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 Ogou is a national hero to the people of Haiti. Every Haitian knows that Ogou is the senior brother of a military lineage broad enough to include the founding heroes of Haitian History - Dessaline, Louverture, Christophe. Through the fantastic process of appropriation, major events in Haitian history have been refigured through the lineaments of a Spanish warrior saint. (Sacred Arts, p 246).
Through the fantastic process of syncretization, Ogoun is bound to a myriad of Catholic saints - St. James the Greater is the most popular, though he is also syncretized with St. George, St. Michael, St. Eliah and St. Expedite to name the more popular ones. But Ogoun is not these saints in fact. Each image is a warrior, with a weapon. The thinking follows this line of reasoning - if this image is a warrior with a metal, it must represent Ogoun, the warrior who loves the forge and metal weaponry. The image resounds with more than just war. Each saint is a weapon carrier - and since Ogou loves weapons, then this image must be an Ogoun. Each image shows victory over an someone, just as Ogoun is is victorious in vanquishing his enemies. The syncretization goes on and on, and there are many books that speak of the many Ogouns who are served all over Haiti.
Ogoun is the one Lwa who retains much of his African origins in the New World. A Nago spirit, he was the warrior patron of the armies and militia of the Nago kingdom. Upon landing in the new world, he continued his appropriation of military images, knowledge and power through men like Toussaint Louverture, a former general in Africa and Louverture's right hand man, Jean-Jacques Dessaline.
Along with the above mentioned Ogouns, there is Ogoun Shango (from the orisha Shango), Ogoun Bhathalah (from the orisha Obatala) and Ogoun Bhalendjo (a medical arts warrior). It sometimes seems as if there is an Ogoun for every purpose and reason. And perhaps, as a man of the people, he is really a Renaissance Lwa, capable of becoming what is needed at the time he is called. It was much the same for Dessaline and company.
Serve Ogoun on his traditional day of Wednesday. Offer him rum, machetes, red scarves and grilled pork.
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