West African Vodun

The Jamaican government reconsidering the Obeah Act in the summer of 2019 highlighted the legacy of prejudice and criminalization of Africana religious systems and practices left by colonization across ethno-linguistic borders and the broader Black Atlantic. It also highlighted how some traditions such as Béninois Vodun, Candomblé, Santería, and oriṣa worship in parts of Nigeria have successfully managed to combat state policing and prejudice to gain official recognition and legal protection. However, this article analyzes the way even the legal and conceptual success of Africana religions in the modern world places them in a Catch-22. Drawing attention to the fundamental differences between modern conceptions and assumptions of what constitutes “religion,” the article traces the history of how modern political and legal structures either exclude and oppress Africana traditions or exert subtle pressure on them to conform to conceptions of “religion” that are more intelligible and ac...

This paper compares anthropomorphic power-figures from the Vodun and Kongo cultural areas. Vodun is practised along the Guinea Coast of West Africa (especially in Benin and Togo) whereas the Kongo religion is native to the west coast of Central Africa (especially the two Republics of the Congo and northwest Angola). First, overlaps in belief and praxis between the Vodun and Kongo religions are highlighted. Second, similarities are identified in the design and significance of anthropomorphic Vodun power-figures, especially Fon bocio and Ewe bo/vodu/tro(n), and their Kongo counterparts – minkisi, and especially minkondi, which are better known in the West as “nail fetishes.” The disturbing appearance of the figurines, the ritual operation of features such as pegs/padlocks, nails/blades, bonds/sutures and magical/medicinal material (Kongo bilongo) are treated in detail. Activation and appeasement by sacrificial blood, alcoholic drink and coloured dyes are also considered. The analysis ends with a broad intercultural comparison which ranges from ancient Egyptian belief to the art of Polish surrealist Zdzisław Beksiński, encompassing en route the zār cult and the Polynesian tiki. Overall, the study finds that the Vodun bocio/bo/vodu/tro(n) has much in common with the Kongo nkisi nkondi, the two sharing notable similarities in purpose, construction and operation. One difference, however, is that large Kongo minkondi used to serve as archival repositories of a community’s oaths, treaties and petitions, a commemorative role seemingly not shared by Vodun power-figures.

This article examines the ways in which beliefs and forms of secret religious knowledge are (re)formed and mobilized creatively by Béninois practitioners of Vodún, who participate actively in Bénin's changing religious landscape. This expansion , encouraged by contemporary trends in globalization and transnationalism such as spiritual tourism, modernity, and an increased Evangelical Christian presence in West Africa, has propelled belief into local and transnational discourse. While persuasive arguments have been made against the use of the term 'belief' to describe African religion, in this article I show how Vodún's increased presence on the global stage and strategies employed by local practitioners to frame Vodún as transnational has once again made belief in African religion an important and meaningful point of critical analysis.

This article explores the genealogy of the gorovodu religious order, a relative newcomer in the wider vodun landscape of Togo and Benin. Gorovodu was born from the combination of many of the antiwitchcraft movements that swept across the Gold Coast between the 1910s and the 1930s. Crossing the Volta River to the east, these movements encountered a space dominated by vodun orders that were able to absorb and transform them gradually. In Togo and Benin, the northern gods lost their explicit association with witch finding and were recontextualized within the para meters of vodun practices while retaining their strong moralistic aptitude. What remained was a neat dichotomy between good and bad that was not so typical of vodun: gorovodu's moral dictates were and are clear and offered a sense of stability by the immediacy of reward or punishment. This article analyzes the initial stages in the genesis of a new vodun and the transformation within an antiwitchcraft movement with the intention of showing the peculiar interaction between motion and the colonial encounters, the agency of charismatic leaders and the influences of world religions. résumé Cet article explore la généalogie de l'ordre religieux gorovodu, ordre rela-tivement nouveau dans l'ensemble du paysage vodun du Togo et du Bénin. Goro-vodu est né de la combinaison de plusieurs mouvements opposés à la sorcellerie qui ont déferlé sur la Côte-de-l'Or entre les années 1910 et 1930. Ayant traversé la Volta à l'est, ces mouvements se sont retrouvés dans un espace dominé par des

Book Chapter, from "Shackled Sentiments: Slaves, Spirits, and Memories in the African Diaspora".  This chapter looks at "Mama Tchamba" (slave spirit worship) in Ghana, Togo, and Benin among the Ewes and Guin-Mina's with a focus on mimesis, morality, and personhood. With ethnographic stories from spirit-possession rituals and episodes of lineage and slave-ancestor divination

Individually, each of these 11 books grabbed my attention because of its brilliant analysis of some topic(s) I judge to have critical importance to the world. Plus, the writing in all these books is oh-so-readable. Collectively, they remind us: Anthropology is not only alive and well, the discipline continues to offers unique insights into vexing issues in ways that only long-term immersion can produce.

Early encounters with Africa initiated a European fascination with the “fetish.” Though this term has been extensively problematized, anthropologists have kept the term, reading fetishes as cultural texts and searching to untangle the material assemblages and deep symbols that comprise them. This article contributes to our knowledge of fetishes by applying a practitioner-centric approach to their use and meaning in the matrices of Vodu. First, I elucidate meanings of these spiritual embodiments using ethnography of prayer and sacrifice in Gorovodu as practiced by ethnic Ewe and Mina communities in southern Togo. I then deploy the language of phenomenological anthropology to argue that fetishes bring intentionality into being and focus. Their filled presence directs consciousness towards the spirits and allows practitioners to sensuously experience spirituality and spiritual being. Rituals surrounding material fetishes are a means of intending reciprocal relationships with the divine into perceptual consciousness, and it is through these relationships that life and success are made possible.

Spirit Service: Vodún and Vodou in the African Atlantic World explores this dynamic religion, its mobility, and its place in the modern world. By examining the systems—ritual practices, community-based spirit veneration, and spiritual means of securing opportunity and well-being—alongside the individuals who worship, this rich collection offers the first comprehensive ethnographic study of West African spirit service on a broad scale. Contributors consider social encounters between African/Haitian practitioners and European / North American spiritual seekers, economies and histories, funerary rites and spirit possessions, and examinations of gender and materiality.

Offering much-needed perspective on this historically disparaged religion, Spirit Service reminds us all that the gods are growing, assimilating, and demanding recognition and respect.

Essay written on my Facebook page, 4/15/2018, discussing those who seek to honor Mami Wata and their consideration in understanding that if they do not truly know this spirit it could be a disservice to the pantheon of Mami and to those who are her authentic representatives.

Vodún/Vodu have long served as a "way of life" and ontology for making sense of the world along the Bight of Benin, and in the Caribbean and Atlantic world where many slaves were brought. In Togo, the core ethnic groups, the Ewes, continue to turn inward toward Vodún/Vodu traditions as mechanisms of resistance against an autocratic and despotic rule of a northern regime. While the north remains underdeveloped regarding education, economics, and health care delivery-the majority southern Ewes remain locked out of a political process run by the Eyadema regime, who regularly cite north/ south conflict as a justification for absolute one-party rule over all of Togo. Vodùn/ Vodu become motors of modernity through creative assimilation and adaptation to the most pressing geopolitical concerns of the day. This paper assesses the relationship between Vodùn/Vodu and contemporary Togolese politics, and its resistance to state sponsored terror and autocracy.