130 Culture, Identity, and Community: From Slavery to the PresentHoodoo complex is a syncretic blend of Fon, Yoruba, and
West-Central African metaphysical and religious concepts,
and in Louisiana, it likely incorporated Catholic icons and
elements from West-Central African and Senegambian be-
lief systems.
During her reign as “Voodoo queen” in New Orleans
from 1830 to 1869, Marie Laveau routinely evoked the
names of Fon and Yoruba deities—Legba and Damballa—in
her ritual ceremonies. In addition, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall
shows that spiritual beliefs, the knowledge of “herblore,”
the production of poisons and curatives, and the creation
of charms in Louisiana were brought to the region with
the earliest slave imports. Th e Bambara from Senegambia
played an important role in these areas. Although the term
“Bambara” has a number of meanings and ethnic connota-
tions, in the context of Louisiana, it referred specifi cally to
non-Muslim Africans from Senegambia who were captured
in jihads and sold to European merchants. However de-
fi ned, this group signifi cantly infl uenced the nature of slave
culture in Louisiana. For example, zinzin—the word for an
amulet of power in Louisiana Creole—has the same mean-
ing and name in Bambara. Gris-gris and wanga were other
Bambara or Mande words for charms referred to in colonial
and antebellum Louisiana. Even the Arabic-derived Mande
word for spiritual advisor or teacher—marabout—appears
in the records of colonial Louisiana.
Based on the reality of ethnic enclaves and the infor-
mation regarding the pattern and structure of the Atlantic
slave trade revealed by the Du Bois Institute database, we
can conclude that ethnic mixing was never achieved by Eu-
ropean shippers and slaveholders. Th e fact is that random-
ization was not feasible on either side of the Atlantic, and
patterns of ethnic concentration that emerged in the Carib-
bean and South America also emerged in North American
colonies/states. In spite of this mounting evidence, how-
ever, a number of scholars remain skeptical about the close
cultural connections between Africa and the Americas.
Among the many critics of the notion of cultural continu-
ities is Philip D. Morgan. In seeming agreement with the
interpretations of Sidney Mintz and Richard Price, he for-
wards the notion of ethnic randomization on both sides of
the Atlantic, which, in turn, served as a facilitating factor
for creolization and acculturation. Using the preliminary
results of the Du Bois Institute database, Morgan claims
that unlike Brazil and certain portions of the Caribbean,
North America received a much more heterogeneousCharleston satisfi ed most of the demand for forced labor
in North Carolina and Georgia. Th e result of this commer-
cial connection meant that both colonies/states likely had
demographic patterns and ethnic enclaves similar to those
found in South Carolina. Maryland imported a large num-
ber of Africans from Senegambia (49%) and did not mirror
the reliance on imports from the Bight of Biafra found in
its Chesapeake neighbor, Virginia. For the remainder of the
slaveholding regions of North America, Gomez contends
that Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina, and Georgia sup-
plied enslaved Africans to places such as Kentucky, Missis-
sippi, Alabama, and Tennessee.
Although there has been a major problem in tracking
African imports into certain regions, the Du Bois Institute
database and other sources reveal much about imports in
colonial New York and Louisiana. Th e Dutch colony of
New Netherland—later to become New York—witnessed
two diff erent waves of African immigrants. Th e fi rst, lasting
for the initial few decades of Dutch rule, was dominated by
the importation of West-Central Africans. Th e second wave
focused on Africans from the Gold Coast. Combined, both
of these contingents may have contributed to such cultural
formations as the Pinkster festivals, the “Congo” dances in
Albany, and specifi c funerary practices associated with the
African Burial Ground in New York City (e.g., carved sym-
bols on coffi ns, the use of burial shrouds, and internment
with earthenware, beads, and other objects). A defi nite
Gold Coast presence is noted in both the 1712 New York
City revolt and the alleged conspiracy of 1741; in both in-
stances, enslaved Africans with Akan names predominated
among the leadership core.
Th ough Louisiana shift ed from French to Spanish and
fi nally to American control aft er 1803, the demographics
of the slave trade are relatively easy to trace. Th e principal
import groups into Louisiana were Africans from Sen-
egambia, the Bight of Benin, and West-Central Africa. As
the most numerically signifi cant African group in Louisi-
ana, the Congolese and other West-Central Africans con-
tributed to expressive culture (e.g., dance contests in New
Orleans’ Congo Square and baton twirling), cuisine (e.g.,
gumbo and jambalaya), and even body gestures (e.g., stand-
ing with arms akimbo) in Louisiana. Th e signifi cant Afri-
can contingent from the Bight of Benin, as well as enslaved
Santo Dominguans arriving in New Orleans in the wake of
the 1791 revolution, brought with them spiritual beliefs that
became Voodoo and Hoodoo in Louisiana. Th e Voodoo/