The Worker's Cauldron
A podcast about the cultural politics of the paranormal. Where Karl Marx shakes his fist at the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot speaks to us about the legacies of colonialism. We discuss the contemporary obsession with all things supernatural through a socialist, feminist lens and ask what our strange experiences and beliefs tell us about the society we live in.
The Worker's Cauldron
Vodou Nationalism, Part 1: Between Occupation and Duvalier
Focusing on the years between American military occupation and the dictatorship of Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier in Haiti, the Workers Cauldron Podcast examines the ways in which Haitian literary groups represented the African diaspora religion of Vodou. After being moved by indiginisme, an ethnological movement to ground Haitian identity in its African past, future dictator Francois Duvalier helped to organize a group of black nationalist or noiriste writers called Les Griots who rebelled against the enlightenment principles of republican democracy.
Sources:
David Nicholls: Politics and Religion in Haiti From Dessalines to Duvalier: Race, Colour and National Independence in Haiti
Ideology and Political Protest in Haiti, 1930-46
John Cussans: Undead Uprising: Haiti, Horror and The Zombie Complex
Michel-Rolph Trouillot: Haiti, State Against Nation: Origins and Legacy of Duvalierism
Michel S. Laguerre: Voodoo and Politics in Haiti
Mathew J. Smith: Red and Black in Haiti: Radicalism, Conflict, and Political Change, 1934-1957