In autumn 2017 I had an idea for my field trips. I had travelled several times to Cuba in years 2004-2010. Mostly I had taken lessons of Son and Afro Cuban Rumba music, which are popular genres around the world, and the ceremony music of Yoruban and Santeria religions. I had spent a lot of time in Santiago de Cuba, Havanna and Matanzas. These genres are well studied in the academic world. My teachers in Santiago are masters of various Afro Cuban music traditions but they are also responsible and licensed to maintain the Haitian vodoo traditions with their community Cutúmba. I had scratched the surface of these rhythms and songs on my earlier trips but now I was about to concentrate on those Haitians only. I spent six weeks in Cuba this time. Year after, the winter of 2018, I would go to Benin for five weeks and study these same traditions that had been taken to Cuba and Haiti 200-300 years earlier. What was common after such a long period of time?
In Santiago de Cuba I went to my teachers Ramón Marquéz Domíngues and Rafael Cisneros. I had percussion lessons with Ramón in the slum part of the town on the hills of Santa Ursula. I felt happy to be on the sheet metal roof again chickens between my legs playing in fast tempos. Rafael, the tallest man in Santiago, taught me songs for the rhythms of the percussion families I had first learnt from Ramón. These vodoo songs have an interesting mixture of languages that exists only in a singing form. They include Haitian Creol French with some Cuban words and some from ancient vodoo traditions. Every second day I had lessons and the next day I wrote notes according to my recordings. The lessons were two-hour sessions in good old master-apprentice-style which is the best way to learn this kind of music on my opinion. Night times I relaxed featuring on gigs of some local bands of more popular music, such as Son, Rumba and Changüi.
I gathered 5 Afro Haitian Vodoo traditions from Cuba and I planned to arrange chords to this music that originally has only percussion and singing. With respect to the roots of course. I was aiming towards my bachelor concert on spring 2019. Before that I would still make a trip to Benin to complete my material.
Dahomey, Mayizepol, Yámbalu, Petró, Simbí are the Afro Haitian traditions I learnt in Santiago.
To Benin I went in December 2018. I spent five days in the capital Cotonou waiting for my luggage. Then I travelled to the village of Grand Popo for five weeks for my work. There is a Finnish African culture center Villa Karo that takes scholars from Finland for their artistic projects on music, literature and even movie making. I rented a small house near Villa Karo. It was cheaper and included three boys, age of 1-8 years, from the neighbour to disturb my work. Those little guys were the hardest to leave behind when going back to Finland. I must say that in Benin people are really civilized and calm. They will give you the space you need and all of them speak many languages. They don't show their problems. In Cuba I don't like the macho culture and how people are not hiding that they just want a dollar from you.
There is only one main road with asphalt in Grand Popo. Everything else is build on sand. On the main road there are few galleries of musicians and other arts. At the gallery of Noël Saïzonou I learned rhythms for five different Vodoo tradions. Gangbo, Kaya, Éssé, Adjá and Zienlihun. Noël I had met in Finland during his concerts with Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble. Like in Cuba I had singing lessons with another teacher for the rhythms. With Peter Olpias Assogba I studied on the beach. We had access to an old fisherman’s shelter. These Beninese songs are in Mina language.
I also visited the Vodoo festival which moves from village to village for five days in January. The actual ceremonies were not easy to access and I only managed to get there twice as the only white privileged ”outsider”. Filming was not allowed.
Janne Halonen says in his master thesis (My Journey from Being a Multicultural Magpie to Transcultural Musicking, 2018): “Most of the other characteristics of Voudou music are in my opinion ratherpan-African: the melodies are usually based on pentatonic scale, the song forms are long and vary depending on the performance situation, and the music includes a lot of improvisation and ”question and answer” -moments between the soloist and the choir, or the soloist and drummers.” (Halonen, 2018, p. 11). For me this conversation between the lead singer and solo drummer or solo drummer and a dancer is the most fascinating exchange of ideas during a song. A moment that one can never fully learn because it is constantly changing and improvised.
“For the snake gods of Haitian Vodoo religion it is forbidden to offer alcohol. It would make them strong and furious, dangerous. Dambala, one of the old ones is an exception, it enjoys a bit of champagne every now and then.” Says Sinikka Tarvainen in her book “Ennen syntiinlankeemusta, 2007”. (Tarvainen, 2007, p. 88) (Translation by me)
I have studied and played Yoruban and Santerian religious music my hole life. Now I have also taught it forward for ten years. It has been hard trying to analyze my relation to those colourful religions. With a lot of respect I have been curious about the amazing stories and ceremonies but mainly just interested about the difficult interlocking rhythm patterns and beautiful songs. I can relate to what Halonen says: “I will not even try to begin explaining the principles or building blocks of Voudou in this written report. Having immersed myself in Voudou culture and attempting to study Voudou at every available opportunity, I am still confident that my explanationsat their best would most likely only lead to error and misunderstanding. "(Halonen, 2018, p.10)
The most fascinating to me are the solo drum phrases of Afro origined music styles. I search for a new master to find his way and a new perspective for those percussive languages. I am not too religious. So I have kept some distance to the religions. In some rituals in Cuba and Benin I have seen really weird behaviour and some supernatural things unable to be explained with sense.
Vodoo in Haiti and Benin, Santeria and Yoruban are constantly evolving religions. There are many gods and spirits in all of them. People are asking for help from their favorite ones and with time some of the gods get forgotten and new ones appear. Vodoo gods make mistakes like humans and pay the prize for it. Some of them are stronger and some take care of smaller things. I really respect that Vodoo religions can borrow an idea from other religions and that they are not so absolute.
Tarvainen explains that “For centuries Western society taught that Vodoo religions are primitive superstitious actions but nowadays acknowledged to be big world religions with the mythologies, hierarchy and ceremonies. But the religion is included in all of the every-day-actions so it would be better to call it a worldview or an ideology.” (Tarvainen, 2007, p.10) (Translated by me).
In Europe and Northern America there is a single story problem. Many people have their only information about vodoo from some context where it has been shown as exotic as possible, for example a James Bond film. In my experience Vodoo is a beautiful thing trying to help people’s everyday life. Some people are talking about the dark side of it, black magic or something. I don't know about it nor believe in it yet
Playing Vodoo music in Benin and Haiti is local communal life. I would not call it performing. Halonen says: “In the religion of Voudou, each rhythm has a purpose. A time and place where and when it’s supposed to be played, and also a ritual that the groove is attached to.Some rituals are performed in public, while others are secret. In my own experience Ithink It is safe to say, that there is plenty of music attached to every area of Benineselife.” (Halonen, 2018, p. 11)
When I brought that music to another context and played it on the stage at the Black Box of Music House it turned to a performance. The audience had mostly only the information I gave. It was exotic and inspiring. I don’t own that music but I can love and play it!
