Vodou

American  

[voh-doo] / ˈvoʊ du /

noun

1. an Afro-Caribbean religion practiced chiefly by Haitians, deriving principally from West African Vodun and containing elements borrowed from the Roman Catholic religion.

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Etymology

Origin of Vodou

First recorded in 1880–85; from an Indigenous language spoken in Benin

Example Sentences

Despite the formal recognition, Vodou remains shunned by some Haitians.

From Seattle Times • May 9, 2024

Credited with that turnaround are thinkers like Jean Price-Mars, whose 1928 book, “Thus Spoke the Uncle,” visualized Vodou as a religion, “without making the Haitian elites blush,” wrote sociologist Lewis Ampidu Clorméus.

From Seattle Times • May 9, 2024

Vodou began to take shape in the French colony of Saint-Domingue during funeral rituals for enslaved people and dances called “calendas” that they organized on Sunday evenings.

From Seattle Times • May 9, 2024

In August 1791, some 200 slaves gathered at night in Bois-Caiman in northern Haiti for a Vodou ceremony organized by Dutty Boukman, a renowned enslaved leader and Vodou priest.

From Seattle Times • May 9, 2024

Is it because you are a mambo—a Vodou priestess who held ceremonies in the courtyard of a Christian NGO building?

From "American Street" by Ibi Zoboi