The Secret Societies of the Efik and Other Secret Societies

    

The gods Persephone-Isis and Hades-Serapis, an example of Greco-Egyptian syncretism

    Allow me to place this article within the context of syncretism.  Here is a definition of what syncretism is.

Syncretism (/ˈsɪŋkrətɪzəm, ˈsɪn-/)^[1] is the practice of combining different beliefs and various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thus asserting an underlying unity and allowing for an inclusive approach to other faiths. While syncretism in art and culture is sometimes likened to eclecticism, in the realm of religion, it specifically denotes a more integrated merging of beliefs into a unified system, distinct from eclecticism, which implies a selective adoption of elements from different traditions without necessarily blending them into a new, cohesive belief system.

  Let me allow to put forth a hypothesis which is that there were migrants from the west side of Africa who moved to haiti, and were practicioners of voodoo. 

     The Fon language, a member of the Gbe language family, has significantly influenced Haitian Creole, particularly in its vocabulary and certain aspects of its grammar, with words like "vodou" and "houngan" (vodou priest) having Fon origins.

     

• Language Family: Fon belongs to the Gbe group within the larger Niger-Congo family. 
• Geographic Distribution:
  • It's the primary language of the Fon people, who are the largest ethnic group in Benin. 
  • It's also spoken in parts of southwest Nigeria and Togo. 
  • The Fon people are found in the south of Benin, and adjacent parts of Togo. 
• Dialects: Fon has several dialects, including Agbome, Arohun, Gbekon, and Kpase. 
• Related Languages: Fon is closely related to Ewe and other Gbe languages. 
• Language Status: French is the official language of Benin, but Fon, along with Yoruba and other languages, has the status of a national language and is taught in schools. 
• Historical Context: The Fon language is linked to the history of the Dahomey kingdom, a well-organized kingdom by the 17th century. 
• Other facts:
  • Fon is an analytic language with a SVO basic word order. 
  • It is a language of wider communication that originated in Benin and Togo. 
  • Fon is the Beninese language that sells the most internationally. 

      The Fon language, also known as Fongbe or Dahomean, is a Gbe language spoken primarily in Benin, as well as in parts of Nigeria and Togo, by approximately 2.28 million people.

     

• Fon Language:

  The Fon language is spoken primarily in Benin, as well as in Nigeria and Togo. 
• 

  Fon language
  
  
• Haitian Creole:

  Haitian Creole, also known as Kreyòl Ayisyen, is a French-based creole language that developed in Haiti during the 18th century. 
• Influence of Fon:

  • Vocabulary: Many words in Haitian Creole have Fon origins, including the word "vodou" itself, which in Fon means "spirit" or "deity". 
  • Grammar: While Haitian Creole is primarily based on French, it also exhibits influences from West African languages, including Fon, in its grammar and sentence structure. 

     

Photo from Future Jesus and Electric Lucifer
 

     

     The idea of 

Haitian emigraton was something that took place to free people of color from the United States in order to settle in Haiti, most of the people of color coming from west Africa initially.  This was done in order to break out from the racist filled society of the United States, antebellum free blacks immigrated to Haiti.  This took place until 1826 upon the Haitian government stopping the funding which paid for the transportatoin cost however U.S. blacks continued to migrate to Haiti after this.

 Haitian Vodou^[a] (/ˈvoʊduː/) is an African diasporic religion that developed in Haiti between the 16th and 19th centuries. It arose through a process of syncretism between several traditional religions of West and Central Africa and Roman Catholicism.

     So one can clearly see the allignment with the slave trade along with the influence of various belief systems within the time period that is given.  

     

     There is also a secret society which opperates under the name Bizango which are active in Haiti.  This group has been labeled as one of the most important of the secret societies of Vodou.

     The anthropologist Wade Davis reported that the Bizango were involved in poisoning individuals while also providing them with an antidote to leave them in a pliant state, which has been associated with zombification.

     Within Haitian folklore there is a recurring fear that there is Bizango that can transform themselves into dogs or other animals before they walk the streets in the dark.

     "My first aim is ot describe the historical events in Haiti that have caused Vodou to incorporate ethnic religious traditions from diverse regions of Africa into its theology.  The historical events will also shed light on the processes by which Catholic doctrines were similarly incorporated. This incorporation of elements from Africa and Europe has often been referred to by scholars as syncretistic, as the fusion of Catholic and African religious traditions (Deren 1972; Metraux 1958). The present study  describes the nature of this syncretism-that is, the relaton between these religious elements-as a symbiosis.  As used in this book, symbiosis has a different meaning from that in the biological sciences, where it refers to the living together of dissimilar organisms in a mutually beneficial relationship.  Etymologically, symbiosis-from the Greek sun, "with," and bios, "life" means "life together with."

     The Faces of the Gods: Vodou and Roman Catholicism in Haiti

The Black Madonna of Częstochowa, Poland