GLOSSARY

bateyes: Squalid sheds used to house agricultural workers, the vast majority of them undocumented Haitian immigrants, in the sugar plantations of the Dominican Republic.

carreau de terre: Approximately 3.19 acres.

Cité Ochan: An invented name (from the Creole word for “Cheers!”) for Cité Soleil. The latter is the current name of the residential area originally named for François Duvalier’s wife. (Trans.)

Cornelia: Cornelia Africana, mother of the Gracchi, two high-minded tribunes of the Roman Republic. She is often held up as the foremost example of the virtuous Roman woman. (Trans.)

good luck baths: Ritual baths taken by practitioners of Haitian Vodou to enlist the protection of the loas. (Trans.)

jetedlo: A ritual whereby the Vodou follower throws three drops of liquid on the ground by way of greeting and invitation to the ancestral and family spirits. Depending on the rite, the liquid may be water, rum, wine, or coffee.

lago: A game akin to hide-and-seek.

little priest: The activist cleric and politician Jean-Bertrand Aristide. An outspoken critic of Duvalierism, he served as president of Haiti during three separate periods between 1991 and 2004. He left the priesthood in 1994. (Trans.)

loas: Spirits of the Haitian Vodou pantheon grouped into families or clans to form the nations observing the Rada, Petro, or Congo rites.

mambo: A Vodou priestess at the head of a congregation with the same authority and attributes as her male counterpart, the ougan.

mini-jazz: A form of jazz with indigenous Haitian roots, as well as influences from rock music. The style came to prominence in Haiti in the 1960s. The term also refers to any of the small bands that played the music. (Trans.)

ougan: A Vodou priest who conducts ceremonies and serves as an intermediary between the loas and the faithful.

poteau mitan: The central post of the peristyle, the Vodou place of worship. The poteau serves as a conduit to the spirits.

PPPL: The Parti populaire pour la libération, a left-wing movement ruthlessly repressed by François Duvalier. (Trans.)

Radio Ochan: An invented adaptation of “Radio Soleil,” a broadcast outlet founded by the Catholic Church in 1978. The station was a beacon of opposition to “Baby Doc” Duvalier’s regime. (Trans.)

rara: A festive group of peasants who parade along rural roads and lanes, and at times in urban areas, singing and dancing to the rousing rhythm of drums and bamboo horns (vaccins) during the Lenten period.

Tonton Macoutes: The nickname for the Voluntaires de la sécurité nationale (VSN), a dreaded militia force under the Duvalier regimes. “Tonton Macoute” means “Uncle Gunnysack,” and it referred originally to a mythical bogeyman who kidnapped misbehaving children and stuffed them into his sack.

vèvè: A drawing traced on the ground with ash, wheat flour, or cornmeal, depicting the symbol that corresponds to a particular loa.

VSN: See Tonton Macoutes.

zombification: The supposed reanimation of a corpse. Reported instances of zombie-like behavior probably result from sublethal poisonings of live victims. Still, the belief in reanimation is persistent enough that an attempt to steal the dictator’s body for such a purpose could not be ruled out. (Trans.)

Zoreille: A term commonly used in the French Antilles to denote a person from mainland France who has come to live in the Antilles. The term has a parallel meaning elsewhere in the French Overseas Departments and Territories. (Trans.)