CARIBBEAN RELIGION HISTORY

Vodun in Coastal Benin

Unfinished, Open-Ended, Global

DANA RUSH

Vanderbilt University Press

NASHVILLE

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Introduction

Ouvre /es yeux, etrange,; et sache ou poser res pas. lei, un arbre n 'est pas un arbre, une source n 'est pas une source.

Tout est mystere et mystique. Open your eyes foreigner, and know where you step.

Here, a tree is not a tree, a stream is not a stream.

Everything is mysterious and mystical.

Eustache Prudencio, "Ouvre les yeux, ctranger," Vents du lac

I n the summer of 1993 I traveled to the fonner slave port city of Ouidah, Benin (fonnerly Dahomey), in West Africa, to investigate the contempo- rary manifestations of the early to mid-nineteenth-century repatriation-

from Brazil to Benin-of a distinguished group of manumitted fonner slaves known commonly as the "Brazilians." I spoke with members of many Brazil- ian families-de Souza, da Silva, Gomez, Concei9ao, d'Almeida, Lima, and Olympio, among others-from whom I learned a great deal regarding Brazil- ian family histories. I was able to document Brazilian architecture, masquer- ade, and food preparation. Within West African Brazilian culture, I anticipated finding a melange of African-Brazilian religious art and expression returned to Benin and reintegrated into the local traditions. I found nothing of the sort. Brazilians I spoke with were either Catholic or Muslim. The Brazilian histo- ries, arts, and customs were interesting, but I sought something with a larger spiritual focus. Because I was in the heartland of Vodun, I did not need to look very far to find "spirit." In fact, I could not help but notice the very public display of Vodun arts punctuating the Ouidah. landscape and infonning the re- ligious expression of the majority of the city's inhabitants.

It became clear that Vodun was Ouidah 's pulse. People said that the trees in Ouidah were "watching" and that Ouidah's earth was "breathing." In my Western mindset, l started asking direct questions about Vodun, which were met with resistance. For example, the first time I asked my research assistant for an explanation of a Vodun shrine in the street, she looked the opposite direction and responded "Why should I look at that? Do I want to become blind?" Why, I wondered, were African Brazilians so pleased to talk about

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2 Vodun in Coastal Benin

their histories, but most o ther people fro m Benin were resolu te in their unwill- ingness to discuss Vodun? I was compelled. I needed to learn more.

This boo k is inspired by wonderment, perp lexity, a nd ad mirati o n. The

sou rce of this inspiration is Vodun, the predominant re ligio us system in south- e rn Benin, Togo, and extending into so utheas tern Ghana. It is the o rigin of Haitian Vodou, which is the foundation of Hollywood's Voodoo. H owever, both African Vodun and Haitian Vodou have next to nothing in common with Hollywood's exaggerated cari cature o f a s inis ter faith en tangled with false

ideas of huma n sacrifice, cannibalism , sorcery, and zombification. 1

African Vodun revo lves around hea ling and co mmuni ty. It is organized around a s ingle divine creator and an uncou ntable number of spirits who gov- ern the forces of nature and society. As an o rie ntation to the world, however,

Vodun is much more all-encompassi ng. It is a re li gious system that permeates v irtua ll y a ll as pects of li fe for its parti cipants in Afr ica and in African diaspora regio ns w here its transatlantic manifestations are fo und.

Within Vodu n there is a palpable be lief in the reali ty of spirits, ancestors, and the forces of nature. Vodun is no t se parate and removed fro m quotidian

life. R athe r, devotion a nd everyday life are cotermin ous. Sp iritual, ancestral,

and natural fo rces full y inform t he social worl d and are respo nsible fo r what happens in both nature and socie ty. As a comprehe ns ive and multidim ens ional

sys tem, Vodun generates hope as we ll as g uidance w he n its practitioners are confro nte d w ith li fe's dail y unce rta inti es and obstacles. The core purpose of Vodun is to ma intain the we ll-be ing of its co nstituents, both earthly and

beyond. To do so, Vodun coalesces aro und the ac tive, participatory presence of both practitio ners and spirits. For thi s sy mbioti c re lation ship to wo rk, there

mus t be a consciousness and an ex perience in which the participant(s) and spi.rit(s) are mutua ll y engaged. There is no permanent closure in this rela tion- s hip, which perseveres through an ongoing negotiatio n of the benefits and promi ses of the pas t, present, and future, over a ll of w hi ch Vodun has reig n.

The all-enco mpass ing nature of Vodun affects everyone who lives in com-

munities whe re it is practiced, but most direct ly impacts the p ri es ts, pries t- esses, a nd practiti o ners who teach and learn from each other. Vodun devotees, like most peop le, see k healt h, ha ppiness, prospe rity, and sec urity for t hem- selves, the ir fa milies, and the ir co mmun ities. This process is not unidirec- tional , but reciprocal. T he spirits a lso have needs and desires. They want to be active ly in vo lved in and recognized for the work th ey do for the ir devotees . This can be accomplished throug h devotiona l offerings of a combin at ion of so ng, dance, prayer, and no uris hment, whi ch mig ht tak e place in accordance

w ith spiri tua l co nsultation o r di v ination. P eople grow ing up in t hi s atmosphere have a bas ic unde rstanding of th e system. Fo r meaning ful interactions w ith

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Introduction

spirits, however, practitioners must learn, among other things, the origins and histories of their spirits; the associated Vodun languages, songs, dances, and prayers; and the spirits' likes and dislikes-concepts and practices from the most abstract to the most concrete. This schooling is accomplished through initiation, which can last from a few months to a few years. Once initiated, an adept will continue the process of learning and must follow strict rules of ven- eration. Different spirits necessitate different types of schooling, and most of it remains secretive. The bottom line is that spirits need human beings to stay alive, and human beings need spirits to help them navigate the unknown. 2

I learned a lot about initiation, but this book is not about revealing secrets. This book is meant to introduce the reader to an intelligent ·and practical way of living in a world where spirits and associated arts and aesthetics help indi- viduals and communities negotiate the opportunities and challenges in their lives. Neither is this book about defining or codifying Vodun spirits. Vodun and its spirits defy conventional categorization. Vodun does not formulate fun- damental principles by which it acts; rather, it prioritizes action. Instead of abiding by philosophical tenets and devising or following doctrine like most religions, Vodun's focus is on making things happen and getting things done. Vodun places high value on efficacy, which infuses Vodun and thrusts Vodun arts and aesthetics into everything from problem solving and conflict resolu- tion to protection and healing.

Moreover, Vodun has no sacred, all-encompassing, definitive text like the Torah, Koran, or Bible of the Judeo-Islamic-Christian worlds. Rather than following written doctrine, Vodun functions through ongoing consulta- tions among Vodun practitioners, spirits, and ancestors. These interactions write Vodun's sacred text. That is, Vodun's essence is its active ability to com- pose its own narrative through both oral and unspoken spiritual interactions, grounded in a nonlinear sense that the past/present/future all function at the same time. Vodun is unscripted and open to continual "editing" in that every time a new situation arises needing spiritual intervention, a new solution can become part of the liturgy. This capacity for ongoing revision allows Vodun to be perpetually up-to-date. .

Like the religion, Vodun arts are narrative, interactive, and open to modi- fication, making them difficult to define. Vodun artistic expression can be viewed within a broad conception of what art can be. In fact, it is inaccu- rate to define all Vodun expressive culture as art because in local interpreta- tion much of it is beyond art. A large part of these Vodun arts are "processual" in that the construction process itself is the artistic expression. Or, as Arnold Rubin (1974, I 0) wrote in the I 970s, arts are "means to ends rather than ends themselves." This concept is discussed further in Chapter 1. Both sacrifice and

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4 Vodun in Coastal Benin

performance are examples of this processual expression, or means to ends, that could be described as art. Most important is the fact that Vodun artis- tic expression is never completed. There is no such thing as a final offering to a Vodun shrine or a final brushstroke in a Vodun temple painting. Indeed, this type of artistic expression must finish, in a sense, but only temporarily in that it remains open to change, if and when necessary. Artistic "unfinished- ness" is the crux of Vodun's aesthetic power, introduced here and addressed throughout the book. Unlike much Western art, Vodun artistic expression is not inaccessible, rarified, and unique. Vodun expression is common and every- where. But it is sacred, which adds significantly to how Vodun is and is not

discussed. 3

Understanding Vodun

The Vodun religious system is best understood as a network that is open-ended and incorporative, and thus "unfinished." The receptive, in-progress quality of Vodun exists in tandem with an endless influx of influences from imme- diately local environs, neighboring and distant African regions, Europe, the Caribbean and the Americas, and Asia. For centuries coastal West Africa has been a global matrix within which the religious system of Vodun has flour- ished. Vodun has not been subdued or tamed by foreign interventions such as exploration, trade, colonialism, missionary work, or modernity. Rather than repressing or stifling the practice, most such global encounters have in some form or other strengthened Vodun's reservoir of power to help its practitioners confront problems and opportunities in a quickly changing world. This centu- ries-old international cultural interchange not only demonstrates Vodun's abil- ity to function within a global milieu, but also suggests the necessity of global encounters for its survival.

Grasping Vodun: Open-Ended/Global Dialectic

The tension and traction emerging between Vodun's joined forces of open-endedness and globality-two different though equally important components-can be visualized as follows. Consider your two hands. Imagine your left hand as the structure of Vodun and your right hand as Vodun's sources. Vodun's "left hand" (structure) is open-handed and recep- tive to change, with its five digits representing the five structural character- istics: protean/unfinished, agentive/active, welcoming/accepting, filled with

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Introduction 5

capability/capacity, and overflowing with potential/possibility. Vodun's "right hand" (sources) includes wide-ranging religious, spiritual, cultural, and lin- guistic customs, beliefs, symbols, ideas, gods, spirits, objects, prayers, songs, and so on, with its five digits representing the extensive geographic origins of these sources: immediately local environs, neighboring and distant African regions, Europe, the Caribbean and the Americas, and Asia. Add to this the multiple layers of symbolism each source embodies, grounded in a variety of local and distant interpretations.

The structurally open left hand welcomes, grasps, and makes its own the global sources of the right hand. When the two hands lock fingers, the grip is tight but fluctuates in intensity. Sometimes it is the structure that sustains the variety of diverse sources, but other times it is the sources themselves that fuel, motivate, and maintain the structure. The pulse of Vodun shifts back and forth between and among the ten digits, maintaining a unified whole that is always on the verge, always ready for the next component, from far and wide and right next door.

Put another way, Vodun has survived by adopting and then adapting for- eign elements into its visual culture and aesthetics. The converging point of Vodun's "open-endedness" and "globality" is its pulse. That pulse is sus- tained by Vodun's :flexible structure, its refusal to become stagnant, and, as a consequence, its ability to incorporate what it needs from local and global sources. The condition of open-endedness suggests that an ongoing state of anticipation is a primary factor of Vodun's make-up, constantly reinvigorat- ing old ideas and components while welcoming newly arriving ideas or com- ponents-local and international. That is, the open-ended, flexible nature of Vodun joins forces with and negotiates the global histories of coastal Benin, resulting in a system that expands and contracts in accordance with a dialec- tical rather than a linear trajectory. This dialectical struggle heightens at the moment of Vodun's contact with new ideas in what may appear to be, but is not, a process of assimilation. Rather, Vodun 's open-ended structure engages newly arriving components as already having been part of the system. Perhaps they were not known before the moment of co~tact, but they already had a place and a home just waiting to be recognized. The immanence of the next encounter reinforces the anticipatory environment and is the crux of this book.

How, then, does one come to understand a complex, centuries-strong belief system that adopts and adapts as situations arise, and which is based on an ongoing exchange with unseen yet very present spiritual entities? In other words, how can this book represent a subject and be true to the people, spirits, and beliefs surrounding it, if the subject cannot be known in any definitive sense? This introduction seeks to begin to answer these questions.

6 Vodun in Coastal Benin

Component One: Open-Ended and Unfinished The logic ofVodun is one of process, which is decidedly non-Cartesian in that it does not create value or meaning by producing finished, discrete things. The process nature of Vodun implies ongoing, never-finishing trajectories. But in modem Western assessments of value, something that is "unfinished" or "in process" tends to be viewed as unpolished, fragmentary, or rough. If "unfin- ished" implies deficiency, how then does one describe something in which unfinishedness is not only requisite, but compulsory; not only desired, but de rigueur? This book does not resolve these questions, but rather engages them.

As open-ended and unfinished, Vodun's ongoing receptivity to new ideas reifies what philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari ( 1987, 25) call the "logic of the and." This is a logic of conjunction and connection, a logic that seeks to situate thought and action in the anticipatory realm of immanence, a logic that corresponds to infinite growth and growth potential. Vodun 's capac- ity to carry on exists because its logic is always slightly beyond reach. Its pragmatics are linked to the realities of life, which do not sit still. Vodun's open-endedness allows it to persevere in time and space, through genera- tions, and across oceans. Postcolonial theorist Achille Mbembe's (2001, 8-16) assessment of the failure of social theory to account for "time as lived not synchronically or diachronically, but in its multiplicity and simultaneities" may be a useful caveat in interpreting Vodun. Accepting the concept of open- endedness as a stream into which local and foreign elements flow may help account for the multiple, simultaneous, synchronic, and diachronic lifelines within Vodun.

In large part, Vodun and all of its intersecting elements survive due to their opacity, a concept I borrow from Edouard Glissant, the Martinican writer, poet, philosopher, and literary critic who is widely recognized as one of the most influential figures in Caribbean thought and cultural commentary. Glissant asserts that all of humanity has a right to be opaque through not suc- cumbing to outsider-imposed, objectifying, and often inaccurate "transpar- ency." Opacity, according to Glissant, is a defense against "understanding;" it is about the right not to be understood (quoted in Britton 1999, 19). In a colo- nial context, presumed "understanding" has historically gone hand in hand with subjugation and objectification. The border of the opaque, to Glissant, remains "undefined and open" ( 156), or what I would call open-ended and unfinished.

The impenetrability of much ofVodun is resonant with Glissant's Opacity. Vodun 's meanings, for example, are never transparent. Although its prow- ess in accumulation may appear arbitrary or seem to lack cohesion, it is these very characteristics that conspire to create Vodun's opacity. Its open-ended, unfinished sensibilities block attempts at any sort of definitive interpretation.

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Introduction 7

Another layer of ~pacity results from Vodun 's multiple participants, both human and spiritual, many of whom can never be fully known.

Glissant's explanation of camouflaged language in a Caribbean text is consonant with the irreducible opacity of Vodun: "One cannot elucidate the obscure, there is no possible recipe, but one can bring it back to what one knows round about" (quoted in Britton 1999, 153, my emphasis). Like the language of a text, Vodun's elements, their histories, and their juxtapositions to each other are "ultimately less a question of understanding the words [ or elements] than of understanding through the words [ elements ]-that is, under- standing the Detour." (153) Because of its ineluctable indirection or "Detour," another of Glissant's concepts, Vodun can be neither readily extrapolated nor easily foreseen. However, Vodun becomes much easier to understand if done in a way that is "round about" in relation to its ever-accumulating elements from far and wide.

Component Two: Vodun's Global Milieu Because of its particular history, Ouidah is a global city. It is called Glehwe by Fon peoples, and has been called Igelefe by Yoruba (Nago) peoples;4 Ajuda by the Portuguese; Ouidah, Juda, or Gregoy by the French; Whydah by the English; and Fida by the Dutch. The different names for Ouidah, originat- ing in different languages and reflecting diverse European and African inter- actions, embody an eloquent example of the impact of long-standing global interactions.

The Dahomey Kingdom (1645-1900), Dahomey (1900-1960), the Republic of Dahomey (1960-1972), the People's Republic of Benin (1972- 1991 ), and the Republic of Benin ( 1991 to present) represent specific geo- graphical, historical, and political names for the country in which Ouidah is located. 5 Henceforth, I will refer to the current names of the main city and country of this project as Ouidah, Benin, with their French spellings, unless quoting another author or referring historically to the Dahomey Kingdom. I use the French spelling for Benin to avoid a CO[!lmon confusion with neigh- boring Benin City, Nigeria, home of the Benin Kingdom. However, I refer to people from the Republic of Benin (henceforth Benin) as Beninese.6

Although I lived in Ouidah, the geographic area represented in this writ- ing extends, for the most part, through the sprawling cities of Cotonou, Benin, to the east of Ouidah, and Lome, Togo, to the west. I did, however, travel further east into Porto-Novo, Benin, and further west into Aflao, Ghana, all the while remaining close to the coast. Instead of referring to this geographic region as "coastal Benin, Togo, and Ghana," I usually call it "this coastal region," or state specifically the country or city in question, which most often

8 Vodun in Coastal Benin

will be Ouidah. I also worked north of Ouidah in Savi and Allada, northeast in Abomey-Calavi, and even further north into the former Dahomean kingdom of Abomey, and conducted a short research trip to the north-central region of Tchamba, Togo. The peoples living in all of the areas I visited have traveled throughout these and outlying areas for centuries, thus extending what I saw locally into vast, centuries-strong networks of interaction, all of which play into the complex ethnic mix along the coast.

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Introduction 9

Ouidah has a population of approximately eighty thousand inhabitants. However, if the spirit population is appended to that estimate, the assessment grows precipitously. In Ouidah, Vodun spirits are living presences. Although they cannot be tallied in a population census, they are of great religious, social, and artistic consequence, and constitute a large segment of Vodun con- sciousness. The Vodun spirits represent and preside over every aspect of the ongoing energy of Ouidah. They come from all directions-not just from the east (Nigeria), the west (Togo and Ghana), and the north (Niger and Burkina Faso), but also from the south (the Atlantic Ocean), from above (the sky), and from below (the earth). Indeed, the entire area of coastal Benin is the product of multi-directional histories, both earthly and spiritual, none of which can be understood to the exclusion of the others.

The area around Ouidah was inhabited sometime early in the sixteenth century by Adja and Adja-related peoples from Adja Tado, located a few miles west of the current Benin-Togo border and sixty miles north of the Atlantic coast. Adja Tado was established as early as 1300 by peoples who may have come from the Yoruba town of Ketu, about seventy-five miles northeast of Ouidah (Adam and Boko 1983). Beginning in the early sixteenth century, waves of eastward migrations of Adja and Adja-related peoples established close interethnic ties and set the foundations for the current population mix along contemporary coastal Benin, united under the name "Fon." This group of people, at once homogenous and heterogeneous, is comprised of Adja, Houla, and Houeda peoples (along the coast), Ayizo peoples (near Allada), and Goun peoples (near Porto-Novo), all of whom are said to have engen- dered "Fon" as a collective identity (Adam and Boko 1983, 30). Fon peoples are grouped among Gbe speakers who live between eastern Ghana and west- ern Nigeria. Culturally as well, Gbe speakers share common traits.7

Portuguese contact in Ouidah began in the sixteenth century and added yet another dimension to the interethnic mosaic of peoples, spirits, and arts already thriving along the coast at this early date.8 In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, French, British, Danish, and Dutch powers joined the Portuguese and established trading posts along t~is coastal area. A large pro- portion of these posts were located in the port city of Ouidah.

In 1727, Ouidah was conquered by the inland kingdom of Dahomey, pro- viding the kingdom access to the sea. 9 Europeans continued to trade luxury items and firearms with the Dahomey Kingdom in exchange for slaves, mostly prisoners of war, who were then shipped to the Americas. Accordingly, this coastal region became known as the Slave Coast during the eighteenth and nine- teenth centuries. The personnel of the European slave forts were mainly African, bringing Mina and Akan peoples from the west and Tchamba and related peoples from the north into the already aggregate ethnic mix (Law 2004, 30--39).

1 O Vodun in Coastal Benin

From the 1 40s to the 1870s, the British led efforts to suppre s the slave trade (Bay 1998, 220). These efforts along with expansion into Africa by European colonial empire , led to alliances with some local groups and war- fare with others. The early nineteenth century repatriation of manumitted Africans from Brazil known commonly as the " Brazilians added a signifi-

cant African-Lusophone aspect to Ouidah already global ethni.c mix. In 1892 Dahomean King Behanzin was overthrown by the French and

exiled to Martin ique, and his Dahomey Kingdom became assimilated into French West Africa. It rem ained a French colony until independence in 1960. 10

Vodun's Composite Character A pects of this history of African -European and intra-African exchange are further discussed in later chapters, but the main point to emphasize here is that a major component fueling Vodun's engine is its longstanding relation- ships with foreigne rs. The active synergism between Vodun and the composite character of its milieu both in the Dahomey Kingdom and in coastal Benin is

fundamental to understandin g the system itself. Anthropologist Mel vi lie J. Her kovi t ([ 193 8] 1967 1: 3) begins his

ce lebrated two-volume set Dahomey: An Ancient West African Kingdom, by q uot ing from Scottish slave trader Archibald Dalzel s 1793 The HislorJ of Dahomey: An Inland Kingdom of Africa, in which Dalze l note in bis preface that 'from the Whydah beach to Abomey ... is perhaps the mo t beaten track by Europeans , of any in Africa. ' More recently histori.an Edna Bay (2008 5)

rites 'Whether invader, trader, missionary or African return e, outsiders in

the area throughout the period of the kingdom were the subject of curiosity and study as Fon culture, itself born out of a mix of diverse peopl , adopted and adapted new influences. '

Both Edna Bay (1998 2008) and art hi torian Suzanne Bli r (1995a 1995b) have published examp les of Abomey kings bringing foreign <lei.ties into local Vodun, often through warfare in which the kingdom assumed con- trol over their conquered enemies' gods and in turn used them to their own benefit. The other primary way that foreign religious powers were intro- duced into the Vodun pantheon wa through the marriage of kings to foreign women who brought their own local gods into the k ingdom and the king- dom's Vodun (B li er 1995a, 77-79). August Le Herisse ( l 91 l, 102), who worked as a French admin i"strator in Abomey in the arly twentieth century, also explains that the union of the kings with the women of other vanquished tribes ... augmented the number of Vodun worshipped by the Dahomeans." Anthropologist Paul Mercier 's (19 54, 212n4) m id-twenti.eth-century schol- arship attests to the idea of "foreignne s" b ing so im portant in local and

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Introduction 11

regional Vodun that both were claimed as foreign in origin (see also Blier 1995a, 75-79). Because kings were looked upon as more powerful through their personal introduction of foreign Vodun, fictitious accounts of "foreign- ness" in local Vodun have manipulated state history (Bay 1998, 2008; Blier 1995a, 77-78). Abbe Lafitte wrote in 1875 that "a year does not pass without new divinities being incorporated into the old Dahomean pantheon" (543-45), and Mercier (1954, 212) also wrote, "the Fon are the first to admit the com- posite character of their religious ideas."

The kingdom incorporated more than new gods. Bay (2008, 3) writes: "The sweep of documented Fon eclecticism is vast and includes items of material culture, technologies, deities, and principles of state organization." She goes on to say that "the cultural influences from outside were without exception grafted onto a world view that is associated with Vodun." To push this idea a bit further, I suggest that these "outside influences" were not just grafted onto a particular Vodun world view, but rather were the sustenance of the world view itself, and the motivation for accumulative art and expression.

Similar complex assimilations of peoples and spirits have occurred for centuries along the coast. Although the kingdom in theory controlled, regu- lated, and absorbed· all potentially useful components in its environs, coastal Benin has its own legacy of global interactions that have impacted Vodun arts and aesthetics. One difference between the accumulations of foreign powers into Vodun along the coast and those in the kingdom is that along the coast Vodun was assembled, in many cases, not through warfare but instead through intercultural cooperation and trade. By the nineteenth century, the documented global melange present in Ouidah included Europeans from Portugal, France, Holland, Britain, and Denmark; repatriated Africans from Brazil, Madeira, Sao Tome, Angola, Cuba, and Sierra Leone; and multi-ethnic African domes- tic slaves and slaves for export from what are now Ghana, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and likely more. All of these people brought with them and maintained their own spirits, gods, temples, churches, and mosques. Heterogeneity is commonplace in Ouidah history (Law 2004). 11

Overview of the Book

In many ways, this book tells the story of my own journey to understand Vodun, from its abstract to its concrete dimensions, and so the following pages unfold along a similar continuum. The next two chapters further explore the conceptual underpinnings of Vodun. Given the similarities between the cosmopolitan mosaic of coastal Benin and the historically correlative and equally heterogeneous regions of the Caribbean and the Americas, Chapter 1

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12 Vodun in Coastal Benin

addresses ideas within diasporic and Caribbean contemporary thought as a way of garnering a better understanding of the artistic, religious, and cultural make-up of coastal Benin. This sets the stage for a discussion that investigates the aesthetics of Vodun in the larger context of African and African diaspora aesthetics and that illustrates one of Vodun 's main components-its open- ended and unfinished nature-as exemplified by transatlantic Vodun shrines. By the very nature of their offerings to a spirit or god, by their assemblages of accumulated "stuff' ranging from the organic ( animal, mineral, vegetable) to the mass-produced (liquor bottles, dolls, candy, flip-flops, etc.), these shrines capture the essence of Vodun aesthetics.

Chapter 2 examines that essence on a broader scale by locating Vodun in its "conceptual home," its otherworldly state of mind and being. The chapter also surveys past scholarly attempts to classify the Vodun pantheon, describes the first written source documenting a European awareness of Vodun in the Doctrina Christiana of 1658, and presents the various etymologies and mean- ings that have been suggested over the years for the word Vodun itself. All of these approaches, whether taxonomic, evangelical, or etymological, represent an effort to pin down a religious system that is difficult to define completely. Vodun is nonetheless understandable, and this chapter proposes an alternative approach by which such understanding can be achieved. It is an approach that emerged from my own effort to grasp Vodun when I first began my research in coastal Benin. I draw on Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari's notion of the "rhizome" and a Fon proverb's reference to the agbegbe, a coastal West African para- sitic vine-like plant that attaches to and grows off of tree branches and bushes, extending for miles, sharing innumerable root systems, to characterize Vodun's root-like trajectories into both spiritual and earthly realms of thinking and being. That is, I address Vodun's willingness to embrace just about everything that has ever crossed its path over many centuries-peoples, spirits, histories, ideas, and faiths. Such trajectories reinforce Vodun's open-ended structure, which creates an atmosphere open to and in anticipation of foreign interactions and influences.

Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6 look at several of those influences in concrete detail. They not only pay tribute to the synergy of global encounters within various Vodun contexts, but also celebrate the contemporary symbiosis of these global encounters on both local and international levels.

Chapter 3 demonstrates how Europeans, Brazilians, and Africans from other parts of West Africa have directly affected local Vodun through centu- ries of interaction in Ouidah and coastal environs. I present examples of how Vodun has, in tum, welcomed this influence into its artistic and cultural vocab- ularies from the arrival of the Portuguese in Ouidah in the sixteenth century to the present.

I Introduction Chapter 4 explores the profound impact of the sea and its spirits on

coastal Vodun. Not only is the sea regarded a deistic, but it also brings pow- erful foreign spirits from faraway lands into local veneration. One such land is a mythologized " India," represented concretely by items imported from India and used in Vodun veneration, and abstractly in reference to the sea. I dem- onstrate this influence by considering Indian chrornolithographs, examining how and why these foreign prints have been absorbed into Vodun practice, how artists and priests have adopted and adapted these images into their own local visual theologies, and how Hindu gods and goddesses, in conjunction with the sea, inform a contemporary Vodun complex called Mami Wata. I also look briefly at how Catholic chromolithographs play a role in Haitian Vodou,

and how one image in particular has returned from Haiti to Benin, showing VodunNodou's globality and modernity.

Chapter 5 establishes the local significance of domestic servitude via a Vodun complex called Tchamba, with a combination of literal and conceptual origins in north-central Togo, itself considered the "foreign North" by those on the coast. The chapter shows how these Tchamba spirits of servitude have been critical in the maintenance and proliferation of histories and memories of domestic slavery, as well as influential in bringing to the fore contempo- rary debates among Beninese and Togolese people about the multiple roles their ancestors played in both domestic and transatlantic slavery, as either the sellers or the enslaved. I conclude with an exa mination of how the legacy of enslavement plays out in transatlantic, African-derived religious systems in Brazil, Cuba, and Haiti.

Chapter 6 traces the international growth of Benin's contemporary art since the late 1980s, with particular focus on works commissioned for Ouidah 92: The First International Festival of Vodun Arts and Cultures, which was sponsored by UNESCO and the Beninese government in early 1993. Hundreds of large-scale sculptures, paintings, and appliques were installed throughout the city of Ouidah, many by Beninese artists who are .now inter- nationally recognized. Artists from Brazil, Haiti, Cuba, and the United States also contributed to the festival with works addressing transatlantic Vodun. As such, the festival was a testament to the sh·ength and flexibility of a belief system that is perpetually inventing, reinventing, and modifying itself through ongoing inte rcul tural exchange.

I end with a short Coda based on wise words communicated· to me by the late Daagbo Hounon Houna, which have stuck witb me through the years.

Now, a quick glimpse at my first encounter-though unknowingly- with the globality of Vodun.

13

14 Vodun in Coastal Benin

Global Vodun on the Mono River

In December 1994, Daagbo Hounon Houna, Benin's Supreme Chief of Vodun at the time, invited me to attend my first Vodun ceremony outside of my new hometown of Ouidah, Benin. At that point I hardly knew Daagbo, and I knew next to nothing about Vodun. I was, however, in Benin to study "tradi- tional Vodun art and thought," whatever that was .... Once Daagbo learned the nature of my research, he insisted on introducing me to important Vodun priests and priestesses so that I could return to meet with them on my own. I was therefore delighted that Martine de Souza, my assistant for the beginning stages of my research, and I were included in this Vodun-oriented daytrip.

We left early in the morning and traveled the coconut-tree-lined ocean road into western coastal Benin, near the Togo border, to the compound of Tchabassi, an important Vodun priest. En route, there was talk of the imminent arrival of the cool, dry Harmattan, though all I was able to notice was the heat to which I was not yet accustomed, having spent a large part of my life within the changing seasons of the midwestern United States. When we arrived, the welcome for Daagbo Hounon Houna was overwhelming: drummers and danc- ers performed while people lined up to greet him and receive his blessings. Over the course of the morning, both he and Tchabassi recited prayers and made offerings to a wide array of Vodun spirits. More ceremonial dancing and drumming followed. Then everyone entered a series of flat-bottomed pirogues and traveled a short distance to an island in the Mono River to make more Vodun offerings to important spirits.

It was on this particular pirogue ride that I shot the photo shown in Figure 1. When I shot it, I did not know who anyone was or what their asso- ciations with Vodun were. As I was just starting my study of the Fon language, I asked Martine what the people onboard were saying. Rather than translate, she told me that some were speaking Fon, others were speaking Mina, and others were speaking another language she did not understand, which was likely Ouatchi or Pedah. She explained that not everyone on the boat could speak directly to everyone else. I found it perplexing that people who seemed to be close friends could not all speak directly to one another. I understand now that this question of language was my first glimpse into the heterogeneity of Vodun and the diverse origins of its constituents.

At the time I took the picture, I did not realize that in that very pirogue were some of the most important personages in coastal Benin's Vodun his- tory. Later, when I returned from the field and developed my slides, the photo flooded me with memories: the boat ride, the laughing, the singing, and the fact that I understood nothing that was taking place around me. But upon looking at this photo again years later, I realized that most of what I learned

., '

about Vodun and its associated arts was a resu lt of the friendships I developed with people on that pirogue. Each person had a very different and interesting associat ion with the exceptionally diverse elements of Vodun. Because of the aesthetic opportunities Vodun offers, each priest or priestess in this boat-in his or her own way- embraced not only the traditional centuries-strong ele- ments of veneration, but at the sa me time both expanded and individuali zed his or her spiritual and artistic means of devotion. Through the years I became . very familiar with a handful of these people, their families, and associates. Each makes an appearance, in one way or another, in this book. By far, the most innovative and creative person I met during my fie ld experience was

Daagbo Hounon Houna.

• Daagbo Hounon HOLma (hou = sea; non = owner of, the one with or responsible for; na = gives), in the center of the photo, was Supreme Chief of Vodun from 1975 until his death on March 11, 2004, when he returned to the sea to be with his ancestors. The Hounon dynasty has been the ruling family of the Hou Vodun of Ouidab since the mid- fifteenth century. I knew Daagbo for over ten years . This picture cap - tures him at his best: in the center of everything with an enormous smile, laughing, singing, clapping, and wearing bright colors and a matching hat. Although his predecessors in the Hounon dynasty are also known for large decorative hats, Daagbo ' s hats surpassed those who came before him , in creativity and world lin ess (discussed in Chapter 4). H is Vodun temple also demonstrated this sensibility, its walls decorated with paintings and transatlantic symbo ls rendered by artists of Haiti, Brazil, and Cuba (discussed in Chapter 6). Daagbo had a heart of gold. He was open -mind ed, jovial, and we lcoming with all people from far and near. His demeanor attracted people, his warmth put them immediately at ease, and his sense of humor light- ened any tense situations . Daagbo did not like to talk much about Vodun, and he rarely answered my direct questions. But by welcom- ing me into his world, treating me as family, and introduc in g me to many diverse Vodun experiences, he taught me infinitely more than he co uld have through direct response to what began as my na'ive mqumes.

• Kpatenon is on the left, wearing a white cap and shirt. His paternal ancestor, Kpate, is famed for welcoming the first Portuguese at the Ouidah beach in the mid- to late sixteenth cenhuy His ancestor rec- ognized the value of positive international relations and incorporated Portuguese gifts into his Vodun veneration and artistic expression. Because the name of Kpate's descendent ends with " -non," meaning

'I 16 Vodun in Coastal Benin

"owner of, the one with or responsible for," Kpatenon, accordingly, is the one with or responsible for Kpate's spirit ( discussed in Chapter 3).

• Kpassenon, sitting directly behind Daagbo Ho tmon Emma's left shoul- der, is "the one with or responsible for" Kpasse's spirit. Kpasse was the second king of Savi who founded Ouidah. In fact, the Fon name for Ouidah, Glehwe, is the shortened form of Glebwekpasset6me, which means "the farm of [King] Kpasse has become a country [city]" (gle = field, fann, hwe = house, Kpass e = the founder of Ouidah, tome = coun- try, region) . Kpassenon died in April 2013, and a new king will soon be enthroned. Not only was Kpassenon the one who carried the spirit of the founder of Ouidah, but he also presided over one of the most spiri- tually charged spots in the region: Kpassezoume, known as the Sacred Forest of King Kpasse, where all Vodun powers reside-good and bad, ancient and contemporary, distant and local. The Sacred Forest houses contemporary artworks representing diverse spirits and their associated powers ( discussed in Chapter 6) .

• Tchabassi, an important Vodun Chief in Mono Province, Benin, is the one who had invited Daagbo and friends to the day's events. He is barely visible in the center of the photograph with his shaven fore- head, just about to clap hi s hands, immediately behind Kpassenon's right shoulder. He i.s known throughout the Voclun world for his fierce Xc:vioso spirit's ability to catch thieves (see Figures 1.3 and 1 .4). His reputation is that of a very powerful priest and healer, and he is among the kindest and most learn ed Vodun priests. His Vod1in temples and as- sociated shrines are centuries-o ld artistic assemblages par excellence . Within his Vodun lineage, he also has the spirit of Tchamba, the Vodun of slavery (discussed in Chapter 5). Tchabassi participates fully in tra- ditional Vodun veneration and modern capitalism, both as a priest and as a businessman dealing in fishery and public h·ansportation via his fleets of fishing boats and taxis .

• Guendehou, seen in profil e and wearing a red hat, appears at the far back right end of the boat. He is the founder of the original Thran Church in Benin. Thron is a Vodun with Islamic roots. His innovative church is renowned for its seamless subsumption of multiple world religions within Vodun, a ll represented in his temple's decor and his diverse ceremonial repertoire (discussed in Chapter 3). I worked with Guendehou weekly over the course of my research and became very close to him and hi s fam ily. The women in the boat are Mamisi, or priestesses of the Marni Wata Vodun. This spirit complex informs a large part of my work, and, in retrospect, these women represe nt to me the history, veneration, and maintenance of a significant and powerf-ul coastal water spirit that had

Introduction 17

a profound impact on my understanding of Vodun. The arts of Marni Wata are the most cutting-edge, worldly, and contemporary I have yet to experience ( discussed in Chapter 4 ). Martine de Souza is not visible in the photo, but she was at my side not only that day but also for the beginning stages of my research. Having Martine in the boat also added another important component of Ouidah's history, through her great, great, great grandfather, Don Francisco "Cha Cha" de Souza, a Brazilian slave trader who made his home in Ouidah and controlled much of the slaving activity from the Ouidah port. The de Souza family is· one of the most prominent fami- lies in coastal Benin ( discussed in Chapter 3 ). Martine, who was once afraid to look at a Vodun shrine, has since been initiated into the Thron Vodun and maintains a Thron s~rine in her compound.

1e "traditional Vodun art and thought" I had set out to study turned out the product of vast networks of transcultural interactions between and ~ parts of Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and the Americas, and Asia, tg my idea of local and traditional Vodun to an understanding of Vodun iem, open-ended, and global, as presented in this book. 12