Thursday, October 26, 2006 Yes, I'm still alive. The internet has been somewhat difficult as of late, but c'est comme ça en Afrique.

Yesterday was the coolest day ever. I went over to the West side of Benin to attend the coming of age ceremony for the Lokpa tribe. Each year everyone who has ties to the Lokpa tribe is required to come back to the village to attend la fête de chicotte (which may be spelled entirely wrong, i can't seem to find the word they use in the dictionary! It means "whip"). It. Was. AWESOME.

The night before the ceremony there was an all night dance party with drumming. The whole village convereged on the main crossroads, dust was in the air and it was just very exciting. We left early, because the activities begin at sunrise. The next morning was crazy. Everyone was so excited, and we followed the parade of whippers and spectators down to the staging ground for the quartier. (Each quartier in the village has their own whipping, and then later they converge). On arrival, I was expecting a very orderly, and very boring ceremony. Oh man, it was so not. I'd been told that two opponents are given the opportunity to whip at each other three times each (in succession). Each whipper has a stick to defend himself, and will try and block the impending blow. So, I thought that it would be sort of a tournament style, one on one thing that would take hours. Nope. Everyone went, it seemed, at the same time. As many elders as there were to judge, there were an equal number of matches. I was in the center of it.

I don't know what it was like to be on a battlefield when hand-to-hand weapons were still in use... but I swear to you that it couldn't have been much different than this. It was chaotic, confusing, exhilirating... and I wasn't a participant!

Afterwards, they had a smaller one on one version for the kids. When I say kids, I don't mean like 11 year olds. I mean like 4 year olds. Yeah, they went at it to. It was so cute... in an oddly violent, disturbing way.

If you ever come to Benin in October, come to the whipping fete in Lokpa land. It's amazing.

(Pictures to come soon)