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

Getting Better with Jonathan Van Ness

Sony Music

Comedy, Society & Culture, Education, Self-improvement

4.9 • 21.6K Ratings

🗓️ 15 June 2023

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What’s it like to enter a religious or spiritual space as a queer person? In Haitian Vodou, the divinities are ready to accept LGBTQIA+ practitioners—and are arguably queer themselves. In part two of our Pride Beyond Borders episode about this African diasporic religion, Professor Eziaku Nwokocha takes us into one of Manbo Maude’s temples to better understand this spiritual practice, and how its practitioners navigate questions of race, gender, and sexuality. Curious for more? Check out part one of our conversation with Professor Nwokocha, where we get down to basics on Haitian Vodou and Haitian history. Revisit the first episode from our Pride Beyond Borders series, all about global drag cultures, with Professor Kareem Khubchandani. And learn all about New Orleans history in parts one and two of our episode with Dr. Kathryn Olivarius! 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. Curious about bringing your brand to life on the show? Email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com. 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.
0:36.8	Welcome to Getting Curious. I'm Jonathan Van Ness and every week I sit down for a gorgeous
0:41.5	conversation with a brilliant expert to learn all about something that makes me curious. It's Pride Month
0:47.1	and we love Pride Month, so we are celebrating Pride Beyond Borders, and today we're exploring
0:52.7	gender, sex and sexuality through the world of Haitian Vodu. In part one of our conversation,
0:59.1	we covered the basics of Haitian Vodu, Haitian history, and the world of Mamba Mode. Today we'll
1:05.5	be going in depth on what Haitian Vodu has to do with queerness. Welcome back to the show
1:12.8	as Yaku Wokocha, who is an assistant professor at the University of Miami. She's a scholar of
1:19.2	Africana religions with expertise in the ethnographic study of Vodu in Haiti and the Haitian diaspora.
1:26.5	Her new book, Vodu in Vogue, Fashioning Black Divinities in Haiti and the United States is published
1:32.8	by the University of North Carolina Press. Sidebar, the title of your book literally gives me chills
1:39.9	on my queer quadriceps, my queer triceps. It's so good. How are you? I'm doing well. Can I just say,
1:48.1	I just think that when we think about embodiment and we think about how our writing is political and who
1:55.2	we are is invested, like I put not just so much time. I say I have dreams of engaging with the
2:01.0	spirits. I have dreams of talking to my ancestors when I was writing. I just want to tell everyone,
2:06.8	you're getting a piece of me and even the title that you love so much, I got this one orgasm.
2:11.3	So I'm telling everybody, you're welcome. Yeah, it was mid orgasm where I was like, oh,
2:16.3	I got the title and I have to pause and then I had to tell them. I have to fucking write a
	...

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