Benin's mecca of spirits and gods draws tourists and followers with famed Voodoo festival

OUIDAH, Benin (AP) — As children dance with great speed and energy in colorful robes, guided by the drumbeats and chants from dance troupes, the gods and spirits that are evident all around the arena are beckoned upon by the old and young for peace and prosperity. And on the sidelines, camera clicks from foreigners and locals follow the festivities.

Welcome to the ancient town of Ouidah, in southern Benin, a mecca of gods and spirits where the celebration of the annual Voodoo festival brings a mix of tourism and religion in a clash of cultures and the ability for ancient traditional beliefs to adapt to modern life.

The small West African nation held the annual festival last weekend, with Voodoo day marking the “return to the source for all Africans and Afro-descendants,” said Christian Houetchenou, the mayor of Ouidah.

“It is to come back and live their culture, art and spirituality for those who practice Voodoo,” said Houetchenou.

The festival gained popularity over the years from within and outside Africa, organizers say, and attracts thousands of locals and foreigners who flock to the Atlantic coast town to experience one of the world’s oldest religions.

Officials are now hoping to explore its full tourism potential and showcase Benin's rich culture and tradition.

“This is a way to show people the pomp, the beauty, and the value of Voodoo and more importantly the value and spirit of the Beninese people…(and) of all African people,” said Suzanne Celeste Delaunay Belleville, the Voodoo priestess, draped in beads and a white robe.

Featuring traditional ceremonies, dance events, and rituals in the form of incantations, adulations and offerings, Voodoo — which has its own pope whose reign dates back to the 1400s — borrows heavily from the mythology and cultural displays of Yoruba people of Nigeria’s southwest and reflects other sides of traditional religion across Africa, including from the neighboring Togo and Ghana.

Located in different parts of Ouidah are alters and shrines where everything — from trees to wooden carvings and earthen walls — bears portraits of gods and spirits invoked day and night by devotees and their servants.

Many foreigners attend the annual festival to document memories and experience the thrill of it while others, like Jaimie Lyne, from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, are drawn to it by their curiosity to find out if all they’ve heard is true.

Lyne said her mother’s visit to Benin in 2023 sparked her interest in Voodoo and Benin's cultural heritage. Before her trip, most of what she heard about Voodoo was that it is “demonized”, and “archaic.”

But she saw a different reality on the ground.

“One thing that I’m going to take home with me to the Caribbean is that Vodun is something to be learned and understood,” said Lyne, a data analyst. “It’s the culture of communion with the land and the elements and it is really more about how everything has an explanation in terms of all of the symptoms, all of the realities of the world and the rain and the sun.”

It is for such reasons — to enable the people to showcase their culture and tell their stories — that the festival has stood the test of time, said Belleville.

“It’s important for us to be able to carry our message ourselves,” she said. "No one can better talk about us than ourselves.”

Asadu reported from Abuja, Nigeria.

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A tour guide, right, explained to Jaimie Lyne, a tourist from the Caribbean, about a slave statue in Ouidah, Benin, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Voodoo worshippers are seen at the beach in Ouidah, Benin, Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

A voodoo priest prays inside a shrine during the annual Voodoo Festival in Ouidah, Benin, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

A voodoo worshipper dances ahead of the annual Voodoo Festival in Ouidah, Benin, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

A Voodoo worshipper dances during the annual Voodoo Festival in Ouidah, Benin, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Voodoo worshippers dance during the annual Voodoo Festival in Ouidah, Benin, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

A man sprinkles water as Zangbeto masquerades the traditional Voodoo guardians of the night performing ahead of the annual Voodoo Festival in Ouidah, Benin, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

A voodoo worshipper performs during the annual Voodoo Festival in Ouidah, Benin, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Voodoo dolls are seen wrapped into a woman's dress, during the annual Voodoo Festival in Ouidah, Benin, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Zangbeto masquerade the traditional Voodoo guardians of the night performing ahead of the annual Voodoo Festival in Ouidah, Benin, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Zangbeto masquerades the traditional Voodoo guardians of the night performing ahead of the annual Voodoo Festival in Ouidah, Benin, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Zangbeto masquerades the traditional Voodoo guardians of the night performing ahead of the annual Voodoo Festival in Ouidah, Benin, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran has sent its response to the latest U.S. ceasefire proposal via Pakistani mediators and wants negotiations to focus on permanently ending the war, Iran’s state-run media said Sunday. Pakistan confirmed receiving it.

Iran seeks to end the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon, where Israel fights the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group, and to ensure the security of shipping, its state TV said. Washington’s latest proposal addressed a deal to end the war, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and roll back Iran’s nuclear program, an issue that Tehran would rather discuss later.

The White House had no immediate comment about Iran’s reply. President Donald Trump is giving diplomacy “every chance we possibly can before going back to hostilities,” the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, told ABC.

Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen or heard publicly since the war began, “issued new and decisive directives for the continuation of operations and the powerful confrontation with the enemies” while meeting with the head of the joint military command, the state broadcaster reported, with no details.

Meanwhile, the fragile ceasefire was tested when a drone ignited a small fire on a ship off Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait reported drones entering their airspace. The UAE blamed Iran. No casualties were reported, and no one immediately claimed responsibility.

Qatar's Foreign Ministry called it a “dangerous and unacceptable escalation that threatens the security and safety of maritime trade routes and vital supplies in the region."

Iran and armed allied groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon have used drones to carry out hundreds of strikes since the war began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Feb. 28.

Trump has reiterated threats to resume full-scale bombing if Iran does not accept an agreement to reopen the strait and roll back its nuclear program. Iran has largely blocked the strategic waterway that's key to the global flow of oil, natural gas and fertilizer since the war began, rattling world markets.

The U.S. in turn has blockaded Iranian ports and on Friday struck two Iranian oil tankers it said were trying to breach the blockade. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard navy says any attack on Iranian oil tankers or commercial vessels would be met with a “heavy assault” on one of the U.S. bases in the region and enemy ships.

The American military said Sunday that it has turned back 61 commercial vessels and disabled four since the blockade began April 13.

Another sticking point in negotiations is Iran’s highly enriched uranium. The U.N. nuclear agency says Iran has more than 440 kilograms (970 pounds) of uranium that is enriched up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels.

In an interview with state media posted late Saturday, an Iranian military spokesperson said its forces were on “full readiness” to protect nuclear sites where uranium is stored.

“We considered it possible that they might intend to steal it through infiltration operations or heli-borne operations,” Brig. Gen. Akrami Nia told the IRNA news agency.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an excerpt of an interview with CBS scheduled to air later Sunday said the war isn't over because the enriched uranium needs to be taken out of Iran. “Trump has said to me, ‘I want to go in there,’ and I think it can be done physically,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that Moscow’s proposal to take enriched uranium from Iran to help negotiate a settlement remains on the table.

The majority of Iran’s highly enriched uranium is likely at its Isfahan nuclear complex, the International Atomic Energy Agency director-general told The Associated Press last month. The facility was bombarded by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes in the 12-day war last year and faced less intense attacks this year.

Pakistan oversaw face-to-face talks between the U.S. and Iran last month and continues to pursue mediation. In rare public comments, army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir said Islamabad remains committed to helping end the conflict. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif spoke by phone with his Qatari counterpart.

The UAE's Defense Ministry said it shot down two drones and blamed Iran.

In Kuwait, Defense Ministry spokesperson Brig. Gen. Saud Abdulaziz Al Otaibi said hostile drones entered Kuwait’s airspace and forces responded “in accordance with established procedures.” The ministry did not say where the drones came from.

Qatar's Defense Ministry said a drone targeted a commercial ship coming from Abu Dhabi, setting a small fire that was extinguished. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center said the attack happened 23 nautical miles (43 kilometers) northeast of the capital, Doha. It gave no details about the ship’s owner or origin, and there was no claim of responsibility.

Several attacks against ships in the Persian Gulf have occurred over the past week, and a U.S. effort to “guide” ships through the strait was soon paused.

South Korea announced initial findings from a investigation that said two unidentified airborne objects struck the South Korean-operated vessel HMM NAMU about one minute apart while it was anchored in the Strait of Hormuz last week, causing an explosion and fire. A foreign ministry spokesperson said officials have yet to determine who was responsible.

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad; Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul; Julia Frankel in Jerusalem; and Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.

Container ships sit at anchor in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Saturday, May 2, 2026.(Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)