As a conclusion, it may be said that Ginen
reinforces and identifies Vodu as an African-
based religion and philosophy and complements
the concept of a sacrosanct structure that con-
firms the interconnectedness between diverse
spirits and diverse powers. Also spelled Voodoo,
Vaudou, or Vodun, Vodu is thus a religion of
power, creation, and enigma, and it acknowl-
edges a worldview that embraces philosophy,
medicine, justice, ritual, healing, and other rich
sets of belief. About 6,000 to 10,000 years old
and with a membership of up to 60 million,
Vodu continues to thrive to different degrees in
the Caribbean, Africa, Brazil, Argentina,
Venezuela, Columbia, Mexico, and many other
countries in Latin America. Its attributes are
evident in practices labeled variously as Obeah,
Santeria, Regla de Ocha, Umbada, Lukumi,
Candomble, La Regla Lucum, or Orisha, and it
relies on systems and media that are common
to native African religions, including drumming,
chanting, singing, dancing, animal sacrifice, and
spirit possession.
Philip U. EffiongSee alsoVodou in Haiti
Further Readings
Hurston, Z. N. (1938).Tell My Horse. New York:
Harper & Row.
Lucas, R. (2004). The Aesthetics of Degradation in
Haitian Literature.Research in African Literatures,
35 (2), 54–74.
McAlister, E. A., & Editors of Encyclopaedia
Britannica’s Guide to Black History. (2007).
Encyclopedia Britannica Online.Retrieved January 5,
2007, from http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/
article-9075734?tocId=9075734
Mohammed, P. (2005). The Sign of the Loa.Small
Axe:A Caribbean Journal of Criticism, 18 ,
124–149.
Mulira, J. G. (1990). The Case of Voodoo in New
Orleans. In J. E. Holloway (Ed.),Africanisms in
American Culture(pp. 34–68). Bloomington: Indiana
University Press.
Phipps, M. (2002). Marie-Ange’s Ginen.Callaloo, 25 (4),
1075–1082.
Thompson, R. F. (1983).Flash of the Spirit.New York:
Random House.
GOD
Tell me what kind of God you worship and I will
tell you who you are!Such a maxim means that
the notion of God impacts the perception of the
nature of the African people because religion plays
a crucial role in people’s identity. Misconceptions
abound on the African vision of God. The ques-
tion regarding the African vision of God arises as
a problem in the context of globalization, espe-
cially the encounter with modernity, the encounter
between Africa and the outside world—namely,
the West with its secularism, atheism, and
Christianity, and the Arab world and Islam. This
encounter occurred in a context of unequal power
relationships. Dominated militarily, politically,
and economically, Africa came to be dominated
also culturally, epistemologically, and, most
important, religiously. Its languages were demoted
to meaningless dialects, its healers to witch
doctors, its religion to fetishism, and its spiritual
beings to idols.
In this context, several questions arose that
have puzzled outside observers of African tradi-
tional religion. Do Africans have an adequate
knowledge of God? Is the African God the same
as the God of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, or
Hinduism? Is the African God a true God? Is he a
personal being, an impersonal spirit, a sort of
creative energy, or an abstract idea? Is the African
God a loving God or a malevolent trickster? Is
African traditional religion pantheistic, polytheis-
tic, monotheistic, or henotheistic? Is the “chief
god” indifferent to or actively involved in human
affairs? Do Africans communicate with God or
only with the ancestors and spirits? For Africans,
especially those steeped in traditional culture, the
reality of God is grounded in the reality of
people’s religious experience, and God is as real as
the existence of the world or the African people. It
is well established among scholars that an African
cannot be understood apart from the categories of
homo religiosus andhomo symbolicus. In John
Mbiti’s memorable expression, “Africans are
notoriously religious.” This religiosity begins with
the belief in a world beyond the physical and
mundane existence on Earth, the belief in a spiri-
tual order of ancestors, gods, and goddesses.
Thus, the concept of God stands at the heart of284 God