Popular Culture Review Vol. 24, No. 2, Summer 2013 | Page 17

Correction of a Falsified Image: Creole Voodoo Voodoo. Depending on whom you talk to, it ’s a venerable religion, a sinister cult, entertainment, a unique slice ofN ew Orleans history, powerful magic or bunkum. Ron Bodin What is Voodoo Apart from what many people might believe, Voodoo is not a sinister cult. It has nothing to do with witchcraft or devil worship. It is nothing that should be feared! Voodoo is a religious faith that came to New Orleans as a result o f the Afiican slave trade in the early 18th Century and the Haitian slave rebellion o f 1791, a time during which many slaves escaped the island and fled to the Americas. Settling in New Orleans, slaves brought a foreign religion to a city and region whose French colonizers strictly followed the Catholic faith. In order to maintain and practice their own religion in a place where the Code Noir “regulated the Status o f slaves and free blacks,” the original form o f Voodoo needed to adapt to the enforced regulations (Louisiana’s Code Noir online). As a result, New Orleans Voodoo, also called Creole Voodoo, has become a unique blend o f African and Haitian