Odette Mennesson-Rigaud

Odette Mennesson-Rigaud (1907–1990) was a French and Haitian ethnographer and photographer. She is most known for her research into the African diasporic religion of Haitian vodou.

Biography

Mennesson-Rigaud was born in 1907 in France.[1] She married Haitian Milo Rigaud on 10 January 1935 in New York City, United States. She became a Haitian citizen after her marriage.[1][2]

Mennesson-Rigaud was a self-taught ethnographer.[3] She worked as a field guide to foreign scholars who travelled to Port-au-Prince to study Haitian culture and the African diasporic religion of Haitian vodou, introducing them to vodou ritual specialists in an intermediary role.[3][4] Mennesson-Rigaud supported the research of Erika Bourguignon, Maya Deren, Michel Leiris, and Alfred Métraux;[5][6] Métraux dedicated his book Voodoo in Haiti (1959) to her.[7][8] American anthropologist Harold Courlander, who studied in Haiti, described Mennesson-Rigaud as "the ultimate insider, the outstanding non-Haitian. She knew everybody. She was the best informed of all researchers and scholars."[5]

In 1958, Mennesson-Rigaud published Le role de Vandou dans l'indépendence d'Haiti in the journal Présence Africaine,[9] which explored the role of vodou in the Haitian Revolution[10][11] and recounted the origin story of "Lakou Soukri".[12] She theorised that marronage provided Africans who escaped enslavement the freedom to develop their own religion.[13][14]

Mennesson-Rigaud also wrote about the Haitian twin cult and Marassa Jumeaux (the divine twins in Vodou), describing them as "the divine principle of life."[15] She described how twins were "semi-divinised" and recounted stories of the parents of twins trying to escape the children's power and wrath.[15] Details in Mennesoson-Rigaud's manuscript notes recorded that leafy vegetables were never given to twins, as they were thought to diminish their powers.[16]

As a photographer, Mennesson-Rigaud's photographs and drawings accompanied her husband's book Secrets of Voodoo (1969).[17][18][19] She also contributed images to the French periodical Haïti, Poètes Noirs (1951)[20] and photographed a pilgrimage to the Saut d'Eau Falls.[21]

Archive and legacy

Mennesson-Rigaud collected reptile and insect familiars or totems.[22]

Mennesson-Rigaud's archive was entrusted to the Bibliothèque Haïtienne des Pères du Saint-Esprit, which was destroyed by an earthquake on 12 January 2010 . Her archive has since been recovered.[23]

In 2019, sound recordings covering religious expression in Haiti by Mennasson-Rigaud made in the early 1980s were donated to the collection of the American Folklife Center in Washington, D.C, United States.[1][24]

A mural of Mennesson-Rigaud was painted at the National Office of Ethnology in Port-au-Prince.

References

  1. ^ a b c Segal, Marcia K. (2022). "Vodou religious expression in Haiti collected by Odette Mennesson Rigaud, Milo Rigaud, and Shirley Kelle" (PDF). The Library of Congress. Retrieved 8 December 2025.
  2. ^ Lawless, Robert (1992). Haiti's Bad Press. Schenkman Books. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-87047-061-5.
  3. ^ a b Cunin, Elisabeth (2021). "Entre histoire de la nation et histoire de l'anthropologie : dialogues Cuba-Haïti (1884‑1959)". Encyclopédie Bérose des histoires de l'anthropologie (in French). doi:10.70601/3v1ebli. ISSN 2648-2770.
  4. ^ Rey, Terry; Richman, Karen (1 June 2012). "Introduction to Special Issue: Haitian Religion". Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses. 41 (2): 145–147. doi:10.1177/0008429812441313. ISSN 0008-4298.
  5. ^ a b Palmié, Stephan, ed. (31 March 2008). Africas of the Americas: Beyond the Search for Origins in the Study of Afro-Atlantic Religions. BRILL. pp. 23, 316–317. ISBN 978-90-474-3270-8.
  6. ^ Jamin, Jean (1 May 2005). "Rendez-vous manqué avec le vodou". Gradhiva. Revue d'anthropologie et d'histoire des arts (in French) (1): 225–231. doi:10.4000/gradhiva.375. ISSN 0764-8928.
  7. ^ Uerlings, Herbert (1997). Poetiken der Interkulturalität: Haiti bei Kleist, Seghers, Müller, Buch und Fichte (in German). Niemeyer. p. 327. ISBN 978-3-484-32092-5.
  8. ^ Bulamah, Rodrigo (27 July 2017), "Alfred Métraux: Between Ethnography and Applied Knowledge", Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.013.452, ISBN 978-0-19-936643-9, retrieved 8 December 2025
  9. ^ Mennesson-Rigaud, Odette (1958). "Le rôle du Vaudou dans l'indépendance d'Haïti". Présence Africaine (in French) (18/19): 43–67. ISSN 0032-7638.
  10. ^ Journal of Religion in Africa: Religion en Afrique. Brill. 2007. p. 391.
  11. ^ Taylor, Patrick (1989). The Narrative of Liberation: Perspectives on Afro-Caribbean Literature, Popular Culture, and Politics. Cornell University Press. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-8014-2193-8.
  12. ^ Aje, Lawrence; Gachon, Nicolas (28 June 2019). Traces and Memories of Slavery in the Atlantic World. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-000-07498-7.
  13. ^ Geggus, David (1992). "Marronage, voodoo, and the Saint Domingue slave revolt of 1791". Proceedings of the Meeting of the French Colonial Historical Society. 15: 22–35. ISSN 0362-7055.
  14. ^ Actes Du Quinzième Colloque de la Société D'Histoire Coloniale Française Martinique Et Guadeloupe Mai 1989 (in French). University Press of America. 1991. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-8191-8322-4.
  15. ^ a b Patton, Kimberley C. (3 November 2022). Gemini and the Sacred: Twins and Twinship in Religion and Mythology. Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 25, 158. ISBN 978-1-84885-931-9.
  16. ^ Bellegarde-Smith, Patrick (2005). Fragments of Bone: Neo-African Religions in a New World. University of Illinois Press. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-252-02968-4.
  17. ^ "Secrets of voodoo / Milo Rigaud ; translated from the French by Robert B. Cross ; photographs by Odette Mennesson-Riguad". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 8 December 2025.
  18. ^ Rodman, Selden (1984). Haiti: The Black Republic : the Complete Story and Guide. Devin-Adair. p. 143. ISBN 978-0-8159-5701-0.
  19. ^ Chaudenson, Robert (1 October 2010). Société, langues, école en Haïti: En hommage aux victimes universitaires du séisme du 12 janvier 2010 (in French). Editions L'Harmattan. p. 22. ISBN 978-2-296-26641-4.
  20. ^ "Odette Mennesson-Rigaud". André Breton. Retrieved 8 December 2025.
  21. ^ "Pilgrimage to the "Saut d' Eau" Falls (Haiti)". The Old Print Shop. Retrieved 8 December 2025.
  22. ^ Cosentino, Donald (1995). Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou. UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History. p. 425. ISBN 978-0-930741-46-4.
  23. ^ "Odette Mennesson Rigaud holdings". UNESCO. Archived from the original on 13 January 2025. Retrieved 8 December 2025.
  24. ^ Segal, Marcia K. (3 October 2022). "More Haitian Voices: The Rigaud collection finding aid goes online | Folklife Today". The Library of Congress. Retrieved 8 December 2025.
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