Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica

A major focus of Tell My Horse is the study of rituals and beliefs in the Haitian Voodoo religion. The last and longest of the work’s three parts is dedicated to Voodoo, providing an overview of many of the religion’s key elements and its importance to the wider culture and society of Haiti.

Voodoo, usually written as “Vodou,” has much in common with other religions of the African diaspora, such as the previously-mentioned “Pocomania” folk religion of Jamaica. However, it is not to be conflated with the similar but distinct religion of Louisiana Voodoo in the Southern United States. Voodoo is highly syncretic: It has roots in the traditional religions of West Africa, which were brought to the New World by enslaved peoples and developed under the influence of European Catholicism. It is a religion with no centralized ecclesiastical order, although houngans and mambos must undergo rigorous training and a series of spiritual rituals to ascend to priesthood, regardless of whether their position is inherited or not.

Hurston’s description of the compound of Dieu Donnez in Chapter 12 shows the importance of hounforts as centers of community and culture, and the high social status which is afforded to Voodoo’s religious leaders.