PULCHERIE ADJOHA and SERAPHIN ZOUNYEKPE ON Benin's national voodoo holiday, performers dressed as guardians of the night swirled in costumes resembling technicolour haystacks, delighting worshippers and tourists alike. Over a thousand people gathered in the small Atlantic coast town of Ouidah on Tuesday, once an important port in the slave trade, to watch the elaborate annual rituals of dance and drumming to honour the 500-year-old religion's panoply of gods and spirits. "They come in increasing numbers because voodoo is no longer considered sorcery, it is no longer considered barbarism," said voodoo spiritual leader Daagbo Hounon Houna II, adorned in colourful…