Correction of a Falsified Image
15
so, the two films succeed in biending these characteristics with
unsolicited ideas for the sake o f dramatic effect. As a result, Hollywood,
once again, marginalizes the religion and its followers as being sinister,
secretive, evil, and fearful. It is, thus, the goal o f this article to
deconstruct Hollywood’s falsified Voodoo construct and to contribute to
a better understanding o f this monotheistic faith.
Voodoo Rituals
Derived from the African Ewe and Fon people from the Benin
region, Voodoo, which is sometimes spelled “vodou” or “vodoun” and
translated into “god” or “spirit,” is a religion o f ancestor worship that
incorporates many diverse rituals resembling those o f the African people.
According to the Voodoo tradition, ancestors never cease to be
connected to their relatives. Hence, the influence they had during their
lifetime continues after their death. It is this linkage between the living
and the dead that does not only “make up the very source o f [the
worshippers’ or believers’] being,” but that makes up the power o f the
religion (Osbey 9).
As Jeffrey E. Anderson States in his insightful monograph,
Hoodoo, Voodoo, and Conjure. A Handbook (2008), Voodoo rituals
combine ceremonies o f worship and initiation, in which “offerings,
dance, ritual drumming to summon the Iwa, and the drawing o f secret
images, called veve” play an important role (Anderson, Hoodoo 40).
Depending on regional customs, the honoring o f Voodoo’s supreme
deity— the Bondye —and o f its spiritual helpers - the-/w a2-ca n take
different forms. However, drumming, dancing, chanting, and wheat meal
or commeal drawings o f veve3 — symbolic representations o f the Iwa on
the ground— are always part o f any ceremony.
Honoring of the Gods and Spirits in a Voodoo Ceremony
In Chapter 14 o f the film Angel Heart, Alan Parker presents the
viewer a Voodoo ceremony, in which a small congregation unites in the
deep swamps o f Louisiana. In the dark, hidden behind oak trees covered
in moss \