West African Vodun
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When the word is capitalized, Vodun, it denotes the religion. When it is not, vodun, it denotes the spirits that are central to the religion. "Voodoo", the most common spelling in American popular culture, is often viewed as offensive by practicing communities of the African Diaspora, due to the farcical and often racist depictions of Hollywood.
Vodun is practiced by the Ewe, Kabye, Mina, Fon, and (under a different name) the Yoruba peoples of southeastern Ghana, southern and central Togo, southern and central Benin, and southwestern Nigeria. The word vodún is the Gbe (Fon-Ewe) word for spirit.
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "West African Vodun" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on original research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
