Undated: (Drapo, the Sequined Vodou Ceremonial Flags That Blend African Textile Traditions With Roman Catholic Processional Banners, Paraded Through the Houn…

Undated: (Drapo, the Sequined Vodou Ceremonial Flags That Blend African Textile Traditions With Roman Catholic Processional Banners, Paraded Through the Hounfour to Invoke the Lwa, Now Sought by International Art Collectors): Drapo are the sacred flags of Haitian Vodou, among the most visually stunning expressions of the religion’s artistic tradition. Made from satin, velvet, or rayon and covered with thousands of brightly colored sequins, sometimes as many as 40,000 per flag, they are paraded through the hounfour at the start of ceremonies to call the attention of specific lwa and energize the congregation. Each flag is dedicated to a particular lwa and features that spirit’s central image, drawn from the Catholic saints whose qualities were syncretized with the lwa during the colonial period, along with the geometric vévé symbols and sacred colors associated with the spirit. The tradition itself blends African banner-making with the Catholic processional flags that circulated through Saint-Domingue in the eighteenth century. Drapo makers are typically Vodou initiates trained within the hounfour, and the production of a single flag takes about seven days of collective labor, with the design often done by men and the sequin sewing by women, though both roles cross gender lines. In the twenty-first century, international art dealers have taken notice, and the most elaborate flags now sell for over a thousand dollars in galleries in Europe, Canada, and the United States. Some makers have begun producing flags with secular themes for the export market, a development that raises the old question of what happens when sacred art enters the commodity chain.