Vodou Petwo rites are born out of a creolizing Kongo tradition from Central Africa. Vodou cosmographs, bound medicine packets (paket kongo), and magic/healing traditions linking 'hot' magic to the dead all have strong Kongo roots. Kongo principles of tying and binding are dramatically visible in objects seen on Petwo altars and in the secret Bizango rites. Cruciforms, which are common in Vodou sacred arts, borrow their outward form from Catholicism, and their deep meaning from the Kongo cosmic symbol called 'Four Moments of the Sun'. Kongo vocabulary is prevalent in the ritual invocations that accompany the drawing of certain vévé signs. The water spirit Simbi has a Kongo name. The Haitian word for twins, marasa, derives from Kongo mabassa (those who come divided).

Cosmograms
Haitian cosmographic signs (vévé) have clear precedents in West and Central Africa. The word itself comes from Fon language: the Fon 'veve' specifically denotes ritual ground markings, while Fon cosmograms in other media embellish a range of sacred objects. Edo people in Southern Nigeria trace ground blazons in rituals for the god Olokun. Kongo and related peoples also have richly developed cosmograms referring to what is sometimes called the 'Four Moments of the Sun'. All these traditions have informed Haitian vévé.