FLAGMAKER JOSEPH OLDOF PIERRE 1955-1994

Joseph Oldof Pierre had an extremely vivid spiritual life that intersected with his physical life in very dramatic ways. He was a devout Catholic and Vodouist. His father was apparently a bokò or Vodou priest who practices both white and black magic. As a child Oldof was visited three times by a lougawou, a werewolf who comes out at night to steal children. Each time he was awakened by his mother in a forest far from his home. At 18 he came down with a series of serious illnesses and was cured by his father. 

He took the visits by the lougawou and the fact that his bokò father cured him as signs that he needed to serve the lwa or spirits so he had himself initiated into Vodou. He traded drapo with the houngan to pay for his initiation. As a devoted Catholic he went to mass regularly, but he also gave up his bed three times a week to Erzulie and slept on the floor. He traveled throughout Haiti to attend Vodou ceremonies and for many summers he made the both the pilgrimage to Saut d'Eau to honor Erzulie and the one to the Plaine du Nord to honor Ogou.

He began making flags after his father died in 1980. His work reflects both Catholic and Vodou traditions sometimes in the same flag. Before starting a flag he would meditate on a chromolithograph of a Catholic saint (which he no doubt conflated with a Vodou lwa) until he came up with an idea. Although he would sometimes incorporate veve into his work, he always depicted the spirits as personifications, not abstractions. And his lwa are always frontal and wide-eyed as if startled into consciousness like a child awakened by his mother because he's been abducted by a lougawou.

Like many flagmakers Oldof's dream was to become a Vodou priest. He wanted to build a studio where he could make his art and a peristil where he could make his ceremonies in Leogone and spiritually marry Erzulie. He died before he realized his dream.

Information from The Sequin Arts of Haiti by Tina Girouard

RITUAL RE-ENACTMENT OF BOIS CAÏMAN

Vodou flags (drapo Vodou) are used to open most Haitian Vodou ceremonies. A service begins when the master of ceremonies (laplas)enters the sacred space bearing the sword of Ogou, the warrior spirit who led the slave uprisings in the 18^th Century.  On either side of him is a flag-bearer (ounsi) carrying the flags of the two primary spirits to whom their particular congregation is dedicated. The three figures do a dance in quick staccato steps around the center pole (poto-mitan) of the temple (ounfò) saluting the priestess (mambo) and priest(oungan), the four cardinal points, the congregation and the honored guests. Since most ceremonies take place at night with only fire and candle light to provide illumination, the ritual performance is quite beautiful and dramatic with the swirling sequin flags flashing in the candle light and the sword swinging through the night air.

By the time the laplas and ounsi finish their performance, the ceremony with its drumming and singing has heated up enough for the flags to be retired to an inner sanctum of the ounfò. As artist Tina Girouard points out in her book The Sequin Artists of Haiti, this opening performance with the flags and the sword of Ogou "can be compared to affairs of state in most cultures, which begin with a 'color guard,' a display of majesty and might." The display also demarcates between the mundane world and the sacred world much like stain glass windows in a church.

The performance also ritually recreates the prototype for all subsequent Haitian Vodou ceremonies, the secret ceremony at Bois Caïman. In August 1791 an oungan named Dutty Boukman oversaw a service dedicated to freedom and the overthrow of the French slavocracy. He and a mambo whose name has unfortunately been lost sacrificed a black pig, an animal that represents the untamed spirits of the forested mountains and the African ancestors. All those present drank the pig's blood and vowed to dedicate themselves to the fight for freedom. A week later 1800 plantations had been burned to the ground and 1000 slave owners killed. That was the opening salvo of the only successful slave uprising in human history. The struggle in Haiti lasted until 1804 when the Haitian republic was established. The opening performance by the laplas with his sword and the ounsi with their flags announce a spiritual event but also ritually recreate a political one.