What's Haitian Vodou? (Part One) with Professor Eziaku Nwokocha

Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness

Sony Music

Science, Self-improvement, Comedy, Education, Society & Culture

4.9 • 21.5K Ratings

🗓️ 14 June 2023

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A spiritual practice that has a divinity dedicated to the protection of lesbians?! Tell us more! This week, for our Pride Beyond Borders series, we’re exploring the world of Haitian Vodou in a special two-part episode. In this first half, Professor Eziaku Nwokocha introduces us to this African diasporic religion, and Haitian history. In part two, out tomorrow, we’ll step into the world of Manbo Maude’s temples in Haiti and the US to learn about Haitian Vodou rituals and fashions, and what this practice has to do with queerness. Curious for more? Check out the first episode from our Pride Beyond Borders series, all about global drag cultures, with Professor Kareem Khubchandani. Eziaku Nwokocha is an Assistant Professor at the University of Miami. She is a scholar of Africana religions with expertise in the ethnographic study of Vodou in Haiti and the Haitian diaspora. Her research is grounded in a thorough understanding of religions in Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States, in gender and sexuality studies, visual and material culture and Africana Studies generally. She is the author of Vodou en Vogue: Fashioning Black Divinities in Haiti and the United States (University of North Carolina Press, 2023), which is an ethnographic study of fashion, spirit possession, and gender and sexuality in contemporary Haitian Vodou, exploring Black religious communities through their innovative ceremonial practices. This book is featured within the series Where Religion Lives. You can follow Professor Nwokocha on Twitter and Instagram at @dr_zaku, and at eziakunwokocha.com. Follow us on Instagram @CuriousWithJVN to join the conversation. Jonathan is on Instagram @JVN. Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com. Find books from past Getting Curious guests at bookshop.org/shop/curiouswithjvn. Our executive producer is Erica Getto. Our producer is Chris McClure. Our editor is Andrew Carson. Production support from Julie Carrillo and Emily Bossak. Our theme music is “Freak” by QUIÑ; for more, head to TheQuinCat.com. Curious about bringing your brand to life on the show? Email [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Dr. Karen from the referral podcast here just dropping into bus yet another myth,
0:04.6	but this time it's not medical. Now it's a common misconception that a TV licence is just for
0:10.1	watching stuff on a TV, rather than a laptop or a phone, and you only need it if you're watching
0:14.8	BBC content. This is false information. The licence gives you access to over 400 live TV channels too,
0:22.2	for around 44 p a day. You can get your licence and find out more info at www.tvl.co.uk slash unipod.
0:37.3	Welcome to Getting Curious. This is Jonathan Van Ness. It is pride. We love pride. It's one of our
0:42.5	favorite things, and this pride we are celebrating queer culture. Because queer culture is so much
0:48.5	more than the people that legislate against us. Queer culture is joy, it's spirituality,
0:53.0	it's movement, it's art, it's literally everything that culture is and honey we are staying in the
0:58.4	joy. For our latest installment, we're exploring gender, sex and sexuality through the world of
1:04.4	Haitian Vodu. Yes, Queen. Asiyaku Wokoccia is an assistant professor at the University of Miami.
1:11.7	She is a leading scholar of Africanna religions with expertise in the ethnographic study of Vodu
1:17.5	in Haiti and the Haitian diaspora. Her new book, Vodu in Vogue, Fashioning Black Divinities in Haiti
1:25.6	and the United States is published by the University of North Carolina Press. Can I just say, Asiyaku,
1:31.4	that literally gave me the chills. That gave me the chills. How are you today?
1:37.5	I'm doing fabulous. I'm doing fabulous. Once you go down my educational background,
1:42.9	being a Santa Barbara Harvard pen in Princeton, I was like, just, I did that shit.
1:47.9	And so I feel, you know, those moments where everything is colliding together and you feel like
1:52.4	you're, you are where you need to be. I'm really, really excited. I'm like, I've been about
1:58.5	that life and now I'm like, it's about the time that we get to see like everything come to fruition.
2:03.7	So I'm really happy. Now, I hate to go off script this early in the podcast, but we have, I feel
2:11.6	that we have this relationship already. It's done. And obviously, this is audio, but we can see
	...

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