Gothic "Voodoo" in Africa and Haiti
eTropic electronic journal of studies in the tropics May 30, 2019 Eric J. Montgomery 8 citations
The paper argues that both "Voodoo" religion (Vodun in West Africa and Vodou in Haiti) and the Gothic genre are misunderstood and wrongly conflated in popular culture. Elements central to the Gothic—supernatural characters, mystery, spirits—are also central to Vodun cosmology and liturgy, but equating the two distorts both. The authors contend that a racialized Eurocentric hegemony devalues Vodun by linking it to distorted Gothic tropes, ignoring that Vodun is an ancient organizing principle and way of life for millions. Rather than being a cognate of the "American Zombie gothic," Vodun offers a mode of survival and a way of seeing in an unpredictable world.