Cécile Fatiman
Encyclopedia
Cécile Fatiman was an Haitian vodou
priestess, a mambo (Voodoo)
. She is famous for her participation in the vodou ceremony at Bios Caiman, which is considered to be the starting point of the Haitian revolution
.
Cécile Fatiman was the daughter of an African slave woman and a white Corsican male. She and her mother were sold as slaves at Saint Domingue, while her two brothers disappeared in the slave trade. She is described as having long silky hair and green eyes.
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." During the ceremony, Cécile Fatiman acted obsessed by the godess Erzulie. She was also to have cut the throat of a pig and offered to blood to the spectators.
A week later, 1800 plantations had been destroyed and 1000 slaveholders killed.
Fatiman was married to Louis Michel Pierrot, general in the Haitian revolutionary army She is reported to have lived to the age of 112.
Vodou
Vodun or Vudun is an indigenous organised religion of coastal West Africa from Nigeria to Ghana...
priestess, a mambo (Voodoo)
Mambo (voodoo)
Mambo is the term for a female High Priest in the Vodou religion in Haiti. They are the highest form of clergy in the religion, whose responsibility it is to preserve the rituals and songs and maintain the relationship between the spirits and the community as a whole...
. She is famous for her participation in the vodou ceremony at Bios Caiman, which is considered to be the starting point of the Haitian revolution
Haïtian Revolution
The Haitian Revolution was a period of conflict in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, which culminated in the elimination of slavery there and the founding of the Haitian republic...
.
Cécile Fatiman was the daughter of an African slave woman and a white Corsican male. She and her mother were sold as slaves at Saint Domingue, while her two brothers disappeared in the slave trade. She is described as having long silky hair and green eyes.
In August 1791, Fatiman presided over a ceremony at the Bois Caïman
Bois Caïman
Bois Caïman is the site of the Vodou ceremony presided over by Dutty Boukman on August 14, 1791. The stated purpose of the ritual was to attempt to overthrow French rule, which was based on slave labor....
in the role of mambo together with priest Dutty Boukman
Dutty Boukman
Dutty Boukman ' was a Jamaican born houngan, or Haitian priest who conducted a religious ceremony in Haiti in which a freedom covenant was affirmed; this ceremony is considered a catalyst to the slave uprising that marked the beginning of the Haïtian Revolution.-Background:Boukman Dutty was a self...
. Boukman prophesied that the slaves Jean François
Jean François
Jean-François Papillon was an African-born slave that had worked in the plantation of Papillon in the last decades of the 18th Century, in the North Province of Saint-Domingue...
, Biassou, and Jeannot
Jeannot
Jeannot was a leader of the 1791 slave rising that began the Haïtian Revolution. With Biassou and Jean François, he was prophesied by Dutty Boukman to lead the revolution, and fought with the Spanish royalists against the French Revolutionary authorities in colonial Haiti.He launched vicious...
would be leaders of a resistance movement
Resistance movement
A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to opposing an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign state. It may seek to achieve its objects through either the use of nonviolent resistance or the use of armed force...
and revolt that would free the slaves of Saint-Domingue
Saint-Domingue
The labour for these plantations was provided by an estimated 790,000 African slaves . Between 1764 and 1771, the average annual importation of slaves varied between 10,000-15,000; by 1786 it was about 28,000, and from 1787 onward, the colony received more than 40,000 slaves a year...
. 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." During the ceremony, Cécile Fatiman acted obsessed by the godess Erzulie. She was also to have cut the throat of a pig and offered to blood to the spectators.
A week later, 1800 plantations had been destroyed and 1000 slaveholders killed.
Fatiman was married to Louis Michel Pierrot, general in the Haitian revolutionary army She is reported to have lived to the age of 112.