Re: A Black Woman's Smile "As a voodoo priestess Cécile Fatimah went through stages of initiation into her priestly duties. The primary functions of a voodoo priestess are healing, rituals, religious ceremonies to call or pacify the spirits, holding initiations for new priests or priestesses, telling fortunes, reading dreams, casting spells, invoking protections, and creating potions for various purposes."
An addendum:
" Cécile Fatimah was born to an African slave woman and a White Corsican man, and was sold as a slave to the French colony of Saint Domingue in the Caribbean. Cécile was a mambo, which is a high priestess in voodoo whose primary responsibility lies in maintaining the rituals and relationship between the spirits and the community. As a mambo Cécile presided over a ceremony with hougon Dutty Boukman at the Bois Caïman in August 1791. This voodoo ceremony encompassed both a religious ritual and a meeting that planned a slave rebellion against the French planters in Northern Saint-Domingue. During this ceremony Cécile cut the throat of a pig an offered its blood to the attendees, and appeared to be possessed by the goddess Erzulie. Along with Dutty Boukman she urged the audience to take vengeance against their French oppressors and “cast aside the image of the God of the oppressors”. It was also prophesized that that the slaves Jean François, Biassou, and Jeannot would be leaders of a resistance movement and revolt that would free the slaves of Saint-Domingue. After, the ceremony at Bois Caïman Northern Saint-Domingue was in destruction as slaves violently burned and killed across the region.
On January 1, 1804 Saint-Domingue became the independent Republic of Haiti, the first Black-led republic in the world. Haitian independence had a profound effect on the histories of both Europe and the Americas. The successful Haitian Revolution inspired other Latin American nations to launch their own liberation movements. It also helped double the size of the United States because it led France to sell the Louisiana territory to the United States because of its impending war with Great Britain and the slave revolt in Haiti.