Margaret Mitchell Armand presents a cutting edge interdisciplinary terrain inside an indigenous exploration of her homeland. Her contribution to the historiography of Haïtian Vodou demonstrates the struggle for its recognition in Haïti’s post-independence phase as well as its continued misunderstanding. Through a methodological, original study of the colonial culture of slavery and its dehumanization, Healing in the Homeland: Haitian Vodou Traditions examines the sociocultural and economic oppression stemming from the local and international derived politics and religious economic oppression. While concentrating the narratives on stories of indigenous elites educated in the western traditions, Armand moves pass the variables of race to locate the historical conjuncture at the root of the persistent Haïtian national division. Supported by scholarships of indigenous studies and current analysis, she elucidates how a false consciousness can be overcome to reclaim cultural identity and pride, and include a sociocultural, national educational program, and political platform that embraces traditional needs in a global context of mutual respect. While shredding the western adages, and within an indigenous model of understanding, this book purposefully brings forth the struggle of the African people in Haïti.

マーガレット・ミッチェル・アルマンの筆致は、ハイチの魂であるヴォドゥへの偏見を根底から覆す、知的で情熱的な革命と言えます。植民地主義がもたらした非人間的な搾取と、独立後のエリート層に深く根付いた偽りの意識を剥ぎ取り、真の自己を奪還しようとするその姿勢は、単なる歴史研究を超えた切実な祈りのようです。 本書の最大の魅力は、西洋的な価値観を捨て去り、内側からの視座でアイデンティティを再定義する強靭な論理にあります。抑圧された伝統が、いかにして現代のグローバルな文脈で共生し得るかという壮大な問い。読者は、この緻密な考察を通じて、ハイチという土地が抱える深い傷と、それを癒やそうとする土着の知恵の力強さに魂を揺さぶられるに違いありません。