Religion and traffic.

So far I have managed to participate in the festivities of all the three main religions in Benin: Christianity, Islam and Voodoo (several different spellings for the last one, I’m using the Hollywood version here). As for the title here, religion is closely linked to traffic, just as any other specters of life.

The Ramadan ended on Sunday, and on Monday evening we had a dinner at our nightwatch Abdoullai’s house, after which we continued to the local Fulani people’s party, a few kilometers from Grand-Popo. I was quite surprised to see a Fulani version of bling-bling rappers’ clothing…I wish I had taken some photos of those guys, they were absolutely amazing. The contrast was even bigger as all the women were dressed very conservatively and didn’t dance too much, neither. I felt myself very naked with an African top which exposed my shoulders, not to mention my uncovered head...! But well, we had some pastis (I don’t think I’ve ever drank as much pastis as I’ve done here), took a lot of photos and poses with different people on a bed with light blue satin cover (I know, it sounds a bit weird – see the photo) and danced, danced & danced…until we, lazy Finnish white people got just too tired and left the party a bit before 1am. Our clothes were nevertheless already soaked by sweat, caused by dancing wildly zouk (from Côte d’Ivoire), salsa, agbaja (Beninese traditional dance) and some Fulani style, such as the latest Hausa tunes…and since there weren’t that many women on the dance-floor (or dance-ground, since the party was held outside), men danced with each other - quite provocatively, I must say. I can’t wait for Tabaski, it’s sometime around the New Year this year! (Lauri, I’m sure you have all the necessary Muslim dates in your head, right?)

I have also participated in two Masses: one at the Catholic church, with loads of people, and another at the Protestant / Methodist church, with only 20 believers or so (and some of them sleeping). The formula seemed quite similar to me as in Finland, only the hymns were more than slightly different with drums and very high female nasal voices and dancing…

There are some striking similarities between Christian and local religion. The offerings in Christianity are bread & wine, representing body & blood, whereas in Voodoo ceremonies it is gin or sodabi (the famous palm booze), sacrificed animals, perfume or glittering objects. Indeed, the Christian church seemed just as strange and mystic to me when priests spoke in unfamiliar languages – if I didn’t know what was going on because of my religious education in Finland, it would not have been any different from my Voodoo experiences here so far. I would have needed someone to explain me the happenings in the Catholic church, though – we were not quite sure what was going on all the time. There are still several churches I haven’t visited yet, such as the Pentecostals, Assemblées de Dieu and Celestial Christians, a local sect which I’d like to get acquainted a bit more.

The Muslims around here (not very many in this South-Western part of Benin) don’t seem to respect the pillars of Islam too strictly. The only ones who I knew for sure were fasting during the Ramadan were Abdoullai and his family. I heard explanations such as: “I’ve not been a Muslim for very long yet, and now I’m learning a bit by bit – maybe I will fast during the last week or so…”. Nevertheless, I’m quite glad that our driver in Togo ate at least something during the day, since we were driving hundreds of kilometers per day and the accident rate is somewhat high. Luckily we had bought some charms from the fetish market in Lomé to guarantee our safe journey: a small wooden object in which you are supposed to whisper your wishes for the trip, close it and then open it after returning home safely. It is a common belief that if a person wears a certain talisman, in case of an accident s/he will magically disappear from the vehicle and thus be saved. The talisman might be either a local one or perhaps Jesus or Mary – it doesn’t really make any difference. Convenient, isn’t it?

Another belief that I’ve been told is that alcohol or other drug substances enhance your capabilities as a driver. No wonder that our driver Mohammad (also a Muslim, as you might guess from the name) drank happily palm wine and sodabi with us while stopping in a palm wine “factory” in Togo (see the previous photos in Flickr), and drove the car about 120 kilometres per hour afterwards…

Just a note: two days ago a truck crushed with another car in Grand-Popo – one person killed, more severely injured. And this happens every two weeks or so, which means that there are a lot of funerals every Saturday.

One more thing about the cars here: nothing is broken as long as it works (what a wonderful aphorism!). Most cars are somehow desperately patched together. For example doors are often loose and attached to the frame of the car with a hook or a rope. There was no single meter working in a bush taxi we took to Comé, a nearby town with a big market every five days. On our way back we had a luxury taxi, since at least the clock and the cycle meter for the motor were working! I was told that these cars, on the verge of breaking down any minute, are called “cars from France” – nobody wants to have them anymore in the rich countries, so they are sent to Africa. There would be a lot of business for used cars here!