From Practical Magic to Sabrina the Teenage Witch, witches have been seen throughout film and television. As someone with a very strong interest in witches and their history, I love all witch-related media. However… there’s more that could be done to expand on this iconic type of character. 

I think the first time I became aware of this was when I had discovered and fell in love with The Craft. The Craft follows the move of Sarah Bailey to a new school in California after some unfortunate events at home. She begins to develop her abilities as a witch before falling in with the local coven at her school… 

When I first watched this film, I was taken by the representation of all the struggles the girls were going through. My favourite switched from time to time: one moment, I was a big fan of Neve Campbell’s character (Bonnie). Or occasionally, I went back to Robin Tunney’s Sarah. (I can admit that Fairuza Balk’s Nancy was never really my most loved). But eventually, I settled on Rachel True’s Rochelle. 

Partially, it was because she was black. Many years of seeing only one black character in films are not made by and for black people have taught me to share kinship with whoever looks the most like me. But that wasn’t the only thing that made me love Rochelle. To me, she was fighting against racism and injustice while becoming more confident in herself along the way. It was powerful seeing her on screen as she dealt with being the only black girl at her fancy Catholic school. 

However, that leads me to a pattern I noticed when it came to black witches. Rochelle’s storyline is powerful, yes, but it also feels a bit lazy. The other main characters had difficult backgrounds or elements in their past that were traumatic, for example Sarah was revealed to have attempted suicide before the events of the film. 

So it felt like a bold move to have the one black girl be the character with the most normal-seeming home life. But at the same time, apart from a deleted scene in which we learn that Nancy was the first person to talk to Rochelle, we learn almost nothing about her home life. We know she swims, which fulfils the trope of the black character being ‘the athletic one’. Each member of the coven has a specific element assigned to them, and Rochelle falls under the element of water. Out of all the girls, she seems the closest to Bonnie. But other than that, we really don’t get much on her and what struggles she is dealing with. 

All the other main characters get fleshed-out storylines that go beyond the most obvious thing about them. But Rochelle’s main struggle is to do with her race, which is important to acknowledge, but it feels so underdeveloped as a storyline compared to the rest of the girls. The Craft doesn’t take the time to come up with any new ideas or backstory as it does with the other girls.

And the sad thing is, Rochelle is actually one of the better black witches I’ve seen on screen. She may not have a well thought out storyline, but at least her entire arc doesn’t revolve around supporting the white characters in the film. This brings me on to my next example: Bonnie Bennett from The Vampire Diaries. The show follows Elena Gilbert and her involvement with the Salvatore brothers (who happen to be centuries-old vampires). In the show, one of Elena’s best friends is Bonnie Bennett (Kat Graham), who, early on, we discover is a witch. 

It’s explained throughout the course of the show that Bonnie comes from a very long line of powerful witches. This drew me into the show as being unique and interesting: in fact, throughout The Vampire Diaries, a large portion of the witches introduced are either related to Bonnie or also black. And at first, I was so excited for all the potential lore that could come from that – maybe some explanations as to why so many witches were black and where their power might have come from. 

Instead, I ended up sitting through dozens of episodes where Bonnie would routinely sacrifice herself for Elena’s happiness. Of course, Elena never wanted Bonnie to do all of that, but Bonnie couldn’t help but fall over herself to make Elena happy wherever possible. It wasn’t just her, either; her ancestor Emily Bennett is shown to be fulfilling the same role of magical protector for Elena’s ancestor, Katherine Pierce. 

Kat Graham does an excellent job of portraying Bonnie and attempting to give the character as much depth as possible. But like Rochelle, she falls into similar, reductive tropes often given to black women. Whether it be that their entire lives revolve around racism or their white best friends, it felt like a missed opportunity for all that her character could have been.

When white characters are written to have a background in witchcraft, something I’ve seen a lot is a connection to the Salem witch trials. It’s understandable why many black characters don’t get this same treatment; in the eyes of the viewer, it can feel like a stretch to have black families in Puritan Massachusetts. Still, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t parts of history which these characters can be connected to. 

Hoodoo (or Voodou as some may know it) has a complicated past. During the transatlantic slave trade, West African people were forbidden from practising their religious beliefs. So, in order to keep their faith alive, many began to combine their practices with Catholic practices. One way was by giving their gods the names of Catholic saints.

Due to the covert nature of these acts, tracing it historically is a bit of a challenge. One person who managed to document the practices of these beliefs, was William Wells Brown (1814-1884), a formerly enslaved man who documented the Hoodoo practices of enslaved people in St. Louis. In 1849, he published Narrative of William W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave, in which he writes about an enslaved man named Frank who was a fortune teller. While Brown doesn’t necessarily believe Frank when he tells him that he shall encounter many trials in his path to freedom, he does admit that many of his predictions for the future have been verified. 

It wouldn’t be ideal if the only stories about black witches were directly related to the slave trade and the experience of enslaved people in the US. However, Hoodoo’s existence does provide an interesting basis for storytelling in film and television. For example, Dr Facilier in Disney’s The Princess and the Frog is shown practising Hoodoo/Voodou, which made the story feel more grounded in its New Orleans setting. Yet there’s more that could be done. Shows like Interview with the Vampire and films like Sinners have done a lot in terms of showcasing aspects of black culture and how it can relate to the supernatural. But there’s so much untapped potential in looking into the culture and history of black people for writing stories that aren’t centred around white characters or the experiences of racism.

Obviously, the history of beliefs like Hoodoo cannot be ignored. If inspiration can be taken from historical events like the Salem witch trials to create films that use it as a jumping off point for stories that don’t necessarily touch on the specific events that took place; then I think the same can be done with Hoodoo to create new stories for black witches.