Sangosse Between the Spirits and the Powers

A member of the Sangosse family

Trying to trace the lives of prominent Vodou priests and associated figures across Haitian history is a difficult endeavor. Take Louis Sangosse, or Sangos, an eminent religious leader affiliated with Henri Christophe. According to Gaspard Théodore Mollien, Sangosse was the "supreme pontiff" of Vodou in Haiti. Despite the prominence associated with him by Mollien and the mention by Thomas Madiou, finding information on Sangosse is an arduous task. With the few known sources available on this remarkable figure, let us see what we can conclude about the role of Vodou in Haiti and the tight relationship between power and the lwa. 

To begin with, the origins of Louis Sangosse conflict in our two main textual sources. According to Mollien, he was the only "black" son of an Arada mother, herself a slave owned by a wealthy entrepreneur of le Cap, Arnaud. This same source indicates his mother as the one who initiated him. Haitian historian Thomas Madiou, who we suspect had more reliable information than Mollien, characterized Sangosse as a homme de couleur. Part of the reason for this disagreement may have been due to differences in the perception of what constituted the various "colors" in Haiti's population. Mollien devised an entire theory of race and the intermixture of the three principal stocks. He saw evidence of this in Haiti, and his perceptions of "race" in Haiti were undoubtedly shaped by this larger, global view. Perhaps he also believed that an Arada woman would not have taught her mixed-race son la science hounganique due to his own theories about race and color distinctions in post-independence Haiti. Alternatively, Madiou could have assumed Sangosse was mixed-race because of his mixed-race relatives who served in the military of Christophe and their Port-au-Prince branch. However, Madiou was also honest enough to acknowledge the strong "Guinean" influences among Haitian "mulattoes."

One can also detect some confusion on the part of Mollien when it comes to other matters related to Haitian moeurs. For instance, his use of the word griffe for what Haitians define as marabou, may indicate some misunderstandings on his part. In addition, there his conflation of the simbi with vien-viens. Madiou, on the other hand, obviously had his own biases and limitations on the subject of Vodou or Haitian popular religion. Nonetheless, a careful reading of Mollien and Madiou indicates Sangosse was probably the child of an Arada mother and likely mixed-race. Because of the close association between Vodou and the snake cult, it does appear likely that Sangosse's mother was "Arada." Certainly the description of Sangosse's temple by Mollien suggests one very close to the "original" Arada sect or rites. 

The rest of Sangosse's career is briefly summarized by Mollien and Madiou. According to Mollien, after receiving his religious education from his mother and then experiencing her death, Sangosse established a renowned Vodou center at la coupe-à-David. Becoming well-known, and by this time Henri Christophe reigning as king in the north, Christophe allegedly sent the Duke of Dondon to arrest Sangosse. Madiou described Christophe as an opponent of Vodou, although he occasionally exploited its priests for political purposes. Sangosse was able to maneuver himself into a similar position with Christophe. Mollien attributes part of this to the beautiful "mulatto" sister Sangosse brought with him to the court of Christophe. Political concerns were perhaps just as important as his seductive sister. As our reliable friend Madiou reports, Sangosse's status as a reputed religious leader was used by Christophe to support his political goals. Sending gifts to Sangosse and allowing him to maintain his houmfort facilitated Christophe's aims of cultivating popular support and attracting divine assistance to his military conflicts with the southern Republic. Undoubtedly, the political aspects of Vodou as well as the religious appealed to Christophe and shaped state policy. 

Besides Mollien and Madiou, Milo Rigaud, presumably drawing on local traditions, also mentioned Louis Sangosse. In  La tradition voudoo et le voudoo haïtien, Sangosse's experience with Christophe is remembered somewhat differently. Rigaud's account concurs with Mollien on the initial arrest of Sangosse, but the encounter with the Haitian king allegedly involved the appearance of lwa Papa So-sih Baderre, who issued a warning to Christophe. Upon orders by Christophe, Rigaud claimed Sangosse associated with Dede Marguerite to build Nan Kanpech, the famed religious center visited by various Haitian heads of state. Marguerite Jean Vodou, or Dede Marguerite, was unfortunately unknown to Mollien. The term dede, however, was associated with aged women. Perhaps she was an older woman whose initiation, believed to have occurred directly with a lwa, enhanced her status. Associations with her may have contributed to the esteem of Sangosse.

What became of Sangosse after the fall of Christophe? Did he align himself with other politically powerful figures in the North? As a famous papa-loi whose own temple survived until the 1940s, did his descendants carry on the role? To what extent can one create an accurate biography of Sangosse? Our failure to locate colonial-era documents identifying Louis Sangosse or his Arada mother forced us to look at the early 19th century. Surprisingly, we easily found a record identifying what may be a son of Sangosse. In 1843, in Cap-Haitien, Louis Isaac Sangosse married Rose Calixte. Louis Isaac was probably born in around 1813 in Cap-Haitien, making it perfectly possible that his father, Louis Stanislas Sangosse, was our man. Moreover, Louis Isaac Sangosse lived in L'Acul du Nord, the very same region in which la coupe-à-David can be located today. The 1843 marriage record also reveals that Louis Stanislas Sangosse was dead before the marriage. Nonetheless, judging from the description of Louis Isaac's occupation as a spéculateur en denrées, maintaining the Vodou temple started by Sangosse may have encouraged business or served to further consolidate business ties. 

Overall, our main sources do corroborate Sangosse's ties to Christophe. Indeed, they suggest Sangosse played an important political and social role in Christophe's state, one that may have been carried on by descendants or relations like Louis Isaac. Despite their limitations, these sources do support the idea  that Sangosse was an exceptional figure whose career demonstrates how inextricably linked Vodou and political power were in 19th century Haiti. Sangosse was consulted for the military needs of Christophe and benefitted from the Haitian leader's patronage. The Arada origins of Sangosse no longer enter the picture in traditions recounted by Milo Rigaud in the 20th century, but by then the Arada were one of many nations assimilated into the pan-African Vodou tradition. This illustrates quite well how Vodou, far from static or perennial, transformed over time and, after the period observed by Mollien, absorbed the other traditions and spiritual beliefs not originally associated with the Arada or the snake cult. Sangosse's life also reveals the significant role the so-called "traditional" papa-lwa played in political affairs, in a time before the rise of the houngan as we nowadays conceive them or the prominent houngan characters described by Rigaud and other ethnographers in the 20th century.

Sources Consulted

Laguerre, Michel S. Voodoo and Politics in Haiti. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989.

Madiou, Thomas. Histoire d'Haïti. Editions Henri Deschamps, 1988.

Mollien, Gaspard Théodore. Moeurs d'Haïti: Précédé du naufrage de la Méduse. Paris: L'Harmattan, 2006.

Rigaud, Milo. 1953. La Tradition Voudoo et le Voudoo Haïtien: son temple ses mystères sa magie. Paris: Niclaus.