A religion with origins in West Africa, practiced in the Americas due to the large-scale displacement of Africans during the slave trade. Voudou thus combines elements of Roman Catholicism and native West Indian practices with traditional African rituals. It is characterized by worship of the spirit world of ancestors, and ritual practices include prayers, ecstatic trances, drumming, dancing, feasts and “fits of possession.” A priest or priestess acts as a medium, works charms and curses, and recalls zombies, otherwise known as the “living dead.” Despite both social and legal repression, Voudou has continued to thrive, particularly in among Haitian American immigrants.