Voodoo Fetish

  

Voodoo (or vodou, or vodoun) is a religion originating from the ancient kingdom of Dahomey (West Africa). It remains widely practiced in Benin and Togo, as seen in the famous fetish market in Lomé. This religion is based on voodoo magic.

From the 17th century onward, captured Black people, enslaved and originating from this region of Africa, spread voodoo worship to the Caribbean and America. Voodoo is thus found in various forms in Cuba, Haiti, Brazil, and particularly in the United States, especially Louisiana. It has also spread to North Africa, where it takes different forms, the most well-known being Gnawa in Morocco and Algeria, mixed with Arab-Muslim religious folklore. The voodoo cult has approximately 50 million practitioners worldwide.

As of 2011, many "voodoo" communities exist worldwide, primarily on the American continent and in the Caribbean. In Europe, there are more discreet but nonetheless active communities such as the Hounfor bonzanfè, the Lakou sans Lune, or the Hounfor Konblanmen. At the beginning of the 21st century, voodoo is also spreading in Canada, where many communities have emerged and are trying to bring this belief system to the forefront. Voodoo originated from the meeting of traditional Yoruba gods and Fon and Ewe deities during the creation and subsequent expansion of the Fon kingdom of Abomey in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Voodoo is the cultural foundation of the peoples who descended from successive migrations from Tado in Togo, the Adja (including the Fons, Gouns, Ewe, and to some extent the Yoruba), peoples that constitute an important part of the populations south of the states of the Gulf of Benin (Benin, Togo, Ghana, Nigeria). Voodoo (pronounced vodoun) is the adaptation by the Fon of a Yoruba word meaning "god." Voodoo thus refers to all the gods or invisible forces that humans attempt to appease for their power or goodwill. It is the affirmation of a supernatural world, as well as the set of procedures allowing one to enter into a relationship with it. Voodoo corresponds to the Yoruba worship of the Orishas.

Just as voodoo is a cult to the spirit of the world of the invisible. At each opening, the voodoo priest asks for the help of the spirit of Papa Legba to open the doors of the two worlds. Voodoo can be described as a culture, a heritage, a philosophy, an art, dances, a language, a healing art, a style of music, a justice, a power, an oral tradition, and rites. With the slave trade, voodoo culture spread to America and the Caribbean islands, notably Haiti. It is characterized by "incorporation" rites (voluntary and temporary possession by spirits), animal sacrifices, belief in the living dead (zombies), and the possibility of their artificial creation, as well as the practice of witchcraft on pins (voodoo dolls).

The practice of their religion and culture was forbidden by colonizers, punishable by death or imprisonment, and thus was practiced in secret. However, voodoo integrated Catholic rites and conceptions, making it acceptable. Thus, "Christian voodoo" was born. In the 1950s, the Vatican made peace with the voodoo cult. Voodoo has endured, and its practitioners openly display their beliefs.

The voodoo pantheon is primarily composed of forces of nature, similar to shamanism. The voodoo (loa, lwa) and their relationships refer to natural powers such as thunder, the sea, disease, etc.

However, the voodoo cult is also interested in other supernatural entities, such as deified ancestors and monsters (and other animals). Mawu (pronounced man-whou) is the supreme God who reigns over other gods. Mawu lo lo means "God is great"; akpé na mawu means "thank you, God"; mawuena(m) means "gift of God." Mawu, having no form, is never represented, neither in paintings nor associated with objects, as other voodoo deities are. Mawu is uncreated and the creator of all other voodoo deities. Mawu does not intervene in human life. He created the other voodoo deities so that they could relate to humans and the world. "Mawu" is not strictly part of the voodoo pantheon; it is a concept, an entity rather than a person; literally, Mawu translates to "the inaccessible.

" This explains why there is no worship for Mawu anywhere in the voodoo sphere; one only thanks and glorifies him. He is said to be benevolent toward all creatures. The Christian Ewés and Fons use the same word Mawu to refer to the Christian God. The voodoo pantheon consists of a multitude of Lwas, which are spirits, lower deities, that can communicate and even collaborate with humans.

The Lwas most often manifest in inanimate objects of nature, such as stones and trees; this is why voodoo is described as "animistic." One of the most important Lwas is Erzulie, or Erzulie Freda, goddess of love. There is also Gu (Ogoun in Yoruba), god of war (and blacksmiths), Sakpata, god of smallpox (and more generally of disease, healing, and the Earth), Damballa, spirit of knowledge, as well as the powerful Hebieso, god of storms and lightning. The latter is accompanied by a dwarf or homunculus tasked with forging his lightning.

Papa Legba, for his part, acts as an intermediary and messenger of the gods. He is associated, in Haitian syncretic voodoo, with Saint Peter, who holds the keys to Heaven and Hell. In African voodoo, there are no concepts of heaven and hell.

Lêgba (Eshu for English speakers) is indeed the most important god in that he is the god of crossroads, the god of reflection; his role as an intermediary comes afterward. He forms, with the deity Fa (or Ifa), a pair that carries the pedagogy of this culture. Mami Wata (also called Yemendja in Brazilian voodoo tradition), is even dedicated a special cult. She is the mother of the waters, a goddess feared by fishermen, symbolizing both the nurturing sea and the destructive ocean. Mami Wata is primarily an Ewe deity whose worship is very present along the Atlantic coast of Togo (but also in Nigeria, Cameroon, and Congo-Brazzaville) where she symbolizes supreme power.

Mami Wata is often represented in paintings as a mermaid or a beautiful young woman wielding snakes. Mami Wata is not an adaptation of English as is sometimes believed. In the Mina language spoken in southern Togo and parts of southern Benin, "Amuiê" means to squeeze, "Ata" means the legs.

After the rituals dedicated to the water goddess for women's fertility, where the main abode is the Ocean, the master (Hougan) or mistress (Mambo) of the ceremony asks her to repeat: "Mamui Ata," which means: "I squeeze the legs" to hold onto what the Goddess has seeded for a time. Over time, the goddess was named "Amuia Ata," and through successive phonetic distortions, "Mamui Ata" became "Mami Wat." Dan: for the Fon, Dan refers to the serpent, particularly the python, a sacred animal that must not be killed.

Dan witnessed creation and supports the universe. His worship is especially prevalent in Ouidah and its region, where numerous snake houses can be found.

Voodoo originates from West Africa, but it is also practiced wherever African slaves were transported, such as in some Caribbean islands or in a few countries in America like Brazil, the United States, Mexico, etc. The voodoo practiced outside the African continent is often variations and remnants of the original religion.

Indeed, the slaves, forbidden from practicing their languages and cults, managed to preserve only a tiny part of their cultural heritage. Like the creole languages spoken by the descendants of slaves around the world, the voodoo of the "new worlds" is a blend of different religions of African origins (voodoo or not) and those of slaveholding societies. The brutality suffered by slaves to create a constant climate of "shock state" among captives is undoubtedly the origin of this often-utilized "terror" and vengeance of voodoo found among practitioners who are descendants of slaves, who used this religion in response to acts of unspeakable cruelty committed by their European masters. A strategy of "terror through voodoo" was used against the oppressors and then transmitted from generation to generation, particularly among white colonists, terrors that ultimately found their way into the scenarios of Hollywood films, for example, which have widely disseminated this negative and warlike image of voodoo.