Langaj/Langay: A Reflection from Aisha Jean-Baptiste
If/Then Creative Process Reflections
Abakuá/Abakpa/Abakwá/Abacuá
This feels like Langaj. Langaj describes this sort of indescribable way of communicating, for spiritual purposes only, in Haitian vodou. There are no actual words which can be ascribed as a vocabulary/language/langaj but instead, it describes the movements, poetry, the calls and the responses, the songs, the whispers, the imagery, the intentions, and the prayers vodouisants use, for communing with each other and with the divine.
This Langaj is not for everyone. It is sacred. It is a secret. I did not get the honor of witnessing Belkis’ works, at the Chicago Cultural Center, but when I set out on my own quest to learn about her, I had an intense emotional response. The historic and current insidious silencing of Black women, which Belkis not only investigated but made folk talk about, when she unearthed Princess Sikán’s story, felt like revolution and victory. Belkis silently and powerfully defied the patriarchal power structure by interrogating Abakuá in Cuba, the diasporic and translated practice of Abakpa or Abakwá, originating in Akwa Ibom, Nigeria.
She knew she wasn’t “supposed” to, or “allowed” to. She then had the audacity to not only trample upon the practice of banning women from following or practicing Abakuá, but she resurrected Princess Sikán as the dominant face/eyes of/into this secret all-male society. Image after image gave me chills! When I studied the ways in which Belkis created her works with paper, acrylics, fruit and vegetable peelings, to generate a coded symphony, it spoke like Langaj.
This Langaj she curated was her sacred, her hallowed way of communing with and communicating through Sikán. And so, If/Then feels like Langaj. I believe, without intention, yet through setting intentions, we have created our own Langaj of sorts. A sacred, a secret, a hallowed, a coded way, of communing with Spirit and with one another. In movement, in song, in image, in sound, and in writing. Each time we ask of Spirit, our Langaj becomes an offering of high vibration.
When we ask Spirit for guidance and permission, I imagine Belkis asking Sikán for the same. I feel especially connected to her, in these moments. We have discovered something powerful, and useful. Each time I construct my alter/divining space, I feel hopeful. Each time we close a three-hour session, I feel restored. I am honored to do this work and to be able to offer it to you all.
