No Vengeance! No Voodoo!

By Philama Ductan

When superstition is favored by the uneducated and the downtrodden, it’s hard to tell the difference between fact and fiction. It’s a long trek, especially to a teenager who has held Christian values and witnessed the most horrifying voodoo rituals. Kootan offers us some perspectives in the inner workings of Voodoo. He takes it upon himself to enlighten the believers, even head of state. They ignore its beneficial values and use it instead to bankrupt Hispaniola’s Island. To get to the bottom of the way spirits come and go, Kootan tries every necessary means at his disposal—people, adventures, religious people including his two best friends: his dog, Cezin and, mentor Kitibel. What he uncovers is the yearning of his own life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9781796093469

Philama Ductan

Terror, adventure, and discovery for those who like surprise. In fact, we all do. This novel' as short as it is, reflects the trough reality of Hispaniola's life in terms of its people in regard to the voodoo's practice and any more. In often time, Dominicans and Haitians who co-habit this Tainos's land have been so resilient and generous on earth but, the externals forces make it impossible to break the dark cycle of poverty...this book explain these circumstances and many more...

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Copyright © 2020 by Philama Ductan.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 04/13/2020

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CONTENTS

Prologue

Part I

How All Began!: (Retaliation & Revenge)

Part II The Saga continues….

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Chapter VII

Chapter VIII

Chapter IX

Chapter X

Chapter XI

Glossary

The Author’s corner

Hello Darkness!

Through my blind eye

I can see two butterflies

Through the fog passing by

I can see a rainbow in the sky

The butterflies wheeze and fly

And finally melt into the sky

I cry but I don’t know why

I say: Hello Darkness!

They ought to be you and I

PROLOGUE

B ELIEF IS WHAT consumes us all…

…It brings joy some day and tears the next. Noticeably, even with a strong set of beliefs, empires fall or see their power diminished. Religious beliefs are strong and run deep into our psyche. However, on the Island of Hispaniola where Voodoo has the highest of practitioners, there is a striking sense of more joyful moments than the painful fight for survival that mires their lives. Voodoo and deaths like war and poverty represent the norms that impoverish Hispaniola. History must serve as convenient guide to folks who tend to make ruinous mistakes in countless time even when experience dictates them otherwise. But what is Voodoo all about? and what compels the island folks into its practice and Voodoo to become the manifestation of a spiritual throwback?

There are more questions lingering in our reptilian brain. For instance, is it voodoo or stupidity that prompts people to seek for revenge instead of settling dispute amicably? Impulsively a dictator annihilates scores of Alkebulan’s descants in Dominican Republic. Even in Haiti, what compel a woman to abandon a famous dog that was gifted to her? The donor ideally hopes to change her thinking mind about the Voodoo. That action paved the way for the boy to contemplate what else he would have to do to change people’s minds about this plethora of gods.

Perhaps not! But, as it turns out, peasants, merchants, and scholars alike have all been put to the task of ridding themselves of Voodoo’s spell. To the donor, it is of profound ignorance not to analyze the facts conceivably, all the answers reside in the island itself. And the boy hopes by adventures, Hispaniola’s past and present voodoo will be eradicated to pave the way to his Christian’s value.

In fact, Hispaniola was once home of great warriors, Kings and Queens; even today, their palaces, culture, marks can be noted throughout the entire island with a large swath of natural resources. But now it has two neighboring countries: Dominican Republic and Haiti. One of the things they both shares, remarkably, is the dark-side practice of Voodoo. They perform similar rituals and ceremonies involving the cruel slaughtering of chickens or fowls. They worship the most predate of loas to avenge, retaliate, and possibly take people’s life.

It all began when the colonizers came to milk the island and declared war on the Natives; they forcibly imposed their own set of Christian values on them including the dog’s donor just ten years old on the pretext of civilization. These invaders brought in another race of people from a continent called Alkebulan and in turn sold them as slaves to work on plantations. In the realm of survival of the fittest, those newcomers who spoke different dialects must now deal with the present situation and force to live in harmony with the natives. They had to fight to shed light on keep their own identity. Then the voodoo was born in the island. But in time, everyone, natives or invaders, comes to worship the powerful Alkebulan’s gods chiefly: Dambala, Legba, Agwe, and Ezili just to name a few.

Be they natives or newcomers, voodoo seems to overpower the people’s mind. But did all those supposedly powerful gods bring in freedom and happiness, Kootan vow to find out?

Brace yourselves, this devout Christian boy will recount vividly this maelstrom.

PART I

HOW ALL BEGAN!

(Retaliation & Revenge)

N OT TOO FAR into the distant past, a boy named Kootan found himself caught in a web of intrigue that would change his life forever. He was growing in an island that was implicated in all sorts of customs; voodoo and poverty trooped like twin pair that disrupted the people livelihood. He was struggling to make sense of any of them all. He liked to read as much as he enjoyed asking questions. It was through questioning that he learned how the populaces mainly the Tainos and Alkebulans initiated in the island on the first place. Now, his goal was to eradicate the intricacies of the voodoo from the people mindset that bankrupted his poor country.

At early age, Kootan seemed to be smarter, more docile and apt than the other boys in Valparaizo’s city where he grew up. While his peers enjoyed playing with toys and destroying them in the process, he declined to be any part of it; instead he would prefer to sit beside Pekles, his sexagenarian’s father to schoolwork global history. Clearly, Kootan wanted more than that; he would prefer someone he could rely on to teach him what he needed to know to pursue his objective. Can the loas really speak, smell, eat, and drink? He sought to find out.

Kootan’s father taught him about a war that had been vehemently fighting to expel the foreigners from the only two countries in the island for many years. His dad seemed to rejoice in telling him when the invaders had dissected the island into two countries, they named each: Dominican Republic on the East and Haiti, West.

They changed the way of life of the people, their heritage and implemented slavery system. Indisputably, the rapport between voodoo and Christianity began in Hispaniola’s island.

That was not much for Kootan to bear; he could have cared less about the assaults and affronts; but, he figured if he stuck around much longer, his dad would teach him all he needed to know; but, he felt so much he was willing and able to discuss with him by fear of reprisal, he would prefer to meet somebody else to learn spontaneously and accurately.

Kootan was aiming high, courageously seeking to know what Voodoo really was, and embarking on a journey to sort out the innate difference between ceremony and black magic, between reality and superfluous montage, between hearsay and fallacy. If he could have done something in his power, he would not hesitate to call for a turnabout, a form of imposed eradication. To him, belief in Voodoo was one thing, to use it to manipulate others was another.

Kootan was born in Cabaret but grew up in Valparaizo, a city enclave in the heart of Hispaniola. While many other communities represented a troublesome for their residents, Valparaizo remained unrestricted livelihood, a spectacular municipal with evergreen parks and landscapes, and not far from the intersection of Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Part of Kootan’s routine also was to go by Bus with his Boys’ Scouts to the borderline of Dominican Republic and Haiti to search for evidences of the voodoo; but not only that, he believed he would visit scores of Palaces and the remnant of Citadel Christophe in Haiti which was the only kingdom that ever existed in America’s history. When the crowd got there, out of fear, all his friends disappeared altogether and left him to skirmish alone.

Boldly, Kootan would arm himself with an artifact, the cross of Saint Andrew gifted by Bonenfant for protection when he received his first communion. He walked up a steep climb and crossed a calm river to reach Dominican’s land. Along the way, he frequently heard many indiscreet things behind the mountains and valleys that made him very perplex. Kootan yelled, is it you Damballah? I am not afraid of you. I am so much bigger than you…don’t even try! Just to let you know. He would pay close attention to the details, take notes, and keep them for himself.

One of his greatest recollection; a loud thunder once had people running for cover during a pleasant day; even the donkeys jarred ceaselessly. That change in nature, or the reason for it, was attributed to Voodoo spell, Kootan was told. But he was determined to find out why people believed that was so. That captivated his mind and plowed him into the deepest and darkest side of the voodoo’s religion. He was inquisitive, malleable, and articulate. But when he began to hear and see things out of ordinary, he quickly drifted into a state of confusion. He was lucky to be attending a prestigious Catholic school where the teachers (all of them were priests) talked cynically of Voodoo and mentioned that its worshipers and uninformed advocates would tend to use it as part of an informal vengeance instead of its benefits. It was through this system that the practitioners uncovered the importance and effectiveness of bare-bone plants when it came to local medicine and addressing health issues. But how the voodoo got so deep in the people mindset of the people of the Island from heads of state to the bottom of society?

Pekles taught him when the invaders set foot on the island, they found dark skins Alkebulans or Arawacks, Caribs or the Tainos. There were five states altogether in Hispaniola. Subsequently, they forced the inhabitants to reject their own culture to embrace theirs’. From five governors, the island decreased to only two Presidents: Neibi Yaskim for Dominican Republic, on the East and, Neiron Francis, for Haiti the west.

Neibi Yaskim governed with an iron fist and imposed fines on those who wished not to follow his order while Neiron Francis governed with kidnapping’s strategy or false arrest. He allowed voodoo’s ceremonies to take place at any time and openly. Both funded small and large temples and spent a great deal of time proponing the inherent practices of the same.

The two head of states banked on Alkebulan’s culture to further entice the citizens into submission. That was in every facet of life. They claimed to have inherited spiritual powers from their God-chosen ancestors. They stayed in power at the mercy of human blood shedding; and for the sake of sacrifice, murder came about daily. It was said that some of the most sought-after and powerful goddesses would have to taste fresh human blood; or else, invoking them would be a waste of time. A peasant who didn’t bring along a live fowl at the temple, for instance, would be a violator of some sort and expelled from the inner circle. And no one dared to challenge that, out of fear.

Neibi Yaskim liked to scare his people and enforced curfews without having to explain why. The older he got, the more discourteous. He shocked everyone when he announced his only son, Yaskim Belladel to succeed him if he died. Despotism was the way to go – like it or not.

Neiron Francis, on the other hand, had a son named Duval Francis. He was bad but, not as bad as his father. He was compassionate about the plights the Haitians were enduring. He didn’t expect to rule forever; he promoted his army soldiers and expanded plantation fields to avoid food shortage. He took designated his only son Duval Francis to replace him upon his death. Now, Kootan’s dream began to change to cert.

Pekles had a close friend named Pepe who was a voodoo’s priest. He used to make the habit to travel back and forth between Haiti and Dominican Republic to make fortune out of the Fetiches. Both, Pekles and Pepe had been soldiers in Haitian’s army. They shared common interests not only as being soldiers but as the loas’ believers. But Pepe was secretly dating Lydia, a young Mambo who worked for Don Livorio, a Dominican’s leader, revolutionary, vodooist, nationalist. Don Livorio swore to outburst all the invaders’ remnants in Dominican Republic alike Charlemagne Peralte in counterpart in Haiti, vodooist, leader, revolutionary, indeed nationalist. So, Pepe became a messenger between Peralte and Livorrio. He fell in love so much for this Dominican’s woman that he built her a nice house. Unfortunately, Pepe was called upon to return to Haiti to fight the Haitian’s war of liberation on the command of Peralte.

Kootan was in awe the first time he saw Pepe in his dad’s home in Haiti. He overheard Pepe talking about Lydia and his daughter named Kitibel.

I have a girlfriend named Lydia and a daughter in Dominican Republic. My daughter’s name is Kitibel. She is in her twenties, I suppose. They both are doing fine, confessed Pepe to Kootan’s dad.

But this is not the end of the story, Pepe said.

Kitibel, too has a daughter named Briane. She just turned six years old, a little bit younger than your son Kootan. And that makes me a grandfather, Pepe said, laughing.

Pekles uncorked a bottle of rum and poured some in Pepe’s glass - which was his way of congratulating him. But Pepe looked a tad heartbroken; he had had better hopes for Kitibel.