The Dahomean religion was practiced by the

Fon people The Fon people, also called Fon nu, Agadja or Dahomey, are a Gbe ethnic group.Fon people
Encyclopædia Britan ...

of the

Dahomey The Kingdom of Dahomey () was a West African kingdom located within present-day Benin that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. Dahomey developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in the early 17th century and became a region ...

Kingdom. The kingdom existed until 1898 in what is now the country of

Benin Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the nort ...

. People taken from Dahomey to the Caribbean used elements of the religion to form Vodou and other religions of the

Afro-Caribbean Afro-Caribbean people or African Caribbean are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern African-Caribbeans descend from Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the tr ...

diaspora.

''Mawu'' and ''Lisa''

Lisa (male) and

Mawu Mawu-Lisa (alternately: Mahu) is a creator goddess, associated with the Sun and Moon in Dahomey mythology. In some myths, she is the wife of the male god Lisa. Mahu and Lisa are the children of Nana Buluku, and are the parents of Xevioso. Af ...

(female), married twin siblings of Nana Buluku, are the creator spirits, occasionally combined as Mawu-Lisa, an androgynous spirit. Mawu-Lisa created the world and made it orderly, then made

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae excl ...

animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and go through an ontogenetic stage ...

s, and

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, cultu ...

s; the entire process took four days. *The first day, Mawu-Lisa created the world and humanity; *The second day the earth was made suitable for human life; *On the third day, humans were given intellect, language, and the senses; *Finally, on the fourth day, mankind received the gift of technology.

Offspring-spirits of ''Mawu'' and ''Lisa''

Gbadu Gbadu is a god in the Dahomey mythology of the Fon people, who are now based in Benin, Nigeria, and Togo. She is one of Mawu-Lisa’s daughters, and just like her parents, consists of both a female and male aspect though she is mostly referred to wi ...

*Da and Gu *

Dan Dan or DAN may refer to: People * Dan (name), including a list of people with the name ** Dan (king), several kings of Denmark * Dan people, an ethnic group located in West Africa **Dan language, a Mande language spoken primarily in Côte d'Ivoir ...

Other spirits

* Agé * Avrikiti * Ayaba * Egberun * Fa *

Gleti Gleti is a moon goddess of the Fon people from the Kingdom of Dahomey, situated in what is now Benin. In Dahomey mythology, she is the mother of all the stars. An eclipse is caused by the shadow of the moon's husband crossing her face. See also * ...

* Gu * Legba * Loko * Nana * Okanu *

Sakpata Ṣọ̀pọ̀na (or Shapona) is the god of smallpox in the Yoruba religion. The Yoruba people took their traditions about Shapona to the New World when they were transported in the slave trade. He has become known as Babalú-Ayé, among many ot ...

* Sogbo * Xevioso * Zinsu and Zinsi * Jo

References

{{reflist, 2, refs= {{cite book , last = Akyeampong , first = Emmanuel , title = Africa's Development in Historical Perspective , publisher = Cambridge University Press , location = Cambridge , year = 2014 , isbn = 9781107041158 , page = 452 {{cite book , last = Anderson , first = Jeffrey , title = The Voodoo encyclopedia : magic, ritual, and religion , publisher = ABC-CLIO , location = Santa Barbara, California , year = 2015 , isbn = 9781610692090

External links

Vodoun Culture
Haitian Vodoun as chronicled by native Haitians
Baba Alawoye.com
Baba'Awo Awoyinfa Ifaloju, showcasing Ifa using web media 2.0 (blogs, podcasting, video and photocasting) Traditional African religions