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ethnic groups that provided the circumstances for the development of Voodoo.
European colonists thought that by desolating the ethnic groups, these could not
come together as a community. However, in the misery of slavery, the transplanted
Africans found in their faith a common thread. They began to invoke not only their
own Gods, but to practice rites other than their own.
In this process, they comingled and modified rituals of various ethnic groups. The result of such
fusion was that the different religious groups integrated their beliefs, thereby creating a new
religion: Voodoo. The word "voodoo" comes from the West African word "vodun," meaning spirit.
This Afro-Caribbean religion mixed practices from many African ethnics groups such as the Fon,
the Nago, the Ibos, Dahomeans, Congos , Senegalese, Haussars, Caplaous, Mondungues, Mandinge,
Angolese, Libyans, Ethiopians, and the Malgaches.
The Essence of Voodoo
Within the voodoo society, there are no accidents. Practitioners believe that nothing and no event
has a life of its own. That is why "vous deux", you two, you too. The universe is all one. Each thing
affects something else. Scientists know that. Nature knows it. Many spiritualists agree that we are
not separate, we all serve as parts of One. So, in essence, what you do unto another, you do unto
you, because you ARE the other. Voo doo. View you. We are mirrors of each others souls. God is
manifest through the spirits of ancestors who can bring good or harm and must be honored in
ceremonies. There is a sacred cycle between the living and the dead. Believers ask for their misery
to end. Rituals include prayers, drumming, dancing, singing and animal sacrifice.
The serpent figures heavily in the Voodoo faith. The
word Voodoo has been translated as "the snake under
whose auspices gather all who share the faith". The
high priest and/or priestess of the faith (often called
Papa or Maman) are the vehicles for the expression of
the serpent's power. The supreme deity is Bon Dieu.
There are hundreds of spirits called Loa who control
nature, health, wealth and happiness of mortals. The
Loa form a pantheon of deities that include Damballah,
Ezili, Ogu, Agwe, Legba and others.
During Voodoo ceremonies these Loa can possess the bodies of the ceremony participants. Loa
appear by "possessing" the faithful, who in turn become the Loa, relaying advice, warnings and
desires. Voodoo is an animist faith. That is, objects and natural phenomena are believed to possess
holy significance, to possess a soul. Thus the Loa Agwe is the divine presence behind the hurricane.
Music and dance are key elements to Voodoo ceremonies. Ceremonies were often termed by whites
"Night Dancing" or "Voodoo Dancing". This dancing is not simply a prelude to sexual frenzy, as it
has often been portrayed. The dance is an expression of spirituality, of connection with divinity and
the spirit world.
Voodoo is a practical religion, playing an important role in the family and the community. One's
ancestors, for instance, are believed to be a part of the world of the spirits, of the Loas, and this is
one way that Voodoo serves to root its participants in their own history and tradition. Another
practical aspect of Voodoo ceremonies is that participants often come before the priest or priestess
to seek advice, spiritual guidance, or help with their problems. The priest or priestess then, through
divine aid, offer help such as healing through the use of herbs or medicines (using knowledge that
has been passed down within the religion itself), or healing through faith itself as is common in
other religions. Voodoo teaches a respect for the natural world.
Unfortunately, the public's perception of voodoo rites and rituals seems often to point to the evil or
malicious side of things. There are healing spells, nature spells, love spells, purification spells,
joyous celebration spells. Spirits may be invoked to bring harmony and peace, birth and rebirth,
increased abundance of luck, material happiness, renewed health.The fact is, for those who believe
it, voodoo is powerful. It is also empowering to the person who practices it.
Voodoo and its fight to survive
Despite Voodoo's noble status as one of the worlds
oldest religions, it has been typically characterized
as barbaric, primitive, sexually licentious practice
based on superstition and spectacle. Much of this
image however, is due to a concerted effort by
Europeans, who have a massive fear of anything
African, to suppress and distort a legitimate and
unique religion that flourished among their enslaved
Africans. When slavers brought these peoples across
the ocean to the Americas , the African's brought
their religion with them.
However, since slavery included stripping the slaves of their language, culture, and heritage, this
religion had to take some different forms. It had to be practiced in secret, since in some places it
was punishable by death, and it had to adapt to the loss of their African languages. In order to
survive, Voodoo also adopted many elements of Christianity. When the French who were the
colonizers of Haiti , realized that the religion of the Africans was a threat to the colonial system,
they prohibited all African religion practices and severely punished the practitioners of Voodoo with
imprisonment, lashings and hangings. This religious struggle continued for three centuries, but none
of the punishments could extinguished the faith of the Africans. This process of acculturation
helped Voodoo to grow under harsh cultural conditions in many areas of the Americas .
Voodoo survives as a legitimate religion in a number of areas of the world, Brazil where it is called
"Candombl" and the English speaking Caribbean where it is called Obeah. The Ewe people of
southern Togo and southeastern Ghana -- two countries in West Africa -- are devout believers. In
most of the United States however, white slavers were successful in stripping slaves of their Voodoo
traditions and beliefs. Thus Voodoo is, for most African Americans, yet another part of their heritage
that they can only try to re-discover.
The strength that the Africans in Haiti gained from
their religion was so strong and powerful, that they
were able to survive the cruel persecution of the
French rulers against Voodoo. It was in the midst of
this struggle that the revolution was conspired. The
Voodoo priests consulted their oracle and learned
how the political battle would have to be fought in
order for them to be victorious. The revolution
exploded in 1791 with a Petr ritual and continued
until 1804 when the Haitians finally won
independence. Today the system of Voodoo reflects
its history. We can see the African ethnic mixture in
the names of different rites and in the pantheon of
Gods or Loas, which is composed of deities from
Types of Vodun
It would be a vain enterprise to claim to enumerate the types of Vodun or to classify them
exhaustively. Mgr. Robert Sastre tried to tackle the question in Les Vodun dans la vie culturelle,
sociale et politique du Sud-Dahomey. Honorat Aguessy did the same thing in Cultures Vodun,
Manifestations Migrations Mtamorphoses (Afrique, Carabes, Amriques). With this important
background, in our approach we will focus on the mystical origin of the Vodun(s) as proposed by Fr.
Mdwal Jacob Agossou in Gbto et Gbdoto.
Firstly, the Vodun(s) are considered as the sons of Mawu, God the Creator. Here are the seven most
important of these:
Sakpata: This is the eldest son of Mawu to whom the earth was entrusted: "Ayi Vodun",
the Vodun of the earth. His power is feared and terrifying. His attributes are the arm of
smallpox, scissors, a chain and black, white and red spots. Sakpata has many sons,
including the Vodun of leprosy (Ada Tangni), and of incurable sores (sinji aglosumato).
Xvioso (or Xbioso): This is the Vodun of the sky (Jivodun) who manifests himself in
thunder and lightning. He is Mawus second son and is considered a Vodun of justice
who punishes thieves, liars, criminals and evil-doers. His attibutes are the thunderbolt,
the double axe, the ram, the colour red and fire. Xvioso has several sons including
Sogbo, Aklob, Avlkt.
Agbe: This is the Vodun of the sea (Tovodun). He is also known as Hu. He is represented
by a serpent, a symbol of everything that gives life. One of his powerful children is Dan
Toxosu who manifests himself in the birth of monster babies.
Gu: This is the Vodun of iron and war. He gives man his different technologies. He is
the Vodun who does not accept complicity with evil. Therefore he is capable of killing
all accomplices in acts of infamy if he is appealed to. This is expressed by the Fon
saying "da gu do".
Ag: This fifth son of Mawu is the Vodun of agriculture and the forests. He reigns over
animals and birds.
Jo: This Vodun is characterized by invisibility. He is the Vodun of the air.
Lgba: This is Mawus youngest son. He received no endowments at all because all had
already been shared out among his elders. He is jealous, and it is he who loosens the
rigid structure of the pantheon. He is the Vodun of the unpredictable, of what cannot be
assigned to any other and he is characterised by daily tragedies; all that is beyond good
and evil.
Alongside Mawus sons, one finds other Vodun(s) that are protectors of equally important clans.
These are the Toxwyo: eponymous deified ancestors. They maintain a link between the invisible
world and human beings in their daily lives.
From the above, we can classify the Vodun(s) as follows:
Inter-ethnic Vodun(s) linked to natural phenomena: Jivodun: Xvioso; Ayivodun:
Sakpata; Tovodun: Agbe.
Inter-ethnic Vodun(s) linked to historical-mythical persons: Lgba, Gu.
Ethnic Vodun(s): Akovodun (Agasu for the Hougbajavi of Abomey). The Toxwyo are in
this category.
Modern Vodun(s): These Vodun(s) are mainly from Ghana. They are Goro who protects
against witchcraft, and Koku, the Vodun of the occult powers of violence.
After these investigations, it seems important to ask the question: so what exactly is Vodun?
It can be said that the Vodun(s) constitute a special class of Mawus living creatures. They are above
mankind, but they are not "God". Let us recognise, together with Fr. Barthlemy Adoukonou and all
the others, that defining Vodun is not an easy task, even for Vodun adepts. Fon expressions like:
"Vodun gongon", "Vodun dablu" (Vodun is deep, Vodun is obscure) say it all. This is why, as Mgr.
Robert Sastre said, we must refer to the social and cultural context which gives rise to Vodun in
order to grasp what Vodun really is.
(Agbasa) of the representative of the eponymous Ancestor. It is the rite of the integration of a child
or of several children of the same generation within the family community including the deceased
members, the living and the Spirits which protect the family. The consultation of the F by the
Bokonon, "Diviner-Healer", reveals the childs Joto, in other words, the Vodun, "divinity" or the
Mxo (Ancestor; sometimes deified) who, in him, is "sent" to the family by the Great S. The Joto
is a "reference to a protective force. It is a dynamic element which intervenes in the constitution
of the individuals personality". The Joto is the Ancestor whose vital influx animates the child. He is
referred to as S-Joto or S mkokanto (S gatherer of the earth of the human body); he who
presents to the Creator-God the clay out of which has been fashioned the body of the newcomer to
the Land of Life (Gb Tom). He is the force, the vital and spiritual energy, which models and
directs the existence of the person; hence the title S (Protector) that is given to him. The Joto is
"Father of the coming into existence", the direct collaborator of Mawu in the generation of the
child.
Once the Joto is known, he is given a welcome: "S doo n w" (You are welcome, O s!), and as
his "other self" and under protection, he is welcomed through the rite of Jono Kpikp (encounter,
welcome of the stranger, the guest). In principle, the child does not receive the name of his Joto. He
can however be addressed by this name from time to time in order to remind him of it. This name
can sometimes prevail if the person concerned is one day called and consecrated to the cult of his
Joto. "In such cases, the name becomes a real name in religion. It is formally forbidden, under
severe penalties, for the individual to be called by another name".
Despite the terminological ambiguities inevitably encountered in the formulation of the term Joto,
any idea of reincarnation should be absolutely discarded: the child is not the reincarnation of his
Joto Ancestor. The Fon religious belief holds that the individual S is immortal. When a person dies
and enters the Ysnyim (world of the Spirits, metaphysical world), the individual S goes back to
Sgbo (the Great S), in other words, to his origins, his original state. In his role as Joto, it is he
who places his hand on the head of the candidate to life (Alodotanumto) "to take him in a way
under his protective shadow". There is no reincarnation in the proper sense, but a transmission of
the personality. The individual soul of the Joto does not become incarnate in his protg, but the
Joto transmits to the latter "his sociological part, his status and his role". A proof of this is that
several persons living at the same time can have and indeed most often do have the same Joto.
The S-mekokanto (the ancestor who gathered the clay with which the body of the new-born child
has been fashioned) imprints on the child his social personality, what he has become "through his
social and active commitment in the historical process" which "he embodied in his lifetime and
which is maintained by the group that will educate the new-born child in accordance with the
master" ( ) "The social personality, the active commitment and the historical conscience that the
ancestor hands down to his descendent constitute a psychological heritage which gives meaning to
his life and coincides with the above-mentioned directives. The protector ancestor comes to
materialise the right to safeguard and maintain life as well as that to act in such a way that it
flourishes and develops fully. In this way the S-mekokanto (the protector ancestor) ensures the
growth of the family life of which he was the first or one of the first important links".
The Joto is sometimes assisted in his task by another Ancestor or Divine Spirit, acting as an
auxiliary Joto or companion to the first one. This arrangement is fully consistent with the linkstrengthening process, a reality that is viewed by the Fon as an inalienable value.
To identify the Joto, one first needs to have determined the D which reveals it. D is the name
given to the signs or figures that are meaningful within the divination system of the F. These are
the series of signs that serve to reveal the Jotos self. Henceforth the revealing D and the Joto
constitute two components inseparable from each other and intrinsic in the personal, social and
religious destiny of the individual, as well as in his project of fulfilment. While Joto is the
individuals typological reference, D is "the sought and welcomed will of a Desired Third Party"
(Sgbo) coming as an epiphany, i.e. manifested by the Joto. D is the "word of the oracle", the
voice of the Supreme Being on each person who comes into existence. As the voice of S, D is
also the way that S traces and indicates for man. Because, "the world is without measure, but we
cannot live without measure", thus speaks angoulevan. D is the word of life given and entrusted
temporarily to parents as a measure of guidance for the one who has just made his entry into the
land of life (Gbtom) and into the world of men (Gbtol m). He traces the path he is to follow, in
other words he establishes the ordinances or laws (S) according to which he will have to avoid
death-bearing acts both for himself and for others, and acts detrimental to the communitys integrity.
Until a child reaches the age of reason, it is the mother who respects the ordinances of his D. In
general, mothers take upon themselves the responsibility and the concern to follow these ordinances
for the rest of their lives, for and with their offspring, even when they are adult. By this gesture,
they demonstrate that the life preserved in a family member is a gain in vitality for all and that
everyone must co-operate in maintaining it.
Through the gbasi-yiyi rite, the Fon individual is recognised as a true member of his family, since
his link with the ancestors, mystical foundations of the family, is determined by it. Through his
Joto, his integration among the living members of the family is reinforced all the more by his being
tied to the deceased members. The Agbasa rite has two dimensions: while the possession of a Joto
confers a social status on a person, the determination of his D, "Word of the oracle on his power of
fulfilment", recognises his individual character. Thus there is reciprocal interaction between social
status and the status of the individual.
Those who have not been through the rite of gbasi-yiyi have neither personal nor community
status: "no word of the oracle supports them in life" (E do du ji ). If these points of reference, the
Joto and the D, are not known by their families, they remain strangers, men without roots. Hence
the anxious question of a Fon faced with another who shows a habitual behavioural imbalance: E ka
yi gbasa ni ? "has the rite of gbasi-yiyi been accomplished for him?". The same question is
often asked spontaneously as regards the ceremony of Sunknkn, E ka kosun ni ? "Has the rite
of Sunkunkun been accomplished for him?" It is said of a person whose behaviour raises such
questions that his spirit is not at rest: "Ayi ton huhw ; ayi ton jayi "; the spirit is agitated. This
agitation is a manifestation of an inner, social and religious lack of harmony. It is considered that it
cannot be otherwise, because neither this person nor the others have a knowledge of the sublime
will of the "Great S" which gives meaning to his life, the "word of the oracle" which governs and
directs the individuals life.
Listening to history and tales strengthens the character of the young; their moral formation, largely
based on examples received, combines the imitation of elders, particularly Ancestors (history) with
that of heroes (tales).
Common initiation
An education which does not assume moral and religious values as essential is not an education of
quality. Religious conviction gives meaning to behaviour and moral choices. Fon religious
education, according to Mgr. A.T. Sanon, leads the individual to "sense the invisible through the
visible and concrete":
- Nu kplon m o, (moral) education,
e no z do we place it on
Numsnl sin ali nu: the path of "the-beings-to-be-adored"
brotherhood in action. The followers of the same Vodun are bound by this Voduns specific
prohibitions and legal prescriptions. The Vodun rules establish a life of solidarity among these
individuals: quarrels between followers of the same Vodun are generally settled at the convent or at
the Vodununs house. In addition, Vodun tolerates no transgression of its prohibitions. This
maintains among sincere Vodun adepts a permanent culture of fidelity. The total commitment of exVodun adepts who have converted to Christianity is a proof of this. Finally, it should be noted that if
Vodun does not oppose the rules of life known as Gbsu, it accepts them implicitly. These Gbsu
hold the destruction of life and the betrayal of friends in abomination. The features to be focused on
therefore, are the values of fraternity, solidarity, communion and religious fidelity, without
forgetting the social prohibitions to which Vodun implicitly give credit.
CONCLUSION
To conclude this brief communication on the traditional Vodun religion of Benin, I must point out
that it was not possible to say everything, even on essential aspects. However, in spite of all the
excesses to its discredit, Vodun in its purity remains a fertile ground for evangelisation. As a cultural
phenomenon, it could offer numerous values to be Christianised. But the gordian knot remains the
difficulty of setting it on the Paschal way. To empty Vodun of its magic and sorcery would be
beneficial for the people of Benin. For the time being, this seems an utopian enterprise, today more
than in the past.
Indeed, the seventeen years of Marxist-Leninist policies in Benin, 1972-1989, with anti-religious
campaigns and witch-hunts, had contributed to diminishing the importance and reducing the
influence of Vodun. But with the coming of democratic renewal since 1990, Vodun has regained
vitality. From 28 May to 1 June 1991, a symposium of the great leaders of the Vodun cults was held
with the aim of restoring a certain degree of legal recognition for this traditional religion. In 1993, a
great international Vodun festival was organised and held in Benin: "Ouidah 92". Its effect was to
foster its renewal. In the same year, Pope John Paul IIs visit and his highly media-enhanced
meeting with Vodun leaders were taken by many Vodun followers, not as a sign of dialogue, but as
the indication that the Church at last recognises that the Vodun cult has its place. This combination
of circumstances means that in Benin Vodun is currently organising and structuring itself more and
more as a traditional religion, with a national feast (10 January) and a national hierarchy. In sum, to
reach out to these Vodun adepts, the Church will no longer be able to use only the Bible and Holy
Water, but above all will need dialogue.