NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Fon people

Fon is a major West African ethnic and linguistic group in the country of Benin or Dahomey, and southwest Nigeria, made up of more than 2,000,000 people. The Fon language is the main language spoken in Southern Benin, and is a member of the Gbe language group. Closely related cultures include the Ewe, Aja and Guin peoples. The Fon are said to originate from Tado, a village in south east Togo, near the border with Benin. Dahomey was a kingdom in Africa, situated in what is now the nation of Benin. ... Fon (native name FÉ”ngbe) is part of the Gbe language cluster and belongs to the Kwa sub-family of the Niger-Congo languages. ... The Gbe languages (pronounced ) form a cluster of about 20 related languages stretching across the area between eastern Ghana and western Nigeria. ... The Ewe people are a people of southern Ghana, Togo and Benin. ... The Aja are a group of people living in Benin (former Dahomey). ... Guin is a city located in Marion County, Alabama. ... Tado (formerly Ezame) is a village in south east Togo, near the border with Benin. ...

The culture is patrilineal and allows polygamy and divorce. Funerals (and anniversaries of deaths) are among the most important cultural events, with mourning activities including drumming and dancing often lasting for days. The Fon believe that part of the person dies and part is reincarnated. Patrilineality is a system in which one belongs to ones fathers lineage; it generally involves the inheritance of property, names or titles through the male line as well. ... The term polygamy (many marriages in late Greek) is used in related ways in social anthropology, sociobiology, and sociology. ... For the record label, see Divorce Records. ... Underwater funeral in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea A funeral is a ceremony marking a persons death. ... Reincarnation, literally to be made flesh again, is a doctrine or mystical belief that some essential part of a living being (in some variations only human beings) survives death to be reborn in a new body. ...

Most Fon today live in villages and small towns in mud houses with corrugated iron gable roofs. Cities built by the Fon include Abomey, the historical capital city of Dahomey, and Ouidah on the Slave Coast. These cities were major commercial centres for the slave trade. Abomey is a town in Benin, formerly the capital of the ancient kingdom of Dahomey. ... Ouidah is a city on the Atlantic coast of Benin. ... The Slave Coast is the name of the coastal areas of present Togo, Benin (formerly Dahomey) and western Nigeria, a fertile region of coastal Western Africa along the Bight of Benin. ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

Fon religion

See main articles Dahomey mythology and Voodoo

While many Fon identify as Christian, the majority practice Benin's national religion Vodun. The Fon name for a god or spirit is "Vodu". Practise can involve drumming to induce possession by one of these gods or spirits. Fon religion is polytheistic, with a supreme (but not omnipotent) deity known as Nana Buluku. The Dahomey (or Fon) are a nation located in Benin, Africa. ... Voodoo (Vodou, Vodoun, Vudu, or Vudun in Benin, Togo, southeastern Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Senegal; also Vodou in Haiti) is a name attributed to a traditionally uten West African spiritual system of faith and ritual practices. ... The term Voodoo (Vodun in Benin; also Vodou or other phonetically equivalent spellings in Haiti; Vudu in the Dominican Republic) is applied to the branches of a West African ancestor-based religious tradition with primary roots among the Fon-Ewe peoples of West Africa, in the country now known as... Look up deity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up Possession in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Polytheism is belief in or worship of multiple gods or deities. ... Nana Buluku is the Supreme Deity of the Fon from Dahomey. ...

Fon influence in the New World

See Afro-Latin American for general information.

Many descendants of the Fon now live in the Americas as a result of the Atlantic slave trade. Together with other cultural groups from the Fon homeland region such as the Yoruba and Bantu, Fon culture merged with French, Portuguese or Spanish to produce distinct religions (Voodoo, Mami Wata, Candomblé and Santería), dance and musical styles (Arará, Yan Valu) Languages Portuguese, Spanish, and several creoles Religions Predominantly Christian (mainly Roman Catholic); minorities practicing Judaism, Islam, or no religion Related ethnic groups sub-Saharan An Afro-Latin American (also Afro-Latino) is a Latin American person of at least partial sub-Saharan African ancestry; the term may also refer to... The Atlantic slave trade was the trade of African slaves by Europeans that occurred in and around the Atlantic Ocean. ... The Yoruba (YorÃ¹bÃ¡ in Yoruba orthography) are a large ethno-linguistic group or ethnic nation in Africa; the majority of them speak the Yoruba language (Ã¨dÃ¨e YorÃ¹bÃ¡; Ã¨dÃ¨ = language). ... Map showing the approximate distribution of Bantu (dull yellow) vs. ... Voodoo (Vodou, Vodoun, Vudu, or Vudun in Benin, Togo, southeastern Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Senegal; also Vodou in Haiti) is a name attributed to a traditionally uten West African spiritual system of faith and ritual practices. ... This poster of a Samoan snake charmer inspired the common image of Mami Wata in Africa. ... IlÃª AxÃ© Iya NassÃ´ OkÃ¡ - Terreiro da Casa Branca CandomblÃ© is an African religion practiced chiefly in Brazil but also in adjacent countries. ... â€œLukumi / Yoruba Religion / La ReligiÃ³nâ€ redirects here. ... The term ArarÃ¡ refers to a minority group in Cuba who descend from Fon, Ewe, Popo, Mahi and other ethnic groups in Dahomey (now Benin). ...

Fon influence in the New World

See also