Vodun, and the Crossing of the Atlantic

Vodun is not a single deity but a class of them, each with its own priesthood, drums, songs, food prohibitions and initiates. The creator pair Mawu and Lisa stand at a distance; the powers people deal with are those of the earth and smallpox, of thunder and lightning, of the serpent and the rainbow, and Legba, who stands at every threshold and crossroads and must be addressed first because he carries messages between worlds. Initiation takes place in enclosures for periods of seclusion and instruction, and the initiate emerges with a new name and a lifelong obligation. Decisions are referred to a divination system of sixteen signs read from palm nuts or a chain, shared with the Yoruba Ifa tradition.

The port of Ouidah on the coast below Abomey was one of the principal points of embarkation of the Atlantic slave trade, and the religion travelled with the people taken from it. Haitian Vodou's Rada rite carries Dahomean names and rhythms, and its Legba stands at the same threshold; Brazilian Candomble and Cuban Santeria draw more heavily on Yoruba sources but belong to the same Atlantic family. Families of Brazilian returnees settled at Ouidah in the nineteenth century and brought elements back the other way.

Benin recognised vodun as a national religion in 1996 and made 10 January a public holiday for it, after decades in which the revolutionary government had suppressed it as backwardness.