The Origins of Voodoo & Syncretism
The information below is from the Journal of Religion and Society: Investigating the Syncretism of Catholicism and Voodoo in New Orleans.
Voodoo refers to a religion derived from indigenous African spiritual practices that originated in Benin and Togoland in West Africa and “was influenced by French Catholicism that became fully developed in Haiti.” In the earliest days of these religious practices, it was called “Voudun,” as it is still called in some places. African ethnic groups such as the Yoruba, Kongo, and Fon dominated the belief population of “Voudun.” According to historian Carolyn Long, “All of these African tribes and nations recognized a supreme creator and believed in the existence of spiritual entities who acted as intermediaries between human beings and the highest god.”
Much like Catholicism, for example, certain activities were seen as pleasing to the high Voudun god, Mawa-Lisa, as well as to his intermediaries. Catholics might demonstrate love and appreciation for God by performing selfless good works for others or by praying and fasting as a type of sacrifice. The earliest practitioners of Voudun, as well as Voodoo today, also offer sacrifices. Voodoo practitioners may offer a sacrifice to the high god or the spirits, referred to as lwa, by “offering animal sacrifices, pouring out libations, saying various prayers, drumming or playing instruments, or even giving over one’s body to be [temporarily] possessed by the spirit itself.”
Singing is another important aspect in regards to Voodoo worship. Songs have been passed down orally for hundreds of years. Songs would be accompanied by patting, clapping and foot stomping, but not drum playing, unless it was part of the weekly public ceremony in Congo Square in New Orleans during slavery times.
Songs are sung to give descriptions of personalities for the deities, such as their names, likes and dislikes, origin, responsibilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Sometimes the songs are sung in address to the deities, and sometimes as if the deities themselves were speaking (or singing). Many songs mirror tunes of the Catholic Church, as well as associate the Catholic saints with African deities. Spiritual forces, which can be kind or mischievous, shape daily life through and intercede in the lives of their followers. Connection with these spirits can be achieved through dance, music, singing, and the use of snakes, which represent Legba, Voodoo’s “main spirit conduit to all others.” Unlike the Judeo-Christian image, the Voodoo serpent represents “healing knowledge and the connection between Heaven and Earth.”
In order to fully understand, in more concrete terms, how Voodoo and Catholicism have undergone syncretism over time in New Orleans, this section will discuss several specific ways in which the two religious traditions “blend together.” Religion scholar Michael Molloy argues, “It is possible that apparent similarities in belief and approach between the Yoruba Based religion and Roman Catholicism permitted syncretism.” In New Orleans, Voodoo–Catholic syncretism is most obvious in three forms: the centrality of ritual to both Voodoo and Catholic worship, Catholic veneration of saints and the Voodoo reverence of spirits and ancestors, and a desire on the part of both religious traditions to have an intimate experience with the divine. In each of these means of syncretism, Voodoo and Catholicism have explicitly “trusted in the power of ritual and made frequent use of ritual elements.” Each of these means is unique to New Orleans, but is practiced and understood in similar Voodoo cultures and countries of Voodoo origin, such as Togo and Benin in West Africa, and Haiti.
In New Orleans Voodoo there is one God and “he is often viewed under the same conceptions in which Christians or Jews view him.” Other Voodoo cultures, such as those in the countries of Voodoo origin, believe in several gods or deities called lwa. However, in New Orleans practitioners refer to “spirits” rather than lwa. As in Catholicism, supreme reverence, devotion, and attention is given to the one God. In contrast to Catholics, however, New Orleans Voodoo practitioners “tend to view God as having taken a very passive role in the lives of human beings, choosing to relegate his power and responsibility instead to the spirits.” With the belief that God takes a passive role in interaction with human beings, Voodoo practitioners need some point of contact with the divine that might help demonstrate a reason as to why the Voodoo spirits, often represented by Catholic Saints, would be of such sincere importance to Voodoo practitioners. Thus, Robert Tallant explains, New Orleans Voodoo practitioners “adopt many Catholic saints as their own and invoke them to aid in Voodoo work.” An old Haitian Voodoo proverb seems to accurately convey this syncretistic situation in New Orleans: “one must be Catholic to effectively serve the Voodoo spirits.”
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