Benin showcases culture with Vodun Days

For some years now, the Beninese government has been promoting the ancestral religion as the spearhead of an ambitious tourism policy. The old Vodun festival, celebrated on January 10, has given way to Vodun Days, a three-day festival of dancing, mask parades and traditional ceremonies in the coastal city just west of capital Cotonou also known for its role in the Atlantic slave trade of bygone centuries. Although scenes of animal sacrifices on altars have been kept far from the tourist gaze there...