Voodoo, or vodun (as it is often known in African countries), is a religion of Caribbean origin, developed in Haiti by peoples of African descent in response to the social, political, economic, and religious oppression consequent on transatlantic slavery. It originated largely against the background of both the remembered religious past of the slaves, primarily from Dahomey (since 1975, named Benin), and the rites of the Roman Catholic Church as propagated by the Spanish and French. It may be seen as an attempt to answer the age-old questions of the meaning and …