Its primary roots are among the Fon-Ewe peoples of West Africa, in the country now known as Benin (formerly the Kingdom of Dahomey), where Vodun is today the national religion of more than 7 million people. The word vodun is the Fon-Ewe word for spirit.

In addition to the Fon or Dahomeyan tradition which has remained in Africa, there are related traditions that put down roots in the New World during the days of the transatlantic African slave trade.

Besides Benin, African Vodun and its descendant practices may be found in the Togo, Ghana, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Brazil, Haiti and Cape Verde.

In the Americas it has found fusion with Catholicism.

The Fon tradition in Cuba is known as La Regla Arara.

In Brazil, the Fon tradition among former slaves has given rise to the tradition known as Jeje Vodun.

The African Origins

As already stated, Vodun is a theistic and magical form of animism that developed among West African tribes predating historical times. The cultural area of the Fon, Gun, Mina and Ewe peoples share common metaphysical conceptions around a dual cosmological divine principle: the God-Creator (whose name can vary but we will define as Mawu) and the God(s)-Actor(s) or Vodun(s), sons of the Creator. The God-Creator is the cosmogonical principle, who does not trifle with the mundane, and the Vodun(s) are the God(s)-Actor(s) who actually govern on terrenal issues.

The Pantheon of Voduns is quite large and complex. There are seven direct sons of Mawu, interethnic and related to natural phenomena or historical or mythical individuals, dozens of ethnic Voduns, defenders of a certain clan or tribe, as well as the modern Voduns, mostly coming from Ghana.

West African or Beninese Vodun is similar to Haitian Vodou in its emphasis on the ancestors, however each family of spirits has its own specialized clergy that is often hereditary. In Africa, spirits include Mami Wata, who are goddesses of waters; Legba, who is virile and young in contrast to the old man form he takes in Haiti; Gu, ruling iron and smithcraft; Sakpata, who rules diseases; and many other spirits distinct in their own way to West Africa.

Totalitarian regimes in West Africa tried to suppress Vodun as well as other forms of religion, but today they are flourishing again and Vodun is practised by over 30 million people in the area. For anyone interested in Vodun or Anthropology, a visit to the Vodun museums and markets in Ouidah or Cotonou, Benin, or Lome, Togo, is a compulsory and fascinating experience.

New World Traditions

Haitian Vodou

Called Sèvis Gine or "African Service" in Haiti, a Creolized form of Vodou, Haitian Vodou also has strong elements from the Ibo and Kongo peoples of Central Africa and the Yoruba of Nigeria, though many different peoples or "nations" of Africa have representation in the liturgy of the Sèvis Gine, as do the Taíno Indians, the original peoples of the island now known as Hispaniola.

Haitian Creole forms of Vodou exist in Haiti (where it is native), the Dominican Republic, parts of Cuba, the United States, and other places that Haitian immigrants dispersed to over the years. It is similar to other African-diasporic religions such as Lukumi or Regla de Ocha (also known as Santería) in Cuba, Candomblé and Umbanda in Brazil, all religions that evolved among descendants of transplanted Africans in the Americas.