By Megan Sayles
AFRO Staff Writer
msayles@afro.com
When people hear the word, “Hoodoo,” it may evoke images of dark magic or devil worshipping, but in reality Hoodoo couldn’t be more different than these sinister stereotypes. This spiritual tradition was developed by enslaved Africans in the U.S as a way to preserve their cultural heritage, maintain spiritual connection and to protect and heal themselves while facing oppression.
In honor of Hoodoo Heritage Month, the AFRO spoke with Dr. Kokahvah “Mama Koko” Zaditu-Selassie, a Hoodoo practitioner and Lukumi Yoruba priest who learned the tradition from her grandmother, about the practices, beliefs and cultural significance of Hoodoo in Black spirituality today.
AFRO: What is hoodoo, and what is it not?
Kokahvah Zaditu-Selassie: Hoodoo is a set of practices and beliefs that seek to provide adherents or participants with a way to create harmony within the mind, body and soul. If something is broken, it re-establishes the homeostasis needed for repair. It’s a methodology for spiritual realignment.
It’s not unlike any other spiritual or religious practice that seeks to unite people with their true selves. Everybody gets scarred. Hoodoo helps you putty up the holes where your light is seeping out of your body.
True hoodoo is not a dark practice— it is only done in light. A person that practices this nature-based religion is only seeking light and alignment.
AFRO: What are some of the key practices or rituals in Hoodoo, and what purposes do they serve?
Kokahvah Zaditu-Selassie: Like all spiritual practices, Hoodoo can be both individually accessed and accessed within a communal frame. One of the key things is meditative practice and assessment of what is ailing you. You have to be honest with yourself and begin to diagnose what needs correction.
Then, there are rituals, like Earth works. For example, if you want to get rid of something or you want things to flow better in your life, you can write a letter to the river. That letter is going to travel and send your prayers everywhere. You can put it in a bird’s nest—something lived in that’s been abandoned—and let it float down the river with your prayers. As it sails and communicates with the water, the mothers and energies of the water can help you. You can even whisper your words into the water.
Now, we don’t do that in the church, but they do invite people who are burdened and laden to leave their troubles at the altar. The hoodooist is the person who is in constant awareness and awe about the nature of the divine. It’s not a Sunday thing.
AFRO: What are some of the biggest misconceptions surrounding Hoodoo?
Kokahvah Zaditu-Selassie: Everybody’s looking for a love potion, a candle to light or a little bit of mojo. Or, they’re looking for Nkisi— a spiritual object or charm— or to stab a doll to get back at their enemies. That’s not real. That’s not true. That’s not Hoodoo.
Somehow if you say the word, “Hoodoo,” it becomes this spooky thing, but those depictions in popular culture of people biting heads off of chickens are imaginations and figurations that are not a part of reality.
AFRO: What is the difference between Hoodoo and Voodou?
Kokahvah Zaditu-Selassie: Voodou has a set of deities and archetypes. Hoodoo doesn’t have that. There are no named deities. In Voodou, they have names, attributes and specific qualities— similar to saints. It’s a religion with dictates and practices. Hoodoo is more stylistic and culturally or regionally based.
AFRO: How do you see Hoodoo fitting into modern-day Black spirituality, especially alongside organized religions like Christianity?
Kokahvah Zaditu-Selassie: Hoodoo and Christianity are not mutually exclusive because Hoodoo is just a set of rituals and nature beliefs. We are already doing Hoodoo in church without realizing it—the marching in, the watch nights, the humming, the moaning, the devotionals. Those are forms of African practices. The only thing left for us to do is remember…remember our own traditions, beliefs and connection with the natural world and not be outcast to them.
Hoodoo has always helped us to take care of ourselves. If something has been vilified and separated from our connection to nature and the ability to solve problems and seek assistance, then we have to reclaim it.
