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Haitian Vodou is an African diasporic religion that developed in Haiti between the 16th and 19th centuries.
It arose through a process of syncretism between several traditional religions of West and Central Africa and Roman Catholicism. There is no central authority in control of the religion and much diversity exists among practitioners, who are known as Vodouists, Vodouisants, or Serviteurs.
Vodou revolves around spirits known as lwa. Typically deriving their names and attributes from traditional West and Central African divinities, they are equated with Roman Catholic saints. The lwa divide up into different groups, the nanchon, nations, most notably the Rada and the Petwo.
Various myths and stories are told about these lwa, which are regarded as subservient to a transcendent creator deity, Bondye. This theology has been labelled both monotheistic and polytheistic. An initiatory tradition, Vodouists usually meet to venerate the lwa in an ounfò (temple), run by an oungan (priest) or manbo (priestess).
A central ritual involves practitioners drumming, singing, and dancing to encourage a lwa to possess one of their members and thus communicate with them. Offerings to the lwa include fruit, liquor, and sacrificed animals.
Offerings are also given to the spirits of the dead. Several forms of divination are utilized to decipher messages from the lwa. Healing rituals and the preparation of herbal remedies and talismans also play a prominent role.
More information: Smithsonian Magazine
Vodou developed among Afro-Haitian communities amid the Atlantic slave trade of the 16th to 19th centuries. Its structure arose from the blending of the traditional religions of those enslaved West and Central Africans, among them Yoruba, Fon, and Kongo, who had been brought to the island of Hispaniola.
There, it absorbed influences from the culture of the French colonialists who controlled the colony of Saint-Domingue, most notably Roman Catholicism but also Freemasonry.
Many Vodouists were involved in the Haitian Revolution of 1791 to 1801 which overthrew the French colonial government, abolished slavery, and transformed Saint-Domingue into the republic of Haiti.
The Roman Catholic Church left for several decades following the Revolution, allowing Vodou to become Haiti's dominant religion. In the 20th century, growing emigration spread Vodou abroad. The late 20th century saw growing links between Vodou and related traditions in West Africa and the Americas, such as Cuban Santería and Brazilian Candomblé, while some practitioners influenced by the Négritude movement have sought to remove Roman Catholic influences.
Most Haitians practice both Vodou and Roman Catholicism, seeing no contradiction in pursuing the two different systems simultaneously. Smaller Vodouist communities exist elsewhere, especially among the Haitian diaspora in the United States.
Both in Haiti and abroad Vodou has spread beyond its Afro-Haitian origins and is practiced by individuals of various ethnicities.
Vodou has faced much criticism through its history, having repeatedly been described as one of the world's most misunderstood religions.
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Vodou is a religion. More specifically it has been characterised as Haiti's national religion and as an Afro-Haitian religion, as well as a traditional religion and a folk religion. Its main structure derives from the African traditional religions of West and Central Africa which were brought to Haiti by enslaved Africans between the 16th and 19th centuries.
On the island, these African religions mixed with the iconography of European-derived traditions such as Roman Catholicism and Freemasonry, taking the form of Vodou around the mid-18th century. In combining varied influences, Vodou has often been described as syncretic, or a symbiosis, a religion exhibiting diverse cultural influences.
A common form of divination employed by oungan and manbo is to invoke a lwa into a pitcher, where it will then be asked questions. The casting of shells is also used in some ounfo.
A form of divination associated especially with Petwo lwa is the use of a gembo shell, sometimes with a mirror attached to one side and affixed at both ends to string. The string is twirled and the directions of the shell used to interpret the responses of the lwa.
Playing cards will also often be used for divination. Other types of divination used by Vodouists include studying leaves, coffee grounds or cinders in a glass, or looking into a candle flame.
More information: The Atlantic
It is not a question of whether I believe in voodoo.
I am a scholar and, as such, I have studied the concept of voodoo.
I have created the faculty of Afro-Haitian ethnology in our university
where the concept of voodoo is taught.
Voodoo is not superstition.
It is a philosophy, a conception of God.
Francois Duvalier
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