I still remember the first time I sat with a Haitian man and heard him use the word “colon” in reference to the French colonizers in Haiti's history. At that moment, a philosophical, epistemological, spiritual, and pedagogical shift happened within me. I discovered that it is one thing to study the brutal history of colonization and be disturbed by it and its implications, both historically and today; it is quite another thing to sit with someone who lives with its devastating consequences on a daily basis, and yet who remains full of joy. In this case, the joy I saw grew directly from a spirituality that was born in the context of slavery. Out of that encounter grew my understanding that Haitian Vodou, both historically and in its contemporary expression, is a decolonizing religion, a spirituality that denounced the colonizers, or colons, and continues to provide a sustaining worldview of survival.

To represent Haitian Vodou in this way, I will explore issues that have been raised in postcolonial thinking around worldviews of domination and oppression, and I will set those in conversation with liberation elements in religion. The intersection of liberation perspectives in religious studies and postcolonial critique will provide a heuristic device for understanding Haitian Vodou as a decolonizing spirituality.