The ancient religion of old Dahomey, which honors the voduns, the ancestors and the living force of nature, and which crossed the Atlantic to Haiti and Brazil.
Vodun is a legitimate, ancient African-rooted religion. It was born in West Africa, among the Fon, Ewe and Gun peoples of the ancient kingdom of Dahomey, in the region where Benin and Togo are today, with a presence also in Ghana and in southwestern Nigeria.
In the Fon language, vodun means spirit or deity. They are the voduns: deities linked to thunder, the earth, the sea, iron and the serpent that sustains the world. Benin is considered the spiritual heart of the tradition, and the city of Uidá (Ouidah) gathers temples and the sacred forest. The entire history, with the sources, is in the article about what Vodun is.
Vodun has an animist base: rivers, trees and animals carry spiritual force and demand respect. Therefore, the worship walks alongside harmony with nature and the veneration of ancestors, who continue to be part of the family after death.
Mawu and Lisa
The creator pair: Mawu, the moon, and Lisa, the sun
Legba
Guardian of the entrances and messenger between worlds
Sakpata
Lord of the earth, of diseases and of healing
Hevioso
The thunder and justice; in Brazil, Sogbo and Badé
Dan
The rainbow serpent of continuity; in Brazil, Bessém
Gu
The iron, the work and the war
The cradle of tradition. The vodun remains alive in temples, in families and in public festivals. The national holiday was established in the 1990s and, by a 2024 law, it began to fall on the second Friday of January.
Enslaved people of various ethnicities recreated the worship in Haiti and merged it with Catholicism. The deities began to be called lwa. The ceremony of Bois Caïman, in 1791, is remembered as the spark of the revolution that made Haiti free in 1804.
Here the voduns arrived with the Jeje Africans. They are worshipped in Candomblé Jeje, in Bahia, and in Tambor de Mina, in Maranhão, where the Casa das Minas preserves the worship of the royal family of Dahomey.
Vodun ceremonies bring together drums, chants and dances. The drumming calls the deities, and they manifest in the bodies of the initiates through possession, to bring healing, guidance, and protection to the community. Offerings of food, drink, and leaves seal the exchange between the world of the living and the world of the spirits.
In Haiti, the priest is the houngan and the priestess is the manbo. The temple has the poto mitan at its center, the pillar through which the lwa descend, and on the ground, the vèvè are traced, sacred flour drawings that identify each deity, such as Papa Legba, Ezili, Ogou and Danbala.
Those who worship voduns in Brazil find at Joia Mística Laroyê candles, herbs, bead necklaces, and pottery for offerings, with welcoming service in Extrema, Minas Gerais and orders via WhatsApp.
The doll pierced with pins to hurt someone is a Hollywood cliché, created by horror movies and sensationalist reports from the beginning of the 20th century, at the time when the United States occupied Haiti. The same path was followed by the image of the zombie enslaved by a spell. Ritual figures, those do exist: the bocio of the Fon is made to protect, not to hurt, as the article about the Vodou doll states.
These stories served to demonize Haitian culture and, by extension, all African-rooted religions. The prejudice that fell upon Vodou is a relative of what still falls today on Umbanda, Candomblé, and Quimbanda in Brazil. Knowing the religion for real is the first step to respecting it.
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Extrema, Minas Gerais · South of Minas
Candles, herbs, statues, bead necklaces and everything for your faith, with service from those who understand. Ask your questions via WhatsApp or pay us a visit.
