Reddit mentions of Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn (Volume 4) (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society)

Haitian Vodou ("voodoo" is the term used primarily to distinguish Louisiana voodoo, which is different) did originate in west Africa (the primary source of slaves for the Atlantic slave trade). Vodou is conceptualized as a syncretic mix of traditional African religious practices mixed with distinctly New World elements.

Vodou is descended from several different west African religious traditions. A French man named Mederic Louis Elie Moreau de Saint-Mery traced the origin of Vodou to Dahomey (roughly modern Benin) and Kingdom of Arada Arada. Vodou has its origins among the Fon people (Dahomey people) in Benin, Nigeria, and Togo. These areas are thought to be ancestral to modern day vodou.

However, modern day Vodou as its practiced in Haiti and elsewhere in the African diaspora, is quite distinct from African traditional religions. It is certainly has African roots, but it has also been profoundly influenced by Catholicism and the experiences of slaves.

Sources:

• Murrell 2010 is a good review of several Afro-Atlantic religions, including vodou
  
• Tann 2012
  
• Also, if you are interested in the topic, I can't recommend Mama Lola enough. It's an easy read about vodou practitioners in New York.

One of the better books to start with (barring finding actual living, breathing practitioners in your area) is Mama Lola by Karen Brown.

You might also get something from reading the introductory material to Kenaz Filan's The Haitian Voudou Handbook. (Note: Kenaz isn't Haitian.)

And there's always Stephen Grasso's Clean Living in Difficult Circumstances, and moreso his Smoke and Mirrors series, which is a British-American Voodoo perspective on urban life and music, and a history of the city of London.

Read Mama Lola in an Anthro undergrad class - intersperses the ethnographic account with details on the gods.

I took a class on African Religions, so I can help on the Yoruba side!

For a quick primer, pick up Stephen Prothero's God is Not One. It's an introduction to World Religions type book, but it's a great read and he includes an entire chapter specifically on Yoruba.

For more mythology, pick up Osun across the Waters by Muphy and Sanford It's a great history of the Yoruba pantheon and how they crossed to the Americas. Osun has some fantastic myths attached to her.

For a really fun read that's a little off topic, pick up Karen McCarthy-Brown's Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn. It's an anthropologist's conversations with a Vodou priestess, with descriptions of the ritual (Vodou is a daughter religion to Yoruba - they share a lot of the same ideas and gods), and every other chapter is a short story written by the author that explores some of the history and themes of the tradition. Her descriptions of the various orishas/lwas are really fun reading.

If I were doing a Vodou priest (and really, all I know is from reading Mama Lola, which is an amazing book), I'd probably go with either a Shaman or Oracle with either the Ancestors spirit/mystery, or another spirit/mystery appropriate to the particular Lwa that the character has the closest relationship to.

Of the two, I'd probably pick shaman because they have a really interesting, diverse spell list, and because, as prepared casters, they can pick different spells each day. Different spells plus, at higher levels, Wandering Spirit and Wandering Hex, bring across some of the flavor of working with different energies at different times.

Funny enough, a "voodoo doll" is a European poppet. Even if we're talking about African-derived magical practices, that remains a totally European thing! 😋

(There's nothing that says you can't practice magical traditions and be a vodouisant but that's not related to serving "the dead and the mysteries.")

Also, I should say I'd recommend Mama Lola if anyone is interested in expanding their knowledge. It situates everything in a social context and doesn't grasp around at theological abstractions.