Persecution for belief-based uses is a major threat to raptors in West Africa. Critically Endangered Hooded Vultures Necrosyrtes monachus are traded openly in West African vodun (also known as voodoo or fetish) markets in Benin, despite national laws protecting this species. We interviewed 115 vendors selling Hooded Vultures and/or their body parts at nine different markets in southern Benin to understand the extent and drivers of this illegal trade. Over four months, we counted a total of 522 Hooded Vultures in market stalls, including whole dried vulture carcasses (73.4% of vulture products offered for sale), vulture heads (17.2%), and live birds (9.4%). Vultures offered for sale originated from at least 10 foreign countries, suggesting there are far-reaching impacts of illegal trade on Hooded Vultures. Vodun practitioners sacrifice and consume vultures in the belief these practices will protect them from witchcraft and achieve other supernatural aims, and the resulting high demand for vultures has driven the price of a Hooded Vulture to exceed the average monthly income in Benin. Despite serious legal, conservation, and animal welfare concerns, wildlife trade for belief-based use is thriving and growing in West Africa, and our findings highlight that legislation aimed at protecting vultures in Benin appears to be currently ineffective. From our discussions with traders, it appears that low education levels, weak law enforcement, and disregard for legislation contribute to this trade that threatens remaining vultures across West Africa. Public awareness campaigns to educate residents about conservation laws and improved law enforcement are urgently needed to mitigate on-going threats to this and other Critically Endangered species.

Until the 1980s, Catholic elements in Haitian culture tended to be interpreted exclusively in connection to the forced conversion of the enslaved population under French rule. This changed following John Thornton's groundbreaking research into the development of Christianity in early modern Africa—Kongo in particular—and the awareness that a significant number of enslaved Africans already identified as Christian before their arrival in Saint-Domingue. This article's goal is to go beyond Thornton's research by showing that we can acquire a better understanding of Catholic elements in Haitian culture if we start our analysis in late medieval Iberia. To illustrate this, the article focuses on one of Haiti's most enigmatic cultural traditions, known as Chariopié, Lwalwadi, or, most commonly, Rara. Although this performance has received abundant scholarly interest, questions relating to the origin of its Catholic elements have remained largely unanswered. This is regrettable considering that Rara parades follow the liturgical calendar of Lent and intensify in frequency during Holy Week. Moreover, a key element of Rara consists of the destruction of an effigy of Judas Iscariot, in accordance with the Biblical account of the Easter story. Using a comparative analysis, this article presents a number of remarkable parallels between Rara and late medieval Iberian Lent traditions. To explain these parallels, it claims that enslaved Africans who were familiar with Iberian practices prior to their arrival in the Caribbean established, by their own initiative, a network of mutual aid and burial societies modeled on Afro-Iberian Catholic brotherhoods.