Vodún
CONTEMPORARY ETHNOGRAPHY
Kirin Narayan and Alma Gottlieb, Series Editors
A complete list of books in the series is available from the publisher.
VODÚN
Secrecy and the Search for Divine Power
Timothy R. Landry
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS
PHILADELPHIA
Copyright © 2019 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher.
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Landry, Timothy R., author.
Title: Vodún : secrecy and the search for divine power / Timothy R. Landry.
Other titles: Contemporary ethnography.
Description: 1st edition. | Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2019] | Series: Contemporary ethnography | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018020815 | ISBN 9780812250749 (hardcopy : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Vodou—Economic aspects—Benin—History—21st century. | Secrecy—Religious aspects—Vodou. | Control (Psychology)—Religious aspects—Vodou. | Tourism—Benin—History—21st century. | Tourism—Religious aspects. | Ethnology—Benin.
Classification: LCC BL2470.D3 L365 2019 | DDC 299.6/75—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018020815
To my parents, Catherine and Tim
To my brother Kevin, my sister-in-law Kim, and my nieces Dakota and Logan
CONTENTS
A Note on Orthography and Style
Chapter 1. Touring the Forbidden
Chapter 2. Receiving the Forest
Chapter 3. Secrecy, Objects, and Expanding Markets
Chapter 4. Belief, Efficacy, and Transnationalism
Chapter 5. Global Vodún, Diversity, and Looking Ahead
Epilogue. Reflections on Belief and Apprenticeship
A NOTE ON ORTHOGRAPHY AND STYLE
Throughout this book I intentionally blur the boundaries between Fonland and Yorùbáland, two ethnic territories found in present-day Nigeria and in the Republic of Bénin. I chose to do this for several reasons: (1) I seek to dismantle the long-standing scholarly and colonial associations that have connected Yorùbáland to Nigeria only; (2) I aim to re-create the multiethnic and transnational space of Ouidah, Bénin, as it exists on the ground; and, finally, (3) I hope to engage with the long-standing literature on Yorùbá religion, especially Ifá divination, while still attending to the ways in which Ifá divination is practiced by both Yorùbá and Fon peoples in southern Bénin. Even so, I attempted to provide local names and religious concepts in both the Fon and Yorùbá languages, using linguistically correct diacritical marks, while placing the emphasized language (which tended to shift from conversation to conversation during my fieldwork) first, and the deemphasized language second. Moreover, I prefaced Fon words with “Fon” and Yorùbá words with “Yr.” for additional clarity (e.g., Fon Fá; Yr. Ifá). In these ways, I hope that scholars of both Bénin and Nigeria, and of both Fon and Yorùbá speakers, might find the research I have presented here useful. The only exception to my use of diacritical marks is in my repeated use of “Fon.” I chose not to write “Fon” using the correct diacritical marks (Fɔ̀n) so as to remain consistent with existing scholarly literature. By contrast—and, again, following scholarly precedence—I use diacritical marks when I write “Yorùbá.”
While “Vodún” is more accurately known as vodúnsínsɛn (spirit worship) and its adherents described as vodúnsɛ́ntɔ́ (those who follow the spirits’ taboos), for simplicity I name the religion as “Vodún” and the religion’s followers, drawing on French, as “Vodúnisants” instead of using the more problematic English terms “Vodúnists” or “Voodooists.” Following these conventions, I use “Vodún” to represent the religion as it is found in West Africa; “Vodou” to represent the Haitian variant; and “Voodoo” to show when I am indexing the stereotypical and often racialized African religion within non-Africans’ imaginations. To indicate when I am speaking about the religion, I capitalize “Vodún,” and when I use the word to mean “spirit” or “divinity,” I write vodún with a lowercase “v.”
In addition to these stylistic choices, when possible, I have changed the names of certain ritual ingredients and altered the order in which ritual events occur. This was done to protect ritual secrets and to prevent my work from being used as a “ritual manual” by spiritual seekers. In this same vein, I have used pseudonyms for all individuals and most place-names, including the name of the village (Fátòmɛ̀) in which I worked. I have, however, maintained the actual names of all major cities and historical figures.
Vodún
Introduction
Vodun has survived by adopting and then adapting foreign elements…. The converging point of Vodun’s “open-endedness” and “globality” is its pulse. That pulse is sustained 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.
—Rush 2013: 5
“Let’s go, Tim! Daágbó Xunɔ̀ wants to see us,” Marie,