Voudou (an older spelling of voodoo)-a pantheistic belief system
developed in West Africa and transported to the Americas during the
diaspora of the slave trade-is the generic term for a number of
similar African religions which mutated in the Americas, including
santeria, candomble, macumbe, obeah, Shango Baptist, etc. Since its
violent introduction in the Caribbean islands, it has been the
least understood and most feared religion of the New
World-suppressed, outlawed or ridiculed from Haiti to Hattiesburg.
Yet with the exception of Zora Neale Hurston's accounts more than a
half-century ago and a smattering of lurid, often racist
paperbacks, studies of this potent West African theology have
focused almost exclusively on Haiti, Cuba and the Caribbean basin.
American Voudou turns our gaze back to American shores, principally
towards the South, the most important and enduring stronghold of
the voudou faith in America and site of its historic yet rarely
recounted war with Christianity. This chronicle of Davis'
determined search for the true legacy of voudou in America reveals
a spirit-world from New Orleans to Miami which will shatter
long-held stereotypes about the religion and its role in our
culture. The real-life dramas of the practitioners, true believers
and skeptics of the voudou world also offer a radically different
entree into a half-hidden, half-mythical South, and by extension
into an alternate soul of America. Readers interested in the
dynamic relationships between religion and society, and in the
choices made by people caught in the flux of conflict, will be
heartened by this unique story of survival and even renaissance of
what may have been the most persecuted religion in American
history. Traveling on a criss-cross route from New Orleans across
the slave-belt states of Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, dipping
down to Miami where the voudou of Cuba and the Caribbean is
endemic, and up to New York where priests and practitioners
increase each year, Rod Davis determined to find out what happened
to voudou in the United States. A fascinating and insightful
account of a little known and often misunderstood aspect of
African-American culture, American Voudou details the author's own
personal experiences within this system of belief and ritual, along
with descriptions and experiences of other people, ranging from
those who reject it entirely to ardent practitioners and leaders.
Davis also places voudou in a broad context of American cultural
history, from slavery to the Civil Rights Movement, and from Elvis
to New Age. Current interest in voudou is related, in part, to the
arrival of large numbers of people into the United States from the
Caribbean, especially Cuba. Blacks in that country were able to
maintain the African religion in a syncretic form, known as
santeria. The tensions that have arisen between Cubans and African
Americans over both the leadership and the belief system of the
religion is discussed. Davis raises questions and offers insight
into the nature of religion, American culture, and race relations.
The book contains an extensive bibliography for further reading and
a glossary of voudou terms for readers unfamiliar with the subject.
ROD DAVIS is an award-winning journalist and magazine editor who
has taught writing at the University of Texas at Austin and
Southern Methodist University in Dallas. A fifth-generation Texan,
he has lived most of his life in Texas and the South.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
