HOODOO

October is Hoodoo Heritage Month. It is a time that we, the descendants of slaves here in America, celebrate and honor the ancestors who came before us, and paved the way, despite the struggle, entrapment, brutality, and attempt to rip everything they knew away. One thing they would not allow was for the oppressor to strip them fully of their spiritual practices. “Hoodoo” is a marketed term because it is widely known. Hoodoo is not a religion, it is a way of life and that stemming from Ifa, Isese, the source of our ancestor’s traditions in Africa but in a VERY modified way. Our ancestors had to hide their TRUE understanding of how to access God and to “move mountains” for their liberation behind colonized and westernized ways for their own safety. But our communities knew, our families knew, our people KNEW we are… and it has been a time of awakening, acceptance and realization among us the descendants that we ARE who we ARE. I’m a very proud Oníṣẹ̀ṣe and bravely carry the legacy of my ancestors in its original form.

@mazdamiles

Oil painting by Reynier Llanes