GABIN DJIMASSÉ - VODUN AND FON CULTURE
If, around the bend on a Fon path, you should suddenly come face to face with a long piece of wood planted deep in the ground, whose upper part, standing at human height, suggests a more or less subtly sculpted face, do not be afraid. It is almost certainly a bocio, the powerful guardian of that particular place, a sort of active and protective sentry. You are in fact in the heart of Fon culture, the culture of the former kingdom of Dahomey, which is now present-day Benin, where a religion has developed that, like any religion, responds to the preoccupations that all human beings have always had, and continue to have, in spite of the extraordinary progress of science in every domain. These preoccupations can be summed up in the following questions: Who are we? Where are we? Where do we come from? People all over the world try to provide answers to these questions based on the environments in which they live.
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