I went back and looked again also. I see where I misunderstood something also. The children in the video that was “said” to be taken out of their homes, all had parents who at some point needed the assistance of the Priest/Priestess.
Voodoo for Benin people is a spiritual education, it is the only common education outside of western education in that area. In Benin, you either go to voodoo school, or get western education. The Africans who want to preserve their culture choose the voodoo school, they are not forced to choose it and that is the lie that is being portrayed in the videos that we saw. The little girl who was special needs, you know she was going to have a lot of problems in that western school because of the kinds of facilty's and what looked to be low staffing that they had, the voodoo school was the only choice and from the looks of it, the little girl was being treated like Queen, regardless to her obvious challenged issues
And we don't know what that was in the glass that they was giving that girl, nor do we know why they was giving it to her.
As for the woman who went to see her child, she said she wasn’t allowed to talk with her, not see her.
Oh okay well that sheds some light on a lot then. If I am not mistaken, not speaking to family or friends is a part of the initiation process. However, the white man was not going to look for a legitimate reason behind why the child could not speak to her mother because he don't want legitimate reasoning, he wants to make things look bad. Did you see how he looked at the camera and said "she just said that she can't talk to her child but she pointed to which child is hers there she is" he was doing that all conspicuously as to convey something negative. If the mother was not able to speak to the child because she was being punished for not being able to pay the voodoo school, don't you think the voodoo school would just go on ahead and punish the mother by not letting her see the child as well? We can see that the girls came in how they did all hunched over and things because that is a part of the initiation process. The girls heads were down so that they could not look at their family because the eyes speak. Being able to go days without talking shows a great deal of discipline and I am sure discipline is the purpose as it is in most African cultures.
The reporter did say she didn't have a name, but that’s only because she’s in transition. She is to be initiated and reborn in a new spirit and name.
It still doesn't take away from the probability that many of these parents may be selling their children to pay for initiations.
If the whole thing is that the voodoo school is being greedy by robbing the Benin people, as the reporter try's to make things seem, why would the voodoo school take the children away from their parents because the parents can not pay for the schooling? I don't want no kids in my daycare that parents ain't paying me for cause I sure as heck, can't take care of them, feed them and clothe them on my salary. My salary depends on the parents paying me, you get what I am saying? I don't need extra mouths to feed if I ain't getting paid for those mouths.
I know we have a mess of ills to deal with here in the americas, but these are our people also. Should we dismiss their hardships because a white mans agenda is to destroy their traditional practices of Voudun; Or force them to lower the fees for initiation? Someone once said to me “every brown person is not my Brother or Sister.” Does not this also ring true for African belief systems?
Is every African initiated system just and correct?