Voodoo Tourism
Voodoo has a bad name - and the west African state of Benin, which has the faith as its official religion, is determined to do something about it.
It hopes to use its ten-day Voodoo festival, which ended yesterday, to draw in tourists.
In a final ceremony of ancestor and spirit worship, women wearing shells and beads writhed before a carved fetish and a knife-wielding dancer with a chalk-whitened face performed intricate steps to honor the python spirit, all accompanied by powerful drums.
Festival organizers hope tourists will visit and find links between the contemporary cultures of west Africa and the Americas, the Caribbean and Europe, now peopled with many of African descent.
While indigenous religions are followed in many parts of west Africa, often interspersed with Christian and Muslim practices, Benin and parts of neighboring Nigeria have particularly strong Voodoo communities. Full Story
Related: religion, wicca, pagan, spells
It hopes to use its ten-day Voodoo festival, which ended yesterday, to draw in tourists.
In a final ceremony of ancestor and spirit worship, women wearing shells and beads writhed before a carved fetish and a knife-wielding dancer with a chalk-whitened face performed intricate steps to honor the python spirit, all accompanied by powerful drums.
Festival organizers hope tourists will visit and find links between the contemporary cultures of west Africa and the Americas, the Caribbean and Europe, now peopled with many of African descent.
While indigenous religions are followed in many parts of west Africa, often interspersed with Christian and Muslim practices, Benin and parts of neighboring Nigeria have particularly strong Voodoo communities. Full Story
Related: religion, wicca, pagan, spells
posted at 3:26 PM
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