No Peeps, no chocolate bunnies, no
egg hunts or ages-2+ plastic grass… Another holiday in village, another
reminder of how bizarre my life is.
Easter, according to my neighbors,
is the biggest party in Houeda. Saturday at midnight, there was a procession of
children drumming and singing. Sunday afternoon, everyone choked down
spaghetti, rather than their preferred nightly dish of sauce with pâte (a
hardened mixture of corn flour and water. Think hard cream of wheat, but corn-flavored…
I should really do a food blog one of these days). And Sunday evening, the
blaring music came. Adults drank, children danced, babies cried, and the yovo took
a peek and then stayed inside with a batch of burned cookies and a kitten she
high-jacked from her concession family when they weren’t looking (I have mice
now, I needed him to make my house smell all cat-y!). The music continued until
6 AM Monday, provided a short break for more singing and screaming of “ALLELUIA!”
and then started back up until mid morning...
Meanwhile, down on the farm, my
supervisor Moïse (French for “Moses.” This is ironic. You’ll see why.) invited
40 people from his congregation, plus me, to “receive the light.” Moïse is part
of a New Age Japanese religion, “Mahikari.” Wiki it.
After two years, I sometimes find
it difficult to be shocked by things here… But to see a group of Beninese men,
women, and children face north and chant incantations in Japanese, I was
humbled by how little I’ve seen or have come to understand about this world.
The ceremony began with ten
minutes of chanting in Japanese, bowing, and clapping. I was then introduced to
a kind older woman named Jeanne, who asked politely if she could now give me
the light of God. I was instructed to close my eyes as she raised her hands
over me for another ten minutes. Through later observation, I found that most
people passing on the light (those in Jeanne’s position) used this time to
check their phones with their free hands. I thought that was funny… Step three,
I was instructed to turn around for another ten minutes while Jeanne periodically
touched pressure points on my head, neck, and back, politely saying “excuse me,
dear Michelle, you will now receive light at point number ___” with each gentle
touch. At the end, we bowed and clapped together, thanking god for sharing his
light with me… A truly bizarre experience, but it meant a great deal to Moïse
for me to finally receive the light of his faith.
Folks back home, you may be
confused. You may be wondering what the hell is up with my small African
village, full of party-hardy Christians and practitioners of New Age Eastern
religions? Valid question.
Benin is historically and
culturally noted as the birthplace of voodoo, the traditional animist religion
that has spread across West Africa to Haiti and Louisiana, famous for goddesses
and infamous for dolls and jinxing. And while it is still the most prominent
religion in the rural regions of southern Benin, most people today identify
with several religions at once. In fact, it’s an amazing harmony that people
have established here, allowing to each their own, hardly scoffing at one who
is an animist at heart, but a Catholic on Sundays.
Though the mixing of such starkly
different religions can seem incongruous, it’s a testament to all of the
changes to which this place and this culture have been subjected – through colonization,
through globalization, through the status of a developing country. I remember a
conversation I had with my maman when I first moved to village, about the
perils of poverty and the prominence of religion here (Have I mentioned this? Faith
in god is mentioned quite frequently in conversation, it’s used to market
various products, it’s the basis of the local music and film industries, it’s
advertised on bumper stickers, license plates, and delivery trucks…). Anyway,
she said that “to live here, it’s necessary that you believe in god. Because
there is little we can do and it’s god who will take care.”And as most people
here live so close to nature and have so few means to control it, it’s
impossible to abandon traditional beliefs about the powers of wind and water,
for example… But frankly, the benefits that come with joining a church of the
missionaries are also understandable. Churches are typically the largest, nicest
buildings here. Funds for development so often have spiritual strings attached,
and the ceremonies themselves have been strategically tailored to the African
ceremonial traditions, incorporating a great deal of song and dance.
And so, no one seems to blame
anyone else for their religious choice(s), and they are especially willing to
try anything once. It’s an admirable part of this culture, the peaceable religious
component, though somewhat of an anomaly here, as it’s still in my opinion a
culture very much concerned with homogeneity and definition. I guess the
general rule is that as long as you believe in something, you’re good…
Well, that’s all for my monthly
story / cultural commentary… Just a few holidays to go until I can properly
celebrate them in my own American way! It will be once again sad to miss family
birthdays and the 4th of July, but I’ll be happy to make it home in
time for the big four – Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year! In
the mean time, 2014 is already 33% over, and that’s wild.
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