Where is Vodou practiced and how did it get to Haiti?
Vodou is practiced wherever there is a population of people of West African descent. Vodou is the Ewe-Dahomean (now Benin) word for that which is far and apart from us. It also means spirit. In Haiti, Vodou refers to the Traditional Religions of the West Coast of Africa. Since Africans were taken all over the Americas, Vodou is practiced throughout the Americas. It is called Santeria and Lukumi in Cuba, Shango Baptist in Trinidad, Obeah in Jamaica, Candomble and Paolo Mayombe in Brazil. As much of the US population is of African descent, Vodou philosophy is ubiquitous in American culture. In short, Vodou came to the Americas on the same ships that brought the Christian Churches to the Americas. It is in an unwilling partnership that the Native population, Europeans, and Africans built the Americas.
