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neworleansvoudou · 9 years

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Initially posted on FB...

If anyone seriously believes we have disrespected Harry Hyatt then you simply cannot read. This is yet another instance of people trying to twist things to suit their own agenda. SATIRE ANYONE? The meme in question states: You might be an armchair hoodoo if your spirit guide is Harry Hyatt." Then I spell out but that's none of my business in the style of Harry Hyatt's Black vernacular. If people who are discussing us were actual academics, they would know that one of the main criticisms of Hyatt's work is his overdoing the Black vernacular, along with amateur folk data collection and reporting techniques. A good example of some of the problems found in the Hyatt collections include something as basic as the spelling of St. Expedite - Espidee, Espidy, 'Spedee, Espadee - these pronunciations are so close there is no need to write it in so many ways. A formally trained researcher would have used much fewer spellings and only if they were actual phonetically different sounding pronunciations. It is a researchers nightmare, I know because I spent time going through the entire five volumes to find all of the references to St. Expedite for my book. So, it is the amateur methodology that is the main point of criticism and even so, I have never said do not read Harry Hyatt, though I HAVE heard others say it. Neither I nor Carolina Dean have ever said Hyatt's work has no value. I use some of his work in our classes for Crossroads University, but I also use Katrina Hazard's Mojo Working and Zora Neale Hurston's work (among many more) because I believe in the value of African American narrative on an African American tradition. The content (Hyatt's); that is, the substance of the content, is not criticized and is appreciated- save for specific incidences of Hyatt's patronizing and sometimes incorrect interpretations of interviewee statements. I have always said that. So, stop the pseudo academia, high school antics, back and forth "reporting" and fact twisting and learn to read and comprehend, because I'm pretty sure that's a prerequisite for sound research. But that's none of my business.

For those who are interested however, taking a meme and turning into something it is not - because people choose to not read, not laugh, and not simply ask "hey, are you dissing Hyatt? Why?" - is evidence of exactly WHY we need to take a good look at ourselves in this illusion of a community. Satire provides an opportunity for this to happen in popular culture. It is headed off by people who are not interested in a real community, they are interested in "camps" and "cliques" and "popularity" and "competition" and "monopoly" and are guided by self-aggrandizing interests and pseudo scholarship. And lord knows what else motivates the need for discord. It is counterproductive and frustrating, and those of you who take pride in using a lighthearted and fun activity my friend and I are doing to misrepresent me and mine, go spend 6 years in graduate school, then come back and have a conversation with me. Or wait, no, go back to grade school and take a course on reading and comprehension. What, isn't that like second grade? Now where's that sweet tea...

More importantly, this kind of behavior has a detrimental effect on race relations and on the accuracy of reporting by practitioners of all races when confronted by outsiders. To illustrate, here is an excerpt from an article by a sister New Orleans native who expresses these very real sentiments well. Just substitute the word "hoodoo" for "voodoo" if you can't get the gist of the message (Southern Literary Journal, volume xliii, number 2, spring 2011). Let me warn you that it is uncomfortable to read, but please read it with an open mind. Try to understand where she is coming from, and why the kinds of ridiculous manipulations of a meme and subsequent tangential misrepresentations of those of us who were born and raised in the traditions, cause us to find it very difficult to truly discuss what 'it" is - and anyone from the various African and indigenous derived New Orleans traditions understands what I am referring to.

Why We Can't Talk to You about Voodoo Brenda Marie Osbey

"We who are natives of this City and count ourselves among the Faithful cannot talk with you, the outsider, about Voodoo. And that is unfortunate. Because in this highly complex, deceptively simple set of principles, beliefs and what-have-you, is much that could heal you of whatever it is in your life that needs healing. Could heal your whole life, probably. Because that’s what it really is all about. Your whole life. Not you personally, of course, but how the wholeness anyone and everyone should have can be restored, can restore one to oneself. But the very fact that you come asking after it means that you will never possess it, at least not in this lifetime. And certainly not from anything you might learn here. And besides, we honestly cannot talk with you about it anyhow.

You, of course, will tell us about the books you have read and the research you have done. None of which has anything to do with us or our beliefs. We will smile sympathetically as we always do at such defenses, which we recognize as the pleas for belonging that they are. Or perhaps you are a modern-day Latin — by which we mean that you are descended not from our oppressors of past centuries, but from the same oppression wreaked throughout the islands and inlands of what is now called Latin America. In other words, a cousin of sorts. In which case you will go on about Santería, which you will not call by its name, Santería, but, in hushed tones, “the saints” — as if the pope might have his spies nearby.

As if the pope’s spies had nothing better to do than loll about eavesdropping over iced coffees in New Orleans. You will go on about it and about your “love of Africa”; but what we will notice is your affection for things European. And how you use that word “European” as an adjective for all that is good not only about our City but about yourselves. You drop it like a compliment, without warning. We notice that although you come from the “race-less, class-less” worlds just next door to us, you will go on, at length, about color and texture and shapes of skin and hair and lips and noses. We will note with not a little shame the specific physical transformations you have foisted upon yourselves and freely recommend to us. By the time you return to “the saints,” in other words, we will have begun to wonder if the pope’s spies might not be needing their coffees topped. (Perhaps, for the sake of good manners, we ought to invite them to join us at the club this evening to hear our favorite bassist and his new trio.) You will notice our attention waning and become defensive. (In another age we would say, “why not?”) You will attempt to lure us with comparisons. “The drums!” (your voice rising now) “where are the drums?!” (“In Congo Square,” we might offer, “every Sunday for the last few centuries.”) But we have heard all this before and so will offer more coffee — water? rum? sweets perhaps? Anything to take the edge off your confusion. And shut the door on that endless yammering.

None of this, of course, will satisfy you. Still, we will do whatever we can to put you at ease. You are, after all, a not too distant relation, and we feel for your discomfort. In the end, however, we will tell you nothing you care to hear. You will leave perhaps a little triumphant. But in a matter of hours, perhaps a day or two, some dis-ease will come over you and you will seek us out again. You will be calmer but no less unhappy. And we are sorry, truly sorry, for your distress. But we cannot help. We really cannot talk to you about it. Perhaps you should, finally, go home."

Copyright restrictions prohibit me from posting the entire article for public consumption, but check it out in your local or online library.

#armchairhoodoo #armchairhoodoos #hoodoo #conjure #rootwork #voodoo #new orleans voodoo #new orleans

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