Voodoo and West Africa's Spiritual Life, Part 2

By John Burnett

Published February 10, 2004 at 12:00 AM EST

Veneration of ancestors, supplication to the gods, and animal sacrifice -- these are among the suite of rituals that form a complicated canon of religious law for adherents of voodoo. NPR's John Burnett investigates what it takes to learn and practice these rituals in the second part of his Radio Expedition to West Africa.

John Burnett

As NPR's Southwest correspondent based in Austin, Texas, John Burnett covers immigration, border affairs, Texas news and other national assignments. In 2018, 2019 and again in 2020, he won national Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio-Television News Directors Association for continuing coverage of the immigration beat. In 2020, Burnett along with other NPR journalists, were finalists for a duPont-Columbia Award for their coverage of the Trump Administration's Remain in Mexico program. In December 2018, Burnett was invited to participate in a workshop on Refugees, Immigration and Border Security in Western Europe, sponsored by the RIAS Berlin Commission.

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