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Vodún or vodúnsínsen is an African traditional religion practiced by the Aja, Ewe, and Fon peoples of Benin, Togo, Ghana, and Nigeria. Practitioners are commonly called {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.
Vodún teaches the existence of a supreme creator divinity, under whom are lesser spirits called {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. 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. The {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} are believed to physically manifest in shrines and they are provided with offerings, typically including animal sacrifice. There are several all-male secret societies, including Oró and Egúngún, into which individuals receive initiation. Various forms of divination are used to gain information from the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, the most prominent of which is Fá, itself governed by a society of initiates.
Amid the Atlantic slave trade of the 16th to the 19th century, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} were among the enslaved Africans transported to the Americas. There, their traditional religions influenced the development of new religions such as Haitian Vodou, Louisiana Voodoo, and Brazilian Candomblé Jejé. Since the 1990s, there have been growing efforts to encourage foreign tourists to visit West Africa and receive initiation into Vodún.
Many {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} practice their traditional religion alongside Christianity, for instance by interpreting Jesus Christ as a {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. 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.
DefinitionEdit
Vodún is a religion.Template:Sfnm The anthropologist Timothy R. Landry noted that, although the term {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is commonly used, a more accurate name for the religion was {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, meaning "spirit worship".Template:Sfn The spelling "Vodún" is commonly used to distinguish the West African religion from the Haitian religion more usually spelled {{#invoke:Lang|lang}};Template:Sfn this in turn is often used to differentiate it from Louisiana {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.Template:Sfnm An alternative spelling sometimes used for the West African religion is "Vodu".Template:Sfn The religion's adherents are referred to as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} or, in the French language, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.Template:Sfn Another common term for a practitioner is vodúnsi, meaning "wife of a vodún".Template:Sfn
Vodún is "the predominant religious system" of southern Benin, Togo, and parts of southeast Ghana.Template:Sfn The anthropologist Judy Rosenthal noted that "Fon and Ewe forms of Vodu worship are virtually the same".Template:Sfn It is part of the same network of religions that include Yoruba religion as well as African diasporic traditions like Haitian Vodou, Cuban Santería, and Brazilian Candomblé.Template:Sfn As a result of centuries of interaction between Fon and Yoruba peoples, Landry noted that Vodún and Yoruba religion were "at times, indistinguishable or at least, blurry".Template:Sfn Some Fon people even refer to Yoruba religion as "Nago Vodun", "Nago" being a common Fon word for the Yoruba people.Template:Sfn
Vodún is a fragmented religion divided into "independent small cult units" devoted to particular spirits.Template:Sfn Various sub-classifications of the religion have been suggested, but none have come to be regarded as definitive.Template:Sfn As a tradition, Vodún is not doctrinal,Template:Sfn with no orthodoxy,Template:Sfn and no central text.Template:Sfn It is amorphous and flexible,Template:Sfnm changing and adapting in different situations,Template:Sfnm and emphasising efficacy over dogma.Template:Sfn It is open to ongoing revision,Template:Sfn being eclectic and absorbing elements from many cultural backgrounds,Template:Sfn including from other parts of Africa but also from Europe, Asia, and the Americas.Template:Sfn West African religions commonly absorb elements from elsewhere regardless of their origin;Template:Sfn in West Africa, many individuals draw upon African traditional religions, Christianity, and Islam simultaneously to deal with life's issues.Template:Sfn In West Africa, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} sometimes abandon their religion for forms of Christianity like Evangelical Protestantism,Template:Sfnm although there are also Christians who convert to Vodún.Template:Sfnm A common approach is for people to practice Christianity while also engaging in Vodún rituals,Template:Sfnm although there are also {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} who reject Christianity, deeming it incompatible with their tradition.Template:Sfn
BeliefsEdit
In Vodún, belief is centred around efficacy rather than Christian notions of faith.Template:Sfn
TheologyEdit
Vodún teaches the existence of a single divine creator being.Template:Sfn Below this entity are an uncountable number of spirits who govern different aspects of nature and society.Template:Sfn Some are associated with particular cities, others with specific families.Template:Sfn The term {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} comes from the Gbé languages of the Niger-Congo language family.Template:Sfn It translates as "spirit", "God", "divinity", or "presence".Template:Sfn Among Fon-speaking Yoruba communities, the Fon term {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is regarded as being synonymous with the Yoruba language term {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.Template:Sfn
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".Template:Sfn The religion is continually open to the incorporation of new spirit deities, while those that are already venerated may change and take on new aspects.Template:Sfnm Some Vodún practitioners for instance refer to Jesus Christ as the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} of the Christians.Template:Sfn
A common belief is that the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} came originally from the sea.Template:Sfn The spirits are thought to dwell in {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("land of the dead"), an invisible world parallel to that of humanity.Template:Sfn The {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} spirits have their own individual likes and dislikes;Template:Sfn each also has particular songs, dances, and prayers directed to them.Template:Sfn These spirits are deemed to manifest within the natural world.Template:Sfn When kings introduced new deities to the Fon people, it was often believed that these enhanced the king's power.Template:Sfn
The cult of each {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} has its own particular beliefs and practices.Template:Sfn It may also have its own restrictions on membership, with some groups only willing to initiate family members.Template:Sfn People may venerate multiple {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} sometimes also attending services at a Christian church.Template:Sfn
Prominent {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}Edit
Lɛgbà is the spirit of the crossroads who opens up communication between humanity and the spirit world.Template:Sfnm The creator deity is Nana-Buluku.Template:Sfn One of this being's offspring is Mawu-Lisa, an androgynous two-part deity also known as Mawu, Se, Segbo-Lisa, or Lissa.Template:Sfn Lisa is the male side of this {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} who commands the sun and daytime, while Mawu is its female side, responsible for commanding the moon and the night.Template:Sfn As Lisa is represented by the colour white, albinos are often regarded as his incarnation.Template:Sfn
Sakpatá is the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} of earth and smallpox,Template:Sfn but over time has come to be associated with new diseases like HIV/AIDS.Template:Sfn The Dàn spirits are all serpents;Template:Sfn Dàn is a serpent {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} associated with riches and cool breezes.Template:Sfn Xɛbyosò or Hɛvioso is the spirit of thunder and lightning;Template:Sfnm he is represented by a fire-spitting ram and is particularly popular in Southern Benin.Template:Sfn Gŭ is the spirit of metal and blacksmithing,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and in more recent decades has come to be associated with metal vehicles like cars, trains, and planes.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Gbădu is the wife of Fá.Template:Sfn Tron is the spirit of the kola nut;Template:Sfn he was recently introduced to the Vodún pantheon via Ewe speakers from Ghana and Togo.Template:Sfn
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Mami Wata or Mamiyata is a seductress.Template:Sfn She is widely portrayed in an image that derives from a late 19th-century chromolithograph of a snake charmer, probably Samoan, who worked in a German circus.Template:Sfn
Some Beninese acknowledge that certain Yoruba {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} are more powerful than certain {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.Template:Sfn
Also part of the Vodun worldview is the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, a type of forest spirit.Template:Sfn
Prayers to the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} usually include requests for financial wealth.Template:Sfn Practitioners seek to gain well-being by focusing on the health and remembrance of their families.Template:Sfn There may be restrictions on who can venerate the deity; practitioners believe that women must be kept apart from Gbădu's presence, for if they get near her they may be struck barren or die.Template:Sfn Devotion to a particular deity may be marked in different ways; devotees of the smallpox spirit Sakpatá for instance scar their bodies to resemble smallpox scars.Template:Sfn
In one tradition, Mawu bore seven children. Sakpata: Vodun of the Earth, Xêvioso (or Xêbioso): Vodun of Thunder, also associated with divine justice,Template:Sfn Agbe: Vodun of the Sea, Gû: Vodun of Iron and War, Agê: Vodun of Agriculture and Forests, Jo: Vodun of Air, and Lêgba: Vodun of the Unpredictable.Template:Sfn
In other stories, Mawu-Lisa is depicted as a single hermaphroditic person capable of impregnating herself, with two faces rather than being twins.Template:Sfn In other branches, the Creator and other {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} are known by different names, such as Sakpo-Disa (Mawu), Aholu (Sakpata), and Anidoho (Da), Gorovodu.Template:Sfn
The soulEdit
Among the Fon, a common belief is that the head is the seat of a person's soul.Template:Sfn The head is thus of symbolic importance in Vodún.Template:Sfn
Some Vodún traditions specifically venerate spirits of deceased humans. The Mama Tchamba tradition for instances honours slaves from the north who are believed to have become ancestors of contemporary Ewe people.Template:Sfn Similarly, the Gorovodu tradition also venerates enslaved northerners, who are described as being from the Hausa, Kaybe, Mossi, and Tchamba ethnicities.Template:Sfn
AcɛEdit
An important concept in Vodún is {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, a notion also shared by Yoruba religion and various African diasporic religions influenced by them.Template:Sfn Landry defined {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} as "divine power".Template:Sfn It is the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} of an object that is deemed to provide it with its power and efficacy.Template:Sfn
PracticeEdit
The anthropologist Dana Rush noted that Vodun "permeates virtually all aspects of life for its participants".Template:Sfn As a tradition, it prioritises action and getting things done.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Financial transactions play an important role, with both the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and their priests typically expecting payment for their services.Template:Sfn
Landry described the religion as being "deeply esoteric".Template:Sfn A male priest may be referred to with the Fon word {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.Template:Sfn The priesthoods of particular spirits may bear specific names; the priestesses of Mama Wata are for instance called Mamisi.Template:Sfn These practitioners may advertise their ritual services using radio, television, billboard adverts, and the internet.Template:Sfn There are individuals who claim the title of the "supreme child of Vodún in Benin", however there are competing claimants to the title and it is little recognised outside Ouidah.Template:Sfn
The forest is a major symbol in Vodún.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Landry stated that a connection to the natural environment was "a dominant theme" in the religion.Template:Sfn The forest in particular is important in Vodun cosmology, and learning the power of the forest and of particular leaves that can be found there is a recurring theme among practitioners.Template:Sfn Leaves, according to Landry, are "building blocks for the spirits' power and material presence on earth".Template:Sfn Leaves will often be immersed in water to create {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (vodun water), which is used to wash both new shrines and new initiates.Template:Sfn
ShrinesEdit
The spirit temple is often referred to as the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} or the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.Template:Sfn This may be located inside a practitioner's home, in a publicly accessible communal area, or hidden in a part of the forest accessible only to initiates.Template:Sfn Its location impacts who uses it; some are used only by a household, others by a village, and certain shrines attract international pilgrims.Template:Sfn
For adherents, these shrines are deemed to be physical incarnations of the spirits,Template:Sfnm and not simply images or representations of them.Template:Sfn Rosenthal called these shrines "god-objects".Template:Sfn A wooden carved statue is referred to as a {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.Template:Sfn
Particular objects are selected for use in building a shrine based on intrinsic qualities they are believed to possess.Template:Sfn The constituent parts of the shrine are dependent on the identity of the spirit being enshrined there. Fá for instance is enshrined in 16 palm nuts, while Xɛbyosò's shrines require {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("thunderstones') believed to have been created where lightning struck the earth.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Lɛgbà, meanwhile, is represented by mounds of soil,Template:Sfn typically covering leaves and other objects buried within it.Template:Sfn There may also be some experimentation in the ingredients used in constructing the shrine, as practitioners hope to make the manifested spirit as efficacious as possible.Template:Sfn
Plant material is often used in building shrines,Template:Sfn with specific leaves being important in the process.Template:Sfn Offerings may be given to a tree from which material is harvested.Template:Sfn Shrines may also include material from endangered species, including leopard hides, bird eggs, parrot feathers, insects, and elephant ivory.Template:Sfn Various foreign initiates, while trying to leave West Africa, have found material intended for their shrines confiscated at airport customs.Template:Sfn
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.Template:Sfn It is the objects added, and the rituals performed while adding them, that are deemed to give the spirit its earthly power.Template:Sfn
An animal will usually be sacrificed to ensure the spirit manifests within the shrine;Template:Sfnm it is believed that the animal charges the spirit's acɛ, which gives the shrine life.Template:Sfn For shrines to Lɛgbà, for instance, a rooster force-fed red palm oil will often by buried alive at the spot where the shrine is to be built.Template:Sfn When praying at a shrine, it is customary for a worshipper to leave a gift of money for the spirits.Template:Sfn There are often also pots around it in which offerings may be placed.Template:Sfn Wooden stakes may be impaled into the floor around the shrine as part of an individual's petition.Template:Sfn
In this material form, the spirits must be maintained, fed, and cared for.Template:Sfn Offerings and prayers will be directed towards the shrine as a means of revitalising its power.Template:Sfn At many shrines, years of dried blood and palm oil have left a patina across the shrine and offering vessels.Template:Sfn Some have been maintained for hundreds of years.Template:Sfn Shrines may also be adorned and embellished with new objects gifted by devotees.Template:Sfn Shrines of Yalódè for instance may be adorned in brass bracelets, and those of Xɛbyosò with carved wooden axes.Template:Sfn Although these objects are not seen as part of the spirit's material body itself, they are thought to carry the deity's divine essence.Template:Sfn
Oró and EgúngúnEdit
The Oró and Egúngún groups are all-male secret societies.Template:Sfn In Beninese society, these groups command respect through fear.Template:Sfn In contemporary Benin, it is common for a young man to be initiated into both societies on the same day.Template:Sfn
A culture of secrecy surrounds the Egúngún society.Template:Sfn Once initiated, a man will be expected to have his own Egúngún mask made;Template:Sfn these masks are viewed as embodiments of the ancestors.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn
PossessionEdit
Possession is part of most Vodún cults.Template:Sfn Rosenthal noted, from her ethnographic research in Togo, that females were more often possessed than males.Template:Sfn Her research also found children as young as 10 being possessed, although most were over 15.Template:Sfn In some {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} groups, priests will rarely go into possession trance as they are responsible for overseeing the broader ceremony.Template:Sfn
The possessed person is often referred to as the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} itself.Template:Sfn Once the person has received the spirit, they will often be dressed in attire suitable for that possessing entity.Template:Sfn The possessed will address other attendees, offering them advice on illnesses, conduct, and making promises.Template:Sfn When a person is possessed, they may be cared for by another individual.Template:Sfn Those possessed often enjoy the prestige of having hosted their deities.Template:Sfn
Offerings and animal sacrificeEdit
Vodun involves animal sacrifices to both ancestors and other spirits,Template:Sfn a practice called {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in Fon.Template:Sfn Animal species commonly used for sacrifice include birds, dogs, cats, goats, rams, and bulls.Template:Sfn There is ample evidence that in parts of West Africa, human sacrifice was also performed prior to European colonisation, such as in the Dahomey kingdom during the Annual Customs of Dahomey.Template:Sfn
Typically, a message to the spirits will be spoken into the animal's ear and its throat will then be cut.Template:Sfn The shrine itself will be covered in the victim's blood.Template:Sfnm This is done to feed the spirit by nourishing its {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.Template:Sfn Practitioners believe that this act maintains the relationship between humans and the spirits.Template:Sfn The meat will be cooked and consumed by the attendees,Template:Sfnm something believed to bestow blessing from the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} for the person eating it.Template:Sfn The individual who killed the animal will often take ritual precautions to pacify their victim and discourage their spirit from taking vengeance upon them.Template:Sfn
Among followers in the United States, where butchery skills are far rarer, it is less common for practitioners to eat the meat.Template:Sfn Also present in the U.S. are practitioners who have rejected the role of animal sacrifice in Vodun, deeming it barbaric.Template:Sfnm
InitiationEdit
Initiation bestows a person with the power of a {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.Template:Sfn It results in long-term obligations to the spirits that a person has received; that person is expected to honour their spirits with praise, to feed them, and to supply them with money, while in turn the spirit offers benefits to the initiate, giving them promises of protection, abundance, long life, and a large family.Template:Sfn
The typical age of a person being initiated varies between spirit cults; in some cases children are preferred.Template:Sfn The process of initiation can last from a few months to a few years.Template:Sfn It differs among spirit cults; in Benin, Fá initiation usually takes less than a week, whereas initiations into the cults of other {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} may take several weeks or months.Template:Sfn Initiation is expensive;Template:Sfn especially high sums are generally charged for foreigners seeking initiation or training.Template:Sfn Practitioners believe that some spirits embody powers that are too intense for non-initiates.Template:Sfn Being initiated is described as "to find the spirit's depths".Template:Sfn Animal sacrifice is a typical feature of initiation.Template:Sfn Trainees will often be expected to learn many different types of leaves and respective qualities.Template:Sfn
DivinationEdit
Divination plays an important role in Vodún.Template:Sfn Different {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} groups often utilise different divinatory methods; the priestesses of Mamíwátá for instance employ mirror gazing, while the priests of Tron use kola nut divination.Template:Sfn Among the Fon, divination trays are most often quadrangular in shape.Template:Sfn
Across Vodún's practitioners, Fá is often deemed the best form of divination.Template:Sfnm Its initiates claim that it is the only system that has sufficient {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} to be consistently accurate.Template:Sfnm This is a system adopted from the Yoruba.Template:Sfn Fá diviners typically believe that the priests of other spirits do not have the right to read the sacred signs of Fá.Template:Sfn A consultation with an initiate is termed a {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.Template:Sfn
In Vodun, a diviner is called a {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn The fee charged will often vary depending on the client, with the diviner charging a reduced rate for family members and a more expensive rate to either tourists or to middle and upper-class Beninese.Template:Sfn Diviners will often recommend that their client seeks initiation.Template:Sfn
Healing and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}Edit
Healing is a central element of Vodún.Template:Sfn
The Fon term {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} can be translated into English as "charm"; many Francophone Beninese refer to them as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.Template:Sfn These are amulets made from zoological and botanical material that is then activated using secret incantations,Template:Sfn the latter called {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("bǒ's language").Template:Sfn Families or individuals often keep their recipes for creating {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} a closely guarded secret;Template:Sfn there is a widespread belief that if someone else discovers the precise ingredients they will have power over its maker.Template:Sfn {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} are often sold;Template:Sfnm tourists for instance often buy them to aid in attracting love, wealth, or protection while travelling.Template:Sfn
{{#invoke:Lang|lang}} designed for specific functions may have particular names; a {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is alleged to offer invisibility while a {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} provides the power of translocation.Template:Sfn Anthropomorphic figurines produced especially in the Fon and Ayizo area of southern Benin are commonly called {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("bǒ cadaver").Template:Sfn These {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} are often kept within a shrine or house—sometimes concealed in the rafters or under a bed—although in some places have also been situated outside, in public spaces.Template:Sfn Although {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} are not intended as representations of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}},Template:Sfn early European travellers who encountered these objects labelled them "idols" and "fetishes".Template:Sfn
{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}Edit
Another belief in Vodún is in {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} a universal and invisible power,Template:Sfn and one which many practitioners regard as the most powerful spiritual force available.Template:Sfn In English, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} has sometimes been translated as "witchcraft".Template:Sfn Several {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} such as Kɛnnɛsi, Mǐnɔna, and Gbădu, are thought to draw their power from {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.Template:Sfn Many practitioners draw a distinction between {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, the destructive and harmful side of this power, and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, its protective and benevolent side.Template:Sfn People who claim to use this power call themselves {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and typically insist that they employ {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} to protect their families from {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.Template:Sfn In Vodún lore, becoming an {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} comes at a cost, for the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} gives the practitioner a propensity for illness and shortens their life.Template:Sfn
According to Vodún belief, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} are capable of transforming into animals and flying.Template:Sfn To become an {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, an individual must use {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} to kill someone, commonly a relative.Template:Sfn In the tradition, practitioners of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} send their soul out at night, where they gather with other practitioners to plot how they will devour other people's souls, ultimately killing them.Template:Sfn Owls, black cats, and vultures are all regarded as dangerous agents of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.Template:Sfn Many people fear that their success will attract the envy of malevolent {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} within their family or neighbourhood.Template:Sfn The identity of the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, many practitioners believe, can be ascertained through divination.Template:Sfn Landry found that everyone he encountered in Benin believed in {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} to various degrees,Template:Sfn whereas many non-Africans arriving for initiation were more sceptical of its existence.Template:Sfnm
HistoryEdit
Pre-colonial historyEdit
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."Template:Sfn Many of these cults were closely interwoven with political structures, sometimes representing something akin to state religions.Template:Sfn From the early 16th century, waves of Adja and related peoples migrated eastward, establishing close ties with each other and forming the basis for the emergent Fon people.Template:Sfn The Fon made contact with Portuguese sailors in the 16th century and subsequently also the French, British, Dutch, and Danish in the 17th and 18th centuries.Template:Sfn The first document to reveal European interest in Vodun was the Doctrina Christiana from 1658.Template:Sfn
The 17th century saw the rise of the Dahomey state in this area of West Africa.Template:Sfn This generated religious change; early in the 17th century, Dahomey's king Agaja conquered the Xwedá kingdom (in what is now southern Benin) and the Xwedá's serpent {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} came to be widely adopted by the Fon.Template:Sfn From Template:Circa to 1823, Dahomey was a vassal state of Oyo, the Yoruba-led kingdom to the east, with this period seeing considerable religious exchange between the two.Template:Sfn Fon peoples adopted the Fá, Oró, and Egúngún cults from the Yoruba.Template:Sfn Fá was for instance present among the Fon by the reign of Dahomey's fifth ruler, Tegbesu (Template:Reign) and by the reign of Gezo (Template:Reign) had become well established in the Dahomean royal palace.Template:Sfn
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.Template:Sfn Coupled with the religion of the Kongo people from Central Africa, the Vodún religion of the Fon became one of the two main influences on Haitian Vodou.Template:Sfn Like the name {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} itself, many of the terms used in this creolised Haitian religion derive from the Fon language;Template:Sfnm including the names of many deities, which in Haiti are called {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.Template:Sfn 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,Template:Sfnm for instance referring to its spirit deities as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.Template:Sfn
Colonialism and ChristianityEdit
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In 1890, France invaded Dahomey and dethroned its king, Béhanzin.Template:Sfn In 1894, it became a French protectorate under a puppet king, Agoli-agbo, but in 1900 the French ousted him and abolished the Kingdom of Dahomey.Template:Sfn To the west, the area that became Togo became a German protectorate in 1884. Germany maintained control until 1919 when, following their defeat in the First World War, the eastern portion became part of the British Gold Coast and the western part became French territory.Template:Sfn
Christian missionaries were active in this part of West Africa from the 18th century. A German Presbyterian mission had established in the Gold Coast in 1737 before spreading their efforts into the Slave Coast in the 19th century. These Presbyterians attempted to break adherence to Vodún in the southern and plateau regions.Template:Sfn The 19th century also saw conversion efforts launched by Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Methodist missionaries.Template:Sfn
Although proving less of an influence than Christianity, Islam also impacted Vodún, reflected in the occasional use of Islamic script in the construction of Vodún charms.Template:Sfnm
Post-colonial historyEdit
In 1960, Dahomey became an independent state,Template:Sfnm as did Togo.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfnm Kérékou believed that Vodún wasted time, money, and resources that were better spent on economic development.Template:Sfnm In 1973 he banned Vodún ceremonies during the rainy season, with further measures to suppress the religion following throughout the 1970s.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn
In 1989, Benin transitioned to democratic governance.Template:Sfn After becoming prime minister in 1991, Nicéphore Soglo lifted many anti-Vodún laws.Template:Sfn The Beninese government planned "Ouidah '92: The First International Festival of Vodun Arts and Cultures," which took place in 1993;Template:Sfnm among the special guests invited were Pierre Verger and Mama Lola, reflecting attempts to build links across the African diaspora.Template:Sfn It also established 10 January as "National Vodún Day."Template:Sfn From the 1990s, the Beninese government increasingly made a concerted effort to encourage Vodún-themed tourism, hoping that many foreigners would come seeking initiation.Template:Sfn
By the late 1960s, some American black nationalists were travelling to West Africa to gain initiation into Vodún or Yoruba religion.Template:Sfn By the late 1980s, some white middle-class Americans began arriving for the same reason.Template:Sfn Some initiates of Haitian Vodou or Santería still go to West Africa for initiation as they believe that it is there that the "real secrets" or "true spiritual power" can be found;Template:Sfn the majority of arrivals seek initiation into Fá.Template:Sfn West Africans have also taken the religion to the U.S., where it has interacted and blended with diasporic religions like Vodou and Santería.Template:Sfnm Many West African practitioners have seen the international promotion of Vodún as a means of healing the world and countering hate and violence,Template:Sfn as well as a means of promoting their own ritual abilities to an international audience, which will potentially attract new clients.Template:Sfn
DemographicsEdit
About 17% of the population of Benin, some 1.6 million people, follow Vodun. (This does not count other traditional religions in Benin.) In addition, many of the 41.5% of the population that refer to themselves as "Christian" practice a syncretized religion, not dissimilar from Haitian Vodou or Brazilian Candomblé; indeed, many of them are descended from freed Brazilian slaves who settled on the coast near Ouidah.<ref name="autogenerated1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In Togo, about half the population practices indigenous religions, of which Vodun is by far the largest, with some 2.5 million followers; there may be another million Vodunists among the Ewe of Ghana, as 13% of the total Ghana population of 20 million are Ewe and 38% of Ghanaians practice traditional religion. According to census data, about 14 million people practice traditional religion in Nigeria, most of whom are Yoruba practicing Ifá, but no specific breakdown is available.<ref name="autogenerated1"/>
Although initially present only among West Africans, Vodún is now followed by people of many races, ethnicities, nationalities, and classes.Template:Sfn Foreigners who come for initiation are predominantly from the United States;Template:Sfn many of them have already explored African diasporic traditions like Haitian Vodou, Santería, or Candomblé, or alternatively Western esoteric religions such as Wicca.Template:Sfn Many of the spiritual tourists who arrived in West Africa had little or no Fon or French, nor an understanding of the region's cultural and social norms.Template:Sfn Some of these foreigners seek initiation so that they can initiate others as a source of revenue.Template:Sfn
Reception and influenceEdit
In the view of some foreign observers, Vodún is Satanism and demon worship.Template:Sfn Although seeing its deities as malevolent demons, many West African Christians still regard Vodún as being effective and powerful.Template:Sfnm Some Beninese regard Christianity as "less worrisome and less expensive" than Vodún;Template:Sfn many individuals converted to Christianity to deal with bewitchment, believing that Jesus could heal and protect them for free, whereas any {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} offering to counter witches would extract a substantial price.Template:Sfn
ReferencesEdit
CitationsEdit
SourcesEdit
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Further readingEdit
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