tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/voodoo-39713/articlesvoodoo – The Conversation2024-01-23T13:25:57Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2202052024-01-23T13:25:57Z2024-01-23T13:25:57ZHow the word ‘voodoo’ became a racial slur<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570735/original/file-20240122-20-mdblis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C10%2C3607%2C2392&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An engraving from 1992 representing a voodoo rite in Haiti.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-voodoo-in-haiti-in-1992-engraving-representing-a-voodoo-news-photo/113929671?adppopup=true"> Nicolas Jallot/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For decades, it has been common for people to throw around terms like “voodoo politics,” “<a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/v/voodooeconomics.asp">voodoo economics</a>,” “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/rejecting-voodoo-science-in-the-courtroom-1474328199">voodoo science</a>” and “<a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/voodoo-medicine-time-to-s_b_11474550?ec_carp=6516617630977493781">voodoo medicine</a>” to reference something that they think is ridiculous, idiotic or fraudulent.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096071/">Horror movies</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0793707/">crime shows</a> often tell stories about evil “voodoo doctors” who terrorize their victims with black magic. Even Disney’s first movie with a Black princess, released in 2009, had a “voodoo doctor” as the villain. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, these shows and movies promote myths about voodoo that reinforce more than a century of stereotypes and discrimination. In my 2023 book, “<a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/46772">Voodoo: The History of a Racial Slur</a>,” I argue that voodoo is an extremely problematic term with a deeply racist history. </p>
<p>Most African diaspora religions, which are religions that have roots in Africa, have been mislabeled as voodoo at some point in time. This is especially true of Haitian Vodou – the religion that is most frequently stereotyped by outsiders as “voodoo” in the 21st century.</p>
<h2>Early uses of the term</h2>
<p>The term voodoo traces its roots back to a word in the Fon language in West Africa that means “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Vodou">spirit” or “deity</a>.” The French adopted a version of this term, “vaudou” or “vaudoux,” to refer to African spiritual practices in their colonies in Louisiana and Saint-Domingue – modern-day Haiti. </p>
<p>Later, “vaudou” evolved into “voodoo” in the English-speaking world. It first became a household term in the U.S. in the 1860s and 1870s. When the U.S. public was <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/46772">first introduced</a> to voodoo, it was typically in newspaper articles and other publications that described African American spiritual practices in an exaggerated way, often retelling bizarre or even fabricated stories as if they were common practice. </p>
<p>Most of the time, the authors used these narratives about voodoo to argue that African Americans were unfit for citizenship, voting rights and holding public office because of their so-called superstitions. </p>
<p>In fact, the first time the term was widely used was after the Union forces seized New Orleans during the U.S. Civil War. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197689400.001.0001">Confederate supporters argued</a> that the popularity of voodoo in Union-controlled New Orleans showed the barbarity that Africans would return to if not under the control of white people. </p>
<p>Later, in the 20th century, claims about voodoo were used as one way to justify the U.S. colonization of Caribbean countries with large Black populations. In particular, fabricated <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/McClure_s_Magazine/RZZEAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=voodoo+cuba&pg=PA502&printsec=frontcover">claims that Black Cubans were</a> practicing the ritual murder of children as part of their voodoo practices circulated in the media to support sending forces to the island in the 1900s and 1910s.</p>
<p>Similarly, in the early 20th century, <a href="https://archive.org/details/whereblackrulesw00pric">journalists, travelers and others falsely claimed</a> that U.S. intervention was necessary because Haitians were engaging in cannibalism, human sacrifice and snake worship as part of their voodoo rituals. Historian <a href="https://people.miami.edu/profile/2d45ee761ea7c9776e6f13729f2ebea3">Kate Ramsey</a> writes in her 2011 book, “<a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo10454972.html">The Spirits and the Law: Vodou and Power in Haiti</a>,” that while U.S. Marines were occupying Haiti from 1915 to 1934, they persecuted and prosecuted devotees – arresting the people they found participating in ceremonies and burning their sacred objects. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, in the first half of the 20th century, references to voodoo continued to be a way to speak disparagingly about Black populations in the U.S. Even the founders of the <a href="https://ia904601.us.archive.org/19/items/the-voodoo-cult-of-detroit/The%20Voodoo%20Cult%20of%20Detroit.pdf">Nation of Islam</a> were stereotyped as a “voodoo cult” after an alleged member committed a highly publicized murder in 1932.</p>
<p>Allegations that Black Muslims practiced human sacrifice followed the group for decades, long after the person who committed the crime was determined to be legally insane and sent to an asylum. </p>
<h2>Prejudices linger</h2>
<p>This history has left a stain on public perceptions of voodoo that is difficult to wash away. The best example is the treatment of devotees of <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-haitian-voodoo-119621">Vodou, a religion in Haiti</a> that can trace many of its beliefs and practices back to West and Central Africa. Vodou centers on honoring the ancestors and venerating spirits known as the Lwa. </p>
<p>Vodou was frequently labeled as “voodoo” in Anglophone newspapers and other literature in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and devotees were falsely accused of committing atrocities like cannibalism and human sacrifice during their ceremonies. Although Vodou has no ultimate source of evil in its cosmology, it is <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-haitian-voodoo-119621">often denounced</a> as devil worship. These myths have led to discrimination and violence against devotees.</p>
<p>In 2010, some Haitians and some foreigners blamed Vodou, which they often misspelled as “voodoo,” for the tragic earthquake and subsequent cholera outbreak that devastated Haiti. The most famous remarks came from the late <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2010/01/pat_robertson_blames_haitian_d.html">Pat Robertson</a>, an Evangelical minister and political commentator, who claimed that the earthquake was God’s retribution against Haitians for holding a Vodou ceremony. He described the Vodou ceremony as a pact with the devil to assist in their revolution against the French. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570737/original/file-20240122-19-uv5o5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in a wide-brimmed hat holds her hands up as she prays, with some other people in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570737/original/file-20240122-19-uv5o5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570737/original/file-20240122-19-uv5o5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570737/original/file-20240122-19-uv5o5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570737/original/file-20240122-19-uv5o5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570737/original/file-20240122-19-uv5o5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570737/original/file-20240122-19-uv5o5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570737/original/file-20240122-19-uv5o5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An old woman prays in an earthquake-damaged church in the Ti Ayiti neighborhood Feb. 23, 2010, in Cité Soleil, Haiti, after a Christian mob attacked a Haitian Vodou ceremony for earthquake victims.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/just-paces-away-from-where-a-christian-mob-attacked-a-news-photo/96989923?adppopup=true%2A%2A%2A%2A">Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Within Haiti, some people <a href="https://haitiantimes.com/2020/01/12/vodou-was-once-blamed-for-the-haiti-earthquake-10-years-later-its-seeing-a-slow-revival/">committed acts of violence</a> against devotees and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934710394443">denied them the emergency aid</a> that was sent to quake victims. Later that year, violence escalated as some Haitians blamed Vodou for the cholera outbreak. In November and December of 2010, lynch mobs <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-12073029">violently killed</a> dozens of Haitian Vodou priests. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, discrimination and the violence perpetrated against Haitian Vodou and <a href="https://www.religiousracism.org/brazil">other African diaspora religious groups</a> often goes <a href="https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-1-64602-103-1.html">unpunished and unnoticed</a>. In fact, a recent survey suggests that a large portion of the U.S. public subscribes to the stereotypes about voodoo that led to these attacks.</p>
<p>With support from the Public Religion Research Institute, my fellow researchers and I <a href="https://www.prri.org/spotlight/discrimination-against-voodoo-and-santeria/">asked 1,000 adults</a> living in the U.S. whether they used the term “voodoo.” Two in 10 respondents, or about 20%, said they had used or heard others use the term at least once a month. The survey found fewer than 1 in 4 considered voodoo to be a religion. </p>
<p>Further, approximately 3 in 10 respondents believed that followers of voodoo were more likely to be involved in criminal activity than the average person, and an astonishing 64% said they believed that followers of voodoo were more likely to practice black magic or witchcraft than the average person. </p>
<p>This survey shows the pervasiveness of these biases that developed to support slavery and imperialism. Therefore, I argue that when someone makes a statement like, “That just sounds like some ‘voodoo’ to me!” they are co-signing the long racist history of the term and promoting the idea that religions from Africa are primitive, evil and barbaric.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220205/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr. Boaz is a public fellow with the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). In this capacity, Dr. Boaz and three other fellows received a microgrant from the PRRI to conduct the survey mentioned in this piece. </span></em></p>Shows, movies and day-to-day language promote myths about voodoo that reinforce more than a century of stereotypes and discrimination, writes a scholar of Africana studies.Danielle N. Boaz, Associate Professor of Africana Studies, University of North Carolina – CharlotteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1196212019-08-21T12:25:41Z2019-08-21T12:25:41ZWhat is Haitian Voodoo?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288006/original/file-20190814-136186-15k9t16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Voodoo believers walk during the annual Voodoo festival Fete Gede at Cite Soleil Cemetery in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-Haiti-Festival-of-the-Dead-Photo-Gallery/ebed675549344c61a67d280613fa4c91/4/0">AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For many in the West, Voodoo invokes images of animal sacrifices, magical dolls and chanted spells. </p>
<p>But Voodoo – as practiced in Haiti and by the black diaspora in the United States, South America and Africa – is a religion based on ancestral spirits and patron saints.</p>
<p>Known as “Vodou” in Haiti, the religion has also served as a form of resistance against the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1468-0033.2011.01741.x">French colonial empire.</a> </p>
<p>And unlike many mainstream representations around magic and rituals, scholars have shown how Voodoo <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22314676">serves as a form of health care system</a> by providing religious healing.</p>
<h2>A religion born out of struggle</h2>
<p>Haitian Vodou was born from the blending of <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9780807843932/the-faces-of-the-gods/">Catholicism, Western</a> and <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/jsa/2889">Central African</a> spirituality. </p>
<p>In addition, scholars assert that the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1468-0033.2011.01741.x">religion</a> was influenced by <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-19920-4_4">escaped slaves</a> who wanted to inspire rebellions under a common spiritual identity. </p>
<p>Historian <a href="https://www.bl.uk/people/c-l-r-james">C.L.R. James</a> described Voodoo as a <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/86417/the-black-jacobins-by-c-l-r-james/9780679724674/">“medium of the conspiracy,”</a> meaning Voodoo was at the center of inciting the 1791 revolution in Haiti against slavery and colonialism. </p>
<p>In later years – from 1835 to 1987 – the Haitian government <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo10454972.html">banned Voodoo under laws</a> that prohibited ritualistic practices. However, as historian <a href="https://people.miami.edu/profile/kramsey@miami.edu">Kate Ramsey</a> points out, the laws were almost impossible for the Haitian government to implement. As early as the 19th century, Voodoo had already become a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/43234856.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A41c67513dc3cef3414810147d82374b2">dominant belief system</a> even influencing elite culture – even if secretly.</p>
<p>Haitian elites could not openly support the religion. The Catholic Church based in Rome forced Haiti to adopt Roman Catholicism as its <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/43234856.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A41c67513dc3cef3414810147d82374b2">official religion</a>. </p>
<p>Over the years, several anti-Voodoo campaigns were launched by the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23050212?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">Catholic</a> and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/41151338.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A665a395ded41dc5abc6adf9c73210f3e">Protestant</a> churches. <a href="https://www.blackagendareport.com/content/hating-root-attacks-vodou-haiti">Systematic attacks</a> on <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1986/05/15/world/voodoo-under-attack-in-post-duvalier-haiti.html">Voodoo temples</a> and Voodoo objects over decades paved the way for this religion to become predominately associated with sorcery.</p>
<h2>The contemporary status of Voodoo</h2>
<p>In contemporary Haitian society, Voodoo serves in multiple ways. An important contribution is its role in healing. Anthropologist <a href="https://www.pulaval.com/auteurs/nicolas-vonarx">Nicholas Vonarx</a>, who has studied Voodoo’s role as a health care system, explains how religious spaces can become “therapeutic sites where the sick goes to seek help in managing illness and other misfortune.” </p>
<p><a href="http://centerforethnography.org/content/visualizing-haitis-health-regime-voodoo-toxic-subject">My research</a> looks at how Voodoo is blamed for health disparities in Haiti by the country’s elites and international aid groups who ignore its role in Haiti’s health landscape. </p>
<p>For many, Voodoo remains associated with sorcery and satanic worship.</p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119621/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Guilberly Louissaint does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Voodoo is often seen as a practice involving magic. In Haiti, Voodoo is a religion born out of the struggle of slaves. And today, it is used as a form of healing and protection.Guilberly Louissaint, Anthropology Ph.D. Student, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1184612019-06-10T13:59:16Z2019-06-10T13:59:16ZDr John: music’s boogie-woogie voodoo man who defied convention but defined New Orleans<p>Few artists straddled the contradictions of popular music like Dr John, who passed away on June 6 at the age of 77. The New Orleans-born musician, defies easy categorisation – his music ranging across blues, jazz, boogie-woogie and rock and roll. Over more than half a century he shared stages and studios with rock aristocracy, like The Rolling Stones and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCRrXZP8b0I">The Band</a>, as well as blues legends like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=capvbqNlLdw">B.B. King and Etta James</a> but didn’t fall easily into either camp.</p>
<p>With Dr John, even the bare facts of the matter were shrouded in ambiguity. His stage name, “Dr John the Night Tripper” was a persona, created by Mac – born Malcolm – Rebennack. Even his date of birth was difficult to pin down and was only established as being 1941 last year when New Orleans newspaper The Times-Picayune unearthed his real birthday in its records. He had lied about his age as a young prodigy, to circumvent age restrictions and get gigs in clubs. Rebennack’s subsequent career exemplified and distorted tropes of musical authenticity. Dr John was both a staged creation and yet a character that Rebennack wore seamlessly on and off stage. A New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/fashion/22with.html">profile noted</a> that talking with him was “an adventure” thanks to his penchant for made-up words in a trademark growl, and his evasiveness. </p>
<h2>The person in the persona</h2>
<p>Authenticity – a sense of the “real deal” – is a slippery concept in popular music. A sense of believability or (not necessarily the same thing) honesty is indispensable. On the other hand, “authenticity” is also the currency of the musical marketing system – it’s what gives their product such appeal to many people. Complicating matters further is that an aura of mystery can be, paradoxically, a marker of individuality and a sense of an artist being true to themselves.</p>
<p>For Dr John this was a combination of stagecraft, musicality and his own idiosyncrasies. It involved deep genre knowledge and simultaneously a “magpie” approach of drawing on a clearly delineated musical world while working across the realms of commercial music (a technique also adopted by the likes of Tom Waits, Prince and, arguably, Madonna). </p>
<p>The character, derived from his interest in voodoo, wasn’t even originally intended for Rebennack. It was based on a 19th-century voodoo practitioner Dr John Monatee, <a href="http://www.conjuredoctors.com/dr-john-montanee.html">who originated in Senegal</a>, and originally developed for Rebennack’s friend and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0057720/">fellow musician Ronnie Barron</a>, who dropped out of the band. Rebennack became the front man, inhabiting the persona that would define his public image.</p>
<p>That said, his own colourful history and musical history were themselves rich enough in incident. While he found fame as a pianist, his first instrument was guitar. After losing part of his left hand ring finger to a gunshot when he intervened in a brawl in Jacksonville Florida to help Barron, who was getting pistol whipped, he switched instruments – first to the bass, and then piano. </p>
<p>Despite emerging from a tradition of New Orleans players – Professor Longhair, Allen Toussaint, James Booker – Rebennack spent much of his career in exile from the city. Like his “Night Tripper” character he had a history of working in the shadows, and was involved in the drugs and prostitution that surrounded the club milieu of New Orleans in the 1950s and 60s. He fell into and out of heroin addiction before finally kicking the habit in 1989. Following an arrest on drugs charges and a spell in federal prison, he was advised to leave the city in the midst of a crackdown on the music scene by the then district attorney Jim Garrison (better remembered as a Kennedy assassination conspiracy theorist).</p>
<p>His career developed, instead, in Los Angeles, initially as part of the loose grouping of elite session musicians known as the “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-session-musicians-who-dominated-nineteen-sixties-pop">Wrecking Crew</a>”, including recordings for Sonny and Cher, Canned Heat and Frank Zappa. His first solo album, Gris Gris, was recorded in <a href="https://www.metrotimes.com/city-slang/archives/2015/02/25/dr-john-on-going-to-church-sonny-and-cher-louis-armstrong-cossimo-matassa-bobby-charles-the-stooges-and-much-more">studio time left unused in sessions for Sonny and Cher</a>. </p>
<p>Rebennack operated at the intersection of tradition and innovation. Gris Gris, named after a voodoo amulet, set the tone for a catalogue drawing on a melange of influences, infusing New Orleans blues and funk with elements of psychedelic rock. Having established this template, the theatrical, psychedelic-voodoo element of his show slowly made way for a more traditional approach, exemplified by “Dr John’s Gumbo” – a set of covers of New Orleans classics such as Iko Iko.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/S_UYPu5RFXI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Quintessentially New Orleans</h2>
<p>Ultimately, the key to Dr John’s musical identity is less a matter of genre, or of “character”, than a question of geography. His recording career was prolific – at over 40 albums – and acclaimed. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011 and was the recipient of six <a href="https://www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/dr-john">Grammy Awards</a>, across the categories of jazz, blues, rock and pop. </p>
<p>He managed to combine “authenticity” in terms of being true to a tradition and place while also – through expanding the scope of that tradition – a sense of a unique musical voice. Quintessentially “New Orleans”, he threaded a host of other American musical traditions through that sound, while taking the New Orleans rhythmic and melodic feel into the broader popular musical culture, peppering his output with his distinctive wordplay and patois. Indeed his own musical and personal cadences came to stand for New Orleans in the broader cultural shorthand.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SCRrXZP8b0I?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Dr John’s sound and image permeated popular culture. Dr Teeth, of the Muppet’s band was based on him and his best paydays came from advertising jingles – for Popeye’s Chicken, Oreos cookies and others. His voice also graced the theme tune <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdvHzoOnmDI">My Opiniation</a> to the otherwise unremarkable (but very popular) 1990s sitcom Blossom. When Disney needed to exemplify a New Orleans sound for The Princess and the Frog song Down in New Orleans, he was the obvious choice. As Randy Newman – the song’s composer and a contemporary of Rebbenack on the 1960s session scene – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/07/arts/music/07john.html">put it</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>They wanted his voice, which is not a bad idea if you’re going to do New Orleans. He’s the real thing in every kind of way.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The sound of the streets</h2>
<p>His emphasis on New Orleans became, perhaps, more explicit in later years. There’s something about adversity than can focus a sense of identity. The devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and, particularly, the feeling that the city’s residents had been abandoned by the authorities energised albums including 2005’s Seppiana Herricane and 2008’s City That Care Forgot. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QSzw7LDAjlU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>His concerns mirrored the relationship between New Orleans’ social fabric and its musical heritage. The city’s recovery from the hurricane, for instance, was marred by its effect on second lines – the drum-led parades that accompany funeral processions. Gentrification had brought noise complaints and, ten years after the hurricane, Dr John railed against local government officials trying to discourage musicians <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/dr-john-talks-new-orleans-music-10-years-after-katrina-37840/">from marching in second lines</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I mean, they are trying to get guys in the bands not to march in the second lines. That’s ridiculous. That wasn’t in the picture before … In a way, the second lines are vital to New Orleans’ recovery; they are the medicine that comes with the grieving.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>His legacy, then, is both international and intensely local. Creating a personal sound, indelibly stamped on a globally recognised recording career, he also acted as the torchbearer for decades of New Orleans tradition. Despite his brushes with the law, he ended up feted by City Hall, receiving a proclamation from New Orleans City Council of his birthday, incorrectly designated as November 21, as “<a href="https://www.nola.com/music/2018/11/new-orleans-music-legend-dr-john-is-turning-78-or-is-he.html">Dr John Day</a>”. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1137353227119267840"}"></div></p>
<p>Louisiana’s governor John Bel Edwards added his “acknowledgement of countless musical contributions embodying the culture of the state from New Orleans to the Bayou and for celebrating 77 years in the music industry”. But his music was, literally, of the streets, <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/dr-john-second-line-new-orleans-845958/">as the second line</a> that formed in New Orleans to pay tribute on June 7 amply demonstrated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118461/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Behr has received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p>Mac Rebennack took the stage name Dr John and a persona based on a real-life voodoo prince.Adam Behr, Lecturer in Popular and Contemporary Music, Newcastle UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1144662019-04-07T11:01:09Z2019-04-07T11:01:09ZWhy age gives West African women more autonomy and power<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/267077/original/file-20190402-177196-e650k3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Beninese women attend a "voodoo" festival.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anton_Ivanov/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Several studies, covering about 58 countries across the world, found that as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2015.1091087">women get older</a> they are more able to make decisions independently of men. But scholars <a href="http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTEMPOWERMENT/Resources/13323_womens_empowerment.pdf">have struggled</a> to pin down explanations for this age dividend – why are women given more independence the older they get? We wanted to know what the reasons may be. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1Ymeb_,iVXKG91">recent study</a>, we looked at women’s autonomy across age in Nigeria, Togo, Ghana and Benin. These four West African countries are home to ethnic groups that practice <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/23617817">“voodoo”</a>, a religion that spread with the expansion of the Dahomey kingdom in the 17th century. </p>
<p>In these countries women are not equal to men. They sometimes won’t be able to make decisions about their own health – <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09540121.2017.1363363?journalCode=caic20">like</a> negotiating safe sex – or on how <a href="http://a4nh.cgiar.org/2018/09/05/identifying-challenges-and-constraints-experienced-by-women-smallholder-farmers-in-northern-ghana/">household incomes</a> could be used. </p>
<p>In our sample of 21,000 women aged 15 to 49, we found that autonomy in household decision-making increases with age. This was especially true for women who belonged to the four “voodoo-ethnicities”: Fon, Ewe, Adja and Yoruba. We also found that women had even more power if they are menopaused. </p>
<p>Our findings suggest that both age and magico-religious beliefs have a huge role to play in a woman’s independence. Menopaused women from “voodoo-ethnicities” are much more independent to make decisions on how they spend their own earnings, care for their own health, visit family or relatives and what major household purchases need to be made.</p>
<p>These insights are important for female empowerment strategies. To be effective, policies must identify potential agents of change who can, for instance, influence decisions that improve children’s schooling and nutrition or abolish female genital cutting. Despite their apparent agency, elderly women in West Africa have <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctttt0vh">largely</a> been overlooked.</p>
<h2>Voodoo and menopause</h2>
<p>So, why do women gain more independence the older they get, and especially if they are of voodoo-ethnicities and menopaused?</p>
<p>We analysed data on 21,000 women and their ability to make various decisions. We found that women’s autonomy was related to menstrual bleeding, particularly for voodoo-ethnicities. This was further explored in Benin, the birth place of Voodoo, where we conducted interviews with voodoo priests and menopaused women. </p>
<p>As one woman said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[Women in menopause] are equipped with supernatural powers. Only she can talk to the ancestors and request their help, assistance and protection. And they respond to her worship and requests, not everyone can do that.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the interviews we gathered that voodoo adherents worship collective deities (related to the sea, the earth, or thunder) and family deities: ancestors that turn into spirits after death. </p>
<p>The interactions with the family deities are led by a menopaused woman, referred to as the “Tassinon”. <a href="https://www.laboutiqueafricavivre.com/livres/8220-guelede-vodoun-et-femmes-au-benin-9782842801953.html">Only she</a> can transmit the family members’ prayers and requests to the ancestors and consult the oracle to see if the spirits have accepted the offering and sacrifices.</p>
<p>These alleged powers, in their turn, increase the bargaining power of elderly women in their communities and households. </p>
<p>In situations where the supernatural power of menopaused women has faded, the cultural norm derived from it – increased awe for elderly women – persists.</p>
<p>Our analysis shows that the “Tassinon effect” is sizeable. We created an autonomy index – which looked at a combination of different situations where decisions had to be made and who made them – to measure this and found that it increased their ability to make decisions by about 10%. </p>
<p>As one woman said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My opinion matters now in all important decisions or issues in the family and in my community. It was not the case before my designation as <em>tassinon</em>. I could not even attend or talk in certain audiences.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Our research provides support for the argument put forward in the African feminist literature, that <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctttt0vh">seniority trumps gender in an African context</a>. </p>
<p>It also adds to the evidence that voodoo continues to play a role in West-Africa. Adherence to voodoo has been proven to affect the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.11.024">governance of natural resources</a>. For instance fishermen who adhere to voodoo are more likely to respect rules related to prohibited fishing gear. It also affects the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/698308">uptake of preventive health care</a>; for instance because mothers who adhere to voodoo will rely on traditional healers, they may not immunise their children. Now we know that voodoo also affects the level of independence women have in some communities. </p>
<h2>The way ahead</h2>
<p>A better understanding of cultural attitudes towards elderly African women will become more important for policymakers in the future. As fertility declines and life expectancy increases, elderly women will increase in numbers, both in absolute and relative terms. They could play an important role as agents of change in supporting both child care and female empowerment projects. </p>
<p>For instance in Benin the respect for elderly women <a href="https://social.gouv.bj/ministere/nos-documents/">is already</a> relied upon in interventions targeting children’s health and nutrition, and in the abolishment of female genital cutting. This could be reinforced and extended to other sectors and to other countries.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114466/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marijke Verpoorten receives funding from the Fund for Scientific Research Flanders (Grant Nr. 1502318N).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alidou Sahawal receives funding from the IOB Research Fund, and the Fund for Scientific Research Flanders (Grant Nr. 1502318N). He is also affiliated with the LICOS – Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance (KU Leuven). </span></em></p>In some West African communities, age and magico-religious beliefs have a huge role to play in a woman’s independence.Marijke Verpoorten, Associate Professor, University of AntwerpSahawal Alidou, PhD candidate and teaching assistant, University of AntwerpLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/793472017-07-11T20:12:26Z2017-07-11T20:12:26ZCurious Kids: Are zombies real?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173540/original/file-20170613-32034-i62p6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Watch out! The gingerbread zombies are coming! </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/v1ctory_1s_m1ne/5133950808/in/photolist-8PEQHf-dstFmS-iRV2st-qrxdNh-eACLou-sqGofL-dj9Yt7-9ZJ65U-dj9ZN2-aoLZ2h-bRDg6v-f2xSb1-aBi6r3-6ESUPW-sbq139-6ENJdH-94aZpy-6c6zk8-6ENJq8-Rdi7Ra-9WabYV-a78WFV-9Z2RQc-6ENFhT-6ENGwi-bxdfbo-k6314f-oPCJaK-fkW7ea-6ESSRu-aZ2Zdv-QS9Ezi-U5zNVk-pCbGTK-6RmHzJ-oya6NQ-qLJfXJ-bAAbTf-c2K5P7-jTHbhL-FQLsCh-6ENFWv-dhsoew-hndqVQ-gARScW-8PYHUE-wrYLsv-nJw5PZ-gK7ejR-kFjDCi/">v1ctory_1s_m1ne/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This is an article from <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/curious-kids-36782">Curious Kids</a>, a series for children. The Conversation is asking kids to send in questions they’d like an expert to answer. All questions are welcome – serious, weird or wacky!</em> </p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Are zombies real? – James, aged 8, Sydney</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>There are lots of TV shows about zombies. Most of them are for older people and are pretty scary. <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/136346158502200304?journalCode=tpsd">Some people</a> believe that zombies are real – but they are not really like the zombies you see in movies or on TV. </p>
<p>The word “zombie” is connected to folktales from Haiti. Haiti is a country on an island called Hispaniola in the Caribbean. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173949/original/file-20170615-25000-m6duvi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173949/original/file-20170615-25000-m6duvi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173949/original/file-20170615-25000-m6duvi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173949/original/file-20170615-25000-m6duvi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173949/original/file-20170615-25000-m6duvi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173949/original/file-20170615-25000-m6duvi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173949/original/file-20170615-25000-m6duvi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173949/original/file-20170615-25000-m6duvi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Haiti is marked with a red pin on this map.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Haiti/@26.9619976,-88.9735058,5z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x8eb6c6f37fcbbb11:0xb51438b24c54f6d3!8m2!3d18.971187!4d-72.285215!10m1!1e2">Google Maps</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Folktales are tales of the folk, or the people. Folktales have been told all over the world for thousands of years. They are usually made-up stories, and are like fairy tales. But some people believe there is truth in folktales.</p>
<p>Hundreds of years ago, slaves from Africa were taken to Haiti and forced to work very hard on farms. They were not treated well, they didn’t get paid and they weren’t allowed to go home. These slaves told a folktale about what happened to them after they died. In the folktale, they said that a voodoo god took them from their graves and transported them back to Africa. But if they had done bad things in life, they believed they would be turned into zombies instead.</p>
<p>Voodoo (sometimes spelled vodou) is a religion in some parts of the world, including in Haiti. It is thought that the slaves taken to Haiti brought their beliefs in voodoo with them. People who believe in voodoo believe that there are lots of spirits in the world and more than one god, but they also believe in one main god. </p>
<p>One voodoo spirit is called <a href="http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/caribbean-mythology.php?deity=BARON-SAMEDI">Baron Samedi</a>. If people upset Baron Samedi when they were alive, they risked being turned into zombies. Baron Samedi seems to be pretty scary and <a href="http://www.iupui.edu/%7Ewomrel/REL%20300%20Spirit/REL%20300_Spirit/Lwa.pdf">wears a top hat</a>, a big black coat and sometimes has a skull for a face. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173931/original/file-20170615-24988-nmzpyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173931/original/file-20170615-24988-nmzpyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173931/original/file-20170615-24988-nmzpyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173931/original/file-20170615-24988-nmzpyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173931/original/file-20170615-24988-nmzpyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173931/original/file-20170615-24988-nmzpyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173931/original/file-20170615-24988-nmzpyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173931/original/file-20170615-24988-nmzpyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Baron Samedi is said to wear a top hat, just like this little Lego ‘zombie’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/clement127/11671449945/in/photolist-iMnerB-9ScHuK-5s4cmH-5s4erX-bksA8A-5s4eMe-5s8zxf-jQXqgh-8GzcdA-rAg2pz-5ieHRH-oqasq-74WFmA-8aTX5G-dKv5dB-h3aBfA-GRcTB7-ynRap4-GesPJh-q1bNxy-74Djdm-eMiv4R-bEQyfx-9C83au-5s46Hp-74WF6Q-5HMTxE-qxEiX3-n5znuk-qyzSGP-hf5kqB-5HMTyU-5b4gdL-73CcmW-8Pvkhx-qys5vN-d2FfKf-rpchRK-hf5kYF-73BEtY-8QgYuU-8akZTE-dGeMxo-puGAj-bPuQqz-bPnrce-9DB6jL-bAtmY5-JLGLC3-5rEXsU">Flickr/Clement127</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In other folktales from Haiti, zombies are <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/541551?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">believed</a> to be created by sorcerers. The sorcerers were believed to be able to make zombies by making <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0378874183900296">powders</a> - one such potion is said to include the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Roland_Littlewood/publication/13083933_Clinical_findings_in_three_cases_of_zombification/links/0046351e6a16c9ea1c000000.pdf">poison of a puffer fish</a>. Once drunk, this poison is said to be able to make the person look and act like they were dead. The sorcerer would then use the zombie as a slave.</p>
<p>A bit over 100 years ago, these Haitian tales began to reach the United States. Tales of zombies were told to people and they were also printed in collections of stories about Haiti. There were also reports of zombies living in Haiti, and it was not long until American scholars and reporters began visiting Haiti <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Roland_Littlewood/publication/13083933_Clinical_findings_in_three_cases_of_zombification/links/0046351e6a16c9ea1c000000.pdf">in search of</a> real zombies.</p>
<p>These folktales and reports about zombies have been turned into comics and horror stories. Some people love to be scared by these monsters. </p>
<p>So, this is the story behind zombies. From religious beliefs and folktales to reports of real-life zombies to comics, horror movies and now TV, zombies are now everywhere on our screens.</p>
<p>On TV shows today, there are lots of different reasons why zombies are created. Sometimes, storytellers explain that people are turned into zombies through breathing in dangerous chemicals or through catching mysterious diseases. To make these TV zombies seem extra scary, storytellers often have zombies being violent and even eating human flesh.</p>
<p>But remember, in such modern-day folktales, designed to frighten us, there is also a hero or heroine there to save the day.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Have you got a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to us. They can:</em></p>
<p><em>* Email your question to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au
<br>
* Tell us on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConversationEDU">Twitter</a> by tagging <a href="https://twitter.com/ConversationEDU">@ConversationEDU</a> with the hashtag #curiouskids, or
<br>
* Tell us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/conversationEDU">Facebook</a></em></p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Please tell us your name, age, and which city you live in. You can send an audio recording of your question too, if you want. Send as many questions as you like! We won’t be able to answer every question but we will do our best.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79347/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marguerite Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>James, aged 8, of Sydney wants to know: are zombies real?Marguerite Johnson, Associate Professor of Ancient History and Classical Languages, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.