Benin Part 4: Spirits and Temples

We made our way northward and escaped the humidity of the coast. Abomey is a smaller town in the heart of the voodoo regions in Benin. Our hotel had the air of a jungle filled with wooden depictions of spirits with enormous phalluses. There was a live monkey at the entrance, crocodiles near our room and some sort of striped miniature dear by the restaurant. The dear licked my hand when I gave it salt. I stopped her when she started biting.

We decided to take a late-afternoon stroll from temple to temple. Each household had a temple to communicate with their particular spirits. Each temple had its own legba which is a lesser guardian spirit depicted by a mound of dirt. The only discernible human characteristic was of course a massive phallus protruding from the mound.

The temples looked remarkably modern to me, since the were build from cement and painted in acrylics. However, that makes sense since most architecture in the are is made of mud brick and any temple must have been rebuilt periodically over the years. We saw the courtyard of the previous king and some of the larger temples.

The largest temple was white and sprawled across a large field. One passerby suggested we throw money in it to please the spirits (a suggestion I assume was only so he could retrieve the money). When my friends walked closer and closer to throw American coins in the voodoo believers around us looked increasing nervous. I guess that if you touch the temple as a non-believer you will be cursed and forced to ask the spirits for forgiveness through an elaborate ceremony. When the coins were tossed the man ran for the temple but was grabbed by another man and immediately scalded.

It just so happens that we arrived in Abomey the night of a specific spirit's festival. On top of that, they had decided to film this particular night for posterity. The festival was one of the nights where spirits possessed the bodies of living representatives from their lineages. When we arrived a field was surrounded by a crowd of people. In the center was a sort of parade of people in elaborate brightly colored costumes. They were grass skirts, crowns, wings and sea shells (think carnival but on a smaller scale). We were told to cross the terrain barefoot with our heads bowed and we took a seat on the other side.

It was dark out, but there were lights to aid the camera at capturing the ceremony. We were the only foreigners in a sea of locals. The audience was peppered with old women sitting at tables with their faces illuminated by a single candle before them. The people in costumes began dancing to the shifting rhythm of the drum. They took turns gyrating, flipping, shaking, flailing, and seizing. Sometimes groups approached and danced intricately in a dazed haunting unison.

Some spirits were more mischievous than others. One approached the crowd smacking them with a wooden representation of a phallus and humping young men. Our guide explained that he taught the young men about sex. The same spirit smacked/humped my friend in the face, which was evidently a solicitation for money. When the spirit received less than he desired he smacked my other friend in the face with the phallus and continued on his way. The audience chanted out at the spirits and others responded with other chants in unison.

We stayed there until about midnight watching the spirits take possession of people in the dark until the last parade broke into chasing people through the night. The screaming crowd dispersed and we snuck out on a small trail back to our hotel.
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