Messages conveyed by various loincloths for social communication during community festivals in the Adja-Tado Area of Bénin

Each year, the loincloths of community festivals in the Adja-Tado area of Bénin carry out a tourist review of their own cultural and identity values which they disseminate for the purposes of social mobilisation around local development. As tools for strengthening the fraternal fibre between daughters and sons of the same cultural area, the loincloths take an active part in the communication strategy implemented by the festival organisers. The semiotic analysis of field data collected in Hwla, Hwéda, Mahi and Wémè countries confirmed in several respects that the loincloths of community festivals were media of social communication for the affirmation of the cultural self of peoples. It is for this reason the organisers would benefit from further listing the cultural traits specific to each cultural area for their conservation and perpetuation.