LOST SOULS – part 2

Benin – The Birthplace of Voodoo

It’s no coincidence that we end up in the town of Abomey, located in Benin, ancient capital of the Kingdom of Dahomey. This is the birthplace of Voodoo and the only country in the world that officially recognises it as a state religion. There we meet the king of Abomey who allows us to have a photo session with his whole family, including eight wives and two sons. Of course, all of this is on the basis of a large offering. After all, he has eight wives to keep…

Benin. Photo session. Photo: Igor Olejniczak.

The King of Abomey with wife and two subjects.

I don’t know what the king likes more ‒ taking pictures or getting money, but we’re invited to an initiation ceremony of young initiates of Voodoo. The event starts right after sundown when several dozen men and women dressed in long, colourful dresses run amok in the middle of a muddy square. Dressed in long, colourful and patterned dresses. Flowers, dots, fruit, stripes, animals and ethnic motifs. Chaos on the stage and in costume. Around their necks they wear long, multicoloured strings with beads and hold in their hands the requisite joukoujou, a carved staff, a symbol of the spirit of Voodoo. After a while the rhythm of the beating drums slows and along with it, the dancers’ movements. The even drum beats sending all the participants into a trance, allowing them to switch off their consciousness, invoke the spirits. The dancers start to dance, slowly, calmly, to the rhythm of the drums and rattles. The movements of their hands is like ocean waves, only to stiffen and turn into the uniform, mechanic movements of a robot when the sounds speed up again. Every movement, gesture, figure is a complicated symbol with many meanings which even our local translator has trouble deciphering.

Ceremony of young Voodoo initiates.

After the ceremony we have the honour of drinking a glass of strong, local alcohol with the king. And taking a souvenir photo.

I take advantage of this moment and ask the king for permission to take pictures of the young initiates the next day. As it turns out, this isn’t so simple because during the several days of ceremonies, the initiates spend all day in isolation, under the influence of intoxicating substances. During this time you can’t talk to them, touch them, or give them any orders. The king consents, but under one condition ‒ we only have a few minutes.

When we say goodbye to the king, we get an unexpected proposition. If I send the king the pictures I took during the ceremony, then the next time we’ll be treated like family, which more or less means that next time we won’t have to pay for anything anymore. I respond that I’d rather bring them in person, thinking this would be an excellent pretext to come back.

But before we leave Abomey we decide to buy some souvenirs. What would the best souvenir of this place be? A Voodoo figure, of course. So we’re led to a real „producer” of Voodoo figures. There’s no doubt as to the authenticity of the place we’re visiting. Right at the entrance we’re greeted with a small mound/altar sprinkled with mud from which two wooden penises ‒ a fertility symbol ‒ stick out. Right behind the doors an old man greets us, and as it soon turns out, he is a shaman. He shows us his whole collection, a dozen or so wooden figures of various sizes. Some wrapped in animal skin, sprinkled with bird feathers, others wrapped in bandages with nails or bones beaten in to them. All shapes and sizes. After a while I feel like I’m in an antiques shop. But the prices are crazy, as is the way they’re set. We’re used to prices rising along with the age of an object. Here it’s no different, the price of a figure rises along with the number of ceremonies conducted with it each year. The cost is 10$ per year of the figure’s „age”. OK, but how do you establish the age of a figure? Rely on what the salesman says? No, we’re not that naive. Actually, every figure, as the salesman says, is many decades old and some even more than a hundred. You would think such a figure would become increasingly attractive with age, but no, here it’s the other way around. With each year of carrying out these mysterious ceremonies, the figure is spat on and doused with another layer of blood mixed with milk, flour and who even knows what else. After a few of these rituals, the figure no longer looks like its original wooden form, and becomes an increasingly shapeless, black and white mass of various substances. No extra charge for the smell that comes with it!

For some, an antique Voodoo figure. For others, 800$ for a piece of stinking wood.

Ceremony

A similar smell follows us to the fetish market. In wooden stalls, the heads of monkeys, crocodiles and dogs dry in the sun. Right next to this, dozens of dried chameleons, snakes and birds are evenly laid out. We’re in the place where the local shamans do their shopping for fetishes used during different ceremonies. Like a local pharmacy.

Fetish market.

Still alive.

We’ve seen the tiger temple in Thailand. Here’s the python temple in Benin.

Ouidah is considered the spiritual home of Voodoo. We set out in search of someone who could help us feel this spirit. We try to avoid the numerous peddlers that accost us, as we call them – concierges, who can offer anything our heart (and body) desires – ganja, girls, or a Voodoo ceremony. „No problem. This is Africa.” Help, as always, comes completely unexpectedly. Late in the afternoon we go to a restaurant whose owner agrees to take us to one of the shamans. Of course, nothing comes for free ‒ first we have to eat lunch.

Voodoo is a religion without any hierarchy, dogma or commandments. Its followers are grouped in communities of believers called socyete. This is led by a priest and a spiritual leader called a houngan. Or the female equivalent, mambo. They lead all the ritual ceremonies and are the guardians of traditions. Like priests are to us, but with the difference that the Catholic church doesn’t have women priests yet. Let alone ones who have the power to heal and tell the future. The restaurant owner leads us to one of these mambos. We meet Dannon Akpahessou, a Voodoo shaman and mambo in one, who introduces us to the wonders of Voodoo. Having greeted us, she immediately asks what the intention of the Voodoo ceremony should be. We know that there can be many reasons to have a Voodoo ceremony. For example, it could be to ask for healing of yourself or someone else, it could also be to give thanks for this. It could also be to put a spell on someone. Although we know several people we would gladly put a spell on, we decided to cure our friend Piotrek here of his thus-far incurable disease – smoking. A few days ago we happened to meet an Animist who tried to explain to me that there are two forms of the Voodoo religion. The first, real kind, called Vodun which is mainly practiced in Benin and Togo and the second, imagined kind, full of strange ceremonies and violence, invented and mythologized mainly for bloody Hollywood horror films. So we will have the chance to see which one is right. And thanks to Piotrek we will put our mambo’s supernatural powers to the test.

It’s already completely dark when the shaman, dressed in a white cotton dress, leads us to the small, inconspicuous shrine next to her house. Inside, on the wall there’s a scary drawing of a large hissing snake among a sky filled with black stars. In the corner, there’s a bundle of small fragments of animal skulls hanging from a wire. In the middle there’s a one metre high mud mound/altar covered in dark red streaks, leave no room for doubt about its bloody purpose. A moment of silence is broken by the sound of the asson ‒ a ceremonial rattle which is a symbol of authority and power. The shaman takes a sip of cheap gin and then sprinkles the altar with it many times, starting the nocturnal part of the ceremony. Singing, prayer, banging a metal container, scattering nuts and trying to decipher their patterns. At the end we say our names. We don’t understand anything, but take their word for it that now the curses and spells that will help solve Piotrek’s problem are taking place. Only Piotrek fidgets impatiently…

Nocturnal Voodoo ceremony for Piotrek.

In the end, we drink the rest of the alcohol together. Only a few hours later when it’s already light out, the ceremony reaches its second, final phase. At the shaman’s signal, her son Tepe stops sharpening the ritual knife and catches a goat while it tries to run away. The little animal tries to escape his grasp, like he senses what’s about to happen. At this moment the shaman grabs a pointed knife and tries to pierce the goat’s thick skin with it. The third time she gets him right in the artery. The dark red blood drips straight into a wooden bowl. The animal slowly bleeds, wheezes, but in Tepe’s iron grip he doesn’t stand a chance. The same ritual is repeated with a chicken.

The second, daytime part of the Voodoo ceremony.

After the ceremony, another sip of alcohol, the shaman drinks it, we drink it, even small children drink it. In the meantime, Tepe lights a small fire where the skin of the goat is burnt and then carefully scours it with a metal sponge, adding washing powder. After this, the goat looks as good as new, only the red holes in its neck indicate how it died. But don’t worry, the animal will soon be eaten.

Even kids drink alcohol.

The bloody rituals we witnessed could seem strange according to our cultures and traditions. But they aren’t really. For instance, in Judaism, animals and birds have their throats and arteries slit, while the appropriate prayer is recited and the stunned animal is left to bleed out. It’s similar for Muslims, where the animal is turned towards Mecca and slaughtered alive to the sound of the words „in the name of God, merciful and compassionate”.

And in case you’re curious, Piotrek still smokes like a chimney.

LOST SOULS – part 3 – HERE

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