Voodoo and Hoodoo: The Craft as Revealed by Traditional Practitioners

by James Haskins

Reveals the stories and secrets of hoodoo doctors, voodoo women, and conjurers who serve the adherents of voodoo and hoodoo through North America

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Occult, Spirituality, History, Mythology

226 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1990

About the author

Haskins, James (1941–2005), author of nonfiction books for juveniles and adults, biographer, educator, critic, editor, and educational consultant. Born into a large family in a racially segregated middle-class section of Demopolis, Alabama, where he was not allowed to visit the town's public library, James S. Haskins was deeply affected by the swirl of events related to the mid-century civil rights movement. He received his bachelor's degree in history at Alabama State College, but limited career opportunities in the South in the early 1960s led him to seek employment in New York City. Two years of selling newspaper advertisements and working as a Wall Street stockbroker brought him to the realization that he was better suited for a career in education and thus he applied for a position in the New York City public school system. After teaching music at several locations, he found a job teaching a special education class at P.S. 92. Obsessed with the plight of his inner-city pupils, he was glad to discuss their problems with anyone who would listen, including a social worker who encouraged him to write his thoughts and experiences in a diary. This resulted in the publication of his first book, Diary of a Harlem Schoolteacher (1969), which was widely acclaimed. This initial success attracted the attention of major publishers who approached him to write books for children and adolescents.

An admitted need to reconcile social disparities and a desire to interpret events to young people and to motivate them to read and be influenced by accomplished individuals—particularly deprived youth whom he felt had far too few role models to read about—led him to author more than one hundred books on a diverse array of topics. Written for a general audience of juveniles, his titles include The War and the Protest: Viet Nam (1971), Religions (1973), Jobs in Business and Office (1974), The Consumer Movement (1975), Your Rights, Past and Present: A Guide for Young People (1975), Teen-age Alcoholism (1976), The Long Struggle: The Story of American Labor (1976), Who Are the Handicapped (1978), Gambling—Who Really Wins (1978), Werewolves (1981), and The New Americans: Cuban Boat People (1982).

Haskins launched his college teaching career in 1970 and continued lecturing on psychology, folklore, children's and young adult literature, and urban education at schools in New York and Indiana before landing a full-time professorship in the English department at the University of Florida at Gainesville in 1977. That same year he authored The Cotton Club, a pictorial and social history of the notorious Harlem night club, which seven years later was transformed into a motion picture of the same name directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

Among his books intended for adults or college-level readers are The Psychology of Black Language (1973) with Dr. Hugh Butts; Black Manifesto for Education (1973), which he edited; Snow Sculpture and Ice Carving (1974); Scott Joplin: The Man Who Made Rag-time (1978); Voodoo and Hoodoo: Their Tradition and Craft as Revealed by Actual Practitioners (1978); Richard Pryor, A Man and His Madness (1984); and Mabel Mercer: A Life (1988). He has contributed numerous critical essays and reviews to periodicals. Still, he is best known for his biographies, tailored for elementary and high school students. Most of these recount the triumphs of well-known contemporary African Americans, with whom many young people readily identify. The long list of persons he has profiled (often using the pen name Jim Haskins) include Colin Powell, Barbara Jordon, Thurgood Marshall, Sugar Ray Leonard, Magic Johnson, Diana Ross, Katherine Dunham, Guion Bluford, Andrew Young, Bill Cosby, Kareem Adbul-Jabbar, Shirley Chisholm, Lena Horne, and Rosa Parks. Biographies of prominent individuals who are not African American include Indira and Rajiv Gandhi, Shirley Temple Black, Corazón Aquino, Winnie Mandela, and Christopher Columbus.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good, short introduction to voodoo and hoodoo that is useful to the layman or to someone just beginning research on these practices. Haskins summarizes the origins of both practices in West African religions and does a good job of tracing their development in time. He discusses the influences of Roman Catholicism on voodoo as well as on some hoodoo practices. There is a large section of the book with recipes for spells that hoodoo practitioners have used for good or evil. The principle of like influences like looms large in hoodoo magic. Thus two sticks put together and pulled apart may represent separation. It is an interesting read.

There should have been more discussion of varieties of root doctor in the South--their practices are not uniform from region to region, although there are some similarities. Haskins also gives short change to the alleged precognitive powers of hoodoo practitioners, a power that looms large in some accounts of root doctors in the South. However, I recommend this book as a good introduction to voodoo and hoodoo, especially in the American context.

[Leila · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting book as the author has a trepidation towards Hoodoo/Voodoo practices. That said there is quite a collection of spells and workings that are older and provide a depth of understanding of what workings were and may still be valuable to those seeking the services of practitioners. He does provide some history, though there is an undercurrent of fear that is almost palatable in this book which flavored my experience with this book. I would recommend this as a piece that builds one's understanding of Hoodoo/Voodoo and how it is both seen as a tool for those in a community of people as well as something that is feared by those same people utilizing its practices/practitioners.

[Beaird Glover · Rating 5 out of 5]

History and How-to, conjures and mojo hands. A great introduction to hoodoo and voodoo: "...in primitive societies...the individual doesn't see himself as separate. Indeed, his very identity...is defined in terms of the people and the world around him. ... The soil, the rocks and mountains, the trees, the rivers are all believed to be inhabited by spirits--spirits that never knew human form." From this very solid foundation on how voodoo came to be, the author goes on to deliniate many spells and conjures, all the ingredients necessary to make gris-gris and mojo hands. Very entertaining and thoughtful book.

[Rebekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good general overview of the history and origins, as well as being pretty readable. Recommended research book.

[Sarah M · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was one of those "I need something to read because I'm bored" type books for me. It was an okay read. Personally, I would never read it again.

[Greg Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Received background on west african beliefs and practices. Determined there is not much written info on subject as is mainly passed by word of mouth through the generations.

[Destiny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative and I liked learning the interconnection Hoodoo and Voodoo have with African spirituality. The last couple of chapters revolve on examples of many different spells for a variety of wants to show how these religions use common household items as many practitioners could only practice in secret and with what little they have.

[Jerome Berglund · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential, riveting reading on a subject not enough material of this caliber is available discussing or exploring the rich and storied nuances of. Highly recommended classic work, enjoyable and illuminating for the young and old, laymen and scholar alike.