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

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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.

Culture

Davido’s ‘Unavailable’ achieves milestone with 100 million views on YouTube, Spotify

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Nigeria’s Afrobeats sensation, David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, has landed another milestone after his hit single, “Unavailable’, surpassed 100 million streams on both YouTube and Spotify.

According to a release on Wednesday by his management team, the track which features South African artist, Musa Keys, also hit a major milestone as its music video crossed 100 million views on YouTube.

The hit track which was released on April 11, 2023, as part of Davido’s chart-topping album “Timeless”, grew to become the most streamed Afrobeats song of 2023 and received high praise, including being named by Rihanna as her favorite single of the year.

“The single, Unavailable, has also surpassed 100 million streams on Spotify to become Davido’s first single to achieve this feat,” the statement said.

“With the music video surpassing 100 million views, it becomes Davido’s fourth song to surpass the 100 million streams mark following his 2017 hit releases ‘If’, ‘Fall’, and ‘FIA’.

“Following the success of Unavailable, Davido released a remix EP that includes collaborations with Jamaican Dancehall star Sean Paul and American rapper Latto.

“Described by Rihanna as her favourite single of 2023, Davido’s Unavailable was the most streamed Afrobeats song released in 2023.

“Additionally, the single recently earned a SNEP Gold plaque after reaching 15 million streams in France, cementing its status as a global hit,” it added.

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Cameroon opens museum dedicated to oldest, influential kingdoms

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The Cameroonian government has inaugurated a historical museum which is dedicated to honouring its oldest and most influential kingdoms.

Known as the Royal Bomaun Kings Museum, it was inaugurated on Saturday, April 13, in Foumban, the Bauman Kingdom’s traditional capital, located in the western part of the country.

The edifice which is next to the royal palace of the Bamouns, has been described as an architectural masterpiece, pays homage to the emblem of the Bamoun – a double-headed snake, a spider, and a double-mounted gong, and houses over 10,000 historical artefacts most of whom are century-old objets d’art.

It was inaugurated by King Nabil Mbombo Njoya, the 20th ruler of the Bamouns, alongside Culture Minister, Pierre Ismaël Bidoung Mkpatt.

Foremost Cameroonian historian and anthropologist, Professor Francois Bingono Bingono, who was among the visitors at the opening of the museum, spoke glowingly of the project.

“I was privileged to visit the museum. I can tell you that it is not only the culture of western Cameroon, the culture of the Bamouns that is celebrated inside those walls.

“I recognized the culture of the forest, meaning the culture of the inhabitants of southern Cameroon, a heavily forested region.

“I also recognized the cultures of the regions of East, Centre and South Cameroon. One can also come across the cultural heritage of Loum, of the Hauts-Plateaux department, and that of northern Cameroon.

“This museum is the ideal place for those who wish to go back to their roots or take a deep dive into the culture heritage of Cameroon.

“You can see valuable items inside such as thrones and chairs used by the King. Really anything that has to do with the Bamoun dynasty from the first rulers to the current monarch.

“This is patrimony that is handed down to future generations. For the Bamouns, it represents an achievement and a celebration of their culture. For Cameroonians at large, it is part of their history.”

The Bamoun Kingdom is one of the oldest in sub-saharan Africa with historians dating its creation to the late XIVth century.

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