53-517: A bokor (male) ( Haitian Creole : bòkò ) or caplata (female) is a Vodou priest or priestess for hire in Haiti who is said to serve the loa , " 'with both hands', practicing for both good and evil." Their practice includes the creation of zombies and of ouangas (talismans that house spirits). The term bokor can also refer to the leader of the Makaya division of Vodou, which originated in
106-476: A fetish and made to enhance the bokor's power. Bokors normally work with the Loas Baron Samedi , Kalfu , Legba and Simbi (snake loa), and in some cases they are said to work with Grand Bois , the loa of the forest. Bokors are similar to the rootworkers of Vodou and Louisiana Voodoo . Some may be priests of a Vodou house. Bokor are usually chosen from birth, those who are believed to bear
159-569: A magnitude 7.2 earthquake occurred near the city. It was the largest earthquake to strike Haiti in modern history, even stronger than the 2010 earthquake near the Haitian capital. The earthquake killed over 2,200 people and injured around 12,700 others, most of them in Les Cayes and its surrounding areas. Les Cayes plays a significant role in the still under-developed Haitian tourism industry, with pleasant sights such as: Gelée Beach : one of
212-571: A "tool of education". The Constitution of 1987 names both Haitian Creole and French as the official languages, but recognizes Haitian Creole as the only language that all Haitians hold in common. French is spoken by only a small percentage of citizens. Even without government recognition, by the end of the 19th century, there were already literary texts written in Haitian Creole such as Oswald Durand 's Choucoune and Georges Sylvain 's Cric? Crac! . Félix Morisseau-Leroy
265-451: A daily basis and is often heard in ordinary conversation. There is a large population in Haiti that speaks only Haitian Creole, whether under formal or informal conditions: French plays no role in the very formal situation of a Haitian peasant (more than 80% of the population make a living from agriculture) presiding at a family gathering after the death of a member, or at the worship of
318-538: A detached, somewhat dreamlike state. Its state is likened to being mind controlled . The person is alive but in a state where they cannot control what they say or do; at this point, when the person has been reanimated from the grave, or at least is moving about working for the bokor, they can be termed zombies. However, some legends dispense with this explanation, and have the bokor raise zombies from dead bodies whose souls have departed. Also, bokors are said to work with zombie astrals – souls or spirits which are captured in
371-414: A great ashe (power). A bokor can be, by worldly terms, good or evil, though some sources consider them an evil version of a houngan . Haitian Creole language Haitian Creole ( / ˈ h eɪ ʃ ən ˈ k r iː oʊ l / ; Haitian Creole: kreyòl ayisyen , [kɣejɔl ajisjɛ̃] ; French: créole haïtien , [kʁe.ɔl a.i.sjɛ̃] ), or simply Creole (Haitian Creole: kreyòl ),
424-542: A new terminal to the airport. Haitian officials Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe and Tourism Minister Stéphanie Villedrouin suggested that the airport would open up completely the Southern Region as the country saw tourism as one of the promising sectors capable of creating thousands of new jobs in the region. Another airport project is also planned for the neighbouring island of Île-à-Vache. Les Cayes has some training centers of which The American University of
477-474: A result would try to learn French to communicate with one another, though most were denied a formal education. With the constant trafficking and enslavement of Africans, the language became increasingly distinct from French. The language was also picked up by other members of the community and became used by the majority of those born in what is now Haiti. In Saint-Domingue , people of all classes spoke Creole French . There were both lower and higher registers of
530-564: A similar pronunciation. Many towns, places or sites have their official name being a translation of the Taino word. Haitian Creole developed in the 17th and 18th centuries in the colony of Saint-Domingue , in a setting that mixed speakers of various Niger–Congo languages with French colonists. In the early 1940s under President Élie Lescot , attempts were made to standardize the language. American linguistic expert Frank Laubach and Irish Methodist missionary H. Ormonde McConnell developed
583-470: A standardized Haitian Creole orthography . Although some regarded the orthography highly, it was generally not well received. Its orthography was standardized in 1979. That same year Haitian Creole was elevated in status by the Act of 18 September 1979. The Institut Pédagogique National established an official orthography for Creole, and slight modifications were made over the next two decades. For example,
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#1732787598988636-545: A white Frenchwoman for a wife. Tell her, if you please. We won't kill anymore whites, brothers, friends, and camarades of ours. Your son hugs you, my dear mother. Congo, free and independent Haitian, at Trou-Salé. Haitian Creole and French have similar pronunciations and also share many lexical items. However, many cognate terms actually have different meanings. For example, as Valdman mentions in Haitian Creole: Structure, Variation, Status, Origin ,
689-567: Is a French-based creole language spoken by 10 to 12 million people worldwide, and is one of the two official languages of Haiti (the other being French), where it is the native language of the vast majority of the population. Northern, Central, and Southern dialects are the three main dialects of Haitian Creole. The Northern dialect is predominantly spoken in Cap-Haïtien , Central is spoken in Port-au-Prince , and Southern in
742-638: Is a commune and seaport in the Les Cayes Arrondissement , in the Sud department of Haiti , with a population of 71,236. Due to its isolation from the political turmoil of the capital, Port-au-Prince , it is one of Haiti's major ports, with export trade concentrating on mostly coffee and sugarcane . As the world's largest supplier of vetiver , it exports 250 tons annually of this ingredient of perfume and fragrance manufacturing. Minor exports include bananas and timber. The island of what
795-662: Is also spoken in regions that have received migration from Haiti, including other Caribbean islands, French Guiana , Martinique , France , Canada (particularly Quebec ) and the United States (including the U.S. state of Louisiana ). It is related to Antillean Creole , spoken in the Lesser Antilles , and to other French-based creole languages. The word creole comes from the Portuguese term crioulo , which means "a person raised in one's house" and from
848-423: Is not mutually intelligible with standard French, and it also has its own distinctive grammar. Some estimate that Haitians are the largest community in the world to speak a modern creole language , others estimate that more people speak Nigerian Pidgin . Haitian Creole's use in communities and schools has been contentious since at least the 19th century. Some Haitians view French as inextricably linked to
901-400: Is often considered the high language and Haitian Creole as the low language in the diglossic relationship of these two languages in society. That is to say, for the minority of Haitian population that is bilingual, the use of these two languages largely depends on the social context: standard French is used more in public, especially in formal situations, whereas Haitian Creole is used more on
954-425: Is similar in phonetic structure. The phrase-structure is another similarity between Haitian Creole and French but differs slightly in that it contains details from its African substratum language. Both Haitian Creole and French have also experienced semantic change : words that had a single meaning in the 17th century have changed or have been replaced in both languages. For example, " Ki jan ou rele? " ("What
1007-472: Is your name?") corresponds to the French " Comment vous appelez‑vous ? ". Although the average French speaker would not understand this phrase, every word in it is in fact of French origin: qui "who"; genre "manner"; vous "you", and héler "to call", but the verb héler has been replaced by appeler in modern French and reduced to a meaning of "to flag down". Lefebvre proposed
1060-668: The Cayes area. The language emerged from contact between French settlers and enslaved Africans during the Atlantic slave trade in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti ) in the 17th and 18th centuries. Although its vocabulary largely derives from 18th-century French, its grammar is that of a West African Volta-Congo language branch, particularly the Fongbe and Igbo languages. It also has influences from Spanish, English, Portuguese, Taíno, and other West African languages. It
1113-540: The Central Tano languages , and Bantu languages from Central Africa. Singler suggests that the number of Bantu speakers decreased while the number of Kwa speakers increased, with Gbe being the most dominant group. The first fifty years of Saint‑Domingue 's sugar boom coincided with emergent Gbe predominance in the French Caribbean . In the interval during which Singler hypothesizes the language evolved,
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#17327875989881166-532: The Congo region . It is believed that there is a grand master for all bokors that have ever lived who can be reborn in every century. During the dictatorship of Papa Doc Duvalier as ( Haiti's President for life ) in the 1960s, he is known of creating the army of the undead. Duvalier's second in command, Luckner Cambronne , the head of the secret police, the Tonton Macoute and a high-ranking political figure
1219-648: The Latin creare , which means "to create, make, bring forth, produce, beget". In the New World , the term originally referred to Europeans born and raised in overseas colonies (as opposed to the European-born peninsulares ). To be "as rich as a Creole" at one time was a popular saying boasted in Paris during the colonial years of Haiti (then named Saint-Domingue ), for being the most lucrative colony in
1272-402: The hyphen (-) is no longer used, nor is the apostrophe. The only accent mark retained is the grave accent in ⟨è⟩ and ⟨ò⟩ . The Constitution of 1987 upgraded Haitian Creole to a national language alongside French. It classified French as the langue d'instruction or "language of instruction", and Creole was classified as an outil d'enseignement or
1325-559: The multigraphs ⟨ch⟩ , ⟨ou⟩ , ⟨oun⟩ , and ⟨ui⟩ ). The Haitian Creole alphabet has no ⟨q⟩ or ⟨x⟩ ; when ⟨x⟩ is used in loanwords and proper nouns, it represents the sounds /ks/ , /kz/ , or /gz/ . (or à before an n) Les Cayes Les Cayes ( / l eɪ ˈ k eɪ , l eɪ ˈ k aɪ / lay K(A)Y , French: [le kaj] ), often referred to as Aux Cayes ( French: [o kaj] ; Haitian Creole : Okay ),
1378-407: The 17th century, French and Spanish colonizers produced tobacco , cotton , and sugar cane on the island. Throughout this period, the population was made of roughly equal numbers of engagés (white workers), gens de couleur libres (free people of colour) and slaves. The economy shifted more decisively into sugar production about 1690, just before the French colony of Saint-Domingue
1431-535: The Fongbe language, is a modern Gbe language native to Benin , Nigeria and Togo in West Africa . This language has a grammatical structure similar to Haitian Creole, possibly making Creole a relexification of Fon with vocabulary from French. The two languages are often compared: There are a number of Taino influences in Haitian Creole; many objects, fruit and animal names are either haitianized or have
1484-569: The Gbe population was around 50% of the kidnapped enslaved population. Classical French ( français classique ) and langues d'oïl ( Norman , Poitevin and Saintongeais dialects, Gallo and Picard ) were spoken during the 17th and 18th centuries in Saint‑Domingue , as well as in New France and French West Africa . Slaves lacked a common means of communication and as
1537-688: The areas he occupied, Pétion gave him money and military supplies. Mexican nationalists, Francisco Javier Mina and José Joaquín de Herrera took asylum in Les Cayes and were welcomed by Pétion during the Mexican War of Independence . On 5 December 5 1919, American planes bombed Les Cayes in a possible act of intimidation. American pilots were investigated for their actions, though none were condemned. These actions were described by anthropologist Jean-Philippe Belleau as possibly "the first ever carried out by air on civilian populations". President Herbert Hoover had become increasingly pressured about
1590-2219: The blow from the hurricane put me in the position of getting it refitted again. The Entrepreneur. Is it taking on a lot of water? The Captain. The first days after the storm, we took on thirty six inches in twenty four hours; but in clear weather I made them take as much of it out as I was able, and attached it the best we possibly could; we're presently taking on not even thirteen inches. Haïti, l'an 1er, 5e, jour de l'indépendance. Chère maman moi, Ambassadeurs à nous, partis pour chercher argent France, moi voulé écrire à vous par yo, pour dire vous combien nous contens. Français bons, oublié tout. Papas nous révoltés contre yo, papas nous tués papas yo, fils yo, gérens yo, papas nous brûlées habitations yo. Bagasse, eux veni trouver nous! et dis nous, vous donner trente millions de gourdes à nous et nous laisser Haïti vous? Vous veni acheter sucre, café, indigo à nous? mais vous payer moitié droit à nous. Vous penser chère maman moi, que nous accepté marché yo. Président à nous embrassé bon papa Makau. Yo bu santé roi de France, santé Boyer , santé Christophe , santé Haïti, santé indépendance. Puis yo dansé Balcindé et Bai chi ca colé avec Haïtienes. Moi pas pouvé dire vous combien tout ça noble et beau. Venir voir fils à vous sur habitation, maman moi, li donné vous cassave, gouillave et pimentade. Li ben content si pouvez mener li blanche france pour épouse. Dis li, si ben heureuse. Nous plus tuer blancs, frères, amis, et camarades à nous. Fils à vous embrasse vous, chère maman moi. Congo, Haïtien libre et indépendant, au Trou-Salé. Haiti, 1st year, 5th day of independence. My dear mother, Our ambassadors left to get money from France, I want to write to you through them, to tell you how much we are happy. The French are good, they forgot everything. Our fathers revolted against them, our fathers killed their fathers, sons, managers, and our fathers burned down their plantations. Well, they came to find us, and told us, "you give thirty million gourdes to us and we'll leave Haiti to you? (And we replied) Will you come buy sugar, coffee, and indigo from us? You will pay only half directly to us." Do you believe my dear mother, that we accepted
1643-418: The country's newly instated "Creole Day". Haitian Creole writers often use different literary strategies throughout their works, such as code-switching, to increase the audience's knowledge on the language. Literature in Haitian Creole is also used to educate the public on the dictatorial social and political forces in Haiti. Although both French and Haitian Creole are official languages in Haiti , French
Bokor - Misplaced Pages Continue
1696-431: The creation of zombies by the use of a deadening brew or potion , usually containing poison extracted from puffer fish ( tetrodotoxin ). This potion induces the drinker to appear as though they were dead; thus they are often buried. Later, the bokor would return for the victim and force them to do his bidding, such as manual labor. The victim is often given deliriant drugs, mainly Datura stramonium , where they enter
1749-541: The deal? Our President hugged the good papa Makau (the French ambassador). They drank to the health of the King of France , to the health of Boyer , to the health of Christophe , to the health of Haiti, to independence. Then they danced Balcindé and Bai chi ca colé with Haitian women. I can't tell you how much all of this is so beautiful and noble. Come see your son at his plantation, my mother, he will give you cassava, goyava, and pimentade. He will be happy if you can bring him
1802-404: The earthquake in 2010, basic education became free and more accessible to the monolingual masses. In the 2010s, the government has attempted to expand the use of Creole and improve the school system. Haitian Creole has a phonemic orthography with highly regular spelling, except for proper nouns and foreign words. According to the official standardized orthography, Haitian Creole is composed of
1855-411: The education system has been French-dominant. Except the children of elites, many had to drop out of school because learning French was very challenging to them and they had a hard time to follow up. The Bernard Reform of 1978 tried to introduce Creole as the teaching language in the first four years of primary school; however, the reform overall was not very successful. The use of Creole has grown; after
1908-728: The effects of occupying Haiti at the time and began inquiring about a withdrawal strategy. By 1929, Haitians had grown angered with the Borno-Russell government and American occupation, with demands for direct elections increasing. In early December 1929, protests against the American occupation began at the Service Technique de l’Agriculture et de l’Enseignement Professionnel's main school. On December 6, 1929, about 1,500 Haitians peacefully protesting local economic conditions in Les Cayes were fired upon by U.S. Marines, with
1961-449: The family lwa or voodoo spirits, or contacting a Catholic priest for a church baptism, marriage, or solemn mass, or consulting a physician, nurse, or dentist, or going to a civil officer to declare a death or birth. In most schools, French is still the preferred language for teaching. Generally speaking, Creole is more used in public schools, as that is where most children of ordinary families who speak Creole attend school. Historically,
2014-814: The following 32 symbols: ⟨a⟩ , ⟨an⟩ , ⟨b⟩ , ⟨ch⟩ , ⟨d⟩ , ⟨e⟩ , ⟨è⟩ , ⟨en⟩ , ⟨f⟩ , ⟨g⟩ , ⟨h⟩ , ⟨i⟩ , ⟨j⟩ , ⟨k⟩ , ⟨l⟩ , ⟨m⟩ , ⟨n⟩ , ⟨ng⟩ , ⟨o⟩ , ⟨ò⟩ , ⟨on⟩ , ⟨ou⟩ , ⟨oun⟩ , ⟨p⟩ , ⟨r⟩ , ⟨s⟩ , ⟨t⟩ , ⟨ui⟩ , ⟨v⟩ , ⟨w⟩ , ⟨y⟩ , and ⟨z⟩ . The letters ⟨c⟩ and ⟨u⟩ are always associated with another letter (in
2067-922: The language, depending on education and class. Creole served as a lingua franca throughout the West Indies . L'Entrepreneur. Mo sorti apprend, Mouché, qué vou té éprouvé domage dan traversée. Le Capitaine. Ça vrai. L'Entr. Vou crére qué navire à vou gagné bisoin réparations? Le C. Ly té carené anvant nou parti, mai coup z'ouragan là mété moué dan cas fair ly bay encor nion radoub. L'Entr. Ly fair d'iau en pile? Le C. Primié jours aprés z'orage, nou té fair trente-six pouces par vingt-quatre heurs; mai dan beau tem mo fair yo dégagé ça mo pu, et tancher miyor possible, nou fair à présent necqué treize pouces. The Entrepreneur. I just learned, sir, that you garnered damages in your crossing. The Captain. That's true. The Entrepreneur. Do you believe that your ship needs repair? The Captain. It careened before we left, but
2120-442: The legacy of colonialism and language compelled on the population by conquerers, while Creole has been maligned by francophones as a miseducated person's French. Until the late 20th century, Haitian presidents spoke only standard French to their fellow citizens, and until the 21st century, all instruction at Haitian elementary schools was in modern standard French, a second language to most of their students. Haitian Creole
2173-436: The longest and most visited beaches in Haiti. The white sand beach of Gelée beach is very popular in Haiti, not only for its restaurants which serve typical southern Haiti dishes such as tonm-tonm, grilled-conch, grilled-fish and lobster, but also for hosting an annual music festival around mid-August which usually features some of the best Compas music bands. Many visitors both from within Haiti and neighboring USA will come spend
Bokor - Misplaced Pages Continue
2226-492: The massacre resulting in 12 to 22 Haitians dead and 51 injured. The massacre resulted in international outrage, with President Hoover calling on Congress to investigate conditions in Haiti the following day. In the wake of the 12 January 2010 earthquake , the Cuban military set up a field hospital in the region. On 4 October 2016, Hurricane Matthew made landfall in Les Cayes causing severe damage. On 14 August 2021,
2279-415: The theory of relexification , arguing that the process of relexification (the replacement of the phonological representation of a substratum lexical item with the phonological representation of a superstratum lexical item, so that the Haitian creole lexical item looks like French, but works like the substratum language(s)) was central in the development of Haitian Creole. The Fon language , also known as
2332-598: The town hiding in a barrel of a Spanish expedition going to explore the Gulf of Uraba, Panama. Vasco Núñez de Balboa , later on 25 September 1513 would discover the South Sea, today known as the Pacific Ocean. This settlement was abandoned in 1540. The area was uninhabited until the French colonial administration founded the town of Aux Cayes ("On the cayes "), so named due to its proximity to Île-à-Vache . The town
2385-497: The town of Saint Louis du Sud . Les Cayes has an airport, Antoine-Simon Airport . As of 1 February 2013, the first stone on the expansion project of the Antoine-Simon Airport in Les Cayes had been laid. The project to make Antoine-Simon a viable international airport is part of broader efforts aiming at ramping up infrastructure development in the south. The expansion project will add a new 3,000-metre runway and
2438-972: The weekend in Les Cayes. As the number of tourists continues to grow, several new hotels and restaurants continue to pop up. The Botanical Garden of Les Cayes (Jardin Botanique des Cayes, in French) is located in Bergeau, at the northern entrance of the city. The site occupies an area of eight (8) hectares. Other places of interest to tourists are the nearby Île à Vache , Pic Macaya, Saut-Mathurine falls and Kounoubois cave in Camp-Perrin , Pointe-de-Sable beach in Port-Salut , Marie-Jeanne cave in Port-a-Piment and Arrondissement Aquin where Fort des Oliviers, Fort Anglais and Bonnet Carré can be found in
2491-422: The word for "frequent" in French is fréquent ; however, its cognate in Haitian Creole frekan means 'insolent, rude, and impertinent' and usually refers to people. In addition, the grammars of Haitian Creole and French are very different. For example, in Haitian Creole, verbs are not conjugated as they are in French. Additionally, Haitian Creole possesses different phonetics from standard French; however, it
2544-507: The world. The noun Creole , soon began to refer to the language spoken there as well, as it still is today. Haitian Creole contains elements from both the Romance group of Indo-European languages through its superstrate , French , as well as influences from African languages . There are many theories on the formation of the Haitian Creole language. One theory estimates that Haitian Creole developed between 1680 and 1740. During
2597-462: Was another influential author of Haitian Creole work. Since the 1980s, many educators, writers, and activists have written literature in Haitian Creole. In 2001, Open Gate: An Anthology of Haitian Creole Poetry was published. It was the first time a collection of Haitian Creole poetry was published in both Haitian Creole and English. On 28 October 2004, the Haitian daily Le Matin first published an entire edition in Haitian Creole in observance of
2650-653: Was destroyed twice by hurricanes in 1781 and 1788. In July 1793, the whites in Les Cayes were massacred. Simón Bolívar arrived in Les Cayes on 24 December 1815, and on 2 January 1816 was introduced to Alexandre Pétion , President of the Republic of Haiti by a mutual friend seeking assistance for his insurgency against the Spanish colonial government in Venezuela . Bolívar and Pétion impressed and befriended each other and, after Bolívar pledged to free every slave in
2703-599: Was known as the Vampire of the Caribbean for developing a reputation for enforcement and cruelty by selling Haitian blood and cadavers to the United States . He was expelled from Haiti by the dictator Baby Doc Duvalier and moved to Florida from 1972 until his death in 2006, and was replaced by Roger Lafontant as leader of the Tonton Macoutes. Bokors, featured in many Haitian tales, are often associated with
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#17327875989882756-434: Was known by the Spanish as Hispaniola was inhabited for thousands of years by indigenous peoples . The first European settlement in the southwest area was the town of Salvatierra de la Sabana , founded by the Spanish explorer Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar in 1504. Vasco Núñez de Balboa was a co-founder of this town and lived there for several years trying to raise pigs as a business. Balboa gave up that enterprise and left
2809-490: Was officially recognized in 1697. The sugar crops needed a much larger labor force, which led to an increase in slave trafficking . In the 18th century an estimated 800,000 West Africans were enslaved and brought to Saint-Domingue. As the slave population increased, the proportion of French-speaking colonists decreased. Many African slaves in the colony had come from Niger-Congo -speaking territory, and particularly speakers of Kwa languages , such as Gbe from West Africa and
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