Between 16 approximately 500,000 enslaved Africans were transported to the United States. The transatlantic slave trade to the United States occurred between 16, and the illegal slave trade in the United States occurred between 18. Yvonne Chireau, "Hoodoo is an African American-based tradition that makes use of natural and supernatural elements in order to create and effect change in the human experience." Hoodoo was created by African Americans, who were among over 12 million enslaved Africans from various Central and West African ethnic groups being transported to the Americas from the 16th to 19th centuries ( 1514 to 1867) as part of the transatlantic slave trade. Scholars call the practice of Hoodoo in Black churches the invisible institution, because enslaved Black people concealed their culture and practices from whites within the Christian religion. See also: Antebellum South Many Hoodoo practices were hidden in Black churches during and after slavery for African Americans to protect themselves. Other authors have different reasons why they capitalize or lowercase the first letter. Some authors spell Hoodoo with a capital letter to make a distinction from commercialized hoodoo which is spelled with a lowercase letter. The word has different meanings depending on how it is spelled. Recent scholarship publications spell the word with a capital letter. In the Bahamas, Hoodoo is referred to as "obeah." According to author Zora Neale Hurston, "Roots' is the Southern Negro's term for folk doctoring by herbs and prescriptions, and by extension, and because all hoodoo doctors cure by roots, it may be used as a synonym for hoodoo." The Oxford English Dictionary cited the Sunday Appeal's definition of Hoodoo as an African dialect with practices similar to the mysteries of Obi ( Obeah) in the Caribbean. The words wanga and mooyo (mojo bag) come from the Kikongo language. For example, in West Africa the word gris-gris (a conjure bag) is a Mande word. The origin of the word Hoodoo and other words associated with the practice could be traced to the Windward Coast and Senegambia. According to Paschal Beverly Randolph, the word Hoodoo is an African dialect. Hudu is also one of the dialects of the Ewe language of the Ewe people in West Africa. Īnother possible etymological origin of the word Hoodoo comes from the word Hudu, meaning "spirit work," which comes from the Ewe language spoken in the West African countries of Ghana, Togo and Benin. Its origins are obscure but some believed it originated as an alteration of the word Voodoo – a word that has its origin in the Gbe languages such as Ewe language, Adja language and Fon languages of Ghana Togo and Benin – referring to divinity. The first documentation of the word Hoodoo in the English language appeared in 1870. įollowing the Great Migration of African-Americans, Hoodoo spread throughout the United States. By the end of the colonial period, enslaved Africans were taken from Angola (40 percent), Senegambia (19.5 percent), the Windward Coast (16.3 percent), and the Gold Coast (13.3 percent), as well as the Bight of Benin and Bight of Biafra in smaller percentages. Over the first century of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, an estimated 52% of all kidnapped Africans (over 900,000 people) came from Central African countries that existed within modern day Cameroon, Congo, Angola, Central African Republic and Gabon. Many Hoodoo traditions draw from the beliefs of the Bakongo people of Central Africa. Folk religions are syncretic traditions between two or more cultural religions, in this case African indigenous spirituality and Abrahamic religion. Scholars define Hoodoo as a folk religion. As a syncretic spiritual system, it also incorporates Islam brought over by enslaved West African Muslims and Spiritualism. Regional synonyms for Hoodoo include conjure or rootwork. Practitioners of Hoodoo are called rootworkers, conjure doctors, conjure man or conjure woman, root doctors, Hoodoo doctors, and swampers. Hoodoo is a set of spiritual practices, traditions, and beliefs that were created by enslaved African Americans in the Southern United States from various traditional African spiritualities, Christianity and elements of indigenous botanical knowledge.
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