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The term Voodoo ( Vodun in Benin; also Vodou or other phonetically equivalent spellings in Haiti; Vudu in the Dominican Republic) is applied to the branches of a West African ancestor-based religious tradition with primary roots among the Fon-Ewe peoples of West Africa, in the country now known as Benin, formerly the Kingdom of Dahomey, where Vodun is today the national religion of more than 7 million people. In addition to the Fon or Dahomeyan tradition which has remained in Africa, there are related traditions that put down roots in the New World during the days of the transatlantic African slave trade.
Besides Benin, African Vodun and its descendent practices may be found in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Brazil, Ghana, Haiti and TogoRepublique Togolaise ( In Detail) National motto: Travail, Liberte, Patrie(Work, Liberty, Homeland Official language French Capital Lome President Gnassingbe Eyadema Prime minister Koffi Sama Area Total % water Ranked 122nd 56,785 km² 4. 2 Population Tota. The word vodun is the Fon-Ewe word for spiritThe term spirit has several different uses in different fields. Religion and spirituality In the fields of religion and spirituality, the term spirit may mean: The soul of an individual person A spiritual being, such as a ghost The Holy Spirit (also known.
The more or less "pure" Fon tradition in Cuba is known as La Regla Arara.
In Brazil, the Fon tradition among former slaves has given rise to the tradition known as Jeje Vodun.
Called Sevis Gine or "African Service" in Haiti, a CreolizedThe term Creole is used with different meanings in different contexts, which can generate confusion. Generally it refers to a people or a culture that is distinctive or local to a region, but with various additional shades of meaning. Disambiguation See a form of Vodou is the primary culture and religion of the more than 8 million people of Haiti and the Haitian diaspora. Haitian Vodou also has strong elements from the Ibo and Kongo peoples of Central Africa and the Yoruba of Nigeria, though many different peoples or "nations" of Africa have representation in the liturgy of the Sevis Gine, as do the Taíno Indians, the original peoples of the island now known as Hispaniola
Haitian Creole forms of Vodou exist in Haiti (where it is native), the Dominican Republic, parts of Cuba, the United States, and other places that Haitian immigrants dispersed to over the years. It is similar to other African-diasporic religions such as Lukumi or Regla de Ocha (also known as Santería) in Cuba, Candomble and Umbanda in Brazil, all religions that evolved among descendants of transplanted Africans in the Americas.The majority of the Africans who were brought as slaves to Haiti were from the Guinea Coast of West Africa, and their descendants are the primary practitioners of Vodou (those Africans brought to the southern US were primarily from the Kongo kingdom). The survival of the belief system in the New World is remarkable, although the traditions have changed with time. One of the largest differences however between African and Haitian Vodou is that the transplanted Africans of Haiti were obliged to disguise their lwa or spirits as Roman Catholic saints, a process called syncretism.
Most experts speculate that this was done in an attempt to hide their " pagan" religion from their masters who had forbidden them to practice it. To say that Haitian Vodou is simply a mix of West African religions with a veneer of Roman Catholicism would not be entirely correct. This would be ignoring numerous influences from the native Taíno Indians, as well as the evolutionary process that Vodou has undergone shaped by the volatile ferment of Haitian history. It would also be ignoring the large influence of European paganism in Roman Catholicism and its pantheon of saints itself.
Vodou as we know it in Haiti and the Haitian diaspora today is the result of the pressures of many different cultures and ethnicities of people being uprooted from Africa and imported to Hispanola during the African slave trade. Under slavery, African culture and religion was suppressed, lineages were fragmented, and people pooled their religious knowledge and out of this fragmentation became culturally unified. In addition to combining the spirits of many different African and Indian nations, pieces of Roman Catholic liturgy have been incorporated to replace lost prayers or elements; in addition images of Catholic saints are used to represent various spirits or "misteh" ("mysteries", actually the preferred term in Haiti), and many saints themselves are honored in Vodou in their own right. This syncretism allows Vodou to encompass the African, the Indian, and the European ancestors in a whole and complete way. It is truly a " Kreyol" religion.
The most historically important Vodou ceremony in Haitian history was the Bwa Kayiman or Bois Caiman ceremony of August 1791 that began the Haitian Revolution, in which the spirit Ezili Dantor possessed a priestess and received a black pig as an offering, and all those present pledged themselves to the fight for freedom. This ceremony ultimately resulted in the liberation of the Haitian people from their French masters in 1804, and the establishment of the first black people's republic in the history of the world.
Haitian Vodou grew in the United States to a significant degree beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s with the waves of Haitian immigrants fleeing the Duvalier regime, taking root in Miami, New York City, Chicago, and other major cities.
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