Voodoo Ewé fetish boat from Benin. Piece over 40 years old.
Voodoo was born from the meeting of the traditional cults of the Yoruba gods and the Fon and Ewe deities, during the creation and then the expansion of the Fon kingdom of Abomey in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Voodoo is the cultural foundation of the peoples who came from successive migrations from Tado to Togo, the Adja (including the Fons, the Gouns, the Ewe... and to a certain extent the Yoruba...) peoples who constitute an important element of the populations in the south of the States of the Gulf of Benin (Benin, Togo, Ghana, Nigeria...).
Voodoo (pronounced vodoun) is the Fon adaptation of a Yoruba word meaning “god”. Voodoo therefore designates all the gods or invisible forces whose power or benevolence men try to gain. It is the affirmation of a supernatural world, but also the set of procedures allowing one to enter into a relationship with it. Voodoo corresponds to the Yoruba cult of the Orishas. Just as voodoo is a cult of the spirit of the invisible world. With each opening, the vodoun priest asks for help from the spirit of Papa Legba to open the doors to the two worlds.
Voodoo can be described as a culture, heritage, philosophy, art, dances, language, art of medicine, style of music, justice, power, oral tradition and rites.
With the slave trade, voodoo culture spread to America and the Caribbean islands, notably Haiti. It is characterized by rites of “incorporation” (voluntary and temporary possession by spirits), animal sacrifices, belief in the living dead (zombies) and in the possibility of their artificial creation, as well as the practice of witchcraft on pin dolls (voodoo dolls).
The practice of their religion and culture was forbidden by the colonists, punishable by death or imprisonment, and was therefore practiced in secret. Voodoo, however, has integrated Catholic rites and conceptions, thus making it acceptable. Thus “Christian Voodoo” was born.
In the 1950s, the Vatican made peace with the voodoo cult.
Voodoo has persisted and its practitioners fearlessly display their belief.