Betes Noires

In Betes Noires, Lauren Derby explores storytelling traditions between the people of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, focusing on shapeshifting spirit demons called baka/baca. Drawing on interviews and life stories of residents in a central Haitian-Dominican frontier town, Derby contends that bacas - hot spirits from the sorcery side of Vodou/Vodu that present as animals and generate wealth for their owners - are a manifestation of what Dominicans call fuku, the curse of Columbus. The dogs, pigs, cattle, and horses that Columbus brought with him are the only types of animals that bacas become. As instruments of indigenous dispossession, these animals and their spirit demons convey a history of trauma and racialization in Dominican popular culture. In the context of slavery and beyond, bacas keep alive the promise of freedom, since shapeshifting has long enabled fugitivity. As Derby demonstrates, bacas represent a complex history of race, religion, repression, and resistance.