Blogs from Ouidah, South, Benin, Africa

Before I write about today's festivities, I would like to apologise for the brevity of yesterday's. I had a minor contact lens incident and so didn't do as much as I usually would. I will be watching the rest of the full procession later in the week. And will write more about it at the weekend. Fête du Vodoun is celebrated n Benin on 10th January. It is a national holiday that celebrates the country's Vodoun (voodoo) history. I have found a couple of videos from previous years showing different elements of the festival. It takes place all over the country, but especially in Ouidah, a coastal city. It's a relatively new festival, becoming a national holiday in 1996, but some of the traditions are ancient. The evening before the festival starts, the Zangbeto dances. Men ... read more

Benin, Benin, a stable democracy and what seems to be a good president investing in healthcare and education. lots of NGOs working all over the place,roads are crumbling and it doesn't seem any much better than it's dictator ridden neighbour that get no funding whatsoever, ok, not looking at numbers, just the visible signs. Granted, Lome in neighbouring Togo is really not tidy, if you see what I mean. Throughout my journey in Benin though, I was constantly bugged by one statistic, all the economic progress made by it is rendered null on a per capita basis because they have so many children!!!! so the population grows so fast that all the economic growth just goes to sustaining the current level and conditions the population lives in! talk about giving out free condoms!!! In fact, correct ... read more

Woke up thinking it was 10:00 when it was actually 11:00 because of the time change. Weird to think there's a time change when Benin is only 90 miles from the Ghanian border. We headed off to the Python Temple which is the voodoo place of worship. When we arrived there was a morning service taking place which was completely unexpected as we were informed the temple was more of a museum than anything else. It was really awkward walking in and I thought they would be osmewhat annoyed with us, however, they offered us chairs to sit down and observe the worship service. Voodoo worship even sounds different than any other African worship music. It's enchanting and feels like it's casting a spell on you. After the service we were escorted into a private room ... read more

LET'S MEET BENIN: The country of the amazones, of the historical slave trade, of the children new slaves today, of the voodoo. A journey to meet, understand and share a culture. Also, a bit of adventure! The Africans say: “The world knows very well how people die in Africa, but knows nothing of how people live there”. With this journey, we would like to repair a historical and cultural injustice that makes the economic injustice even worse. The drums boom unrelently, dancers and young adepts staring at nothing out of fatigue, tribal kings with their courts of wives and dignitaries receiving honors from the natives. It is not a film on Africa but the Voodoo festival that takes place every year on the beach of Ouidah. Not just touristic folklore, but a real religious feast. Likewise, ... read more

The border is just over an hour away from Chez Alice.We were given 48 hour visas at the border, lots of food vendors on both sides of the frontier. We drove to Ouidah, stopped at the Immaculate Conception church and had a few hours to walk around town, we decided to go to the Snake temple nearby and Chrissy, Ingrid, Mark and Jo had their photos taken with a phyton round their necks, I opted out. Then we went to the Museum of History, quite interesting place, but cant take photos. We met up at an outside bar next to the church and a few people are getting drunk. We bought some tasty pineapples on the street, very sweet. We drove to our campsite for the night next to the beach with a very nice swimming ... read more