White Vodou (I’m going to step on some toes with this)

rose-neurosis:

As a black vodouisant, it’s a bit frustrating that the face of our religion online is a bunch of white folk.

Lemme explain.

If you look up videos, images, literature, etc about vodou nowadays, especially on tumblr, a lot of times you’ll find it’s a white person who became a mambo or houngan preaching about vodou.

The reason it frustrates me is, it seems as black people, we can’t have nothing sacred. It’s always colonized. 

Becoming a houngan or mambo can cost a LOT of money. Many vodouisants, even those in Haiti are not mambos or houngans, let alone initiates because it can be very expensive. So who better to become a high priest than some American who is privileged enough to pay all this cash to fly out to Haiti and pay the dues needed to become an initiate and a priest. You know, rather than someone who has grown up being a vodouisant, who has been saving all their life for this.

When I see this being done, I almost feel like it’s all for bragging rights. You get to tell all your friends that you went to Haiti and became a vodou priest/priestess. You get to say you’re not Catholic, you’re not Wiccan, you’re a vodouisant. You’re different from everyone else, and you hold a high rank to show for it. 

You’re so eclectic.

As vodouisants, we serve our ancestors who are from Africa. When a white person is serving their ancestors, they’re more than likely serving spirits from Europe. You know, the place that enslaved many of our ancestors. It almost feels counterproductive, in terms of vodou.

Practice neo-paganism if you want to be spiritual (or “unique”). Leave vodou, hoodoo and African rootwork to us, please.