Running Head: Voodoo in Benin and West Africa 1

Definition and insight

Going by the encyclopedia’s definition, voodoo is a religion of originally Haiti but also practiced

in Cuba, Brazil south of the United States and Trinidad. This belief combines elements from

different religions especially the Roman Catholic and various tribal religions from the West

Africa, especially Benin.

The term voodoo was in derived from a West African word voodoo meaning spiritual entity, and

was employed by African traditional religion practitioners to identify their belief in the 20th

century (Hurston 1995, 28).

Due to its mode of worship and its doctrines, voodoo is regarded as a cult. It worships Bon Dieu

regarded by its followers as the high god and spirits of the dead i.e., ancestors. The spirits

worshipped in this religion, called Ioa, vary from one cult to another, depending on the particular

tribe, though most of them are associated with Roman Catholic saints.

Some of the alleged elements of voodoo that are associated to the Roman Catholic are use of

candles, crosses, bell and the sign of the cross. On the other hand, the African elements from

Benin and other parts of west Africa include, dancing, worship of the ancestors and drumming

(Hursbon 1995, 257).

Voodoo religion is characterized by an endless list of rituals often led by a priest or a priestess.

The pries is called houngan while the priestess is called a mambo. Ioa is an important deity in the

voodoo religion and the worshipers invoke him/her through singing, drumming, dancing and

feasting. During dancing, it is usually the time for performing miracles. This is done by the

dancers who induce into themselves, behavior characteristic of their possessing spirit and then
Voodoo in Benin and West Africa 2

while they are in a blissful daze, they perform miracles of healing as well as giving advice to

other members.

Background and history

About 800000 Africans in total had been brought to Santo Domingo between the 16th and the

18th centuries. Most of these slaves were from the West Africa and especially Benin

(Desmangles 1992, 475). The Roman Catholic managed to a minor success to evangelize among

the slaves, besides administering the legally required sacrament of baptism. It is due to this and

other reasons that the later to emerge voodoo religion was characterized by a merge of the

catholic elements and African practices.

This religion which is largely based on worship of the spirits and healing traditions was brought

into being by the African slaves in Santo Domingo. It basically emerged in the 16th century in

the colony of Santo Domingo in the western region of the Spanish Caribbean. This is the present

day Haiti, a fact which explains why the belief is the most popular among the Haiti inhabitants to

date. Although this religion seems all African, it is properly termed as African-based and not

African.

Like most of other American religions that were derived from African cultures, voodoo religion

remains to be a diffused monotheistic religion, meaning or implying the diffusion of a sacred

power of their supreme god, Gommet, through a pantheon of other divinities, Iwa. In the voodoo

religion, Iwa is particularly associated with the nature and its forces, for example, rivers, the sea

and the earth.

Voodoo in Benin and West Africa 3

Current situation

Voodoo religion has remained without centralization by resolution and has always been

heterogeneous. It thus ignores any teaching of a founder, any official creed or scripture. For

instance, in some parts of Haiti, this religion is particularly characterized by veneration of

ancestors whereas, other parts practice a version characterized more by African cults of spirits.

The three most important pages of the voodoo history were written between the second half of

the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century. These became the cornerstones of the

religion. They are; the Haitian revolution which instilled a great deal of unity among then, the

inclusion of important African aspects into the church and finally the accelerated adoption of the

several elements from the catholic denomination into the Voodoo religion (Aleinikov 1990, 46).

At some point in its history, the pope refused the Vatican from sending catholic priest to Haiti

and even orchestrated formal campaigns to have this religion suppressed but without any

success. Today voodoo remains a legally recognized religion in Haiti and other parts of West

Africa.

In Benin, the tourist posers have a slogan that incorporates a voodoo element. This slogan reads,

“Benin, cradle of voodoo”. This means that Benin is the beginning of the voodoo religion, and its

use implies a high level of acceptance and pride in this religion in the country.

There are also three museums in Benin that have been specifically reserved and devoted to the

voodoo culture and history. These three museums are located in the coastal town of Ouidiah

which is probably referred to as the cradle of this voodoo culture. This coastal town Ouidiah

happens to be the same city that harbors the greatest in Benin, from where the slaves used to be

shipped to America.
Voodoo in Benin and West Africa 4

In the current West Africa, human trafficking is yet to stop. Though most of the cases happen

with the consent of the person being trafficked, this practice is illegal, and as such has found

back doors as an alternative. It has been discovered that voodoo practices that in the local

languages are identified as use of juju, are done as a binding agreement between the trafficker

and the person being trafficked to repay the transport cost after the act has been successful. The

voodoo practice is highly feared and regarded and as such no one would dare break it.

REFERENCES
Aleinikov, Igor. Redfish in America Exhibition Catalogue. Cambridge: Cambridge University
press, 1990.

Desmangles, Leslie G. The Faces of the Gods: Vodou and Roman Catholicism in Haiti. Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992.

Hurbon, Laënnec. Voodoo: Search for the Spirit. New York: Abrams, 1995.

Hurston, Zora Neale. Folklore, Memoirs, and Other Writings. New York: Library of America,
1995.

Métraux, Alfred. Voodoo in Haiti. Trans. Hugo Charteris. New York: Schoken, 1972.

Rey, Terry. "Vodou." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. 21 Dec. 208. 05 March
2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3045302912.html>.