Haitian Vodou

Haitian Vodou or Vaudou (French pronunciation: [vodu], Anglicised as Voodoo) is a syncretic[1] adoration basic from the Caribbean country of Haiti. It is based aloft a amalgamation of the behavior and practices of West African peoples (mainly the Fon and Ewe; see West African Vodun), with Arawakian religious beliefs, and Roman Catholic Christianity, which was brought about as African disciplinarian were brought to Haiti in the 16th aeon and affected to catechumen to the adoration of their slavers, while they abundantly still followed their acceptable African beliefs.[2]

The arch acceptance in Haitian Vodou is that deities alleged Lwa (or Loa) are subordinates to a god alleged Bondyè, This absolute actuality does not advocate in animal affairs, and it is to the Lwa that Vodou adoration is directed.[3] Added characteristics of Vodou accommodate account of the asleep and aegis adjoin angry witchcraft.[4]

Haitian Vodou shares abounding similarities with added faiths of the African diaspora, including the Louisiana Voodoo of New Orleans, Santería and Arará of Cuba, and Candomblé and Umbanda of Brazil. A Haitian Vodou temple is alleged an Hounfour.[5]

Vodou paraphernalia, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

In Haitian Vodou Sèvis Lwa in Creole ("Service to the Lwa"), there are able elements from the Bakongo of Central Africa and the Igbo and Yoruba of Nigeria, although abounding added African nations accept contributed to the celebration of the Sèvis Lwa. A cogent allocation of Haitian Vodou generally disregarded by advisers until afresh is the ascribe from the Kongo. The absolute arctic breadth of Haiti is heavily afflicted by Kongo practices. In arctic Haiti, it is generally alleged the Kongo Rite or Lemba, from the Lemba rituals of the Loango breadth and Mayombe. In the south, Kongo access is alleged Petwo (Petro). Abounding lwa (a Kikongo term) are of Kongo origin, such as Basimbi, Lemba, etc.

Haitian creole forms of Vodou abide in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, eastern Cuba,[1] some of the alien islands of the Bahamas, the United States, and anywhere that Haitians accept emigrated to. However, it is important to agenda that the Vodun adoration (separate from Haitian Vodou) already existed in the United States, accepting been brought by apprenticed West Africans, accurately from the Ewe, Fon, Mina, Kabaye, and Nago groups. Some of the added constant forms survive in the Gullah Islands. There has been a re-emergence of the Vodun traditions in the United States, advancement the aforementioned ritual and cosmological elements as in West Africa. These and added African-diasporic religions such as Lukumi or Regla de Ocha (also accepted as Santería) in Cuba, Candomblé and Umbanda in Brazil, all religions that acquired amid birth of crude Africans in the Americas.