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Mama Lola: Three Ezilis

Mama Lola: Three Ezilis. Who are the Ezilis? How do they correspond to the lives of women and men in Haiti? What do they stand for? The mirror image of the people What have we learned?. Three Ezilis: female Lwas. The female spirits are mostly independent:

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Mama Lola: Three Ezilis

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  1. Mama Lola: Three Ezilis

  2. Who are the Ezilis? • How do they correspond to the lives of women and men in Haiti? What do they stand for? • The mirror image of the people • What have we learned?

  3. Three Ezilis: female Lwas • The female spirits are mostly independent: • 1.Ezili Dantò/Mater Salvatoris (solitary mother spirit), the petwo lwa, the aggressive one. • 2. Ezili Freda/Maria Dolorosa (white woman, spirit of sensuality), the soft one, a Rada lwa, sweet tempered ones ( Rada vs Petwo,p.101) • 3. Kaouzinn, Lasirenn/Nuestra Senora ( who serves her male counterpart) • She is a market woman. She is in charge of money in the family. •  Female spirits in Vodou: Azka ( the peasant farmer spirit) has a female counterpart named Kouzinn usually appears at the Azaka birthday parties. •   The three ezilis represent mirrors of the womanhood in the Caribbean--the three ways of being woman/mother in the world.

  4. Ezilis Freda and danto • E

  5. Ezili Dantò/Mater Salvatoris: • The mother is "black, black, black." The grandmother is the nurturer. She fights for herself and for her children. In addition, she is iconic (always represented with a child). In this, the female's identity and worth come from protection of and responsibility for children. • Why did the girl never grow up? Why does she still need her mother? Interdependent relationship between mother and daughter. Examples? • The relationship of Alourde with her mother Philo p. 293 (to understand and forgive) who appears in Alourde’s dream? P.294 • Relationship with Maggie p. 295

  6. Freda/Maria Dolorosa ( a white woman) • married and wealthy p. 256 • * Major characteristics: coquettish, bourgeois, materialistic, a prostitute, white. • * Identity and worth come from relationships with men. She represents the romantic escape--namely, that a man riding a white horse will whisk you off, and you will live happily every after. In this, we see how women fantasize about romance as a solution to their problems. Lasirenn/Nuestra Senora ( half black and half white) • * She is closer to Ginen and demonstrates spiritual knowledge/power. She is empowered and empowering. She turns poor women into manbo-healers. • * In addition, she demonstrates elements of both Dantò and Ezili.

  7. Tension between Danto and Freda: they are not served together. p. 256 what does it speak? P. 256 • The tension between them speaks of tension in women’s lives. P.256 • Haitians explore questions of race as well as those of class and gender p.256 • Who does Alourdes represent? P.256 • Mother-Daughter Bond • Danto or Mater Salvatoris is a model for the key bonds in this book: the mother-daughter bond.

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