(3 Aug 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Porto Novo, Benin – 3 August 2025
1. Various of dance performers displaying their masks during the Mask Festival
2. SOUNDBITE (French) Farid Mutairou, Mask Festival attendee:
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"This represents our culture; it’s what defines us as Beninese. We are among the only African countries that are proud to keep our culture compared to other countries that think Benin is just about sorcery. This is our identity. This is why we are here, and we are proud to be here and to show to the world that this is part of us, and we are proud to be Beninese."
3. Mid of children watching
4. Mid of performers in traditional costume
5. SOUNDBITE (French) Charlemagne Yankoty, Mayor of Porto-Novo:
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“The Mask Festival is for sure for tourist appeal of Benin because the president’s vision is to make tourism an economic leverage. He wanted different cultural events to happen every year; we have Voodoo Days in January, and we have the Mask Festival during summer holidays. The Mask Festival is to reposition Benin in order to reveal the benefits, but from the moment it’s a cultural event, it’s unseen.”
6. Various of performers
7. Wide of festival attendees
STORYLINE:
Thousands of spectators gathered in Benin on Sunday for the country’s annual Mask Festival, a vibrant cultural event celebrating ancestral spirits, heritage, and traditional identity.
With elaborate wooden masks, colourful fabrics, and rhythmic drumming, performers danced through various locations in the country’s capital, Porto Novo, reenacting age-old stories passed down through generations.
The festival is especially prominent among the Yoruba, Somba, and Betammaribe communities, where masked dancers, known as Egungun or Zangbeto, hold deep spiritual significance. These figures are said to represent ancestors who maintain order, ward off evil, and connect the physical world with the spiritual realm.
“This represents our culture; it’s what defines us as Beninese. We are among the only African countries that are proud to keep our culture,” said Farid Mutairou, a Benin architect.
The Beninese government has promoted the Mask Festival as a tool for cultural tourism, drawing visitors from neighbouring West African countries, Europe, and beyond.
“The Mask Festival is for sure for tourist appeal of Benin because the president, in his vision, wants to make tourism an economic leverage,” said Charlemagne Yankoty, Mayor of Porto-Novo.
AP Video shot by Dan Ikpoyi
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