Benin - Religion
Several religions are practiced in Benin. Animism is widespread (35%), and its practices vary from one ethnic group to the other. Arab merchants introduced Islam in the north and among the Yoruba. European missionaries brought Christianity to the south and central areas of Benin. Muslims account for 20% of the population and Christians for 35%. Many nominal Muslims and Christians continue to practice animistic traditions.
The U.S. government estimates the total population at 10.4 million (July 2015 estimate). According to the 2002 census (the most recent official survey; results from the 2013 census have not yet been officially released), the population is 27 percent Roman Catholic, 24 percent Muslim, 17 percent Voodoo, 6 percent other indigenous religious groups, and 5 percent Celestial Christian. Groups constituting less than 5 percent each include Methodists, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), Jehovah’s Witnesses, Bahais, Baptists, Pentecostals, followers of the Unification Church, and Eckankar followers. Seven percent state no religious affiliation.
Most Muslims are Sunni and are concentrated in northern areas. The few Shia are primarily foreign residents. Southern areas are more heavily Christian.
Many individuals who identify themselves as Christian or Muslim also practice Voodoo or other traditional religions.
Resulting from the culture yoruba, the worship vodoun, of the ex-Danxomè (Dahomey in French, or Benin of present day. danhomé: “in the entrails of the Snake”), is at the origin of all voodoo cults which appeared in the islands of the Antilles (Haiti for example) or the countries of Latin America (like Brazil). Benin, a West-African country known not only as the cradle of the traditional Voodoo but also to have played a great part in the fight against colonial establishment.
Voodoo originated in Benin and was introduced to Brazil and the Caribbean Islands by African slaves taken from this particular area of the Slave Coast. West African Vodun is the original form of the religion. The word vodún is the Gbe (Fon-Ewe) word for spirit. Haitian Vodou and Louisiana Voodoo are its descendants in the New World.
Benin is regarded as the “cradle of voodoo’. This ancient practice originated here and migrated to Haiti, the Caribbeans and Brazil with the slaves who were traded into these countries. Today, 60% of the population still adheres to tribal religions and practices. Simply put, voodoo is the worship of the spirit in all things, blessing the worshipper with certain supernatural powers. Voodoo ceremonies are said to be exotic and colorful affairs accompanied by the dances of costumed fetish priests and feverish drumming. The rituals of voodoo stretch from the elegant to the scary.
Benin is home to thousands of voodoo convents. Parents often send their sick children to the fenced-off huts in the hope that voodoo can heal them, and sometimes leave them there for years.
There is a hierarchy of lesser creations, the vodun, which range in power from major deities governing the forces of nature and human society to the spirits of individual streams, trees, and rocks, the more impressive of which may be considered sacred. God does not trifle with the mundane, so the vodun are the center of religious life.
In ancient civilizations, serpents were worshipped as gods. Evidences of ophiolatry, or serpent worship, have been found in the excavations among the ruins of ancient Egypt, Babylonia, Crete, Greece, and Peru. Modern Egyptians still regard snakes with something more than mere respect, and in India, Naga, the serpent and Guga, the snake god, have many followers to this day. In Dahomey [the former name of Dahomey], the Cult of snake worshipers was prominent in the middle of the nineteenth century, whose counterpart on the other side of the ocean was the Voodoo religion of Haiti.
The cult of the snake in Dahomey may be taken as typical of West Africa. The heavenly serpent Danh-sio or Danhgbi, the rainbow, confers wealth on men, and is represented by a coiled or horned snake of clay in a calabash. It is also represented by the python. The monster python, grandfather of all snakes, dwelt in a temple or “snake-house," containing many snakes, and to it kings and people came with many costly gifts. The python-god is immortal, almighty omniscient; valuable sacrifices and prayers are offered to it and oracles are received from it; and, with the exception of the priests, only the king can see it, and he but once. It is invoked or good weather, fertility of the crops, and increase of cattle.
This supposed Dahomeyan or Niger Delta cult of the python or big serpent (monitor, lizard, or crocodile), with which are associated frenzied dancing, mesmerism, gross immorality, cannibalism, or corpse-eating, really exists (or existed) all over West Africa from Sierra Leone to Tanganyika, and no doubt was introduced by Inner-Congo, Niger Delta, or Dahomey slaves into Haiti, Cuba, Louisiana, South Carolina, Jamaica, the Guianas, and Brazil.
Voodou religion focuses upon deities (lwas) of West African origin -- the Fon (Benin), Yoruba (Nigeria) and Kongo (Zaire/Angola) peoples. While the religion thrives in Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the United States, it is most popular in Haiti. Practitioners also inhabit major U.S. cities with Haitian immigrant populations (New York, Miami, and New Orleans).
Benin's Daagbo Hounon Houna, the self-described 'Supreme Chief of the Grand Council of the Vodoun Religion of Benin' continued a line of predecessors dating back to 1452. Within the African world of Voodou, Mr. Houna was like the pope to devotees of the religion. His Majesty King Dada Daagbo Hounon Houna II, accompanied by Queen Na Deffon Houénan Quenum L. Omontcha, was on a special tour in Haiti from 15 to 28 April 2017. On the more local level, oungans (priests) and manbos (priestesses) exert authority over practitioners. Unlike Catholicism, however, voodou has no hierarchy, no formal theology, no seminaries, and no bible.
The Voodoo serpent-cult in Haiti and elsewhere reproduces these W. African cults, one of the names of Danh-sio being Vodunhwe. The will of the god is communicated through a priest and priestess, and the cult takes place at night when the serpent is shown in a cage; offerings are made to it; the worshippers implore its aid; and the priestess, standing in the cage, becomes inspired and gives oracles. Dances and an orgy follow, and sometimes a child was sacrificed.
The spelling 'Voodoo' (hoodoo as a derivative) often carries derogatory connotations of sorcery and magic, spells and charms. Academics and practitioners alike use voodou, vodou, vodoun and vaudau spelling to accurately refer to the religion. Says Donal Cosentino, head of the folklore and mythology program of U.C.L.A., "Voodou is the paradigm for all African religions, and that's why it can't be belittled...If you can't take seriously Voodou, then you can't take seriously any African religion in the New World."
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