Hevioso

Hevioso is an African voodoo deity of thunder, worshipped in West Africa.

Hevioso is the God of heaven, thunder, lightning and rain. Known to populations of southern Benin. Hevioso / Hebioso / Shango is a righteous God. He chastises liars, thieves and villains by smiting them. In certain places the bas-reliefs of the temples of Hèvioso represent this God in the form of a man who slaughtered at these feet a living being with an ax.

According to P. Verger, Shango can be described in two aspects, historical or divine. As a historical figure, he would have been the third Alaafin Oyo, king of Oyo, son of Oraniyan and Torosi. Oraniyan was the youngest son of Odudua and became the most powerful of them, the one whose fame was the largest in the Yoruba country. He became famous, from his youth as a hunter, and later on because of the numerous and profitable conquests, he undertook.

He was the founder of the kingdom of Oyo. Torosi, when she was the daughter of Elempe, the king of the country Tapa. Shango grew up in his mother's country and later moved to Koso where people did not want him because of his violent and imperious nature, but he forced himself on them. He then went, followed by these people, to Oyo where he established a neighbourhood called Koso. He thus retained his title of Oba Koso, which later became his Oriki (traditional praise).

At the time Dada Ajaka, Shangang's eldest brother, was on the throne in Oyo. Shango dethroned him but had only reigned for seven years. In his divine aspect, Shango is the husband of Oya, Oshun and Oba. He is virile, robust, violent and vigilant; chastise liars, thieves, and evildoers.

Hevioso forms a large family of smaller voduns and belongs to the category of so-called heavenly voduns (ji-vodun). Death by lightning is considered a punishment in West Africa. Heviosso is just, he punishes without mercy. People killed by lightning cannot have a normal burial. ] The remains of a person killed by lightning are ritually burned, the bones are kept. In some regions of Benin, the body is displayed in front of a temple dedicated to Hevioso. An event in which a person survives being struck by lightning is understood quite differently. This marks him as the spiritually chosen one and is considered the direct incarnation of vodun Hevioso. Hevioso cooperates significantly with the earth vodun Sakpata (Sopona in Yoruba religion), to whom he sends beneficial rain. Hevioso and Sakpata are supposed to be brothers, both of a very violent nature; when they quarrel and argue with each other, it causes long periods of drought, crop failure, but also infertility for women.

If Hevioso's lightning strikes a house and it catches fire, people must not put it out, they must call a priest of the Hevioso cult, and the building must not be reconstructed before the rite of atonement, otherwise the deity's wrath might spread to other people. Priests on the spot investigate the causes using the divination system fa. A storm rich in lightning always brings with it some form of victim; proof is the black sokpe stones that people look for after a storm. According to the believers, they fall during the rampage of the thunder lord Hevioso. Sokpe stones contain an occult power called àzě.

In Benin, in connection with the Hevioso cult, ritual axes can be seen with one or more crescent-shaped blades attached to each other. The shape of these blades is also a symbol used on items that refer to the vodun Hevioso. The ax is acquired by an initiated member of the cult and used in ceremonies and religious celebrations.