BENIN, THE CRADLE OF VOODOO
 
Voodoo dolls and zombies? In reality, the oldest religion in the world has very little to do with all that. The voodoo cult´s roots lay in Benin, a small country in Western Africa, from where it spread over the whole world due to slave trade, to Northern and Southern America and the Caribbeans where it has found its own interpretations.
The cult’s numerous ritualistic acts are still an inherent part of everyday life in Benin - they provide healing and maintain the balance in society.  It is a the mystic world of priests, healers and magicians, explaining the cult of ancestors and sacrificial rituals .
As modernization is shfiting the values of the people in Benin, creating new needs and thurst for personal enrichment, Voodoo and its rituals and ceremonies remain an anchor of hope to a more prosperous and fullfilled life, the people moving between faith and superstition, rituals and witchcraft. A religion and culture which is incorporated and lived naturally and farming part of the daily life.
A photographical portrait of Benin narrating through the different aspects of what is Voodoo in Benin today.
These photographs have been published in the book “Voodoo, Leben mit Göttern und Heilern“ portraying the origins of one of the oldest religions of the world. Published by the german publisher Terra Magica, Munich, 2011. (english translation: Voodoo - Living with gods and healers in Benin“).
This project has been exhibited and shown in 2012 at the Browse Fotofestival in Berlin and screened at Visa
pour l’Image in Perpignan and the Shades of Women Festival in Rome.


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