Hèviosso

Who is Hèviosso?

Hèviosso is one of the great figures of the vodun of southern Benin. For the Beninese professor Mahougnon Kakpo, a specialist of the Fâ, he is the vodun who governs the sky and rules lightning; his element is fire. He is called the king of the Jivodun, the sky vodun, as Sakpata is the king of the Ayivodun, the earth vodun^[3]. His name is written in many ways: Xɛvioso in Fon, Hevioso, Heviosso, Hêbiosso or Xêviosso.

His emblem is the double-bladed axe, an image of lightning. In Porto-Novo, an altar of Hèviosso photographed and described by the art historian Gérard Bassalé brings together jars, double-edged metal axes and animal bones, anointed with palm oil and sacrificial blood^[4]. His followers also honour Legba, the guardian of the passage between people and the vodun; see Legba.

The name also designates a whole family of vodun. The anthropologist Melville Herskovits, who worked in Abomey in 1931, describes under this name the thunder pantheon: several vodun gathered around lightning, to which are attached vodun of the sea, where rain comes from. According to the houses he consulted, this family is led by Sogbo and includes feared lightning spirits such as Gbadé^[5]. These genealogies vary from one house to another. His followers bear the name Xwedanu, “those of Xweda origin”, linking the cult to the Xweda country of Savi and Ouidah^[3].

The power that gives and the power that punishes

For me, Hèviosso is first of all the power that comes from the sky. When thunder rumbles and rain arrives, we know that something is manifesting in nature. Rain gives the earth what it needs; lightning reminds us that the power of the sky is not something to play with. It is this double dimension that matters: the power that gives and the power that punishes^[1]. One must be careful not to turn this belief into a mechanical rule: religious tradition gives meaning to lightning, while science explains it as an electrical phenomenon of the atmosphere. These are two different levels of understanding.

Hèviosso in the Fâ

For a bokonon, each vodun is understood through the Fâ, which traces the destiny of all. A story of the sign Wlɛn-Mɛnji, reported by Kakpo, tells that when the earth existed only in principle, Dada Sɛgbo, the creator God, had six children: Xɛvioso, Gu, Dan, Tɔxɔsu, Nan and Sakpata. Each received an element: fire went to Xɛvioso, air to Dan, water to Tɔxɔsu, iron to Gu, light to Nan, and earth to Sakpata. Kakpo also recalls that, without being a vodun himself, the Fâ is the master of all the vodun, and all come to bow before him^[3].

Hèviosso, Sakpata and Dan

In some traditions of southern Benin, Hèviosso, Sakpata and Dan answer one another in the cycle of life and agriculture: Sakpata is associated with the earth, Hèviosso with rain and lightning, and Dan, the serpent vodun, links the different domains of the world. See Dan^[1]. A story of the Fâ, reported by the researchers Dominique Juhé-Beaulaton and Bernard Roussel, tells it in its own way. In the beginning, the Sky, or Hèviosso in some versions, and the Earth, the female principle of Sakpata, were husband and wife, joined like a calabash and its lid; from their union came plants, then animals, then people. Weary of human quarrels, and on Dan’s treacherous advice, the Sky moved away from the Earth. The Earth then invented the first prayers and offerings so that he would not abandon their children; the Sky relented and, so as not to strike unjustly the wisest of them, the plants, he sent the first rain. Thus the cycle of the seasons was born^[6].

Hèviosso and Shango

In some Fon traditions, Mawu-Lisa stands at the top of the order of the world, and the great domains are entrusted to the families of vodun: the earth to Sakpata, thunder, lightning and the phenomena of the sky to Hèviosso. That is why the comparison with Shango must be made with care. Among the Yoruba, Shango is a great figure of thunder, lightning, kingship and justice, and many Beninese publications present Hèviosso and Shango as corresponding figures. But some houses distinguish the two traditions and do not consider Hèviosso a mere copy of Shango. I therefore prefer to speak of correspondences between the two traditions, rather than of exactly the same divinity^[1].

When lightning strikes

This is one of the questions I am asked most often. In the tradition, when a house is struck by lightning, the event may receive a spiritual interpretation: it is not considered a simple accident. Those responsible for the cult of Hèviosso are then called in; the situation can be examined, and the Fâ can be consulted to understand what happened^[1]. In Porto-Novo, Gérard Bassalé’s study describes how the cult of Hèviosso takes charge of the body of a person killed by lightning, on the vodun square, then in the convent and the sacred forest^[4]. The tradition is very much alive: in October 2023, the Beninese press reported the case of two men struck by lightning in Djakotomey, in the Couffo; the Fâ was consulted, and the dead were buried according to the rites for victims of Hèviosso^[7].

But I want to be very clear: I would never advise anyone to stay in a dangerous house because they think a rite must be awaited. People’s safety comes first. Then, for the traditional dimension, the family can turn to the competent people in the house of Hèviosso. The details of the rites of atonement, the objects used and the words spoken are not things I put on the Internet^[1].

Hèviosso and truth

Hèviosso also represents the idea that a word binds the one who speaks it. An oath is not something to take lightly. Lying, deceiving, accusing someone unjustly, making a commitment one knows one will not keep: these acts can be considered breaches of order. That is why Hèviosso is often presented as a vodun who punishes lies, perjury and certain grave transgressions. For me the lesson is simple: be careful with your word. One can deceive a man, or try to hide something from a community; but in the traditional view, one does not hide one’s acts forever from the forces that watch over the order of the world^[1].

The sacred forest of Hèviosso in Porto-Novo

The fear Hèviosso inspires has left a trace in the history of Porto-Novo. In 1864, the Catholic missionaries of the Society of African Missions obtained land from the king for their mission; part of it cut into the sacred forest of Hèviosso, near the lagoon. The high priest protested at once, and the king had the work suspended: according to the account of Father Borghero, founder of the mission, the king’s council did not dare “face the anger of the god of lightning”. Work resumed a few months later, under the French protectorate, and the sacred forest was eventually destroyed; the cult moved to Manlahoui, in the present commune of Adjarra^[8]. Twenty years later, Father Baudin still noted, near the mission, a place famous for a “descent” of thunder, whose college of priests had moved away, troubled by the neighbourhood^[9].

What people come to seek from Hèviosso

People who turn to Hèviosso have different requests: protection, justice in a situation where they feel deceived or wronged, help in a difficult time, or restoring what they consider out of balance. But I always remind them of one thing: vodun is not an instrument of personal revenge. If someone tells me, “I want Hèviosso to destroy this person because they hurt me,” I do not consider that the right way to approach the tradition. Justice is not revenge. Before acting, the situation must be understood, and that is where the Fâ matters in my work. I promise no one that lightning will strike their adversary, that their problem will vanish at once, or that they will automatically get what they ask for. That would not be serious^[1].

Hèviosso beyond Benin

With those deported by the slave trade, the thunder vodun crossed the Atlantic. In Haitian vodou, names from their family survive, such as Sogbo and Badé; among the Yoruba of Nigeria, then in Cuba and Brazil, it is Shango who holds the place of thunder. In Brazil, the family of Hèviosso is still served under its name: in São Luís, in Maranhão, the Casa das Minas, a house of Jeje tradition, that is from Dahomey, groups its vodun into families, one of which is the family of Quevioçô, whose mother is Sobô and which includes Badé, the vodun of the lightning flash^[10]. The ethnologist and photographer Pierre Verger devoted a major study to these correspondences between the Yoruba orisha and the vodun of Benin, from one shore of the Atlantic to the other^[11]. See Vodun in the Americas.