history,development,cultural significance of voodoo in United States

These common elements in the western joined States Afri gutter holinesss became the basis for the practice of voodoo as it later developed in the New World.

The voodoo religion as it exists in America first took hold in the area of Haiti. The westernmost African slaves who were brought to the sugar plantations in Haiti soon suitable their native beliefs to the circumstances which awaited them in the New World. Today, the vodun religion of Haiti, which is strongly found on the principles of spirit possession profound to voodoo, has become a stronghold for the practice of voodoo throughout the world. At the same time, however, the beliefs of voodoo have also unfold to various areas of the Americas beyond Haiti. Thus, during the time that vodun was being developed in Haiti, other nearby nations also experienced the growth of " surreptitious African assemblies . . . organized with a blending of the various African beliefs and practices" (Barrett 179). As a result, the santeria belief of Cuba, the umbanda belief of Brazil, and the cumina belief of Jamaica, every bear relationship to the vodun religion of Haiti. All of these diverse faiths can be traced to voodoo-based beliefs which originated among the tribes of Western Africa.

It may be noted that the West African beliefs of the slaves were merged with the Christian beliefs of their masters soon af

Deren, Maya. Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti. 1953. New York: McPherson, 1983.

" hoodoo in Mexico." U. S. News and World Report 24 April 1989: 16.

Kahaner, Larry. Cults that use up: Probing the Underworld of Occult Crime. New York: Warner Books, 1988.

Barrett, Leonard E. "The African Heritage." cyclopedia of the American Religious Experience. Vol. 1. Charles H. Lippy and Peter W. Williams, eds. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988. 171-186.

During the 1970s, many dusky Americans in urban centers such as New siege of Orleans and Harlem began to develop organized cults based on the practices of voodoo. For example, the African theological Archministry was founded in 1973 by a chemical group of voodoo practitioners in Harlem.

The leader of this group, Walter Eugene King, later moved the organization to a inelegant area of South Carolina. There, the group built the Oyotunji African Yoruba Village, which is based on the design of a West African village. of completely the voodoo religious groups in the United States, the African theological Archministry shows perhaps the strongest solidarity among its members. In this regard, recent reports have indicated that more than cc voodoo believers currently live in the Oyotunji African Yoruba Village, and that the group also maintains 19 affiliated centers throughout the United States, with "a reported 10,000 members" (Melton 802). Other voodoo-based religious groups in the United States let in the Afro-American Vodun in Harlem, the First Church of Voodoo in Knoxville, Tennessee, the Religious Order of Witchcraft in New Orleans, and the sleeping accommodation of Holy Voodoo which teaches the practices of African religion by way of life of correspondence courses (802-803). All of these organizations were founded during the 1970s, a period of great apparitional experimentation in America, during which many such cult faith groups were established throughout the country. During the 1980s, the influence of voodoo in the United States
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