Ouidah, Benin, is the spiritual capital of the Vodoun, or voodoo religion, and hosts its annual international voodoo festival at the gates of the Route des Esclaves, under and through the memorial arch of the “Door of No Return,” by which enslaved Africans were taken from the slave port of Ouidah to the Americas.

Voodoo is a religion. Practitioners or followers of the various gods conduct ceremonies that involve drumming, dancing, singing and yes, a sacrifice of an animal as an offering to the gods. It is an explosive day of people, in their finest wears decked in spectacular African attire, celebrating and parading throughout Ouidah.

The main performance area of the festival had its ceremony at the “Door of No Return” monument along with political speeches by candidates running for office but it was the smaller gatherings, in Ouidah neighborhoods that our guide, Amedee with TransAfrica, whisked us off to that yielded the most intimate settings for getting up close and personal.

Voodoo has been demonized in the Western world but it was and still is practiced in West Africa. Although Africans captured and sold into slavery were required to abandon their religion and cultural traditions, those cultures and traditions survived in places like Haiti, Brazil and Cuba alongside of the slave master’s religion of Catholicism.

Here’s the Voodoo Festival and the memorial arch the Door of No Return to the enslaved Africans in Ouidah, Benin.