|
|
Hoodoo folk-magic religion of the African-Americans
The Spiritual Bookstore Online World Religion Library
Hoodoo is an American term, originating in the 19th century or earlier, for African-American folk magic. Here is how i define the word "hoodoo":
Hoodoo consists of a large body of African folkloric practices and beliefs with a considerable admixture of American Indian botanical knowledge and European folklore. Although most of its adherents are black, contrary to popular opinion, it has always been practiced by both whites and blacks in America. Other regionally popular names for hoodoo in the black community include "conjuration," "conjure," "witchcraft," "rootwork," and "tricking." The first three are simply English words; the fourth is a recognition of the pre-eminence that dried roots play in the making of charms and the casting of spells, and the fifth is a special meaning for a common English word.
Hoodoo is used as a noun to name both the system of magic ("He used hoodoo on her") and its practitioners ("Doctor Buzzard was a great hoodoo in his day"). In the 1930s, some practitioners used the noun "hoodooism" (analogous with "occultism") to describe their work, but that term has dropped out of common parlance. Hoodoo is also an adjective ("he layed a hoodoo trick for her") and a verb ("she hoodooed that man until he couldn't love no one but her"). The verb "to hoodoo" appears in collections of early pre-blues folk-songs. For instance, in Dorothy Scarborough's book "On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs," (Harvard University Press, 1925), a field-collected version of the old dance-song "Cotton-Eyed Joe" tells of a man who "hoodooed" a woman.
A professional consultant who practices hoodoo on behalf of clients may be referred to as a "hoodoo doctor" or "hoodoo man" if male and a "hoodoo woman" if female. A typical early reference occurs in Samuel C. Taylor's diary for 1891, in which he describes and illustrates meeting with a "Hoodoo Doctor" while on a train. Taylor, a white man, recounts that the word "hoodoo" was taught to him by the black Pullman porter on the train. The "doctor" he describes was both an herbalist and folk-magician.
WHAT HOODOO IS: An African-American Folk-Magic Tradition
Folk magic is a world-wide phenomenon. The beliefs and customs brought to America by African slaves mingled here with the beliefs, customs, and botanical knowledge of Native Americans and with the Christian, Jewish, and pagan folklore of European immigrants. The result was hoodoo.
The hoodoo tradition places emphasis on personal magical power and thus it lacks strong links to any specific form of theology and can be adapted to any one of several forms of outward religious worship. Although an individual practitioner may take on students, hoodoo is not an obviously hierarchical system. Teachings and rituals are handed down from a one practitioner to another, but there are no priests or priestesses and no division between initiates and laity.
Of all the pantheon of African deities, one, variously known as Ellegua, Legba, Nbumba Nzila, or Eshu in Africa, is clearly recognizable in hoodoo: he is the "dark man" or "black man" or "devil" one can meet at the crossroads -- a direct iteration of his role in African theology. As a trickster and opener of the way, Eshu is vaguely similar to the Teutonic pagan devil, and like that deity, he is often confused by Christians and Jews with the Biblical Satan, but he is not that entity, and many wise hoodooists know well that he is not.
Root doctors and gifted readers are widely sought after by clients. Whereas in the typical Protestant Christian social model magic-workers are shunned or relegated to the outskirts of the community, African-American conjures may be pillars of their community and well-respected members of their churches and fraternal orders. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many of the best workers became nationally known and people travelled hundreds of miles to consult with them. Among such well known root workers were Doctor Buzzard of Beaufort, South Carolina; Doctor Jim Jordan of Murfreesboro, North Carolina;, Aunt Caroline Dye of Newport, Arkansas;, and the Seven Sisters of New Orleans, the latter two both celebrated in rural blues songs.
Like the folk magic of many other cultures, hoodoo attributes magical properties to herbs, roots, minerals (especially the lodestone), animal parts, and the personal possessions and bodily effluvia of people. The African origins of hoodoo can clearly be seen in such non-European magical customs as jinxing, hot footing , foot track magic , crossing, and crossroads magic, in which are embedded remnants of the folkloric beliefs of the Yoruba, Fon, Ewe, and Congo people, whose religions in African and the diaspora are variously known as Santeria, Lucumi, Ocha, Palo Mayombe, Umbanda, Kimina, Condomble, Orisha-worship, Loa-worship, Nkisi-worship, etc. A generic term for this class of folk-magical operation is tricking or laying down tricks.
read more: http://www.luckymojo.com/hoodoohistory.html
**
**
The Spiritual Bookstore Online World Religion Library
*
*