Togo may be a small country, but it is full of a diverse and interesting culture. When described as the birthplace of voodoo rituals and home to many animist cults, the country quickly captures the imagination. While the reality is often very different from Hollywood and you're unlikely to find voodoo dolls and zombies in Lomé, you'll find that the voodoo religion (spelled Vaudou here) is still very much alive, and locals make occasional sacrificial visits. and prayer. During our research trip in Togo we came across many gems, ceremonies and rituals and here are some of them!
For a quick and easy introduction to the fetish world, check out Lomé (not Berlin or Tokyo, well, it depends on what fetish you're looking for). The capital city of Togo is home to Africa's largest fetish market, and although it's a bit of a tourist trap, the stuff you find there is still legal.
Healers and fortune tellers come here to compile their shopping lists based on the recommendations of fortune tellers, also known as sages or voodoo priests. Here's some hot stuff.
DEEP IN THE HEART OF WEST AFRICA, Vodou (Togo); Vodoun (Benin) or better known as Voodoo (Haiti) is not only alive and well but also thriving.
The capital of Togo, the city of Lome is the birthplace of the world's largest voodoo market - a storehouse of sorts of super fetishes, amulets and anything else needed for ritual. The Akodessewa Fetish Market or Marche des Feticheurs is a place where you can find everything from leopard heads and human skulls to vodou (voodoo) priests who bless and create amulets or predict the future and make medicines to cure your ailments.
Although many people consider Haiti to be the greatest voodoo stronghold, the religion originated in West Africa. Vodun is the official religion of neighboring Benin and is still the largest religion in the region, as evidenced by the open market location in the heart of the capital city of Togo.
The market is owned and operated by the Beni people. The Akodessewa Fetish Market is a mecca for local practitioners, and they travel from all over the African continent. Many believers see the Marche des Feticheurs as a kind of hospital or pharmacy - this is where you go when you can't afford traditional medicine or traditional medicine has let you down.
Here you'll find amulets and amulets suitable for everything from curing colds or infertility to removing the blackest curses.
In the practice of voodoo, every creature is powerful and divine, alive or dead, and at the Akodessewa Fetish Market you can find them all - monkeys, crocodiles, goats, leopards, deer and many others - in various states of decay and in a state of dreadful heaps. for block.
The outdoor location doesn't quite suppress the stench, but at least the big market is outside. It's a terrible site for tourists unfamiliar with the idea of sacrificing animals as part of worship or using parts of the dead as amulets, but for locals who practice the religion it's a treasure and a necessity.