Upon hearing the word voodoo, many conjure images of dolls
stuck through with pins, headless chickens spewing blood, aimlessly wandering
zombies, or any number of the horror scenes from the 1989 movie Angel Heart.
Few recognize Voodoo as a religion, and fewer still acknowledge its
African roots and the level of comfort and continuity the practice provided to
the enslaved Africans of New Orleans.
Common misconceptions people have about voodoo are that it is merely
magic and not a real religion, that voodoo and hoodoo are the same thing, and
that those who practice voodoo are polytheistic, and even worship the devil
himself.
One way to logically examine and
effectively argue about the religion of voodoo is to compare it to other
religious practices of enslaved Africans in the Americas, specifically in the Sea Islands of
Georgia and South Carolina and the St. Augustine area of Florida.
In doing so, one will find that while the ways the religions of New
Orleans (Voodoo) and the Sea Islands and Florida express their beliefs may be different, the core framework of
monotheistic belief accented by intercession of the spirit world either by
possession or prevention, the use of nonliving items believed to contain
powers, and memberships within secret societies with initiation rites is
essentially the same. Because the
religion of the native whites in the New World varied based on geographic
location, and because the dispersion of the enslaved Africans in the New World
was based upon which area of Africa the American slaveholder desired their
slaves to come from, the resulting acculturation and religiosity of the
Africans looked very different depending on which part of America one
examines. The New Orleans area of
Louisiana received the majority of its African slaves via the French colonies
of Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Santo Domingo, which themselves also had
imported slaves from the Bight of Benin and Bight of Biafra. They arrived in New Orleans, which was
already an amalgamation of American and French whites whose primary religious
affiliation was Roman Catholic. In
contrast, the slaves of the Sea Islands and Florida arrived to Charleston via
Sierra Leone, the Windward Coast, and the Gold Coast. Known as “low country”, the whites of this
area were mainly of English and Scottish origin, and their primary religious
affiliation was Protestant, specifically Episcopalian, Methodist and
Baptist.
The first common misconception
about Voodoo is that it is not a real religion but merely magic. It is easy to see why one might take this
position, as outwardly many of the practices appear to be magical in
nature. Dancing, spirit possession, and
talismans all look very suspicious, especially to Protestants, who have been
taught that putting faith in anything besides Jesus is a sin. This is one reason why African retentions of
Voodoo have been strongest in areas of America where Roman Catholicism
thrives. Both faiths (Voodoo and Roman Catholic) worship one God
(God the creator vs. the Supreme Being), make intercessory prayers or offerings
to spirits (saints vs. spirits of ancestors), and frequently use non-living
things as a source of power (holy water or rosaries vs. chicken feet, herb
talismans, etc.) Many of the same practices of voodooist are seen in
non-voodoo African retentions in the Sea Islands and Florida. In his essay African Religious Retentions in Florida, Robert Hall shared this
account from an 1880 newspaper, The
Floridian:
“A man in
Tallahassee assisted by an elderly woman, astounded onlookers by appearing to
vomit nails, moss, and other debris. His
friends believe strongly in the reality of it all, and insists that he had a
spell put on him by a woman to whom he was engaged to but whom he jilted and
who now protests that she intends to pay him off for his base desertion.” [i]
Clearly, the practices of making talismans, charms and curses existed outside of theVoodoo religion of New Orleans, demonstrating that these practices were original to African religiously, and not merely magic. Practices of divination, manipulation and herbalism are all elements of African religiosity (as well as many other world religions) and not merely the superstitions of folklore.
Clearly, the practices of making talismans, charms and curses existed outside of theVoodoo religion of New Orleans, demonstrating that these practices were original to African religiously, and not merely magic. Practices of divination, manipulation and herbalism are all elements of African religiosity (as well as many other world religions) and not merely the superstitions of folklore.
Another
main misconception about the religion of Voodoo is that its practitioners are
polytheistic and worship many Gods. This
is simply not true. Jessie Ruth Gaston
wrote in The Case of Voodoo in New
Orleans:
“Vodu has a highly
organized hierarchy of deities, with vodum priests, priestesses, novices, and
other persons devoted to serving and protecting them. At the top is the Supreme Being (Creator or
God). Below the Creator, lesser deities
serve as intermediaries. Clans, families
and villages also have their own deities to protect them, justify their claims
to power, and to legitimize their rights of occupation. The deities have prescribed methods of worship,
certain ceremonial dances, dress codes, foods, and days set aside in their
honor.” [ii]
Clearly, the deities are no more than intercessors, or
intermediaries between humanity and the Supreme Being. Much like the saints of Roman Catholicism,
these intermediaries are assigned their own special days of the year, and have
certain attributes that make them relatable to certain towns, clans or
families. It is not unknown for Roman
Catholics to attend mass on their saint’s ascribed day, to name their children
after the saint of which the day it was born, or to marry or baptize on the
days of specific saints. This is merely
a way for people to feel more connected and experience
their religion, instead of it just being a written, lifeless practice. Where the catch may be, is the term deity being used for the Voodoo
supernatural forces. The term deity can
mean a god or goddess or it can mean a divine quality or nature. The word deity originates from Old French (deite), which means divine nature, not
God. Given the French nature of New
Orleans, it is easy to see how this word was assigned to an African concept
that had no English language equivalent.
Almost
every organized religion has some element of either its past or present that it
either regrets or would disassociate from if it could. Examples of this are the extreme literalists
and the concept of Jihad for the Muslims, the crusades, the selling of
indulgences, the abuse of children by ordained clergy, and the money
scandals of the televangelist for the Christians, and the polygamist practices
of the extreme Mormons. Within the
religion of Voodoo, the opportunity to sell potions that had no power or
validity to unsuspecting buyers in order to merely make money became prevalent
and known to most as Hoodoo. Hoodoo does
not have established rites, rituals, priests, priestesses, or even a Supreme
Being of which they pay homage to. Therefore Hoodoo is not a religion, but
instead a group of magical practices. Gaston’s essay touches on this, but does not go
as far as to say that many aspects of Hoodoo diminished the credibility of
Voodoo in America.
Sadly, some
associate the magical superstitions and con-artist techniques of Hoodoo with
African American religion in general.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
The religiosity of the imported Africans was deeply important to them. While the oppression of slavery and the acculturation into the native white
religious traditions did change the expression of their religion, it would be a
travesty and a disservice to resulting African American religions and religious
practices to refer to them as “magical”, “superstitious” or “witchcraft.” In
contrast, the Voodoo of New Orleans and the beliefs held by the blacks of the
Sea Islands and Florida were true religious expressions deeply rooted in
African tradition.
There is a balm in Gilead
To make the wounded whole
There is a balm in Gilead
To heal the sin sick soul.
~early 19th
Century African American Spiritual
thought to have originated
in the Sea Islands
Eh ye
ye Mamzelle Marie
Ya ye
ye li konin tou gris gris;
Li te
cuori lekal , aver vieux kokodril;
Oh
ouai ye Mamzelle Marie
~VooDoo Chant of Marie Laveau
~VooDoo Chant of Marie Laveau
Voodoo
Priestess, New Orleans,
~1874
