Voodoo: From Africa to New Orleans

When many people hear the word Voodoo, they think of an old Creole woman sitting in her home with pins and a doll constructed of her victim’s hair and other personal articles, Voodoo classifies as more than just dolls, pins, and candles; it represents a way of life for many practitioners and serves as a religion spanning numerous cultures.
African religions had many deities that varied from one tribal culture to another. Although called by different names, all deities preformed basically the same tasks. Each tribe had its own set of rules centered around the deities’ likes and dislikes so that the tribe would not bring about the deities’ animosity and wrath. If a tribe did not have a good crop that year, or the tribe lost unmercifully in war with another tribe, the tribe would blame the failure on angered deities. The people would perform rituals, sacrifices of humans or animals, fasting, and songs that sang the praises of the gods in hopes that the tribe would regain t...