I am not sure where this belief started, but New Orleans is not the center for Hoodoo. I just want to clear out that what is primarily practiced in New Orleans IS NOT even Hoodoo. The majority of what is practiced in New Orleans is called Louisiana Voodoo (and it's not the same thing as Hoodoo) and another Christian folk magic practice infused with concepts gleaned from a blend of Spiritualism, Haitian Vodou, French Catholicism, and Pentecostalism. I'm not saying, though, that New Orleans has no authentic Hoodoo or conjure practitioners. There is a great deal, but this is not where Hoodoo originated, flourished, and developed.
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| A Gullah 'praise house' in St. Helena Island, South Carolina, and its pastor, Reverend Henderson. (Photo courtesy of Julia Cart, National Humanities Center) |
If there is a capital of rootwork and conjure tradition, then it would be found in places such as South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, where old African-American practices are still being performed, such as Ring Shout (counter-clockwise worship dance), which is an integral component of Hoodoo tradition and where indigenous plants and herbs historically used by Gullah people and Low Country folks, are mostly found.
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| Conjure woman gathering herbs for 'Hoodooing.' (Photo courtesy of Newbell Niles Puckett Memorial Gift, Cleveland Public Library, Fine Arts and Special Collections Department) |
The African-American population living in the coastal regions of the Southern United States retained and preserved their African folk beliefs and cultural heritage while adhering to Christian teachings.
During the colonial days, there was a fantastic fusion of customs and traditions from the Mende, Baga, Fula, Kongo, Mandinka, Wolof, and Yoruba tribes, to name a few. Some plantation overseers and rice-field owners who were afraid of slave revolt simply ignored this homegrown way of spiritual healing and were allowed it to carry on. While some slave masters left the place due to malaria and yellow fever becoming endemic and were forced to assign and appoint Africans as overseers, known as 'the drivers'. By 1708, there was a black majority in the colony as the White population continued to dwindle, and more and more African slaves were imported each year.
Due to physical remoteness, isolation, and relative freedom from White slave owners and the significant influx of Africans, the 'Black-Belt Hoodoo' practice thrived from the antebellum period until the reconstruction era. Some Whites even visited slave quarters to consult about their ailments and conditions. Until the mid-20th century, the Low Country was the cradle of the Hoodoo practice. Each area had its own conjure doctor. Even a former local restaurateur in the South once said that he saw cars lined up as far away as Alabama.
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| Ed Murphy, a Mississippi conjure doctor, had three birthmarks on his left arm representing the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Having strange birthmarks is one of the best-known signs that a child is gifted for the work. (Photo courtesy of Newbell Niles Puckett Memorial Gift, Cleveland Public Library, Fine Arts and Special Collections Department) |
Most of the acclaimed conjure men and women were residences of the states mentioned above too; 'Gullah' Jack Pritchard was from Charleston, South Carolina, Mr. Ed Murphy was from Mississippi, Aunt Caroline Tracy Dye was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina (though she was more recognized in Arkansas), Marie Steel was from Washington County, Georgia and Aunt Sally was from Gee's Bend, Alabama. Among those time-honored root doctors, Dr. Buzzard was the most famous.
Dr. Buzzard, also known as Stephany Robinson, an African-American from St. Helena Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina, was said to have wielded enormous spiritual power, which he passed on to his son. His specialty was "chewing the root" in court, a practice that could get favorable results and verdicts from court hearings or proceedings.
Even today, the Gullah family traditions are still strong in the Deep South. And I can say that 9 out of 10 have a family member that still practices the old-fashioned Hoodoo, providing glimpses into the Deep South's past. And even to those who have left the South and migrated to other parts of the U.S., the old ways have persisted, and the people have not lost their identities.
See, What Our Path Is
Being immensely interested in African diaspora religions and Folk Catholicism, we primarily honor our ancestors, Church saints, angels, folk saints, and Afro-Caribbean spirits such as loas and orishas. If we absolutely have to put a label on ourselves, we prefer the label of “Folk Judeo-Christian” as we live according to the customs and traditions of conjure workers and root doctors from the Deep South and syncretic followers of Christ in various nations of the Caribbean and Latin America.
Our spirituality includes West African-based Caribbean-style tradition as well as Esoteric Christianity and Yoruba religion. Generally, we practice Gullah folk magic popularly known in the Deep South as Hoodoo or Lowcountry Voodoo; the ancient wisdom founded by Orunmila in Ile-Ife called Ifa, and a bit of Lihim na Karunungan (Filipino Esotericism or Philippine Mystery Tradition).
Respect, What Hoodoo Is
Despite visible evidence of Central West African, Islamic/Moorish, Native American, Judeo-Christian, European, and even a few East Indian/Hindu, Chinese, and Latino/Caribbean retentions, influences, and admixtures, this does not mean that Hoodoo is an open and unrestricted system of eclectic magic.
Conjure, and Rootwork is rooted in African-American culture and Folk Protestant Christianity. Any practitioners of Hoodoo who did not grow up within African-American culture should still have a fuller understanding and high regard for its origin.
In the beginning, the early conjure doctors were entirely Black. The students were all Black, the elders were Black, the teaching was Black, and they focused only on Blacks as their audience. But other races were accepted when they had also been brought into the Hoodoo community and learned the tradition. Even so, we should still acknowledge that Hoodoo, Conjure, or Rootwork is not ours but only belongs to the Black community. We are just believers who are grafted into their rich yet humble tradition and, by word and deed, embrace genuine African-American folk spirituality and magic. This is all we can do for all the blessings we received from God and our Black ancestors.
Hoodoo's lack of religious structure and hierarchical authority do not mean that any person or group can appropriate or redefine it. If one cannot respect Hoodoo as it is and for what it is, then please, do not play with it.
Learn, How Conjure Is Worked On
Authentic Conjure is not all about blending and selling oils and casting spells online to make money. Hoodoo has its own spiritual philosophy, theology, and a wide range of African-American folkways, customs, and practices which include, but are not limited to, veneration of the ancestors, Holy Ghost shouting, snake reverence, spirit possession, graveyard conjure, nkisi practices, Black hermeneutics, African-American church traditions, the ring shout, the Kongo cosmogram, ritual water immersions, crossroads magic, making conjure canes, animal sacrifices, Jewish scriptural magic, enemy works, Seekin' ritual, magical incorporation of bodily fluids, etc.
Unfortunately, they are currently missing in marketeered or commercial Hoodoo, as they are being removed, disregarded, or ignored by unknowing merchants who simply want to profit from an African-American spiritual tradition, thus reducing Hoodoo to just a plethora of recipes, spells, and tricks.
Tim and I are completely aware that we are not African-Americans, so we are doing our best to retain and preserve the customs and traditions of the slave ancestors to avoid unnecessary conflict with the larger Black-Belt Hoodoo community and prevent them from labeling us inauthentic outsiders and our practice as mere 'cultural misappropriation.'
Accept, Who We Are
The byproduct of eons of slave history, Black supremacists believe that only people with African or African-American blood are real Hoodoo practitioners and are often inclined to consider themselves as the elite of the Hoodoo community; a place in which they believed that Whites, Latinos, Asians or any other races who do not have Black ancestry do not belong. Black supremacists are prone to be very hostile towards both “outsiders” and those accepting of them, fearing that their promotion and acceptance would dilute or even negate the Black identity of Hoodoo.
Although we do understand why some Blacks hold this stance, since a lot of people nowadays are misappropriating many aspects of Hoodoo and teaching the spiritual path even without proper education and training (for purely monetary purposes), we would, however, want to say that not all non-Black Hoodoo practitioners are the same.
WE respect what Hoodoo is, and we never try to change it, claim it as our own, disregard its history, take unfair advantage of it, speak against the people who preserve it, and mix it with other cultures (like our own) and call it Filipino/Pinoy Hoodoo, Gypsy Hoodoo or Wiccan Hoodoo because there are no such things.
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