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The Fon people are the largest ethnic group of Benin, and make up 39% of an estimated population of 10 million inhabitants. This ethnicity is mainly settled in the area around Abomey, capital of the ancient kingdom of Danxomé (Danhomè), in central Benin, but there are also large Fon communities in the South. We look […]

A meal a day at school. This is the challenge of “Mary’s Meals”, a Scottish NGO active in international solidarity. Sometimes it takes but a little, to give hope to many children. This is the story of Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, a Scottish layman who has set up, in a shed at his home in Argyle, an

Places sacred to both Christians and Moslems, where the faithful tend to join together and pray. Moslem devotion to Our Lady. Christians who visit the holy tombs of Moslems to beg their intercession, Moslems making votive offerings in the place where Mary gave birth to Jesus – these practices were widespread in Mediterranean countries during

The Dinka are one of the largest ethnic groups South Sudan. The essential features of Dinka religion fall under three headings, which may be regarded as its three principal dimensions – belief, worship and morality. Belief Considering the Dinka as a whole, the main objects of traditional religious belief are God, the divinities, spirits and

In Kinshasa, a stone quarry provides work for dozens of people but the work is extremely hard – particularly for the women and children. The site is guarded by soldiers and impossible to approach. We have met some of the workers. It is not only gold and precious minerals that have value. In the Democratic

A contemplative community inserted into the social texture of the village, through prayer and work, gives testimony of the presence of the Kingdom of God. At last, we reached Natitingou, in the heart of the Atakora Mountain Range, six hundred kilometres north-west of Cotonou, the economic capital of Benin. Just outside the city, which is

She has helped deliver 34,000 babies. Close friendship with a Moslem Imam, she has lived in the country for more than half a century. She has been a witness to much suffering, but also experienced great hope like that of the new-born child. There is no sign of stress on her face with those attentive

Among the Borana, an ethnic group that lives in northern Kenya, there are three funeral celebrations: the day of the burial, two weeks after the death and one year later. The role of the eldest son. The meaning of the sacrifices. The Borana believe that, at death, the body – nafa – separates itself from

em>Though known for centuries as the Dinka, they actually call themselves Moinjaang, ‘People of the People’. The Dinka are around 3.2 million people, constituting about 25% of the population of South Sudan, and they are also the largest ethnic group in the country. We look at some cultural aspect of this ethnic group. According to

“The daily experience of the peoples of Mesoamerica is that life exists because there is death. Corn, sown in the fields, dies like all the other seeds, to give birth to a new generation of plants. Death is a part of human existence and of the cosmos.” Unlike Western societies, which greatly fear death and