Loko, Loa of Healing Herbs in Vodou
In Vodou, Loko is the loa of healing herbs and trees, who preserves the knowledge of the healing arts and passes it on to the priesthood.
Loko (also Papa Loko, Loko Atisou, Loko Davi) is, in Haitian Vodou, the loa of healing plants, of trees and of the healing arts, and is regarded as one of the oldest and most venerable spirits of the pantheon.
He belongs to the Rada family and is venerated as the spiritual teacher of the Houngans (priests) and Mambos (priestesses). His wife is Ayizan, the keeper of the marketplaces and of ceremonial purity. Together, Loko and Ayizan form the spiritual teaching couple of Vodou.
Table of Contents
West African Roots
Loko has his roots in the Fon tradition of West Africa, where Loko (also Iroko) is venerated as a sacred tree deity.
The Loko tree (botanically Milicia excelsa, also the Iroko tree) is a West African hardwood tree that grows up to 50 metres tall and is regarded as sacred in the religion of the Fon, Yoruba, Ewe and neighbouring peoples.
Among the Yoruba the same tree is called Iroko and is venerated as the dwelling place of the orisha of the same name.
Alfred Métraux documented the transfer of the Loko cult to the Caribbean in «Le vaudou haïtien». Since the Iroko tree does not occur in the Caribbean, its function was transferred to other trees, above all to the mapou trees (Ceiba pentandra, the cotton tree), which in Haiti are regarded as the seat of the loa.
Karen McCarthy Brown and Leslie Desmangles have shown how this geographical adaptation preserved the religious substance while transforming its concrete botanical anchoring.
Function and Nature
Loko is above all the loa of the healing arts. He possesses the knowledge of the healing powers of all plants, roots, leaves and barks, and passes this knowledge on to the Houngans and Mambos.
In the course of their initiation, every Vodou priest is placed under the protection of Loko, because without the knowledge of healing plants the priest cannot fulfil his task. Loko is thus regarded as the true founder and patron of the Vodou priesthood.
In «Divine Horsemen», Maya Deren described Loko’s function as a spiritual teacher. In his manifestations he appears as an old, wise man with slow, dignified movements, who transmits his knowledge orally.
This teaching function makes him one of the central figures of the Vodou initiation rites. Without the consent of Loko a person cannot be initiated as a priest.
Loko and Ayizan
Loko’s wife Ayizan is an equally significant figure of the Vodou pantheon. She is venerated as the keeper of the marketplace and as the patroness of ceremonial purity.
Her symbols are the palm fronds that are hung up in Vodou temples, and the market scales. At every initiation Ayizan is invoked together with Loko in order to bless and protect the initiate. Together the two form the patron couple of the Vodou priesthood.
In «Haiti, History, and the Gods», Joan Dayan has worked out the gender-political significance of this couple. Loko and Ayizan represent the male and female form of the spiritual teaching function and thus stand for the equality of Houngans and Mambos in Vodou.
This symbolic equality is reflected in concrete practice, in which female priestesses hold the same authority as male priests.
The Mapou Tree as the Seat of Loko
The mapou tree (Ceiba pentandra) is the central botanical seat of Loko in Haiti. These large trees, often centuries old, are regarded as sacred in many villages and are frequently the setting of Vodou rituals.
Offerings are presented at them, petitioners visit them, and important assemblies are held beneath them. The veneration of the mapou tree has a political dimension: famous mapou trees are regarded as gathering places of the historical resistance against colonial rule.
Alfred Métraux reported that in his research period (the 1940s and 1950s) the felling of a mapou tree was regarded as a grave misfortune that could call down the wrath of Loko.
This taboo has lost some of its force over the past decades through environmental destruction and urbanisation, which is perceived in Haitian folk religion as a sign of decline. Initiatives for the protection of old mapou trees developed in Haiti in the 21st century and combine religious and ecological concerns.
Initiation Rites and Loko
The most important ritual function of Loko lies in the initiation rites of the Houngans and Mambos. The initiation as a Vodou priest is a complex process, often lasting several weeks, in which the initiate passes through various phases of seclusion, purification and spiritual instruction.
Loko is invoked at the beginning of this process to take the initiate into his hand, and at the end, to attest the initiate’s new dignity.
In «Mama Lola», Karen McCarthy Brown described the practice of initiation in detail from the perspective of a Haitian American priestess.
There Loko appears as the central teaching figure, who appears to the initiate in a dream, tests him and assigns to him his specific task within Vodou practice. This personal relationship with Loko accompanies the priest or priestess for a lifetime.
Symbolism and Attributes
The central symbols of Loko are the tree, the forge fire (in which healing plants are smoked), the drumsticks (as a symbol of priestly authority) and the «asson», the ritual rattle with snake vertebrae, which is the most important insignia of the Vodou priest.
Whoever receives the asson has completed the initiation and is thereby entitled to carry out their own Vodou rites.
The colours of Loko are white and golden yellow, often combined with green accents that mark his connection to vegetation. The preferred offerings are honey, rum, cheese and tobacco, supplemented by healing plants from the traditional Vodou repertoire.
Maya Deren has pointed out that the offerings to Loko emphasise the teaching function in a particular way: honey stands for the sweetness of wisdom, rum for alertness, cheese for patient maturity.
Syncretistic Identification
In the Catholic and Vodou syncretistic system, Loko is identified with Saint Joseph, the father of Jesus, who in the Catholic tradition is venerated as a venerable old man, patron of workers and protector of the family.
This identification fits the teaching function of Loko, because Saint Joseph is regarded as the first teacher of Jesus. Saint Joseph’s feast day (19 March) is celebrated in many Vodou communities as the feast day of Loko.
In his studies, Leslie Desmangles has shown that the Loko and Saint Joseph identification is more strongly developed in some regions of Haiti and more weakly in others.
In urban areas, where the Catholic influence is more strongly present, the identification is used more frequently; in rural areas, where the African substance is better preserved, Loko remains more visible as an independent figure. Ayizan is identified with Saint Clare of Assisi.
Research and Significance
The study of Loko is part of Vodou research and rests on the classic works of Maya Deren, Alfred Métraux and Karen McCarthy Brown. More specialised studies on the connection with the West African Iroko tradition have been produced by Robert Farris Thompson and by Sandra Barnes.
Recent works on the ecological dimension of Vodou religiosity, for instance by Claudine Michel and Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, have placed the mapou tree tradition in a broader context in which religious, cultural and ecological concerns are connected.
In present-day Haiti, Loko stands as an example of the connection of traditional healing and religious practice. Haitian folk medicine, which in many rural regions represents the primary form of medical care, is practised under the protection of Loko.
The connection of medical knowledge and religious authority, which in the Western understanding is separated, remains closely linked in Vodou. Loko is thus not only a religious patron, but also the spiritual guarantor of an independent medical tradition that is an important component of Haitian culture.
The Asson as the Insignia of the Priesthood
Loko’s central ritual insignia is the «asson», a gourd rattle covered with beads and snake vertebrae. The handing over of the asson at the end of the Kanzo initiation («pran asson») is regarded as the decisive moment in which an initiate becomes a fully fledged Houngan or Mambo.
Before this step a person may indeed practise Vodou, but may not carry out their own initiations or preside over a hounfor as a priest. With the asson the person receives the canonical authority that is grounded in the direct teaching of Loko.
In «Mama Lola» (Berkeley 1991), Karen McCarthy Brown described the handing over of the asson in detail and showed how the whole of Lokology crystallises in it: Loko transmits his knowledge not abstractly, but in a concrete material carrier that is passed on from generation to generation.
In the edited volume «Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou» (Los Angeles 1995), Donald Cosentino documented the artisanal manufacture of the asson: gourd, snake vertebrae and bead chain are iconographically eloquent; each element carries theological meaning. The snake vertebrae connect the asson with Damballa, which anchors the Loko initiation in the oldest layers of the loa.
Healing Plant Pharmacopoeia and Ethnobotanical Knowledge
The healing plant lore connected with Loko was described scientifically in the 20th century. In «The Serpent and the Rainbow» (1985) and in the ethnobotanically grounded follow-up work «Passage of Darkness» (1988), Wade Davis published lists of plants used that find application in Haitian Vodou practice.
As early as 1809, Michel-Étienne Descourtilz had presented a first systematic survey of Caribbean healing plants in «Flore médicale des Antilles», with explicit references to the Haitian use. In the 20th century, Arsène Pierre-Noël documented an extensive folk pharmacopoeia in «Les plantes et les légumes d’Haïti qui guérissent» (Port-au-Prince 1959).
The healing art connected with Loko works with three classes: «fey rafrechi» (cooling leaves such as aloe or lemongrass), «fey echofan» (warming leaves such as ginger or pepper) and «fey lougawou» (secret leaves with particular ritual significance).
This classification corresponds partly to Creole folk medicine, partly to an independent Loko pharmacology that only Houngans and Mambos fully command. In comparative studies between the Haitian and Cuban healing plant traditions, Manuel Ortiz has worked out structural parallels that point to a common West African basis.
Ayizan and the Marketplace as a Religious Site
Loko’s wife Ayizan deserves her own theological consideration. She is venerated as the keeper of the marketplaces, which in the West African context denotes a distinguished function: the marketplace is not only an economic but also a sacred site, at which social conflicts are negotiated and at which the loa are publicly present.
In «African Vodun» (Chicago 1995), Suzanne Preston Blier reconstructed the religious significance of the Fon markets and showed that the market goddess in Dahomey played a central role for social order.
In Haiti, Ayizan appears in the rites in the form of peeled palm fronds that are hung up in the hounfor and mark the ceremonial purity of the place. At the Kanzo initiation the initiate is wrapped in palm fronds, which is regarded as a symbolic birth under Ayizan’s protection.
Karen McCarthy Brown described this process as a «second birth» and showed how Ayizan and Loko together shape the initiation as a ritual transition.
In «Haiti, History, and the Gods», Joan Dayan worked out the gender-political significance of the teaching couple Loko and Ayizan, which in the Vodou tradition anchors the equal rank of male and female spirituality.
Sources and Literature
Secondary literature: Alfred Métraux, «Le vaudou haïtien» (Paris 1958); Maya Deren, «Divine Horsemen» (New York 1953); Karen McCarthy Brown, «Mama Lola» (Berkeley 1991), especially on the Kanzo initiation and on the Loko teaching; Leslie G. Desmangles, «The Faces of the Gods» (Chapel Hill 1992); Joan Dayan, «Haiti, History, and the Gods» (Berkeley 1995); Donald Cosentino (ed.), «Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou» (Los Angeles 1995); Patrick Bellegarde-Smith and Claudine Michel (eds.), «Haitian Vodou: Spirit, Myth, and Reality» (Bloomington 2006). On the healing plant tradition: Wade Davis, «The Serpent and the Rainbow» (New York 1985) and «Passage of Darkness» (Chapel Hill 1988); Michel-Étienne Descourtilz, «Flore médicale des Antilles» (Paris 1809); Arsène Pierre-Noël, «Les plantes et les légumes d’Haïti qui guérissent» (Port-au-Prince 1959); Timothy Plowman and Wade Davis, «Folk medicine and drug practices in Haiti» (Cambridge MA 1989). On the West African Iroko and Loko tradition: Robert Farris Thompson, «Flash of the Spirit» (New York 1983); Suzanne Preston Blier, «African Vodun: Art, Psychology, and Power» (Chicago 1995); Sandra T. Barnes (ed.), «Africa’s Ogun» (Bloomington 1989, 1997), essay by Henry Drewal on the Iroko tradition.
