Le Temple D'Olohoum

     Welcome to the website of Le Temple D’Olohoum, the internet home of a very special place of worship, a Vodou temple where roots run deep and ‘Creole’ is realized in all of its aspects. Members of Le Temple D’Olohoum have our ancestral roots in Africa, Haiti, the English and Dutch Caribbean, and the USA (including New Orleans, Louisiana, Savannah, Georgia, Miami and Brooklyn). We are gatekeepers of a beautiful world religion that is colorful in the diversity of our people and the diversity of languages we speak.
     Vodou is way of life, and it serves as a link between the supernatural and the natural, the ornate and the mundane. Daily, I find myself speaking of or referencing Vodou to explain every blessing, obstacle and sweet surprise that arises.
     I pray every day for the gift of love, to be able to love beyond and above, even when our extended self or reflection, our neighbor, is not so lovable. It is this type of love that the Creator obligates us to have for one another, that guides us at the Temple, and that Vodou helps us to sustain.
     In all that we do, we focus our attention on one of the most vulnerable groups in our society, our youth, who often seem to be unloved or unlovable. They represent our future. They are “the hope that the present has brought us.” It is to them that we dedicate our labor. It is for their sakes that our work must continue. May we continue to rise, to heighten our consciousness, to seek knowledge and wisdom and to heed the message that the elders remind us: “La men fòt! La men fòt! La men fòt!” “Working together, the victory is ours.” Let’s work together at the Temple to educate and empower our youth to be leaders.

Mambo Marie-Florence Jean-Joseph.
August 2008