Hoodoo (spirituality)

Many Hoodoo traditions draw from the beliefs of the Bakongo people of Central Africa.^[9] Over the first century of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, an estimated 52% of all kidnapped Africans (over 900,000 people) came from Central African countries that existed within the boundaries of modern day Cameroon, Congo, Angola, Central African Republic, and Gabon.^[10] By the end of the colonial period, enslaved Africans were taken from Angola (40 percent), Senegambia (19.5 percent), the Windward Coast (16.3 percent), and the Gold Coast (13.3 percent), as well as the Bight of Benin and Bight of Biafra in smaller percentages.^[11]


Following the Great Migration of African Americans, Hoodoo spread throughout the United States.

Etymology[edit]

The first documentation of the word "Hoodoo" in the English language appeared in 1870.^[12][13] Its origins are obscure, but some linguists believe it originated as an alteration of the word Voodoo – a word that has its origin in the Gbe languages such as the Ewe, Adja, and Fon languages of Ghana, Togo, and Benin – referring to divinity.^[14][15]


Another possible etymological origin of the word Hoodoo comes from the word Hudu, meaning "spirit work," which comes from the Ewe language spoken in the West African countries of Ghana, Togo, and Benin.^[16] Hudu is one of its dialects.^[17] According to Paschal Beverly Randolph, the word Hoodoo is from an African dialect.^[18]


The origin of the word Hoodoo and other words associated with the practice could be traced to the Windward Coast and Senegambia. For example, in West Africa, the word gris-gris (a conjure bag) is a Mande word.^[19]


The words wanga and mooyo (mojo bag) come from the Kikongo language.^[16]


The Oxford English Dictionary cited the Sunday Appeal's definition of Hoodoo as a word from different African dialects with practices similar to the mysteries of Obi (Obeah) in the Caribbean.^[20] In the Bahamas, Hoodoo is referred to as "obeah." According to author Zora Neale Hurston, "Roots" is the Southern Negro's term for folk doctoring by herbs and prescriptions, and by extension, and because all hoodoo doctors cure by roots, it may be used as a synonym for hoodoo.^[21]


Recent scholarly publications spell the word with a capital letter. The word has different meanings depending on how it is spelled. Some authors spell Hoodoo with a capital letter to distinguish it from commercialized hoodoo, which is spelled with a lowercase letter. Other authors have different reasons why they capitalize or lowercase the first letter.^[22][23]

Concerns about cultural appropriation[edit]

The culture of Hoodoo was created by African Americans. There are regional styles to this tradition, and as African Americans traveled the tradition of Hoodoo changes according to African Americans' environment. Hoodoo includes reverence to ancestral spirits, African American quilt making, animal sacrifice, herbal healing, Bakongo and Igbo burial practices, Holy Ghost shouting, praise houses, snake reverence, African American churches, spirit possession, nkisi and minkisi practices, Black Spiritual churches, Black theology, the ring shout, the Kongo cosmogram, Simbi nature spirits, graveyard conjure, the crossroads spirit, making conjure canes, incorporating animal parts, pouring of libations, Bible conjure, and conjuring in the African American tradition. By the twentieth century, white drugstore owners and mail-order companies owned by white Americans changed the culture of hoodoo. The hoodoo that is practiced outside the African American community is not the hoodoo created by African Americans. It is called "marketeered" hoodoo.^[411] Other words for marketeered hoodoo are commercialized or tourist hoodoo. Hoodoo was modified by white merchants and replaced with fabricated practices and tools while some of the hoodoo practices by African Americans in the twentieth century into the present day went underground. Marketeered hoodoo spread further outside the African American community into other communities when hoodoo was marketed on the internet.^[412] There are a plethora of videos on the internet of people fabricating spells calling them hoodoo and others claiming to be experts on hoodoo and offering paid classes and writing books. As a result, people outside of the African American community think marketeered hoodoo is authentic Hoodoo. Scholars are concerned about the number of people who are not from the African American community writing books on Hoodoo, because they have reduced Hoodoo to just spells and tricks. That Hoodoo is all about how to hex people and cast candle spells for love and money. This portrays hoodoo negatively, and turned it materialistic.^{[413][414][415]} For example, High John the Conqueror in African American folk stories is a Black man from Africa enslaved in the United States whose spirit resides in a root conjured in Hoodoo. White American drugstore owners replaced conjure doctors in African American communities, and began putting an image of a white man on their High John the Conqueror product labels. As a result, some people do not know the African American folk hero High John the Conqueror is a Black man.^[416]


The Hoodoo practiced by African Americans is defined by scholars as "Old Black Belt Hoodoo." Traditional hoodoo of African American people went into hiding by the twentieth century into the present day. There is a spiritual philosophy in Hoodoo, and the tradition does have its own theology that is missing which was taken out by the spiritual merchants who wanted to profit from an African American spiritual tradition.^[417] Charlatans used Hoodoo to make money, and changed the tradition as a form of selfish magic that is all about spells for love, money, and hexes in order to sale candles, oils, and trinkets. This kind of Hoodoo presented by charlatans not from the Black community is the hoodoo most people know. The Spiritual church, the Sanctified church, and praise houses in Black communities is where traditional Hoodoo continues to be practiced by African Americans.^[418] One scholar traced manufactured hoodoo to the Great Migration of African Americans from the South to the North. African American folk magic changed in urban northern areas as African Americans did not have access to fresh herbs and roots from their backyards or neighborhoods as some bought their supplies from stores that profited from African American folk practices. White merchants profited from African American folk magic and placed stereotypical images of Indians onto hoodoo product labels to sell merchandise that appeared mystical, exotic, and powerful.^[419]


According to some scholars, the research and understanding of African American Hoodoo should be examined from the Black American experience, and not from the interpretation of marketeers and exploiters found in books and online published by people who are not African American. White Americans want to appropriate Black culture and claim it as their own for profit.^[420][421] With the advent of the internet, African American music and culture has become consumed more rapidly around the world on a daily basis. The internet resulted in the mass consumption and appropriation and sometimes mocking of Black culture by whites and non-Black people in social media.^[422]


As one scholar explained, "The cultural marketplace of items and ideas has handled the faith and practice of hoodoo roughly. Instead of being viewed as a legitimate religion, it is perceived as a system of magic rife with effeminate witchdoctors, pin cushioned voodoo dolls, and miscellaneous artifacts that can be bought and sold." The appropriation of hoodoo is based on ignorance about African American cultural history and hoodoo's ties to Black people.^[423]