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imported post -
04-04-07, 08:41 PM
Unlike in the last post let me try to enlighten you about what I know of voodoo IN THE US.
First off like someone mentioned earlier, voodoo probably has direct roots to some form of religion in Africa...........
Africans brought to America during slavery time came from all over West and Central Africa....................
During the period of slavery, slave owners wereFORCED to "mix" or "breed" different tribes with one another........................
Because of thousands of African tribes "Mixing" together these people's descendants wereFORCED to learn ENGLISH as a standard form of communication(I don't think this"mixing" was encouragedanywhere else outside the US where slaves tended to come from 1 region in Africa anyway)..............
They were also were FORCED (at the least "encouraged) to convert to Christianity and accept the word of Jesus Christ.................
The only place in America that did not FORCE African intermixing was city of New Orleans and religious convertions, which most of the people were unlike most other places in the US, werefrom one African ethnic group which was Sengalese. New Orleans also had the largest FREE Black population in the US, which meant "free people" had at least some rights as to what religion/churches they wanted to participate in...........
This kind of FORCED assimilation was not limited to slaves and their descendants only. Europeans who happened to be Catholic were also "encouraged" (and not so gently) to become WASP. A good example of this is former president John F. Kennedy who most Southern Whites hated because he was Irish- CATHOLIC and they couldn't imagine having a "catholic" president.............
Descendants of Africans brought to America once freed never went back to speaking African tongues........................
Neither did they change their religion from Christianity to or back to Voodoo................
Voodoo TODAY, might still be practiced in places that had HUGE free black/African populations during slavery time because "freedom" would allow people to practice their own"African culture". However there was never such a place (again outside of New Orleans) in America. I've read that around 90% of all Blacks were in bondage/slavery in the US. Therefore they were not allowed to practiced all this Voodoo people are TRYING to claim is still present.............
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