Voodoo in Haiti

Voodoo is a household term in American popular culture (Rigaud 7). Everyone has heard of "Voodoo dolls" of one's enemies, into which pins are supposedly stuck to kill or otherwise curse them. Zombies--variously "the living dead" or living individuals so drugged as to lose all independent personality--are a fixture of science-fiction horror movies. When in the 1980 Republican presidential primary campaign, George Bush wished to castigate then-rival Ronald Reagan, he denounced Reagan's economic policies as "Voodoo economics." This popular American image of Voodoo includes a tie to Haiti, where it is associated with the Tonton Macoutes and the system of terror which characterized the regime of "Papa Doc" Duvalier.

This "pop" image of Voodoo tends to disguise the fact that Voodoo is not a creation of Hollywood, nor even a fringe cult, but a religion which commands the spiritual allegiance of a large segment--probably a majority--of the people of Haiti, which serves as a central thread in Haitian society, and which has played a leading role in Haitian history since French colonial times. In order to understand Voodoo in its proper Haitian context, we must first of all rid ourselves of our popular preconceptions, and attempt to approach it with fresh, unbiased eyes.

Voodoo is, in essence, an animistic religious system of primari

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ord comes from the Spanish cimarrones, meaning "wild men" or "monkeys"--not a racial slur, but a reference to their independence and their lives in the forests. These were escaped slaves, or the descendants of escaped slaves, who formed their own autonomous communities in remote parts of the island. Other maroons lived mingled with freed blacks or mulattoes in the cities, or as vagabonds roaming the countryside (Laguerre 39ff). It was among the maroon communities, and the plantation slave populations with whom they remained in contact, that Voodoo originally developed. According to contemporary accounts, Voodoo was developed in either 1750 or 1767. It is most unlikely, however, that Voodoo actually appeared full-formed at these dates, or at any other time; these are simply the dates at which the ruling whites became aware of it. The actual origins of Voodoo are uncertain, but it probably developed gradually out of a syncretism of the various African religions which the slaves or their ancestors had practiced in their original homelands. Since these African tribal religions were closely tied to place, they could not survive intact in an alien world; nor could they provide a spiritual bond among slaves who came from many di
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Some common words found in the essay are:
American South, Doc Duvalier, Haiti French, Life Duvalier, Voodoo Attempts, Voodoo Haiti, Vaudun Laguerre, United Voodoo-like, North America, Virgin Rigaud, american south, voodoo priests, evangelical protestantism, tonton macoutes, colonial times, haitian people, slaves brought, image voodoo, french colonists, popular culture, haitian popular culture, african slaves brought,
Approximate Word count = 2107
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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