From language to religion, Haitian culture bears Indigenous Taino influences

Editor’s Note: This article, originally published on Nov. 24, 2021, is being republished from The Haitian Times archives to share some of the best holiday reads, tips, tricks, and recipes.

In honor of Native American Heritage Month, where Indigenous culture, resilience, and little-known history are highlighted, we invite you to read from our archives about the Taino people. Before Europeans arrived in the Caribbean, the Taino inhabited the island of Hispaniola.

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The Taino, native inhabitants of the Caribbean have impacted Haiti’s religion, music, language and celebrations, among other cultural elements, experts and linguists say. 

Although the Taino population was largely decimated by the mid-1500s, according to historians, their influence can be seen in the Vodou religion and in Haitian Creole vocabulary, the most notable example being Ayiti, or “land of mountains,” the word from which the name of the country Haiti is derived. 

“They were also enslaved, the Tainos, and then when the Blacks or Africans were brought, they [enslaved Africans] had to create their own language,” said Yvon Lamour, a Massachusetts-based Creole instructor and member of the Haitian Creole Language Institute. “People didn’t just speak one language, they had to create Haitian Creole. 

The Taino influences in music, religion

The Spanish first brought enslaved Africans to Hispaniola at the beginning of the 16th century. However, the population of the Taino, an Arawak subgroup that resided on Hispaniola and throughout the Caribbean, was wiped out in less than 50 years by disease and enslavement. 

The century characterized by Spanish rule “no doubt saw some cultural transmission between the pre-Columbian population and African slaves,” history professor David Geggus wrote in the social research journal “New West Indian Guide.” Yet, Geggus noted that transmission was limited, since Tainos and Africans tended to live in separate locations. 

When the French assumed control in 1697 there were virtually no Tainos left on the western third of Hispaniola, Geggus wrote. Yet, whether by direct cultural transmission in the prior century or appreciation of the Indigenous inhabitants that came before, Haitians have adopted multiple cultural practices from the native Taino people. 

“The inclusion of Taino axe-heads and figurines among the sacred objects of some voodoo temples does suggest an awareness among Haitians of the vanished Amerindians,” Geggus wrote. However, he noted, it is not necessarily evidence of a claim made by previous scholars, of direct Indigenous influence on the Vodou religion. 

Carnival celebrations in Haiti have incorporated native traditions, as well, with papier mache masks fashioned in the likeness of animals and rara bands parading down the streets.

Musicians in rara groups perform on bamboo trumpets and drums, along with instruments like the güiro, an open-ended percussion instrument with notches cut on one side. The güiro is also popular in Spanish folk music, and historians trace its origin to the Arawak Taino people. 

Maracas, another common carnival instrument, also have native origins. Although historians disagree on which Indigenous American tribe first started using maracas, they were widely used by the Tainos in the Caribbean. 

Haitian Creole shaped by Indigenous predecessors

When Haitians gained independence in 1804, they adopted the name Ayiti, which the Tainos used to refer to the entire island of Hispaniola. Many foods enjoyed by the Indigenous inhabitants of Hispaniola still bear the same, or very similar, Haitian Creole names. 

“People have collected some words that are from the Tainos,” Lamour said. “Food [words] for the most part.” 

Traditionally, Tainos would eat their maní, or peanuts, with cassava bread known as casabe. Haitians have derived Creole words from these two foods, Lamour said. Haitians use manba in reference to peanut butter, and the Haitian Creole word for cassava is the similar-sounding kasav. 

Other Haitian Creole words the Tainos used include lambi, or conch, and mabi, the name of a fermented beverage. The Creole word for pineapple, anana, also came from the Tainos. 

When it comes to Haitian Creole, West African languages provided the foundation, said Lamour.

“You can see the foundation in the syntax,” Lamour added, about Haitian Creole. “Taino, it’s mostly in the culture and some vocabulary, people have collected words that were from the Tainos.” 

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From language to religion, Haitian culture bears Indigenous Taino influences was first posted on November 27, 2024 at 9:57 am.