Gorovodu: The Genesis of a “Hausa Vodun”

Abstract

This article explores the genealogy of the gorovodu religious order, a relative newcomer in the wider vodun landscape of Togo and Benin. Gorovodu was born from the combination of many of the antiwitchcraft movements that swept across the Gold Coast between the 1910s and the 1930s. Crossing the Volta River to the east, these movements encountered a space dominated by vodun orders that were able to absorb and transform them gradually. In Togo and Benin, the northern gods lost their explicit association with witch finding and were recontextualized within the parameters of vodun practices while retaining their strong moralistic aptitude. What remained was a neat dichotomy between good and bad that was not so typical of vodun: gorovodu’s moral dictates were and are clear and offered a sense of stability by the immediacy of reward or punishment. This article analyzes the initial stages in the genesis of a new vodun and the transformation within an antiwitchcraft movement with the intention of showing the peculiar interaction between motion and the colonial encounters, the agency of charismatic leaders and the influences of world religions.

Fá Divination, Well-being, and Coolness in Bénin, West Africa

“…Tron, a spirit who migrated from Ghana, has become a less dangerous spirit to use to combat witchcraft. For more detailed discussions of his cult see Brivio (2018), Landry (2019), Manière (2010), Montgomery and Vannier (2017), Tall (2014). 19 The objects I mention here that are used to install Gbădù in her shrine are largely known publicly.…”