Derby contends that bac s--hot spirits from the sorcery side of vodou/vod that present as animals and generate wealth for their owners--are a manifestation of what Dominicans call fuk de Col n, the curse of Columbus. The dogs, pigs, cattle, and horses that Columbus brought with him are the only types of animals that bac's become. As instruments of Indigenous dispossession, these animals and their spirit demons convey a history of trauma and racialization in Dominican popular culture. In the context of slavery and beyond, bac's keep alive the promise of freedom, since shape-shifting has long enabled fugitivity. As Derby demonstrates, bac's represent a complex history of race, religion, repression, and resistance.