Celebrating Sacred Twins of Africa
Official Selection, 2018 Wisconsin Film Festival
Celebrating Sacred Twins in Africa – Annual festivals honor sacred twins among the Ewe, Mina, Yorùbá, Gaa and related peoples of West Africa. During the festival in Aneho, Togo, the community's twin memorial figures are washed in a healing and sanctifying bath (along with living twins and their mothers), and blessed by priests and priestesses of the gods and goddesses (Agwe, Yemoja, Mami Wata, and others). Devotees in trance carrying large vessels of empowering medicines lead a procession as they rush to the sea and make the final offering to the gods—expressing their gratitude for the gift of children, for prayers offered, and prayers answered.
A film by Henry John Drewal
Edited by Aaron Granat