The Vodou Ethic and the Spirit of Communism

The Practical Consciousness of the African People of Haiti

Paul C. Mocombe

Using a variant of structuration theory, what Paul C. Mocombe calls phenomenological structuralism, this work explores and highlights how the African religion of Vodou and its ethic, i.e., syncretism, materialism, communal living or social collectivism, democracy, individuality, cosmopolitanism, spirit of social justice, xenophilia, balance, harmony, and gentleness, gave rise, under the leadership of oungan yo, manbo yo, gangan yo, and granmoun yo, to the Haitian spirit of communism and the “counter-plantation system” (Jean Casimir’s term) in the provinces and mountains of Haiti. What Mocombe calls the Vodou Ethic and the spirit of communism of the African people of Haiti would be juxtaposed against the Catholic/Protestant Ethic and the spirit of capitalism of the white, mulatto, gens de couleur, and petit-bourgeois free black classes of the island. This latter worldview, the Catholic/Protestant Ethic and the spirit of capitalism, Mocombe goes on to argue, exercised by the free bourgeois blacks and mulatto elites, Affranchis, on the island undermined the revolutionary and independence movement of Haiti commenced by subjects/agents, oungan yo, manbo yo, gangan yo/dokté fey, and granmoun yo, of the Vodou ethic and the spirit of communism, and made it the poorest, most racist, and tyrannical country in the Western Hemisphere.

University Press of America

Pages: 154 • Trim: 6 x 9⅛

978-0-7618-6702-9 • Paperback • February 2016 • $35.99 • (£28.00)

978-0-7618-6703-6 • eBook • February 2016 • $34.00 • (£25.00)

Subjects: Religion / RELIGION / Politics & State, Political Science / Political Ideologies / Communism, Post- Communism & Socialism, Political Science / Political Ideologies / Democracy, Religion / Christianity / Catholic, Political Science / World / Caribbean & Latin American

The Vodou Ethic and the Spirit of Communism

The Practical Consciousness of the African People of Haiti

Paperback

eBook

Summary

Using a variant of structuration theory, what Paul C. Mocombe calls phenomenological structuralism, this work explores and highlights how the African religion of Vodou and its ethic, i.e., syncretism, materialism, communal living or social collectivism, democracy, individuality, cosmopolitanism, spirit of social justice, xenophilia, balance, harmony, and gentleness, gave rise, under the leadership of oungan yo, manbo yo, gangan yo, and granmoun yo, to the Haitian spirit of communism and the “counter-plantation system” (Jean Casimir’s term) in the provinces and mountains of Haiti. What Mocombe calls the Vodou Ethic and the spirit of communism of the African people of Haiti would be juxtaposed against the Catholic/Protestant Ethic and the spirit of capitalism of the white, mulatto, gens de couleur, and petit-bourgeois free black classes of the island. This latter worldview, the Catholic/Protestant Ethic and the spirit of capitalism, Mocombe goes on to argue, exercised by the free bourgeois blacks and mulatto elites, Affranchis, on the island undermined the revolutionary and independence movement of Haiti commenced by subjects/agents, oungan yo, manbo yo, gangan yo/dokté fey, and granmoun yo, of the Vodou ethic and the spirit of communism, and made it the poorest, most racist, and tyrannical country in the Western Hemisphere.

Details

University Press of America

Pages: 154 • Trim: 6 x 9⅛

978-0-7618-6702-9 • Paperback • February 2016 • $35.99 • (£28.00)

978-0-7618-6703-6 • eBook • February 2016 • $34.00 • (£25.00)

Subjects: Religion / RELIGION / Politics & State, Political Science / Political Ideologies / Communism, Post- Communism & Socialism, Political Science / Political Ideologies / Democracy, Religion / Christianity / Catholic, Political Science / World / Caribbean & Latin American

Author

Paul C. Mocombe is former Visiting Professor of Philosophy and Sociology at Bethune Cookman University and Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Sociology at West Virginia State University and the President/CEO of The Mocombeian Foundation, Inc. A social theorist interested in the application of social theory to contemporary issues such as race, class, and capitalism (globalization), he is the author of, Race and Class Distinctions Within Black Communities, Language, Literacy, and Pedagogy in Postindustrial Societies, A labor Approach to the Development of the Self or Modern Personality: The Case of Public Education, Education in Globalization, Mocombe’s Reading Room Series, and The Mocombeian Strategy: The Reason for, and Answer to Black Failure in Capitalist Education.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter I Theorizing about the Constitution of Black Practical Consciousnesses in Haiti
Chapter II Phenomenological Structuralism
Chapter III A Phenomenological Structural Constitution of Modern Society: “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism”
Chapter IV A Phenomenological Structural Constitution of Haitian Society: “The
Vodou Ethic and the Spirit of Communism”
Chapter V. Conclusions: The Historical Constitution of Haitian Culture or Practical Consciousnesses in an Emerging Protestant Capitalist World-System
References Cited