



"It is like we are sending all the evil in the country, on the continent, away," said Djabassi Manonwomin, a Voodoo priestess who leads others in the worship of a mermaid deity. "The people today are corrupt, we can see that. It is from the old days, but now more open.

"More people are hungry (for corruption). They put their bellies in front of themselves."


It borrows heavily from the mythology of Yoruba people of Nigeria's southwest. Gods and spirits of neighboring Togo and nearby Ghana also can be openly worshipped—and others much farther afield. At Manonwomin's own shrine, the walls bear images of the Hindu god Ganesh, as well as the image of an Indian woman praying. Outside, a small offering of bananas and biscuits, doused in perfume, could be seen by her gate outlined in chalk.

The chanting prayers include cries of "Power! Power!" Similar chants can be heard in evangelical Christian churches across Nigeria, including pastors' repeatedly shouting that enemies should be consumed by "fire!"



As men prepared to slaughter goats as an offering at a shrine, foreigners raised their own cameras up to catch the moment when worshippers slit the goat's throat. Others giggled or looked uncomfortable as they let guides at the python temple place the snakes around their shoulders or atop their head as a reptilian scarf.

"You conjure up all kinds of images that Hollywood has sent us, but I did read up about it and learn that's not what it is," said Greg Fry, a tourist from Kamloops, Canada. "It made me interested to see how this functions, what part it plays in their society."


Some believe the fight over money launched a years-long insurrection by another man who claims he's the Voodoo pope by birth. That man celebrated his own Voodoo festival at a sports stadium in the city.


Jon Gambrell can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.