Exposé, culture and tradition.

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- Les griots

The griots, these itinerant musicians, professionals almost born - they are part of a caste - who go from village to royal court singing the praises of a lineage and its descendants, are a feature of many traditional societies 'Africa Ouest.Leur existence is attested by the accounts of early travelers, the thirteenth and fourteenth siècles.Les griots play a particular social role, as no prohibited weighs on them. They are indeed the only ones able to tell the powerful that thinks of them peuple.Les the griots sing more often the praise of their employer, recalling the deeds of their ancestors through epics, transmitted orally from generation to generation and acting as conseiller.Ils are accompanied by their instrument of musique.Aujourd'hui, this role has evolved, but the griots continue to find their place in modern life. Some achieve fame, others around the neighborhood, especially during a party. Many singers and musicians making a commercial career remember that they come from a griot lineage, even if their business has moved away from tradition.

- Musique et danse

Africa is synonymous with music. However, do not expect to go this continent to the rhythm of the music, the least reportage boasts attractions. These dances and songs, which immediately evoke Africa in our minds, occur only during specific ceremonies or else on the mercantile incentive touristiques.En some organizations, however, it often happens that, at night, on the town square in the middle of shops, people dance to the sound of the djembe and the balafon, typical instruments or listen to the griot who, with his kora (whose musicality is reminiscent of the harp), sings the deeds of a particular family, especially Mali.Base of social life almost as much as religion, music occupies a special place. Very exuberant and festive, it draws its melodic roots in ancient traditions. Both as regards the choice of instruments than words and topics of the songs.

- Sons pluriels

You must speak in the plural music. Each is a dialect, and each instrument is given its own dialect: two musicians from neighboring villages can not necessarily play together. The instrument translates intonation, tone, sounds of the language. Everything instrument, including voice throat, pinched nose, resonant blows on the leg or ventre.La music, such as dance, reflects the full communion of man and nature. It also serves to transmit music throughout messages.L'instrument has a symbolic value for all present, it represents their cosmogony, or sex, or birth, or life, and everyone recognizes the value of every detail and its significance profonde.La music is not confined to the bush or to traditional rhythm. In big cities, people had celebrated independence on rhythms from Cuba (especially merengue). They also continue to electrify nightclubs. The instruments and the sounds of black America, or those propagated by world music, also have a lot of success, like reggae and Lecoupe-shifted, dance music, festive and very rhythmic, born in Abidjan boxes before surging across Africa francophone.Chaque country also has its share of popular singers whose lyrics often very educational, can confuse Western ears accustomed to more convoluted metaphors and formulas. It deals with love, politics or contraception (on the continent, music is often used as an educational tool) African music almost always carries a message to be clear, understood by all.

- ABOUT TRADITION IN THE BENIN

- Traditions Benin

- Animism

This belief Recognizes the existence of a vital strength in natural Beings , whether human, animal, tree or a river . Animist rites are seeking to capture vital dissertation Forces That inhabit the universe and can Ensure security and Improve living conditions.Kinds of deities , usually personified the force of nature and the spirits (Including Those of ancestors ) , are honored . In the great times of the life of the peasant and his group (birth , initiation , marriage , funerals , etc.) , They Are Consulted and Their animals are Sacrificed .Essentially Animist prayers to Ensure the strength , richness and fertility of the group . The concept of sin does not exist , It Would be better to speak of prohibited transgression. Disease , drought , hunger is still felt in the spirit animists have the consequences of serious misconduct . No duality entre matter and mind Either .The attachment to traditional beliefs is bright in most populations.

- Religion and Belief

The dominant religion of Benin is animism. But Christianity (Catholic, Protestant, not to mention many evangelical sects) is practiced by nearly 43% of the population and Islam by 24%, figures that do not mean much to the extent that can be very well be both Christian (or Muslim) and actually practicing voodoo.Benin is the birthplace of voodoo, cult dedicated to a set of deities present everywhere and in everything, which is then developed in the Caribbean and Brazil with the arrival of slaves. This is specifically the southern half of the country that was the birthplace of voodoo, the North with its own religions, but also animist significantly different.The gods of voodoo form a rich pantheon of over 250 deities, very organized, with his creator god of man and the universe, and a string of gods with diverse and specific responsibilities. It was noted that this religious system evoked some of the ancient Greeks: the same mixture of familiarity and terror vis-à-vis the gods, constantly solicited and involved in everyday life.These deities have their territory. There are here and there in the land of the kinds of dense island forests, virgin, not destroyed: it is in fact sacred forests as a fetish lives there.

- Tontine

Practice well symbolize the community spirit of Africans, the tontine is a kind of savings bank with friends or neighbors. Long, farmers got together to clear fields; the one whose turn it was offered palm wine. Today it is mostly very practiced in the country of emigration. The members of a tontine to pool some money and take turns at month end in pockets all. This money is used generally to go up or bail out a deal. No paper is signed, all relationships are based on trust. And then we know: it belongs to the same family in the same town or area. Tonti, Italian banker seventeenth century that gave it its name, did not think that one day his "invention" would end up in Africa on a large scale. What is interesting in this practice is that, more than a forced savings, it is primarily