Loko is the Fon and Vodun deity of trees, most closely identified with the silk cotton and iroko trees, and of the healing power drawn from their bark, leaves and roots. Loko is closely associated with the initiation of Vodun priests and, in Haitian Vodou, with the ason, the sacred rattle that marks an ordained houngan or manbo; the atlas names that association without describing the initiation itself, which is closed to outsiders.
Facts
Function
Domain / Function Attestation
Era of Attestation Veneration TodayActively venerated in a living tradition 1 HistoricityNot a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being 1 Origins
Origin of the NameLoko's name is widely traced to iroko, the West African hardwood most sacred to Vodun tree cult. Fon Gbe phonology regularly shifts a borrowed r to l, carrying the tree's own name directly onto the spirit who inhabits it. 1 Cult
Attributes and IconographyLoko has no image of his own. He is represented by the living tree itself, most often a silk cotton or iroko, and by offerings of white cloth and cornmeal set at its roots rather than by any carved or painted figure. 3 Belief
TheologyHenotheistic: a supreme being above served lesser divinities 1 A Fon and Vodun tree deity of the same religious family as Mawu-Lisa, matching its henotheistic reading. Iconography
SymbolLoko is most closely identified with the silk cotton and iroko trees, and with the healing power drawn from their bark, leaves and roots. 3 Correspondences & Relations
Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Source Dahomey: An Ancient West African KingdomMelville J. Herskovits
Related To
Source Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in BrooklynKaren McCarthy Brown
Sources
1. Dahomey: An Ancient West African Kingdom
2. Voodoo in Haiti
Alfred Metraux, Oxford University Press, 1959Loko, Moreau de Saint-MeryView the Source 3. Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn
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