The Dust of The Forest

“I had three twin births and now I live with twins in this little house. The other four twins? They went to the forest and never came back.“ We are in Fonkpame a village in southern Benin in the district of Agondji and the speaker is Hortence, a 37-year-old woman, mother of 8-year-old twins, Chancelle and Chanceline. What Hortence is referring to, is a popular Voodoo belief that twins, and their mother, are earthly deities. Consequently they cannot die, but “ they go to the forest”. Chancelle and Chanceline go through the forest every morning to reach the school. Symbolically they overcome the greatest obstacle of the twins to be able to meet their future. The school becomes the means that distances them from the threats of their society. Voodoo is the framework within which popular beliefs and the social context of the place are defeated by the dreams of two girls who face their lives every day, unaware of being the symbol of change in the entire country. They go forward, like the dust blown by the wind, they don’t stop in front of the forest, they go beyond their limits, to conquer a better future.