How 'voodoo' became a metaphor for evil

'Voodoo' has come to represent something evil when it appears in popular culture. 'Black magic', witchcraft – it's always portrayed as something to be feared. But in reality, Vodou, as it's correctly written, is an official religion practised by millions of people. Why has it been vilified for so long? Josh Toussaint-Strauss looks back over the history of Vodou and its portrayal to find an answer Subscribe to The Guardian on YouTube ► https://ift.tt/16bR3Lu Support the Guardian ► https://ift.tt/2VEEwKb Today in Focus podcast ► https://ift.tt/2D74a4z Sign up for the Guardian documentaries newsletter ► https://ift.tt/2feoDdN The Guardian ► https://ift.tt/1AFLGzy The Guardian YouTube network: Guardian News ► https://www.youtube.com/guardianwires Guardian Football ► https://www.youtube.com/user/GuardianFootball Guardian Sport ► http://www.youtube.com/c/GuardianSportVideo Guardian Live ► https://www.youtube.com/user/guardianmembership Guardian Culture ► https://www.youtube.com/guardianculturearts Further reading: Haiti Unbound: A Spiralist Challenge to the Postcolonial Canon https://ift.tt/36aHCho Desire and Disaster in New Orleans: Tourism, Race, and Historical Memory https://ift.tt/2V2bmGI Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to Present https://ift.tt/2lBBass Why Can’t Black Witches Get Some Respect in Popular Culture? https://ift.tt/3l8z6nf The Appropriation of Magic: How White People Demonised Voodoo https://ift.tt/3fATbkS 200 Years of Forgetting: Hushing up the Haitian Revolution https://ift.tt/3q3Uv4E The Haiti Reader: History, Culture, Politics https://ift.tt/2IZGZL4 Yorùbá Influences on Haitian Vodou and New Orleans Voodoo https://ift.tt/3fCE1LT From 'Voodooism' to 'Vodou': Changing a US Library of Congress Subject Heading https://ift.tt/3l8M4S2 Perceptions of New Orleans Voodoo: Sin, Fraud, Entertainment, and Religion https://ift.tt/2Jfd2Ki