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Mask Festival Brings 'Buzz and Beauty' to Benin's Capital

Paradegoers pose with an egungun, a traditional Yoruba figure, at the Porto Novo Mask Festival. Yanick Folly / AFP
Paradegoers pose with an egungun, a traditional Yoruba figure, at the Porto Novo Mask Festival. Yanick Folly / AFP
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Mask Festival Brings 'Buzz and Beauty' to Benin's Capital

Paradegoers pose with an egungun, a traditional Yoruba figure, at the Porto Novo Mask Festival. Yanick Folly / AFP
Paradegoers pose with an egungun, a traditional Yoruba figure, at the Porto Novo Mask Festival. Yanick Folly / AFP

Spectators poured into Benin's capital for a new festival celebrating traditional masks over the weekend as the West African country seeks to attract visitors and showcase its cultural heritage.
The three-day Porto Novo Mask Festival drew participants from across Benin as well as neighboring Togo and Burkina Faso, said AFP.
There was excitement in the crowd as spectators caught sight of some masked and costumed figures rarely seen outside their respective regions.
The main street hummed with traditional music while officials and members of the public watched displays of acrobatics and stilt-walkers perched on eight-meter (26-foot) poles.
Benin's government and city authorities launched the event to replace the Porto Novo International Festival, usually held in January, and there were both secular and religious masks on show.
Voodoo, known locally as Vodun, is widely practiced in Benin. It worships gods and natural spirits while showing respect to revered ancestors.
"I'm very moved -- I saw masks I'd never had the chance to see before," said Vodun religious dignitary Severin Alode, 43. "I've never seen such a buzz. It's a first."
The festival's main attractions were Gonouko, towering masked figures from Porto Novo, alongside an array of other masks and appearances from Zangbeto, traditional Vodun guardians of the night.
Even the rare Hounve mask was on display, as Vodun dignitary Adanklounon Ado Setondji explained.
"Our parents knew how to hide the Hounve, but as we are in the mindset of promotion, we have to take the masks out and show them to the public," he said.
Before the festival, rituals took place away from spectators.
Bale Atchade, a 65-year-old Vodun dignitary, said there were ceremonies centered on resolving social problems and others linked to infertility.
'Source of pride'
Ayaba Collete Dossou, a member of the national Vodun rites committee, said the Porto Novo festival showed "the beauty of our culture and our wealth."
The city's mayor Charlemagne Yankoty said the event "puts Porto Novo in the spotlight."
"The mask festival will enhance Benin's culture and reveal its full value in terms of heritage and culture," he said.
Earlier this year, the government revamped another of Benin's cultural celebrations -- its famous Voodoo festival -- in a bid to attract more visitors.
"Vodun is of economic interest to us, since tourism is an important sector," said President Patrice Talon at the festival in January.
He said he hoped that event would help explain "what Vodun is and how it is practiced" to domestic as well as foreign tourists.
There were signs his wishes were being fulfilled at the mask festival in Porto Novo, too.
Frederica Nzamba, a 30-year-old visitor with Beninese roots, told AFP she came to "better discover and understand Benin's culture" after 16 years living abroad.
The festival, she said, was a "source of pride."

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Hiroshima Governor Says Nuclear Disarmament Must Be Tackled as a Pressing Issue, Not an Ideal

Pigeons are released at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park during the 79th Atomic Bombing Day anniversary in Hiroshima, western Japan, August 6, 2024, in this photo taken by Kyodo. (Kyodo/via Reuters)
Pigeons are released at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park during the 79th Atomic Bombing Day anniversary in Hiroshima, western Japan, August 6, 2024, in this photo taken by Kyodo. (Kyodo/via Reuters)
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Hiroshima Governor Says Nuclear Disarmament Must Be Tackled as a Pressing Issue, Not an Ideal

Pigeons are released at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park during the 79th Atomic Bombing Day anniversary in Hiroshima, western Japan, August 6, 2024, in this photo taken by Kyodo. (Kyodo/via Reuters)
Pigeons are released at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park during the 79th Atomic Bombing Day anniversary in Hiroshima, western Japan, August 6, 2024, in this photo taken by Kyodo. (Kyodo/via Reuters)

Hiroshima officials urged world leaders Tuesday to stop relying on nuclear weapons as deterrence and take immediate action toward abolishment — not as an ideal, but to remove the risk of atomic war amid conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East and rising tensions in East Asia.

They commented as Hiroshima remembered its atomic bombing 79 years ago at the end of World War II.

The memorial comes days after Japan and the US reaffirmed Washington's commitment to “extended deterrence,” which includes atomic weapons, to protect its Asian ally. That is a shift from Japan’s past reluctance to openly discuss the sensitive issue as the world’s only country to have suffered atomic attacks.

Hiroshima Gov. Hidehiko Yuzaki said nuclear-armed nations and supporters of atomic deterrence “deliberately ignore ... the fact that once people invented a weapon, they used it without exception.”

“As long as nuclear weapons exist, they will surely be used again someday,” Yuzaki said in his address at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

“Nuclear weapons abolition is not an ideal to achieve far in the future. Instead, it is a pressing and real issue that we should desperately engage in at this moment since nuclear problems involve an imminent risk to human survival,” he said.

Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui said Russia’s war on Ukraine and the worsening conflict between Israel and Palestinians are “deepening distrust and fear among nations” and reinforcing a view that use of force in settling conflict is unavoidable.

The atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, destroyed the city, killing 140,000 people. A second bomb dropped three days later on Nagasaki killed 70,000 more. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II and Japan’s nearly half-century aggression in Asia.

About 50,000 people at the ceremony observed a minute of silence with the sound of a peace bell at 8:15 a.m., the time when a US B-29 dropped the bomb on the city. Hundreds of white doves, considered symbols of peace, were released.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who attended the ceremony, said global conflicts and divided views over approaches to nuclear disarmament make achieving that goal “all the more challenging,” but pledged to do his utmost in pursuing “realistic and practical measures” to build momentum within the international community.

His critics say it is a hollow promise because Japan relies on the US nuclear umbrella for protection and has been rapidly expanding its military.

Japan, the United States and other regional allies have been stepping up security cooperation in response to a more assertive China and the growing nuclear and missile threats from North Korea. Japan has sought stronger US protection by its nuclear capability.

Many survivors of the bombings have lasting injuries and illnesses resulting from the explosions and radiation exposure and have faced discrimination in Japan.

As of March, 106,823 survivors — 6,824 fewer than a year ago, and now with an average age of 85.58 — are certified as eligible for government medical support, according to the Health and Welfare Ministry. Many others, including those who say they were victims of the radioactive “black rain” that fell outside the initially designated areas of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, are still without support.

Hiroshima officials called on Kishida’s government to do more to provide support and address their wishes.

The aging survivors, known as “hibakusha,” continue to push for a nuclear arms ban as they desperately campaign to have their effort kept alive by younger generations.