Inside Africa’s Most Mysterious Religion: Voodoo

I've never seen anything like this before time there is a small community of people across the world who practice a very mysterious religion called Voodoo you guys check it out that is the Masquerade this religion has been said to be involved in rituals black magic Witchcraft and the worst evil things you could probably think of [Music] in this video I'm traveling to a country where this mysterious religion is still being practiced to understand why everybody is so afraid of it from doing some research I also heard that this religion has a powerful Spirit which floats in the air and my plan was to find out if they were lying to all of us I'm giving myself 48 hours to find this floating spirit [Music] foreign I packed my bags and left Lagos to head to Benin Republic a neighboring country to Nigeria I had to make this journey by water because going by Road was going to take forever and we only had 48 hours I arrived in cotonou a large Port City on the south coast of Benin Republic and the first thing I did was to head to the streets to start my research walking around looking for Clues and signs for anything that could link me up to where I could find some Voodoo worshipers the more I searched the more I realized looking for the right information in a city as big as cotonou which was around 79 square kilometers wasn't going to be an easy task [Music] finally we came across a post ER that said there was a voodoo festival happening in the town of Guida which was about 40 kilometers from where we were it was called the voodoo festival and was meant to attract fans and worshipers from all across the world [Music] we hear that it's practice more permanently here hopefully we can find somebody who give us more information so what really is voodoo [Music] this is one of the oldest practice and some of the deities that we have in weed that come from Nigeria such as they come from Nigeria so we Nigeria Benin will be worshiping the same God the ancient God and this from our ancestors [Music] hudu is an ancient religion practiced by over 30 million people in the West African nations of Benin Togo Ghana and Nigeria it has countless deities and animals sacrifice and events of spirit possession of humans are very common Hulu has been said to do one of the most misunderstood religions in the world if this religion was practiced by so many people is there more towards the ice could see and why did it have millions of followers I was curious I wanted to find the real truth behind Voodoo so I continued digging [Music] so guys finally at uida and our first stop is the Temple of python which is right behind me here this is where the worship snakes snake worshiping is a very normal thing in Benin as part of the voodoo culture kind of how cartoons are celebrated in India the person can leave the agreement this person has 35 years old a person can live more than 70 years old and it's even considered a sign of Good Fortune should a snake cross one's path it's not a big deal look at the way the snake is going [Music] generally pythons are wild animals so why would anybody worship something that can harm you or literally constrict you to death the pythons were just a small segment of voodoo and I wanted to know more and also find the powerful floating Spirit I've heard about and my time was fast running out as we're living we bumped into a local tour guide who are going to provide more information how do we find them before looking forward here or you can start to go around the town you will see them it's just one group it's two groups foreign [Music] Temple and other places [Music] suddenly the whole street is filled with a lot of people that's mainly they have made the players on the shrine that's the biggest Shrine that protect the market and people after here we're going to the beach normally why we'll have big ceremony according to him it was the biggest Voodoo celebration in Africa and so I decided to head here foreign [Music] I noticed on my arrival that there were people not just from Africa but mostly from America Brazil the Caribbeans and many countries across the world people had flown all the way from other continents to attend this event and I found this really fascinating I have some people with me from the Caribbean that really wanted to know about West Africa and their Roots they find out that they're from here and they're really interested to see the land and where they come from and then the wooden Festival just really represents the spirit and the ancestor that I really brought them back to this land oh [Music] the wood Festival takes place every January 10th in Benin Republic and it's a way for locals to celebrate and pay trouble to their different deities of voodoo [Music] at the beachfront there were massive performances by the different followers of different deities with massive onlookers from far and wide there were so many thoughts running through my head if so many people from other parts of the world were willing to attend this ceremony and it Bears lots of similarities to what we see in pop culture and movies today then why was Voodoo so feared this is that you don't understand you want to stay away those who can help me to help another people that's why we are telling the four words that the day there will go to is not Evolution practices one of the lessons I've learned in life is that hating or loving anything always has to come from somewhere we've been programmed to hate our own hate our own culture it's our own value and on further reading of articles on the internet I discovered that another reason Voodoo is feared is actually due to racism Voodoo was first practiced in America and the Caribbeans by slaves of African descents who had been shipped in from West Africa through a strong conviction for their religion they revolted with the slaves beginning to kill their masters which led to a civil war in the end the high chance came out on top by overthrowing the world richest colony and creating the first black Republic the high chair Revolution provoked fear in other European and American colonies that were reliant on vast numbers of slaves as Plantation labor they then created laws that prohibited the practice of African religions so what about the Dark Side of voodoo I mean the people who eat for evil what do the devil's rituals are not the same okay but you will never use somebody for a ritual to make money or to understand something but you chose to be evil you should be good you chose to be good to be helping people to be bringing people alive or you choose the people to kill people it's a choice according to how Voodoo can be used to protect and it can also be used to harm what matters is the person wielding it as the event proceeded with different displays and presentations I was still on the lookout for the floating spirit I had heard his name was called Zhang Beto and it's believed to be the spirit of dead relatives among Voodoo worshipers the dead are taught to walk among the living [Music] it's time for the final performance [Music] I could see all the masquerades coming out there were different masquerades who represented different deities and they came out in different adornments the lineup of mass words on this side that's how the masculines are going to perform today it was a celebration with drums and lots of dancing and displays [Music] guys check it out that is the Masquerade for for a very long time [Music] let's see now what if I told you that that spinning mask weight you see there has nothing inside it you would think I was crazy right have a look again [Music] how can this be possible how can a masquerade be dancing all by itself somebody's in there shaking one two three and then tell it no one was today you know this is the beauty of voodoo to me I mean I don't know people might say it's a trick everything I was seeing before me went against the laws of physics and I really couldn't explain it it shows how Africans are powerful and we have to use it in the right way you know we just don't have to be scared of our own culture and history [Music] those who practice Voodoo believe that there is a visible and an invisible world and that those words are intertwined that for them is a transition to the invisible world so our predecessors are still with us in spirit if my oldest father or grandfather then I can call his spirit in a big masquerade and then he's going to pray for us oh really so the spirit of your dead great grandfather can enter that and pray for you yes and pray for me wow over the years American culture has appropriated African stories which are currently being used in box office movies an example is in the movie Avatar Ewa the all great mother in Avatar one and two were gotten from erwa which are spirits in the African religion of Haitian Voodoo another place where I noticed these two was in the movie Black Panther where you see them drinking herbs and going into an afterlife trance this all beer closed similarities to the voodoo culture that has been projected as evil I guess if he makes money for Hollywood then it makes sense if I if I go a medicine for you now I'll say that in the name of Almighty because I did not create they have some music because that I'm using I should not relate to them we are not always aware of the origins of our beliefs and every now and then we need to reassess what we know and how we know it which is why I'm making this video I'm not a voodoo worshiper by any means but neither am I a hater I just seek to understand it and share what I experience with you guys for me I'm as a content creator believe me or not I'm very open-minded yeah which anything that I see I learned from it that doesn't mean that that's what I believe in right yeah but you travel you learn you open your mind Mom if you are watching this video I'm still your lovely Christian son and I love Jesus I also noticed that many African traditions and cultures are under threat from Modern media and if Voodoo originated from West Africa doesn't it make sense to try and understand it it's only through education and getting to know those with different beliefs that we can overcome our fear of the unknown so what did I learn from this Adventure one of the things I learned about Bene as a country and as a people is how accommodating everybody is with each other's beliefs as they never interfere with other religious people's activities if you look forward that's a church yeah and the opposite is a food I mean when they worship something like that before it would be great if we can all be tolerant like the people of Benin and seek to learn more about ourselves because only then can we really begin to understand each other better thank you guys for watching this video if you loved it please hit the like button and subscribe to the channel see you on the next one [Music] thank you

Channel: Tayo Aina

Views: 4,000,620

Keywords: Inside Africa's Most Mysterious Religion, africa, bbc, bbc africa, documentary, bbc news, africa news, bbc africa news, bbc documentary, history, nigeria, mysterious, bbc africa eye, africa eye, bbc investigation, vice news, vice news tonight, vice on hbo, news, vice video, vice on showtime, vice news 2020, african history, god, west africa, #blackaxe, #nigeria, #cultism, #cultgroups, #aye, #axemen, black axe documentary, nigeria investigation, voodoo, tayo aina films, tayo aina, Benin

Id: RBUlZT1XoQU

Length: 14min 3sec (843 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 02 2023