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 regio ...

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 ...

diaspora.

''Mawu'' and ''Lisa''

Lisa Lisa or LISA may refer to: People People with the mononym * Lisa Lisa (born 1967), American actress and lead singer of the Cult Jam * Lisa (Japanese musician, born 1974), stylized "LISA", Japanese singer and producer * Lisa Komine (born 1978), ...

(male) and

Mawu Mawu-Lisa (alternately: Mahu) is a creator goddess, associated with the Sun and Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its p ...

(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 Photosynthesis, photosynthetic eukaryotes of the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all curr ...

animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...

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, culture, ...

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 w ...

*Da and Gu * Dan

Other spirits

Agé Agé (or AgeSherman, Josepha, ''Storytelling: An Encyclopedia of Mythology and Folklore'', Routledge (2015), p.500/ref>) is a god in the mythology of the Fon people The Fon people, also called Fon nu, Agadja or Dahomey, are a Gbe ethnic group.

* Avrikiti * Ayaba * Egberun * Fa * Gleti * Gu *

Legba Papa Legba is a lwa in Haitian Vodou, Winti and Louisiana Voodoo, who serves as the intermediary between the lwa and humanity. He stands at a spiritual crossroads and gives (or denies) permission to speak with the spirits of Guineé, and is be ...

* Loko *

Nana Nana, Nanna, Na Na or NANA may refer to: People and fictional characters * Nana (given name), including a list of people and characters with the given name * Nana (surname), including a list of people and characters with the surname * Nana ( ...

* Okanu * Sakpata * 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

''Mawu'' and ''Lisa''

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

Other spirits

See also

References

External links