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Benin Showcases Culture with Vodun Days
The three-day festival promotes Benin's Vodun heritage and aims to attract up to one million visitors, boosting cultural tourism and reconnecting the diaspora.
- On Thursday, President Patrice Talon opened Vodun Days in Ouidah, arriving in a baseball cap amid cheers as the three-day early-January festival began.
- The Beninese government has promoted Vodun as the spearhead of an ambitious cultural-tourism policy, investing more than 1.2 trillion CFA francs over the past decade and plans similar spending through 2030.
- On the Fort Français esplanade, Zangbeto guardians performed in a straw whirlwind before devotees and tourists, while Egungun mask parades in Maro Square and trance dances daubed in yellow powder occurred.
- Amid the festivities, officials stressed that sacred rites are shielded from tourists, with animal sacrifices and initiation ceremonies kept private, and Tourism Minister Jean-Michel Abimbola said 'We make a clear distinction between the cultural and heritage aspects and the religious and worship aspects'.
- Authorities reported rising numbers of foreign tourists and Afro-descendants and Beninese diaspora returnees, while the government hoped to attract as many as a million visitors to this year's festival.
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources40
Leaning Left7Leaning Right6Center8Last UpdatedBias Distribution38% Center
Bias Distribution
- 38% of the sources are Center
38% Center
L 33%
C 38%
R 29%
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