Setting the Record Straight re: Voodoo Dolls

Simbi Voodoo Altar Doll

There is so much misinformation about Voodoo dolls that I feel compelled to do a little educating of the masses. The following is my commentary on a discussion posted by Kenaz Filan at Planet Voodoo's Conjure Corner. The discussion is a valuable one because it brings to light much of the misinformation that abounds surrounding New Orleans Voodoo and Voodoo dolls in particular. The original discussion can be found here.  

               

Good discussion; unfortunately, many of your comments are misinformed. As a Creole woman born and raised in New Orleans practicing New Orleans Voodoo my entire life, as well as an academic who has studied the topic of doll magick from both an anthropological as well as a psychological perspective, I can tell you there is much more to Voodoo dolls than the same regurgitated information found on the internet and the various nonacademic articles. One need simply google "voodoo dolls" or "nkisi" and you will find pages upon pages of the same lines copied from Wikipedia sans any critical review of the information or related scientific literature or folklore.

Let me take each passage and explain.

1. Sticking pins in poppets to curse someone is almost exclusively a European practice. There are definitely some hair-raising African and African-American curses, but they are typically transmitted through the feet i.e. by sprinkling powder in your opponent's path or on his doorstep, or by getting some dust from her footprints and mixing it with various noxious substances. 

The issue of attributing native practices to European influence is nothing new. It is part and parcel of the process of colonization and a hegemonic culture. However, it is simply not true. While there are influences of European folk magic and European poppet magick on New Orleans Voodoo, this came after the practice was already in place in New Orleans. The practice was already here because the slaves came here directly from Africa and continued many of their traditions. They didn't "learn" it from the Europeans, they brought it with them. To quote a passage from my book Voodoo Dolls in Magick and Ritual:

"Among the slave population in Louisiana during the 18th and 19th centuries, image magick using dolls was commonplace. Image magick is a type of magick based on the concept of like attracts like and is discussed in greater detail in the chapter Voodoo Doll Magick. Archaic dolls bound with cat gut or twine and stuck with thorns and fish bones have been discovered on several Louisiana plantations. Some of these figural forms found among the slave population bore a striking resemblance to the bocio of Africa. The bocio figurines were aesthetically provocative empowerment objects produced primarily in the lower Western Africa regions of Benin and Togo. These figures were artistic assemblages as well as magickal objects, and would often have a variety of items attached to the figure. For example, personal items, cloth, rope, nails or tacks were driven into the figure to activate its power and invoke the spirit. According to Moreau de Saint Méry (1797), the Africans 'believed in magic and that the power of their fetiches have followed them across the sea…Little rude figures of wood or stone, representing men or animals, are for them things of supernatural power, and they call them garde corps (body guards). There are a number of Negroes who acquire absolute power over others by this means'” (Herskovitz, 1964, p. 221).

Foot track magick is another thing entirely and has nothing to do with activating the power of the gris gris through a doll, nor is it by any means the only mode of throwing a hex. Foot track magick is one technique in which gris gris can be employed, but again, not in the activation of a doll.

2. There WAS a Kongo tradition of sticking nails and pins into a power object (nkisi) but it was not intended for curses: rather, it was meant to wake up the spirit indwelling in the object.  This is partly true. You are assuming that the power object was a nkisi as opposed to a bocio or a fetish - each of which are power objects but used somewhat differently. Again,

"The bocio figurines were more than just scary looking magickal objects; they served a psychotherapeutic role as well. Traditionally, bocio were created in response to specific needs, and were believed to help people influence events in their lives for positive or negative ends. For example, bocio may be constructed for protection from illness, safety on the road, to promote success in economic matters, revenge, or fertility. It is easy to envision some of the reasons bocio may have been created and employed by slaves. For example, they may have been used for protection from abuse and brutality, safety for the family, revenge for abuse suffered at the hands of their masters, and/or to promote freedom from bondage. Obviously, bocio were a powerful means for psychological catharsis, as well as an effective tool for empowerment in the context of social and political crisis" (Alvarado, 2009).

And let me ask this question...if "it was meant to wake up the spirit indwelling in the object", just what was the nature of the spirit that was awakened? Do we know? If it is a garde, what is the function of a guardian if the one in which it serves is under constant attack? To bless everyone? I'm thinking probably not.

3. Gris-gris and mojo bags are generally built not to hex but to bring good luck to their owners. Well, it sounds good, but...not so much. The concept of gris gris is one topic that is rarely spoken of with any real accuracy. The emphasis by some New Orleans writers (myself included) on the positive aspects of gris gris is in part an attempt to dispel stereotypes. Gris gris is much more than a bag of herbs and curios. Gris gris is the making of the object, the object itself ( which by the way can be a bag or a doll or simply a handful of the right ingredients to be employed in a work),the words spoken to activate it, AND the work in action i.e. putting the gris gris on someone. And contrary to popular opinion, gris gris is not done solely for healing or positive purposes. I address this topic in my book Voodoo Dolls in Magick and Ritual:

"In New Orleans, which can be considered the contemporary hub of Voodoo dolls in America, they are created as gris gris (pronounced gree gree), a form of talismanic magick. The word gris means grey, denoting that which lies between black and white. Gris gris is both a noun and a verb, referring to a ritually prepared object such as a doll or a small cloth bag filled with magickal ingredients, as well as the act of working the gris gris (i.e. spell or charm). In New Orleans, there are four main categories of gris gris: love, power and domination, luck and finance, and uncrossing. These four categories are among the most commonly requested gris gris associated with Voodoo dolls."

A topic of debate I have observed among various people who claim to be authorities on New Orleans Voodoo is the argument about the origin and meaning of the word gris gris, as if it changes its use in the context of New Orleans Voodoo. While the concept of gris-gris is indigenous to Voodoo in the Benin region of Africa, the word is not. Originally spelled as “gre-gre” it derives from the Mande language groups a little to the north of Benin in what is today Senegal and Mali. With the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, it has become integrated into the Voodoo lexicon, specifically in Louisiana (Gandolfo). The spelling of the word morphed into a French spelling "gris gris" , meaning "grey grey". However you spell the word, gre gre or gris gris, the fact of the matter is that it describes a continuum of magicospiritual practices that goes from one end of the spectrum, i.e. black (negative & coercive), to the other, white (positive & manipulative). Simply put, puttin' the gris gris on someone ain't always a good thang...

4. So far as I know, there is only one fairly reliable tale connecting Marie Laveau to a doll - the records of a court trial wherein Mme. Laveau and another Voodoo Queen had a dispute over the ownership of an "ugly fetish" which was almost certainly a Kongo nkisi.  The issue I take here is with the reference to only one "reliable" source. Is the written word the only reliable source? According to who? There is a phrase for this type of statement and it is called "institutional colonization". Institutional colonization occurs when the dominant worldview is considered the legitimate platform from which all others are compared. As an anthropologist, I can say that this has been a huge issue and deficit over the years in the scientific community and is one reason I decided to become an anthropologist. Change was and is needed, and the only way that is going to happen is if more indigenous people and people of color and enlightened others enter the field and provide their worldviews. I am happy to report that there is a definite paradigm shift in the anthropological literature that requires us to consider the means of transmission of knowledge, i.e. oral tradition versus the written word, as legitimate in its own right, as opposed to in comparison to.

It is commonly believed among Voodooists of New Orleans that Marie Laveau not only single handedly made Voodoo into a legitimate business, gris gris and dolls were a major part of her business. My point here is that oral tradition has been maligned and relegated to a "myth" and "legend" by White people who have historically seen themselves as superior to indigenous people. Just something to think about.

5. This is a common way of charging a poppet in European witchcraft. While it can be quite effective, it once again owes more to European folk customs than African ones.  Not necessarily. If you look at the process by which the bocio is charged, it is similarly a process of focused intent. Like modern day Voodoo dolls, the process of creating a bocio was an empowering activity and sometimes involved more than one person. For example, there was the artist who created the raw figure, the diviner who activated the object by attaching a variety of personal items to the sculpture, and the client who uses it in a particular ritual context (see Blier, 1995 for an in depth discussion on this issue).

For those interested, take a moment to visit the Voodoo Doll Museum to see some examples of the various kinds of Voodoo dolls that exist.