Review for Rupture Magazine

By Carolina Nery

Introduction

The Brasil de Fato article “Entenda o vodu: séculos de preconceito ocidental estigmatizaram religião haitiana de resistência” (Cha Dafol & Rodrigo Durão Coelho, 20 September 2025) exposes the long history of Western prejudice against Vodou. More than a cultural critique, it speaks to a global pattern: the systematic erasure of African spiritualities, a strategy of colonial domination that has persisted into the present.

Vodou as a Target of Colonial Fear

The article documents how Western narratives — from Hollywood films to missionary rhetoric — have caricatured Vodou as witchcraft or demonic possession. This is not an isolated phenomenon but part of a wider arsenal of colonial control: to delegitimize African religions is to delegitimize the people who practice them. The same strategies were used against Candomblé in Brazil, against Santería in Cuba, against Orisha traditions across West Africa and its diaspora.

Vodou as Resistance

The article emphasizes Vodou’s role in the Haitian Revolution, when enslaved Africans invoked their spirits and ancestors at Bwa Kayman in 1791 to ignite the only successful slave revolt in modern history. This act of resistance terrified colonial powers precisely because it showed that religion could be a weapon of liberation. Vodou was, and remains, a collective force that binds communities, affirms life, and resists domination.

Erasure Across the African Diaspora

Here, the Brasil de Fato piece resonates with a broader truth: African religions have been subjected to centuries of demonization, criminalization, and erasure.

In Brazil, Candomblé terreiros were raided by police well into the 20th century. In the United States, Vodou and Hoodoo were recast as “superstition,” stripped of political meaning. Across the Caribbean, syncretic practices were tolerated only when masked under Catholic saints.

These processes are not relics of the past. They continue through Pentecostal attacks on Afro-Brazilian religions, media representations that reduce Vodou to “zombies,” and the racial capitalism that thrives on spiritual dispossession.

A Necessary Intervention

The strength of Dafol and Coelho’s article lies in its refusal to treat Vodou as folklore or curiosity. It names prejudice for what it is: a colonial legacy intertwined with racism. At the same time, it re-centers Vodou as a living, dynamic practice of resistance, not a relic, but a vital spiritual and political force.

For readers in the Global North, this is a wake-up call: to question the cultural lenses that distort Afro-diasporic religions, and to see how erasure operates not only in Haiti but globally.

Conclusion

The erasure of African religions is not accidental. It is a project of control that has lasted centuries, designed to undermine collective strength and to delegitimize alternative ways of being in the world. The Brasil de Fato article helps dismantle these lies, insisting on the dignity of Vodou and its role in shaping Haitian freedom.

To honor Vodou is to honor resistance itself.

Credits

Article reviewed: “Entenda o vodu: séculos de preconceito ocidental estigmatizaram religião haitiana de resistência” Authors: Cha Dafol & Rodrigo Durão Coelho Editor: Maria Teresa Cruz Published by: Brasil de Fato, 20 September 2025 Link: Brasil de Fato