The Beninese state has spent the past thirty years promoting African indigenous religions (notably Vodun) as something crucial to Benin’s national identity. Both the Beninese state and Vodun priests and priestesses have worked continuously to valorize Vodun as: a part of Benin’s cultural heritage, something that was used to combat colonialism, and a current means of cultural and religious decolonization. This talk will examine the ways the Benin is working to promote Vodun as something important to decolonial and self-empowerment discourses. I will analyze the bureaucratic processes that the Beninese government has undergone in this pursuit: the origins of Benin’s tourism industry, the creation of the Vodun Days holiday, the repatriation of artifacts stolen by France during colonialism, and the creation of national monuments (many of which being to individuals and groups thought to possess spiritual power).
The democratization processes of the 1990s in Benin enabled it to become one of most democratically stable countries in West Africa—encouraging President Nicephore Soglo to invest in tourism. One example of this is the Ouidah 92 festival which later expanded to include the Door of No Return monument built by UNESCO on the beach in Ouidah (Fortes 2007: 131)—to commemorate the last view of Africa those enslaved in Dahomey would have had before being sent to the Americas. These monuments, built to commemorate slavery and promote the culture of Vodun, are meant to draw in an Afro-diasporic market of tourism (among other global markets). Benin’ current President, Patrice Talon, has continued this decades-long trend of commemorating history, and heavily promotes Vodun as a major component of Beninese identity. Most recently, in 2025, Patrice Talon lengthened the national holiday “Traditional Religions Day” to a three-day holiday called “Vodun Days.” This is in addition to repatriating and displaying artifacts from France and building monuments commemorating anti-colonial heroes. In brief, while Benin has not made the major economic splits from former colonial powers that countries like Niger or Burkina Faso have, Benin has used cultural, symbolic, and touristic means of combatting colonial legacies. This talk works to analyze the different manners decolonial discourses are unfolding within West Africa by examining the ways indigenous religion and ideas of spiritual power relate to decolonization.
The Beninese state has spent the past thirty years promoting African indigenous religions (notably Vodun) as something crucial to Benin’s national identity. Both the Beninese state and Vodun priests and priestesses have worked continuously to valorize Vodun as: a part of Benin’s cultural heritage, something that was used to combat colonialism, and a current means of cultural and religious decolonization. This talk will examine the ways the Benin is working to promote Vodun as something important to decolonial and self-empowerment discourses. I will analyze the bureaucratic processes that the Beninese government has undergone in this pursuit: the origins of Benin’s tourism industry, the creation of the Vodun Days holiday, the repatriation of artifacts stolen by France during colonialism, and the creation of national monuments (many of which being to individuals and groups thought to possess spiritual power).