Serving tray with Invocatory Drawing for Legba

Penis Candles for the Vodou Gods Known as Gede

Roman Catholic Statue of Saint Cosmas and Damian

Dambalah flag

Haitian Vodou

Vodou is a religion of song, dance, prayer, spirit possession, animal sacrifice and healing practiced by the majority of the Haitian people and by many in the Haitian diaspora. Its roots lie in the Atlantic slave trade, which took hundreds of thousands of kidnapped western Africans to labor on the sugar plantations of Saint Domingue, […]

On Healing in the Afro-Atlantic Religions

Does religion teach us how to avoid suffering, or how to suffer and transcend? The Afro-Atlantic religions are often sought out by those who are suffering, and offer a philosophy of healing the whole person, with less regard for the Western dichotomy of physical and spiritual. This visual guided tour seeks to explore the following key questions: How are the gods and spirits called upon for healing? How do objects for ritual and healing specifically reflect their ambivalent abilities to both hurt and heal?