No Frames Navigation Info Also Vodou, Vodoun or Vodun. A religious system with followers predominantly in Haiti in the West Indies, and in other countries to which Haitians have immigrated. Developed by African slaves brought to Haiti by the French between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, it combines features of African religion with the Roman Catholicism of the European settlers. Voodoo is similar in many ways to other Afro-American cults, such as Santeria in Cuba and Macumba in Brazil. The term voodoo is thought to be derived from the word for 'spirit' in the Fon language of Dahomey, now part of Nigeria.
Most voodoo practices involve the loa, which are often identified with Catholic saints.
Voodoo rites include special ceremonies in which the loa have the power to make their presence known. These are characterized by music and dancing that lead the participants into a trancelike state in which they are possessed by the loa. The spirit temporarily displaces the astral body of the possessed person and occupies his or her physical body. The individual thus possessed is said to be mounted by the loa and behaves and acts as the loa directs, usually in a man ner characteristic of the loa itself. Priests called houngans or priestesses known as mambos preside over these ceremonies.