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Thousands of worshippers and tourists flock to West Africa for a Voodoo pilgrimage

It was from Ouidah that the cult of the invisible and of natural spirits was exported to Louisiana, Brazil and Haiti.

By :  amrit sadhana
Update: 2017-01-12 07:06 GMT
Every January, thousands of voodoo worshippers joined by crowds of tourists and descendants of slaves trudge down the long sand track leading to the beach at Ouidah in Benin.
Nearby, a group of men daubed with soil from head to toe dance in a trance to the rhythm of the djembe hand drum and make offerings to talismans.
Though Ouidah is not the source of voodoo -- which originated in the old kingdom of Dahomey, modern-day Togo and Benin -- it was from here that the cult of the invisible and of natural spirits was exported to Louisiana, Brazil and Haiti.
After the fall of the communist regime in Benin, President Nicephore Soglo launched the first voodoo festival in 1993, making Ouidah voodoo's most famous place of pilgrimage for its 50 million followers worldwide.
A man climbs a bamboo pole nearly 15 metres (50 feet) high with his bare hands as part of the festival.
Erected in 1992 in memory of those packed on ships bound for the New World, the Gate of No Return is a living reminder that the small Beninese coastal town of Ouidah once was the muster point for the black slave trade on the southern coast of West Africa.
The cars, motorbikes and women in wrap skirts with tribal scars on their cheeks head to the Gate of No Return monument overlooking the crashing waves of the Atlantic Ocean beach.
It was from Ouidah that the cult of the invisible and of natural spirits was exported to Louisiana, Brazil and Haiti.

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