Vodún/Vodu, Resistance, and North/South Relations in Undemocratic Togo

Bibliographic Data

ID4921152
AuthorsEric J Montgomery (0000-0003-0408-3352, Wayne State University, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume50
Issue3-4
Pages224-248
Publication date2021-11-05
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Religion in Africa (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-4200 • E-ISSN: 1570-0666
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/15700666-12340190
OpenAlexW3212430976
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited17

Vodún/Vodu have long served as a "way of life" and ontology for making sense of the world along the Bight of Benin, and in the Caribbean and Atlantic world where many slaves were brought. In Togo, the core ethnic groups, the Ewes, continue to turn inward toward Vodún/Vodu traditions as mechanisms of resistance against an autocratic and despotic rule of a northern regime. While the north remains underdeveloped regarding education, economics, and health care delivery-the majority southern Ewes remain locked out of a political process run by the Eyadema regime, who regularly cite north/south conflict as a justification for absolute one-party rule over all of Togo. Vodun/Vodu become motors of modernity through creative assimilation and adaptation to the most pressing geopolitical concerns of the day. This paper assesses the relationship between Vodun/Vodu and contemporary Togolese politics, and its resistance to state-sponsored terror and autocracy

Autocracy · Democracy · Ethnic group · Geopolitics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Resistance (ecology) · Sociology · State (computer science) · African Studies and Ethnography · Agriculture and Rural Development Research · Caribbean and African Literature and Culture · Law

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