Voodoo
The voodoo (from the Creole French voudou, in turn, from the ewé, fon and gun vodu (spirit)), also called vodun, vodon, vodoun, voodoo, voodoo, etc., is a religion originating in West Africa, where it is still practiced today by members of the Ewé, Kabye, Adja, Mina and Fon ethnic groups from Togo, Benin, Ghana and Nigeria.
It is distinct from the various traditional African religions within those countries, and is the main source of similarly named religions found among the African diaspora in the Americas, such as Haitian Vodou, Louisiana Vodou, Cuban voodoo, Dominican voodoo and Brazilian vodum (Candomblé Jejé and Tambor de Mina). These variants move away from voodoo or voodoo as they originated from the syncretism that occurred in the Caribbean area between the beliefs held by the slaves transferred from West Africa and the Catholic Christian religion practiced mainly in those lands; whose practices differ in certain aspects with African voodoo.
Theology and practice
Vodun cosmology focuses on the vodun spirits and other elements of divine essence that rule the Earth, a hierarchy ranging from major deities who govern the forces of nature and human society to spirits of individual streams, trees and rocks, as well as dozens of ethnic vodun, defenders of a certain clan, tribe or nation. The vodun are the center of religious life. Perceived similarities to Catholic doctrines, such as the intercession of saints and angels, allowed Vodun to appear compatible with Catholicism, and helped produce syncretic religions such as Haitian Vodou. Adherents also emphasize ancestor worship and maintain that the spirits of the dead coexist with the world of the living, each family of spirits having its own female priesthood, sometimes hereditary from mother to daughter by blood.
Worship patterns follow various dialects, spirits, practices, chants, and rituals. The divine creator, called Mawu or Mahu, is a female deity. She is an older woman, and normally a mother who is sweet and forgiving. She is also considered the goddess who owns all the other gods and, although there is no temple in her name, people continue to pray to her, especially in times of distress. According to a tradition, she had seven children. Sakpata: Vodun of the Earth, Xêvioso (or Xêbioso): Vodun of Thunder, also associated with Divine Justice, Agbe: Vodun of the Sea, Gû: Vodun of Iron and War, Agê: Vodun of Agriculture and Forests, Jo: Vodun of the Air, and Lêgba: Vodun of the unpredictable.
The Creator embodies a dual cosmogonic principle of which Mawu, the moon, and Lisa, the sun, are respectively the feminine and masculine aspects, often represented as the twin children of the Creator. Lisa is the god of the sun who brings day and warmth, and also strength and energy. Mawu, the goddess of the moon, provides the coolness of the night, peace, fertility and rain. To sum it up, a proverb says: "When Lisa punishes, Mawu forgives."
Legba is often depicted as a phallus or as a man with a prominent phallus. Known as the youngest son of Mawu, he is the chief of all voodoo divinities; in his diasporic representation, Legba is believed to be a very old man who walks on crutches. see how a child is a rebellious one. Only through contact with Legba is it possible to contact the other gods, as he is the guardian of the door of the spirits. Dan, who is the androgynous son of Mawu, is represented as a rainbow serpent, and had to stay with her and act as an intermediary with his other creations. As a mediator between the spirits and the living, Dan maintains balance, order, peace, and communication.
Other popular loa or spiritual entities include Azaka, who rules over agriculture, Erzuli, who has dominion over love, and Ogoun, who is in charge of warfare, defense, and guard duty.
All creation is considered divine and therefore contains the power of the divine. This is how medicines, such as herbal remedies, are understood, and the ubiquitous use of mundane objects in religious rituals is explained. Voodoo talismans, called "fetishes," are objects such as statues or dried parts of animals or humans that are sold for their healing and spiritual rejuvenation properties. Specifically, they are objects inhabited by spirits. The entities that inhabit a fetish are capable of performing different tasks depending on their stage of development. Fetish items are often combined in the construction of "altars", which are used to invoke certain voodoos and their associated powers.
Voodoo in the Americas
Origin
In the Caribbean variant, which would give rise to or sub-branches of voodoo existing in the Americas, it is a synthesis of a theistic religion with an animistic system, provided with a strong magical component. Due to its direct link with Neolithic cosmology and belief systems, its study is of great interest in the field of paleoanthropology. Voodoo is among the world's oldest religions.
The slave trade to America produced a strong phenomenon of syncretism between this complex and well schematized Yoruba mythology (along with those of other African cultures) and Christian beliefs, as well as with the native religions of the places where it was transported to the slaves. This is where Haitian voodoo and a large number of derivatives would emerge: Regla de Ocha or Santeria in Cuba, Santeria in the Dominican Republic, candomblé, macumba, umbanda, Tambor de Mina and quimbanda in Brazil, as well as other Africanist manifestations. in Colombia, Puerto Rico and other countries in the Caribbean and South America. Some of these derivatives have arrived in Europe in recent decades, especially at the hands of returned emigrants.
Features
The existence of voodoo in America is a clear example of syncretic evolution between the theistic-animistic religiosity native to the Gulf of Guinea, the Christian beliefs of the slaveholders and local reminiscences of the Taíno peoples[citation required ], first settlers of the Caribbean islands. It began in the 17th century when many Africans from the Gulf of Guinea were taken as slaves to Haiti and other Caribbean islands. Voodoo is also widespread in traditionally slave-owning regions of the United States until the abolition of slavery, especially in New Orleans, where it arrived at the end of the 18th century at the hands of Haitian immigrants. In Haiti, the use as the country's official religion by the Duvalier government to reinforce the power of their government was notable, given the popularity of this belief and its importance in the country's history. It is usually considered as one of the antecedents of the Haitian Revolution the ceremony of the voodoo priest Boukman carried out on August 14, 1791 in Bois-Cayman.
In its beginnings it lacked a clergy and established regular rites (liturgy), due to its status as a religion persecuted by the slave owners, who forced their slaves to convert to Christianity.
Santeria is linked to American voodoo, widespread in Cuba of a nature even more mystified by Christian currents or Umbanda from Brazil, with a greater predominance of the African element. Cuban and Dominican Santeria —one of the greatest syncretic expressions in the world— uses Catholic symbols and saints to represent their loas and ancient rites of African origin, similar to those of voodoo.
Vodoo, compared to Cuban Santeria, has different forms of worship. In what a first stage it was thought that the second came from the other, even when they have similar origins and names of equivalent deities -in some cases the same-, voodoo, in any of its variants (Haitian or Louisiana, or others), does not share the liturgy, nor the language, nor the theology, nor the cosmogony of Santeria.
Vodoo has been a strong reference in popular culture, due to the attributed ability of the bokor to resurrect the dead and make them work for their benefit (zombies), as well as to provoke death at will.
Other folkloric elements have resulted in the same popular interest, such as voodoo dolls, which are a kind of small fetishes (which pretend to be representations of people or situations) with a humanoid shape made of various materials, which are believed to be linked to the spirit of a certain person. It is said of these dolls that what is done to them happens to whom the doll represents. It is common to find references in literature or in the movies in which these fetishes are used in rituals of black magic, in which needles are stuck into the doll somewhere in the body or some kind of martyrdom is applied to it, and thus the person linked will suffer some evil or a curse. It should be noted, however, that in several cases, the fact that their external appearance is as similar as possible to that of the person with whom they are linked is usually considered a transcendental factor in these rituals, which suggests that, for the purposes of manipulating or torture, they would need a link more tied to the earthly world than to the spiritual.
There is a vast literature and filmography on the subject, which frequently tends to distort and demonize this set of religious practices.
Another belief that has received media attention is that of the figure of the loup-garou or lougarou (werewolf, also identified as an ogre or bogeyman)..
Main Beliefs
In general, in voodoo an ultimate supernatural entity, called by various names, is believed to exist. In French colonial-influenced Caribbean Haitian voodoo, this entity is called Bondye, a term derived from the French bon Dieu (good God) or Mawu (sometimes referring to a couple, Mawu and Lisá), ruler of the supernatural world, but this is inaccessible and remains alien to the world of humans, so communication with that supernatural world must be carried out through numerous loas (Baron Samedi, Maman Brigitte, Damballa, etc), also supernatural entities that act as intermediary deities and that in fact make up the central axis of voodoo, each of them having a different personality and multiple ways of being praised (by songs, dances, ritual symbols and others). Although there is no homogeneous religious structure, a voodoo priest has the function of contacting the invoked loas, speaking the loa through him, for which reason great power is attributed to the priests. The priest is generically called houngan, or if it is a woman, mambo. The term bokor is reserved for a houngan who uses his power for evil, it would be assimilated to the word & # 34; witch & # 34;.
In the original West African voodoo, the creator entity, known as Mawu, is considered to be female and is related to the Moon. Mawu's male companion is named Lisa and is associated with the sun and virility. Mawu and Lisa constitute the pinnacle of the religious pantheon of the religions of the Ewe, Kabye, Mina and Fon peoples.