Vodou, also spelled Voodoo, Voudou, Vodun, or French Vaudou, a traditional Afro-Haitian religion.
Is voodoo practiced in Africa?
‘ Vodun is an ancient religion practiced by some 30 million people in the West African nations of Benin, Togo and Ghana. With its countless deities, animal sacrifice and spirit possession, voodoo — as it’s known to the rest of the world — is one of the most misunderstood religions on the globe.
Where did Voodoo originated in Africa?
Vodou originated in the ancient kingdom of Dahomey (present-day Nigeria, Benin, and Togo) and derives from the Fon word for “God” or “Spirit.” Other accurate spellings include Vodun, Vodoun, but never voodoo, the sensationalist and derogatory Western creation.
What is Vodun mean?
Vodun (meaning spirit in the Fon, Gun and Ewe languages, pronounced [vodṹ] with a nasal high-tone u; also spelled Vodon, Vodoun, Vodou, Voudou, Voodoo, etc.) is practiced by the Aja, Ewe, and Fon peoples of Benin, Togo, Ghana, and Nigeria.
What is an African priestess?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. A mambo (also written as manbo) is a priestess (as opposed to a houngan, a male priest) in the Haitian Vodou religion. Haitian Vodou’s conceptions of priesthood stem from the religious traditions of enslaved people from Dahomey, in what is today Benin.
What God do they worship in Africa?
Although the majority of Africans today are adherents of Christianity or Islam, African people often combine the practice of their traditional belief with the practice of Abrahamic religions. The two Abrahamic religions are widespread across Africa, though mostly concentrated in different areas.
What country is known for voodoo?
But Voodoo – as practiced in Haiti and by the black diaspora in the United States, South America and Africa – is a religion based on ancestral spirits and patron saints. Known as “Vodou” in Haiti, the religion has also served as a form of resistance against the French colonial empire.
What is the oldest religion?
The word Hindu is an exonym, and while Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world, many practitioners refer to their religion as Sanātana Dharma (Sanskrit: सनातन धर्मः, lit.
Who started Voodoo?
Synonymous with New Orleans, voodoo first came to Louisiana with enslaved West Africans, who merged their religious rituals and practices with those of the local Catholic population. New Orleans Voodoo is also known as Voodoo-Catholicism. It is a religion connected to nature, spirits and ancestors.
What religion does Voodoo come from?
Vodou represents a syncretism of the West African Vodun religion and Roman Catholicism by the descendants of the Dahomean, Kongo, Yoruba, and other ethnic groups who had been enslaved and transported to colonial Saint-Domingue (as Haiti was known then) and partly Christianized by Roman Catholic missionaries in the 16th …
Who are the voodoo gods?
Loa or lwa (pronounced loo-WAH) are the spirits of Haitian Vodou and Louisiana Voodoo. They are intermediaries between Bondye (from French Bon Dieu, meaning “good God”) – the Supreme Creator, but who is distant from the world – and humanity. Loa are not deities in and of themselves.
What is a hoodoo man?
Following the Great Migration of African-Americans, Hoodoo spread throughout the United States. Practitioners of Hoodoo are called rootworkers, conjure man or conjure woman, and Hoodoo doctors. Regional synonyms for hoodoo include conjure or rootwork.
Who is Papa Legba?
Papa Legba is a lwa in Haitian Vodou, who serves as the intermediary between the loa and humanity. He stands at a spiritual crossroads and gives (or denies) permission to speak with the spirits of Guinee, and is believed to speak all human languages.
Who are the 7 Orishas?
Another common initiation is the intitiation into the Seven African Powers (Elegua, Obatala, Oggun, Chango, Yemaya, Oshun, and Orunmilla). Devotees from Cuba often replace Orunmilla with Babalu-Aye. The Seven African Powers are consecrated into one eleke.
What does ASE mean in Africa?
Ase or ashe (from Yoruba àṣẹ) is a West African philosophical concept through which the Yoruba of Nigeria conceive the power to make things happen and produce change.
What are voodoo priests called?
Houngan or oungan is the term for a male priest in Haitian Vodou (a female priest is known as a mambo).