The African-based religion of Haitian voodoo can be traced to the first Africans brought to Haiti in the sixteenth century. However, it was during the years of French acquisition of land in Haiti that the bulk of African people were brought to the island. Between 1664 and 1830, some 1,650,000 Africans arrived in Haiti. The dominant group came from Dahomey, the Dahomean religion became the most important element in the emergence of Voodoo.

The Africans brought with them reliefs found throughout West Africa, including a belief in a supreme deityor divine power. In Haiti, that deity came to be known as “le bon die” (The Good God). This deity had largely withdrawn from human affairs, but under him were a number of greater and lesser deities. Among the major deities were Legba, Erzulie and Damballah. The lesser deities (loas) are numerous and are of two varieties, those of African origin (The Rada) and those of Haitian origin (Petro). Many of the African deities, especially those that were tied to local sites, did not survive the Atlantic crossing, and they were replaced with new local deities. The name Petro derived, according to oral tradition, from a man named Don Pedro, who introduced a distinctive dance into Haitian religion.

The plantation owners attempted to impose Catholicism on the slave population. One of the means by which Voodoo survived was in the identification of the loas with various Catholic Saints. Legba was identified with Saint Anthony, Erzulie with the Virgin Mary, and Damballah with Saint-Patrick. Damballah is pictured as a snake with Saint-Patrick.

Voodoo worship and practice is conducted by male (oungan) and female (manbo) priests. They operate out of a worship center called ounfò. In the center of the ounfò is a peristyle, a pole that usually has a representation of Damballah coiled around it. Worship includes honoring the deities (which may involve the sacrifice of various animals), lively dancing with drum accompaniment, and the possession of priests or others in attendance by loas.

Like all West African religion, Voodoo includes the practice of magic. Voodoo has a particularly bad image, among other African-based religions as the home to much sorcery (malevolent magic), even to the extent of the calling forth of zombies, dead people brought back to life to handle menial labor in the fields.

During the eighteenth century, the ruling class did not take particular notice of Voodoo. They tended to identify it with the nocturnal gatherings most notable for dancing. The dancing drums, however, served as a communication system across Haiti, and in 1804 they became the means of organizing a massive and successful revolt. Haitians were able to pull off the revolution without beliefs. The loas allowed them to rise against the slavery.

Voodoo is a powerful mystical practice that can bring spectacular gifts and rewards to anyone who believes, who is willing to place his destiny in the hands of loving spirits, who await the call of service.

Voodoo means “Spirit of God.” It is a system of beliefs originating in Africa. It is estimated that Voodoo has over fifty million followers worldwide. Voodoo flourishes in Brazil, Trinidad, Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, New Orleans and elsewhere in the world.

Voodoo believers accept the existence of one god. Below this almighty god, spirits (Loa) rule over the world’s affairs in matters of family love, happiness, justice, wealth, revenge.

Voodoo ceremonies have always been accompanied by music, song and dance. During the ceremony, the houngan (priest) salutes and greets the loa from the pantheon. Each loa is announced by its own particular ritual drum beats and songs brought over by the slaves from 16th century West Africa and are an important part of Haiti’s rich cultural heritage.

Each spiritual group has a different musical ensemble to play its rhythms; the most popular uses three drums. The man man, the segon and the boula; the man man is the largest; the leading drummer beats it fiercely with a single thick and one hand. The segon provides hypnotic counter rhythms while the boula creates an even rhythm while the boula creates an even rhythm holding all the others together. The hounsis (female initiates) dance and sing the ritual songs, which are usually in a combination of Creole and langaj (a ceremonial language from West Africa).

Music and dance are key elements to Voodoo ceremonies. Ceremonies were often termed by whites “Night Dancing” or “Voodoo dancing.” This dancing is not simply a prelude to sexual frenzy as it has often been portrayed. The dance is an expression of spirituality, a connection with divinity and the spirit world.

There are hundreds of spirits called loa who control nature, health, wealth and happiness of mortals. The Loa forms pantheon of deities that include Damballah, Ezili, Ogu, Agwe, Legba and others. During voodoo ceremonies, these Loa can possess the bodies of the ceremony participants. Loa appear by “possessing” the faithful, who in significance, to possess a soul. Thus the Loa Agwe is the divine presence behind the hurricane.

Voodoo is an inseparable part of Haitian art, literature, music and film. For centuries Voodoo has been looked down upon as little more than superstition, and at times has been the victim of ferocious persecution. A campaign led by the Catholic Church in the 1940s led to the destruction of temples and sacred objects.

In 1986, following the fall of Jean-Claude Duvalier’s dictatorship, hundreds of Voodoo practitioners were killed on the pretext that they had been accomplices to Duvalier’s abuses. Today Haiti’s government has officially sanctioned Voodoo as a religion, allowing practitioners to begin performing ceremonies from baptism to marriages with legal authority.