Bêtes Noires

In B?tes Noires, Lauren Derby explores storytelling traditions between the people of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, focusing on shapeshifting spirit demons called baka/bac?. Drawing on interviews and life stories of residents in a central Haitian-Dominican frontier town, Derby contends that bac?s--hot spirits from the sorcery side of Vodou/Vod? that present as animals and generate wealth for their owners--are a manifestation of what Dominicans call fuk?, the curse of Columbus. The dogs, pigs, cattle, and horses that Columbus brought with him are the only types of animals that bac?s 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, bac?s keep alive the promise of freedom, since shapeshifting has long enabled fugitivity. As Derby demonstrates, bac?s represent a complex history of race, religion, repression, and resistance.