A one month trip through Ghana|Benin|Togo|Burkino Faso.
©Ingetje Tadros
©Ingetje Tadros
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50 imagesThe Vodun Festival is very vibrant and filled with many activities. The Festival starts with the slaughter of a goat in honor of the spirits and is followed by lots of chanting, dancing, invocation of the spirits, initiations rites and various spectacles. Other sacrifices are made to be in favor of the spirits and receive more blessings. The spectacles are amazing and very entertaining. It is known that during some of the spectacles that Vodun followers might enter a state of trance and perform unexplainable acts such as cutting themselves or talking to deceased descendants. The word Vodun, also spelled as Vaudou, Vodon, Vodoun, Voudou, Voodoo, comes from the Fon and Ewe Languages and it means “Spirit”. Although the birthplace is in Benin, it is African traditional religion practiced in coastal West Africa from Ghana to Nigeria. Vodun uses spirits and other organic elements (animals, sea and earth) during invocation rites. The world of the living and the dead are intertwined. In the religion, there is one God, Mawu, that has many helpers that are called the Orishas. There are 7 Orishas or 7 children of Mawu (God). The Orishas are much like the Sanskrit chakra system. Each one of them are part of our human body and vibrates different energies while working in continuum with the others. You called or put focus on specific Orishas based on the challenges you face. Ouida, Benin 2014. ©Ingetje Tadros
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71 imagesA one month trip through Ghana|Benin|Togo|Burkino Faso. ©Ingetje Tadros
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50 imagesVarious Ghana|Benin|Togo|Burkino Faso. ©Ingetje Tadros
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8 imagesAbout forty "slave castles", or large commercial forts, where built on the Gold Coast of West Africa (now Ghana) by European traders. Cape Coast, Ghana 2014. Ouidah's past (Benin) is closely linked to the slave trade. The auction took place at Place Chachaand, where European and American buyers bought their slaves. After being bought, the slaves were branded in order to be able to recognise which buyer they belonged to and subsequently they were led to the Oblivion Tree. The buyers made them believe that the tree had the power to erase their memory and remove their spirit, the dramatic ceremony consisted of turning clockwise around the tree, 9 times for men and 7 times for women. The purpose of this ritual was to get empty bodies void of spirit, but this, for buyers, was still not enough. The next step was segregation; slaves were chained into large dark rooms called Zomai, that means "where light does not go"; they were imprisoned here for a few weeks, sometimes for months, to deprive them of their rebellious will and to lose their perception of time and the alternation of day and night, so they would be disoriented once they were brought out. The strongest were held for 2 weeks locked in the same position, chained and with a bite in the mouth in order to tamper and weaken them to avoid possible rebellion or alliances with other prisoners. Many slaves, malnourished and abused, have died while waiting to be taken aboard the negro ships, within these dark huts and their bodies were thrown into a common pit where now stands a memorial, the Memorial of Memory called also the Wall of Lamentations, because sometimes people were still living in the pit. The survivors were led to the Tree of Return, men and women had to turn around the tree 3 times clockwise. Then they were loaded on the shallops that would take them to the ships; the most combative or desperate, would prefer to commit suicide by throwing themselves out of the boats and drowning or trying to swallow their tongue in the act of suffocating themselves, rather than going to the unknown. The slaves were then stowed on the ships, up to 500 per vessel, the men were slammed down to make it more difficult to rebel while women were slumped on their backs, so it was easier to abuse them sexually; they remained in this position throughout the journey, about 3 months of sailing. It is estimated that 15 million slaves have arrived in the Americas, to which millions of men and women who have lost their lives before leaving, the sick and wounded who were left to die, are added, the rebels who were killed and to these the number of those who committed suicide must be added, it can be assumed that Western slave trafficking involved about 30 million individuals. Approximately 2 million departed right from the port of Ouidah, that was the second most important Negrian port in West Africa after Luanda in Angola. ©Ingetje Tadros