African Interpretations of the

colonial period (1492-1804) resulted in a system of correspondences b tween these two religions. Such correspondences an be seen in Vodun not only in the reinterpretation f many Catholic saints but also in the reinterpretation f the Christian cross. Contrary to the opinions of many scholars who claim that the use of the Christian cross in Vodun ceremonies is Christian in character, this article points out that Vodunists do not interpret the symbot of the cross in the context of Christian theolog),, but in the context of Dahomean mythology. Scholars who have written about Vodun, the folk-religion of Haiti have called it a syncretism, that is, an amalgam ofvarious religious traditions (Price-Mars, 1998; Jahn, 1961; Herskovits, 1971). These traditions permeate the folk-beliefs and ritual dances of the peasant masses of Haiti. The religious amalgam originated with the arrival in the New World of slaves from West Africa as early as 1510. In reading Moreau de Saint-M › (Saint M › 1797, Vol I:45-58), an eye-witness of the slave trade, one finds an impressive list of the slaves and the descriptions of the character of the tribes represented on Haitian soil. One might deduce from this list that all of Africa contributed to the formation of Vodun