Hoodoo

Hoodoo refers to African traditional folk magic. A rich magical tradition which was for thousands of years indigenous to ancient African botanical, magio-religious, and folk cultures, its practice was imported when mainly West Africans were enslaved and transported to the United States, in America.

Hoodoo is used as a noun and is an English phonetic approximation of the Ewe word Hudu which still exists today. Hoodoo is often used in African-American vernacular to describe a magic "spell" or potion, or as a descriptor for a practitioner (hoodoo doctor, hoodoo man or hoodoo woman), or as an adjective or verb depending upon context. The word can be dated at least as early as 1891.* Some prefer the term hoodooism, but this has mostly fallen out of use. Regional synonyms for hoodoo include conjuration, conjure, witchcraft, or rootwork. (cf. Harry M. Hyatt, "Hoodoo-Conjure-Witchraft-Rootwork," a 5 volume compendium on the subject, published in the 1970s.) An amulet characteristic of hoodoo is the mojo, often called a mojo bag, mojo hand, conjure bag, trick bag, or toby; this is a small sack filled with herbs, roots, coins, sometimes a lodestone, and various other objects of magical power.