VOODOO

Description

Voodoo, little known in Europe there are still a few years, attracting more and more public interest and the Afro-American syncretism is now recognized as one of religious phenomena to the attention of our time. Introduced in South America and the Caribbean by African slaves, the Yoruba gods Nigeria were confronted with the symbolism of Catholicism and their original specificity was gradually changed during the story. Ethnologists and historians of religions have long studied the Brazilian Candomblé and Voodoo temples of Haiti, but the ritual of African voodoo as it appears after his return to his homeland, where families of former slaves returned in Africa, has been the subject of any systematic analysis. It is this gap that this book attempts to fill. It takes into account not only the syncretic centers established on the west coast of Haitian voodoo and impregnated or pre-established religions – Islam, Hinduism – but also the rituals of many sects born meantime. First such contribution to the study of African voodoo, this book will also demonstrate the importance of “voodoo done” for the reconquest of African identity in the post-colonial era. “Voodoo, secret force of Africa” ​​deepens the sense of this investigation that leads the author Gert Chesi to the essence of African cultures.