Togo

In the small town of Sanguera we found a community that practices a VOODOO ceremony. Voodoo is a religion followed by more than a third of the people here and although many people in this region are Christian also, they still outwardly (and sometimes secretly) practice voodoo. We had an opportunity to learn about their very interesting and intriguing rituals. We had gone to a Voodoo ceremony in 2017 before in New Orleans, but this was very different. Centuries ago, slaves from Africa brought Yoruba gods to the Caribbean and South America and eventually made their way to New Orleans. There it came to mixing of African gods with the saints of Christianity and the symbols of the Catholic Church.

We found both ceremonies very spiritual. Unfortunately, many Americans associate voodoo with dolls and pins. We did not see any if that and the best we could tell it never was part of a ceremony. It was probably because voodoo was and is such a mystery it made a good Hollywood plot and “character” (somewhat like the maltese falcon and language that was not from Malta but made up for the movie).

A memorable ceremony began as we were welcomed by the Chief Priest and he purified the ground with a cornmeal type mixture and alcohol that we were about to walk on to experience the sacred ceremony. The actual ceremony is more of a ritual dancing which was very freeform where some of the dancers go into some trance for certain Gods they worship but not for other ones. A trance will allow the spirit to take over their body and often so draining, it weakens the person when they get out of it. They wear certain colors and paint themselves to represent the God they worship. To sacrifice, and make offerings they are paying back for getting what they promised to the Gods for fulfilling their needs. The rhythmic drums felt like very sacred music.

Vodoo in Africa’s more than a religion, it is a worldview encompassing philosophy, medicine, justice, and religion. Its fundamental principle is that everything is spirit. Humans are spirits who inhabit the visible world. The unseen world is populated by spirits, mysteries, the invisibles, and angels. The spirits of ancestors come from those that are recently deceased (not so different from Judaism where you are named after a recently deceased relative, to carry on that soul. All these spirits are believed to live in a mythic land called Ginen, a cosmic “Africa.” The God of the Christian Bible is understood to be the creator of both the universe and the spirits; the spirits were made by God to help him govern humanity and the natural world.

The primary goal and activity of Vodoo is to serve the spirits, offering prayers and performing various devotional rites directed at God and particular spirits in return for health, protection, and to get closer to the. Spirit possession plays an important role in Afro-Haitian religion, as it does in many other world religions. During religious rites, believers sometimes enter a trance-like state in which the devotee may eat and drink, perform stylized dances, give supernaturally inspired advice to people, or perform medical cures or special physical feats. Vodou ritual activity (e.g., prayer, song, dance, and gesture) is aimed at refining and restoring balance and energy in relationships between people and between people and the spirits of the unseen world. Sometimes these ceremonies are associated with holidays but other times its on a certain day of prayer in the week (usually Saturday and Sunday). And sometimes its just “when the Gods call them”. They can last hours or sometimes up to three days, in the case of the indoctrination ceremony.

To continue the “theme” was our Togo Toga party (see separate post).

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