Vodou: Haiti's African-Derived Religion

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This is one of the best descriptions of Afro-Caribbean religions I’ve ever seen. The level of respect, understanding, research, and the conscious and respectful contextualizarion of our Afro-Caribbean faiths is marvelous. Thank you so much for doing this. I look forward to have a video on Santería and other Yoruba-based Afro-Caribbean religions. 😊

🇹🇹🇳🇬-AfroCaribbean here and right off the bat I want to commend you for the attention you paid to removing the stereotypes associated with African Religious Concepts. It’s quite an irony that the ‘religions’ that kept the enslaved Africans strong was deemed ‘demonic’ while they were allowed to be tortured and slaughtered by European slave masters.

Before I actually watch it, I'd just like to say I highly appreciate you doing an African based religion for the first time. Your topics on religion are highly informative so I was eager to watch one on an African based religion.

I’m Haitian and although I don’t practice vodou I have profound respect for it. From a historical and cultural perspective it deserves to be protected and respected .🇭🇹

Dr. Daniels passion is addictive! I bet she is an AMAZING teacher! Her love and excitement of the topic is contagious: I could listen to her talk about Vodou for hours!

As someone that’s Yoruba and speaks fon, a long time subscriber and viewer I’m so happy you made this video. You’ve definitely made my year. Btw lwa is said as luwa in Yoruba as a short form for oluwa which is God but eledumare is the main God equivalent to bon dieu. Please make the next one about Yoruba religion thank you so much.

Your channel is what made me interested in religious history

When Dr. Kyrah Malika Daniels referred to Vodou offerings as "reciprocal" instead of "transactional" it hit me how that's a much less demeaning word for it. I don't know how many have heard "transactional" to describe polytheistic practice (i give gods this thing, they give me blessings), but I feel like that's kind of demeaning way to look at it. Classics classes tried to explain Greek and other European Pagan religions that way, and I feel like that might be a bit of convention from Christian historians and theologists who were demeaning these faiths either inadvertently or on purpose. Trying to make it look more worldly and less divine. The use of the word reciprocal really makes it feel less like striking a deal and more like respecting one another, and I thought that was a beautiful sentiment towards polytheism.

as a dominican this is so nice to watch, we don't learn about this at all, despite the amount of haitians that live here and that they're literally our neighbor country. we often just say their religions are "of the devil", but we couldn't be more wrong. thank you so much for this video!

My spouse studies Hinduism and I work on medieval Catholicism. This video is so well done, and it is fascinating to me how many connections I see between very old forms of traditional Catholicism and the offerings of food, spices, sacred music and sacred dances to temple gods in the thousands of years of Hindu practice (as well as featuring statues of saints or gods in the different traditions). Thank you for such a beautiful introduction to this rich and varied tradition. The professor is fantastic!

Ayibobo!!! As an initiated Vodouisant, many videos don't do vodou justice or even pronounce things right, let alone do all the research you did. Thank you

Coming from Louisiana, this is a refreshing video to see.

I recall Bush Sr referred to Regan's economic policies as 'Voodoo economics' which I mention as an example of how the term is used in a degoratory sense.

I really liked this one. Dr. Daniels is simply captivating, and really passionate about the subject! I'm usually not one to ask for content, but I would love to see you talk about Spiritism and it's success in Brazil. And maybe about Umbanda later on, a uniquely brazilian religion from the 1930s. I ask only because you're the best on the platform. Thanks!

As a Haitian that grew up baptist, every Christian would say that vodou is evil and of the devil. SMH as a kid and now an adult I knew it couldn’t be true. Thank you for the video. Mesi an pil

Great video. Could you do a video on Mexico's indigenous religions getting mixed into their Catholicism? I think it could be an interesting topic.

I’m Dominican and I also appreciate this video, it was important to me to educate myself in this matter to be able to to educate others as my mother that dislikes Haitians and their believes. I personally like to educate myself in order to have an opinion and understanding.

Much love to the people of Haiti.

That's amazing, Haitian Vodou is really beautiful and there's so much similarities to Afro-Brazilian Candomblé. The rites are different based on the nations, instead of Lwa the Jeje (Ewe-Fon people) nation has the Voduns, the Ketu/Nago (Yoruba people) nation has the Orixás/Orishas and the Angola (Bantu people such as Congo, Umbundu and Kimbundu) nation has the Nkisi. There's dance, offerings, the "mounting" (in Portuguese we use the word incorporation) and tons of very similar aspects, really interesting!