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In Benin, Voodoo's birthplace, believers bemoan steady shrinkage of forests they revere as sacred
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Gilbert Kakpo, a Voodoo priest, stands by a a sacred tree, who he claims is the protector of women at the Bohouezoun sacred forest in Benin, on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023. “Our divinity is the protector of women,” he says. “If you’re a woman who’s had miscarriages or has given birth to stillborn children and you come here for rituals, you’ll never endure those hardships again ... I can’t count the number of people who have been healed or treated here.” - photo by AP Photo/Sunday Alamba
PORTO-NOVO, Benin (AP) — For many people in Benin, the forests empowered them before they were born, or in the first months of their lives. Barren women performed Voodoo rituals by sacred trees to get pregnant. Others were brought as newborns by parents seeking to ward off evil spirits.