BENIN: Snake Temple of Ouidah
The town of Ouidah is the spiritual capital of voodoo in West Africa where Houedah (snake worshippers) pay homage to the
Python-God. The Python Temple is built around an ancient tree where goats
and birds are sacrificed to the serpent spirit. The inner courtyard contains
purification huts where priests/priestesses prepare themselves for contact
with the spirit world. Murals on the largest hut illustrate the history of
Houedah worship: inside here are ten of the much revered pythons,
which are free to leave and roam at will. Snakes have considerable symbolic
significance in voodoo culture. The serpent loa Dangbé (or Damballa)
has been revered in West Africa for centuries. As such the loa’s
‘ancestor’, the python is also worshipped. The Dangbé ancestors which
protect the village harvest from rodents, are believed to act as
intermediaries between the physical and the spiritual world. Houedah
devotees converse with the priest or priestess who via contact with the
pythons act as medium to advise on the best form of worship or sacrifice. As
gods, the pythons do not die, they simply disappear. Their remains are
buried under the tree, where pilgrims leave offerings of palm oil at a
shrine among the roots, which themselves resemble the pythons slithering
around the temple.