Desir writes as a Manbo Asogwe as well as a scholar, presenting a testimony rather than an analysis, and she begins by reading the Haitian flag as a ritual object: red for Ogou, the warrior spirit of justice, the white field for Danbala and Ayida who hold the universe together, the palm for Ayizan, the Phrygian cap doubling as a Yoruba hat for Elegba, and twenty-one cannonballs for the twenty-one nations of the lwa. She then explains how a temple actually works, naming the offices from the hounsi who tend the objects and medicinal plants through the flag bearers, the song leader and the drummers to the presiding hougan and manbo, and distinguishing the initiate who speaks langaj without grasping it from the senior priest who does. Petro, Rada and Bizango are described as three tempers. Her claim is that a religion training people to hold contradictory energies in balance produces political capacity, which is why it was attacked.