Myth: Vodou originated in New Orleans.
On trips to New Orleans, many Americans have encountered a set of secularized traditions known as Voodoo. New Orleans Voodoo is related to but separate from Haitian Vodou.
In Haiti, Vodou is an active, living religion practiced by millions of people, and a source of national identity and pride. The Haitian Creole word Vodou comes from Vodun, a word from the Fon language of modern-day Benin, meaning mysterious invisible powers that intervene in human affairs.
Haitian Vodou keeps alive the theology and spiritual practices of West African cultures. Africans first came to Haiti as slaves in the 16th century. Their deeply rooted beliefs combined with those of Indigenous peoples already living in the Caribbean, and also combined with elements of Christianity. Because Vodou helped galvanize slaves to revolt at the end of the 18th century, Vodou is inextricably tied up with Haiti’s history of abolition and its establishment of an independent nation.
Myth: Vodou dolls are used with pins to harm others.
In Haitian Vodou practice, dolls are never stuck with pins. And certainly, causing harm to another person is against Vodou ethics. This misunderstanding could stem from the Vodou practice of hanging dolls to tree branches to send messages to the spirits of deceased loved ones. Dolls are sometimes used as parts of religious statues, but they usually represent specific spirits (lwa) or attributes of spirits. A beautiful example in Vodou: Sacred Powers of Haiti is a richly ornamented doll figure representing Erzulie Freda, the spirit of love and luxury.
Myth: Vodou Priests and Priestesses can bring the dead back to life as zombies.
Vodou priests and priestesses have no interest in bringing the dead back to life. Indeed, a basic tenet of Vodou metaphysics is that people remain connected to our world after death, and that death is a part of life. However, the concept of the zombie in Haitian Vodou is complex, and should be interpreted from both spiritual and material perspectives. For those people who believe in zombification, it’s considered a terrible social punishment.
The zombie of Haitian Vodou is completely different from stories created in Hollywood and American pop culture. In Haiti, the term zonbi refers to a person who has lost his or her soul. This soul-less state has a particular horror because it harkens back to the condition of slavery in colonial Haiti. Materially speaking, several ethnobotanists and authors have claimed to have discovered naturally occurring chemicals or formulas that can induce catatonia, and could be used in zombification rites. Zombification rituals are very rare, however, and take place in rural Haitian communities.
It should be noted that Vodouists are very open to being possessed by spirits (lwa), and possession is considered a common and often helpful occurrence in ceremonies. However, being possessed by a spirit and being incapacitated as a zombie are completely different ideas in Vodou. There are hundreds of lwa in Vodou, and being possessed by a spirit can help heal, balance, and guide the believer.
Myth: Vodou is irrational and is full of devil worship.
Regrettably, in common English usage, the word “voodoo” has also come to mean illogical or silly superstitions. On the other hand, derogatory misconceptions about Vodou also often originate in fear of its power to potentially upend authority.
When slaves revolted in Haiti at the end of the 18th century, fear of Vodou-inspired revolts spread to the United States, where slavery was still legal at the time. In the 19th and 20th centuries Haitian Vodou practice was often forced underground, further fueling misconceptions about unfamiliar symbolism and rites. And ever since the silent film era, American movies have had fun telling lurid but completely fictitious stories about devil worship, human sacrifice, and dolls with pins.
Devils and demons are never worshiped in Vodou. However, outsiders may become confused because Vodouists are so comfortable with death, and because they maintain relationships with deceased loved ones in the spirit realm. Many Vodouists are also comfortable around human bones, which can lead to misconceptions about the bones’ uses. Vodou practice has elements of magic (maji), which allows Vodou spirits to be of service to humans. Because Vodou is a monotheistic religion, maji and Vodou spirits ultimately enable believers to keep in touch with the supreme God of all creation.
Here is a sampling of the pieces included in “Vodou: Sacred Powers of Haiti”:
So why would anyone want this little soldier spirits to enter them?…I would only want the spirit of the supreme God to enter me. Why waste time with all this lower level spirits is my main queststion? If it aint about the supreme God spirit may all other spirits scatter from my path….I only have room for one, the divine Supreme Spirit of God.
Not a Myth…Robbas baggy rice water is use on a thieving, worthless batty men, lol:D
*Nice post Met.
Thank you Met for not perpetuating f**kery regarding Vodou and Haitians. My father appreciated this article. He practiced it as a child, but was also raised in Catholicism. He told me….. “Maybe if Blacks turned to ways of old then we wouldn’t be stuck. When we took on the “slavemasters” ways it weakened us.”
I agree fully. I wonder why all African religious and spiritual practices are considered evil. African spiritual practices and mysticism are not valued anywhere. Yet, we see the Dogon people in Mali having advanced knowledge of astronomy that Europeans discovered thousands of years after them, they have their own secular practice.
Your father is right, there is something about practicing in the ways of your ancestors especially if it causes no harm to others or self. Further, there are millions if not billions of Gods out there, when you call out to God you could be calling out to any one of them, best to know who you are calling out to, and praying in the name of; no wonder some prayers never get answered even with the so-called most devout among us, and evil sets in the homes of others.