There are many misconceptions I’ve came across about what hoodoo is and what it isn’t. Through this article, I’m going to debunk some of the prevalent myths in order to clear up confusions about the African American folklore magic system.
The main misconceptions about the formation or origins of hoodoo and what the practice consist of are:
- It’s the work of the devil/witchcraft
- Hoodoo and voodoo are the same.
- Hoodoo is a practice opened to everyone.
1. It’s the work of the devil/witchcraft
No. This notion was derived from white Protestant Christians who thought hoodoo was the equivalent to damnation like witchcraft. Eventually, this belief became heavily internalized once African Americans began to move into the church at the turn of the century. But hoodoo is a belief and practice that understands life and death, contiguous by spirit, and pulls from nature and it’s energies to shape and counter physical conditions. Since human life is apart of this adjoining web of the universe and since everything is stood relationally it is possible to direct and redirect life events.
The conjurer is the mediator between these interconnected dimensions and knows how to influence each of them. Herbal knowledge and use of plants is also a component of conjuring but the Root-worker or herbalist is the individual who uses natural herbs and/or “roots” to cure physical ailments. Think of a conjurer as using their power, the ancestors, incantations, the help of objects (such as mojo bags), and other material forces to counter or produce negative life events, and the rootworker as someone who uses their knowledge of natural forces to cure physical ailments. Of course the role of these practitioners and the concoctions used to cure ailments commonly cross paths.
On the plantation, The Root or Conjure doctor did both of these things and more, therefore played a prestigious role amongst the slave community. Since Black people received inadequate health care from white owners who lacked medical knowledge, they had to take their medical care into their own hands. Many also preferred to their own healers and conjurers over white physicians who used them as degrading experimental projects that usually ended with death. An increase of healers, midwives, and conjurers continued post Antebellum, since segregation gave Black people the worst received treatments.
Conjuration in the slave community was also used frequently to resist against white colonists/slavery and to solve internal conflicts.
2. Hoodoo and voodoo are the same.
Nope. Voodoo as in Vodu is an African Traditional Religion that requires initiation while Hoodoo is a practice with origins in the southern Black belt. It emerged from enslaved Africans retaining and compounding their African traditional religions from the brutal institutions of American slavery that threatened their culture.
Of course, there were some cultural exchanges of Europeans (Protestantism) and also indigenous folkways, through enslavement, that became significant to developing hoodoo… but what is often left out of most discourses, is that the major components of Hoodoo is credited to the composition of spiritual and cultural, beliefs, and practices of African ethnic groups that stretches from areas what is now Senegal, the coast of west Africa, down to the Democratic Republic of Congo (Hoodoo is mostly Kongo) brought over by enslaved Africans through the middle passage.
At the end of the Civil War, only 15% of African Americans were in fact christian. Majority practicied hoodoo and even after it took white and Black christians to move Black people in the church, most modified it for their needs to keep the African traditions alive. For example, psalms is actually famously used as a book of incantations to shape preserved conditions. You can also look into the sacred dance that is Ring Shout, likely derived from the diagram of the kongo cosmogram, which is still practiced in its modern form today in Black churches.
There became aspects of Protestant Christianity that are seemingly familiar with the African cultural traditions, such as the cross vibrating with the Kongo “Yowa” cosmogram, and visible themes in the old and New Testament resonating with themes of African practices such as animal sacrifices and ritual water immersions etc. that went well with the process of hoodoo.
Overall, parts of Christianity became indispensably modified but since Hoodoo adapts depending on our conditions, we are free to replace parts of Christianity to practice Hoodoo. Hoodoo, in fact, is it’s own non-western spiritual and cultural practice and needs to be seen as such.
4. Hoodoo is a practice opened to everyone.
Incorrect. Hoodoo is a closed practice that does not require initiation. I also noticed that people think the Orishas are part of hoodoo which is false. If you’re not initiated into Ifa or Santeria/Lucumí please refrain from saying you are the daughter/son/child of an Orisha. These are not pagan gods used whichever way you will. You have to be called and initiated into the practice.
Like with other closed but non-initiative ATRs, Hoodoo can be practiced by any Black person across the diaspora but mainly African Americans because of generational connection. If you’re not AfAm I encourage you to look into your own ATRs from that territory, for you’ll have more connections to it.
Sidenote
Due to the common appropriation and commercialization of hoodoo, mainly done by white people, there is only a few ways to learn about its traditions. One is by receiving informal training and information from ancestors, family members, or community. Many of our knowledge is handed down orally through generation to generation, not written down. This is mainly one of the reasons why nonblacks cannot practice hoodoo because of no ancestry and the lack of connection to the cultural complex.
The other way is to commit yourself to immense studying and research. Please do not read books from white appropriators or their enablers.
A conjurer is traditionally self taught, or cooperates with the spirit/ancestors for divine knowledge and wisdom that connects them to human life, nature, and community.
Hoodoo book recommendations (sources I’ve gained knowledge from, which are not cited, but should be read)..
Mojo Workin’: The Old African American Hoodoo System by Katrina Hazzard- Donald
Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston
Hoodoo Medicine: Gullah Herbal Remedies by Faith Mitchell
A Secret History of Memphis Hoodoo: Rootworkers, Conjurers & Spirituals by Tony Kail
Working the Roots: Over 400 Years of Traditional African American Healing by Michele Lee
African American Folklore Healing by Stephanie Y. Mitchem
Conjuring Moments in African American Literature: Women, Spirit work & other such Hoodoo by Kameelah L. Martin
(list will be edited and updated)
