Overview:
A cultural evaluation of Haiti’s 2025 Saeta World Cup package, exploring its evolution, potential Vodou symbolism and its which means for Haitian id.
In current weeks, the uniforms worn by Haiti’s males’s nationwide soccer crew, Les Grenadiers, throughout their World Cup qualifying marketing campaign have turn out to be the middle of a rising cultural debate, each off and on-line. Followers and observers are questioning whether or not the geometric patterns on the Saeta-designed jerseys resemble vèvè symbols, sacred Vodou imagery typically drawn throughout non secular ceremonies. What started as hypothesis on-line has developed right into a wider dialog about faith, nationwide delight and the position of tradition on one of many world’s largest sports activities phases.
The web discourse intensified as social media customers questioned whether or not the patterns have been merely ornamental or subtly referenced sacred Vodou iconography. Others pushed again, arguing that Haiti’s success on the sector mattered greater than hypothesis in regards to the design.
Hervé Sabin, an architect and artist who lives in Port-au-Prince, stated he sees vèvès as “a type of power that propels us ahead.”
“For those who’re feeling down, you begin singing. It’s just like the blues. In all places on the earth, folks sing the blues to seek out some form of power to get them via the workday. The vèvès aren’t any completely different,” he stated.
“For probably the most half, it’s a divisive debate,” Sabin stated. “On the core of it, it’s important to perceive there may be cultural worth.”
That rigidity prompted responses from group leaders, together with religion leaders who urged calm.
“We don’t have to struggle over whether or not a shirt does or doesn’t have vèvè symbols,” Pastor Malory Laurent of Salvation Church of God in Brooklyn, NY, stated to his congregation through his TikTok channel. “It’s Haitians who might be on the sector, not spirits. What issues is supporting the crew and remembering we’re one folks.”
As followers speculate in regards to the jersey’s which means, many are questioning whether or not vèvè-like symbols – if intentional – are even allowed below FIFA’s international guidelines.
FIFA guidelines: What’s allowed and what’s not
FIFA-approved kits, which should adjust to strict international laws, are anticipated by March or April, and should characteristic completely different design components.
Underneath Article 4.3.1 of FIFA’s tools laws, groups are banned from sporting something that includes political, non secular, discriminatory or private slogans, photos or statements. That restriction applies to all gadgets worn in managed areas, together with jerseys, shorts, socks and equipment.
Group identifiers should additionally keep away from political or non secular references, and even a captain’s armband should characteristic designs authorised by FIFA. Nonetheless, the group permits a slender exception: non secular clothes worn primarily for faith-based observance, like head coverings, could also be permitted if it meets security requirements and doesn’t show figuring out marks or business logos. This distinction influences design choices throughout international soccer and can form the ultimate uniform Haiti unveils for the event.
A package that has sparked delight and questions
Saeta, the Colombia-based model that started outfitting Haiti in 2014 after donating uniform kits following the 2010 earthquake, has labored with the Haitian Soccer Federation (FHF) to create jerseys that mirror the nation’s tradition and id.
Haiti’s current World Cup qualification has sparked delight and a rush to characterize. In a predictable football-fan move, supporters keen to indicate their nationwide delight rushed to Saeta’s website to buy the crew’s jerseys. Each males’s and girls’s kinds are currently sold out, with just one model accessible for pre-sale on the time of this writing.
The uniform package is available in three variations: blue for dwelling video games, white for away video games and crimson as a 3rd possibility. Every design is a transparent reflection of the rouge et bleu that symbolizes Haiti’s flag.
Saeta labored intently with the FHF to “create designs that mirror the id and tradition of the nation,” the corporate stated on their web site, and famous they drew from imagery just like the Haitian coat of arms to “mirror the tradition and pure great thing about the nation” and included “components that mirror the power of the carnivals and fervour of Haitian followers.”
Deciphering the patterns
“For those who have a look at the precise design, each side of the vèvè, the center half is blurred out nevertheless it’s alleged to characterize the gate,” stated Mambo Zéklè in an interview with The Haitian Instances. Zéklè leads ceremonies on the group non secular hub, Lakay Sakre, in Brooklyn, and believes that geometric designs are components of Papa Legba’s vèvè.
“Haitian vèvès are all the time symmetrical, so you have got the 4 instructions after which you have got every half that intersects like a crossroad by which Legba represents the gatekeeper.”
In Vodou custom, Papa Legba is honored firstly of ceremonies because the lwa, or spirit, who opens pathways between worlds. In line with Zéklè, the design’s construction pays homage to that position and a few practitioners will interpret the design as a name for Legba’s steerage through the qualifying phases of the World Cup. Zéklè stated the crew’s qualification, which befell through the Gede season and on the day Haiti gained its independence via the Battle of Vertières, strengthened that studying for her.
“My interpretation of this as a Vodouizan is that they’re going to be calling on Legba to open all of the doorways for them,” she stated.
Roy Clement, an artist and therapist whose current work engages Vodou iconography, advised The Haitian Instances that seeing vèvè motifs on a global stage might carry deep which means for Haitians.
“That will be reclaiming our tradition and sense of id,” he stated. “Vodou is ingrained in Haitian tradition, and that’s what gave us our independence. For it to be proven on such a worldwide stage could be reclaiming what’s ours, displaying we’ve delight in our tradition, delight in who we’re and that we aren’t going to bow all the way down to unfavorable stereotypes or propaganda, or any unfavorable narrative being unfold about Haitians world wide.”
The Haitian Instances reached out to Saeta and the Haitian Soccer Federation for remark in regards to the design and whether or not the patterns have been supposed to evoke vèvè imagery. Neither group responded to requests for remark earlier than publication.
As Haiti awaits the official FIFA-approved World Cup uniforms, anticipated in early 2026, the dialog continues.
Further reporting by Simon Feisthauer Fournet and Vania André.