Hoodoo, Rootwork and Conjure sources by Black Authors
Because you should only ever be learning your ancestral ways from kinfolk. Here's a compilation of some books, videos and podcast episodes I recommend reading and listening to, on customs, traditions, folk tales, songs, spirits and history. As always, use your own critical thinking and spiritual discernment when approaching these sources as with any others.
Hoodoo in America by Zora Neale Hurston (1931)
Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston (1936)
Tell my horse by Zora Neale Hurston (1938)
Let Nobody Turn Us Around: An African American Anthology by Manning Marable and Leith Mullings, editors (2003)
Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition by Yvonne P. Chireau (2006)
African American Folk Healing by Stephanie Mitchem (2007)
Hoodoo Medicine: Gullah Herbal Remedies by Faith Mitchell (2011)
Mojo Workin': The Old African American Hoodoo System by Katrina Hazzard-Donald (2012)
Rootwork: Using the Folk Magick of Black America for Love, Money and Success by Tayannah Lee McQuillar (2012)
Talking to the Dead: Religion, Music, and Lived Memory among Gullah/Geechee Women by LeRhonda S. Manigault-Bryant (2014)
Working the Roots: Over 400 Years Of Traditional African American Healing by Michele Elizabeth Lee (2017)
Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston (2018)
Jambalaya: The Natural Woman's Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals by Luisa Teish (2021)
African American Herbalism: A Practical Guide to Healing Plants and Folk Traditions by Lucretia VanDyke (2022)
These are just some suggestions but there's many many more!! This is by no means a complete list.
I recommend to avoid authors who downplay the importance of black history or straight out deny how blackness is central to hoodoo. The magic, power and ashé is in the culture and bloodline. You can't separate it from the people. I also recommend avoiding or at the very least taking with a huge grain of salt authors with ties to known appropriators and marketeers, and anyone who propagates revisionist history or rather denies historical facts and spreads harmful conspiracy theories. Sadly, that includes some black authors, particularly those who learnt from, and even praise, white appropriators undermining hoodoo and other african and african diasporic traditions. Be careful who you get your information from. Keeping things traditional means honoring real history and truth.
Let me also give you a last but very important reminder: the best teachings you'll ever get are going to come from the mouths of your own blood. Not a book or anything on the internet. They may choose to put certain people and things in your path to help you or point you in the right direction, but each lineage is different and you have to honor your own. Talk to your family members, to the Elders in your community, learn your genealogy, divine before moving forwards, talk to your dead, acknowledge your people and they'll acknowledge you and guide you to where you need to be.
May this be of service and may your ancestors and spirits bless you and yours 🕯️💀
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