Vodun
E171112
Vodun is a traditional West African religion centered on the worship of spirits and ancestors, particularly prominent in Benin and neighboring regions.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Vodun canonical | 11 |
| Nommo ancestral spirits | 1 |
| Vodun (Voodoo) | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1500714 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Vodun Context triple: [Benin, religionMajority, Vodun]
-
A.
Haitian Vodou
Haitian Vodou is a syncretic Afro-Caribbean religion from Haiti that blends West and Central African spiritual traditions with Roman Catholicism and indigenous beliefs, centered on the worship of spirits called lwa.
-
B.
Shango
Shango is a major Yoruba orisha revered as the powerful god of thunder, lightning, and justice, often associated with kingship and drumming.
-
C.
Obeah
Obeah is a system of Afro-Caribbean spiritual and magical practices rooted in West African traditions, often associated with healing, protection, and resistance to colonial oppression.
-
D.
Santería
Santería is a syncretic Afro-Caribbean religion that blends Yoruba spiritual traditions with elements of Roman Catholicism and indigenous beliefs, centered on the worship of orishas through rituals, divination, and offerings.
-
E.
Odinani
Odinani is the indigenous spiritual and cosmological belief system of the Igbo people of southeastern Nigeria, encompassing their deities, rituals, moral codes, and worldview.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Vodun Target entity description: Vodun is a traditional West African religion centered on the worship of spirits and ancestors, particularly prominent in Benin and neighboring regions.
-
A.
Haitian Vodou
Haitian Vodou is a syncretic Afro-Caribbean religion from Haiti that blends West and Central African spiritual traditions with Roman Catholicism and indigenous beliefs, centered on the worship of spirits called lwa.
-
B.
Shango
Shango is a major Yoruba orisha revered as the powerful god of thunder, lightning, and justice, often associated with kingship and drumming.
-
C.
Obeah
Obeah is a system of Afro-Caribbean spiritual and magical practices rooted in West African traditions, often associated with healing, protection, and resistance to colonial oppression.
-
D.
Santería
Santería is a syncretic Afro-Caribbean religion that blends Yoruba spiritual traditions with elements of Roman Catholicism and indigenous beliefs, centered on the worship of orishas through rituals, divination, and offerings.
-
E.
Odinani
Odinani is the indigenous spiritual and cosmological belief system of the Igbo people of southeastern Nigeria, encompassing their deities, rituals, moral codes, and worldview.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (52)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
West African religion
ⓘ
ethnic religion ⓘ spirit-centered religion ⓘ traditional religion ⓘ |
| associatedEthnicGroup |
Ewe
ⓘ
surface form:
Ewe people
Fon people ⓘ Yoruba people ⓘ |
| coreBelief |
existence of a supreme creator
ⓘ
veneration of ancestors ⓘ worship of spirits ⓘ |
| hasAlternativeSpelling |
Vodoun
ⓘ
Vodu ⓘ Voduŋ ⓘ |
| hasClergy |
priestesses
ⓘ
priests ⓘ |
| hasClergyTitle |
bokonon
ⓘ
hounon ⓘ |
| hasConcept |
ancestor spirits
ⓘ
nature spirits ⓘ personal spirits ⓘ spirit possession trance ⓘ |
| hasDeityType |
ancestors
ⓘ
spirits ⓘ supreme being ⓘ |
| hasOrigin |
Benin
ⓘ
West Africa ⓘ |
| hasSacredDay | 10 January ⓘ |
| hasSacredDayDescription | celebrated as National Vodun Day in Benin ⓘ |
| hasSupremeBeingName |
Mawu
ⓘ
Mawu-Lisa ⓘ |
| hasTextualTradition | primarily oral tradition ⓘ |
| influenced |
Candomblé
ⓘ
surface form:
Brazilian Candomblé
Afro-Brazilian religions ⓘ
surface form:
Brazilian Umbanda
Cuban Vodú ⓘ Haitian Vodou ⓘ Louisiana Voodoo ⓘ |
| practicedIn |
Benin
ⓘ
Ghana ⓘ Côte d'Ivoire ⓘ
surface form:
Ivory Coast
Nigeria ⓘ Togo ⓘ |
| recognizedBy | Republic of Benin government ⓘ |
| usesRitual |
animal sacrifice
ⓘ
dance ceremonies ⓘ divination ⓘ drumming ceremonies ⓘ spirit possession ⓘ |
| usesRitualObject |
altars
ⓘ
fetishes ⓘ shrines ⓘ |
| worldviewFeature |
interconnectedness of visible and invisible worlds
ⓘ
reciprocal relationship between humans and spirits ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Vodun Description of subject: Vodun is a traditional West African religion centered on the worship of spirits and ancestors, particularly prominent in Benin and neighboring regions.
Referenced by (13)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Nommo ancestral spirits
this entity surface form:
Vodun (Voodoo)