The mambo is a female priest of Haitian Vodou, holding the same office and the same authority as a houngan.
An office not divided by gender
She leads ceremonies, initiates, divines, treats the sick, and heads a temple and the family of initiates gathered around it. There is no function reserved to the male priest and none reserved to her: the two titles are distinguished by gender and by nothing else. This makes Vodou one of the traditions in which the question of women's religious authority does not arise, because it was never in question. As with the houngan, initiation is closed and its content is not described here.
The house and its standing
What can be said is the shape of the relationship. Initiates enter a house under a particular mambo or houngan, who becomes their ritual parent, and the bond is lifelong and reciprocal. A priest's standing does not come from a central authority, for Vodou has none, but from the house itself, from the initiates one has made, and from a reputation for effective work. The community that gathers, or ceases to gather, is the only body that confirms or withdraws a mambo's authority.