Tag: West Africa

Fela Kuti, Afrobeat
Advocates, Sound

Fela Kuti, Revolutionary Insurrectionist, Talismanic Afrobeat Pioneer

Fela Kuti, Nigerian music legend, political insurrectionist and provocateur against the corporate and missionary sell-out of African wisdom and religion, ending up in jail and tortured…and loved by the African people. Here, Jamaican-born, Africa-based writer Lindsay Barrett puts us on Fela’s life path, his wild and unstructured Afrobeat sound, the commune, the wives, and the push against the Nigerian military dictatorship.

Saut d’Eau Waterfalls, Haiti, Vodou, Voodoo
Rituals and Traditions

Haitian Vodou: Summoning the Spirits

Like several West African religions, Vodouisants believe in a supreme being called Bondyè, from bon “good” + dyè “God.” Because Bondyè is unreachable, Vodouisants aim their prayers to lesser entities, the spirits known as Lwa (Loa), contacted and served through possession. In turn, the Lwa confer material blessings, physical well-being, protection, abundance.