Why blood sacrifice in African spirituality?
Many African spiritual practices utilize blood sacrifice to feed deities and ancestors.
“Blood is like a battery that empowers spirits and ancestors before they work”-
Christopher Voncujovi, Ewe Vodu Priest in Accra, Ghana.
In many African spiritual practices like my practice of Vodu, blood sacrifice is a common practice. Vodu practitioners believe that sacrifice to deities and ancestors is necessary for the progress of an individual. Even though killing an animal is inevitable, this practice includes being mindful and appreciative of those sacrificed.
Here are three reasons why we do blood sacrifice in sacrifice African spirituality.
Blood acts like a battery that empowers spirits and ancestors to work.
Most African deities require blood when they want to work for a person. It is believed that the animal’s life force is transferred to the vodu and energizes it after ritual sacrifice. It’s almost like charging your phone with electricity, or a power bank - your phone will be powerless without it. Like how Einstein once said, “energy is neither created nor destroyed,” practitioners of African spirituality believe that the animal’s life force works on the metaphysical plane even after its physical death.
It is important to note that not all African deities “eat” blood. There are many deities, even in Vodu, that do not like blood. These deities are thus not giving blood sacrifice but rather sweet drinks, perfumes, and water. Blood sacrifice is only performed when it is requested directly by spirits or ancestors through divination.
2. Different animals possess different energies that practitioners can use.
Because Vodu practitioners believe that animals do not entirely die when they are sacrificed, they also believe that various animals perform different tasks on the metaphysical plane. For example, while a spirit may request a chicken if it wants to protect, it may request a dog or a cat to fight the client’s enemies. Depending on the task and spirit, the animal offered varies. What a spirit should eat is usually decided by doing a divination session or reading with the priest. Other popular animals used for sacrifice and their uses are rams (peace and calm), goat (fight), chameleon (aura-enhancement), etc. Various animals are offered as sacrifice depending on the specific needs of the spirit or task.
3. The remains of the animal are offered as food to the community.
Unless specifically asked by spirits or ancestors to do otherwise, the animal used in a sacrifice is often cooked and consumed by the entire community. Preparing and eating the sacrificed animal together is also a powerful social bonding tool that brings the community together. If the food is too much to eat, it is given to other families or underprivileged communities. Such actions are associated with good luck. If it still cannot be finished, it is offered to domestic animals to eat.
Non-practitioners have often stigmatized African spiritual practices for engaging in blood sacrifice. It is unfortunate that while most of the world does not seem to have a problem with mainstream religions such as Judaism and Islam that also engage in blood sacrifice, only practitioners of African spirituality get stigmatized for such practices in contemporary Africa.
One group that criticizes blood sacrifice are those who voluntarily choose to be vegetarians. “Killing animals is so cruel and inhumane”, they say. But why is it okay to kill plants? In Vodu practice, animals and plants are equally alive or essential. In our system, plants have emotions, feel pain, and even frequently communicate with humans. So killing an animal or a plant is not too different within our practice from a pain perspective. For this reason, animals are killed as swiftly as possible by only a qualified priest. While plants are also used in Vodu practice, they are mostly used to make spirits themselves instead of energizing them with blood.
Another group also argues that killing plants instead of animals is more environmentally friendly (in terms of carbon emissions) than killing animals, so practitioners of African spirituality should stop using animals. While the mass production of animals in our world today does lead to more emissions (i.e., methane), in reality, Africa only accounts for 2–3 percent of global carbon emissions, according to the UN. The majority of the harmful emissions in our atmosphere come from more developed nations, not African spirituality practitioners. Therefore, even if African spirituality stops blood sacrifice, it would still have a negligible impact on climate change. There must undoubtedly be other methods to curb climate change beyond stopping animal sacrifice.
Whether you agree or disagree with the practice, blood sacrifice in African spirituality is here to stay because it is deeply intertwined with practitioners’ rituals and worldview. I’ve listed three reasons why African spirituality engages in blood sacrifice. Can you name any other reasons?
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