OK, someone mentioned earlier that maybe Eko's religion was vooodoo( or spelled vodun). So I looked it up. There are quite a few similarities with the show on here. Read and let me know what y'all think.

The term Voodoo (Vodun in Benin; also Vodou or other phonetically equivalent spellings in Haiti; Vudu in the Dominican Republic) is applied to the branches of a West African ancestor-based spiritist-animist religious tradition.

Its primary roots are among the Fon, Ewe, and Yoruba peoples of West Africa, from western Nigeria to eastern Ghana.

In the Americas it has been fused with Catholicism.

In serving the spirits, the Vodouisant seeks to achieve harmony with their own individual nature and the world around them, manifested as personal power and resourcefulness in dealing with life.

Part of this harmony is membership in and maintaining relationships within the context of family and community. A Vodou house or society is organized on the metaphor of an extended family, and initiates are the "children" of their initiators, with the sense of hierarchy and mutual obligation that implies.

There is a practice in Haiti of nailing crude poppets with a discarded shoe on trees near the cemetery to act as messengers to the otherworld, which is very different in function from how poppets are portrayed as being used by "voodoo worshippers" in popular media and imagination, ie. for purposes of sympathetic magic towards another person.

Another use of dolls in authentic Vodou practice is the incorporation of plastic doll babies in altars and objects used to represent or honor the spirits, or in pwen, which recalls the aforementioned use of bocio and nkisi figures in Africa.

Eko is nigerian, Religion states getting along in a community, something about children, a shoe in a tree as a sign to the otherworld and plastic baby dolls.
This is weird???

Very interesting.
Reminds me...Did we ever find out what the dolls (from the luggage area found near the coffin) were for/who they belonged to? They seem too nice to be voodo dolls but that is based on the media's conception anyway.

this is a really cool post. ::bump::

thanks for the post!

Um, how do we know Eko has ANYTHING to do with Voodoo?


This is rampant speculation........and I like it:biggrin:

there has been a lot of posting about Eko's spirituality. I think this is a good theory on what that spirituality might be.

Nigeria is Eastern Africa though.

Edti: Nevermind...thining of Kenya. I'm a dork!!

Haven't looked at a map, but I always thought Nigeria was the Western side of Africa. Kenya, Somalia, etc... are eastern.

Thanks for the research eatpilot. That's what I like about your posts. They are so well researched.

Very interesting, eatpilot. I've been saying all along that Mr. Eko may be more influenced by, what is termed "native Nigerian religion" rather than the worldwide religions (Muslim and Catholicism for Nigeria). In my research on Nigerian religions I also found that practicing Muslims and Catholics often incorporate much of the native religion into their religious practices as well as their everday lives.

As for vodoo and Catholicism, that is actually called Santaria (?) and came mainly out of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. That is where the practioners of voodoo, in order to appease the slave holders that were trying to "save their souls", would attach the names of Catholic saints onto the names of the various gods found in the voodoo practice. That way, they could openly practice their religion of choice but appear to be referring to Catholic saints.

I had forgotten about the use of dolls and shoes. Interesting....

Very interesting, eatpilot. I've been saying all along that Mr. Eko may be more influenced by, what is termed "native Nigerian religion" rather than the worldwide religions (Muslim and Catholicism for Nigeria). In my research on Nigerian religions I also found that practicing Muslims and Catholics often incorporate much of the native religion into their religious practices as well as their everday lives.

As for vodoo and Catholicism, that is actually called Santaria (?) and came mainly out of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. That is where the practioners of voodoo, in order to appease the slave holders that were trying to "save their souls", would attach the names of Catholic saints onto the names of the various gods found in the voodoo practice. That way, they could openly practice their religion of choice but appear to be referring to Catholic saints.

I had forgotten about the use of dolls and shoes. Interesting....
Santaria is a form that is more a cuban form of the religion the african form is Yoruba
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoruba

I did a little studying on this a while back.

I do like this idea I was a little stuck on Buddist or Islamic but this is a much more interesting idea and there writing is simalar to ours so he can be be carving the stick in the Yoruba Alphbet to . I like this I am going to spend some time looking into it
BRAVO

I just walked down the hall after reading this and spoke with a coworker of mine who is Nigerian. He confirmed that the information is essentially correct. The Yoruba is actually a tribe of people. The religion itself really doesn't have a special name that he is aware of, but it is the practice that the voodoo of the Caribbean and Brazil derived from. Thanks for a great post

I just walked down the hall after reading this and spoke with a coworker of mine who is Nigerian. He confirmed that the information is essentially correct. The Yoruba is actually a tribe of people. The religion itself really doesn't have a special name that he is aware of, but it is the practice that the voodoo of the Caribbean and Brazil derived from. Thanks for a great post

You can't ask her if she knows anything about stick carving in there religions????:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin: Please:smile::smile::smile::smile:

I learned alot from a friend from Hati who is into Santaria. Lumina I think it is called. She put a bottle of dirt hanging from a purple ribbion on my front porch to protect me and my children:smile: I thought is was cool and that is when I spent time trying to understand it. But it is a little dirfferent the African version of the religion although they are alot the same.

Do we KNOW he is Nigerian?? or is this just remnants of the speculation based on his maybe being from the Nigerian drug plane?

We are not sure were he is from but we are discussing the different religions that are possible and one is the voodo which is originated in Africa.

Do we KNOW he is Nigerian?? or is this just remnants of the speculation based on his maybe being from the Nigerian drug plane?

I think it is also assumed because the actor has a British accent but speaks with an "African" accent (similar to Naveen Andrews and his real vs island accent), and was born of Nigerian parents and speaks Yoruba (Yoruban?).