By Jermaine Broadnax
Delta blues aka Hoodoo music is the language of the blues in the south. Its the magic of African derived religions as practiced in the United States. The term is related to the West African term “juju”. This culture was brought to the here by enslaved African peoples. Now prisoners of warfare, they would utilize “Hoodoo” as “an intricate system of magic, herbalism, & divination, to defend themselves from their opponents, or to cure their ailments.
Voodoo is not the same as Hoodoo. Voodoo came from an ancient spiritual system called “Vodun”. Hoodoo is the foundation of herbal medicines and magic practices, without any deity worshiping. Hoodoo is also called “conjuration” and “root-work.” It incorporates elements from African, European, and Indigenous religions and practices, and creates a culture out of it. An example is, the black American is not the same as the full blooded African. Black Americans have a mixed culture, history, and DNA. We are somewhat a remix of the original African. The same with Hoodoo, it is a remix of a west African culture. Same concept just changes in adapting, environment, and opposition.
Why was Voodoo looked at as bad?
The practice of voodoo focuses on (serpent worship). This is one of the reasons that Europeans in the western world were convinced that the practice of voodoo was the devil’s work. Because Europeans practiced the Christian bible, snakes were always seen as the devil in Genesis. The snake who lures “Eve” to betray God’s orders. The concept of Hoodoo, in a way, is to remove the snake deity, to take away the so-called devil aspect, that outsiders misunderstood.
Why did Hoodoo develop in Louisiana? Because the French owned the territory at the time, they would push catholic religions down the Africans throats, much worse than the British in the 13 colonies. Because the French were more strict on religion than the English, Africans living in New Orleans would be creative. They would mask their African religions with Christian overtones.
Zora Neale Hurston was the first black woman to make “Hoodoo culture” mainstream in the South, during the 30s. She would write about the history, the practice of it, evolving from a combination of African spirituality and Christian rituals that “African prisoners of war” would combine in the Americas. Zora pointed out in New Orleans, root-workers incorporated altars, holy water, and blessed oils from the Catholic church. While Zora embraced it, others such as W.E.B Dubois refereed to conjure as “that vein of vague superstition which characterizes the unlettered Negro even today”. In his book “The Souls of Black Folk W.E.B Dubois”.
Hoodoo introduced a form of “conjuring”. In the South, Africans used conjuring for protection, luck in love or wealth, or to kill ones rival or enemy. Enter Harlem World: During “The Great Migration” blacks from the south, brought magic to Harlem. An example of this is Memphis Minnie. She developed a reputation as a stunning & popular Rhythm & blues entertainer. Who would influence people such as She was an influence on later singers, such as Big Mama Thornton, Jo Ann Kelly & Erin Harpe. One of her more popular songs is “Hoodoo Lady”. Memphis Minnie remains an influential musician because of her inventive, rhythmic guitar playing that would inspire generations of stars after her.
Blues is the mother of most American music. Hoodoo in blues music were no different than the songs that Africans sang during slavery in the civil war, these songs had a double meaning, similar to the concept of Hoodoo. These slave songs would transition into folk music, once you added instruments(banjo) you now have America’s first country music, & delta blues. With the culture of Hoodoo in Louisiana, Delta Blues from Mississippi delta (B.B. King). Once this momentum traveled up north, it become a part of what we know as the “Harlem renaissance”.
Hoodoo Party, is a track written by Ernest “Tabby” Thomas. He utilizes the theme of black magic, even though, Tabby did not believe in it logically, he respected the energy that “Hoodoo” culture represented. So many blues songs such as Muddy Waters, (Willie Dixon) “Hoodoo Slim”, and John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson. Hoodoo Man,” by “Junior Wells”.
The reason “The Blues” were called ‘the Devil’s music’. Because some of the lyrics were raunchy, and most songs sexual relationships, drinking, love, blues was considered sinful, to societies standards. When people say rap and R&B is too explicit, it’s nothing new the foundations of Black Americans. No longer a negative stereotype of the early 1900’s, blues gave birth to Rock & Roll, Country music , Jazz, which blacks seldom receive original credit for, but it’s important to know, majority of the culture we practice today has a double meaning , much like the blues and Hoodoo.
