Vodou Syncretism

Religious syncretism exhibits blending of two or more religious belief systems into a new system, or the incorporation into a religious tradition of beliefs from unrelated traditions. In the case of Haitian Vodou, Vodou blends two or more religious beliefs into one system, therefore it can be characterized has syncretism.
Vodou is a syncretic system derived from deeply rooted African beliefs and colonial French Catholicism. As a reaction to being torn violently from their roots, the slaves tried to resume their cultural and religious traditions. Ancestral spirits were invoked and celebrated in secret, far from the master's eyes. The worship of saints and the Catholic sacraments served as a screen and a support for African beliefs. The creation …show more content…
Resistance to conversion was met with terrible violence, so Africans already saddled with the horror of being a slave would also suffer extra depreciations because they wished to celebrate their native religion. A solution fell into place though, and this solution was nearly identical all across the Americas. The Africans would pretend to convert to Catholicism, and secretly continue their religious traditions under the guise of Christian worship. Catholic symbols, like the Eucharist and the Saints, came to have double meanings. Initially this integration was purely functional, providing a cover of legitimacy for religions that were severely proscribed. Naturally, most Africans did not want to leave behind their old traditions. But after a few generations a real syncretism became part of the duality of beliefs of the slaves themselves, who soon found it possible to accommodate both religious …show more content…
The first one simply states that both fused together to make one. The second theory, symbiosis, explains that African elements and Catholic elements existed side by side as part of a mosaic, not having true fusion. The third theory, merely draped over the African dissimulation, states that Catholic elements of ritual were merely draped over the African ones in efforts to conceal traditional religious practices in an environment that was hostile to their survival. The last theory is what I think explains this scenario the best. Vodou is more closely related to African traditions than the Catholic faith; Vodou just used the Catholic faith as a disguise. I believe if the Catholic faith was not there, it Vodou could have still emerged under Islam or Judaism, but it would have been much harder since the two latter religions are not as universal as