Reclaiming Hoodoo

Black girl magic been around a long time

Illustration by Kyle Griggs

The world has always had magic in it. Depending on the time and place, magic and the people who practice it have been known by various names: witch, wizard, folk magic, witchcraft, voodoo, rootworker, conjurer, hoodoo.

Black magic is not the same as blacks’ magic, but the confusion surrounding hoodoo persists. Many people equate hoodoo to black magic and all of the negative underlying implications, which may explain the fear that some associate with it.

But hoodoo is, in the plainest terms, simply magic.

People of the African diaspora have a long history with magic, starting with their diverse religious and cultural traditions. The transatlantic slave trade damaged the connection to their particular types of spirituality, but didn’t necessarily break it. As many Africans were transplanted to various areas around the globe, some of them forgot the magical ways of their homeland. Other times, they were stripped of it.

For many, their forced conversion to Christianity was to blame. Slave masters saw the superstitions of enslaved people as backwards and evil, in direct defiance of the Christian teachings they sought to impose on blacks. In some cases, this conversion to a new faith actually took root, but for others, they managed a surface…