Vodoo Festival in Calavi, Benin Republic 2014

Calavi for a voodoo ceremony. The colorful haystacks called zangbeto are revered as the watchmen of Fon villages in southern Benin. The zangbeto, despite there constant motion and spinning, are believed to not be inhabited by a person but rather a spirit that keeps the zangbeto moving and protects the village. The ceremony consisted of watching the zangbeto spin and dance and then they reveal that under the haystack there was nothing but an object that represented the form taken by the spirit. Skeptics and non-believers write this off as magic trick, but it was important for us as guests at the ceremony to take in the moment along with the worshippers. Guests tried hard to look, and not once did they see a man slip out from under the zangbeto