This entry exists to record that Haitian Vodou has a rich prayer and song tradition, not to present or teach that tradition's actual liturgical content. Scholars of Haitian Vodou, an Afro-Haitian religion formed from West and Central African religious traditions carried by enslaved people, combined with elements of French Catholicism, agree that prayer within Vodou is inseparable from ceremony: invocations, songs and rhythms addressed to the lwa, the spirits who mediate between humanity and a distant supreme creator, Bondye, are sung and drummed within specific ceremonial structures led by initiated priests, houngans, and priestesses, mambos, in service to a house or lineage tradition. This liturgical material is understood within Vodou itself as belonging to specific initiatory lineages and ceremonial contexts, transmitted through practice and initiation, including the kanzo initiation process, rather than through open publication intended for outside instruction.
Because reproducing or teaching such material outside its proper context would misrepresent both its meaning and the community authority that governs its use, this entry deliberately records only that this tradition exists, what general kind of thing its prayer is, and why specific texts are not given here, rather than offering any of Vodou's actual sung or spoken liturgy.