Before I first travelled to
Benin in 2006, I read a book that starts with a passage in which the taxi
driver tells the author that ‘this is the place where the minister was blown
up’. Knowing that Benin had had some revolutions in the 80s, she thought that
there was a bomb explosion. But, no… The minister was a victim of voodoo; he
was blown up as a balloon until he exploded.
In Benin, people told me that
60% of the population is Christian, 40% is Muslim and 80% believes in Voodoo.
Or, most people combine their traditional religions with imported ones. I also
heard that the reason why Christianity and Islam could get easy access to Benin
was mainly because the people had so many Gods already, they could easily add
one.
This is also shown by women
who go to church every day, but wear beads around their stomach to protect
their fertility against evil spirits, or people dripping drinks on the floor
for their ancestors before or after saying prayers.
For Cameroon, I have not
really found which percentage of the population is adhering traditional religions.
According to Wikipedia it is around 6%. But I guess these are only the people
who only follow their traditional religion while most people combine imported
and traditional religions.
For example, His Royal
Highness the Fon of Nso is the traditional ruler of Kumbo. He is also the chief
religious authority in charge of the heritage of the ancestors. That means the
jujus are related to the palace for example. But, the Fon is also a Muslim who
went for Hadj (pilgrimage).
A belief I heard from various
people is the power of thunder. Some people seem to be able to control the
thunder. I know people who are high educated and very European or American in
their beliefs who do belief in this. Some people told me stories like one day
it was sunny and then all of a sudden thunder came. One classmate disappeared
during the thunder and was found back in a field kilometres away. It is said
that traditional religious leaders can send thunder to do this kind of things.
Last week I was in a Knowledge
for Children school. Some time ago, books were stolen from this school and till
now they didn’t find the thief or the books. The head teacher contacted the
local Malam (an Islamic scholar, one of the religious leaders of the village).
According to the Malam, the books are somewhere close to the school in a bag.
They will come back he says. And if not, he will send the thunder to destroy
them. I am not too sure if I should believe this. But I hope the books will be
found and brought back to the school!
