Voodoo history


Voodoo (from vodoun, meaning spirit) is one of the oldest religion with mysterious origins somewhere in Africa. Its name is associated with the black magic but the real face is a positive one, affecting all aspects of the human’s lives, such as honesty, finances, protection, people relation, and healthiness.
Like in all religions, they have a venerated God, a variety of spirits, and many rituals. Members of this religion communicate with their God through the "loa" or spirits. This connection is based on faith and common relation to offer and to achieve. Along the ceremony, all members present their honor to loas, and in return, they are helped in their lives.
Vodou as we know it in Haiti and the Haitian diaspora today is the result of the pressures of many different cultures and ethnicities of people being uprooted from Africa and imported to Hispaniola during the transatlantic African slave trade. (1) Under slavery, African culture and religion was suppressed, lineages were fragmented, and people pooled their religious knowledge and out of this fragmentation became culturally unified. In addition to combining the spirits of many different African and Indian nations, pieces of Roman Catholic liturgy are incorporated to replace lost prayers or elements; in addition images of Catholic saints are used to represent various spirits or "misteh" ["mysteries"], and many saints themselves are honored in Haitian Vodou in their own right. This syncretism allows Haitian Vodou to encompass the African, the Indian, and the European ancestors in a whole and complete way. It is truly a "Kreyol" or Creole religion. (Mike Rock – History of Voodoo-web)
It all started 6 000 years ago in Africa, with West African Yaruba people, who lived in the 18th and 19th century in Dahomey kingdom, which occupied parts of today’s Togo, Benin and Nigeria. It was brought to Haiti and the other islands in West Indies when the slaves were brought there by force. Christianity and E