Haitian Vodou

An Afro-Haitian faith where spirits descend to dance and speak among the living.

c. 1700 CE → · Haiti · African & Diaspora

Forged by enslaved West Africans in Haiti, Vodou weaves Yoruba, Fon, and Kongo traditions with Catholic imagery into a faith served by priests (houngan) and priestesses (mambo). A distant creator, Bondye, is approached through the lwa — spirits who "mount" devotees in ritual possession amid drumming and dance. Long maligned by outsiders, it is a coherent, community-sustaining religion of reciprocity with spirits and ancestors.

Key figures

• Bondye (the distant creator)
• The lwa (spirits)
• The houngan/mambo (priesthood)

Texts

• Oral liturgy and song

Beliefs

• One remote creator and many serving lwa
• Spirits mount and speak through devotees
• Kinship with ancestors and the dead

Rituals

• Drumming, dance, and possession
• Vèvè ground-drawings
• Offerings to the lwa

Grew from

• Yoruba Religion (Ifá)
• Roman Catholicism

Connections in the atlas

• Zombi
• LaLaurie Mansion
• Ouidah, Temple of Pythons and Sacred Forest
• The word zombie
• Marie Laveau
• Trident
• The Ifá corpus (Odù)
• Ecstatic trance and spirit possession (ritual)
• The Middle Passage
• The Yoruba and the Atlantic diaspora
• Baron Samedi and the Gede
• St. Louis Cemetery No. 1