Against the Commercialization of Hoodoo and Death Work

As a hudu “hoodoo”, it has been a well known fact that the rise of hoodoo traditions, culture, and practices have been under ongoing attack by vast commercialization, appropriation, and erasure for generations. The history of hoodoo began as an underground syncretic botanical mysticism and science that was mostly practiced in secret as a survival technique in the midst of racial and economic terror descendants of slaves in the deep south were experiencing. It was birthed in hideaway places, such as sheds and basements, of its practitioners and was given its name by outsiders who belonged to the white and/or capitalist gaze. People of all racial backgrounds and ethnicities have grown an interest in the mystic traditions of the Black South and want to dip their feet in the sacredness of its long traditions. Hoodoo is a religion and spiritual practice of survival, and during this era of heightened economic decline, political-racialized terror, and mass environmental decay; it is no surprise that folks in mass are returning to an animistic religion and practice to find belonging and answers.

As a hudu (hoodoo) who has recently ventured into death work as a “death doula” in a more “formal” manner, it is also frightening to witness the same thing happen to the “field” of death work. A deep and individual commercialization of death work, its knowledge, and its sacredness is on the rise. But that is no surprise, since the beginning of this ongoing pandemic we have all collectively experienced and continue to experience mass death. Death permeates every facet of our social, personal, and political lives. The precipice of a new world and new way of being sit at our doorsteps as authoritarian and reactionary politics manifest on a federal, local, and communal level. Liberal fascism abounds. During such a “dark” time; those who do “dark” work are being called upon to make sense of this ongoing political and societal transformation.

With this ongoing rise and interest in hoodoo and death work comes with it opportunists who seek financial and/or social and political gain. In my spiritual, political, and social opinion as a lumpen black practitioner of hoodoo and death work who works in a communal and familial capacity; I believe that its is the role of the “hudu” to remain steadfast in the fight against individual commercialization of death work and practices, gatekept knowledge, professionalization, appropriation, and erasure. Being a member of the Dunbar Creek Collective has provided insight into the ways in which (neo)capitalist tendencies ravage the inherently communal practices of both hoodoo and death work.

I came across the use of the word “hudu” in virtual community with other lower-class, lumpen, queer, neurodivergent, and/or mostly dark skinned anarchic black radicals. I did not coin the term but however find home in the spelling and usage of the term. A turn away from Hoodoo towards “hudu” is a representation of the push against identifying with the heightened erasure, commercialization, and appropriation of the practice of Hoodoo. Time and time again in the growing visibility of organizations, businesses, and collectives that practice and/or sell Hoodoo back to their customers and followers one can examine a prioritization of colorist, classist, and capitalist tendencies and practitioners. It is appalling. Lighter-skinned racially ambiguous hoodoos are made more visible and (neo)capitalist and classist practices abound. The racial and economic caste that penetrate the work of hoodoos is deeply disappointing. “hudu” was birthed in resistance to this ever evolving capitalist complex entrenched in desirability according to the white gaze and should remain that way. Resistance to capture by the aristocratic plantation owning capitalist class is intrinsic to the practice of hoodoo. One cannot be a capitalist and be a hoodoo. “hudu” challenges and pushes away from the constant evolution of Hoodoo that betrays its original roots and seeks to maintain its original tradition of resistance to the colonial-fascist social order.

Death work driven by individual profit has become one of the most defining characteristics of its contemporary rise. Commercialization is obsessed with exploitation for profit. The harms of the commercialization of death work has left death work in a state of deep inaccessibility where a few organizations, collectives, and practitioners become the “owners” of sacred knowledge that can only be accessed behind a paywall. What a disgusting manifestation. Commercialization has encouraged death workers from all walks of life and all cultures and ethnicities to gatekeep knowledge and resources in capitalist driven manners. It has created a universe and sub-culture within the world of death work where there exists an unnecessary hierarchy. It opts for rigidity and rushed timelines instead of slowness and intentionality. It crushes and minimizes sacred knowledge into 3 day conferences and 3 month training sessions that remain accessible to those who exist in a certain class bracket. It has taken sacred communal knowledge from the margins and feeds that knowledge to those caught up in the white/western and/or liberal capitalist gaze. It has removed death work from its highly political and cultural origins and sells a watered down and pacified version of death work that encourages its trainees to also pursue a practice of death work that prioritizes individual commercialization for individual profit over communal accessibility and horizontal leadership/practice. All death workers; no matter the cultural, racial, ethnic, and/or class background, must fight against commercialization of death work. This means also being radically honest about the role of the non-profit industrial complex and how its philosophies and practices show up in the “field”. It is our duty (given the current political atmosphere we find ourselves in as liberal fascism continues to engulf all that we know and restrict the communal work that we do) to be as principled as possible in the work that we do and to examine our principles over and over and over again.

Gatekept knowledge is not inherently condemnable and dishonorable. In fact early hoodoos were keen on gatekeeping hoodoo from the white/western gaze and from prying eyes even within their own communities. This was vital to their syncretic mysticism for many reasons. One of those reasons can be attributed to the fact that hoodoo was utilized to help slaves escape during the plantation era of the confederacy. It was also used in the deep south during the reconstruction era to treat and heal folks in the community and for other protective purposes because access to care infrastructures were not available to many poor black folks in mass. Even in death work, hoodoo death practices and rituals remained a gatekept phenomena and were practiced in the privacy of people's own hearts, homes, and communities. However, contemporary practices of gatekeeping knowledge in the death work tradition revolve around gatekeeping for profit. Organizations and collectives that offer death work trainings, conferences, and courses will offer very few and often competitive scholarships to those interested in gaining knowledge as a writeoff for their diversity and financial accessibility points. This is deeply disturbing considering the fact that most marginalized low income colonized folks interested in funding their intentional study of death work are faced with the ongoing economic decline at a much higher rate than those who are economically well-off or privileged. The (neo)capitalist gatekeeping of death work knowledge and resources for capitalist profit in the midst of ongoing mass death events is unethical and the pinnacle of deep commercialization.

Professionalization has deep roots in hierarchical, bureaucratic and managerial controls of industrial and commercial industries and organizations. Death work, especially death work traditions that belong to marginalized and colonized communities, should fight against its heightened professionalization. To professionalize death work is to take part in the erasure of “informal” death practices and traditions that are not palatable and observable to the white, classed, and/or colonial gaze. Professionalism has historically been defined by its patriarchal white supremacist tendencies and continues to be. To professionalize the death work traditions of hoodoo is to render it useless and impractical for many communities on the margins and to erase practitioners who have been “experts” of its secrets and sacredness from generation to generation.

My hope is that as death workers of the contemporary hudu tradition we continue to fight against the ever evolving symptoms of the capitalist, western, and industrial gaze that occupy the growing interest in the practice of both hoodoo and death work.

To all my hudu death workers; remain steadfast, communal, and defiant to the white supremacist capitalist order. Ashe.