An Introduction
- Hounnan Amengansie Nana T.A.D. Adedufira
- Jan 17, 2021
- 1 min read
The practice of West African Vodou is singularly different from other spiritual or religious traditions, being typified by the cultivation of a personal relationship with God through the tutelage of your Ancestors and the patronage of your vodous. The practice encourages a holistic and organic lifestyle that values both community and autonomy and encourages harmonious personal authenticity, individual accountability, and interdependence.
Every practitioner of Vodou, particularly Mami Dan Densu Yewevodou and Gorovodou, learns of the work they were created to do that in my fome, or family, we call vocation. We also learn our ancestral connections and our vodous, the spirits, divinities, or Gods of Nature and Human Enterprise that made us, to fulfil Gods’ inscrutable purposes. Beyond these things we are as varied as any other population both within and outside of our culture.
As with any faith, Vodou has a laity and priesthood as well as regular obligations such as rites, rituals, and observations that bind us together into communities and societies united by tradition, history, and blood.
So true, but it must be remembered that our relationships with the vodous cannot surpass what we can muster for our families, neighbors, and communities. The Bible said well enough, "how can you love God, whom you cannot see, but hate your brother, whom you can see?"
That connection between a person and a lwa is so crucial in Vodou.