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In the tiny West African country of Benin, voodoo has been practised for 10,000 years, but efforts to preserve its ancient oral traditions are exacting a harsh toll on its faithful, splitting families and pushing people deeper into poverty.

Benin is unique in recognising voodoo as an official religion, followed by two-thirds of its 7.6 million people. It involves a pantheon of gods and spirits whose intercession is sought through animal blood sacrifice. But to survive, voodoo needs a new generation to pass on sacred mysteries, so thousands of children are initiated by its priests every year. But the price of the ceremonies can be unbearable and some parents are selling their children to repay voodoo debts.

Benin's poverty has been caused by factors including arid soil, over-population and disastrous financial management in 17 years up to 1990 when it was a Marxist dictatorship. At best, voodoo ceremonies strain the resources of rural communities who traditionally bartered goods, not cash, for rituals. At worst, it bankrupts and splits families, forcing them deeper into debt and destitution.

One way to mitigate the worst effects of poverty is to sell children, giving them up in lieu of the costs of initiation and other ceremonies. Other parents send their children to work as domestic servants or labourers in conditions that Souleymane Diallo, the UN Children's Education Fund representative in Benin, describes as 'a form of modern slavery'.

Diallo believes many families will pay for initiation debts by selling one or more children into bonded labour. Research suggests 40,000 children are trafficked into labour in Benin every year and also to quarries in Nigeria where they are routinely beaten, starved and work gruelling shifts breaking rocks.

One self-confessed child trafficker estimates his family run business has brokered the sale of more than 3,000 to work as servants and labourers in 'the last few years'.

Eric Abou, a Muslim, adds: 'My mother is undergoing initiation. It's very expensive, and she is not allowed to leave the convent until I have paid for the ceremonies.' The suggestion that he might leave her there and save some money – and sell fewer children – is greeted with a nervous laugh. Voodoo is serious business.

· Director James Brabazon was in Benin with reporter Evan Williams. Their film 'Unreported World: Voodoo Children' will be shown on Channel 4 on Friday

From Wikipedia:

Voodoo is a religious tradition originating in West Africa, which became prominent in the New World due to the importation of African slaves. West African Vodun is the original form of the religion; Haitian Vodou and Louisiana Voodoo are its descendants in the New World.

Vodou (Anglicized: Voodoo) is a name attributed to a New World syncretistic religion, or family of religions, based on the faiths of the Fon, Ewe, and related peoples of West Africa (see West African Vodun), of the Kongo people of Central Africa (see Lemba), and of Christianity. It is found in areas of the African diaspora, especially Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Brazil. This article is primarily concerned with the form of the religion as it is practiced in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. See Louisiana Voodoo for the Afro-creole tradition of New Orleans, Santería and Arará for the forms local to Cuba, and Candomblé and Umbanda for Brazil.

In Vodou [voo - doo], all Creation is divine and therefore contains divine power, which can be accessed by practitioners. The core functions of Voodoo are to explain the forces of the universe, to influence those forces, and to influence human behavior. Voodoo oral traditions carry genealogy, history, and fables. Adherents honor deities and venerate ancestors, both ancient and recent.

• Oyashango

  The author writes: “In the tiny West African country of Benin, voodoo has been practised for 10,000 years, but efforts to preserve its ancient oral traditions are exacting a harsh toll on its faithful, splitting families and pushing people deeper into poverty.”

  The above statement is a gross contradiction, and is replete with false assumptions and historical errors.

  First, Benin is less than 500 years old. How can it be the original home of a 10,000 year old religion?

  Second, the correct spelling is “Vodou or Vodoun,” which means “spirit” in the Ewe/Fon/Mina language. It is not “mysterious.”

  Third, Vodou is an ancient ancestral religion, that traverses the span of the African continent, and its long history. The intrusion of colonialism and the divisive and judgmental nature of imposed Christianity is what has divided families. Prior to that, African and other traditions lived in relative respect and peace for centuries, and prior to colonialism, these religions prospered in both material and spiritual wealth for its people.

  Finally, the Vodou religion has not impoverished Benin. The IMF, World Bank, US/Britain/France oppressive trade restrictions is what has impoverished Benin, as it has nearly all of Africa and the rest of the indigenous world.

  Lastly, the Vodou as does most indigenous spiritual systems, honor and respect the Earth. It works because it is genuinely one of the original esoteric systems known to man, and is connected with the cycle of life as God designed. It is the true source of the Judaic, Christan, Hindu and even the Islamic faiths who tend to hide and suppress this fact.
  If western propaganda and ignorance would not demonize and make a mockery of it, it could some day be the saving grace of humanity.

  Apr 28, 2012, 8:04 pm 0 Reply
• Oyashango

  I just finished reading the rest of this “hit piece” posing as authoritative research on “Voodoo.”

  How on earth did you conclude that “Voodoo” is placing a strain on the counties resources, because of their purchase of animals? They contribute to the economy, which many farmers and herders depend. Many bred and raise their own animals as they have done for thousands of years. Where did you obtain your facts, and where are your figures from their own government accounting office?

  The cost of their ceremonies is what it is. Why aren’t you not comparing their cost to the multimillions that western christian preachers rake in fleecing their flocks within these megachurches?

  Next, what the heck has child trafficking have to do with this subject or the Vodou religion? I could go on, but I can’t stomach another western, racist and bigoted attack on another indigenous spiritual system, that your propaganda aims to demonize.

  This is little more than a KONY psyops, meant to justify future western efforts to attack this native population. Rest assure, just as your evangelicals have tired for hundreds of years to wipe these indigenous tradition off the face of the earth, it won’t work.

  Better, yet, why don’t you focus your attention on the moral and ethical disintegration and degeneration of Christianity? The massive corruption, fraud, fake leadership, adultery, incest, pedophilia and blind fanaticism is enough to keep you busy until the end of time.

  Apr 28, 2012, 8:44 pm 0 Reply
• country bumpkin

  bisquits,malt liquor in da bag, kfc,nice pastry lookin women….sheeet man wat i need voodoo fo. u all be tripen.be watching too much batman

  Apr 29, 2012, 6:49 am 0 Reply