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Category: Gays & Lesbians
  1. Can gays & lesbians be initiated in the Vodoun religion?


  2. My question pertains to unisex or middle sex indivudials formally known as hermaphrodites. I understand that there are unisex deities in the Mami Wata and Vodoun pantheons I would like to know whether or not these individuals can be initiated and if they are generally accepted in African communities. Unlike homosexuality, it is a condition that cannot be helped.
  3. Hounor MWHS: I am not trying to be disrespectful. Lord knows that I appreciate your work and what you are doing for our ATR community. There are some questions I would like to clear-up concerning what I have read on a message board about Mama Zogbe. If you would be so kind as to answer these questions, it would help me and others a lot. There are three:



  1. Can gays & lesbians be initiated in the Vodoun religion?

    There has been no definitive consensus or evidence that the Mami Wata and Vodoun
    SPIRITS have rejected the GLBT community

    Yes.

    The “official stance” of GLBT’s involvement in the Mami Wata Vodoun religion has been a constant source of conflict, denial and on-going debate in West Africa for decades. Up until the present, the MWHS has parroted the “official stance ” of the elders in the Vodoun religion, the majority who are against initiating GLBTs.

    However, after years of careful examination of the West African Vodoun culture, there has been no definitive consensus or evidence that the Mami Wata and Vodoun SPIRITS have rejected the GLBT community. The MWHS objective is to follow the dictates of the SPIRITS, and can state without reservation, that all, regardless of gender or sexual orientation are welcome into the Mami Wata Vodoun Religion.
    Category: Gays & Lesbians
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  2. My question pertains to unisex or middle sex indivudials formally known as hermaphrodites. I understand that there are unisex deities in the Mami Wata and Vodoun pantheons I would like to know whether or not these individuals can be initiated and if they are generally accepted in African communities. Unlike homosexuality, it is a condition that cannot be helped.


    Nearly all of the deities in the West African Diaspora Vodoun religion arrived in the world in pairs i.e. masculine and feminine complements. Some practitioners might represent or simplify these complementary forces as twins sharing one body with dual genders, which are often mistakenly misinterpreted in a western sexual context as “hermaphrodites.” However, this aspect of how the deities are represented is separate when discussing actual human sexual characteristics. In the Vodoun religion of West Africa and the Diaspora, ones sexual make-up, gender or orientation are all considered “without fault,” meaning that one is born as such and is therefore no barrier to them being initiated if it is in their path.
    Category: Gays & Lesbians
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  3. Hounor MWHS: I am not trying to be disrespectful. Lord knows that I appreciate your work and what you are doing for our ATR community. There are some questions I would like to clear-up concerning what I have read on a message board about Mama Zogbe. If you would be so kind as to answer these questions, it would help me and others a lot. There are three:

    Hounor MWHS:

    I am not trying to be disrespectful. Lord knows that I appreciate your work and what you are doing for our ATR community. There are some questions I would like to clear-up concerning what I have read on a message board about Mama Zogbe. If you would be so kind as to answer these questions, it would help me and others a lot.

    There are three:

    1. Is it true that     Mama Zogbe was once a Yoruba priestess? I read that she was trained by a Yoruba priest.


    No. Mama Zogbe has never been initiated, trained or apart of any Yoruba Egbe. Mama Zogbe's ancestral lineage of which she has always represented herself is Vodoun, Mami Wata, Mama Tchamba and Amengansie. All from     her ancestors . She has been traveling to Togo since 1988, and have brought to the U.S.(and continues) to work train and initiate with Togolese priests. Mama Zogbe initiates others to all of the above in Togo as well as in the Diaspora.

    2. Is it true that Mama Zogbe does not initiate whites?

    No. Mama Zogbe has never written or declared anywhere that she does not initiate others based on race. What she has declared is that she will not accept arrogance and disrespect from whites (or any others) who do not respect our traditions. MWHS is also oppose to the revisionists literature being published minimizing the great and absolute CENTRAL importance of the AFRICAN ANCESTORS in the Vodoun religion and its great significance to the Diaspora and the non-Diaspora who are seeking initiation. MWHS also do not support the "dark and negative" potrayal of the Vodoun religion as being western counter-parts to "Satanists,Socerers and Western systems of Magic."

    3. Is the statement in Randy P. Conner's book: Queering Creole Spiritual Traditions, true what he claims Mama Zogbe said about gays, and that she changed her decision because of economic reasons?

    The accusations made by Randy P. Conner (gays bring down the community) was never made by Mama Zogbe. It is not her character to speak in such a manner. She has never met Conner's, spoken with him or written any such slander on our website or by email. Conner's has also never produced any reference in his book in which he can verify or support making such an unprofessional, irresponsible and slanderous statement.

    Mama Zogbe's decision to initiate gays is based on her own professional experience in Africa and in the Diaspora in which the spirit had shown her, that what she had been taught by her first African elders was not compatible with what the spirit had pathed her to do.

    In the West African Vodoun tradition one cannot go against their elders while they are still under their control. Once Mama Zogbe's own Egbe was officially consecrated she made the courageous  and responsible decision to listen to the SPIRITS. As a result, we have actually LOST support from those in the ATR and general community that choose to adhere to a non-gay policy.

    However, we are not deterred by this. Our ancestral mission is far greater and trumps any ones political, moral or social agenda. We present the truth as we have experienced it in living this tradition and listening to the decision of the SPIRITS and ANCESTORS who are the divine elders of our Egbe.

    MWHS is not at all offended by your questions. We try and serve our community with integrity. Therefore, its members have every right to inquire on the behavior and ethics of any spiritual body that claims to serve them.

    Please contact us with your questions. If they are relevant for the general public, we will post them.

    Category: Gays & Lesbians
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