West African Vodún
Vodún or vodúnsínsen is an African traditional religion practiced by the Aja, Ewe, and Fon peoples of Benin, Togo, Ghana, and Nigeria.
Many of these deities are associated with specific areas, but others are venerated widely throughout West Africa; some have been absorbed from other religions, including Christianity and Hinduism.
Although primarily found in West Africa, since the late 20th century the religion has also spread abroad and is practised by people of varied ethnicities and nationalities.
[1] The anthropologist Timothy R. Landry noted that, although the term Vodún is commonly used, a more accurate name for the religion was vodúnsínsen, meaning "spirit worship".
[13] It is open to ongoing revision,[10] being eclectic and absorbing elements from many cultural backgrounds,[7] including from other parts of Africa but also from Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
[13] The art historian Suzanne Preston Blier called these "mysterious forces or powers that govern the world and the lives of those who reside within it".
[41] Tron is the spirit of the kola nut;[42] he was recently introduced to the Vodún pantheon via Ewe speakers from Ghana and Togo.
[51] In other branches, the Creator and other vodus are known by different names, such as Sakpo-Disa (Mawu), Aholu (Sakpata), and Anidoho (Da), Gorovodu.
The Mama Tchamba tradition for instances honours slaves from the north who are believed to have become ancestors of contemporary Ewe people.
[10] Rosenthal found that, among members of the Gorovodu tradition, people stated that they followed the religion because it helped to heal their children when the latter fell sick.
[13] Vodun practitioners believe that many natural materials contain supernatural powers, including leaves, meteorites, kaolin, soil from the crossroads, the feathers of African grey parrots, turtle shells, and dried chameleons.
Fá for instance is enshrined in 16 palm nuts, while Xɛbyosò's shrines require sò kpɛn ("thunderstones') believed to have been created where lightning struck the earth.
[71] Gbǎdù, as the "mother of creation," often requires that her shrines incorporate a vagina, either of a deceased family matriarch or of an animal, along with camwood, charcoal, kaolin, and mud.
[75] Various foreign initiates, while trying to leave West Africa, have found material intended for their shrines confiscated at airport customs.
[76] In a ritual that typically incorporates divination, sacrifices, and leaf baths for both the objects and the practitioner, the spirit is installed within these shrines.
[87] Some people also make these masks, but do not consecrate or use them, for sale on the international art market, but other members of the society disapprove of this practice.
[109] A successful diviner is expected to provide solutions to their client's problem, for instance selling them charms, spiritual baths, or ceremonies to alleviate their issue.
[114] Families or individuals often keep their recipes for creating bǒ a closely guarded secret;[115] there is a widespread belief that if someone else discovers the precise ingredients they will have power over its maker.
[115] Anthropomorphic figurines produced especially in the Fon and Ayizo area of southern Benin are commonly called bǒciɔ ("bǒ cadaver").
[125] Landry found that everyone he encountered in Benin believed in azě to various degrees,[126] whereas many non-Africans arriving for initiation were more sceptical of its existence.
[127] Landry noted that prior to European colonialism, Vodún was not identified as "a monolithic religion" but was "a social system made of countless spirit and ancestor cults that existed without religious boundaries.
[130] As a result of the Atlantic slave trade, practitioners of Vodún were enslaved and transported to the Americas, where their practices influenced those of developing African diasporic traditions.
[134] In Brazil, the dominant African diasporic religion became Candomblé and this was divided into various traditions called nacoes ("nations").
Of these nacoes, the Jeje tradition uses terms borrowed from Ewe and Fon languages,[135] for instance referring to its spirit deities as vodun.
[141] In 1972, Mathieu Kérékou seized power of Dahomey in a military coup and subsequently transformed it into a Marxist-Leninist state, the People's Republic of Benin.
[144] Under Kérékou's rule, Vodun priests had to perform new initiations in secret, and the duration of the initiatory process was often shortened from a period of years to one of months, weeks, or days.
[145] The Beninese government planned "Ouidah '92: The First International Festival of Vodun Arts and Cultures," which took place in 1993;[146] among the special guests invited were Pierre Verger and Mama Lola, reflecting attempts to build links across the African diaspora.
"[145] From the 1990s, the Beninese government increasingly made a concerted effort to encourage Vodún-themed tourism, hoping that many foreigners would come seeking initiation.
[147] By the late 1960s, some American black nationalists were travelling to West Africa to gain initiation into Vodún or Yoruba religion.
[154] Foreigners who come for initiation are predominantly from the United States;[155] many of them have already explored African diasporic traditions like Haitian Vodou, Santería, or Candomblé, or alternatively Western esoteric religions such as Wicca.
