Haitian Vodou is a religion created by the descendants of enslaved west and west central Africans brought to Haiti to toil in the fields of their French masters.  It combines elements of numerous African religions—including Christianity and Islam—to create a religion unique to Haiti and its diaspora.  It is a religion principally concerned with healing, harmony within the family, and continuity with the ancestors.  It is a sister to numerous other black American religions, including Regla de Ocha (Santería/Lukumí), Palo, Candomblé, Spiritualism, Conjure, and the black church—as well as present-day west and west central African religions.

Imagined Voodoo is a racist fantasy created by Americans from their combined fear of, and fascination with, Vodou and the religious lives of black folks.  Existing only in the realm of fiction, it has enjoyed a long life in Hollywood movies and pulp novels.  Imagined voodoo is principally concerned with curses, revenge against whites, and hypersexuality.  If you are thinking of “voodoo dolls” and zombies, you are thinking of imagined voodoo, not the real religion of Haitian Vodou.  Because imagined voodoo mostly appears in low-art “entertainment,” it is rarely criticized for its role in perpetuating racist views of black people. 

If you would like to learn more about the racist machinations of “imagined voodoo,” you can download my article, “Haitian Vodou and voodoo: Imagined religion and popular culture,” from my Academic Publications page, along with other articles I’ve published about the lived practice of Haitian Vodou.

My once-and-future blog, Dreams of Ginen, is another resource for information about Haitian Vodou and imagined voodoo.

If you are looking for a Vodou community in the U.S., you can connect with Manbo Maude Evans and her Sosyete Nago on their Facebook page.