Working One’s Destiny (Se) In Ewe Vodu Practice
Any person in contemporary Ghana will have heard popular unisex Ewe names like Senyo, Selasi, Sedem, Sena, Selorm, etc. — all names that are derived from Se, the Ewe word for destiny or God. But what does Se really mean in Ewe culture? Most people will simply translate it as “God” or “Destiny”, however, this translation alone is insufficient to fully explain the Ewe concept of Se.
The English words God or Destiny is insufficient to fully explain Se.
Names relating to Destiny
Names referring to Se are still very popular in contemporary Ghanaian society (Photo Sena Gameli’s work on his Youtube Channel)
The Ewe Trinity consists of Mawu Sogbo Lisa (the creator), Mawu Kitakata (the sustainer of creation), and Mawu Ese (The creator of man and the God of destiny). While the first two Mawus, Sogbo Lisa and Kitikata, are seen as “too supreme” to directly deal with the everyday affairs of humans, Mawu (E)Se or Dzorgbe Se directly influences human beings. As the creator of human beings, Se is also called Se Dzotor, Ame Dzotor (Se the Creator, the Creator of human beings) in Ewe. Also, each person has a unique Se that existed before their birth and pre-determined their life path, flaws, strengths, and more. If a person’s destiny is aligned properly, the person’s life is generally successful. A popular Ewe song says:
“The work of Se is not easy. To have a good spouse is due to your Se. To be beautiful or handsome is due to your Se. To have good children is due to your Se. To be wealthy is due to your Se. To be intelligent is due to your Se”.
Ewe version:
Menya wòna, menya wòna Ese ñdò menya wòna o.Vinywie dzidzi le segbò, Srònywie dede le segbò, Deka dzedze le segbò, Ga kpòkpò le segbò, Menya wòna ò Menya wòna o Se ñdò menya wòna. (You can hear the song in our video below)
Every person has a unique Se that existed before their birth and pre-determined their life path.
Se is known to also have two manifestations: the “good destiny” (Senyue) and “bad destiny” (Se Voen). In the Ewe worldview, every person is born with both a good and bad Se that constantly compete to influence a person’s life path. If a person’s Senyue is stronger than their Se Voen, the person will generally be a successful person. If the Se Voen is stronger than the Senyue, then the person will be a failure.
But what does this look like in real life? A person may, for example, be a very intelligent person but also at the same time have a destructive habit (i.e. alcoholism or substance abuse) that can affect their success. In Se terms, if the person succeeds in spite of their destructive habits, the positive destiny is seen to prevail over the negative one. If the opposite happens, the negative destiny prevails. How one’s innate strengths or weaknesses influence one’s life path can be seen as a manifestation of Se. Practitioners thus strive to live their life in alignment with their positive destinies while mitigating the influence of Se Voen.
In Vodu practice, there are rituals to decrease the influence of Se Voen, negative destiny, on a person’s life, while empowering the Senyue or positive destiny. Both the Se Voen and Senyue are molded with clay and either discarded (negative destiny) or routinely nourished (positive destiny). This allows practitioners to “work” their Se and positively influence their lives. My father, Christopher Voncujovi, always says, “If your Se is worked properly, the universe will help you achieve your life’s purpose”.
Every person is born with both a good and bad Se that constantly compete to influence a person’s life path
When Se is created, it is routinely offered water, sweet drinks, food, and sacrificial animals to keep it empowered to guide the person’s life path. There are specific songs to praise Se usually sung during ceremonies for Se. Interestingly, when animals are offered to Se, it is done so without a knife because using a knife would be synonymous with harming oneself. Se is acknowledged as one of the most important deities in a practitioner's life because it represents Mawu, “the supreme being”, within each person. It is your Se that leads to your spiritual mentors; it is your Se that made you be born to your parents; it is your Se that invites other spirits to assist you on your spiritual journey.
The Se of each person is written in advance but is subject to repeated editing with the help of divination and ritual.
Although one’s Se is pre-determined before birth, through Vodu practice one can influence their Se to fulfill their divine life’s purpose. When we are born, we “forget” what we were sent here to do. However, through divination and ritual, we are guided back towards our higher purpose. Divination is a practical tool that can illuminate what path a person should take in order to be in alignment with their positive destiny, at any given moment. It is like having parallel universes: one with a positive outcome and one with a more negative future outcome. Divination, if done by a competent diviner, will tell practitioners which life choices will bring them the highest potential for success.
The positive destiny Senyue molded for rituals
The negative destiny Se Voen molded for rituals
So is one’s destiny unchangeable? The Ewes believe that the Se of each person is written in advance but is subject to repeated editing or rewriting with the help of Afa (Ifa), an ancient West African divination system. The Afadu, kpoli, or life sign obtained during Afa initiation itself acts as a personal law. Each kpoli (out of a total of 256) imposes dietary, behavioral, career-related restrictions and other kinds of taboos on the initiate’s life. This personal law defines the new Afa initiate in terms of their personality type, strengths, weaknesses, and more. During initiation, elders tell the new initiate the deep mysteries of the initiate's life sign (kpoli).
Afa initiation at my family shrine in Accra. The new initiatives receive their life Afa sign (kpoli).
One’s destiny is truly in one’s hands if you know how to work it
An Afa story associated with the sign Sa-Ngorli highlights how this process works: Vodu Da, the snake-vodu, could not eat onion because of his kpoli, but Heviesso (the deity of lightning) tricked him into doing so. So whoever would find Sa-Ngorli during Afa initiation must be careful that his friends and social activities do not lead him astray with regards to his Afa taboos. But the illness or negative outcomes that come of breaking these taboos are not punishments by Afa as such; it is the natural outcome of having done harm to one’s own nature. Here the word nature refers to what is thought to have existed before birth, unsought, unprepared by the person-that which one cannot change.
Mawu Se is an element of one’s inner self that actively influences one’s path in life among Ewe Vodu practitioners. One’s Se can also be empowered through a ritual and divination. One’s destiny is truly in one’s hands if you know how to work it. For traditional Ewe and Fon societies, God or Mawu is not an old, white man in Heaven judging the deeds of man, but rather an entity that exists within each person that guides them towards a higher purpose. While it is difficult to fully grasp the concept of Se just from reading or writing about it, I hope you enjoyed my brief summary of the Ewe concept of Se. What more can you add about Se?
You can learn more about the rituals we do here. Those interested in broader Vodu practice can contact us here.
References
Christopher Voncujovi, Afrikan Magick Temple, Head Priest. Interview. 2021.
Togbe Tudzi. Interview. 2001.
“Possession, Ecstacy, and Law in Ewe Voodoo”, p.205, Judy Rosenthal, 1998.
