Voodoo In West Africa

When you read The Bonus, you can judge for yourself whether the priestess, Satouma, was a fraud or had some power to which we in America don't relate. Is it possible that the outcome of The Bonus was seriously influenced by the rituals she performed on behalf of Rabunto and Shinto (Chapter 14) or was it just a lot of hokus pokus? After all, nobody believes in voodoo anymore.

Thirty million people in West Africa practicing the ancient religion of Vodun would not agree that no one believes in voodoo anymore. In fact many believe that touching a voodoo dancer while he or she is in a trance could kill you and it has been common practice for thousands of years for African sorcerers called botono to be hired to put a hex on someone's adversaries. You'd think after thousands of years such foolishness would have been abandoned as a fraud.

"But the pull of voodoo is so powerful," says a retired Catholic priest in Togo ,"it seems imbedded in the earth of West Africa." Even to this day it would not be too difficult to find people in Louisiana practicing Vodun as ardently as any of the millions practicing it in West Africa. Could there be something to it?

Evolution From The Beetle

The Bonus describes the fictional Ashanti and Mandingo people as ancient tribes with a reputation for behavior considered abominable by current day European standards. (See opening chapter.) They were known for unimaginable brutality in dealing with their enemies and hated foreigners, whether they were Africans from other countries on the continent or foreigners from other shores.

In "The Bonus" some of the people still live primitive nomadic lives in the forests, although there are not many hunter-gatherer societies in Africa today, save some vestiges of the fabled Bushman of South Africa. They practice customs of witchcraft and charms originated by their progenitors thousands of years earlier. The Ashanti and Mandingo people also adhered to "Totemism," a system that separated people into clans.  Although the beetle was generally considered evil under their animistic beliefs, the Ashanti adopted the beetle as their totemic emblem. In fact, they believed that they evolved from it.

While this seems like a strange notion, Totemism reveals itself in primitive people around the globe, even today in one form or another. It shows up in such diverse places as Africa, the Americas (totem poles), Polynesia, Australia and Asia. Strangely enough, it appears that no yellow or white race is Totemic. In Totemic mythology, these people follow tribal lore that suggests they are evolved from their totem, such as the Ashanti in "The Bonus." And as such, anyone living under the totem of the beetle, for example, was considered family to be defended and protected against enemies at any cost. Hence the notion that the Ashanti treated their enemies with brutality.The identification with a totem, however, apparently had a practical aspect. To prevent in-breeding, Totemic people were required to marry outside their family or clan, that is, to people with a different totem symbol, a practice known as exogamy.

While the practice of unusual religious beliefs, witchcraft and charms may seem foolishly primitive, the reader of "The Bonus" can decide whether these practices by the Ashanti had influence on the outcome of Tom Farley's journey to the financial closing.

Read An eBook Week

 

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