A festival is held every year in Benin to honour the deities of Voodoo, an Indigenous religion that worships natural spirits.
People of African descent from the US, Brazil, and the Caribbean are increasingly attending the festival to learn more about the religion and land of their ancestors who were enslaved and shipped away from West West Africa.
Voodoo, known locally as Vodoun, originated in the Dahomey kingdom – present-day Benin and Togo – and is still widely practiced sometimes alongside Christianity in coastal towns like Ouidah, once a trading hub where memorials to the slave trade are dotted around the small beach settlement.
