Hot foot powder is used in African American hoodoo folk magic to drive unwanted people away. It is a mixture of herbs and minerals, virtually always including

chilli powder Chili powder (also spelled chile, chilli, or, alternatively, powdered chili) is the dried, pulverized fruit of one or more varieties of chili pepper, sometimes with the addition of other spices (in which case it is also sometimes known as chili p ...

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

pepper Pepper or peppers may refer to: Food and spice * Piperaceae or the pepper family, a large family of flowering plant ** Black pepper * ''Capsicum'' or pepper, a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae ** Bell pepper ** Chili ...

, and chilli flakes. Other ingredients, such as wasp's nests, sulfur, and graveyard dirt are sometimes added. It also shows some overlapping uses with

goofer dust Goofer dust is a traditional hexing material and practice of the Black American tradition of Hoodoo from the Southern United States. It has roots in traditional Kongo religion. Etymology The word ''goofer'' in goofer dust has Kongo origins and ...

, which also is known to create restlessness and drive people away. According to some scholars who have done research in African-American communities, hot foot powder may not be a traditional practice but is a commercialized version of the traditional ''walkin foot.'' Walkin foot is a powder made in traditional African-American hoodoo to confuse a person to walk in all directions in a confused state. The practice was influenced from foot track magic in West Africa, where West African people take a person's foot tracks and combine with ingredients to control a person's movements. It was brought to the United States during the

transatlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...

. The practice became African-American when Black people in America used American materials such as North American herbs, roots and animal parts, to create a powder combining with a person's foot track and sprinkle it on their shoes or in their foot tracks to "hoodoo the person." Harry M. Hyatt collected several recipes and spells for hot foot powder. Some modes of deploying hot foot collected by him include secreting a small amount into the victim's shoes or clothing, mixing it with a victim's foot track, or placing a paper with the victim's name into a bottle with hot foot powder and disposing of it in a river. In the 1930s song " Hell Hound on My Trail", the famous blues musician

Robert Johnson Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generati ...

said, "You sprinkled hot foot powder .. all around your daddy's door / it keep me with ramblin' mind, rider, every old place I go."Hellhound on My Trail
The Robert Johnson Notebooks. American Studies at the University of Virginia In 2000, the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

guitarist Peter Green released a CD called "Hot Foot Powder", containing 13 covers of songs written by Robert Johnson.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hot Foot Powder Hoodoo (spirituality) Magic powders