Boum'ba Maza

The Maza lord over the magic of libation, which is used to invoke the crucial vèvè in the hounfour ritual space.^{[1]: 71–72, 92, 101} They are the spiritual embodiment of sacred waters, like the water basin of the houngan, and in Christian syncreticism, the biblical wells of Midian and Bethlehem.^[1]: 92

The Maza first developed primarily in the Makaya rite, before being incorporated into the larger Petwo rite.^{[3]: 39–40}The Maza differ from the majority of the Petwo lwa in two ways: firstly, they are characterized with water, while Petwo lwa are typically characterized by 'hotness' and fire; and they are syncretized from Kongolese religion, instead of West African religion like most Petwo lwa. Symbols of the Maza are 'magic baths,' like wells of sacred water and fire; the latter is particularly prevalent on Christmas Eve services.^{[1]: 92 [3]: 32}

The Maza are invoked for their connection to agricultural bounty and fertility, and in turn their preferred offerings are the first of the harvest. Boumba Maza in particular is a benevolent psychopomp; the maza and Boumba Maza are comparable to the Rada rite Azaka Medeh and Gede rite Papa Gede.^{[3]: 39–40}

The vèvè of the Maza, particularly Boumba Maza and Kita Maza, include arrows, a feature unique to Kongolese-derived Petwo vèvè.^{[3]: 57–58}

In the 1780s, Saint-Domingue Creole lawyer Médéric Louis Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry transcribed a chant he heard in Saint-Domingue in his 1789 work Description de Saint-Domingue. Moreau identified the chant as one of a snake cult from the Fon people of Dahomey.^[4] In 1946, Catholic bishop and historian Jean Cuvelier identified the chant as being Kikongo language, re-transliterated the chant, and translated it into English.^[5]

Cuvelier then identified mbumba instead as specifically Mbumba Luangu, a rainbow serpent venerated in fertility rituals of the Vili people of the Lower Congo.^[6] There are various alternative theories to the provenance of the Kongolose term mbumba in the chant. Mbumba is also a chief deity in Yombe people mythology, who lords over initiation rites; Moreau's initial transcription may have reflected the Kiyombe language tendency to drop double-consonant pairings at the beginning of words.^{[5]: 222, 225} Historian Wyatt MacGaffey [Wikidata] in 2016 wrote that Cuvelier's identification, and other theories based on morphology, are erroneous: due to Moreau's disregard in using phonetic notation, mbumba could be confused for a variety of terms. ^[6] Art historian Robert Farris Thompson identifies mbumba as 'calabash', which a nkisi would be made from.^[7]: 110

Aimé Césaire embellished his 1960 biography of Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture with the Moreau chant, presenting it as having been chanted in 1791 during the Haitian Revolution.^[4]