Attitogon Things to Do

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Vodoun devotees believe that everyone has a soul which is made up of two parts: a gros bon ange or "big guardian angel", and a ti bon ange or "little guardian angel". The ‘little angel’ is the one that leaves the body when the Loa possess the dancers during a ritual. This is basically what happens when a dancer goes into a trance, and I found it quite scary at times to watch. The spirit will take over every movement of that person, they become the spirit and are no longer themselves, and the spirit will talk through the possessed – sometimes in a language they do not understand or even knew before they were possessed. The Loa will convey – through the possessed – advice, desires and warning. The ti bon ange is also known to leave the body when you are asleep and it is believed that it is vulnerable to evil spirits whilst outside the body.

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There are hundreds of different spirits or ‘Loa’ in the vodoun religion, and just like any other religion, each person has their favourite spirit that they worship. It was explained to us that during the dance, different music (drumming) is played for different sprits, and when you hear the tune associated with ‘your’ spirit, you get up and dance. The word ‘Loa’ means ‘mystery’ in the Yoruba language. These are some of the many sprits:
Aida Wedo: the spirit of the rainbow
Erinle: the sprit of the forest
Mawu Lissa: the spirit of creation
Oko: the spirit of agriculture
Ayza: the protector spirit
Agwe: the spirit of the sea
It was also depend on the reason behind the ritual as to which spirit you will be worshipping. The number of Loas are increasing all the time, with the inclusion of local deities and ancestral spirits.
Mawu Lissa is the Supreme Being, and represents both the male (Lissa) and the female (Mawu) side of life. Mawu Lissa however, although being two separate gods is also one god with a split personality. Mawu looks after the moon, the earth, the night, the rising sun and the west. Lissa, on the other hand, represents the sky, the day, the sun, the east and the sunset.

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The purpose of ritual or service is to communicate with the spirits or Loa. Before the dancing takes place, offerings are made to appease the spirits, in the form of chickens, blood, food and other gifts. The Loa and the humans belong to each other and are interdependent – the humans supply food the Loa provides protection from evil spirits, health and good fortune. Rituals are held for a variety of reasons; the one we witnessed was to celebrate the New Year. Other occasions include births, marriages and deaths; healing, lucky events, to fight bad omens and fortune.

The pictures show devotees sprinkling alcohol on the ground to attract the spirits.

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Vodoun is a religion that can trace its roots back at least 6,000 years; some sources claim 10,000. It is freely practised in West Africa, and was in fact accepted as the state religion of Benin in 1996 where 80% of the population is followers. It is believed that over 60 million people practise vodoun worldwide, 30 million of which are thought to be in West Africa. Vodoun is widespread throughout the Caribbean, notably on Tahiti where it was proclaimed the state religion in 2003. It is also found in Brazil, the Guianas, Dominican Republic and parts of USA, introduced by the slaves.

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Vodoun as a religion is said to have started in Benin, at a time of particular hardship during the reign of King Agadja. It is said that the rivers were boiling and the rains ceased and worse of all, everything was topsy-turvy, with women giving birth to goats and vice versa. One disaster after another meant that they were all at their wits end, when a wise woman appeared before the king. She explained how vodoun could solve their problems and change their lives for the better. The people started worshipping vodoun gods and all was well again in the land.

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The occult has always fascinated me, and voodoo is no exception. In fact voodoo is one of the most misunderstood religions in the world, something I became more and more aware of as I did my research on the net. Voodoo is in fact a bastardisation by Hollywood of the word vodoun, the original West African religion (also known as vodun). (One interesting observation here is that ‘voodoo’ passes the spellchecker in Word, ‘vodoun’ or ‘vodun’ do not.) Hollywood also gave the world the idea that vodoun (or voodoo) was an evil black magic cult setting out to spread death and destruction. Films like the James Bond ‘Live and let Die’ also fuelled this misapprehension with its violence and bizarre rituals. Ask an average member of the public what they first think about when they here the word ‘voodoo’ and they are most likely to answer something along the lines of ‘black magic’, ‘zombies’, ‘human sacrifice’ or ‘sticking pins in dolls’. I would love to be able to say “nothing is further from the truth”, but of course there are some associations to all of these within the vodoun religion, but there is so much more to it.