ti bon ange

English

Etymology

From Haitian Creole, from French petit bon ange (“little good angel”).

Noun

ti bon ange (plural ti bon anges)

1. In voodoo, one of the dualistic aspects of the soul, responsible for personality, character, and willpower.
   • 1953, Maya Deren, Divine Horsemen, McPherson & Company, published 2004, page 44:

     Indeed it is characteristic of the almost anonymous, transcendent, spiritual nature of the ti-bon-ange that it is automatically liberated at the moment of death and hovers over the body for nine days before ascending to heaven.

   • 1985, Wade Davis, The Serpent and the Rainbow, Simon & Schuster, page 182:

     Throughout this period the ti bon ange is extremely vulnerable, and it is not until it is liberated from the flesh to descend below the dark abysmal waters that it is relatively safe.

   • 1995, Laënnec Hurbon, in Cosentino (ed.), Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou, South Sea International Press 1998, p. 192:

     For them, the act of zombification is a matter of capturing the ti bon anj and thus exerting an absolute power over the individual.

   • 2013, Carol P. Marsh-Lockett, Elizabeth J. West, editors, Literary Expressions of African Spirituality, page 103:

     Here we begin to see that there is a cooperative relationship between the tibonanj and the gwobonanj.

Alternative forms

• tibonanj, ti bon anj

Related terms

• gros bon ange