Iwa who are called djab

The Haitian Creole word djab is derived from the French word diable, meaning devil, but the term in the context of Haitian Vodou carries a different connotation.

Any lwa can be referred to colloquially as a djab. But certain lwa are individualistic and unique, served by only one individual, sometimes a Houngan or Mambo, and considered to be almost that individual's personal property. These lwa do not fit easily into the orthodox Vodou liturgy, neither in the Rada nor in the Petro grouping. Such lwa, and even lwa more commonly served, such as Makaya lwa, are commonly referred to as djab, but here the translation would perhaps be more accurately given as "wild spirit".

The function of these djab is magical as opposed to religious. A djab is most frequently invoked by a Houngan, Mambo, or Bokor, on behalf of a client, to take aggressive action against a client's enemy or business competitor. Adjab requires payment from the client for its services, usually in the form of animal sacrifice on a regularly scheduled basis.

The congregation of a Houngan or Mambo who serves such a lwa is usually protected from possible acts of random aggression by that same lwa! This is done by a garde, a magical shield effected by rubbing specially prepared dried herbs into shallow cuts ceremonially made in the individual's skin. The garde is often renewed annually at the time of the Day of Kings, in Creole the Jou De Wa, when each society holds a major gathering and prepares herbal baths and other mixtures.

The light scars of the garde form a pattern peculiar to the society, and can serve as an identifying mark for members. For example, I have on my upper left shoulder a garde conferred on me by Houngan Sauvert Joseph, who assisted at my initiation. At the annual gathering of his society, I received the garde of the lwa Kita Maza, an affable but fiercely protective djab, and the form of the scar, a double cross similar in form to a tic-tic-toe board, is distinctive to Kita Maza and the society of Houngan Sauvert Joseph.

Djabs can also be specific to a particular place. In the limestone caves of Bode near Trouin in the south of Haiti, a djab named Met Set Joune, Master of the Seven Days, is believed to reside. Even if a Mambo, Houngan, or Bokor was to serve this djab in a peristyle located somewhere else, the limestone caves would remain the home of the djab.

Certain particularly amoral djabs can be invoked to drain the life energy of a person and effect their demise. When a djab is held responsible for a person's death, the Creole phrase is not "thedjab killed the person", but instead, djab la manje moun nan, "the djab ate the person". This does not mean that the flesh of the person is eaten cannibalistically by the Houngan, Mambo, or Bokor who undergoes possession by the djab, merely that the djab has subsumed the person's life force.

An orthodox Houngan or Mambo is expected never to do harm, therefore invocations of djabs are more frequently attempted by Bokors. However an orthodox Vodou clergyperson may invoke a djaband even direct it to kill a person, if the person is a murderer, a repeat thief, a repeat rapist, and so forth. Furthermore, in rural communities where rivalries over land, women, and livestock can go back for generations, each side in a dispute may have their own idea of who "did harm" to whom, and when revenge is appropriate. Therefore Houngans and Mambos are actually quite skilled in aggressive magic, if only to know how to repel it or cure its effects.

The Mambo Marinet (Marinette in French) invoked a female Petro lwa frequently referred to as a djab, Erzulie Dantor, and performed the sacrifice of a wild hog, at the ceremony of Bwa Caiman in 1794 which began the Haitian revolution. During the Haitian revolution, djab were very important, and were believed to confer immunity to the bullets fired by the white French enslavers. Even the death of the majority of General LeClerc's expeditionary force due to yellow fever was regarded as the result of the work of djabs. Given that the ultimate destination of LeClerc was the North American continent, to re-establish control of the Louisiana Territory, United States citizens can acknowledge the rebel slaves of Haiti, and their djabs, for the fact that we are not Francophones today.