Erzulie Dantor: Our Scarred Mother of Protection

Our Lady of Czestochowa

Erzulie Dantor is one of a number of sister lwa (spirits or deities) from Haitian and New Orleans Vodou who share the name Erzulie. Like the other Erzulies, she is associated in imagery with the Virgin Mary, though specifically Mater Salvatoris in her Polish lithograph of Our Lady of Czestochowa or Saint Barbara Africana. This image shows a dark skinned Mother Mary cradling a child in her arms, bearing two scars on her right cheek. It has been shown that the slashes on her cheek were not originally painted but instead are damage caused by Hussites in 1408 when they attacked Jasna Gora in Czestochowa in order to steal the painting, however reconstructions of the image retain the scars, and when Polish soldiers came to Haiti to fight in the slave revolution in 1802, Vodou practitioners saw in this depiction a mirror of their Erzulie Dantor – who possesses two (or three, according to some accounts) scars on her cheek also. (For further discussion on the use of Catholic Saint images in Vodou belief, see Herskovits, 1937.)

Erzulie Dantor is seen as a single mother, heterosexual insomuch as she takes several male lovers and has given birth to a number of children by them; however, she is also a lesbian, presumably because the social setting in which followers of Erzulie move accepts homosexuality but views it as still good to produce a family. As Brown has shown (1991, 225-246) it is also normal for a woman in Haiti to take lovers but refrain from marriage largely due to independence and a common assumption that men cannot be relied upon to keep their half of the bargain! Thus, Erzulie Dantor is the patron of independent women and single mothers, women who strive every day and fight for what they believe in.

Where her sister, Erzulie Freda, is seen as a white middle class woman affecting upper class niceties and elegance, Erzulie Dantor is dark skinned or mulatto (interracial) and often seen as lower class, down to earth, and hard working, caring little for that which is not necessary for survival. And whilst Erzulie Freda is married to all three of her lovers, Dantor remains unmarried and has seven lovers (including one of Freda’s husbands!) It is even said that one of her sons, Ti Jean Petro, is her lover. It is Dantor’s numerous liaisons that some say gave her the two scars on her cheek: when Erzulie Freda discovered that her sister had been sleeping with one of her husbands, she flew into a jealous rage and they fought. Erzulie Freda is said to have pulled the sword from her own heart (often seen in depictions of Freda as the Catholic Mater Dolorosa – mother of sorrows) and used it to attack Dantor, slashing her cheek twice and leaving her scarred for life.

The twa mak are not the only wounds Erzulie Dantor has received. In the Haitian slave revolution of the late 17th and early 18th century, Dantor fought alongside the slaves who were her devotees and children, and helped them win the war. McCarthy Brown writes that:

“The maternal anger that is called into play when a mother must defend her children turned Dantò into a woman warrior during the slave revolution.” (Brown, 1991, 231.)

However, the men she fought alongside were afraid that this woman warrior would reveal their secrets to the enemy, so they ambushed her and cut out her tongue to prevent this from happening. Now when Dantor manifests during Vodou rituals through possession she is unable to speak and merely repeats monosyllabic sounds such as “dey, dey, dey”. It is often said that her daughter Anais speaks for Dantor instead.

The card image shows Dantor being wounded by seven spears in a marketplace. This is an amalgamation of a number of varying stories and associations for Dantor. Firstly, she is seen as an independent businesswoman whose trade is in raising and selling the black pigs indigenous to Haiti. Through this trade she relies only on herself for her survival, and it shows her as a hardworking, practical person. The conflict itself that seems so stark in the image is in reference to a song often sung during services and ceremonies for Dantor:

“Say hey!
Seven stabs of the knife, seven stabs of the sword.
Hand me that basin, I’m going to vomit blood.
Seven stabs of the knife, seven stabs of the sword.
Hand me that basin, I’m going to vomit blood. [repeat]
But the blood is marked for him.
Seven stabs of the knife, seven stabs of the sword.
Hand me that basin, I’m going to vomit blood.
I say hey! I’m going to vomit blood, it’s true.
Seven stabs of the knife, seven stabs of the sword.
Hand me that basin, I’m going to vomit blood. [repeat]
My blood is flowing, Dantò, I’m going to vomit blood.
My blood is flowing, Ezili, I’m going to vomit blood.
My blood is flowing, Red-Eyes, you’re going to vomit blood.”
(Brown, 1991, 233.)

This song is sometimes interpreted as retelling the attack upon Dantor by those she fought alongside in the slave revolutions. She was wounded seven times with weapons and spat/vomited her blood over her attackers, before pulling the swords out of her body and walking away, showing complete defiance in the face of adversity. The phrase, “Hand me that basin, I’m going to vomit blood. But the blood is marked for him” seems to indicate a curse-like action that marks the attacker(s) out to be the next wounded or killed. However, the song has also been interpreted as a retelling of an historical event that took place in a compound in Port-au-Prince named Seven Stabs of the Knife, during which a man and woman fought and the woman was stabbed to death with seven wounds. In this case, the song evokes the righteous anger we may feel upon hearing such a story, and it may be seen as a cry for help to Erzulie Dantor in a time of dire need when everything else is lost. The righteous anger we feel is also felt by Dantor, who often takes the form of the ferocious and protective mother who is willing to fight long and hard for the children she loves. She stands up for what she believes in, sometimes against all odds, and she is said to work unceasingly and quickly for her devotees, having an immense amount of energy to give to them.

Most interesting perhaps is the last line of the song, “My blood is flowing, Red-Eyes, you’re going to vomit blood”, which follows several repetitions of the singer herself vomiting blood. Here it seems that the suffering of the devotee and singer transfers to, or is taken on by, Dantor (in her role as Erzulie Ge Rouge, Red-Eyes, the most fierce and violent of all the Erzulies.) Indeed, there have been reports that during a possession the Dantor, through her “horse” (the person being possessed or “ridden” by the lwa) has asked for a basin and vomited blood into it.

Erzulie Dantor is called upon today by those who have nothing left to lose. She is invoked for protection, defense, and the energy to carry on and persevere in spite of the odds. She helps people in an emergency, gives her aid to all lost causes, and will still rush into action when the final straw has been reached. The protection offered by Dantor is effective and immense:

“When she’s behind you, sweetheart, nothing can attack you. Nothing!” (Brown, 1991, 232.)

A working altar for Erzulie Dantor, with red flowers, gold cloth, dark blue candles, several knives and some suitable Tarot cards. If you look closely you can also see some saint images and cigarettes.

Suitable offerings for Erzulie Dantor

Dolls of any kind. Perhaps because she is a protective mother, she loves being given decorated dolls.

Pork

Red meat

Dark drinks such as red wine and coffee

Sharpened objects such as knives and daggers

Coins

Cigarettes

Heavy chain jewellery – nothing delicate!

Images of hearts pierced by swords/pins

Red, dark blue, or gold candles and cloth.

Bibliography

Brown, Karen McCarthy. Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.

Carty, Marcel. The Vodou Religion. Pennsylvania: Dorrance Publishing Co., Inc., 2003.

Deren, Maya. Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti. New York: McPherson and Company, 2004.

Herskovits, Melville J., African Gods and Catholic Saints in New World Negro Belief. American Anthropologist, New Series, vol. 39, no. 4, Part 1 (Oct-Dec 1937), pp. 635-643.

Hurbon, Laënnec. Voodoo: Truth and Fantasy. London: Thames and Hudson, 1993.