Voodoo, Hoodoo and African Traditional Healing: What Is the Difference?

Clients from New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Lafayette often ask me, “Nahabu, do you do voodoo?” or “Is what you do the same as hoodoo?” It is a fair question in a state where Voodoo is part of local history and hoodoo is part of many family traditions. The honest answer is no: I am an African traditional healer. All three paths grew from African spiritual knowledge, but each has its own history and way of working. Here is the difference between voodoo, hoodoo and African healing, explained simply and with respect for each tradition.

Voodoo, Hoodoo & Healing

What is Louisiana Voodoo?

Louisiana Voodoo is a religion. Its roots are in West African Vodun, carried to Louisiana by enslaved Africans in the 1700s and strengthened when many people arrived from Saint-Domingue (today’s Haiti) in the early 1800s. In New Orleans it mixed with Catholic saints and local customs. Its best-known figure is Marie Laveau, the nineteenth-century Voodoo priestess of New Orleans whose name is still honoured today. Voodoo has its own spirits, priests, priestesses and ceremonies.

What is hoodoo?

Hoodoo, also called rootwork or conjure, is not a religion but a folk spiritual practice of African American communities across the South. Many people who practise hoodoo are Christian. It works with roots, herbs, oils, candles, prayers and Bible psalms for love, luck and protection. In Louisiana, hoodoo and Voodoo have lived side by side for a long time, which is why people often mix up the two words.

What is African traditional healing?

African traditional healing is what I practise. It comes directly from the continent, where traditional healers have served their communities for centuries. In Southern Africa a healer may be called a sangoma or inyanga; in Uganda, where I also have an office, a healer is an omusawo. The gift usually comes through the ancestors. A traditional healer reads a person’s life, finds the spiritual cause of a problem and works with natural herbs, the ancestors and his gifted powers to heal it. Read the full guide: what is African traditional healing.

The three side by side

• Louisiana Voodoo: a religion with spirits, clergy and ceremonies, rooted in West African Vodun and shaped in New Orleans.
• Hoodoo: a folk practice of roots, herbs, candles and prayer, used by many Southern families, often alongside Christian faith.
• African traditional healing: a healer with an ancestral gift who reads your situation and does the spiritual work personally, at his shrine, with herbs and the ancestors.

What they share

All three respect the ancestors, see a spiritual side to everyday problems and use natural things — herbs, roots and water — in their work. That shared root is why many Louisiana families feel at home with African traditional healing. As I wrote in get your ex back in New Orleans, many clients there already understand that a broken love is a matter of the spirit as well as the mind.

Shop kits or a personal reading?

Many people in New Orleans first try candles and love kits from a shop. These can carry meaning in their own tradition, but a kit is the same for everyone. In my work, nothing begins until I have read your situation: your bond, the other person and what stands between you. Then the work is prepared for you alone. See what traditional love rituals involve.

How Louisiana clients work with me

I do not have an office in Louisiana. My clients across the state, from New Orleans and Baton Rouge to Shreveport and Lake Charles, work with me privately on WhatsApp. You send your names, date of birth, photo and palm picture; I read, explain what I see and, when needed, do the work in your absence. More on my Louisiana page.

My honest word

I respect Voodoo priests, rootworkers and every sincere healer. I only speak for my own path. I am a healer, not the Almighty, so I never promise 100% results, and I never send curses or harm anyone. What I offer is a clear reading, clear spiritual advice and my full gift when work is needed.

Questions about voodoo and hoodoo

Psychic Nahabu

Traditional healer with psychic abilities, originally from Uganda. Main office in Bryanston, Johannesburg, with an office in Kampala. I offer private love and relationship consultations to clients in Louisiana and across the USA, Australia, France and Singapore. More about me.