Hurston: "Voodoo is a religion of creation and life" (Port-au-Prince area, 1936–37; published 1938)

SUMMARYHurston: "Voodoo is a religion of creation and life" (Port-au-Prince area, 1936–37; published 1938) [Connections: Ayiti spirit, first-person, Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDZora Neale Hurston, on a Guggenheim fellowship from September 1936, studied with houngans and wrote in Tell My Horse (1938; reprint with Ishmael Reed foreword), ch. 10, p. 113: "Voodoo is a religion of creation and life. It is the worship of the sun, the water and other natural forces," whose symbolism "is taken too literally"; p. 114: the gods are "not the Catholic calendar of saints done over in black as has been stated by casual observers." Of her teacher Dieu Donnez St. Leger: "He was extremely kind in allowing me to attend all of their ceremonies and in making explanations" (p. 139). On the Felicia Felix-Mentor case: "What is the truth about zombies?... I do not know." OUTSIDER-SYMPATHETIC witness (Black American anthropologist, first-person)

PATTERNA first-person fieldworker rejects the dark image and the "saints in blackface" theory

LENS (WW9)A sister of the diaspora went in and came back saying: creation and life

OPENHurston also wrote about the Petro gods as "terrible and wicked, but... more powerful" (p. 164); present her full picture

SOURCETell My Horse PDF; PBS American Experience.