Haitian Vodou

Haitian Vodou is an African diasporic religion that developed in Haiti between the 16th and 19th centuries. It arose through a process of syncretism between the traditional religions of West Africa and Roman Catholicism. Adherents are known as Vodouists (French: vodouisants [voduizɑ̃]) or "servants of the spirits" (Haitian Creole: sèvitè).

Vodou focuses on the veneration of deities known as lwa (or loa). These are often identified both as Yoruba gods as well as Roman Catholic saints. Various myths and stories are told about these lwa, which are regarded as subservient to a transcendent creator deity, Bondyé. An initiatory tradition, Vodouists usually meet in ounfò, temples run by priests known as oungans or priestesses known as manbos, to venerate the lwa. A central ritual involves practitioners drumming, singing, and dancing to encourage a lwa to possess ("ride") one of their members. They believe that through this possessed individual, they can communicate directly with a lwa. Offerings to the lwa include fruit and the blood of sacrificed animals. Several forms of divination are utilized to decipher messages from the lwa. Healing rituals and the preparation of herbal remedies, amulets, and charms, also play a prominent role.

Vodou developed among Afro-Haitian communities amid the Atlantic slave trade of the 16th to 19th centuries. It arose through the blending of the traditional religions brought to the island of Hispaniola by enslaved West Africans, many of them Yoruba or Fon, and the Roman Catholic teachings of the French colonialists who controlled the island. Many Vodouists were involved in the Haitian Revolution which overthrew the French colonial government, abolished slavery, and established modern Haiti. The Roman Catholic Church left for several decades following the Revolution, allowing Vodou to become Haiti's dominant religion. In the 20th century, growing emigration spread Vodou elsewhere in the Americas. The late 20th century saw growing links between Vodou and related traditions in West Africa and the Americas, such as Cuban Santería and Brazilian Candomblé.

It is estimated that the majority of Haitians practice Vodou to some extent, although typically also practice Roman Catholicism, seeing no issue in pursuing the two different systems simultaneously. Smaller Vodouist communities exist elsewhere, especially among the Haitian diaspora in the United States. Both in Haiti and abroad Vodou has spread beyond its Afro-Haitian origins and is practiced by individuals of various ethnicities. Vodou has faced much criticism through its history, having repeatedly been described as one of the world's most misunderstood religions.