Haitian Vodou was born in the seventeenth century, when enslaved Africans brought their religious traditions from West and Central Africa to the Caribbean, and were in turn exposed to a variety of European traditions, including the art and ritual practices of Roman Catholicism. Vodou, still evolving through its practice in Haiti and North America, thus represents the fusion of several different belief systems into an original religion.

The Fon and Kongo kingdoms of West and Central Africa gave Vodou its basic vocabulary of form and content (the term Vodou means "sacred" in the Fon language). Vodou art and practices also reflect the encounter with the aboriginal Taino, the shattering experience of slavery, and, especially, the enduring legacy of confrontation with colonial cultures and European religious and mystical traditions. Haitians have found a way to channel these diverse arts and rituals into Vodou, which thus embraces a wide range of spiritual expression.

In Vodou the strongest "survivals" are those with multiple origins. Parent cultures from West and Central Africa-Fon, Kongo and others-strongly share spiritual concepts such as the veneration of ancestors, protective magic, the importance of the crossroads, sacred cosmographs, and the concept of balancing hot and cool energies. Many Vodou objects reflect multiple African sources. Even certain words conflate Fon and Kongo parentage. For example, the Haitian word manbo (priestess) is a hybrid of the Fon term nanbo (mother of magic charms) and the Kongo mambu (healer).