The Haiti Art Cooperative

Gaya Art Cafe strives to offer a global perspective when it comes to showcasing art with an African influence. This is part of our Global Art Africa Series.

The Haiti Art Cooperative is a network of non-profit projects with programs in Haiti serving Haiti's poor, including persons deported, streetchildren, orphans, students, persons in need of medical care and families.


Haiti’s Ceremonial Banners, or Vodou Flags, are tapestries of sequins and beads trimmed with a satin backing.  “They are probably the most familiar of all Vodou objects and they are enchanting, combining the graphic clarity of African appliqué banners with the scintillating luxuriance of Christian liturgical vestments.” 

The flags represent various spirits, or lwa, of Vodou, based on religious beliefs and practices slaves brought with them from West Africa. Each spirit embodies unique characteristics, and plays a different role. Vodou flags, exhibited in ceremonies, serve to call down particular spirits who help practitioners with their personal problems and aspirations. 


Vodou spirits are represented by either the image of the spirit, or the corresponding symbol, or veve, that represents it. Because slaves were forbidden from practicing Vodou, they also adopted Catholic saints to represent the various spirits of love, water, twins, trees, crops, etc.

Haitian Vodou flags have been the center of numerous museum exhibits, including the Sacred Arts of Vodou which toured museums such as the Smithsonian Institute and the Museum of Natural History. 


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