#djakout

Bonswa!

Makout and djakout are names for a traditional style of woven grass Haitian bag, mostly associated with country folks or more rural areas. 

A houngan or manbo makout/djakout is a priest who works ‘out of the bag’, sort of. It is describing a priest from a more rural and likely family practice which does not utilize an asson-style kanzo format, but some tcha-tcha communities may use it too. Houngan and manbo makout are super important in traditional rural communities--they are intercessors with the spirits, are doktè fèy/leaf doctor or traditional medicine maker, help deliver babies, oversee legal disputes...kind of an indispensable jack-of-all-trades. Some houngan or manbo makout have temples, many don’t; things are done in the open air or at home. Sometimes they may travel more to people than a houngan or manbo with a temple.

The imagery of the makout or djakout is widely used in Haitian Vodou, though, often to represent lwa who may be more rural in origin (like Kouzen) or to give a nod to things like medicine-making or holding secrets. Lwa like Kouzen are given these types of bags to put all their things and all their work in.

And, in Haiti in general, the makout carries cultural significance. During the Duvalier regimes, the tonton makout/literally ‘bag uncle’ were the extralegal terrorist secret police force sponsored by the Duvalier family. The tonton makout were enforcers; if you did not act in accordance to the expected social norms as dictated by the regime, you could disappear to the secret rooms under the presidential palace where dissidents were tortured and murdered, or just disappear to a ditch on the side of the road. Those slight threatening children’s stories that many of us get when we grow up (’be good or...’) often involved ‘be good and the tonton will put you in his bag’.