Contemporary Vodun arts of Ouidah, Benin.

The contemporary Vodun arts of the city of Ouidah in the Republic of Benin are a testament to the strength and flexibility of a belief system that is perpetually inventing, reinventing, and modifying itself. Their embodying aesthetic reflects remarkable adherence to traditional themes and structures that concurrently celebrate conspicuous signs of change. In the constant negotiation between ideologies that are old and new, local and distant, the artificial boundaries between "traditional" and "contemporary" Vodun arts are dissolved, merged, and transcended. It is precisely the ever-changing, all-encompassing nature of Vodun that allows this transcendence. (1)

Ouidah narrates the rich and complex history of Benin for local and international audiences through contemporary arts that represent gods and kings and that depict the atrocities of enslavement. The works on permanent display throughout the city--envisioned as a kind of an open-air museum--include Vodun temple murals, large-scale cement and metal sculptures, and commemorative monuments. Paintings, appliques, collages, masks, and examples of other art forms punctuate the cityscape and are displayed in local museums.

Ouidah 92: The First International Festival of Vodun Arts and Cultures

Much of this art was commissioned in 1992 as a collaborative effort of UNESCO and the newly democratic Beninese government in preparation for Ouidah 92: The First International Festival of Vodun Arts and Cultures, held February 8-18, 1993. (2) For that event, intended to recognize and celebrate transatlantic Vodun, Vodun priests and priestesses, religious practitioners, government officials, artists, tourists, scholars, and many others traveled to the city from Haiti, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil the United States, and various European countries. Special guests such as Mama Lola and Pierre Fatumbi Verger were honored. Based on the premise of a reunion of Africa and the African Diaspora through the commonalities of Vodun and Vodun-derived religious systems, this international collaboration was successful not merely in authenticating Benin's new political and religious freedom but in demonstrating it at a global level.

The arts and practices of Vodun had in theory been forbidden under the preceding Marxist-Leninist regime. The support of Ouidah 92 by the new government, then headed by President Nicephore Dieudonne Soglo, (3) marked the first time in postcolonial history that the state played the important role of patron of the arts. Its sponsorship was instrumental in encouraging the revival of Vodun arts in particular. (4)

Painters and sculptors from Benin, Haiti, Brazil, and Cuba were commissioned to create works dealing with Vodun and its various manifestations in Africa and the African Diaspora, as well as to represent aspects of Beninese history. Although some of the artists to be discussed here are practicing adepts of Vodun, the festival was conceived as a commercial rather than a religious enterprise. Intended to promote tourism, it was aimed at an international audience, an international press, and the international art market.

Nevertheless, the impetus itself for Ouidah 92 was Vodun, and the spirits (vodun) played a part in the project at a variety of levels. At the beginning of the festival, Vodun spirits were propitiated to ensure its success, as they are for almost every endeavor in Ouidah. When contemporary arts are produced for an international market, they can still be efficacious.

Even the symbol for Ouidah 92 adds a religious facet to the event. The image is of a mask, based on a Yoruba Gelede mask representing a Roman Catholic Sarafina angel, in the collection of the Alexandre Senou Adande Porto-Novo Ethnographic Museum. (5) The image was reproduced on T-shirts, book covers, posters, and cloth for local people and foreign visitors alike (Fig. 1), and was painted on the white bases of all of the newly commissioned large-scale sculptures throughout Ouidah. Since then, it has taken on other spiritual manifestations: many people interpret it not as a Gelede mask but, among other things, as a symbol of aze (roughly, "witchcraft," as demonstrated by a person turning into a bird) (6) or a representation of Shango, the Yoruba orisha of thunder and lightning whose main symbol is a double-bladed ax, perceived in the wings of the Sarafina angel.

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Ouidah 92 was more than a celebration of democracy, religious freedom, and cultural pride; more than a means of promoting local artists; and more than a consciously organized attempt to bring tourism to Benin. It was a reinvention and self-creation of aspects of Beninese history meant to appeal on an emotional level to foreign audiences, especially those of African descent.

Four main sites in the city display art commissioned for the festival: the Sacred Forest, the Brazil House, the Slave Route, and the house of the Supreme Chief of Vodun in Benin, Daagbo Hounon. Before turning to those sites, I wish to introduce several of the Beninese contemporary artists whose work is installed there: Cyprien Tokoudagba, Calixte and Theodore Dakpogan, Simonet Biokou, Dominique Kouas, and Yves Apollinaire Pede. The contributions of African Diaspora artists Edouard Duval-Carrie, Jose Claudio, and Manuel Mendive will also be discussed in relation to Daagbo Hounon's house. (7)

The Beninese Artists Cyprien Tokoudagba

Cyprien Tokoudagba's earliest childhood memories in Abomey are of his insatiable desire to create things with his hands. When he began school, at age seven, he would doodle instead of paying attention in class. To encourage his participation, the teacher would ask him to draw the subjects under discussion for the benefit of the other students. The boy then began to sketch everything around him: chickens, goats, trees, houses, market stands, people.

Tokoudagba was soon making sculptures based on his drawings, using clay he had dug from the ground in his father's compound, and these were placed around the family's home. Visitors started commissioning the precocious boy to sculpt specific subjects ranging from chameleons (for the spirit Lisa) to Jesus. At age fourteen, Tokoudagba was initiated into Tohosu, the vodun of royalty, human anomalies, and lakes and streams. Through the initiation process he gained much greater insight into the intricacies of Vodun, which has helped him represent aspects of the religion in his art.

While serving a short stint in the Beninese army, Tokoudagba was put in charge of the weapons store. There he filled up sketchpads with drawings of weapons and military scenes. When the young man returned to Abomey, he wanted to show his friends and family what things were like in the camp, but he felt limited with only his drawings. At that point, Tokoudagba decided to buy paint. Using a chewing stick called alo as a brush, he made his first painting, of a soldier in uniform.

Among the people who came to see Tokoudagba's work was an important Tohosu Vodun priest in Abomey, who invited him to paint his temple. It was through this commission that Tokoudagba became a recognized artist in Abomey. Requests followed for bas-reliefs, sculptures, and wall paintings for other Vodun temples in the city and, as his reputation grew, for temples not only in Benin, but also in Ghana, Togo, and Nigeria. Although most of his work continues to be concentrated in Abomey and surrounding areas, Tokoudagba now receives international commissions.

The Dakpogan Forge: Theodore and Calixte Dakpogan and Simonet Biokou

The Dakpogan family continues the legacy of its ancestors, who as the royal blacksmiths of Porto-Novo maintained not only the royal forge but also the vodun Gu, god of iron, warfare, and technology. The family compound remains in the Gukome quarter (the quarter of Gu) of Porto-Novo, where the Dakpogan brothers continue to work the forge in making religious items for Gu as well as everyday household objects.

They have, however, added "art" to their creative repertoire. Since 1989 the Dakpogan forge has become recognized in the international art market, and these blacksmiths have acquired a new title: artistes-ferailles--"scrap-iron artists." (8) Ingeniously combining scrap metal and recycled car, motorcycle, and bicycle parts, they create larger-than-life figures of Vodun gods and scenes of Beninese life. The Dakpogan forge is a land where raffia fibers become bicycle chains and cowry shells become sparkplugs--semantic equivalencies with a cutting edge.

The brothers' cousin, Simonet Biokou, is commonly grouped with them. According to Biokou, it was he who made the first large recycled-metal sculpture, which depicted a soldier. (9) He says the brothers felt that it was not serious work and that no one would want to buy it. A few days later a man from the French Embassy happened to see the statue, loved it, and purchased it. At that point, Theodore and Calixte Dakpogan took the profession of artiste-feraille seriously and started to make more sculptures with their cousin. Although Biokou was first to make large recycled sculptures, the Dakpogan brothers were the ones who received the commission from the Beninese government to make one hundred such statues for Ouidah 92. Biokou is represented by one piece. The Dakpogans' contribution to Ouidah 92 is located in the Sacred Forest and the Brazil House, and is discussed below.

Dominique Kouas

Although Dominique Kouas is known locally for his large metal sculptures on display throughout Ouidah, one visit to his house-studio in Porto-Novo demonstrates his stylistic range and his versatility with various media. All of Kouas's pieces nevertheless maintain a recognizable signature: they are big, bold, and geometric, playing with positive and negative space. The artist has developed a new technique which he calls "peintik," a combination of sculpture, painting, and batik. He often incorporates found objects, Vodun paraphernalia, raffia, cotton, and cowry shells into his "peintik" assemblages.

Yves Apollinaire Pede

The applique work, large cement sculptures, and cement bas-reliefs of Yves Apollinaire Pede harken back to the old bas-reliefs in the Palace Museum of Abomey. The artist has a special interest in Kulito (the Fon word for Yoruba Egungun, translated as "the ones from the path of death," or ancestors), which he finds to be colorful, exciting, and powerful. His bas-reliefs are found throughout Benin, in restaurants, and hotels, representing diverse subjects ranging from royal motifs to Vodun symbols.

The Festival Sites

Kpassezoume: The Sacred Forest

Contemporary Vodun arts commissioned for Ouidah 92 are installed in four main sites in the city. One of them is the Sacred Forest, the most hallowed place in Ouidah, where one finds the works of Cyprien Tokoudagba, Theodore and Calixte Dakpogan, and Simonet Biokou.

Kpassezoume, or the Sacred Forest of King Kpasse, is where all Vodun powers reside--good and bad, ancient and contemporary, distant and local. Almost destroyed under the old Marxist-Leninist government, this secluded area is now celebrated with government-sponsored contemporary sculptures of Vodun gods and associated powers.

Sometime between 1530 and 1580, Kpasse became the second king of Savi (located nine kilometers north of Ouidah) and founder of Ouidah (Agbo 1959:13; Carnevin 1962:73; Assogba 1990:15). When he learned that two jealous enemies were plotting his demise, he alerted his two sons, telling them that although he would never die, he would disappear one day. If it should happen that he did not come out of his room before sunset, his sons were not to open the door but understand that he was already gone. After nine days they would see a specific sign from their father which, once understood, would protect them and their families for generations to come. One day these events did come to pass. Today the sign is still a secret associated with the Kpasse vodun, known only to the direct descendants of the king.

Soon after King Kpasse disappeared, his family living in Savi saw a bird they had never seen before. It led them to the Sacred Forest in Ouidah. Upon entering the sacred grounds of the forest, the bird turned into two growling panthers (male and female). The family was frightened until they heard the soothing voice of the king. He gave them an important message: if at any time they were having problems, they could come to the forest and pray to a specific iroko tree that houses his spirit. The tree was then just a little sprout next to a sacred clay pot. Today, behind the ruins of the old French administrative house in the Sacred Forest, abandoned because the spirits were "too strong" for the French, one finds active shrines, including a clay pot (Fig. 2), next to the tree in which Kpasse's spirit resides (interview with the current King Kpasse, July 19, 1995).

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Although the Sacred Forest has become a tourist site, it remains a serious place for Vodun worship and ceremonies. During the night and at high noon, all Vodun forces congregate there, often in the form of animals. Cyprien Tokoudagba affirms that the Sacred Forest is the Supreme Court of Vodun. If, he says, you have misbehaved and the Vodun spirits are talking about you, "you are finished" (interview, May 3, 1994). Although Tokoudagba is from Abomey, his statement is confirmed by Daagbo Hounon, Supreme Chief of Vodun in Benin, who lives in Ouidah. Daagbo Hounon holds his most serious dispute negotiations in the Sacred Forest. "In Kpassezoume," he says, "everyone [spirits, ancestors, humans, and animals] pays attention" (interview, December 12, 1994).

What the art "means" in the Sacred Forest is highly contingent upon who tells you, what you know already what they think you know, and what they want you to know. For example, guides at the site are primarily there to receive tourists, and they have a standard tour geared toward that audience. I asked many people how to interpret the sculptures, and as anticipated, I received a variety of answers. Most often it was only the specifics of the Vodun spirits represented that were different, but in other cases meanings diverged radically. In talking to the artists about their work, I found that the interpretation of a piece could change depending on the artist's mood or a recent dream, or the artist might see in it something that departed from his initial conception. In reference to a Janus-faced human sculpture in the Sacred Forest, Cyprien Tokoudagba once told me--in genuine perplexity--"I don't remember what that is supposed to represent" (interview, May 3, 1994).

At the entrance to this Ouidah 92 site, Legba, the horned and phallic guardian and gatekeeper of the forest, greets the visitor as he keeps track of all of the comings and goings in and out of this sacred place. Tokoudagba's larger-than-life anthropomorphized cement statue truly communicates this deity's contrary personality and inherently wayward character (Fig. 3) (10) His most distinguishing characteristic is his erection. According to one tale, Legba was having an affair with both his sister and his sister's daughter. Caught by the supreme god, Mawu, he was punished with this eternal condition in which his desire is never appeased (Herskovits 1938, vol. 2:203-6). Stories abound about Legba's mischievous nature, usually relating to his priapism. Sixteen cowry shells on Legba's chest illustrate two du signs of the Fa divination system. (11)

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Opposite Legba in the Sacred Forest is a figure of a Fa diviner, also by Tokoudagba. In an account of the relationship between Legba and Fa, reported by Herskovits, the sixteen cowry shells placed on Legba's chest represent the sixteen eyes of Fa. (12) The latter god could not open them in the morning without assistance. Using palm kernels, Fa would communicate to Legba which of the sixteen eyes should be opened and in what order. According to the story this process developed into the complex system of Fa divination, which uses sixteen palm kernels (Herskovits 1938, vol. 2:203).

Behind Legba is Xeviosso, the spirit of thunder and lightning, constructed by the Dakpogan brothers from scrap metal and recycled car and motorcycle parts (Fig. 4). Xeviosso spits out fire (lightning), rendered in metal pipes. This identifying symbol projects from his mouth and terminates in the two staffs he carries. The image of Xeviosso is echoed across the forest in a sculpture by Simonet Biokou (Fig. 5). This piece, also composed of scrap metal and recycled car and motorcycle parts, depicts a priest holding what appears to be a censer, commonly used in Catholic Mass. Upon closer inspection, one sees that the chain to which the censer is attached terminates in the symbol of Xeviosso: the same fire he spits from his mouth in Figure 4.

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Easy for tourists to miss, this seemingly anomalous detail is neither inconspicuous nor unusual to Beninese visitors. Biokou's sculpture conflates two religious systems, an idea the artist came up with while attending a Vodun ceremony. In explaining this piece, the Sacred Forest guides say, "Voila le syncretisme ..." (13)

There is one sculpture, made by the Dakpogan brothers, which is related not to a Vodun spirit per se but to a type of power or force called cakatu, which can be sent to harm an enemy (Fig. 6). This sculpture depicts the infliction of cakatu, which can be transmitted in a variety of ways, resulting in debilitating pain inside and outside the body meant to be followed by death. Victims are said to feel as though their entire bodies were being pierced by shards of glass, nails, and metal fragments. (14)

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Additional Vodun spirits represented by contemporary sculpture in the Sacred Forest are Dan, the rainbow serpent; Gu, the god of iron, war, and technology; Loko, the god of the iroko tree inhabited by King Kpasse; Zangbeto, the guardian of the night; and others including the three-headed Indian god, Densu, known here to be the husband of Mami Wata (Drewal 1988; Rush 1999). There are also sculptures of Vodun adepts, among them a male and a female Sakpatasi, "wife" or adept of Sakpata, the spirit of the earth and disease. The display includes a variety of other supernatural characters representing specific powers, such as Tokoudagba's cement sculptures of a Janus-faced man and a one-footed man, both covered with packets of power also rendered in cement.

The Brazil House

The Brazil House, built in the typically Afro-Brazilian architectural style, was once an administrative building for the famous Afro-Brazilian de Souza family. (15) For Ouidah 92 it was transformed into the Ouidah Museum of Contemporary Vodun Art. Visitors to the museum enter the courtyard and ascend the stairs to the front porch, where they are greeted by the Dakpogan brothers' rendering of Mami Wata, made of scrap metal and car parts. It includes the ever-present encircling snake, derived from a ribbed and twisted exhaust pipe (Fig. 7). Many other sculptures share the front porch, among them a four-foot-tall sculpture of the Gelede mask that has become the symbol of the 1992 festival (Fig. 8).

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Pots of the pungent herb vervaine, its little purple flowers always in bloom, sit among the sculptures. Vervaine protects a house or an establishment from bad spirits. Its placement at the entrance to this Vodun-filled museum is a testament to contemporary Vodun art---even when that art was produced to attract foreign attention--as valid and efficacious receptacles for the spirits. This important convergence of the commercial and the spiritual undermines notions of contemporary art made for the tourist market as inauthentic, fake, or degraded.

Inside the entrance is a large Dakpogan rendering of the famous Gu sword from Abomey (Verger 1957:163, fig. 91). The first floor displays more than one hundred sculptures, paintings, appliques, and masks by such artists as Calixte and Theodore Dakpogan, Dominique Kouas, Romuald Hazoume, Yves Apollinaire Pede, and Oke-Ola Fabel. The artworks represent different aspects of Vodun culture and daily life in Benin. The contemporary arts are complemented by a dozen brightly painted Gelede masks surmounted by carved chameleons, turtles, lions, roosters, and combinations of animals representing Yoruba and Fon proverbs.

The second floor is dedicated to Vodou arts from Haiti. The top of the stairs features a variety of sequined flags, some representing the lwa (spirits). An entire room contains paintings depicting the life of Toussaint L'Ouverture, the grandson of a Dahomean king from Allada. His father was sold at the slave market in Ouidah, and L'Ouverture, born in Santa Domingo around 1743, lived as a slave for forty years. He taught himself to read, and was ultimately, in his free adult life, recognized as a military and administrative genius in the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804. Now he is honored through portraiture in the land of his ancestors--Benin (Fig. 9). Black-and-white photographs of Vodun objects and ceremonies taken in Benin and Nigeria by Pierre Verger and A. Cocheteux cover the hallway walls.

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The garden behind the museum displays numerous sculptures by the Dakpogan brothers. Among them is a larger-than-life rendering of a Kulito (Egungun) masquerade, characteristically made of scrap metal and recycled car and motorcycle parts (Fig. 10). (16) This particular Kulito is known to be combative, high spirited, and dangerous, spinning violently and chasing anyone in its path. The brothers have effectively communicated its especially aggressive nature; the twisting stance captures anticipated action, as if the spirit were ready to take off, or as if it were caught, as in a snapshot, eternally in motion. Kulito of this type often stop in a crowd and remain perfectly still until the onlookers least suspect it to tear into motion. Instead of the usual facepiece made of mesh and covered with cowry shells, this one is made from a radiator grid and covered with sparkplugs. Curved metal pipes represent large animal horns, and bicycle chains replace hanging strips of layered cloth. Kulito representations are also found at the end of the third main Ouidah 92 site: the Slave Route.

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The Slave Route of Ouidah

As a reinvention of various aspects of the slave trade from the Ouidah port, the Slave Route appeals on an emotional level to tourists, especially those of African descent. Beginning just outside the de Souza family compound, where the auction block is said to have been located, it follows the footsteps of the hundreds of thousands of African captives who walked the three miles to the beach and then onto ships destined for the Americas. Lined with contemporary sculptures representing Vodun spirits and Dahomean kings, and marked at critical points by single sculptural works or by multiple-work monuments depicting the atrocities of the slave trade, the route narrates the history of Benin for international and local audiences.

This narrative is both simplified and embellished. The monuments or single sculptures located at the critical sites between the purported location of the auction block and the beach are engraved with a panel of didactic material. Often the histories given and the locations of the sites are not corroborated by or even mentioned in the literature on the subject (Curtin 1969; Manning 1982, 1991; Law 1991). Some generalizations are understandable, for much is truly unknown about the circumstances of the slave trade from the Ouidah port. In other cases, the histories seem highly unlikely. The "unknown" of the slave trade, however, is of little importance compared to its "living history"--that is, what the markers say today, as improbable as some of it may seem.

The Slave Route of Ouidah reflects centuries of transatlantic interactions that have ultimately affected, transformed, and reinvented not only the history of Benin but also its subsequent art forms. The Supreme Chief of Vodun in Benin, Daagbo Hounon, plays an active role in this reinvention of history. Since 1993, January 10 has been celebrated as National Vodun Day (Fig. 11). The festival's main activity is the reenactment of the slave march to the beach. It is led by Daagbo Hounon, who, with his followers, stops, prays, and makes offerings at each site along the route. The procession honors the memory of those ancestors lost in the slave trade and celebrates those who survived and passed down the religion and arts of Vodun that flourish today throughout the African Diaspora. Thus, the art and monuments are both historical markers and active ancestral shrines.

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Each National Vodun Day to date has been celebrated not only by Beninese but by Haitians, Brazilians, Cubans, Americans, and others who have returned to pay their respects in the land of their ancestors, turning Ouidah into a pilgrimage site for people of African descent, much in the manner of the slave factories of Goree Island and Cape Coast. International recognition of the city's function in this regard reflects broader changes in Africa. One might especially see this particular case of Vodun as the local manifestation of a more global phenomenon of postcolonial nations seeking ways to represent--from their own perspectives--their histories to an international audience. The following are the commemorative sites on the Slave Route.

Auction Block. The Slave Route officially begins under a large tree, where the public auctions are said to have been held. The tree is located just behind the compound of Don Francisco de Souza, who was born in Brazil in 1754 and died in Ouidah in 1849. De Souza, of Portuguese and Amerindian parentage, arrived in Ouidah in 1788 and became intimately involved in the transatlantic slave trade. He was named Viceroy of Ouidah by his friend and business partner, King Gezo of Abomey. De Souza's influence in the trade spread east to Badagry (Nigeria) and west to Anecho (Togo). At the height of his involvement he is said to have supplied more than one hundred slave ships traveling between the west coast of Africa and the Americas (Verger 1968 in Sinou 1995:114).

It seems likely that the auctions held during de Souza's tenure as Viceroy took place close to the family compound. (It must be remembered, however, that de Souza's activity covers only about sixty years of Ouidah's centuries of participation in the slave trade.) This plot of land, known as Dantissa, is currently the site of festivals for the vodun Dan, the rainbow serpent. It lies between the de Souza compound and de Souza's Vodun temple to Dan, whom he renamed Dagoun. (17)

Tree of Forgetting. The place where the Tree of Forgetting is believed to have stood is marked with a sculpture by Dominique Kouas of a three-headed, three-footed, three-armed Mami Wata and a small symbolic tree (Fig. 12). The base of the statue is engraved with the legend of the "Tree," endorsed by former President Soglo. Although it seems logistically impossible, this legend purports that all of the enslaved women marched around this tree seven times, and all of the enslaved men, nine times. (18) The intent was to make them forget their origins and cultural identities. The failure of this idea was evident in the Ouidah 92 festival itself, which made it abundantly clear that such identities thrived and continue to thrive in African diasporas throughout the Americas.

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Clement Lokossou compares the forced circuits around the Tree of Forgetting as a type of "zombification". In that process, rumored to exist in Haiti, the work of a sorcerer causes one to lose one's identity and become one of the "living dead" (1994:128). "Zombification" has never has been a named concept or process associated with Vodun in Benin, and has only been introduced there through knowledge of Haitian Vodou.

Zomai Enclosure. After encircling the Tree of Forgetting, the captives are said to have been led to the Zomai Enclosure. The name, translated as "a place where fire can never go," refers to the darkness of the place. The building itself is no longer extant, but the spot is now commemorated with three contemporary works: a central sculpture made by Dominique Kouas, flanked by two bound and gagged figures made by Cyprien Tokoudagba.

Kouas's piece, composed of different faces bearing different scarification markings, represents the many enslaved Africans from a variety of ethnic backgrounds who converged in this dark place before they were sent across the ocean (Fig. 13). The six Yoruba markings (three on each cheek), and the ten Fon markings (two on each cheek, temples, and forehead) are readily discernible. The artist also included a scale to represent the ideal of equality among peoples throughout the world.

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Zoungbodji Memorial. In the Zoungbodji quarter, the customs post controlled and recorded the movement of enslaved Africans from the Abomey kingdom to the coast (Soglo 1994:69). The monument (Fig. 14) is constructed upon what is believed to be the ancient common grave for slaves who died in the Zomai Enclosure. There have been no archaeological excavations to prove or disprove this theory.

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The entrance is flanked by cement male and female figures made by Cyprien Tokoudagba; they are kneeling, and again their hands are tied and their mouths gagged. To the rear is a large abstract mosaic mural by Cotonou artist Fortuna Bandeira, who used black to represent Africans chained together, with blood in red, against a white background. On either side are two works by the Dakpogan brothers: on the right, two chained African figures followed by a pith-helmeted European with a whip (not visible in Fig. 14)--all constructed of recycled metal; and to the left, a sculpture in which two large abstract faces are meant to convey fear, horror, sadness, and despair as reactions to enslavement (Fig. 15).

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Only one of the human figures within this monument transcends these emotions: Tokoudagba's sculpture of a man with upraised arms broken free of chains (Fig. 16). According to the artist, the image represents "death" and, in turn, "freedom" from enslavement (interview, May 3, 1994).

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Tree of Return. Before arriving at the Ouidah beach where they would be loaded onto ships bound for the Americas, the captives are said to have made one last stop along the Slave Route, at the Tree of Return. This point on the route is represented by an actual tree reportedly planted in Ouidah during the reign of King Agaja of Abomey (1708-1732). It is marked by Cyprien Tokoudagba's cement sculpture of the forest vodun Aziza. Although it seems logistically unlikely, the enslaved Africans are said to have walked around the tree three times to ensure that their spirits, if not their bodies, would return to their native land.

Door of No Return. With the Atlantic Ocean as an ominous backdrop, the final monument of the Slave Route of Ouidah is the Door of No Return (Figs. 17, 18). In the center is a massive arch, designed and decorated by Fortuna Bandeira, built atop a large circular platform. The cement entablature comprises four bas-relief friezes of two rows of Africans, chained together, converging upon the beach, the Atlantic in front of them. Different perspectives of this same scene ornament the front, back, and two sides of the entablature. The columns supporting the arch consist of pairs of kneeling male and female figures repeated from the bottom to the top. One either side, Dominique Kouas's four abstract metal sculptures depict families (Fig. 19), and Africans broken free of chains who wave good-bye.

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The cement bas-reliefs built onto the sides of the circular platform are the work of Yves Apollinaire Pede. The imagery ranges from the Gelede mask that now symbolizes Ouidah 92 to various spirits such as Dan-Aida Wedo, Mami Wata, and Gu. There are also two bas-reliefs of Kulito (Fig. 20), and mounted on the platform are two larger-than-life cement statues of Kulito (Fig. 21). The images represent the spirits of people of African descent who died in the Middle Passage or later in the Americas. These spirits have returned to the land of their ancestors as Kulito.

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Following the idea of "return," on National Vodun Day. 1999, Hounongon Joseph Guendehou of Cotonou held a special Vodun ceremony at his house, inviting a delegation of visitors from Haiti, Guadeloupe, and Martinique. During a celebratory dancing and drumming session, members from Haiti began to shout "Ayibobo!" This Haitian Vodou praise exclamation was immediately picked up and repeated by all of the Beninese participants as if it had already become part of Benin's Vodun liturgy. The head of the Haitian group, Dr. Henri Frank, in an appreciative response to the activities surrounding National Vodun Day, suggested that the Door of No Return be renamed the "Door of Return."

Encompassing centuries of transatlantic slaving history from the Ouidah port, the Slave Route is based on cumulative histories, yet in the way these are communicated through art, historical accuracy is less important than comprehensive African and African Diaspora consciousnesses. Does it really matter whether the slave auctions took place outside de Souza's compound? Does it make a difference if enslaved Africans were forced to walk around a tree either to make them forget their cultural identities or to give them strength for a transatlantic journey? The Slave Route of Ouidah, as a reinvention and a self-creation, recognizes and mourns the history of the slave trade, yet celebrates and praises the strength of Vodun which survives on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

Daagbo Hounon's House

Although Daagbo Hounon's house is not recognized by the government as the actual beginning of the Slave Route, nor is it so credited by Lokossou (1994), some people nevertheless consider it to be so. According to the Supreme Chief, all Vodun manifestations can be found in his house because, he claims, before the enslaved were put up for sale in the Ouidah auctions, they were allowed to stop there for one last opportunity to pray to their Vodun spirits on African soil (interview, March 18, 1995).

If the Abomey kings did grant this "privilege," their motives were by no means altruistic. What they most sought was foreign spiritual power (Blier 1995), such as might be held by enslaved ritual specialists. Daagbo Hounon asserts that those exhibiting the traits of extraordinary ritual specialists during their supposed last prayer were not sold at the auction block but were sent back to serve the kings. (19)

Whether this story makes sense is contestable. However, considering what we know about the great pains the Abomey rulers took to make certain that no one powerful left their domain, this scheme does not seem unlikely (Blier 1995). The fact that King Gezo worked closely with de Souza, his Viceroy of Ouidah, adds credibility to such a proposition. In any case, it is abundantly clear that important ritual specialists did make it from the Ouidah port to the Americas, where they continue their activities.

Daagbo Hounon's compound is a microcosm of Vodun art from Benin, Haiti, Cuba, and Brazil, painted by artists from those very countries who participated in Ouidah 92. The Supreme Chief boasts that he represents all Vodun spirits who exist and thrive on both sides of the Atlantic. The Hounon dynasty (hou=sea, non=owner of, the one with) has been the ruling family of the vodun of the sea, Avlekete, since their arrival in Ouidah in the mid-fifteenth century. This fact is recorded in the meeting room in the inner sanctuary of Daagbo Hounon's compound, where portraits of former Supreme Chiefs are painted on the wall (Fig. 22). Daagbo Hounon takes great pride in the fact that Avlekete is known as Aizan Velekete in Haiti.

[FIGURE 22 OMITTED]

On the compound walls that face the street, paintings of Fon Vodun symbols with blue backgrounds adjoin their African Diaspora counterparts with pink backgrounds (Fig. 23). For example, different depictions of the same rainbow serpent are seen: the Haitian lwa Damballa Aida Wedo derived from the Fon vodun Aida Wedo, and the Brazilian orixa Oxumare derived from the Yoruba orisha Oshumare. Other juxtapositions include the Fon Gu and Haitian Ogou, the Fon Avlekete and the Haitian Aizan Velekete, and the Fon Xeviosso and the Cuban Chango. Vodun temple paintings by Haitian artist Edouard Duval-Carrie, Brazilian artist Jose Claudio, and Cuban artist Manuel Mendive adorn the inside and outside Daagbo Hounon's house.

[FIGURE 23 OMITTED]

The African Diaspora Artists

Haiti: Edouard Duval-Carrie

Edouard Duval-Carrie is himself an international assemblage. Born in Haiti, he considers himself truly Haitian, though he grew up in Puerto Rico, went to high school in New York and college in Montreal lived in Paris, and currently resides in Miami. His family has since returned to Haiti. The artist has never lost contact with the country of his birth. He plans to move back, and wants to build "the ultimate Vodou temple somewhere in Haiti" (Duval-Carrie in Brown 1995:75).

When he started painting, Duval Carrie knew very little about Haitian vodou except that the adepts serve their spirits by making veve, abstract drawings in cornmeal. Wanting to render these ephemeral drawings in permanent, recognizably anthropomorphic forms, he has painted a variety of Haitian Vodou spirits as well as African Vodun spirits.

The artist was commissioned to compose three Vodun temple murals in Daagbo Hounon's compound for Ouidah 92. He painted Avlekete, the Fon spirit of the sea, outside, next to the wall of juxtaposed African and African Diaspora Vodun symbols (Fig. 24). Upon entering the compound, after passing (and acknowledging) a Legba shrine off to the right and a Xeviosso (Chango) temple to the left, one meets, head-on, Duval-Carrie's larger-than-life-size portrait of Daagbo Hounon and his late wife (Fig. 25). Around the corner and past a shrine to Gu, the Vodun spirit of iron, warfare, and technology, located in the middle of the main courtyard, is another of the artist's paintings, this one representing the Supreme Chief in his ancestral vodun setting, the sea (hou). Avlekete is Daagbo Hounon's most prominent avatar of the Hou vodun (Fig. 26). In this wall painting, Daagbo Hounon displays his power to visit his ancestors in the sea and to walk on the water in the company of his hundred-year-old sacred turtle. (20)

[FIGURES 24-26 OMITTED]

Brazil: Jose Claudio

The large wall outside the inner sanctuary, where Daagbo Hounon holds important Vodun meetings, is adorned with Jose Claudio's mural of the religious leader on the beach in Bahia, Brazil (Fig. 27). On the far right, a group of musicians play their instruments, and on the left, ritual palm fronds called azan form an arch over the threshold which leads into Daagbo Hounon's inner sanctum. Azan are always used to mark sacred spaces: they are hung over doorways, placed strategically above or on top of shrines, tied to or hung between sacred trees. (21) Their placement in the painting is deliberate and purposeful, a contemporary Brazilian artist's reinterpretation of an ancient transatlantic sacred marker.

[FIGURE 27 OMITTED]

Cuba: Manuel Mendive

The Xeviosso (Hebiosso)/Chango temple in the compound was painted by the Cuban artist Manuel Mendive (Fig. 28). Mendive's initiation into the Afro-Cuban religions of Santeria and Palo Monte has influenced much of his work. Mendive is also a graduate of the Academia de Bellas Artes, where he studied studio art and art history (Mosquera 1996:237-43).

[FIGURE 28 OMITTED]

Mendive's artistic style evolved after he traveled to Africa in 1982 and 1983. Instead of painting historical and political allegories or anthropomorphized depictions of Yoruba orisha remanifested as Afro-Cuban oricha, he began to employ a style in which everything was animated, so that "animals, forces, plants, humans, and mountains commingle[d], los[t] their taxonomy, mix[ed] in a sort of vital continuum" (Mosquera 1995:242-44). This description seems an accurate characterization of his work in Daagbo Hounon's compound.

Mendive's abstract Xeviosso temple painting includes, as its identifying mark, the double-bladed ax of the Yoruba orisha Shango, a symbol that was carried over to Cuba to incarnate the oricha Chango. The predominance of red and white, especially at the base, also indicates that the temple is a realm of this spirit.

In terms of religious continuity and reunion, it is noteworthy that Mendive, a Cuban santero and palero, was invited to paint a Vodun temple in an area of Africa that is the source of major components of his Cuban religions. In a formal artistic sense, it is also interesting that among other African influences in Mendive's art, colorful Beninese appliques and bas-reliefs have always been a factor. In his more recent (post-1986) "interdisciplinary projects," the artist painted the bodies of dancers and animals for performances described by Gerardo Mosquera as "a painting of movement and sound, a mix of painting, sculpture, dance, music, pantomime, body art, song, ritual, spectacle, performance, carnival, and procession" (1996:243). Mosquera might almost be talking about a Vodun ceremony.

Daagbo Hounon's house is an example par excellence of the centuries-strong resonance between African and African-diasporic religious consciousnesses. As we have seen time and time again, these international reverberations are by no means unidirectional or even multidirectional, but revolving. Tourists of many nationalities, especially those of African descent, are traveling to Benin, where they are exposed to its contemporary arts and culture. At the same time, many Beninese artists, now internationally recognized, are being invited to exhibit their work all over the world.

The ongoing convergence in Ouidah of tourism, national identities, religious ideologies, and contemporary artistic productions is emblematic of what is happening elsewhere in the postcolonial world, where nations are reinventing themselves through the rewriting of their own historical narratives. The city rewrites its history in the form of an open-air museum. Since Ouidah 92, its public arts and associated ideologies have emphasized that although the particular audiences and goals of postcolonial African art may have changed, its contemporary Vodun arts continue to function at deep cultural and spiritual levels. James Clifford writes that "museums and other sites of cultural performance appear not as centers or destinations but rather as contact zones traversed by people and things" (Clifford 1997:8). Such is the place called Ouidah.

Vodun has spanned vast expanses of time and space--ever changing, ever changeable, yet informed by the resilience and stability of a strong faith. The artworks commissioned for the Ouidah festival have transcended that occasion to become a testament to the transformative effects of centuries of transatlantic interactions. Contemporary Vodun art is more than a simple echoing of changing historical, political, and religious climates; it is a consciousness which mediates and articulates experiences of the past, and which anticipates a future.

I was reminded of the ongoing international impact of Ouidah 92 while visiting the house of the Haitian band Boukman Eksperyans in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in July 1997. In a hallway, I noticed a wall collage of some of the band's posters for their international concerts. One from Ouidah 92 jumped out at me (Fig. 29). On the poster, the now famous Gelede mask is superimposed upon a world globe, its wings stretching across west Africa into the Atlantic Ocean.

[FIGURE 29 OMITTED]

This article was accepted for publication in March 2001.

The data presented here is based on predissertation research conducted in Benin in 1993, supported by the Social Science Research Council; and on dissertation research conducted in Benin from 1994-1996, supported by Fulbright IIE and various University of Iowa fellowships, with special support from PASALA (Project for the Advanced Study of Art and Life in Africa). Some follow-up work was carried out from December 1998 to March 1999, supported by a J. Paul Getty Postdoctoral Fellowship. Thanks to Prita Meier, Allen F. Roberts, Mary Nooter Roberts, and the African Arts reviewers for thoughtful comments. Special thanks to Eileen Moyer, Alissa Rossman, and Jay Sosa for ongoing support and encouragement.

(1.) This idea of an ever-changing aesthetic system was pursued in an ACASA-sponsored panel I chaired for the 89th Annual College Art Association: "The `Unfinished Aesthetic' in African and African Diaspora Arts," held in Chicago, March 2, 2001.

(2.) The festival was supposed to have been held at the end of 1992 but was postponed. Because all of the publicity and other materials had already been printed with "Ouidah 92," the name stuck.

(3.) In 1991 Soglo became president of the first freely elected democratic government in more than twenty years. He succeeded Mathieu Kerekou, who, during his presidency (1974-1991) of what was then called the People's Republic of Benin, had unsuccessfully attempted to restructure the government, economy, and society along Marxist-Leninist lines. Kerekou defeated Soglo in the 1996 election.

(4.) See Herskovits (1938) for the important role of the Abomey kings in precolonial artistic patronage.

(5.) I was denied permission to photograph this mask. The image is known to have been mass-produced on a calendar (ten to twenty years ago), but I have not yet located a copy.

(6.) The closest English translation of the Fon word aze is "witchcraft." An azeton, "the one with aze," or a "witch," is a person who can change into a bird (usually an owl) during his or her sleep and cause great harm to others. To say that "someone has a bird" is to call that person an azeton. Thus the human figure with angel's wings on the Gelede mask is regarded as a person in the process of transforming from a bird into a human, or vice-versa.

(7.) The Beninese artists discussed in this article have participated in international exhibitions which are highlighted in a volume of Revue Noire: Contemporary African Art (1995) dedicated solely to Beninese artists. They are also included in the book Contemporary Art of Africa (Magnin 1996).

(8.) Recycling is not a new idea in Africa. See Roberts 1992; Cerny & Seriff 1996.

(9.) The Dakpogan brothers and Biokou were initially impressed, however, by the recycled artworks of Romuald Hazoume, who has come to be known in the international market. Hazoume is best known for his masques bidon, which he makes out of plastic jugs and other recycled objects (see Magnin 1996:132-33).

(10.) There are also striking similarities between this rendering of Legba and an Exu shrine in Salvador, Brazil, illustrated in Galembo (1993:134); that Exu image is also horned and phallic.

(11.) "Fa" (from the Yoruba "Ifa") expresses at least two different ideas in Fon. Its literal meaning, "coolness," in turn conveys ideas of mildness, softness, gentleness, or peacefulness and equilibrium. Du comes from the Yoruba odu, the innumerable verses associated with the 256 possible combinations resulting from. throwing 16 cowries or an 8-seeded divination chain.

(12.) It is worth noting that Robert Farris Thompson illustrates a cement "Eshu Boi" with cowries inserted into his chest. This figure, in the Museu de Policia in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was probably made before 1941. Thompson notes that in "Dahomean Yorubaland there are freestanding images for Elegba with mystic signs of the divination deity marked in inserted cowries on the chest of the image," which he compares to the cement Rio Elegba (1983:26, pl. 13).

(13.) "Syncretism" is a term used commonly in Benin. As a practice, it is generally frowned upon and resolutely denied by most devout Catholics and Muslims. Vodun practitioners, however, are very open to syncretism, and claim that Beninese Catholics and Muslims blend their foreign faiths with Vodun. For example, Catholics claim that the veneration of dead twins (hohovi) is not Vodun worship, and they often maintain twin shrines in their homes. Vodun Priest Joseph Guendehou receives guests from all over west Africa and from overseas to attend his "Vodun Mass" every Sunday in Cotonou.

(14.) There are stories of people who had cakatu so badly that they could not be cured through traditional methods. In one case in particular, it is claimed that a man went to a Western hospital, and the surgeon found broken glass, razor blades, and nails inside his body. The force of cakatu and the way it has been rendered in this sculpture is the closest I have come in my studies of Vodun to what is called throughout the Americas a "voodoo doll," which may possibly have some origin in the force of cakatu.

(15.) See de Souza (1992) for a detailed analysis of the de Souza family.

(16.) Although Fon people know the Yoruba word Egungun, most use the Fon word Kulito, literally "the one from the path of death," or ancestor. Kulito are also called Kutito and Kuito along the coast, and more commonly Kututo and Kuuto near Abomey (Segurola 1963:315). Whereas Yoruba peoples have different names for the many different Egungun spirits, Fon peoples tend to divide all Egungun spirits into two classifications: the aggressive spirits who spin and chase (agbanon), and the passive spirits known for proper behavior and dance expertise (weduto). Agbanon, which means "the one with [carrying] the load," usually have some type of superstructure ("load") on their heads (a sculpture, animal horns, etc.) as shown in Figure 10. Weduto, "the one who dances," dance with great poise and an exemplary demeanor reflecting the admirable personalities they had in the world of the living before entering the world of the ancestors.

(17.) According to local oral history, the rainbow serpent vodun, Dan, reminded de Souza of the European dragon; thus the two entities were merged into one Vodun spirit, Dagoun, in a de Souza Vodun temple, just down the street from the family's compound.

(18.) I am unaware of the significance of these numbers.

(19.) Although this account could be read as a contemporary means for Daagbo Hounon to place himself at the forefront of the ongoing reinvention of Ouidah's history, I was told a very similar story by Dorothe Mizehoun, the Abomey-born former director of the History Museum of Ouidah (interview, Oct. 16, 1995).

(20.) Daagbo Hounon's turtle, which was still alive in 1996, represents the turtle of the first Supreme Chief of Vodun.

(21.) See Burton for a very early reference to and documentation of azan, or "fringe of dried palm-leaf," as a marker of something sacred ([1864] 1966:79, fn.). Robert Farris Thompson has recorded azan in an altar in Surinam (1993:26-27). In Metraux's "Voodoo Glossary," aizan is defined as "Fringe made with fibers of palm (Oreodoxia regia). Has the power of keeping away evil.... The aizan is often hung on the lintel of humfo doors, on the poteau-mitan or on other sacred objects. Sometimes it is used to cover offerings" ([1959] 1972:373).

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DANA RUSH is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) in the Department of the History of Art and the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies. She is working on a manuscript tentatively titled "Eternal Vodun: Strategic Creativity in Transatlantic Art and Thought."