Often Misunderstood, an African Tradition Comes Alive at Benin Festival

Deity danc­ing dur­ing the ritual

Jan­u­ary 2nd to 10th marked the fifth edi­tion of the Inter­na­tion­al Fes­ti­val of Voodoo Cul­ture, Arts, and Civ­i­liza­tion that was held in the African nation of Benin. The theme of the Fes­ti­val was: “Restor­ing Ben­in’s her­itage. Research on the ori­gin and trans­mis­sion of knowl­edge in Porto-Novo’. 

The 2022 Fes­ti­val was an oppor­tu­ni­ty to present to the world the cul­tur­al and his­tor­i­cal rich­ness of Voodoo and to break down prej­u­dices about the black arts, through the dis­cov­ery of rhythms, dances, archi­tec­ture, and culi­nary arts from the most exot­ic to the most contemporary.

While the event is sig­nif­i­cant, at least for the peo­ple of Benin and thou­sands of oth­ers who came from around the world to par­tic­i­pate in it, it received lit­tle atten­tion from news media that often cov­ers Africa only when bad news strikes. 

I took some steps by try­ing to learn more about this impor­tant tra­di­tion and the cul­tur­al aspects of Voodoo in West Africa. 

Voodoo­ism was recent­ly rec­og­nized as an offi­cial reli­gion in Benin. Rit­u­als play an impor­tant role in this belief. Its cen­tral phi­los­o­phy is to nur­ture the spir­it. It sees human beings as spir­its liv­ing in the vis­i­ble world. 

The Colo­nial Ori­gins of Voodooism 

Restor­ing bal­ance and ener­gy between peo­ple, and between peo­ple and spir­its in the invis­i­ble world, is the aim of the Voodoo believ­ers’ lives. It has an oral tra­di­tion from fam­i­ly to fam­i­ly, in which the spir­its are inher­it­ed by descen­dants to whom respect and devo­tion must be given. 

When talk­ing about Voodoo we must men­tion colo­nial­ism, a his­tor­i­cal peri­od that has marked, and still marks, the take over of dif­fer­ent geo­graph­i­cal areas of the world. This his­tor­i­cal con­text is of para­mount impor­tance when it comes to our per­cep­tion of voodoo today.

Haiti, a for­mer French colony, seems to be the birth­place of Voodoo. Haiti is the place where Voodoo­ism was first rec­og­nized as a reli­gion. Dur­ing colo­nial­ism, this reli­gion allowed the Hait­ian pop­u­la­tion to gain cer­tain inde­pen­dence of wor­ship, which we know was not easy when you are ruled by one of the most blood­thirsty colo­nial mas­ters in the world. 

What Hap­pens Dur­ing a Festival 

Var­i­ous rit­u­als take place dur­ing the fes­ti­val. Mami Wata is the name of the main deity of this fes­ti­val. “Mami Wata” is an Eng­lish pid­gin from West Africa that lit­er­al­ly means “Mama Water” or  “Moth­er Ocean.”  From Mada­gas­car to Moroc­co, Liberia to Mozam­bique, Mami Wata is the African water spir­it who appears in the form of a mer­maid. It is said that those she takes for her lovers return with a new spir­it and become luck­i­er and more beau­ti­ful. She is a sym­bol of fer­til­i­ty, a pro­tec­tor of women and chil­dren, a guardian of sea crea­tures and nat­ur­al environments.

To start, an altar is cre­at­ed where flour, chick­en blood, and a few sprites are placed. A lit­tle palm liquor is then drunk before pour­ing the residue over the offer­ing. The glass is then bro­ken into small frag­ments, which are also added to the offer­ing. When the offer­ing is ready, the deity comes alive and twirls grace­ful­ly over it, hid­ing it com­plete­ly under the cos­tume. As soon as the deity moves, there is no trace of the offering.

Sébastien Roux

Man danc­ing dur­ing the rit­u­al that took place dur­ing the Fes­ti­val of Voodoo in Benin

As soon as the deity moves, there is no longer any trace of the offer­ing. This means that the deity has accept­ed the offer­ing and there­fore the spir­it of the deceased has been tak­en to a safe place where it will remain in peace and from where it can nev­er return to harm the liv­ing. The deity is not ani­mat­ed by a per­son under the great cos­tume, but only by the spir­it, it represents. 

To demon­strate this, the cos­tume is then turned upside down, show­ing the spec­ta­tors that under the large mask there is sim­ply a doll, some­times there may be a branch, some­times a snake. The rit­u­al con­tin­ues with a big drum par­ty, in which the whole vil­lage par­tic­i­pates. The deities dance and twirl in the vil­lage square, accom­pa­nied by the ini­ti­ates, the only ones allowed to touch a deity.

Edu­ca­tion Can Help Change Our Perceptions

Voodoo­ism began as a way to escape the oppres­sion and enslave­ment of the French col­o­niz­ers. The neg­a­tive con­no­ta­tions and mis­con­cep­tion of voodoo with satanism and sav­age sac­ri­fices depend on what the for­mer col­o­niz­ers brought to the world. But the cre­ative eman­ci­pa­tion that con­sti­tut­ed the birth of this reli­gion is often ignored. 

As a prac­tice, Voodoo­ism is made to cre­ate a com­mu­ni­ty in the world, a feel­ing of secu­ri­ty between the peo­ple of the present and the peo­ple of the past because mem­o­ry is some­thing that keeps the tra­di­tion alive. Although peo­ple who prac­tice the reli­gion are not exiled from the mod­ern world, it appears they are silenced and can­celed by today’s pop­u­lar culture. 

So we should per­haps ask our­selves why we believe the West­ern nar­ra­tive, which does not allow us to accept the puri­ty and incred­i­ble mag­ic of voodoo. Often our world­view is cloud­ed by dif­fer­ent nar­ra­tives and per­spec­tives, and we strug­gle to decon­struct cer­tain pre­con­cep­tions that can help us under­stand the ori­gin and nature of cer­tain things. We look at the “oth­er” with a crit­i­cal eye, at oth­er­ness as sav­age. What is this so? From the fact that we con­sid­er our con­cept of moder­ni­ty should be the same every­where, so we do not accept oth­er ways of liv­ing life.