The Tour Erasing Hollywood’s “Voodoo” Whitewash

“Stay out the cemeteries and away from those voodoo priestesses,” my cautious aunt warned over the phone. My white Jetta was pulling onto the 10 freeway — a route I’d taken countless times in my life as a Southern Californian. But on this occasion, I wasn’t creeping toward the Pacific. I was cruising above, quite literally, a Southern swamp.

I understood her concern. I was in her native Louisiana, where vodou — often misspelled and misunderstood as voodoo — is a sensitive topic among many Black folks. But there was an undeniable tension between her fears and my assignment. I was in Orleans Parish to better understand vodou: what it is, what it isn’t, and whether the fear and stigma surrounding it were ever truly warranted.

Answers came in the form of Robi, a Haitian and Louisiana Plantation vodou priest with enough charisma to make the word feel inadequate. Robi is an unapologetically Black, openly gay man who is more informed, eloquent, quick-witted, and disarmingly omniscient than most people I’ve met. During his walking tour through Tremé — the historic Black neighborhood just outside the French Quarter — he’s just as likely to playfully flirt with a guest’s partner as he is to call out the “bootleg” voodoo shops hustling tourists in the Quarter.

His advice for spiritual shoppers? If a shop is selling voodoo dolls with ‘Made in China’ tags, it’s probably not the real deal.

Sepi has taken Robi’s tour multiple times and considers it essential for travelers seeking culturally immersive, conscious experiences. Robi breaks down the history of vodou with humor and clarity, exposing the whitewashing and Hollywood distortion of a West African spiritual system. He reminds guests that even the word “voodoo” is largely a Western invention. In Haitian vodou (or vodou in Louisiana), the term translates to spirit, god, or light — a definition worlds away from the demonic, sacrificial image most Americans carry.

Robi’s hour-long tour is as layered as the religion itself. He threads together history, pop culture references (think American Horror Story), and tales of legendary figures like Marie Laveau — a New Orleans icon more myth than documented reality. Stories about Laveau range from the plausible to the provocative: aiding escaped slaves, eavesdropping through beauty shop gossip, even swamp rituals involving ritual sacrifice. Whether truth or lore, the mythos around her reflects the cultural weight vodou carries in New Orleans history.

By the end of the tour, most guests walk away not only with greater understanding, but with a radical reframing of what vodou actually is — and why it’s been so demonized. In just a few minutes, Robi makes clear that vodou is not about darkness, but divinity.

The tour typically begins at The Archway at Armstrong Park, near Congo Square (a site we’ve also featured). To learn more or book a spot, visit Robi’s listing on the Tours By Foot website.