Benin and Togo: Fa, Vodún, and the Ketu Corridor

Vodún na di religion of di Fon and Ewe peoples for wetin be Benin and Togo today, and no be Yoruba religion under another name. E get im own supreme deity, im own pantheon structure, im own priesthood, im own initiation grammar, and im own history, and e dey beside Yoruba people dey do exchange with dem for centuries before dem carry any of di two go the Americas. Di two traditions share di western Yoruba borderland, share divination system in closely related forms, share several deities directly, and don dey influence each other continuously. To share no mean say dem be di same thing, and dis file dey mainly to maintain dat line, because di mistake dey face one direction and e dey cause damage.

Di mistake, as dem name am

Yoruba òrìṣà religion na di African tradition wey dem document pass and wey get structure pass for di Americas, and dis one don make people wey dey write popular and sometimes scholarly work get di habit to dey treat am like di template wey dem dey use interpret every West African tradition. Vodún come turn "the Yoruba religion of Benin." Dem dey explain Vodun spirits as orisha. Dem dey describe di Jeje nation for Brazil as Candomblé sub-branch instead of as vodun practice. Dem dey call Haitian Vodou Yoruba.

Scholars don name dis pattern. Di critique of Yoruba-centrism for African diaspora studies argue say dem systematically marginalise Vodun and Fon and Ewe traditions for inside literature wey make Yoruba di main example, and say dis one dey distort di two traditions 1. Parés history of Candomblé na di strongest positive correction: e argue say vodun practice wey Jeje people bring from early eighteenth century dey central to di formation of Candomblé, long before Yoruba people begin enter plenty, and say di assumption say e originate from Yoruba turn di order upside down 2.

Specifically for Yoruba reader, di point make sense to reason well. How Yoruba religion take dey visible for di Atlantic world na real historical outcome wey get real causes, and e still be distortion for di record, and person fit hold di two things together at di same time.

Wetin Vodún be on im own terms

Vodún, for Fon language, mean spirit or deity. Di word enter Haitian Creole and come enter English, where e gain complete different and mostly fictional life; di West African religion, di Haitian religion, and di American media invention na three different things.

Dahomean theology dey arrange di vodún into pantheons under one creator 3. Mawu and Lisa, wey dem dey often pair as Mawu-Lisa, na di female and male, moon and sun, night and day aspects of di creating principle, and di sky pantheon wey dem dey head get dominion over sub-pantheons wey their children dey head 34. Sogbo dey head di thunder pantheon, Sakpata di earth pantheon, Agbe di sea pantheon 3. Nana Buluku for some accounts na di primordial creator wey born Mawu and Lisa 3. Xɛvioso or Hevioso na di thunder vodún; Dan or Dangbe, di serpent, na di vodún of continuity and wealth; Legba dey stand for gates and crossroads 3.

Dis one na different cosmological architecture from di Yoruba one. Ọlọ́run and Ọlọ́dùmarè no be paired male-female creator; dem no arrange di òrìṣà into descended pantheons under sky, earth, thunder, and sea headings; and di Yoruba system no get di kind genealogical hierarchy wey Vodún get for di same shape. Di structural differences dey real and no be just matter of names.

Di correspondences wey exist dey genuine and mostly dey run along di border. Sakpata and Ṣọ̀pọ̀ná or Babalúayé, smallpox and earth. Hevioso and Ṣàngó, thunder. Legba and Èṣù, di gate and di crossroads, though di two no be di same figure and di Fon Legba get phallic iconography and village-guardian function wey Èṣù no carry identically. Gu and Ògún, iron and war, wey be case of direct sharing. Dan and Ọ̀ṣùmàrè, di serpent and di rainbow.

Ògún/Gu na di clearest example of deity wey dem genuinely share across di whole region instead of to borrow am from one direction, and na di same thing true for several borderland figures. Di Yoruba-Fon border na zone of exchange, no be wall.

Vodún get im own priestly structure, im own convent initiation with period of seclusion and new name wey dem dey give when person come out, im own drum languages, and im own relationship to di state, wey dey very close for Dahomey: di Dahomean monarchy join vodún cults and their priesthoods enter royal administration in a way wey no get exact Yoruba parallel.

Fa and Ifá

Fa na di divination system of di Fon, wey dem dey call Afa among di Ewe and among some Togolese communities, and e closely related to Ifá 5. Di two dey use sixteen-by-sixteen binary structure wey dey produce 256 configurations, with di same or cognate sign names, corresponding verse corpus, and diviner wey dey cast, interpret, and prescribe. Di Fon diviner na bokɔnɔ.

Di historical relationship dey documented, no be speculation. Dahomey, one Fon kingdom wey dem establish for di seventeenth century, and Ọ̀yọ́, one Yoruba kingdom wey old pass am far far, na rivals and neighbours, and di rivalry produce high level of religious and cultural exchange, as Dahomey make conscious effort to incorporate Yoruba art, deities, and culture including Ifá divination into im existing belief system 5. Dahomey pay tribute to Ọ̀yọ́ from 1730, wey provide di political channel.

So di mainstream position na say Fa substantially derive from Ifá, wey di Dahomean state deliberately adopt, and say na dis one account for di structural identity of di two systems and di similarity of their divination instruments 5. Against dis one, Ewe and Fon traditions get their own ancestral accounts of how Afa reach dem from their own ancestors, and di practitioners of di system hold dese accounts strongly 6. Where a tradition own account of im origin differ from wetin historians reconstruct, dis corpus dey report di two and e no dey judge.

Fa and Ifá come different for practice afta di borrowing. Di verse corpora no be di same. Di Fon system get im own ritual tools and im own relationship wit personal Fa, di person destiny-sign wey dem dey get during initiation, wey dey more central to Fon religious life pass di Yoruba practice wey match am. Fa diviner and babaláwo fit recognise each oda signs, but dem no fit just use each oda texts.

The Ketu corridor

Kétu na di mechanism wey connect all dis things to di Americas.

Kétu na Yoruba town and historical kingdom for wetin be southeastern Benin today, one of di oldest Yoruba capitals, for di western edge of Yorubaland where e meet Fon and Adja country 7. Di people na Yoruba; di neighbours and di rivals of dia rulers na Fon people.

Dahomey attack Yoruba towns throughout di eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and destroy Kétu two times. For 1886 dem scatter Kétou unda Glele direct command: destroy im temples and altars, burn im houses, kill im chiefs, and send im people go slavery for Abomey 78. Early attacks for di 1850s bin don reduce di population well well. Captives from Kétu and from di wider western Yoruba borderland go di coast for Ouidah and Porto-Novo, and from there to Bahia and Havana during di last decades of di trade.

Na why dem dey call di Yoruba nation for Brazilian Candomblé Ketu, and na why Candomblé Yoruba component lean pass toward western Yoruba practice instead of Ọ̀yọ́ or Ifẹ̀ practice. Di Ketu corridor also explain why Jeje and Ketu houses for Bahia dey close to each oda so and share plenti things: di people come from communities wey dey next to each oda and wey mix, and for some cases from di same towns, inside di same decades, through di same ports.

Cuba Arará tradition na di similar case: e come from Ewe and Fon, e get name from Allada, e preserve vodún unda names wey relate to di ones for Benin, and e dey alongside and partly overlap Regla de Ocha 9. Haiti Rada rite get name from di same Allada.

Di lesson apply generally. Dem name di nations of di Americas afta African ports and African towns, and dem map di last decades of di trade for Bight of Benin well well pass any clean ethnic classification.

Vodún now

Dem suppress Vodún unda French colonial rule and again unda Benin Marxist-Leninist government from 1975 to 1989, wey campaign against am say na feudal obscurantism.

For February 1996 di government of Benin give legal recognition to Vodún as official religion, and President Nicéphore Soglo make 10 January national holiday to honour Vodún and oda indigenous traditions 10. Di yearly celebration, wey dey center around Ouidah, don turn to big national and international event and major tourism attraction 10.

Di way Benin dey promote Vodún as heritage dey follow di same line wit how dem dey promote di slave-trade memorial landscape for Ouidah, including di Route des Esclaves and di Door of No Return, and e dey target Afro-diasporic return and pilgrimage market. Na di same economic logic dey work for Nigerian side around Ifẹ̀ and Ọ̀ṣogbo, wey dem discuss for di return circulation file, and e dey produce di same tension between heritage as living practice and heritage as product.

Togo Vodún, wey be mainly Ewe, no get government promotion reach and no dey internationally visible like dat, but people dey continuously practise am, and di Ewe Afa tradition na substantial divination corpus wey people neva study finish.

Wetin Yoruba reader suppose take from dis

Three things.

Di border old and e always dey open. Ọ̀yọ́, Kétu, Ṣábẹ̀, Allada, Dahomey and Porto-Novo na one single political and religious region wey dey always get contact, and di modern Nigeria-Benin border cut through am straight across. Yoruba people dey live for Benin; Fon and Adja people dey live for Nigeria. Di idea say Yoruba tradition end for border na colonial artifact.

Exchange happen for both sides and no be only Yoruba side dey give. Dahomean practice, Dahomean political forms and Dahomean captives shape Candomblé and Cuban Arará directly, and di Jeje layer for Bahia fit even old pass di Yoruba one.

And Vodún deserve make dem describe am for im own terms instead of as variant. Reader wey finish dis file wey fit name Mawu-Lisa, Sakpata, Hevioso, Dan and Legba, and fit talk wetin bokɔnɔ dey do, get better understanding pass person wey only learn say Vodun be "like òrìṣà."