Guede Nibo
Gede Nibo | |
|---|---|
| Venerated in | Haitian Vodou,Folk Catholicism |
| Attributes | Black coat, top hat, staff, cigar, rum, skull, obscenities |
| Patronage | Gravestones, cemeteries |
Gede Nibo[1][a](Haitian Creole:Gede Nibo[9]) is alwawho is leader of the spirits of the dead inHaitian Vodou.Formerly human, Gede Nibo was a handsome young man who was killed violently. After death, he was adopted as a lwa byBaron SamediandMaman Brigitte.He is envisioned as an effeminate, nasaldandy.Nibo wears a black riding coat ordrag.When he inhabits humans they are inspired to lascivioussexualityof all kinds.[9]
Function and depiction
[edit]Gede Nibo is arada lwa[10]who is considered to be a great healer. He is seen carrying a bottle ofwhite ruminfused withmedicinal herbs,and often carries a staff and smokes acigar.Nibo is the special patron of those who die young, and as such is often conflated with theCatholicsaintGerard Majella,who is depicted with a skull. Nibo is the guardian of the graves of those who died prematurely, particularly those whose final resting place is unknown. He is apsychopomp,an intermediary between the living and the dead. He gives voice to the dead spirits that have not been reclaimed from (The Lower World) or in Vodou terms "below the waters", and hischwals( "horses", possessed devotees) can give voice to the dead spirits whose bodies have not been found.[9]
Service
[edit]Purple is considered his sacred color, and usual offerings include black goats, blackroosters,calabash,cigars, coconut, fried plantains, pistachios, smoked herrings, sweet sesame balls, and white rum spiced with Africanbird pepper.[9]
Until recently, Haitian farmers would perform a praise song to Guede Nibo each November. It involved phallic thrusts and other erotic gestures and was named "Massissi", a Haitian term for a"homoerotically inclined male".[9]
In popular culture
[edit]- TheDisney villaincharacterDr. Facilierin the animated filmThe Princess and the Frogis loosely modeled on Guede Nibo.[citation needed]
- Baron Samedi (as the head of the Guede family of loa) is mentioned in the second novel inIan Fleming'sJames Bondseries of storiesLive and Let Die.
See also
[edit]Footnotes
[edit]Notes
[edit]References
[edit]- ^Carty, Marcel, ed. (2010).Vodou The Next Stage.Xlibris Corporation LLC. p. 42.ISBN9781450023191.Retrieved16 April2021.
- ^Rigaud, Milo; Cross, Robert B., eds. (1985).Secrets of Voodoo.City Lights Publishers. p. 213.ISBN9780872861718.Retrieved15 April2021.
- ^Métraux, Alfred, ed. (21 October 2016).Voodoo in Haiti.Normanby Press. p. 117.ISBN9781787201668.Retrieved16 April2021.
- ^Crosley, Reginald, ed. (2000).The Vodou Quantum Leap Alternative Realities, Power, and Mysticism.Llewellyn Publications. p. 98.ISBN9781567181739.Retrieved16 April2021.
- ^"Caribbean Quarterly Volumes 30-31".Extra Mural Department of the University College of the West Indies. 1984. p. 34.Retrieved16 April2021.
- ^Masquerade Queer Poetry in America to the End of World War II.Indiana University Press. 2004. p. 19.ISBN9780253216342.Retrieved16 April2021.
- ^abcMalbrough, Ray T., ed. (2003).Hoodoo Mysteries Folk Magic, Mysticism & Rituals.Llewellyn Publications. pp. 147, 149.ISBN9780738703503.Retrieved15 April2021.
- ^abcdCuhulain, Kerr, ed. (2010)."Lexicon of Occult Terminology".p. 36. Archived fromthe originalon 15 April 2021.Retrieved16 April2021.
- ^abcdeRandy Conner, David Hatfield Sparks & Mariya Sparks (eds), Cassell'sEncyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol & Spirit,p. 963, London and New York: Cassell, 1997.
- ^Carole Boyce Davies(ed.),Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora,ABC-CLIO, 2008, p. 963.