Voodoo and the Princess and the Frog: Demonizing the Shadow Man
I’m going to start by saying that I love Princess and the Frog. I love Tiana. I love Lotte. I love Naveen. I love the look and feel and sound of this movie.
However, I find Dr. Facilier to be a really problematic element in this story. Please, do keep in mind that I am white and from a traditionally christian family (though I myself an atheist) What I know of Vodun, Hoodoo, Yoruba, and other African Diaspora religions is based on research and classes I have taken. If I fuck something up, PLEASE let me know, and I will correct it.
Dr. Facilier is the main villain of Princess and the Frog. He is a “shadow man”, a voodoo user with bad intentions. His “friends on the other side” are portrayed as shadowing demons, out for human souls.
For anyone who grew up in our culture, these stereotypes about Voodoo should be old news. We know the score. Voodoo dolls and black magic, right? Evil scary swamp witches and shit.
Except, what many people sadly don’t seem to know is that Voodoo (more accurately called Vodun) is a REAL religion. It, like Hoodoo, is born from religions such as Yoruba and other African Diaspora religions brought to the Caribbean and Americas by newly enslaved West Africans.
Vodun, like Christianity, is a religion of many traditions. Each group follows a different spiritual path and worships a slightly different pantheon of spirits, called Loa. The word means “mystery” in the Yoruba language.
Voodoo experienced heavy influence and even some synchronization with Roman Catholicism in the “new world.” It was a link for many enslaved people back to Africa, to their families, their heritage, even generations after the initial trans-atlantic voyage.
However, slave owners wanted their slaves to be a Christian (and thus disconnected with their heritage) as possible, ESPECIALLY after the Haitian revolution (which was sparked by a Vodoun Priest named Dutty Boukman)
Slaves were baptized into the Roman Catholic Church upon their arrival in Haiti and other West Indian islands. However, there was little Christian infrastructure present during the early 19th century to maintain the faith. The result was that the slaves largely followed their original native faith. This they practiced in secret, even while attending Mass regularly.
An inaccurate and sensational book (S. St. John, “Haiti or the Black Republic”) was written in 1884. It described Vodun as a profoundly evil religion, and included lurid descriptions of human sacrifice, cannibalism, etc., some of which had been extracted from Vodun priests by torture. This book caught the imagination of people outside the West Indies, and was responsible for much of the misunderstanding and fear that is present today. Hollywood found this a rich source for Voodoo screen plays. Horror movies began in the 1930’s and continue today to misrepresent Vodun. It is only since the late 1950’s that accurate studies by anthropologists have been published.
Other religions (Macumba, Candomble, Umbanda and Santeria) bear many similarities to Vodun.
Facilier shows very little in common with REAL Vodun beliefs. We do not see him worship the Loa (unless we are to assume that his demonic ‘friends on the other side’ are supposed to be these deities).
Instead, Facilier is simply another in a long line of demonized, heavily stereotyped and racist portrayals of this religion in the mainstream media, and that is profoundly disappointing. Though, from Disney, not surprising.
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theluminouscosmos 