“Vodú” weaves a captivating tale of resilience, heritage, spirituality, and the power of ancestral wisdom in 1800 New Orleans. The territory had just been sold by Spain to France to avoid falling into British hands and was sold by Napoleon Bonaparte in the Louisiana Purchase signed in 1803.

This purchase effectively doubled the size of the original 13 colonies which gained independence from England in 1781 and included all territory west of the Mississippi River. New Orleans was a thriving port city in 1800. The slave trade continued to be quite active in the Southern states, wealthy aristocrats were pampered and free people of color began to enter society in a very intricate caste system. The Catholic Church in this Spanish/French territory kept tight control over its citizens. It is in this environment that the musical “VODU” takes place.

 

WHAT IS “Vodú”?

A thousand years before Christianity there was a complex religion dedicated to ancestor worship among three principal tribes in West Africa. These were the Fon, Yoruba, and Ewe tribes in modern Ghana, Togo, and Nigeria. These highly skilled healers, teachers, artists, musicians, scientists, and spiritual leaders practiced a tradition dedicated to spirits that ruled shared realms of nature and human activities organized around the family, the village, and kinship.  

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The spirits each had a specific personality that mirrored the range of human emotions that all of us experience. While these were all considered deities they were intermediaries to one great feminine goddess. Similar beliefs are expressed in the great religions of the world and many believers in VODU are also devout followers of these faiths; they believe that their spiritual devotion to VODU does not contradict the tenets of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism.

The African Diaspora resulting from the 18th Century Slave trade resulted in the dispersal of VODU in the American South,  Cuba, South America, and Central America. Multiple spellings of “Vodun” (spirit) include vaudon, vodu, voudou, and voodoo (New Orleans). Though “voodoo” today is often perceived as devil worship, evil magic and anti-Christian sentiment, such interpretations have reflected the perpetuation of racist and white supremacist attitudes.  

 

When forced into Baptism, many of these enslaved African people found a connection between the Catholic saints and their gods and traditions and were able to sustain themselves both spiritually and emotionally, guided by their faith and the wisdom of their ancestors. In pain they found relief, in fear they found courage, and in darkness they found light.

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One can only imagine what happened to the Vodun through the centuries of the slave trade (c. 1530-1867). It is estimated that 12.5 million men, women, and children were forcibly dispersed from West Africa to the New World. The subsequent diaspora resulted in a rebirth of traditions in new forms: Santeria (Cuba), Candoble (Brazil), Shango (Trinidad), Obeayisne (Jamaica), Vodoun (Haiti), and Voodoo (New Orleans).

We hope you will enter the spirit of  “Vodu.”  And we hope that when you next celebrate the memory of a cherished person, you will be sharing a lovely ritual of those ancestors who transcend the boundaries of race, time and space.