Rada: From the World's Oldest Religion

As we start Holy Week it’s a great time to discover more about our African religious tradition.

Like many slaves, Abojevi/Robert Antoine brought his religion to Trinidad. As you read in earlier posts, we are Rada. What is Rada? Rada is part of Vodun, also known as Vodoun, Voudou or Voodoo.

But first this is not the Hollywood version of Voodoo – sticking pins in dolls, casting evil spells and other bizarre rituals.  This does not exist in reality, only in movies.

An inaccurate and sensational book written by S. St. John called "Haiti or the Black Republic" in 1884 described Vodun as an evil religion, and included crazy descriptions of human sacrifice, cannibalism, etc.Some of this information was obtained from Vodun priests by torture. This book was responsible for much of the confusion and fear that is still present today. Horror movies began in the 1930's and continue today to misrepresent Vodun. It is only since the late 1950's that accurate studies by anthropologists have been published.

Vodun was born in Africa and may be the world’s oldest religion; older than Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Some say it’s as old as 10,000 years. The name is derived from the god Vodun of the West African Yoruba people who lived in Dahomey.

Vodun, like Christianity, is a religion of many traditions. Each group follows a different spiritual path and worships a slightly different pantheon of spirits, called Loa. The word means "mystery" in the Yoruba language. There are hundreds of minor spirits. Many of you may be more familiar with the minor spirit called Shango or spirit of storms. The minor spirits which originated from Dahomey are called Rada.