The transformation from Vodounto Voodoo
and then Hoodoo serves as a powerful metaphor
for the larger history of African American reli-
gious and spiritual beliefs. It exemplifies the way
in which elements of African faith and traditions
have persisted in the folk beliefs and customs of
African Americans, although the original meaning
may have been lost. In New Orleans, for example,
the onset of possession in Voodoo was referred to
asmonter voudou(mount Vodoun). Persistence of
this imagery is visible in the term used by Blacks
in Mississippi for hoodooists and conjurers—
“horses.”
Other examples of this transformation are
apparent when someone is ill for a long period
without any apparent cause and without getting
relief from herb medicine. In this instance, the sick
person is thought to be “fixed” through the
malevolent doing of an enemy. Among Africans,
illnesses that do not respond to natural medicines,
as well as sudden, unpredictable misfortune, are
believed to be the result of another’s enmity.
Among other African spiritual traditions that
African Americans have maintained or trans-
formed are the belief that a person’s spirit wanders
while the body sleeps, the belief in the special
power of twins, and the special personality of the
person born next after twins. Although the fully
developed system of ancestor worship did not sur-
vive, certain African funerary customs did remain
and became part of the Hoodoo folk tradition.
Cultural ImpactMelville Herskovits and Zora Neale Hurston
were critical figures in the debate that linked
Hoodoo to the African tradition. In 1931, Zora
Neale Hurston, in particular, published a book-
length essay “Hoodoo in America” linking
Hoodoo to African religious practices and the
vital role of Hoodoo in Black racial identity.
Indeed, she was later initiated into New Orleans
Voodoo at the hands of a priest who claimed to
have received hisconnaisance(knowledge) from
Marie Laveau.
The movement of African Americans from the
rural South to the urban North during the great
migration introduced Hoodoo and its practices
to a larger audience. In theChicago Defender,
the then most popular African American news-
paper, only one page carried advertisements for
Hoodoo goods and services on March 1, 1919. By
July 7, 1928, however, there were 12 pages of such
advertisements.
Other than these advertisements, the primary
vehicle that communicated the Hoodoo spiritual
folk practice was the blues and the popular “race
records” of the early 20th century. Countless blues
songs from the early 20th century integrated
Hoodoo motifs in their lyrics. These songs spoke
of Hoodoo, conjure, mojo, charms, dust, tricks,
magical roots, and gopher dust. Among these were
Bessie Brown’s “Hoodoo Blues,” Ma Rainey’s
“Louisiana Hoodoo Blues,” Arthur Crudup’s
“Hoodoo Lady Blues,” and Junior Wells’
“Hoodoo Man Blues.” More popularly, The Bo
Diddley song, “Who Do You Love,” contains a
series of extensive puns about a man hoodooing
his lover. Other blues artists who referred to
Hoodoo and conjure were Cripple Clarence
Lofton, Lofton Champion, Jack Dupree, Blind
Lemon Jefferson, and W. C. Handy. These blues
artists and their songs captured the Black experi-
ence in song and served as a prime conduit for
African-derived African American spiritual beliefs.Garvey F. LundySeealsoConjurers; Laveau, MarieFurther ReadingsAnderson, J. A. (2005).Conjure in African American
Society. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University
Press.
Chireau, Y. P. (2003).Black Magic:Religion and the
African American Conjuring Tradition. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
Hyatt, H. M. (1970–1978).Hoodoo–Conjuration–
Witchcraft–Rootwork. Memoirs of the Alma Egan
Hyatt Foundation. 5 vols. Hannibal, MO, &
Cambridge, MD: Western Publishing.
Roboteau, A. J. (1978).Slave Religion:The“Invisible
Institution”in the Antebellum South. New York:
Oxford University Press.
Smith, T. H. (1994).Conjure Culture:Biblical
Formations of Black America. New York: Oxford
University Press.Hoodoo 317