Culture

Famed Benin Republic’s Voodoo festival brings back Afro-descendants

Published

2 years ago

January 12, 2023

A famous Voodoo festival which holds yearly in Benin Republic has brought together thousands of people of African descent from the US, Brazil and the Caribbean, seeking to discover the religion and land of their ancestors who were taken away as from the beaches of West Africa.

The festival celebrates a tribute to the deities of Voodoo, the indigenous religion that worships natural spirits and reveres ancestors.

The Voodoo festival, known locally as Vodoun, originated in the Dahomey kingdom in the present-day Benin and Togo, and is still widely practised alongside Christianity and other religions in coastal towns like Ouidah, once a trading hub where memorials to the slave trade are dotted around the small beach settlement, according to the organisers in a statement on Thursday.

One of the participants at the festival,
Louis Pierre Ramassamy who said he is Guadaloupe, said he came for the festival to reconnect with his origins.

“We come here first to search for our origins and reconnect with Mother Earth,” he said of his first visit to Benin.

Ramassamy said though he came to discover the Vodoun festival, but his stay has goes beyond that and would follow in the footsteps of his ancestors taken from Ouidah centuries ago, to rediscover the divinity practised by his maternal grandmother.

“If luck does not smile on me this time, I will come back another time. I need this reconnection for my personal development,” said Ramassamy, saying consultations and sacrifices were made for him in a Vodoun convent in Ouidah to help him reconnect with his roots.

Accompanied by drums and dancing, followers dressed in colourful traditional robes and gowns watched “Zangbeto” rituals – whirling dancers dressed as guardians of the night.

At the festival held on Wednesday, January 10, a date that has become synonymous with the festival, dozens of followers dressed in white, faced the ocean in Ouidah to pay homage to “Mami Wata”, a goddess of the sea.

“Our ancestors foresaw this return of Afro-descendants. They eagerly awaited by the ghosts of our ancestors,” said Hounnongan Viyeye Noumaze Gbetoton, one of the Vodoun dignitaries in Ouidah.

“When they return, it is to take blessings and recharge their batteries to move forward,” he added.

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Culture

Tyla set to drop new single ‘Tears’ on November 20

Published

23 hours ago

November 14, 2024

Isaac Dachen

South African “Ampiona” crooner, Tyla, is set to thrill her fans to her new single titled, “Tears’, which is set to drop on November 20.

According to a statement by her management team, Tyla’s fans should expect something different from the “Water” singer as she is set to release a brand-new single in collaboration with Coke Studio.

“This exciting partnership follows her announcement as part of the Coke Studio 2024 line-up alongside R&B star Usher Raymond in September,” the statement said.

Tyla who is fondly called the “Pretty girl from Joburg,” also took to her Instagram page to share the news with her fans.

Posting a snippet of the video on her Instagram story with the caption, “‘Tears’ coming November 20th! A song in partnership with @CocaCola”, confirming the November release date, she urged her fans to look forward to something different from what they are used to.

The brand has also shared on its social media platforms that Tyla will be performing this highly-anticipated single when she returns to Johannesburg, South Africa, at a special Coke Studio live event.

In an interview with Coke Studio, the 22-year-old singer shared how she breaks away from her original sound with “Tears”.

“I feel like in a lot of my songs, I’m dancing a lot. I really wanted a song where I could just sing, be more raw with people, and showcase my voice this time,” she said.

Snippets from the new single has showcases Tyla’s enchanting vocals, revealing a more vulnerable side that is different from her previous work.

“Breaking away from the amapiano and pop sound she’s best known for, Tyla embarks on an exciting new journey with this project,” one of the reviews said.

“Through “Tears”, she wants to connect with listeners in a raw, captivating way as she partners with Coke Studio to bring this new sound to life.’

Culture

Moroccan court jails journalist 18 months over remarks about politician

Published

3 days ago

November 12, 2024

Isaac Dachen

A Moroccan court on Monday sentenced a journalist, Hamid Mahdaoui, to 18 months in prison after he was found guilty of accusing a prominent politician of fraud, a verdict that has sparked international condemnation from press freedom advocates.

Mahdaoui’s case has garnered international criticism because he is being prosecuted under Morocco’s penal code rather than the press code governing journalistic conduct.

His attorney Mohamed Hedach, told journalists after the judgement that Mahdaoui who is the editor in chief of Badil.info, will serve a 1.5-year sentence and be fined an equivalent of $150,000 after being found guilty of defamation.

Mahdaoui was prosecuted after a complaint from Justice Minister Abdellatif Ouahbi following a video posted on his website accusing Ouahbi of corruption and fraud, both of which the justice minister denied.

The accusations, according to media reports, came after the royalist Party of Authenticity and Modernity, which Ouahbi headed, became enmeshed in controversy last year when an imprisoned Malian drug dealer implicated party members in a sprawling drug trafficking case that shook the North African kingdom.

Reporters Without Borders’ North Africa representative Khaled Drareni had in October, called the prosection of the journalist a “misuse of the justice system to intimidate and silence the press.”

Mahdaoui was imprisoned in 2017 after publicly throwing his support behind activists who led protests over social and economic inequities. He was also sentenced to three years for not reporting to authorities that a Dutch Moroccan man had told him arms were being sent to the protesters. He later said he didn’t report it because he didn’t take the information seriously.

Morocco has in recent years been criticized for imprisoning journalists and activists known for criticizing the government. King Mohammed VI pardoned and released the country’s three most prominent imprisoned journalists — Omar Radi, Taoufik Bouachrine and Soulaimane Raissouni — in July.