Heviesso

thunder

Agbui

water

Avlekete

"ribald female impersonator of males"

Vodun Da

snake rainbow

Aholu / Sakpata

earth

Egu (= Yoruba Ogun)

iron

Anana / Nana Bluku

fertility

p.

functionaries

43

The wife of a priest or the sister of a woman priest {priestess} who assists ... is called Etro Mother (etrono)."

In a communal Gorovodu shrine, "the material vodus are placed in separate grottoes in one of the walls ... . Costumes for spirit hosts in trance hang on the other walls, as do ... brekete drums (... drums with goat skins stretched over one end)."

52

"only a bona fide bosomfo, who had gone to the Sacred Bush for expensive ceremonies, could kill a bull; the soul of the bull might return to bother a sacrificer who had not taken full ritual precaution."

265

senterua {cf. /SaNTERi`A/} "a person who takes care of trosiwo (vodusiwo) or spirit hosts in trance, ... leading them into the Vodu house and clothing them with the appropriate costumes"

kpedziga "assistant priest with rights to sit on sacred stools, charged with offering prayers, waking up the gorovodus in the morning"

Ewe

non-Ewe

lightning

Heviesso

[Yoruba] S^ano

earth

Aholu / Sakpata

[Fon & Nago] Tsampana

Sacred Forest

Togbui Nyigble

{[Yoruba] Oko}

p. 50

"Ceremonies sometimes turn burlesque and parodic. Gods make fun of their worshipers and of themselves; they dance and mimic, shout and laugh, with hands on hips, mouth open to the sky. Adepts and onlookers alternately break into laughter at the comedy and become awestruck by the uncanny power unleashed during these performances."

p. 55

"Trosis in trance ... shrieking, squawking, yelping, crying out, laughing harshly and grotesquely, smiling seductively."

p. 189

"The gape of each individual’s stomach hole is matched by the gape of the open mouth, ... praying, and laughing. The gape of the open mouth during trance is the vector of god’s voices, sometimes howling, shrieking, groaning, laughing mightily." ["It is significant to note that Legba statues and other anthropomorphic god-objects often have mouths created as gaping holes, wide open as though gasping in wonder or as though the source of an unearthly sound." (p. 174)]

"tro appears to be used more often among western Ewe, and

vodu is heard more often among eastern Ewe, Adja, Oatchi, and Guin."

goro-vodu

other

Banguele {Bangele}

Egu

Nana Wango

Mami Wata (the coastal mermaid)

Sacra

Sakpata (Aholu)

Kunde

Adela (a hunter spirit)

Sunia Compo

"Lisa (the Adja and Fon sun vodu, companion twin or husband to a female Mawu, the moon god)."

"Kunde is an old Hausa ["Hausa as a generic term for northerners" (p. 252, n. 2:10)] man, both a lion – dzanta – and a rider of lions. He is a dog eater and a wearer of animal skins. ... Kunde ... may ... act like a very old man who can hardly walk. ...

Kunde’s wife Ablewa is a panther – ekpo ... . She eats white sheep and dresses in white. Ablewa is a seller of kola nut ... . Sometimes Ablewa clowns like a very old woman, and this makes people laugh."

p. 264

"goro (said to be a Hausa word; bisi in Ewe) kola nut, which gives Gorovodu its name"

p. 51

"kola nuts (goro), both red and light green, the characteristic food of the gorovodus."

p. 63

"Kunde’s and Ablewa’s preferred food is kola nut, or goro. All prayers are accompanied by gifts of kola or the eating of kola nut, which has already been offered to the vodus (placed upon the god-objects) and so has already been eaten by them and turned into gorovodu. {Consecrating food to be eaten as eucharist by offering it as prasada (food ‘set before’ an idol) is a practice in Astika temple-worship; the absorbing of blessings from a guru, by eating left-over foods tasted by that guru, is also.} Upon eating such kola the adept has eaten tro itself."

p. 252, n. 2:11

"The kola nut employed in Gorovodu ritual in Togo may come from the Akposso region (Togo) or the Volta region (Ghana)."

p.

>al-lah

63

Kadzanka is more exacting and unforgiving than Kunde."

[entry into state of trance-possession] "If it is Kunde or Kadzanka you will eventually stand up on the bench and stretch out your left hand to greet people. ... If it is one of the other vodus, you will reach forward with your right hand." ["Allah and Ablewa greet with the right hand, as do Sunia Compo, Nana Wango ... ." (p. 252, n. 2:12)]

111

"Gorovodu ... deities include "the Muslim God, Allah," considered female and married to Togbui Kadzanka, a fierce male spirit. ... these two gorovodus had been found in Bolgatanga in the north of Ghana."

p.

deity

64

Sunia Compo, of "ambiguous gender", "the youngest of Kunde’s and Ablewa’s children, ... able to pass unnoticed, capable of changing colors or becoming invisible to enemies." "Sunia Compo is the chameleon, queen or king of flies, changer of colors. A Suniasi [spirit host of Sunia] wears blue or green {cf. "green rainbow" in the Apokalupsis of Ioannes} (the only Gorovodu who wears these colors). Sunia is Ablewa’s favorite. ... We never know if this one is a boy or a girl. S/he eats pigeons roasted whole; s/he is a solitary eater who cannot tolerate eating in the presence of others."

"Sacra Bode, the eldest, ... the first-born of Kunde and Ablewa, ... is the big brother ... . [A Sacra-si may] wear ... white and red mixed" while possessed.

"Sacra’s younger brother, Banguele {Bangele} ... gives his name to the collectivity of hot gorovodus". Bangele "is a hunter, soldier, and policeman. He is a wearer of guns and knives, a weapons master. ...

65

He [his host] often wears red, black, and white in broad stripes. ... [Bangele] is ... an owl (azehevi; literally, witch bird)." The Bangele-si "moves flamboyantly, with arm gestures that resemble the wide wing movements of the vulture. {cf. aequivocation between tecolotl ‘owl’ and cozcaquauhtli ‘vulture’ of the Aztec day-sign} She dances with knives ... . [Bangele] is the real amedzagle – crazy person. He carries an apia [a trident with little balls made of ... sanka wood ... distributed along the handle ...]. ... The [Bangele] fetish is made of ... owl claws ... and the wings of the Kpalime vulture ... . He does the same work as Egu, the iron god (Ogun in Yorubaland ...)."

65-6

Bangele "can act the clown".

66

"The [Bangele] group of spirits includes Sacra (the firstborn), Banguele {Bangele} himself, Tsengue {Tsenge}, Surugu, Gueria {Geria}, M’bangazou, Mossi [the name of a nationality, p. 110], and Kangba." "The other members of the [Bangele] group are said to be his tools or weapons – knives, arrow shafts, spears, skin scrapers, and the like. ["Magical weapons are included in the Banguele costume, and worn during trance (the weapons are vodus in their own right)." (p. 65)] Yet they possess personhood. Each has the traits of specific birds or animals, and they are characters in narratives."

"Surugu is like a certain bird – avalifo – always on the road {cf. North American Indian Roadrunner-bird god}, for he is deaf. ... Surugu knows by watching lips everything that everyone is saying, even though he is deaf. He can change into the bird – avalifo – when he wants and waid in the road to hear what people are saying to their children. ... A Surugusi wears white and black mixed, in broad stripes."

"Mossi is like a young Hausa woman who controls fires : ezotsito [literally, fire-water

67

person ... putting out fires]. If you go hunting and the brush is burning, she will put out the fire."

"Gueria {Geria} is a virgin wearing white Hausa garments, who behaves elegantly".

"Tsengue {Tsenge} is the knife man, and the [Tsenge] vodu is always made with seven knives.

Kangba is a trickster who always mixes everybody up.

Nana Wango, or Grandmother Crocodile, ... [in her spirit-hosts’ bodies] moves on the ground with the leg movements of the crocodile. ... She eats duck. She [her host] wears black pagne and cowries sewn together to resemble crocodile skin. She employs a wand during trance and wears a gourd as a head covering. The wand is used ... during her dance ... as a canoe {gondola} pole, placed first on one side and then the other. {cf. [Sumerian] poling by Gilgames^ to visit Ziusudra} When a Wangosi first goes into trance she must have water poured on her body while bending low or crouching on the ground like the crocodile. ... Then she sits on the Wango stool ... . ...

68

When someone begins to be taken by Wango [in trance] she must have ritual performed ... at the river, where she enters the water with drums playing and people singing and dancing. Eggs must be thrown to her while she is in the river. She eats the eggs thrown to her from the banks. ... Wango is also the piroguier or ferryman {cf. Kharon; "encounter with the ferryman" in Pyramid Texts, Utterances 300-311, 503-522 (BT, p. 367)}, the one who takes us across the river on a raft that is in fact a crocodile."

p.

deity

meat

70

Kunde

hound

Bangele

cat

Sacra

goat

72

Sunia

"pigeon roasted with no salt or pepper; the meat should be eaten outside, never sitting at a table."

Wango came from Bluma ... . ... Wango is a Bluto (Fante)."

p. 252

"when a person first goes into trance, an onlooker might say ... "She went to the other side of the street."

p. 253

... when woman enters menopause ... then ... she is "drying her net." She has finished her traversing of the waters of pregnancy and no longer wishes to "catch fish.""

p.

original location

earlier names

current usual name

refererence : A-K

82

Nkoranza in As^anti

Kune

Kunde

p. 180

" "

Aberewa

Ablewa

83

Senyon, nigh Bole

Senya Kupo

Sunia Compo

Tong Hills nigh Zuarungu

Nana Tongo

Nana Wango

Wa district in the Northern Territories

Tigari

Tigare

p. 182

p. 85

"misogynous abuses known to Atinga (Tigare, Atsigali ...)"

p. 77

"Against ... female "witches" who appeared to accumulate wealth at the expense of others, ... Atinga attacked the female body as ... false representation ... and of hidden accumulation" (quoted from AR, pp. 122-23)

p. 255, n. 3:13

"vodus or spirits (susum in Twi) among Asante and other Akan groups" : "The ... colonial files ... all documented Akan worship of spirits bearing the same names as the gorovodus."

venerated by "Fante healers (bosonfo) ... from Accra to Cape Coast" : "the same god-objects as in Gorovodu worship, celebrated by the same drumming rhythms from the north (brekete), although the Fante names of gods were different."

p. 256, n. 4:13

"Fante women ... how they danced for their gods. ... their dance was brekete. ... their fetishes and god-objects were exactly the same as the material gorovodus, albeit with different names."

p.

account

102

"When Gorovodu and Mama Tchamba spirit hosts first enter into trance, they often have bulging eyes, shaking limbs, and monstrous expressions".

106

"Mama Tchamba priestly roles are passed on matrilaterally. ... (Mama means "grandmother" in Ewe ... .)"

110

"Yendi is the name of one of the Tchamba spirits, and it is also the name of a Ghanaian town ... . Another Tchamba deity is Bubluma, a name derived from Blu (stranger, or non-Anlo)."

111

"Mama Tchamba metal woven bracelets (Tchambaga) ... point ... to Mama Tchamba’s desire for ... honoring the slave spirits."

260, n. 7:4

"Mama Tchamba adepts do not eat barracuda or shrimp."

p.

spouse

118

"male Mamisis say that they are "slave lovers" of Mami Wata."

257, n. 5:3

"a female trosi ... of her vodu husband in romantic terms" : "One of the reasons that she cannot have sexual intercourse on the day that she might expect to be possessed (during a drumming ceremony) is that her spiritual husband cannot abide her relationship to a mortal husband.

See Rene’ and Houlberg (["My Double Mystic Marriages to Two Goddesses of Love". In :- Donald Cosentino (ed.) : Sacred Arts in Haitian Vodou. Los Angeles : UCLA,] 1995 : 287-99) for an account of a Haitian spirit host’s romantic spiritual marriages to Ezili Danto and Ezili Freda."

p. 107

"among Asante ... Odonko was the term used ... to mean "slave" : ... Ewe also employ the word donko (or adoko) to mean slave".

p. 109

"interpretation of the Ewe signifying expression "The slave understands language, but does not understand ‘the wild crab’ " ... (Rosenthal [: "The Signifying Crab". In :- CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY 10 : 581-86.] 1995 : 581-82). Adangala (wild crab) is the term from which comes adangana (signifying expression)." ["See The Signifyin’ Monkey (Gates 1988). (p. 256, n. 4:9)]

p. 133

"The owner of the land ... belongs to the land rather than owning the land in a fashion that would imply that the ground itself could be alienated from a particular lineage".

p. 134

"In the Gorovodu order, which divinizes bought people, ... There is not an owner who is superior to or more powerful than the owned."

p. 144

"between the people of the house (... indebted) and their slaves (divinized and ... demanding and imperious)."

p. 192

"during the enuhuhunetro (mouth opening) the vodu speaks from the trosi’s mouth for the first time".

p. 146

"When there is a mouth-opening ceremony in the Sacred Bush, the juice of certain plants is put in the trosi’s eyes, nose, mouth, and ears." {"The ‘opening of the mouth’ is first mentioned in ... the Pyramid Texts , in 11/12-15 (Utterances 20-22)" (BT, p. 365). The New Kingdom form of the ritual is to "open the mouth and the eyes" (BT, p. 369). In Old Kingdom mouth-opening, "the anointing is normally done with the seven sacred oils" (BT, p. 374).}

p. 140

"Occasionally a trosi will become a Christian ... . But such persons may become crazy or may return to the vodus and must be initiated again." ["We must treat her like a new trosi and open the mouth as though it had never been opened before." (p. 208)]

p.

Afa

158

"The Afa geomantic system consists of 256 signs (kpoliwo); this include sixteen major signs (... medzi) ... and 240 minor signs, combinations of the sixteen major medzis."

159

"Every person has a kpoli, according to Afa principles ... . ... Examples of the sorts of texts that compose a kpoli are found in the work of Bernard Maupoil, ... La ge’omancie d` l’ancienne Co^te des Esclaves (1961)."

160

And it is forbidden to eat the plants and animals belonging to the kpoli that appears as the sign of a particular problem or situation about which Afa is being consulted (this taboo often lasts for sixteen days after consultation)."

162

"Ataku [guinea pepper] ... and evi [small kola nuts with four compartments] are Afa’s food."

176

This Dzobgese ... may also be "constructed" (wowo) in material representation in this life."

"Everything we have said or done in dzogbe comes to pass in this life. ... If you are in dzogbe and you don’t want to live in the world, you say that, and the day your mother gives birth you die. We ourselves say in advance all that happens to us in this life. {cf. choice of mode of metempsychosis according to the Republic by Platon} ... But we don’t remember what we said in dzogbe. ... So when it starts to happen in this life, we don’t even realize that was what we wanted back there. ...

177

"When I took Afa, ... I wanted to go to an amegasi [a seer, usually a woman who calls ancestors to find out which one has come back in the person of the child] to call my Dzogbese to see whether the story would be the same. ["To find out about their beginnings, ... many people do double-check by going to all the diviners and seers available." (p. 259, n. 6:9)] Sometimes the amegasi can help she can call up your Dzogbese itself and not just the kpoli ... which you share with all the other bokovis [initiates ... of Afa] that have the same sign as you."

181

"It is significant that when Afavis know their kpoli, they must break it, just as they must break their dzoto ... . ... the kpoli must be broken during a special ceremony (kpoligbagba)."

p.

dzoto

178

"The dzoto is perhaps the strongest part of the child’s person right after birth. ... A person is literally the grandmother or grandfather (great uncle, and so on) who has bequeathed the dzoto to his or her descendant". {cf. Siberian et al. shamanic bequeathals of captive spirits to relatives}

179

"But sometimes the continuation of the ancestor’s desire, as manifest in the dzoto, is highly egotistical, ... impossible to live with. ... But it is possible to get rid of a child’s dzoto forever by carrying out a gbesixexe ceremony for three days. ... An adult can also get rid of her dzoto this way, but only very old bokonos know how to do it."

180

"a person cannot be possessed by the god whose dzoto she or he has."

184

"The kpoli is never the same for the child as for the person she received the dzoto from. So you can receive vodus ... from your dzoto ancestor, but not the kpoli."

"My wife had ... her first husband. ... She left that man and came to me. ... The bokono said that her former husband had taken out a grisgris against her and tied the cord so that she would no longer conceive. When we first came together, my penis would not rise up. ... One day I succeeded in making love to her, but the next morning my penis was hugely swollen. ... The grandfather tro, Kadzanka himself, told us when she could not conceive that we should go to Togbui Nyigbla in the Sacred Forest and bathe in the water there."

p. 192

"In Gorovodu the only way to see one’s desires come to fruition is to talk to the vodus about them, the "speak desire" (enudzidzi fonufo). One also has to listen to the vodus talking back."

p. 193

"If someone who knows more than you do wishes to speak to you about the vodus, he must first pray ..., asking permission to engage in a conversation about strong things".

p. 202

"A man with a bleeding sore or wound must also wait until the flow has ceased in order to enter the Gorovodu sanctuary."

p. 115

"Women who do become sofos seldom do so until after menopause. If a woman opts to become a sofo at a younger age, her kinsmen, affines, or female relatives who are not menstruating must feed and otherwise take care of the god-objects while the priest[ess] is menstruating."

"No Gorovodu adept can eat pork in any form {cf. Kemetian restriction from eating pork (mentioned by Herodotos)} or goat roasted with the skin on. {because goat-skin is used for dreamheads} Worshipers of the gorovodus Kadzanka and Allah must eat food the same day that it is prepared; all of "yesterday’s food" must be turned down."

death

time of burial

place of burial

afemeku –"house death or good death, also called kunyuie"

afternoon

marked grave in cemetery

kuvoe – "hot or violent death, bad death, or bush death"

late morning

unmarked grave in cemetery

eyinuha – "fearful aspects" (madness, snake-bites)

late at night

unmarked grave

"When there is a kuvoe, the body is not placed upon the bead and dressed in jewels and pagne [African cloth] as for a house death. ... the body of a hot-death victim was put into an old kente cloth." "When a person dies a violent death, all her belongings are buried with the corpse. ... If the objects of a person dying a violent death are kept and used by others in the family, they too may die untimely, violent deaths."

To die a kuvoe death is not all bad. you might find yourself afterward ... in the company of Banguele, along with the spirits of people who died from accidents ... . Then you can protect human beings from accidents and violent death if they ask you to help them."

p. 13

"I did not even write down the names of the plants he used ... . The priest did not have a mind to talk about those secrets, for I would not have the right to pass them on." [treatment of "sickle-cell crises with great efficacy than modern medicine is capable of achieving. ... His treatment involved the use of an enormous leaf with a conspicuously large vein, probably Bryophyllum pinnatum (adi in Ewe)." (p. 248, n. Introd:12)]

p. 214

"These Ewe words are used by Surgy, Rivie`re and other writers".