14512: (Chamberlain) Benin-Voodoo Day (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By VIRGILE AHISSOU

   OUIDAH, Benin, Jan 11 (AP) -- To the din of gongs and tambourines,
thousands of voodoo believers from around the world joined a festive
gathering here Friday, and urged an end to the violence afflicting several
African nations.
   After a ritual sacrifice of goats and chickens, voodoo chief Daagbo
Hounon Houna led an incantation "for peace in Ivory Coast and the other
African countries in crisis."
   Houna was surrounded by other voodoo leaders as part of Benin's National
Voodoo Day, which drew about 12,000 people, including some from the United
States.
   At least 60 percent of 6.3 million people of the West African nation of
Benin practice voodoo -- a tradition that holds, in part, that life derives
from the natural forces of earth, water, fire and air.
   Countless Africans shipped into slavery from this lagoon-lined strip of
the south Atlantic -- then called the Slave Coast -- took the legacy of
voodoo with them to the Caribbean, American South, and elsewhere.
   Today, scores of Americans and Haitians return every year to attend the
Jan. 10 festival, launched here first in 1995.
   "It's the second time that I've come to Benin for the festival,"
explained Elizabeth McKint, a doctor from Omaha, Neb.
   "I think I'll soon become a voodoo initiate. It's a tradition that I
find more and more appealing," McKint said.
   Peace was uppermost in many visitors' minds as a nearly four-month spate
of fighting continues in Ivory Coast.
   A failed September coup attempt turned rebellion has killed hundreds,
driven thousands from their homes and split West Africa's economic
powerhouse into insurgent- and government-held enclaves.
   For others, Benin's voodoo festival is an excuse to dabble in the
occult.
   "It's moving to live voodoo ceremonies in their original fashion," said
Kristina Gabrieli, a Portugese national living in Brazil.
   "It's more real than the movies or television."