Vodou is deeply ingrained in the history of Haiti. French slaves brought to the island from West Africa brought the practice of Vodou with them. For these slaves, Vodou was an “emancipatory faith” and was regarded as a threat by the white colonists, CNN reports. A Vodou ceremony is even said to have been the starting point for the Haitian Revolution, as practitioners asked the ancestral spirits for protection during the upcoming battle at a ceremony late at night in 1791, according to the CNN article.
Vodou is an integral part of Haitian culture; Dieu-Nalio Chery describes it as being “at the core of Haitian identity.” This key part of Haitian culture is almost always misrepresented in the media, particularly American media, and thus is surrounded by negative stereotypes and misconceptions. These misconceptions often negatively affect Americans’ perceptions of Haitian people.
What is Vodou?
Vodou is a tradition of honoring nature and the ancestral spirits. According to the Encyclopedia of Anthropology, Practitioners believe there is one central deity who is too distant to connect with directly, and several secondary divinities, spirits known as the lwa, who each have their own purpose. For example, there is Legba who opens the gates between the human and spirit world, Ogou the warrior spirit, and Zaka who looks after agriculture.
To honor these spirits, elaborate ceremonies are held. According to Haitian visitor guide VisitHaiti.com, the ceremonies, which are often held at night and can last for hours, begin with a prayer, often a Roman Catholic prayer. Then the drumming and dancing, led by the priest
(ougan) or priestess (mambo), begins, inviting the spirits to possess someone in the room. This person is called the chwal. Cosmograms known as vèvè are drawn on the ground using cornmeal or flour to further invite the spirits into the human world. Each lwa has its own unique vèvè. Some of the most prominent vèvè can be seen here. Ceremonies also involve giving some sort of offering to the spirits, usually in the form of an animal sacrifice.
In colonial times, people weren’t allowed to openly practice Vodou and thus integrated aspects of Christianity to disguise Vodou traditions, a National Geographic article reports. This is why many of the Vodou lwa resemble Christian saints. For example, Legba often resembles Saint Peter and Erzulie Dantò often resembles the Virgin Mary.
Vodou was formally recognized as an official religion in 2003, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
Media portrayals of Vodou
Vodou has long been misrepresented in media, particularly American media, and is used as a common trope in the horror genre. The media has turned Vodou into voodoo, an imagined religion that is demonic and hypersexualized, according to researcher Adam McGee. Voodoo, the “imagined religion” created by the media’s portrayals, is characterized by black magic, evil spirits, and a connection to blood, violence and death. This incorrect depiction of Vodou can be found in nearly every form of media from film and television, to literature, to newspapers and magazines.
The characterization of Vodou as this evil practice has created one of the biggest elements of the horror genre: zombies. While most modern zombies are the product of some disease or evil science experiment, the earliest zombies were created with voodoo, McGee says. The earliest example of this is the 1932 film “White Zombie,” which was the first film to feature voodoo. Other examples include “I Walked With A Zombie” (1943), “La Rebelión de las Meurtas” (1973), and “The Serpent and the Rainbow” (1988). In all of these examples, McGee points out, women are hypersexualized, and the movies succeed in transforming “the patently unsexy idea of a half-dead workhorse into a potent male sexual fantasy.”
Beyond zombies and death, voodoo is equated to a dark and powerful magic. Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog” (2009) is a good example of this. The movie’s main villain, Dr. Facilier, uses dark voodoo magic to curse Prince Naveen and Tiana, turning them into frogs, as seen in the clip below.
“The Princess and the Frog” also has a more positive depiction of voodoo, showing that its magic can be used for good as well. Tiana and Prince Naveen seek out the help of a powerful voodoo priestess named Mama Odie to help them break the curse. This positive depiction of voodoo magic can be seen below.
Even in nonfiction media such as newspapers and magazines, Vodou is misrepresented as Satanic. One New York Times article, Vodou is described as a “progress-resistant cultural influence” and as the underlying cause behind all of Haiti’s problems. Furthermore, a CNN article reports that many evangelicals believe the practitioners at the Vodou ceremony in 1791 made a deal with the devil and that is what caused the 2010 earthquake.
These misrepresentations of Vodou often stem from deeply rooted racism, McGee says. As mentioned earlier, Vodou was something slaves turned to for a sense of community and feeling of emancipation and thus was seen as a threat by white colonists. The idea that Vodou is an evil, violent religion mirrors sentiments that black people are dangerous. In today’s society, continuing to portray Vodou, which is understood to be inherently black, as full of dark magic, evil spirits, and death, we are continuing to convey these racist sentiments.
Effects on the Haitian community
These misrepresentations of Vodou result in a misunderstanding of the religion by non-practitioners in and outside of Haiti. As such a big part of Haitian culture, misrepresenting Vodou means misrepresenting the people of Haiti. According to researcher Katie Hooker, American media tends to portray Haiti as isolated from the rest of the world and portrays Haitians as inferior to everyone else. This misrepresentation of Haiti and Haitian culture weakens the relationship between Haiti and the US. This then affects the potential for democratic relations, trade, and foreign aid between the two countries.
In the case of the New York Times article describing Vodou as a “progress-resistant cultural influence,” the blame is put on the Haitian people and their culture rather than the systematic issues that have plagued Haiti for decades. This reduces the international community’s willingness to give aid to Haiti in times of crisis, because the media portrays it as Haiti’s fault and suggests that only Haiti has the power to fix their problems by changing their culture. Haiti is portrayed as inferior, like Hooker said, and thus unworthy of aid.
While the media’s portrayals of Vodou and Haitian culture overall have led to stereotypes and misunderstandings, practitioners of Vodou remain strong in their faith, continuing to practice their religion however they can, like the Haitian immigrants in New York holding ceremonies in basements.
World of Journalism 
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