african religions

[premjan]

please offer your thoughts on the multifarious religions with african roots. I have heard superficially of vodou and santeria, and the worship of isis, osiris and amon ra. but I am eager to learn many more details about them from those who have some knowledge. please offer what you know. thank you.

[RevDahlia]

From what I understand, Vodoun and Santeria both emerged when West African slaves were forced to convert to Catholicism. The two aforementioned traditions emerged when Catholicism and the Yoruba tradition, with its pantheon of Orishas (demigod-like beings with different areas of interest and human-like personality traits,) began to blend.

Vodoun is an interesting, pragmatic faith. Practitioners spend a lot of time petitioning the orishas (called loa in Vodoun) to do supernatural favors. This is accomplished by inducing a trance state, during which the loa (with luck, the right loa,) will manifest and "ride" the entranced person. The practitioner then is supposed to possess the loa's power. There's also a bunch of ancestor-worship in there, and some business about zombies. I'm not clear on the whole zombie thing.

Vodoun, IMO, is really cool. There's all this fantastic folk art that goes along with it, and it's malleable and cheerful. (Did you know that Erzulie, the spirit of love, smokes Virginia Slims? Apparently she does, and she'd appreciate it very much if you'd leave some for her on the altar.)

(Side note: Vodoun is the only religion I've ever even remotely considered practicing. It's clearly bullshit, but it's FUN bullshit. Except for the goat-sacrificing. Unfortunately, genuine practitioners keep pretty much to themselves and don't take kindly to being culturally colonized by suburban white kids.)

Santeria is much darker, weirder and more heavily Christianized than Vodoun, and its practitioners are quite secretive. In Santeria, the orishas correspond directly with Catholic saints. I don't know much about it beyond that.

[never been there]

They're not non-fictional works, but to get some of the flavour of West African religions in Africa as opposed to their "creole" forms found in the Americas, may I suggest:
The Famished Road by Ben Okri - much of it takes place in the spiritual realm, and,
Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe - includes portrayals of the practice of religion in a society under great stress.

[premjan]

zombie seems like a fascinating concept: basically resurrected human beings. Could this explain Jesus's resurrection?

doesn't santeria have something to do with chicken or blood sacrifice?

I have actually read Things Fall Apart.

The other region with similarly diverse cultural practices, is, I believe, Papua New Guinea. There was that sensational story of the Fore tribals who contracted Kuru from ritual cannibalism of dead relatives. This is of course more of a pathological case of religion.

[premjan]

some other names of religions on which I don't have any further information at the moment.

[smallprint]

All the religions you mentioned are all derived from the Yoruba people of west Africa (present day Nigeria, Togo, and Benin), who were enslaved in large numbers in the 1700s and especially 1800s and brought over to the Americas. Most went to Brazil and the Caribbean, but many came to the US as well, especially New Orleans. Their religion developed differently in each country depending on the local culture and the relative freedom they had in practicing their faith. Here is the breakdown of the different traditions that developed by name and place:

Brazil:
Condomble
Umbanda = Quimbanda
Macumba sometimes refers for all of the above, although it can be derogatory


Cuba (also in Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico):
Santeria = Lucumi = Regla de Ocha

Haiti:
Vodun = Voodoo = Loa/Lwa

New Orleans
Hoodoo (American Voodoo) is a related tradition but usually not considered a full-fledged religion


There is also Palo Monte/Palo Myombe, practiced in Cuba and Brazil which is from the Congo region of Africa. It originates with Bantu-speaking peoples, not Yoruba.

More info here:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/santeri.htm
http://www.lukumiunity.org/


For more info on the real-life practice of zombification, check out Wade Davis' book The Serpent and the Rainbow (was made into a fictional movie).

[Jackalope]

Vodou actually has very few yoruba elements in it. It's mostly dahomey and fon. The Nago rite has more yoruba, and is influenced by the practice in the Dominican Republic. Best book out on Vodou is still Mama Lola.

Hoodoo is actually more congo than anything else, if you look at the practices. There's been a large infusion of santeria in recent times, especially in the New Orleans area, but the farther afield you go from there, the more you see congo foot track and twig magic. It's in some ways more related to palo mayombe than vodou or santeria. It's really a collection of folk magic, since there's no organized religious practice or structure. Hoodoo is practiced by both blacks and whites in the south, and there are considerable regional variations. The best resource on the net for hoodoo research is probably Cat Yronwind's Lucky Mojo (www.luckmojo.com) site. She's got part of her book Hoodoo In Theory And Practice (http://www.luckymojo.com/hoodoo.html) up there now. She's also one of the few suppliers of condition oils who still uses real herbs instead of synthetic fragrances.

When looking up information on Regalia de Ocha, do not bother with anything written by Migene Gonzalez-Wippler. The woman almost defines the word "gullable." Santeria is no more "dark and weird" than vodou, though it's gotten that reputation largely thanks to Gonzalez-Wippler's books and the fact that there are several large Ocha communities here in the US which have tangled with the local authorities over issues like animal sacrifice and burial rites.

[tangiellis]

Isis
www.touregypt.net/isis.htm

Osiris
http://www.touregypt.net/osiris.htm

Amon Ra
http://www.touregypt.net/amen.htm

This website I recommend not because it carries alot of info on these deities (it doesn't), but because it lists all the names that these three are known by, in case you want to do further research on them.
If there are specifics that you would want, such as books, I can recommend those as well. My father has been a devout follower of the Egytian Gods and Goddesses for almost twenty years.

Santeria
I have a relative that practices Santeria. It is true that it is a mixture of voodou and Catholicism. It's weird to me because Luz collects herbs and spices as if she were pagan, but she has several shrines around her house, all of the Virgin, all dressed in red and white robes, surrounded by candles and scented candles. She makes spells also, and uses her own blood in them. This means that when she combines certain herbs for a spell, she adds a drop or two of her own blood to make it more "powerful." My aunt has told me that she has done small sacrifices on animals, but only if she was asked to do a spell for someone else, not for herself.


Roots
Growing up in the south, the practice was known as "roots" down there. Bascially, it can encompass all aspects of voodoo, but mostly it seems more along the lines of showy satanism to me. Alot of black candles, herbs and various spices are used in the spells. To make a spell work on someone else, it is often required that you have a photograph or some item of the person's in question that the spell can be cast on.
Rituals can also align with Pagan festivals and holidays; mostly the dark and full moons are popular for spell casting. I have not, in my experience, seen this type of religion used for anything other than "negative magick", such as binding a person to you, forcing someone to love you, pay you, etc., and also doing harm to another.
My grandmother was not a well liked person where I grew up and we found items of "roots" often in our yard. Black candles burned into strange shapes; dead flowers; also old batteries (which are said to hold curses longer because of their durability). It is beleived that placing these items unnoticed on another person's property or within their home works the negative magick that you are seeking. But the items must not be found. If they are found and either 1)burned, 2) burned and thrown in running water or 3) taken back to the person who cast it; the negative energy sent out is supposed to rebound times ten. In some other sects, it is rebounded times three.
For example, let's say I want to cast a spell on Penny's car so that it doesn't work. I take a piece of her clothing, maybe a sock, do a ritual over it and annoint this piece with oil and other herbs, then I bury the sock on her property. If she finds it and destroys it, it would be believed that my car would not just end up not working, it would probably be totalled or something.
Weird, but people believe this very strongly.
This belief, as well as voodoo, is taken even more seriously in places like New Orleans, where the mystics live by the swamp.

Another very good movie is "The serpent and the Rainbow." That deals directly with the voodoo/zombie belief and the movie is a real journey into another culture. I highly recommend seeing this one because you won't forget it, I promise you.
Tangie

[smallprint]

Thanks, Jackelope, for the info... I didn't know that Vodou had so little Yoruba influence. I didn't know about the Congo influences on Hoodoo either. My experience with West African-derived religion is mostly through music, especially drumming, so I don't know as much about the history. Can you say more about the Dahomey and Fon traditions, and how you recognize them?

[Jackalope]

Well, the language is different, to start with. And the gods are definitely different. The supreme god who doesn't have much to do with life down here on earth is Bondye. He's sometimes syncreticized with the christian god. The head of the pantheon more involved with life down here is Danbala, the great serpent, who is also the rainbow with one foot on the ocean and one foot on the mountains. Or sometimes one foot on Guinee and one foot in the peristyle (temple). Danbala Wedo is where Wade Davis got the title for his book "The Serpent and the Rainbow," but I wouldn't take much of what he describes as ritual seriously.

The Fon word Vodu, meaning "spirit" is probably the root word for Voodoo/Vodou. Da is the name for the snake spirit, and if I understand this part correctly, the life-force. Da has gathered around it other snake-spirits, among them Dambada Hwedo and Aido Hwedo. That's about how far my knowledge of Fon goes. The haitian forms are Dambala Hwedo and his wife Aido Hwedo. Some older ason (ritual rattle used by priests and priestesses) have snake vertibrae instead of beads strung around them.

For just about anything, one would petition Legba first. He's the guardian of doorways, crossroads and beginnings. The Yoruba have the various Eshu, but Legba is not quite the same. Legba is usually pictured as a very old, very wise man who uses a crutch or cane to walk. One of the praise songs for him roughly translated is:
Papa Legba you are so old
You are so very old
Forever you have been on the highway
Papa Legba you are so old
One of his other aspects is Attibon Legba, the Tree of Justice (the hanging tree). Which makes sense, if you realized that hangings were usually performed at crossroads.

There are a number of different rites in haitian vodou, and the only ones I have any real familiarity with are Rada, Petro and Nago. Again, I'll go by what I've been taught. Rada lwa are largely descended from Dahomey/Fon, Petro from a combination of the native hatian religion that was there before colonization and "hotter" african spirits, and Nago has more yoruba elements. This may or may not be correct. It is true that the Petro aspects of many lwa tend to be more angry or vengeful at times than their Rada counterparts.

[Jackalope]

Forgot to post a full reference for Moma Lola:

Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn, Karen McCarthey Brown
University of California Press, Berkeley. ISBN 0-520-07780-6