Benin festival seeks to dispel voodoo stereotypes

OUIDAH, Benin - Modeste Zinsou, manager of Benin's Python Temple, gently drapes a live snake around a visitor's neck at the country's annual voodoo festival, as spectators learn about the reptiles' sacred connection to voodoo spirituality.

Practitioners like Zinsou seek to combat negative stereotypes of voodoo, a 500-year-old religion that celebrates a rich pantheon of deities and spirits.

"Stop saying that voodoo is about dolls. Voodoo is spirituality. Voodoo is you, it's me. It's the air we breathe. It's the four elements, as we say: water, air, fire, and earth," Zinsou said.

Every January, the festival Vodun Days draws tourists and worshippers to the small Atlantic coast town of Ouidah, offering a varied programme of ceremonies, concerts and exhibitions.

This year, visitors could marvel at the spectacle of the so-called guardians of the night - performers dressed head-to-toe in dyed straw, who whirl and dance in an elaborate ritual.

Gbogossi Tolete, a voodoo priestess from the neighbouring town of Grand Popo, said the belief system had nothing to do with witchcraft or harming others.

"Voodoo is as sweet as sugar for anyone who practices it with faith," Tolete said on the sidelines of the festival.

A tourist from the French Caribbean island of Martinique, Nathy Anika Nsemi, said that learning about the religion had helped her reconnect with the world and the faith of her ancestors.

"Voodoo is communion with the world around us."

(Reporting by Pulcherie Adjoha, Seraphin Zounyekpe and Media Coulibaly; Writing by Anait Miridzhanian; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)