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African American Voodoo Essay

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Voodoo has no one founder, it is a blend of African animism, shamanism, and contains parts of black magic, and witchcraft. Voodoo is also known by other names, a few are; vodou, vudun, vodoun, vodun. It is mainly practiced in West Africa, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Louisiana. Voodoo comes from the Caribbean islands and Africa. Voodoo grew with the importation of slaves to the Caribbean islands and became the overall result of all of the beliefs combined. Voodoo originated from slaves whose combined basics of their African traditions and beliefs with the Roman Catholicism which was forced upon them. A law created in 1685 outlawed the practice of African religions and mandated that all slaves must be Christianized within eight days of arrival to the new land. Slavery was used by the Catholic Church as a tool for converting slaves into Christians. Slaves were forced to take up Catholic rituals in the process of this many …show more content…

Originally, Haitian zombies were not villains but victims, they were said to be people brought from the dead through magical means by priests. Sometimes, this was done to be punishment, but often the so called zombies were slaves used on plantations. Voodoo dolls are related with a form of African folk magic called “Hoodoo,” which is a mixture of animism and a combination of other religious beliefs in Africa. In Hoodoo dolls have customarily been made to symbolize an human being who the practitioner is making an attempt to put a hex or curse upon in the duration of a religious ceremony. Voodoo dolls are made from corn shafts, potatoes, clay, branches and roots or clothes stuffed with plant life. Even though the dolls are called "voodoo" dolls, not all practitioners of the key schools of voodoo use them. Fictional movies and books often mischaracterize their use. But these dolls and zombies have very little to none to do with the

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