On the Vodun Trail in Benin
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WE were driving through the back alleys of Ouidah, a sultry former slave port in the West African nation of Benin, when we spotted him: a figure in robes and leather gloves. His face was hidden by a burlap hood studded with beads and cowrie shells. A teenage boy carrying a wooden stick was leading him past peach-colored houses shaded by coconut palms and mango trees.
My driver and guide, Ulrich Vitale Ahotondji, slowed so we could get a better look. "Don't get out," he warned, but I was already leaping out of the car with my camera. The figure cowered against a wall, and began babbling in an eerie metallic voice. The teenage protector raised his stick and I retreated back to the car.
The man was a revenant, Ulrich told me -- an important figure in the indigenous, animist religion known as vodun. Also called Egunguns in the local Fon language, these hooded men, whose identities remain a secret even to their neighbors, are believed to be intermediaries between the living and the dead and often parade through villages, summoning the spirits of departed ancestors. Touching a revenant during a trance, it is believed, can be fatal, and even Ulrich, a Roman Catholic, was unwilling to put that belief to the test. When we came upon a plaza where a dozen revenants were dancing, Ulrich sped away. "I won't give you the chance to get out this time," he told me.
Ulrich, the photographer Jason Florio and I had driven that morning to Ouidah from Cotonou, Benin's ramshackle seat of government 30 miles down the coast, to explore the rituals of vodun. Despite the efforts of Christian missionaries, this ancient belief system still has millions of adherents along West Africa's former Slave Coast, from Ghana to the Yoruba-speaking parts of Nigeria, but especially in Benin. A succession of dictatorships suppressed vodun after independence, but in 1996 Benin's democratic government officially decreed vodun a religion, and ever since, thousands have openly practiced it.
For visitors, the resurgence of vodun offers a chance to catch a rare glimpse of an indigenous culture's spiritual practices. In recent years, a steady flow of Western tourists have traveled the vodun route in Benin and Togo, visiting temples and fetish markets, and occasionally gaining entry to ceremonies presided over by priests who lead adherents in singing, dancing and animal sacrifices. Like Jason and me, these tourists base themselves in Cotonou, or stay in a handful of beach resorts along the Gulf of Guinea, and eat at restaurants serving both local cuisine like spiced fish with manioc, or Western fare. Like us, they travel with guides who help them find their way to ceremonies, and serve as interpreters.
First Published February 5, 2012 12:00 am
