{{Short description|Main creator god in Haitian Vodou}} '''''Bondye''''' ({{ipa|ht|bɔ̃dje|lang|small=no|link=yes}}), also known as '''Gran Maître''' ({{langx|ht|Gran Mèt|link=no}} {{ipa|ht|gɣã mɛt|}}),<ref>Torres, Rafael Agustí. "Loas y Vèvès del Vudú", p. 19 (in Spanish)</ref> is the supreme creator god in the African diasporic religion of Haitian Vodou. Vodouists believe Bondye was responsible for creating the universe and everything in it, and that he maintains the universal order. They nevertheless deem him to be transcendent and thus inaccessible to humans, who must instead interact with spirits called ''lwas''.
Vodou developed among Afro-Haitian communities amid the Atlantic slave trade of the 16th to 19th centuries. It arose through the blending of the traditional religions brought to the island of Hispaniola by enslaved West Africans, many of them Igbo, Yoruba or Fon, and the Roman Catholic teachings of the French colonialists who controlled the island. Bondye took his name from the French language term ''Bon Dieu'' ("Good God"). Conceptually, Bondye occupied the role played by God in Roman Catholicism and other forms of Christianity, as well as that of the supreme deity found in various African traditional religions.<ref>{{cite web |last1=St. Marc |first1=Jean-Luc |title=Bondye, The Supreme God in New Orleans Vodou |url=https://louisianavoodoo.com/bondye-the-supreme-god/ |website=Louisiana Voodoo |access-date=25 July 2025 |date=25 July 2025}}</ref>
==Bondye in Haitian theology== Teaching the existence of a single supreme God,{{sfnm|1a1=Brown|1y=1991|1p=111|2a1=Fernández Olmos|2a2=Paravisini-Gebert|2y=2011|2p=120|3a1=Hebblethwaite|3y=2015|3p=5}} Vodou has been described as monotheistic.{{sfnm|1a1=Michel|1y=1996|1p=288|2a1=Fernández Olmos|2a2=Paravisini-Gebert|2y=2011|2p=120}} This entity, the creator of the universe, is called the Bondye or Gran Mèt. The word Bondye is derived from the French ''Bon Dieu'' ("Good God").{{sfn|Ramsey|2011|p=7}}
Bondye occupies the role played by the God of Christianity and by the supreme deity in various African traditional religions,{{sfn|Anderson|2008|p=33}}{{sfn|Brown|1991|p=111}} Vodou does not incorporate belief in a powerful antagonist that opposes the supreme being akin to the Christian notion of Satan.{{sfn|Hebblethwaite|2015|p=5}}
Bondye is seen as the ultimate source of power,{{sfn|Desmangles|1992|p=97}} responsible for maintaining universal order.{{sfn|Desmangles|1992|p=96}} Bondye is also regarded as remote and transcendent,{{sfnm|1a1=Desmangles|1y=1992|1p=4|2a1=Ramsey|2y=2011|2p=7}} not involving itself in human affairs;{{sfn|Brown|1991|p=6}} there is thus little point in approaching it directly.{{sfn|Métraux|1972|p=82}} The scholar of religion Leslie Desmangles referred to Bondye as "the Godhead".{{sfn|Desmangles|1992|p=4}} Haitians will frequently use the phrase ''si Bondye vle'' ("if Bondye is willing"), suggesting a belief that all things occur in accordance with this divinity's will.{{sfn|Ramsey|2011|p=7}}
== Cosmology and mythology == Vodou teaches that one of Bondye's first creations was the sun, the appearance of which was necessary for all other things, including laws and humans, to exist.{{sfn|Desmangles|1992|p=108}} It holds that Bondye then created humanity in his own image out of clay and water.{{sfn|Desmangles|1992|p=64}}
==References==
===Citations=== {{Reflist}}
===Sources=== {{Refbegin|30em|indent=yes}} *{{cite book |last=Anderson |first=Jeffrey |title=Hoodoo, Voodoo, and Conjure: A Handbook |year=2008 |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport, CT |isbn=978-0313342219}} * {{cite journal |last=Apter |first=Andrew |year=2002 |title=On African Origins: Creolization and Connaissance in Haitian Vodou |journal=American Ethnologist |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages= 233–260 |doi= 10.1525/ae.2002.29.2.233 }} * {{cite journal |first=Myron M. |last=Beasley |year=2010 |title=Vodou, Penises and Bones: Ritual Performances of Death and Eroticism in the Cemetery and the Junk Yard of Port-au-Prince |journal=Performance Research |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=41–47 |doi=10.1080/13528165.2010.485762 |s2cid=194097863 }} * {{cite book | last1 = Brown | first1 = Karen McCarthy | year = 1991 | title = Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn | publisher = University of California Press | location = Berkeley | isbn = 0-520-22475-2 }} * {{cite book |last=Desmangles |first=Leslie |title=The Faces of the Gods: Vodou and Roman Catholicism in Haiti |location=Chapel Hill |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |year=1992 |isbn=978-0807843932 }} *{{cite journal |last=Fandrich |first=Ina J. |title=Yorùbá Influences on Haitian Vodou and New Orleans Voodoo |journal=Journal of Black Studies |volume=37 |issue=5 |pages=775–791 |year=2007 |jstor=40034365 |doi=10.1177/0021934705280410 |s2cid=144192532 }} * {{cite book |last1=Fernández Olmos |first1=Margarite |last2=Paravisini-Gebert |first2=Lizabeth |year=2011 |title=Creole Religions of the Caribbean: An Introduction from Vodou and Santería to Obeah and Espiritismo |location=New York and London |publisher=New York University Press |edition=second |isbn=978-0-8147-6228-8 }} * {{cite journal |last=Hebblethwaite |first=Benjamin |year=2015 |title=The Scapegoating of Haitian Vodou Religion: David Brooks's (2010) Claim That "Voodoo" is a "Progress-Resistant" Cultural Influence |journal=Journal of Black Studies |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=3–22 |doi=10.1177/0021934714555186 |s2cid=54828385 }} * {{cite book |last=Métraux |first=Alfred |title=Voodoo in Haiti |year=1972 |orig-year=1959 |translator=Hugo Charteris |location=New York |publisher=Schocken Books }} * {{cite journal |last=Michel |first=Claudine |title=Of Worlds Seen and Unseen: The Educational Character of Haitian Vodou |journal=Comparative Education Review |volume=40 |number=3 |year=1996 |jstor=1189105 |pages=280–294 |doi=10.1086/447386 |s2cid=144256087 }} * {{cite book |last=Ramsey |first=Kate |year=2011 |title=The Spirits and the Law: Vodou and Power in Haiti |location=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-70379-4 }} {{refend}}
Category:Haitian Vodou Category:Afro-Caribbean religion Category:Afro-Haitian culture Category:Religion in Haiti Category:Voodoo gods