Website Upgrade In Progress! Fabulous forged iron phallus from the Fon people on the border of Togo and Ghana. Fetishes like this were named for Legba , a trickster god of Vodun, and were placed in the ground to stimulate the growth of crops.
Legba is often represented as a phallus or as a man with a prominent phallus. Known as the youngest son of Mawu, he is the chief of all Vodun divinities, in his Diasporic portrayal, Legba is believed to be a very old man who walks on crutches. Being old he is seen as wise, but when seen as a child he is one who is rebellious. It is only through contact with Legba that it becomes possible to contact the other gods, for he is the guardian at the door of the spirits.
Vodoun is also spelled Vodun, Vodzu, Vodu or Voudou. The religious practise of the Fon people have four intersecting elements: public gods, personal or private gods, ancestral spirits, and magic or charms. The ancestral cult, believed to be necessary for the perpetuation of the clan, is the focal point of Fon social organization and of much religious activity.
A typical traditional home compound of the Fon people has a Dexoxos , or ancestral shrine. There, the tovodu family gods are annually "fed" and honored with dancing and songs. The Fon people have a concept of a supreme being called Nana Buluku, both male and female, who gave birth to the twins named Mawu and Lisa ; the first, female, was given command of the night, and the second, male, was associated with the day.
After giving birth, the Mother supreme retired, and left everything to Mawu-Lisa, deities, spirits and inert universe. Vodou cosmology centers around the spirits and other elements of divine essence that govern the Earth, a hierarchy that range in power from major deities governing the forces of nature and human society to the spirits of individual streams, trees and rocks, as well as dozen of ethnic vodun, defenders of a certain clan, tribe, or nation.
