Dance for Danbala and Loko, Kay Savial, 18 March 1995
Channel: The Frisner Augustin Memorial Archive
Date: 2019-08-14

The night of March 18–19, 1995, Frisner Augustin and musicians drummed for a dance in honor of the Vodou spirits Danbala Wedo and Loko Atisou. Oungan Savial, who has passed away but was prominent in the community in the 1990s, presided over the dance and used as temple a basement in a building on Farragut Road in the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn. Dozens of people attended, among them other Vodou clergy, initiates, musicians and students of Mr. Augustin, and non-initiated faithful and supporters.

Both spirits belong to the Rada nation of Haitian Vodou, a spiritual family traced to West Africa. Vodouists represent Danbala as a serpent. Together with his female complement, Ayida, he arches upward in the form of an arc or rainbow toward an egg, thus symbolizing energy (undulation) and fertility. The name Loko derives from the iroko, a massive tree in West Africa with a centuries-long lifespan. Vodouists recall Loko as the spirit of the tree, a consummate herbalist, and the quintessential Vodou priest. Loko confers the ason, the sacred rattle with which the priest conducts a dance. When Catholic missionaries introduced images of the saints into Haiti in the late nineteenth century, Vodouists resisted by reinterpreting some images as lwa. The image of St. Patrick surrounded by the snakes he drove out of Ireland suggested Danbala, and the image of St. Joseph holding a branch of lilies and the Christ child suggested Loko. Vodou schedules dances for Danbala and Loko on March 17 (St. Patrick’s day) and March 19 (St. Joseph’s day), and they are often feasted in one night. In 1995 March 18 fell on a Saturday, the preferred day for dances in New York.

Dr. Lois Wilcken shot the video from the behind the spectators, with the drum ensemble lined up along the wall to her right. Typically, lead drummer Frisner Augustin, who was lefthanded, sat at the right end of the ensemble. (The master drummer holds the stick in his dominant hand.) The drummers reversed the orientation on this occasion so that Mr. Augustin could have an optimal view of the dance. The ensemble included three drums (manman, segon, boula) and handheld percussion (iron beater, frame drum).

Oungan Savial, as per custom, prefaced the dance with Lapriyè Ginen, a series of prayers and chants that focus participants and outline the regleman, or ritual order. In brief, they travel from French Catholic prayers to chants in a mix of Kreyòl and African languages, especially fongbe, éwé, yoruba, and kikongo. Modality and phrase structuring shift along with language. As the Catholic skin completes its shedding, drumrolls become more frequent until the end of Lapriyè. The dance proper for Danbala and Loko began at 00:53:31 with the steady beat of yanvalou, the style of the Rada nation. Note that sèvitè (servants) wore white, a Rada color specific to Danbala and several other lwa.

The dance saluted other lwa in the Rada nation, with extended rites for the two spirits honored. Loko and his female complement Ayizan usually precede Danbala in the regleman. On this occasion the rite called twoke ason, a dialog of priests using esoteric gestures with their ason (beginning 01:17:59), stood in for salutations to Loko. In atypical fashion full rites for Loko followed Danbala. Salutations to Danbala began at 01:30:51, with the lwa manifesting in Savial at 01:34:31, then in another oungan at 01:35:31. The possessed fell to the floor and moved as serpents, and, under cover of a sheet, each received the egg symbolic of fertility. The drummers responded to the lwa with the breaks called kase (kah-say).

Salutations to Loko began at 01:52:00. Note the change of costuming to yellow (with green as secondary), the color of Loko. Initiates paraded into the temple bearing a statue of St. Joseph and govi, urns used to communicate with deceased Vodouists. (When Vodouists call the deceased up from the abyss, they ask Loko’s permission first.) It was difficult to capture on tape, but we can see Loko smoking a cigar, sharing rum, and greeting the faithful from 02:14:00. Initiates served refreshments, and Loko departed at 02:27:15. Other Rada spirits saluted were Sobo, the ocean lwa Agwe (with blowing of conch shell at 02:52:17 and presence of the lwa at 02:53:35), and the bull Agaou (03:07:41). The remainder of the recording captured Nago rites (starting 03:09:57, with the Nago lwa Ogou greeting drummers at 03:13:19, and further appearances of Ogou), and a touch of rites for the Petwo nation from 03:33:22 to the end.

Musicians (for most of the dance):
Frisner Augustin, lead drum
Paul Uhry Newman, second and third drums
Jonathan Bloom, second and third drums
Guillermo Guerrera, ogan (iron idiophone)
Justin Ihne, frame drum

Source identifier: MAK_LW_VOD.006_0001mi_ma_19950318
Creator: Lois Wilcken
Rights: Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0
Date: 18 March 1995 (exact)
Source format: Video 8 cassette
Language: Haitian Creole