Africa

Around the World in 80 Faiths • Season 1 • Episode 3

About this episode

Pete continues his year-long religious odyssey with a gruelling journey exploring the spiritual traditions of Africa. He sets off hoping to get a glimpse of man's first experience of the divine. His journey begins with the ancient practice of voodoo in Benin, where he is confronted with rites that contradict his own deeply held religious convictions. He is forced to decide whether he should even take part. Later, he travels to Botswana to meet the San Bushmen, inheritors of the earliest religious faith on earth. In South Africa, he discovers surprising new developments in religious belief when he meets the members of the 12th Apostolic Church and is stunned to find Afrikaners who believe the world is about to come to an end. In Ethiopia, he finds a group of one of the world's youngest religions - Rastafarians who have set up a Utopian community in this harsh and unforgiving land. His journey reaches its emotional conclusion in the highlands of northern Ethiopia.