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Post-Youth Depression by Joe Brown. The culprits have to carry out special rites at the desecrated places, often very long and ex- pensive, involving the sacrifice of animals, offerings to the priests, etc. The main characteristics of the sacred sites presented above evoke those attributed generally to patrimonies. We have emphasized that many vodun sites are under the collective control of certain social groups whose cohesion and identity depend primar- ily on ceremonies held in these places.
We find here one of the major characteristics recognized in patrimonies: For the populations concerned, vodun sacred sites represent places of religious communion, transmission of collective memory and recognition of a certain identity. The guarantors for these places insure the transmission of oral traditions from generation to generation by means of religious ceremonies. This means that divinities do not depart, and that cults and all the other activities can take place appropriately. But, as assumed by some of the authors previously quoted, can these rules be a particularly relevant way of preserving the local biodiversity for all the places considered here?
This question needs to be treated with care. Sacred Sites and Biodiversity Vodun sacred sites are strictly linked to natural elements: But it does not mean that all these places are systematically considered sacred. Vodun Sacred Spaces 41 For that to be the case, it is necessary that something unusual or surprising happen there.
Then, after interpretation by the Fa, as we have previously described, the place will be liable to be considered as divine. Yet not every termitary becomes an altar. For instance, when they grow at the feet of a logoti, Milicia excelsa Welw. The connection most frequently mentioned by the adepts themselves is the one that exists between sacred sites and the plant world. Plants, particularly trees ati , as well as plant communities, occupy an essential place in the vodun religion,16 and are indis- pensable to the fulfillment of almost all the rites. A certain number of plant species or varieties are associated with each divinity.
Knowledge and use of these liturgical plants, called ama, are the privilege of the priests, and are a jealously guarded secret: The spontaneous appearance of a liturgical plant, as well as its deliberate planting followed by a divination and by offerings to ask for the agreement of the gods can be at the origin of the sacralization of a place.
In the vodun area, as elsewhere in Africa and other parts of the world Michaloud and Dury , the appearance of trees of the botanical families Moraceae Antiaris, Milicia, Ficus and Bombacaceae Adansonia, Ceiba, Bombax 17 is generally interpreted as a divine demonstration. But much more than its botanical identity, the peculiarities of the individual history of the tree can be at the origin of its sacred character.
In Seje Denu, the tree planted on the remains of an enemy of Alisu, founder of the village, is a gutin Erythrina senegalensis D. In Al- lada, a cotton tree, hunti Ceiba pentandra Linn. Their beautiful original harmony was soon broken by the be- havior of these last ones, so quarrelsome and noisy. The Sky, tired with their escapades, blamed the Earth for it, and on the deceitful advice of Dan, the python rainbow, left his wife. The maternal Earth, being afraid for her offspring, invented the first prayers, made the first offerings and begged the sky not to abandon her children.
Sky was touched, and so as not to treat inequitably the wisest of them, plants, sent the first rain, thus creating the cycle of the seasons, from which the people and the animals also knew how to benefit. Grasses and trees thus appear as the favored children of the gods, intermedi- aries privileged among the Beyond and the world Roussel The reasons given by our advisers are very different: Vodun Sacred Spaces When a liturgical plant is not native to a cult site, it has probably been grown there by the leaders of cults and their assistants sometimes specialized as Kpodo and hun- deva of Adikpeto evoked above.
So, Kpatin, Newbouldia laevis P. Beauv Seemann ex Bureau, which is certainly the most used ama, is always planted abundantly in places like convents, altars, the environs of legba, and hedges of the houses of adepts. The sanctuaries of divinities close to Hevieso the god of thunder and sites dedicated to the ancestors are easily recognizable by the presence of anyatin, Dracaena arborea Link. The installation of an altar to Tro, the most widespread Goro vodun voodoo of Cola requires the presence of a goroti, Cola nitida Wind.
Certain expiatory offerings vosa called adra. We understand why spaces dedicated to vodun are often woody. The area is a sa- vannah zone the Dahomey Gap , where the vegetation is naturally forested when slash and burn practices are interrupted, which is the case for the sacred sites. Religious practices mark landscapes so strongly that numerous observers have drawn attention to the plant constituents of their sites. Souza de et al. Medicines, of both plants, are administered to them, alternatively zozo and fafa. The sacred sites also shelter numerous animals, but few works have yet been dedicated to them.
Nevertheless, relationships between vodun sacred sites, birds, insects and especially reptiles certainly should be very fascinating to investigate. More than fifty years later, these authors express the same fears as their predecessors, and always insist on the contribution of sacred groves to the protection and the sustainable management of bio- diversity.
Among the fifty-three groves inven- toried by Kokou in South Togo, it is very important to note that if the biggest wealth of flora can be found at those that are sacred, such is not the case for the big- gest specific biodiversity. The human practice of adding some specimens, belonging in particular to exotic species, has the same consequences. Regarding the plant communities, the conservative role of the sacred sites must also be asserted with a certain caution. There are certainly very ancient copses and holy forests.
Many are now little more than a kind of woody savan- nah or old fallow with the presence, for example, of the baobab-tree. Their stratifica- tion is often simple: It is important to notice that certain plant communities of the region are not represented among the sacred sites: Nevertheless, they are also an important protected part of biodiversity.
Biodiversity is estimated by an index also taking into account the frequency of species found Kokou The choices of the plant species are made in the same way: To this list we could add Newbouldia laevis, Spondias monbin L. Finally, through the observation of sites and relevant practices, we are compelled to wonder about the well-defined and powerful character of the link that unites sacred places and plants. We have already said that the sacred character of a site could have had its origin in the spontaneous appearance of a plant.
But the sacred character of this site can, in fact, remain after the death and total disappearance of the plant: We know only one plant of which all the specimens are protected, whatever place they grow in, a particular variety of oil palm, considered to be the realization on earth of the god Fa. But if divinities can dwell in certain trees, they can also leave them. This desertion can be spontaneous, or, in cases of necessity,30 decided by people who transfer the di- vinity to another plant somewhere else.
One can then make boards with the abandoned tree. In Benin, as in Togo, the clearing of the big sacred iroko Milicia excelsa , a rare timber with high commercial value, has become very common. This presence of the latter can even be an excuse for a clearing. Economic interests override the permanency of the place, and only a memory of it remains but for how long?
However, the picture of the current situation must be moderated further, because sacred trees and forests seem to be protected not only by the influence of vodun cults, but also by the actions of institutions in favor of environmental protection and the de- velopment of a durable management of resources. To Wankon, Fagara planted by Gede is only a dead trunk. In the small yards of the cities some leaves that one re- news when they turn to dust replace sacred trees.
It is a genetic mutation that appears at a very weak rate in palm plantations. Nobody is allowed to cut it down and to use its fruits for making oil, and their ritual use is reserved for soothsay- ers, bokono. A seminar on vodun religion and the protection of the environment organized in by German researchers in association with religious dignitaries explored relations among the various actors.
However, is not what the vodun religion tries to pass on from generation to generation sets of practices and religious knowledge rather than places or naturals objects? An historic approach can answer this to various degrees. Origin, Inheritance and Transmission of the Sacred Sites To reconstitute the history of the sacred sites and enquire about their origins one must go back to the vodun pantheon.
The great variety of the gods, more than six hundred, as we are told, are as much connected to the history of individuals as to that of socie- ties. Any extraordinary event will be interpreted as a likely demonstration of a divinity or a supernatural force, and will be subjected to a divination by the Fa that will con- firm or counter it. A snake dwelling in a termitary, night birds settling in rocky crevasses, strange night- lights in the fronds of trees are just some of the many signs to be interpreted and which can provide sites for rites of sacralization.
The soothsayers of the Fa also interrogate the divinities about appointing those responsible for the cults who will build altars, dedicate them and equip the sites. For example, it is always necessary to sacrifice a ram when dedicating sites to Hevieso, the god of thunder, but other sacrifices may be necessary if the altar to be dedicated is near a sanctuary of Dan, the python god. The installation of the vodun Tro is carried out in several stages and most advanced ones demand an ox to be knifed at the base of the cola tree Cola nitida Vent. Historical sources contain numerous examples of sacralization reflecting the capaci- ties for adaptation, spreading and syncretism of these societies.
Vodun Sacred Spaces creation of sacred places is continuous through time and that it can have different bases. Sacralization is often bound to the transformation of a person into vodun. Not far from Abomey, Wankon and Kotokpa's sites, dedicated to the vodun Gede, give exam- ples of this kind: The vodun Gede is a man ayonu whom the king of the Dahomey brought from the war against Ayonu. One day, the king decided to behead him, but he managed to escape from Abomey. The warriors pursued him until Wankon, where he stopped the first time; from there he went to Akpa, where the vodun Dan obliged him to divert from his path and he had to take the way which leads to Xanlanxonu; he began to turn into a stone, marking his passage.
He stopped at Kotokpa, where he planted a xetin, and turned into a big stone. The xetin has become a big tree today. Gede became vodun after his meeting with Dan. The king, Agasu, and others planted a xetin that did not grow, but Gede planted it and it grew. The king, in the presence of the transformed Gede, convoked all the inhabitants of Wankon and in- formed them that this place would henceforth be a house of vodun; from this day he nominated a person responsible for the vodun, called Gedenon. The place where he stopped before arriving at Kotokpa is called Wankon; on this spot there is a big stone and the place is sacred; the vodun is worshipped there in the forest.
For the sacred place boundaries were set by the Gedenon, whom the king placed there in charge of the vodun, and one is not allowed to cultivate anything there; no one is allowed to enter there, and it has become a forest Comments collected to Lissezun: We know nu- merous other examples of this type. The royal gods were implanted on territories re- cently conquered, thus participating in the political control of the territory.
Vodun Sacred Spaces 47 opponents: Dahomeans thus integrated Dan, the tutelary god-python of Xweda cf. First, they destroyed his main temple in Savi35 after their victory over Xweda in , then they resettled it at new cult sites. This type of attitude is common, and the history of relations between kingdoms of the area Aja-Tado was marked more often by the creation of new sacred sites than by their destruction.
At Togudo, historic capital of the kings of Allada, we can observe several that bear names signifying a re- lationship with their history. Ayizanzun is a forest that bears the name of the vodun defender of the house of the king Kokpon 4th son of Ajahuto, founder of the dynasty, according to Cornevin abandoned after the conquest of Allada's realm by Dahomeans in The forest of Axosezun was formerly, according to our advisers, the yard of the royal palace: De- spite having been abandoned, these places were still respected.
They were not cleared, but covered with trees. Today, they provide evidence of a major event in the history of this kingdom — dynastic change following the defeat of The inhabitants of Togudo never miss the chance to retell this story to guests who pass the forest. In the north of Ouidah, we find a similar situation. After the conquest of Ouidah's kingdom in by Dahomean warriors, the capital Savi lost its political importance and the royal palace was abandoned. Today, one can see on the ancient site of the pal- ace a grove where religious ceremonies still take place.
The sites cited above are certainly suffused with history and are symbols of lost po- litical independence. But they are also respected because a cult for the ancestors is still performed there.
Kate Franklin
Indeed, traditionally, the deceased were buried in their houses, which were then abandoned. The custom of the country is to completely destroy the palace on the day when one buries the deceased king; three months are necessary to build another one in another district of the city for the new king. The big men [each] bury their father in a gal- 35 Cf. They are indicated on the landscape by groups of trees, and the inhabitants continue to celebrate ceremonies in honor of the ancestors who are buried there. Among the social dynamics involved in the creation of sacred sites, it is necessary to mention population migrations.
Gen came from Accra and settled their forty-one gen-vodu in the Glidji forest called Gen yehueve forest of Guen voodoos. In the same way, the creation of new villages is always accompanied by the installation of the material representation of the ances- tral founder of the lineage who can be mythical.
A part is taken from the original rep- resentation with the aim of setting it up on the site of the new settlement. They are generally manifested in a tree, usually a lokotin, Milicia excelsa Welw. Sometimes planted, but often voluntary, they have individual names. Toxwyo follow the people in their movements and are at the basis of the foun- dation of new cult sites.
Vodun Sacred Spaces 49 If the study of written and oral sources shows the durability of certain sites, it also allows us to see that other places have a more complex history, providing a long list of sacralizations and desacralizations possibly accompanied by relocations.
And so his- tory shows us that their transmission from generation to generation has not always been effectuated. The spread of Christianity in this region is one of the major factors in the destabili- zation of vodun cults, and has resulted in the disappearance or movement of sacred sites. The first Christian missionaries arrived during second half of the 19th century, and, from their arrival, they often chose the location of their establishments according to the sites of vodun cults.
Translation by Vocabulix
Hence, in , the mission of Porto-Novo was built par- tially on the forest devoted to the divinity Shango, in spite of the opposition of vodun religious authorities. Father Baudin, twenty years after the installation of the mission, writes: In Porto-Novo, near the mission, is a famous place by one of the descendents of Chango.
There was for many years a temple there and a school of fetish priests. For some time, the temple has been deserted, the only one fetish priest takes care of it; the school was moved somewhere else, disturbed by our proximity Baudin Certain Christian priests celebrated mass in holy forests to demonstrate the superior power of their unique god. After the colonial conquest, at the end of the 19th century, administrative policies also contributed to the disintegration of the social and religious structure.
For example, agricultural experimental stations were set up at Niaouli, where there was a sacred for- est connected with a spring, and in Porto Novo the forest of vodun Shango was trans- formed into a colonial garden and integrated into the capital of the new colony. The development of colonial culture was mainly responsible for the increase in clearings at the borders of forested zones. Actions of this type were associated with evangelization campaigns, widely supported by the colonial authorities, which contributed greatly to the destabilization of the vodun cult chiefs, changing relations between the people and 42 Translated by the author of this paper from Baudin This as- pect of the spread of the Christianity in Africa has not yet been studied.
Vodun Sacred Spaces their divinities, and resulting in the desacralization and destruction of numerous sites. Religious dignitaries were forced to cease their practices. But in , a severe drought occurred. This was interpreted by public opinion as a sign of the anger of the divinities, something that worried the government and encouraged it to undergo a change of attitude. As a result, it is possible to observe the re-creation of certain sacred sites: Indeed, arrangement of this site began during the festival, and continued after with the construction of a monumental gate and an enclosing wall built around two sacred trees.
Vodun Sacred Spaces 51 At present, divinities of relatively recent import tend to be popularized, and some of them have even become very fashionable. In towns, the cult of Atingali, a cynomorphic divinity inspired, we are told, by the Ashanti pantheon, is rap- idly expanding. It assures effective protection against wizards azeto , particularly ac- tive due to the rivalries stirred up by modern life.
For the same reason, Tro, ancient deity of the Ewe people, is experiencing a rebirth in the south of Benin, while street children put themselves under the protection of the violent Koku Vodun, whose fol- lowers undergo ritual slashing with knives. Their installation can in- volve financial negotiations and often corresponds to strategies of ascent and social recognition, more individual than collective. Their transmission to future generations thus remains very hypothetical. Conclusion The analysis of past and current practices concerning vodun sacred sites shows clearly that the biodiversity inherent in them cannot completely and always be considered as a natural patrimony.
Very often the elements concerned are neither inherited nor passed on, and their management is not static. For example, though these sacred spaces are often wooded, one cannot assert that the composition and structure of the tree cover faithfully represents that of the original forest. On the contrary, our study shows that borrowings, movements, and fashions connected to the social dynamics and economic and political situation effect the religious management of sites, depending on the his- tory of the people concerned.
Numerous cult sites have been destroyed, moved, or re- organized, and the corresponding biological diversity was widely affected by these changes. However, some nuances can be extracted. Disparities are strong between urban and rural surroundings. In cities and their suburbs, the evolution is more radical, marked by an increasing individualism and a high level of state interventionism.
As a result, the pressures of modern society have brought about attempts to limit the duration of the period required for the schooling of young adepts. Under these conditions, the transmission of vodun knowledge becomes GBA Vodun Sacred Spaces problematic. One can only wonder whether the conservation of religious practices and the places where they are performed, i. The gap that seems to be becoming more and more defined between city and countryside will make the analysis of the interrelationship between them indispensable.
Finally, let us remember that in the last dozen years or so, in both Benin and Togo, naturalists, agronomists and forestry scientists have brought to the attention of the pub- lic and the political decision-makers ecological, botanical and even zoological issues concerning the forests and sacred copses. They have thus made them inseparable from the implementation of environmental policies. Their work has greatly contributed to making them part of a national patrimony, natural and cultural at the same time. La notion de patrimoine. A mission to Gelele, king of Dahome. The Ewe-speaking peoples of the Slave coast of West Africa.
Chapman and Hall, limited. Environmental Policy and Law Paper Les plantes des vaudous. Editions HaHo — Karthala. Vodun Sacred Spaces 55 Figure 1 D. Its uses are strictly reserved to bokonon. Temple of Snakes at Ouidah. Vodun Sacred Spaces Figure 4 B. In addition, there are trees, stretches of water, stones and rocks, as well as grottos, to which the significance of a sacred place is ascribed.
It is almost impossible to look at a city, a district, a village, or a landscape in Morocco without perceiving a religious place Verdugo and Fakir The two poles intersect and are therefore mutually dependent. In accordance with the way of life in Moroccan society and its segregation of the sexes, the socially practiced Islam can generally be characterized as the Islam of the women, and the politically propagated Islam as the Islam of the men Welte The individually and socially practiced religion of both the socially practiced and the politically propagated Islam is realized through a spatial reference to a differentiated sacred topography.
The Great Mosque of Casablanca, built by Hassan II, and the Is- land of Marabout Sidi cAbd ar-Rahman, both visibly located off the coast of the in- dustrial metropolis, each personify and symbolize one of the two poles mentioned above. The terms Marabout and Maraboutism are barely used at all in Moroccan vernaculars cf.
In this text Maraboutism subsumes all elements that compri- se the saint cult in Morocco and are related to it. A saint3 in Morocco is a human being who has a special magic power of blessing, extraordinary characteristics, a special way of life, and who often has Marabout ancestors or descendants. The graves and grave sites of these saints refer people to another world, saints, spirits, and God, and render access to transcendence possible for them.
Maraboutism in Morocco goes back to the Sufi tradition: At the end of the eighteenth century in the Middle East, certain believers reacted against the formalism of Islam and took up an existing mystical movement called Sufism. The Sufic doctrine, permitted by the Islamic religion, tends to make the human divine, rather than making the divine become human, and it leads to the worship of saints who are but human an anthropocentric and hetero- dox practice.
Those chosen and faithful beings play the role of the divine media- tors in society. These saints appeal to the heart more than the spirit, and they raised a new enthusiasm for Islam. The worship of nature was the usual practice in North Africa at this time.
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Maraboutism enabled the transition between Islam and paganism. The marabouts, like the zaouias and the religious brotherhoods, stand on the margins of Muslim orthodoxy. Verdugo and Fakir Up to the present time in the 21st century, the many graves and tombs of Marabouts have not only been an integral part of Moroccan landscape, but apparently also of Mo- roccan everyday life. Purpose and Approach of the Intended Theoretical Reflections This article will mainly discuss the significance of the sacred place in the framework of the Marabout cult.
The argumentation aims at clarifying the function of the sacred places of the Marabout in Moroccan society in a theoretical context. Although there are many studies on the Marabout cult, the sacred place in its ideational conception as well as in its outward appearance […] receives only little attention translated from Fartacek Hence the given question: How can one grasp the phenomenon of Maraboutism theo- retically as the phenomenon of sacred places in Morocco?
The presented theoretical conception is supposed to contribute to a better understanding of the way Moroccan society deals with these sacred places. The main focus of the following will therefore be neither the empirically dense description of the Marabout Sidi cAbd ar-Rahman, which will be used as an example, nor the exact data of people involved in the cult and a possible interpretation of their cultic actions or their different rituals.
Instead, the focal point will be the discrepancies within selected empirical data which will help to 3 The saint is addressed in Moroccan-Arabic vernaculars as sayyid or wali. Maraboutism in Mo- rocco has been the subject of several empirical studies, such as works by Westermarck , Dermenghem , Crapanzano , , Gellner , Welte , Lang , Ensel , and Rausch , to mention just a few publications.
The excellent literature on pilgrimages to sacred places by Kroll and the attempt of a theoretical conceptualization of the phenomenon Marabout in Morocco by Dittmar also give interesting insights. In addition, there are works that discuss social problems of Morocco and in this context give fundamental statements about Mara- boutism, for instance Mernissi and Eickelman , My own observations during repeated visits to the Marabout Sidi cAbd ar-Rahman and other graves of saints, as well as many conversations with members of the cult, have supplemented the important studies of the island Sidi cAbd ar-Rahman by Akhmisse , , , Etienne , Lang , and Zyne One must also take into account the people, mainly women from all Moroccan social classes, for whom the sacred places were virtually created.
The island can be reached by foot at low tide, whereas one needs a boat or a raft to reach it without get- ting wet at high tide. It is an island unlike many others that are located off the coast of Morocco. It is Sidi cAbd ar-Rahman; a sacred place, which is very well-known throughout the whole country, as many other sacred places are. Sidi cAbd ar-Rahman is not only the name of the island, but also the name of the saint that is said to be bur- ied on the island, and also the name of his tomb.
One can comfortably reach the Mara- bout on an asphalt road that leads along the coastline straight to the island. Directly next to the road on the beach a policeman ensures safety and order. People, especially women, perform pilgrimages to the island at all times, which results in a constant com- GBA The island Sidi cAbd ar-Rahman embraces the tomb of the saint Sidi c Abd ar-Rahman, vendors selling devotional and cult objects along the steps leading to the tomb from the water or from the beach, respectively, many small huts and dwelling spaces, unoccupied places, a grotto, and also its entrance.
The surroundings of a shrine, i. The size of such a horm varies according to the significance of the saint and ranges from the inner part of a burial chamber to a whole district or a mountain ridge. In the horm, safety — vir- tual asylum — is granted to those present, again according to the significance of the saint. These lands are the exclusive property of the families who descend or claim to de- scend from the saint; they escape the direct authority of the state. Verdugo and Fakir , This shows that the island lies, at least legally, beyond the power of the state. The story of the saint is told as follows: He was a saint like many others.
One day he came here to glorify God. He did not do it by praying, but by playing his flute. That is why he is called Sidi cAbd ar- Rahman, the flute player. Another saint, Sidi Busaib, heard of this and came here. He said to him: I want to teach you to pray. Sidi cAbd ar-Rahman, lost in his prayers, did not see him leave. When he finally realized his disappearance, he called after him: Suddenly the sea opened up and an island ap- peared. When Sidi Busaib saw that, he called: Your baraka is bigger than mine!
The narrator mentions incidentally that this is only one of the many different stories about Sidi cAbd ar-Rahman. She tells this story because she likes it best of all. In the face of so many different life stories the question arises as to whether indeed Sidi cAbd ar-Rahman actually lived at all. This is of no matter either for his function, though, or for the sacredness of the place ascribed to it by the people!