Week 10

I found the article “Haiti and the distortion of its Vodou religion” written by Millery Polyné and Elizabeth McAlister extremely interesting.  It focuses on the misrepresentation of Vodou in American media as a black magic cult called voodoo.  Polyné explains how this misrepresentation and misunderstanding by most people has affected his sense of self as a Haitian-American.

In the Cultural Anthropology class I took last semester we read a book called Mama Lola, which is a study of Vodou through the life of a priestess living New York.  The class discussed the background of the religion as well as its beliefs and practices.  We also talked about how the reality of Vodou differs so much from the sensationalized, media constructed voodoo.  However, because Mama Lola was so comfortable in herself and strong in her beliefs we never talked about how it must feel to be a Haitian American who is confronted constantly by misrepresentation of his or her culture in the media.  So it is interesting to read Polyné’s article and hear his perspective of Vodou.  When he saw the movie that depicted Haitians as evil magicians, he was extremely uncomfortable.  While he did not know much about Vodou, he knew that the depiction in the movie was false and defamatory to Haitian culture and people.  It was disturbing for Polymé to see such an ignorant representation of practitioners of Vodou and, by association, all Haitians, including himself.  To constantly be confronted by false beliefs about his culture and excessive judgement of Vodou as superstitious and despicable, Polyné was led to question the validity of the religion and what it means to be Haitian.

Voudu is a rich, complex system of beliefs and practices that focuses of reciprocity, community, and equality, not the evil sorcery that American media makes it out to be.  It is shameful that true depictions of the religion are not being presented for everyone to encounter.