Voodoo

 Sunday, February 23,  Voodoo

 A phenomenal day today.  The emphasis was on voodoo and there’s so much to tell and we’ve just scratched the surface.  Voodoo is essentially a religion with a focus on spirits which have enormous influence over everyday life and who, when angry, can be very destructive or, when pleased, can be responsible for good things happening.

 As an aside, the understanding which we have of dolls representing people and your being able to harm them with pins is totally false.  There is no such thing here.  Perhaps in the Caribbean?  I’ll need to check that.

 The vast majority of the people throughout coastal West Africa have voodoo in their lives, even though they may be part of another, organized religion.  Both Christianity and Islam exist here in substantial numbers.  Christianity, and especially the Catholic church, has been amenable to syncretism, with animist (voodoo) elements in the churches.  Islam has not been the same, and we were told that many Muslims practice voodoo rituals, but secretly.

 We left Cotonou and drove north towards Ketou, stopping at a church to visit the service.  Outside the church was a busy market: 

Our guide, Noah, has been teaching us about the various tribes and subtribes, almost all of which practice scarification.  You can tell instantly which group someone comes from by the scars on their faces.  The practice dates back hundreds of years and developed because of the need for agricultural workers.  It was a practice to kidnap children to add to the family so that there would be more field workers.  Scarification was practiced on small children to mark them permanently with their tribal identification to prevent kidnapping.  The practice continues to today, although the original need is gone.  (All photos taken with permission) 

Among the things for sale outside the church were frogs for cooking: 

These church ladies greeted us: 

The church itself and the service were lovely; we stayed only a short while, and then left the main road and drove deep into rural Benin on unimproved roads:

 We arrived at the village where there was to be an Egungun ceremony marking the beginning of the rainy season which will start in the next couple of weeks.  The Egungun is a masks secret society rooted in the past history of placing the deceased in trees to be eaten by vultures.  At some point it was determined that the spirits were not happy with this process and that it had to be stopped.  The spirits of the dead are brought back to the village, and the ceremony commemorates their return.  Here is the village voodoo temple: 

Animal sacrifice is still carried out as part of voodoo ceremonies, but not commonly any more.  When done, it is usually a chicken, a goat or a cow which is sacrificed, and the blood is used in the ritual.  The meat is eaten, unless the animal has been the receptacle of some very angry spirits taken from a person, in which case the meat is sacrificed also.  Here is the voodoo priest who is supervising the ceremony: 

Here are the dancers:

 The priest drank some liquor from a special cup: 

The temperature was in the 90s, the humidity felt like 100%, and the dancers were amazing.  Here are a few clips: 

We left the ceremony and went to another village to visit the Celestial Church of Christ, which allows some voodoo practices into its very Christian rituals.  The people were wonderfully friendly and this little girl made a friend of Kathy: 

Among the voodoo practices is the belief in spiritual visions and the power of the spirits to heal.  The blue sash represents the ability to hear and interpret the spirits; the yellow sash signifies a spiritual natural healer: 

Here’s a bit of the service: 

Our guide, Noah, found out that because of the rain yesterday, in Oro there was to be a ceremony for a good rainy season.  We went to the tiny village of Oro.  These people are Yoruba, and use flagellation as part of the ceremony to ask the spirits for a good rain season.  One young man stands on two sticks, and another dances around him, ultimately striking him with a long, thin branch.  He does not respond.  He may be whipped two or even three times.  The process is then reversed.  Neither one shows the pain on their faces.  After some cheering, both fall prone, place one cheek and then the other against the ground, and kiss the ground in front of a boy whose role is unclear.  

Our final stop was at the cult of Oudua mask dances, called Gelade.  Described in our preview materials as a mix of street theater and magical theater, the dances have educational purposes, teaching the benefits of good husband-wife relations, say, or the troubles of too large a family.

 On our way into town, we passed a clearing with spirit houses:

 

This one is adorned with chicken feathers held on with blood: 

Here’s what the mask dances were like: 

Here’s one we didn’t figure out: 

And here’s a costume pointing out the hazards of having too many children: 

How the dancers kept up the drumming and the dancing in the almost 100 degree heat and humidity is beyond comprehension.  We were just watching and we were exhausted.  Back to our very basic hotel for a dribbly tepid shower and an almost inedible dinner.  Many of us are traveling with protein bars and it’s a good thing.

 More when I can.