Historical linguistic approaches to Haitian Creole Vodou Rites,

spirit names and songs: the founders’ contributions to Asogwe Vodou

Benjamin Hebblethwaite
University of Florida

1. Introduction

The captive Africans transported across the Atlantic migrated with African
religious traditions that they firmly established in the colony of Saint-Domingue
(1697-1803) and in independent Haiti (1804). The devotees of these religious
traditions are grounded in a belief in one God, Bondye, and they serve intercessor
spirits that exist in a cultural system with rich mythological, historical, familial and
ritual underpinnings. African spirit-systems, ritual knowledge, and organizational
structures migrated with the African captives to Saint-Domingue, evolved in the
colony, and persist into the present day. In this chapter I explore Haitian Creole
Vodou Rites, spirit names, and songs by means of a historical linguistic approach
that is rooted in etymological research. That work in lexicology informs a historical
linguistic theory that aims to explain the form displayed in the tradition of Asogwe
Vodou.
Vodou’s Rites and the sacred songs that are sung in the course of their
services are in Haitian Creole but they contain many lexical items that stem from
West African languages like Fon, Yoruba, Ewe, and Igbo, in addition to West Central
African languages like Kikongo and Kituba. African lexical items in Haitian Vodou
form a significant part of the religion’s lexicon. The identification of the African
lexical sources of the religion reveals the exact origins of Vodou traditions, sheds
light on the history of the French slave trade, and provides clues about the way in
which Vodou took form in colonial Saint-Domingue and independent Haiti. The
presence of diverse African cultural and linguistic influences in Haitian Vodou
demonstrates the religion’s emergence as a system that syncretized various African
traditions into a cohesive whole. This African religious fusion is especially strong in
the Asogwe Vodou (Kanzo) tradition whose stronghold is the Department of the
West (i.e. Port-au-Prince and Léogâne) in Haiti and that tradition alone is my focus.
Some research has examined Vodou’s inclusion of Catholic elements
(Desmangles 1992); however, until the publication of Beauvoir (2008a & 2008b), the
accretions gained by Asogwe Vodou through the syncretism of diverse African
religious traditions had been less studied. The syncretism of African religious
traditions is a fundamental part of this Caribbean religion (Beauvoir 2008a & 2008b).
Vodou Rites, spirit names and songs represent the most abundant cultural record of
African origins in Haiti; now with the publications of Laguerre (1980), Beauvoir
(2008a & 2008b), Hebblethwaite et al (2012), among others, significant source texts of
the religion are available. In this chapter, Fon, Yoruba and Kikongo etymological
research on key Vodou words is used to identify and explicate the influence of
numerous African national religious traditions within Asogwe Vodou. On the basis of
that linguistic evidence plus historical research, I will attempt a preliminary

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reconstruction of the history of the syncretism of diverse African religious traditions
and argue that the “African syncretism” represents the fundamental process that
gave rise to Asogwe Vodou in Saint-Domingue and Haiti.
I will suggest that the phenomenon of spirit migration within the Rites of
Haitian Vodou sheds light on the Founder Principle (Mufwene 1996): a few
important spirits served in the Rites that originate in the Bight of Benin have
migrated into the Rites of West Central Africa, a process that seems to have taken
place in Haiti but draws from a deeper African tradition of spirit-migration between
neighboring cultures. This process provides evidence that the religion’s founders
from the Bight of Benin exerted a central influence even if pan-African religious
nclusivity is a dynamic element of the system they created, Asogwe Vodou. Section
two below presents basic facts about the organization of Vodou. Section three
reviews Moreau de Saint-Méry’s (1797) historical evidence about the populations
captured and sold into slavery and his description of the “Vaudoux” religion.
Section four explores historical linguistic evidence from Vodou Rites. Section five
presents evidence that exists in the form of the names of the Vodou spirits. Section
six investigates the etymology of several core Vodou terms and examines evidence
found within Vodou songs. The final discussion in section seven sets forth an outline
of the geography and chronology of the French slave trade and argues that
Mufwene’s (1996) Founder Principle helps explain the influence of traditions from
the Bight of Benin in Asogwe Vodou. Adding support to this is a brief summary of
the population and plantation records of the colonial period (Geggus 1993, 1996,
2001).

2. Basic facts about the organization of Vodou

Before examining the historical linguistic evidence, it is important to grasp

that Vodou religion is far from being homogeneous in Haitian society. Vodou has
numerous types of priests and practitioners who draw from a range of traditions.
One of the most common types of this religion in Haiti is Vodou makout/makousi ‘the
strawbag Vodou.’ The gangan or manbo priests in that tradition provide treatments
for the sick and hold religious services for family and community (Blot 2012:38).
These rural gangan/oungan (male) and manbo (female) are typically called to the
vocation through dreams and family traditions (Blot 2012:38). Vodou lakou yo (the
Vodou yards) are generally older Vodou communities that date back several
generations; for example, Lakou Nan Badjo in Gonaïves is over 200 years old. In
Vodou lakou, the sèvitè and or manbo (Servant/Priestess) is in charge. They hold
services but do not attempt healing (p.c. Jean-Claude Noël). The Sèvitè priests are
common in the region of Gonaives where the yards hew to a single Rite: Lakou
Souvnans maintains the Dahomen Rite, Lakou Soukri Danach maintains the Kongo
Rite, Lakou Nan Badjo maintains the Nago Rite, and Lakou Dewonvil maintains the
Banda Rite, etc.1 A third, major type of Vodou is called Vodou Asogwe. The word
asogwe is the name of the initiation that promotes a candidate into the priesthood
and confers her or him with the ason (sacred rattle) and title, oungan asogwe and

1Note, however, that Vodouists in Gonaives generally attend services in several of the communities
of the region.

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manbo asogwe. The southern city of Léogâne and the capital, Port-au-Prince, are
centers of the Asogwe traditions. 2 Blot (2012: 39) identifies Vodou sosyete (society
Vodou) as a fourth category; he claims that this is the “hot” (cho) and “angry” (move)
side of Vodou. In this chapter I am going to focus my analysis on Asogwe Vodou
since it is one of Haiti’s major traditions and has become the best known thanks to
Beauvoir’s (2008a & 2008b) magisterial publications. Asogwe Vodou offers the best
options for theorizing on the formation of Vodou since it is the gathering of multiple
Rites of diverse African origins into a cohesive system.

3. Evidence on captive populations and their religion in Moreau de Saint-Méry

(1797)

Moreau de Saint-Méry’s (henceforth MSM) description of Saint-Domingue

published in 1797 provides valuable information about the captive populations and
their religion. The African populations cited in his book come from a vast swath of
the African coast: from Senegal in West Africa, to the Kongo in West Central Africa,
to Mozambique in South East Africa, and all points in-between:

Sénégalais, Yoloffes, Poules/Poulards, Bambaras, Quiambas, Mandingues, Bissagos, Sosos, Aradas,

Caplaou, Mines, Agouas, Socos, Fantins, Cotocolis, Popos, Fons, Mais, Aoussa, Ibo, Nago, Dahomets,
Ibos, Mokos, Congos, Mayombés, Mousombés, Mondongues, Malimbes, Mozambiques, Quiloi

In addition to this information about the colony’s captive populations, MSM

(1797: 46) provides some important evidence on the status of “Vaudoux” religion in
the colony. MSM points out that the Aradas people (from Allada, a town in Dahomey)
were the most ardent practitioners of “Vaudoux”. The word Vaudoux comes from the
word Vodun (Deity; spirit) in the Fon language thus the link to the Aradas people is
geographically accurate (Brand 2000: 89). As we will see, the Kongo population
outnumbered the one from Arada and the broader Bight of Benin populations well
before MSM’s book appeared in 1797, so it is important that he attested to the
Aradas population’s reputation in the domain of religion.
Other valuable insights include his description of Vodou leadership in terms
of a grand prêtre (‘high priest’), Roi (‘king’) or Papa (‘Father’) and grande prêtresse
(‘high priestess’), Reine (‘Queen’), or Maman (‘Mother’). Vodou’s royal African
origins and paternalistic-maternalistic/kinship-based hierarchy are still a
fundamental part of Asogwe Vodou’s culture (Beauvoir 2013, p.c.). To this day, the
oungan is still called papa (‘dad’) and the manbo is called manman (‘mother’) by his or
her initiates, regardless of their respective ages. MSM (1797) points out that the term
for a community of Vodouists was Société, a word that is still widespread today as in,
for example, Société Linto Roi Trois Mystères, Société Makaya or Société Halouba. The
possession ritual in Vodou is referred to as monter Vaudoux (spirit mounting), an
expression that is consistent with present usage (MSM 1797: 49; Valdman et al 2007).
Although MSM (1797:50) refers to the religion negatively as a “school” for “weak

2Candidates to the priesthood travel from various parts of Haiti to Léogâne for initiation (p.c.
Oungan Michelet Alisma).

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souls” that a “thousand circumstances can render gruesome,” his use of the term
school nevertheless reflects the educational dimensions of the religion. Lastly, MSM
also mentions the introduction in 1768 of a type of worship which he calls Don Pèdre,
likely a reference to the Petwo Rite of Kongo origin. Therefore, even though MSM
(1797) displays negative judgments about Vodou, his report provides evidence that
confirms its close link with the populations of the Bight Benin, the presence of newer
Rites (like Petwo), and it offers insights into structural and organizational attributes
that remain in place today.

4. Historical linguistic evidence of African syncretism from the Vodou rites

Later in this chapter I will return to the geography, demography, chronology

and numbers behind the French slave trade. As I introduce the Vodou Rites, it is
important to keep in mind some fundamental historical facts as we build the theory
of African religious syncretism found in Asogwe Vodou. The following locations on
the western coast of Africa represent the most important slave trading ports
frequented by French vessels (Geggus 2001: 122). The list reflects chronological order:

1. Whydah on the Bight of Benin and Senegambia

2. Malembo (West Central Africa, the second most prominent port)
3. Cabinda (Loango coast in West Central Africa)
4. Loango (Loango coast in West Central Africa)

The Bight of Benin and Senegambia were major sources of captives from the late
1600s to the early 1700s. However, by 1720, populations from West Central Africa
(items 2-4 above) already formed one of the major ethnic groups in Saint-Domingue
(Geggus 1991: 36). Over the four decades before the Haitian Revolution in 1791, West
Central Africa became the main source of captives in the French slave trade (Geggus
2001: 122). This geography and chronology is of importance to the reconstruction of
Vodou’s formation: the historical record shows that captives from regions in Africa
most directly associated with the Vodun/Vodou religion, the Bight of Benin, were
the early ethnic majority in Saint-Domingue. Later, West Central African ethnic
groups arrived and were gradually grafted into the religion founded by the earlier
captives, a matter I will return to in my discussion of the Founder Principle
(Mufwene 1996).
Asogwe Vodou is a distillation of hundreds of years of pre-colonial African
history and colonial history. The tradition contains national and culture-specific
Rites ranging from West to West Central Africa (Beauvoir 2008a and 2008b). Asogwe
Vodou has set ceremonies over the calendar year and it is built out of Rites that have
strong associations with national and cultural traditions. The term “Rite” refers to
the services and rituals held for a well-established grouping of spirits. Most
ceremonies are held in honor of one of the main spirits of the Rite. For example, a
ceremony may be held in honor of the spirit Ogou Feray and thus necessarily follow
the Nago Rite and include the sequential salutation of all of the Nago spirits over the
course of a ceremony. In addition to the notion of Rite, the parallel term Nanchon

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(Nation) reflects the awareness within the religion of Rite as Nation. Thus Vodouists
speak of the Nanchon Vodou (‘the Vodou Nations [and their Rites]’) or, for example,
in his community, Oungan Michelet Alisma is referred to as the Papa 21 Nanchon
Ginen (‘Father of the 21 African Nations’). National, ethnic and geographical
information is often the central element preserved in the names of the Rites and they
are therefore historical records about the religion’s diverse builders. The following
partial list of Rites demonstrates through linguistic evidence the transatlantic
connections that exist in the names of the Rites3:

• Rit Anmin (Anminan) is from the Mina people in Dahomey (Jil & Jil 2009: 145);
Anminan may display regressive and progressive vowel nasalization (i.e. mina
> ãminã), a common Haitian Creole phonological feature (Valdman & Iskrova
2003).
• Rit Bizango is from Bissango island near Senegal (Jil & Jil 2009: 160); notice the
s/z [+/- voice] alternation is common in natural languages (Cohn 2001).
• Rit Bosou is from the name of the Dahomian kings Kadya Bosou and his son
and successor, Achade Bosou (1740-1774) (Hebblethwaite 2012: 221).
• Rit Boumba is possibly a toponym that stems from the town of Bumba on the
Congo River, a significant artery for slave trading (Eltis 1987:174).
• Rit Danwonmen is the adjective Dahomian; note that the Creole faithfully
preserves the Fon nasal vowel [ã] in the first syllable, i.e. Danxomɛ (Segurola &
Rassinoux 2000: 122).
• Rit Gede is the word the Gedevi people used to refer to a “deity” and its
community of worshippers. The entire Gedevi population of the Abomey
region (Dahomey) was sold into the French slave trade to Saint-Domingue
(Brand 2000: 41).
• Rit Ibo is from the Igbo people and language of southern Nigeria. Notice the
reduction of the co-articulated stop, gb > b; Haitian Creole bans all co-
articulated stops.
• Rit Makaya is from the Kikongo makaya (medicinal leaves) (Laman 1936: 480).
• Rit Nago is from the Fon term anagó which refers to the Yoruba people (Brand
2000: 15).
• Rit Rada is from the town of Allada in Dahomey. Notice the loss of the initial
a- in Haitian Creole (apheresis) and the change from the approximant [l] to
the voiced velar fricative [ɤ].
• Rit Seneka from Senegal; notice the [k/g] contrast reflects [+/- voice]
alternation (Beauvoir 2008a).4
• Rit Wangòl from Angola; notice the retention of -angol- in both words.

This is a partial list of some of the names of the Vodou Rites. They are often
toponyms that link to specific locations in Africa or they are terms that reflect
African culture. The names of the Rites show the fundamental role African cultural,
geographical and national memory played in the constitution of Vodou. The list

3See Beauvoir (2008:187-196) for a complete list of Rites in Asogwe Vodou.

4
The editors kindly pointed out that this voice alternation above in Bizango and Bissango [z/s] or in Petwo and
Don Pèdre [t/d], provide evidence of the availability of [+/- voice] alternation in language contact and change.

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illustrates the fact that the inclusion of Rites from various parts of Africa is a
fundamental feature of Asogwe Vodou. An examination of some of the spirits that are
grouped together within specific Rites also provides insights into Vodou’s
syncretism of African religious sources, a point I now explore.

5. Historical linguistic evidence in the names of the spirits

Beauvoir (2008a) classifies 401 spirits into 21 Vodou Rites. Within these Rites,
the names of the spirits (lwa) inform us about the strikingly diverse cultural and
geographical dimensions of the founders of the Vodou religion. In some respects,
discovering the sources of Haitian Vodou is straightforward. For example, the spirits
from Vodou’s core Rada Rite, as given in Beauvoir (2008a), are forthrightly
associable with equivalent-spirits who are still served in contemporary Benin, as
given in Brand (2000). Many of these spirits have names that are visibly related:

Table 1. The spirits of Haitian Vodou’s Rada Rite compared with the spirits of
Benin Vodun

The Haitian spirits Benin’s equivalent The Haitian spirits Benin’s equivalent
of the Rada Rite Vodun (Brand 2000) of the Rada Rite Vodun (Brand
(Beauvoir 2008a) (Beauvoir 2008a) 2000)
Legba Lɛgba Bosou Kadya Bosou (Jil &
Jil 2009: 104)
Agasou Àgasú Danbala Wèdo Danbadahwɛɖó
Ayizan Ayizã Ayida Wèdo Ayìɖohuɛɖó
Ayizan Velekete Avlekétè Sakpata Sakpatá
Èzili Ázlì Danwezo Dàn
Ogou Gu Mawou Măwŭ
Kebyesou Xɛbiosò, Khèviôsô Loko Lókò
Papa Lisa Lisà

The accuracy of the transmission of this religious sub-system (Rite) is shown

in the phonological correspondences between the Haitian Creole and Fon names.
The preservation of these names shows that Vodou religion is a reservoir that
conserves profound historical religious knowledge.
Turning now to the individual spirits, some of their names provide clues
about the cultural and geographical origins of the religion’s founders and point to an
important structural feature of African Vodun and Haitian Vodou: spirit migration.
To begin with, there are closely related spirits in numerous Vodou Rites which may
suggest that major spirits in the Bight of Benin were served by various ethno-
linguistic groups in that region prior to colonialism. The presence of words like
loko/iroko in contemporary Fon or Yoruba, among other languages, also adds some
confirmation. One finds spirits like Loko in multiple Haitian Vodou Rites that
originate in the Bight of Benin region. In the Ibo Rite, Loko occurs as Loko Davi, in the
Mahi5 Rite he occurs as Loko Mahi Fado, and in the Rada Rite as Loko Djè, Komè Loko

5 The Mahi are an ethnic group still living in Savalou, Benin.

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and Wa Loko Alade. The name Loko in the Vodun cultures of the Bight of Benin
“enters into the composition of the names of diverse spirits called atinmɛ vodún (‘tree
spirits’)” (Rouget 2001: 100). The Fon lexemes loko, roko, or irokò refer to the African
Teak tree, Chlorophora excelsa (Moraceae). The tree is the abode of spirits and it is itself
considered as a Vodun (spirit). Likewise, the sap of the loko tree is used against
sorcerers (Segurola & Rassinoux 2000: 339). In Yoruba, a language community that
neighbors the Fon, the ìrokò tree “is believed to be inhabited by a roguish fairy” and
white cloths are tied to the tree as an offering and sacrifices take place at its base
(Abraham 1958: 316). It is likewise common to hang cloths and flags on large Vodou
trees in Haiti today. Similarly, animal sacrifice is common under large trees, as we
have seen at Lakou Souvnans in 2012 where a bull was tied to a tree and sacrificed.
It is possible, given current dictionaries of Fon (Segurola & Rassinoux 2000)
and Yoruba (Abraham 1958), and from evidence within Haitian Vodou, that Loko, as
a tree spirit and a sacred tree, had emerged in a number of religious traditions in the
region of the Bight of Benin prior to the French slave trade. The attestation of Loko or
Iroko in the Fon and Yoruba languages provides evidence of the word’s broad
regional distribution. Given all of the evidence pointing to the origin of Loko in the
Bight of Benin, how then do we account for the presence of spirits like Azangon Loko
in the Petwo Fran Rite or Loko Atisou and Loko Azanblo Gidi in the Makaya Rite, ones
that are both of West Central African origin? The short answer is that “spirit
migration” in Haitian Vodou seems to transmit spirits from the Rites of the Bight of
Benin into the West Central African ones.
In the cases in Table 2 below the spirits that originate in the Bight of Benin,
Legba, Ogou and Èzili (Rouget 2001; Verger 1957; Brand 2000), migrate into Rites of West
Central African origin (Beauvoir 2008a):

Table 2. Spirit migration from the Rites of the Bight of Benin into the Rites
of West Central Africa

Bight of Benin West Central Africa

Rite Spirit Rite Spirit
Nago Legba Gwètò Zandò Legba Zandò

Rada Legba Atibon, Petwo Fran Legba Bwa

Legba Azouka,
Vye Legba
Nago Ogou Petwo Fran Ogou Je Wouj

Rada Èzili Kongo Fran Èzili Towo

Petwo Fran Èzili Bohan

The spirit migration that took place in Haitian Vodou is uni-directional:

spirits originating in the Rites of the Bight of Benin (Rada, Nago) migrated into the
Rites of West Central Africa (Zandò, Petwo Fran, Kongo Fran), a phenomenon that

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has historical anchoring. The earlier captive populations from the Bight of Benin, the
ethnolinguistic group that was the very source of the word Vodun/Vodou, founded
the religion in Saint-Domingue, had a well-organized priesthood, culture, and
initiatory system at their service, and exerted more influence and enjoyed more
prestige in the colony and in independent Haiti. The West Central African Rites were
incorporated later into the Bight of Benin-foundation in Asogwe Vodou just as the
spirits of the Bight of Benin Rites then began migrating, one-way, into the West
Central African Rites. This one-way migration symbolizes the saliency, systematic
nature and “founder advantage” of the traditions from the Bight of Benin.

6. Historical linguistic evidence within core Vodou terminology and songs

This section introduces the etymology of core terminology and examines a

few Vodou songs to illustrate how these domains of language can contribute to the
historical reconstruction of the formation of Asogwe Vodou. This religion has a Fon
core but there is a partial overlay of near synonyms from the Kikongo language. As
we saw with the names of the spirits, the terms from the Bight of Benin tend to form
the central element in Asogwe Vodou but Kikongo elements are also present:

• Oungan ‘priest’ (Fon, hungán, ‘priest,’ Rouget 2001: 97)

• Gangan ‘priest’ (Kikongo, nganga, ‘prêtre idolâtre’ (sic) Laman 1936: 683)
• Ounsi ‘spouse of the spirits’ (Fon, hunsi, ‘initiate,’ Rouget 2001: 97)
• Andjennikonn/Oungenikon ‘choir leader’ (Fon, hunjɛnukɔn, ‘choir leader,’
Rouget 2001: 98)
• Sanba ‘singer’ (Kikongo, sámba ‘to shout with insistence like a nganga in
ecstasy or under the influence of a charm,’ Leman 1936: 870). Sámba also
means ‘to pray and worship God’ (Leman 1936: 870)
• Ason ‘shaker’ (Fon, asò, ‘priestly gourd shaker,’ Segurola & Rassinoux 2000: 66)
• Vodou ‘spirit (religion)’ (Fon, vodún, ‘deity, spirit,’ Rouget 2001: 102)
• Ountògi ‘drummer’ (Fon, hùntó, ‘drummer,’ Rouget 2001: 98)
• Wanga ‘spell’ (Kikongo, wanga ‘dream, illusion’ Laman 1936: 1092)

While terms drawn from Fon reflect fundamental elements of Asogwe Vodou,
Kikongo synonyms are also present. The Kikongo word gangan is synonymous with
the Fon word oungan. The Kikongo word sámba (sanba) is synonymous with the Fon
word hunjɛnukɔn (andjennikon). The Kikongo term wanga (‘spell’), which appears to
have no Fon synonym, is fully incorporated into the Vodou lexical field and is
known by all Haitian Creole speakers (Laman 1936: 1092). Like the Rites and spirits,
core terminology tends to confirm the Asogwe’s foundation in the traditions of the
Bight of Benin while providing evidence of the inclusion of later West Central
African lexical accretions.
A great deal about Vodou’s history can also be discovered in songs. My goal
here is to use three songs to show how they can shed light on Vodou’s origins and
test hypotheses on the religion’s formation. Vodou songs fit under the umbrella of
the Vodou Rites in the sense that each Rite has its own spirits and its own repertoire

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of songs. Like the Rites and spirits, the preservation of ethno-linguistic information
is central to most Vodou songs. The song below illustrates the ethnically and
geographically-denotative lexicon that is common to this genre:

Yabòdò antaye, ansi an Yabòdò antaye, ansi an

Ayibobo—Ayibobo, medam. Ayibobo—Ayibobo, ladies.

Nou pral antre nan We are going to enter

sobagi a. the sanctuary.
—Abobo! —Abobo!
Nou pral antre nan sobagi a la. We are going to enter this sanctuary.
Sobagi ladogwesan6 Mina o. Oh the sanctuary of the African heritage.
Anvan n antre, Before we enter,
fò nou jete dlo. we must pour out water.
Nou pral antre nan We are going to enter
sobagi a. the sanctuary.
—E ago e! —Hey ago hey!
Nou pral antre, We are going to enter,
ounsi kanzo ounsi kanzo
Ladogwesan. of the Heritage.
—Abobo! —Abobo!
Nan sobagi a, Into the sanctuary,
nou pral antre nan we are going to enter into the sanctuary.
sobagi a la. The sanctuary
Sobagi ladogwesan of the African heritage.
Mina o.

--Racine Figuier, ‘M ape antre nan sobagi a’

Vodou Lakay

The words in bold-face above are ones that are exclusively recognized in
Vodou contexts and illustrate terminological specialization. The bold-face lexical
items in this song reflect influences from the Bight of Benin, especially Fon. For
example, in the salutation that situates the song in the Rada Rite, Yabòdò is likely
related to the Fon exclamation of contentment: Yabadaooo (Segurola & Rassinoux
2000: 525). The expression that follows, Ayibobo or Abobo (as it appears later in the
song), is related to the Fon word awòbóbó which is a joyful acclamation accompanied
by the tapping of the lips with the fingers. In Haitian Vodou, the joyful cry of
Ayibobo!—roughly equivalent to Hallelujah!—specifically marks the Rada Rite (from
the Bight of Benin) and is interjected between songs in that Rite. Other Fon-specific
terms include sobagi from the Fon sogbadji, a reference to the official residence of
Vodun chief Daagbo Hounon Houna in Ouida, Benin (Okanla 2002). Sogbadji in Fon
is probably related to Sɛgbeji (original purity) (Segurola & Rassinoux 2000: 406). The

6
The translation of ladogwesan as ‘African heritage’ was a suggestion from Dyeri Jil and Ivwoz Jil
(p.c.). In Vodou ceremonies, the dogwe is a cyclical part of the ritual in which the celebrants and the
audience touch the ground with their right hands and proceed to touch their hearts, a symbolic
gesture linking the spirits (in the ground) with the hearts of their followers; by extension, ladogwesan
is the community that carries out this symbolic religious gesture (see Hebblethwaite et al. 2012: 252).
The term Mina, for its part, refers to the Mina people and language from the coastal region of Benin
and Togo.

9
song references the Mina, an ethnolinguistic group that inhabits a region that
straddles contemporary Benin and Togo along the Atlantic coast. The text also
contains the Fon-derived term, ounsi (spouse of the spirit, i.e. initiate). Therefore, this
song provides several words that can be traced directly to a precise African ethno-
linguistic group.
The next song for Èzili Freda is just as clearly linked to a single region of
Africa:

Èzili Freda o Alada Danwonmen, Ezili Freda oh Alada Dahomey,

o kay mwen. oh my house.
—Abobo! —Abobo!
M ape rele mètrès I will call the mistress
ki soti anba dlo, who comes from under water,
se fanm chans mwen. my good luck woman.
—E ago e —Hey ago hey!

--Racine Figuier, ‘Èzili Freda,’ Vodou Lakay

This text is also indisputably Fon-influenced. Alada Danwonmen refers to the

town that is still known as Allada in Benin (formally Dahomey). The name Allada
was also the source of the word for the (A)Rada Rite to which the spirit Èzili Freda
belongs. The sounds [l] (in Allada) and [ɤ/r] (in Rada) are both closely related liquid
sounds that sometimes alternate in contexts of language contact.7 The name of the
spirit Èzili is also attested in the word Ázlì in the Fon language of Benin (Brand 2000:
7).8 In contemporary Benin, Ázlì refers to a Vodun aquatic-cult represented by the
lake Agonvè, which is situated on the left bank of the Ouémé river (Brand 2000: 7).
Ázlì is the Vodun spirit who dwells in it. Ázlì and Èzili share in common water as
their resting place, a fact also attested in the Vodou song above in which she is
depicted as one “who comes from under the water.” While there are elements that
Azlì and Èzili share, suggesting a common origin, they are nevertheless conceived
very differently: Ázlì is a leprous male whereas Haiti’s Èzili Freda is a materialistic
mulatto woman. Although this may appear like a contrary indication, it is not
unusual for spirits like Èzili or Legba to have contradictory characteristics since these
names actually refer to families of spirits; for example, Èzili Freda, Èzili Dantò or
Èzili Mapyang, etc., have different personalities (Hebblethwaite et al. 2012: 233-235;
254-257)
While the above songs demonstrate a one-to-one relationship between the
etymological origins of the lexical items in the songs and African ethno-geography,
there also exist a number of songs that combine traditions from the Bight of Benin in
traditions from West Central Africa. The mixing occurs in a way that reflects the
pattern we saw above: spirits that originate in the Rites of the Bight of Benin (Yoruba,
in this case) migrate into the Rites of West Central Africa (Kongo) in Haitian Vodou:

7 For example, contemporary Korean and Japanese learners of English often confuse [l] and [r] since

they are complementary distribution in Korean and Japanese but contrastive distribution in English
(Aoyama et al. 2004).
8 For more information about Azlì see: http://www.ogd-tourisme-

benin.org/articles/communes/zagnanado/lile-dagonve-la-seule-et-veritable-ile-au-
benin#decouverte.

10
 Afoutayi—Yi! Afoutayi—Yi!
Bila bila—Kongo! Bila bila—Kongo!
Lè bounda fache, kote l chita? When an ass is angry, where does it sit?
—Atè! —On the ground

M g on lwa I have a lwa

ki reklame mwen. who claimed me.
Pandan m nan somèy, While I was asleep,
m g on lwa Oh I have a lwa
ki reklame m o! who claimed me.
—Bilolo! —Bilolo!
—Adye, Ogou reklame m, se vre! —Oh my, Ogou claimed me, it’s true!
Ogou Badagri s on lwa ki danjere. Ogou Badagri is a dangerous lwa.

--Racine Figuier, Men chay la

The salutation is the standard formula uttered before songs in the Kongo Rite.
The Kikongo words bila bila mean ‘praise’ [v.] or ‘origin’ [n.] (Laman 1936: 37). The
expression bila bila Kongo means something like, ‘praise the Kongo origins.’ Another
marked Kongo element in the song is the praise exclamation Bilolo! which is the
Kongo and Petwo Rites’s equivalent of Ayibobo (‘Hallelujah’). Bilolo may stem from
bilóngo (‘magic remedy of a nkisi [spirit]’) or bilongo-longo (‘superstition’) (Laman
1936: 38).
Although the song is replete with markers of the Kongo Rite, it addresses a
spirit, Ogou Badagri, who, from an historical point of view, originates in the Bight of
Benin. The name Ogou (Ogoun, Ogun, Gu) is among the best know spirits of that
region and he is served to this day in Yoruba and Fon-speaking communities. Most
agree that he was once a great king but there are disagreements about his exact
provenance in the Bight of Benin (Verger 1957: 141-2). As for Badagri, to this day it is
the name of a coastal town in Nigeria. During the colonial period, it was famous for
exporting slaves and it was frequently raided by the Fon-speaking Dahomians in the
18th century.9 This spirit from the Bight of Benin, Ogou Badagri, has migrated in the
context of the formation of Haitian Vodou into a Rite of West Central African origin
following the unidirectional pattern introduced earlier. In the last section, I add
historical, geographical and ethnic data to the linguistic arguments I have been
making about the formation of Vodou from its foundation in the Bight of Benin.

7. Historical, geographical and ethnic evidence for the reconstruction of Vodou’s

formation

This discussion is informed by numerous disciplines. Since the mid-twentieth

century, Vodou source texts in the form of songs and prayers have become
increasingly available (Marcelin 1950a & 1950b). Beauvoir (2008a & 2008b)
meticulously edits thousands of important Haitian Creole Vodou texts. His books
and others, plus the many Vodou compact discs for sale in Haitian shops, provide

9 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/48405/Badagry.

11
unprecedented access to the sacred oraliture and literature. The linguistic
approaches of etymology and comparative lexical research are essential for
identifying the ethnographic sources within Haitian Vodou. Likewise, our fieldwork
in Vodou ceremonies in Haiti and Miami are an important backdrop to this
discussion.
Attention to historical, geographical, and ethnic lexical evidence is critical to
the task of reconstructing the formation of Vodou. As I noted earlier, Moreau de
Saint-Méry (1797) linked “Vaudoux” to Aradas slaves (from the Bight of Benin). Still
today, 217 years since Moreau de Saint-Méry’s book, the Rada Rite remains the
fundamental “entry way” into the entire Asogwe Vodou religious system. At the
same time, other Rites, including ones from the Kongo (and their spirits), are also
worshiped inclusively within Asogwe Vodou. Many—but not all—ceremonies I have
attended at Société Linto Roi Trois Mystères in North Miami, for example, begin with
the Rada Rite and switch to Petwo or Kongo Rites, among others, after three hours or
so (and continue for several additional hours). In many ceremonies, both the Rites of
the Bight of Benin and the Kongo are equally represented. However, there are some
lengthy ceremonies, such as the Nago Rite honoring Ogou Feray, that are in a single
rite.
Historical research on the ethnic composition of the French slave trade to
Saint-Domingue provides some empirical support for sketching a preliminary theory
in which the period between 1660 and 1720 represents the earlier stage in Haitian
Vodou’s formation. Research on the relationship of the ethnicity of slaves to their
geographical settlement patterns in Saint-Domingue (plains versus mountains)
provides additional evidence for the structure of Asogwe Vodou (Geggus 1991, 1996,
2001).
Based on Beauvoir’s (2008a) list of 401 spirits and their respective Rites,
approximately two-thirds of Vodou’s Rites and spirits originate in the Bight of Benin
with the remainder from West Central Africa. These remaining 135/401 spirits
(approximately 33%) are served in Rites like, Kita, Kongo Fran, Makaya, Petwo Fran,
Wongòl and Zandò (Beauvoir 2008a). Given this distribution of spirits, the traditions
of the Bight of Benin appear to exert greater influence on the overall Asogwe Vodou
system. This distribution is explicable when consideration is given to the chronology
of African ethnic groups arriving in the colony and geographical settlement patterns.
As observed earlier, the populations from the Bight of Benin were the source
of the early majority of slaves. By 1720, however, only 23 years after the colony’s
official establishment, captives from West Central Africa already formed one of the
major ethnic populations in Saint-Domingue (Geggus 1991: 36). On the eve of the
Haitian Revolution in 1791, of the estimated 599,804 slaves in that French colony, the
captives from the Bight of Benin represented 26.3% of the population whereas the
captives from West Central Africa represented 49.2% of the population (Geggus 2001:
136). To explain why the Rites and spirits from the Bight of Benin are better
represented in Asogwe Vodou at the rate of 67% compared to those from West
Central Africa at the rate of 33%, it is important to weigh the proportions of ethnic
groups by region in Saint-Domingue (Geggus 2001: 136):

12
 Table 2. Sources of Africans landed in Saint-Domingue by French ships in
percent
Region North West South
Senegambia 6.5% 6.7% 8.0%
Sierra Leone 2.5% 3.8% 8.8%
Windward Coast 0.4% 1.1% 0.9%
Gold Coast 4.4% 4.4% 4.3%
Bight of Benin 22.6% 35.5% 11.8%
Bight of Biafra 2.6% 6.3% 15.2
West Central Africa 56.6% 39.5% 47.9%
Southeast Africa 4.3% 2.6% 3.1
Totals 100.0% 100.0 100%
Captives (N) 312,789 213,546 55,579

As I mentioned, to this day the Department of the West (which includes Port-
au-Prince and Léogâne) remains the seat of the Bight of Benin-influenced Asogwe
school of Vodou. To understand the prominence of traditions from that region in
Asogwe Vodou, we can theoretically group together the populations of the broader
West African region. By adding together the ethnic groups of Senegambia (6.7%),
Sierra Leone (3.8%), the Windward Coast (1.1%), the Gold Coast (4.4%), the Bight of
Benin (35.5%), and the Bight of Biafra (6.3%), the broad West African populations
amount to 57.8%, a combined number that exceeds the total of 39.5% for the West
Central African populations in the Department of the West (Port-au-Prince and
Léogâne). In the Northern department, the combined West African populations only
amount to 39.0% of the total population compared to the larger West Central African
population of 56.5%. These demographic differences between the North and the
West may explain, in part, why the etymological origins of the Rites and spirits in
Asogwe Vodou’s lexicon tend to correspond to West African traditions in 67% of
cases versus West Central African ones in 33% of cases.
Another clue that may help explain the centripetal force of the traditions of
the Bight of Benin in the colony can be found in slave settlement patterns in Saint-
Domingue. Sugarcane planters, for instance, preferred to purchase slaves from the
Bight of Benin whereas coffee planters purchased more of the slaves from Bibi,
Mondongue, Igbo, and Congo regions (Geggus 1993: 81). In the plantation records,
which involve far fewer individuals than the overall population figures given in the
Table 2 above, and are hence less representative, the ethnic composition of the
African-born slave population was distributed between sugarcane and coffee
industries in the following way for the Kongo, Arada and Nago ethnic groups10:

Table 3. Ethnic composition of the African-born slave population by

province and period for sugar and coffee plantations

North West West

1778-91 1785-91 1796-97
Sugar Coffee Sugar Coffee Sugar Coffee
Kongo 40.8% 63.9% 31.3% 47.3% 21.0% 35.3%
Arada 10.5% 8.9% 14.9% 5.7% 16.1% 9.1%

10 See Geggus (1993) for a complete listing that includes dozens of ethnic groups.

13
 Nago 8.9% 5.5% 16.1% 9.2% 18.6% 12.2%
N slaves 2,143 973 1,059 457 2,641 1,578

The data-set collected by Geggus (1993: 81) provide a few hints: since the
captives from the Bight of Benin were most desired on the sugarcane plantations,
these slaves tended to work in the plains of Saint-Domingue which are located
nearer to towns and cities. In contrast, since the coffee farmers tended to buy the
captives from West Central Africa who the sugarcane planters declined, these slaves
tended to work in the mountains of Saint-Domingue, and thus lived in locations that
were more removed from the towns and cities.
The tendency of the slaves from the Bight of Benin to settle in the sugarcane
plains closer to the towns and cities like Port-au-Prince and Léogâne, gave them
greater access to urban areas and the greater resources and prestige that are
associated with them. The relative importance of West Central African populations
in northern Haiti, for example, may account for the fact that scholars like George E.
Simpson in the 1940s found Petwo Rites to be well integrated into Vodou in that
region (Geggus 2001: 133). As for the several Asogwe Vodou communities whose
ceremonies I have observed since 2009, the Rites originating in the Bight of Benin
and West Central Africa are robustly maintained by several sociétés/sosyete. 11 In
contemporary Asogwe Vodou, a single société/sosyete will typically celebrate several
Rites in its annual calendar of ceremonies.
Another reason for the success of the traditions from the Bight of Benin in the
formation of Vodou may be linked to the earlier arrival of those populations in Saint-
Domingue. In the Founder Principle theory of creolization, the “structural features of
creoles have been predetermined to a large extent [...] by characteristics of the
vernaculars spoken by the populations that founded the colonies in which they
developed” (Mufwene 1996: 84). Ethnographic influences like the proportion of
newcomers compared to local populations, their attitudes towards one another, and
their social status also influence the competition of linguistic features (Mufwene 1996:
86). Thus the founder populations contributed many structural features to creole
languages. These structural features had a “selective advantage” because population
growth occurred in installments. Arriving population groups formed a minority
relative to the speakers of the local creole which was spoken by a “seasoned slave
population” (Mufwene 1996: 123). It was more efficient to learn the local vernacular
than to change or supplant it. As one reviewer noted, the acculturated slave
population served as linguistic and cultural role models or survival facilitators for
the new slaves in the threatening colonial setting.
By extension, major structural features of the early slave population are the
religious lexical fields from the Bight of Benin (Fon, Yoruba, etc.). The etymological
composition of Asogwe Vodou’s expansive lexical field provides evidence that a
version of the Founder Principle is relevant to a successful explanatory theory of the
formation of the Vodou tradition in Haiti. The Fon and Yoruba substrate languages
had a great impact on the lexicon of Asogwe Vodou and they were prominent

11Société Linto Roi Trois Mystères, Société Halouba, and Société Makaya in Miami. The Vodou Lakou that
we have visited include Lakou Souvnans, Lakou Nan Badjo, Lakou Soukri Danach, Lakou Dewonvil, Lakou
Kajòj, and Société Grandizè in Gonaïves, Haiti.

14
languages in Saint-Domingue’s early period (c. 1660-1720). Not only did Fon and
Yoruba profoundly influence the formation of Asogwe Vodou’s lexical field, but some
scholars also consider those language communities to be major sources for Haitian
Creole morphosyntax (Lefebvre 1998). The examination of the Vodou lexical field
provides independent support for Lefebvre’s (1998) assertion that Fon and other
languages from the Bight of Benin were significant contributors to early Haitian
Creolization. My lexical focus cannot directly lend support to the matter of her
“relexification hypothesis” wherein Fon and other languages from the Bight of Benin
serve as significant influences in Haitian Creole morphosyntactic developments (for
example, post-nominal definite determiners). This discussion does show, however,
that the languages of the Bight of Benin made the core contributions in terms of the
religious lexical fields that date from an early period of Creolization (i.e. 1680-1720).
An additional, system-internal explanation for the success of Asogwe Vodou
may be found in the hierarchical organization of the religion and the confident
authority exercised by its leadership. African Vodun had a royal element that
Haitian Vodou has retained (Beauvoir 2008a & 2008b). Dahomian kings fused
political and religious power. Vodou in Haiti and Vodun in Benin are initiatory
religions wherein practitioners are trained and hierarchically ranked at 3 levels, ounsi
senp (‘beginner spouse of the spirits’), ounsi kanzo (‘expert spouse of the spirits’), and
ounsi asogwe (‘priestly spouse of the spirits’). Initiates (pitit = child) show their
subordination to the initiators (papa/manman) and pledge loyalty to the initiatory
Vodou society (lafanmi = the family). The rich culture of ceremonies, dances, rituals,
pageantry, songs and prayers, in addition to the kinship structure of the Vodou
societies, create groups of intensive religious education and practice. Regular
meetings and ceremonies at multiple societies help members bond and develop
religious knowledge. The strong leadership and kinship structure are fundamental
organizational principles that have withstood the test of time.

8. Conclusion

This chapter has explored historical and etymological evidence to gain insight
into the origins of Asogwe Vodou. The Rites, the names of Vodou spirits, the core
terms of the religion, and the language in Vodou songs provide insights into the
origins and cultural influences expressed in Asogwe Vodou. Fon (Segurola &
Rassinoux 2000; Brand 2000; Rouget 2001), Yoruba (Abraham 1958), and Kikongo
(Laman 1964) dictionaries and lexicons provide strong evidence of the respective
lexical contributions of Asogwe Vodou (Beauvoir 2008a & 2008b). Quantitative data
on the ethnicity of captives and the distribution of ethnic groups between the
sugarcane plantations on the plains and the coffee plantations in the mountains help
explain the prominence of the traditions from the Bight of Benin in towns like Port-
au-Prince and Léogâne in the Department of the West (Geggus 1991, 1996, 2001). I
have also suggested that the the Founder Principle (Mufwene 1996) can help explain
the prominence of the traditions from the Bight of Benin in Asogwe Vodou. The
Asogwe Vodou lexical field displays a clear rootedness in the languages of the Bight

15
of Benin (i.e. Fon, Yoruba, etc.) while also displaying an expansiveness with its
inclusion of West Central Africa Rites and their lexical fields.
Evidence of one-way spirit migration from the Rites originating in the Bight of
Benin into the Rites originating in West Central Africa adds Haitian Vodou-internal
evidence of the earlier and pervasive influence of traditions from the Bight of Benin.
Research on the syncretism of Catholic elements into Vodou is valuable and reflects
a xenophile (inclusive) nature that seems natural to many Vodouists and Catholics
(Desmangles 1992). At the same time, a core, but understudied syncretism, is
Vodou’s inclusion of numerous African traditions in the form of self-standing Rites.
Under the conditions of colonialism and creolization, Vodou culture made full use of
the powerful cultural trait of absorbency that drew other African traditions into itself,
an approach to multiculturalism that enriched and empowered Vodou by unifying
diverse African populations within a single religion. Asogwe Vodou unified diverse
traditions under one standard. Asogwe Vodouists settled each national tradition
within its own Rite, practicing and protecting diverse traditions. While preserving
the West Central African Rites, it is striking that major spirits (like Legba, Èzili or
Ogou) that originate in the Rites of the Bight of Benin manage to migrate into the
West Central African Rites in a flow called “spirit migration.” The form that spirit
migration takes in Asogwe Vodou is explained in terms of the Founder Principle
wherein the language and traditions from the Bight of Benin had a “selective
advantage” as they were propounded by important founders of the colony.

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18