#guede

Baron Samedi is a well-known loa, or spirit, in Haitian Vodou. He is linked to death, the afterlife, and the crossroads. His name means "Baron Saturday," which is the day that people usually think of as the day of the dead. Baron Samedi is the head of the Guédé, a group of spirits that are connected to death and fertility. He also protects cemeteries. People often draw him as a skeleton with a top hat, dark glasses, and a black tailcoat, which makes him look like an undertaker. Sometimes, he is shown with cotton plugs in his nose to look like a dead body. People know Baron Samedi for being loud and rude, and he often shows off his wit, humor, and sexual playfulness. He is a trickster who isn't afraid to make fun of or go against social norms. He is a very respected loa, even though he is a bit of a troublemaker. This is because he has the power to let people into the afterlife or not. He is the gatekeeper to the spiritual world and makes sure that the dead are buried properly and that graves are not desecrated.

Anansi, the eight legged trickster. Anansi was born between the union of his mother Asase Yaa and Nyame’s the creator. Anansi was a crafty and cunning deity, the embodiment of knowledge, preferring to use strategy and deception over brute strength. With his father, Anansi sculpted the Human body, with Nyame providing the breath of life, and Asase Yaa giving them their blood.

Anansi lived among the humans, noticing that their lives were dull and held no laughter and excitement. So Anansi spun a thread to the highest heaven and climbed up to meet with his father. Anansi asked Nyame for ownership of the endless cache of stories that Nyame held. Amused by his son’s brashness, Nyame offered Anansi an impossible test, to capture the four most elusive beasts on earth, Onini the python, the Mmoboro hornets, Osebo the leopard, and the forest spirit Mmoatia. Anansi accepts the challenge and consults with his wife Aso formulating a plan to trap each of his targets. He tricked Onini into being wrapped up with a branch, he caught the Mmoboro by having them seek refuge in his cabalash, he ambushed Osebo with a pitfall trap, and the spirit Mmoatia became stuck to a doll Anansi covered in sticky sap. The spider gleefully brought his bounty to his father. Nyame was delighted by his son’s accomplishment, keeping to his word Nyame gave Anansi the endless stories he once held, however Nyame went further and bestowed Anansi as the Lord of Stories. Anansi ventured back down to earth and shared his stories among humanity, bringing joy and happiness to the people.

But later on, Anansi felt that humans had misused the knowledge he gave, deciding that he’d take back all knowledge and hoard it for himself. He gathered every last bit of wisdom and stored it in his calabash, planning to hide it at the top of the tallest tree. Anansi held onto the gourd as he climbed, however his son advised him that he should tie it to his back as he climbed. Anansi disregarded his son’s advice and continued to climb until, because of the cabalash, he lost his grip and plummeted to the ground. The cabalash shattered, with Anansi shouting profanities in frustration. But as he calmed down he realized that despite him gathering all the world’s knowledge, his son still tried to put him on the right track. Coming to the conclusion that his knowledge should be shared and not hoarded, Anansi and his son blew the knowledge into the wind, spreading wisdom into all living things.

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These stories, called Anansi stories, are incredibly prolific among west Africa, and even Africa itself. Anansi narratives are incredibly varried, from him fighting the embodiment of Jealousy, to him becoming bald. Anansi can play the role of the protagonist and the Antagonist of the narrative.

According to some Akan beliefs, Anansi is viewed as being one and the same as Nyame others say that he’s the reincarnation of Nyame or the manifestation of Nyame’s Emanation Odomankoma, However in some beliefs Anansi isn’t connected to Nyame at all.

Some tales elaborate on his family, describing his children as Ntikuma his firstborn son, Anansewa his beautiful daughter, Nankonwhea his gangly son, and Afudohwedohwe his last born son.

Anansi is the epitome of the trickster god. This archetype of the trickster connects him with many a god and mortal across the world, such as the Irish Lugh, the Anishinaabe Nanabozho, the Polynesian Maui, the Australian Wahn and the Norse Loki among innumerable others. The trickster is an integral part of the numerous african mythologies, Anansi’s counterparts include the Vodun Papa Legba, the Yoruba Eshu, the Egyptian Set, the Dogon Ogo, and the San Kaggen. Anansi himself has given rise to other traditions as well, his stories being brought to the new world from the shackles of the slave trade. Slaves would tell his stories and inspire those who listened to rebel against their captors. Such stories intermingled and exchanged with other enslaved cultures, giving rise to the Bantu Br’er rabbit, in Haiti anansi was revered under the name Guede but in other cultures his personality splits into Ti Malice and Bouki.

Anansi’s name is an ever changing one, in his homeland his was called “Kwaku Anansi” with his name being rendered as “Ananse” and “Anancy”, in the Americas his names were “Kompa Nanzi” “Nancy” “Aunt Nancy” “Sis’ Nancy” and “Ba Anansi”.

Hi there,

So, the Lakwa family is deep, wide, and full of Gede that may or may not appear in the broader regleman of the religion. It's not unusual for there to be Gede specific to a lakou or lineage, or even a region.

I'm not familiar with the this particular Gede. Did autocorrect maybe butcher the name?

All Gede are different and want different things. Piman is a good basic Gede drink, but not all Gede will accept it (and even get offended if offered!) Most Gede will accept black, white, and purple, but that can also vary. There are lots of different saints for Gede as well. Gede service depends on where you are from and how you have been taught.

THE GUEDES

Category: Vodou belief

Freely translated from Heike Owusu’s “Vaudou: Rites and symbols”

 The Guédés

The Guédés are spirits tied to death and the defuncts. These “demons of death” usually appear at the end of every major Vodou ceremony, even if they weren’t invited. The members of the Guédé family are only invoked when one wishes to contact the dead, the spirits of their ancestors. They don’t have true worshipers, and they live a very solitary existence. They look with avidity and desire the lives of mankind, and they shamelessly mock it when they manifest themselves. They have in them the accumulated knowledge of many generations of defuncts, which makes them very wise and knowledgeable beings – they can act as counsellor if one asks for their help.

Le Baron Samedi, The Baron Samedi is the leader of the family. He appears under three different shapes: baron Cimetière (Baron Cemetery), baron La-Croix (baron The Cross) and baron Samedi (baron Saturday). He is manifested as a black cross on which a black outfit and a top hat are placed, installed near a fake grave and with a cane leaning against it.

Some members of the Guédé family walk around with shovels or pickaxes. Their outfits are adapted to the environment they appear in – but the clothes are either frightening, or ridiculous. They usually dress in mourning outfits, usually a worn-out frock coat or a top-hat who is out of fashion, with sometimes a purple veil. The idea behind their outfit is that they try to imitate either the undertakers, or the people that come to funerals. They absolutely love sunglasses, when they are black – they often steal those sunglasses to people around them, and can wear two or three pairs on their nose.

Other Guédés manage to convince the people they possess to disguise themselves in corpses and walk around publicly dressed like a dead body – they especially do that around Toussaint (All Saint’s Day). People might be scared by their corpse appearance, but soon the Guédés’s jokes and humor make everyone laugh, and so they are often invited to parties.

A characteristic of the spirits of this family are their nasal voice and their scabrous language, which is known to make even a whore blush. They often are tied to phallic symbols, because by wielding them they invoke the idea of the cycle of life : for a vodou adept, death is just a rebirth, a different form of birth leading to another plane of existence, a part of the cycle of life. The Guédés like to take possession of those that, in their every day life, pretend to be modest and moral, and they force them to do the “banda”, an exaggerated and comical mating dance. With all their erotic allusions, the Guédés are actually highlighting the fact that a new life can be created out of death.

Given they are very impertinent and allow themselves a lot of sexual freedom, those possessed by the Guédés are strictly and sternly checked and verified, to make sure that they are truly inhabited by a spirit, and not some simulator wanting to play. One really possessed by a spirit of death will start by holding his breath, before throwing himself on the ground. As soon as he is up, the vodou priests will make him drink a special type of brandy, made out of sugar cane and containing 21 types of spices – this very hot, very burning liquid, is either poured down the possessed one’s throat, or directly thrown into their eyes. Only someone possessed by a Guédé can actually stand this trial without bing harmed or bothered – in fact this extremely spicy drink is the favorite drink of the famly.

The Guédé possessed usually smoke cigarettes of cigars, chain-smoking them while drinking a lot of brandy and rum (when they don’t pour the alcohol into their ears). When you give them food, they eat it very quickly, and then they bury the leftovers in the earth – like that, if another day they are hungry they just dig it up and at it. By doing this, they want to represent with irony the materialism, greed and gluttony of humans. At the end of the ceremony, the Guédés sing the “undertaker song” with a nasal voice, and they end their possession on loud laughs.

The most famous female member of the Guédé family is Madame Brigitte (who is also the mother of most of the Guédés). She has a skinny and bony appearance that is perceived by everyone as repulsive. Another noteworthy member of the family is a baby Loa called Linto. The man possessed by him will act like a baby who just learned how to walk. The possessed usually is treated as a baby by the participants of the ceremony, and he is often given baby food.

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I will never understand why my divinities appear to me as celebrities in my dreams but here we have LaKeith Stanfield as Kweku Ananse from Akan religion in Ghana. In Haitian Vodou, Ananse is known as Gede Zariyen, the Gede spider.