one of the dancers of the Gambada Voodoo dance, in Bopa
One more Voodoo dance to go. Close to where we camped, still in Bopa, we stop – we could have walked – for another dance, the Gambada. This is a love dance: if a couple have issues, or if a boy fancies a girl, or the other way around, he or she can turn to the priest for help, who will then invoke the spirits in a ceremony, these will help solve the problem. Usefully, this dance can also assist in settling unpaid debt, everything in one!
not everybody has time to join the ceremony
a lonely drum, at the start of the ceremony
the band has started
the village fetish and offering shrine in one
the chief with his bottle of rocket fuel
more fetishes, in front of the chief – and me
Like any dance, the drum band, mobilised long before the actual dancers appear, works up everybody’s sense of rhythm. It is incredible what these guys accomplish, the stamina they have for playing for two hours flat out, no rest, burning sun. The four dancers – three women, one man, faces and arms covered in white powder – are equally admirable, but they do take frequent breaks, and I cannot fault them for that. It is mid-morning, and already blistering hot. The powder is washed off their faces by the sweat dripping down constantly; and by the ever-present liquid, which is sprayed over their faces and arms, and occasionally consumed by the chef of the village and his important guests. As I was seated next to the chef, I now also know how rocket fuel tastes – at ten in the morning!
the dancers, actively moving left to right
another view of two of the dancers
and one prima-ballerina solo performance
white faces and shoulders and arms
but affected by dripping sweat
When it gets too hot, further dancing is called off – quite reasonably so. The chef himself still makes a few steps, with a woman behind him waving ‘cool’ air at him, but then it is over. And we pile back into the truck, on our way to Grand Popo, next to the Togian border. Where we settle in another comfortable beach place, to sit out the next wait: some of us don’t yet have a visa for Cote d’Ivoire, and need to arrange this in Cotonou, the rest is to wait on the beach. Increasingly hardship, this expedition.
Next: another day in Grand Popo
these are the supporting act, singing and playing metal bells
on the way to Grand Popo, perhaps an old railway bridge?
and the hardship of the Grand Popo beach resort
Lucky you. Need not to dance in such an extremely heat and relax on the beach🌞🌞