Haiti
Cécile Fatiman (1771-1883), was a Haitian vodou priestess, a mambo. She is famous for her participation in the vodou ceremony at Bois Caïman, which is considered to be one of the starting points of the Haitian Revolution.
“Cast aside the image of the God of the oppressors.”
Cécile Fatiman
In August 1791, Fatiman presided over a ceremony at the Bois Caïman in the role of mambo together with priest Dutty Boukman. Boukman prophesied that the slaves Jean François, Biassou, and Jeannot would be leaders of a resistance movement and revolt that would free the slaves of Saint-Domingue. An animal was sacrificed, an oath was taken, and Boukman and the priestess exhorted the listeners to take revenge against their French oppressors and “[c]ast aside the image of the God of the oppressors.” According to the Encyclopedia of African Religion: “Blood from the animal, and some say from humans as well, was given in a drink to the attendees to seal their fates in loyalty to the cause of liberation of Sainte-Domingue.”[6] During the ceremony, Cécile Fatiman was possessed by Erzulie Dantor. She was also said to have cut the throat of a pig and offered its blood to the spectators. A week later, 1800 plantations had been destroyed and 1000 slaveholders killed.
