ShortHand: Haitian Vodou

RedHanded

True Crime

4.5 • 19.6K Ratings

🗓️ 1 May 2026

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Zombies, incantations and dolls full of pins… the version of voodoo that most of us get has been suffused with decades of Hollywood magic, and a dusting of light xenophobia.

But the reality of Haitian vodou is much more complex – and way more fascinating. So, how did slaves reconcile their own folklore and religions, with the Catholicism that colonisers were forcing down their throats? Who are the main lwa – or spirits – of vodou? And how can an offering of black coffee, rum and cigars help you to commune with the dead?

Find out in this week’s ShortHand!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello. Hello, I'm Surruti. Do we say this? I don't know. And woof. I'm Mabel. I'm Mabel.
0:18.5	I've got a very small dog in the studio with us. We do indeed.
0:21.4	But she's asleep.
0:22.9	She's very quiet, very well behaved.
0:25.7	I mean, don't dig it.
0:26.9	But I'm enjoying it.
0:28.0	If my words do that, I am going to feel as powerful as the people we talk about in this particular episode.
0:34.2	Queen of the Segway strikes again.
0:36.3	Cabal!
0:37.6	Cachow!
0:39.8	We do also have the soundboard in the studio today.
0:42.7	So there you go.
0:44.1	Right.
0:44.6	Today we are going to do an episode of shorthand that I am very, very excited about.
0:50.7	So as the saying goes, Haiti is 70% Catholic, 30% Protestant and 100% Voodoo.
0:59.0	I love that saying.
1:00.5	I actually forgot to put it in the Papadoc episode, so I had to start it.
1:03.2	That's okay.
1:03.9	Here with that.
1:06.2	But what is Haitian voodoo?
1:07.9	Where did it originate?
1:10.0	And what do practitioners of this hugely misunderstood
	...

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