VIDEO: Watch Moments From Benin’s Celebration Of African Spirituality At The 2024 Edition Of The Voodoo Festival

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The Voodoo Festival is more than just a festival, its a pilgrimage, a rejuvenation, a reconnection with the ancestors to hear them speak to us again. It might be the only feasable program in West Africa that celebrates the origins of African spirituality in some of its purest forms.

Voodoo, known locally as Vodoun, is a religion that worships gods and natural spirits along with respect for revered ancestors.

It originated in the Dahomey kingdom — present-day Benin and Togo — and is still widely practised sometimes alongside Christianity in coastal towns like Ouidah, where memorials to the slave trade are dotted around the small beach settlement.

This year, the Benin government rebranded the event and changed the format to make the festivities more appealing to tourists in a bid to boost the country’s economy.

It opted for a two-day celebration on January 9-10 with a reorganised programme in an event dubbed “Vodun Days”.

According to politician Kakpo Mahougnon, chair of the Benin Vodun Rites Committee, the government is considering further extending the length of the festival.

Clips of the 2024 Voodoo Festival was captured by Visual Artist, Creative Director and photographer Fede Kortez. Watch it below.

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