Vodou: Fact and Fiction

As it turns out, much of what you might read or watch about Voodoo is flat out wrong. The true Vodou religion asserts that there is one god, as many of the popular faiths already do, and actually has very little to do with zombies, magic spells and dolls with pins stuck in them. Or so says your professor, Dr Jean Desrameau.

"As early back as 1932, Vodou has been in the movies, and since day one it has been judged wrongly by racist and misguided filmmakers," declares the fifty-year-old gentlemen. He orates with fluent English, but the Haitian accent proves unshakeable, and at times during the lecture he noticeably stops trying to manage it.

A fellow student raises her hand and asks, "So none of all that stuff we see in movies ever really happened? There's no factual basis whatsoever?"

Dr Desrameau clears his throat before tackling the query. "I don't believe there is anything that exists that has -no- factual basis, but the truth is that Europeans looked at the wrong facts. Europeans confused myths of the locality with the religion of these same people."

Real Vodou might be interesting and all, but it's the "Voodoo" of lore and myth that's truly exciting: little magic dolls, lifeless yet animate zombies and who knows what else. Even though the class purports to cover both fact and fiction, Dr Desrameau has a kind of no-nonsense attitude, and might not cover much of the "unconventional" aspects of the subject at all. Still, there's no harm in asking, and if he rebukes you, the library is an excellent resource.