Day 6 8th March - A border crossing into Togo, another voodoo ceremony, and a fetish market

Photo above - voodoo ceremony in a tiny rural village in Togo quite near the border with Benin. More photos to follow below

Border crossing into Togo

Set off early this morning as we are crossing the border into Togo, and border crossing times can be notoriously difficult to predict. We got onto the International road again to do the few miles to the crossing.

At the border, we had to fill in forms to leave Benin, and forms to enter Togo. There were no queues luckily, but the immigration staff appear to have to do all paperwork manually. It took two hours to get through.

About Togo

Back on the road, the scenery looked much the same as Benin, although the roads appeared quieter. Rough ground, palm trees, and rivers, are interrupted regularly by small road side villages.

Togo is officially called the Togolese Republic. It is a long thin country (only 52 km wide at one point), sandwiched between Benin and Ghana, sharing a border with Burkina Faso in the north, and having a short Atlantic coastline in the south. It is only 22,000 sq miles in area, less than half the area of England, and has a population of only 9 million. Nearly 50% of the population are Christian, and a further 20% follow Islam. It has previously been governed by Germany and France before gaining independence from France in 1960. The official language is French. There are 20 different tribes in the country.

Drive to a rural village

We drove for about 45 minutes to get to a small village called Aminouji Kongi where we were due to see another voodoo ceremony. Most of the drive was on a bumpy dirt road. Casava and palm trees are the only things growing in the red dirt. All farming, and houses constructed are by locals and by hand. It is Sunday so we saw some people going to or from church in all their finery. Christianity and Voodoo sit side by side here without any issues. There were kids at the side of the road jumping up and down with delight to see a vehicle, especially one with white people in it, as they very rarely see cars and trucks, and definitely never see white people .

Another voodoo ceremony

We got to the village where they were already performing the ceremony. The leaders insisted we were blessed before going into the courtyard to see the ceremony. There a lot of drums and percussion keeping a rhythm which lasted about 1.5 hours. There were lots more dancers than yesterday, each dancing for a few minutes, then there is tag team arrangement where another few people come in. All adult villagers appeared to be taking part.

There was an 80 year old woman dancing, right down to teenage boys. And the dancing is very vigorous, so much so that people rush over to them with a cloth to wipe down their faces. Around the edges, onlookers were singing chants. Several dancers went into trance which was quite disturbing. Suddenly the dancer will look like they are having an epileptic fit. They have to be held down by others, their eyes roll up into their heads. They are doused in water, then get covered in white powder. They carry on dancing in this state. One woman in a trance had gunpowder put into their hands, which was then lit by matches going up in a puff of smoke!

We walked around the village followed by loads of kids. I played football for a few minutes with some small lads.

West to Lome, the capital

Next we returned to the town (Aneho) where we crossed the border to have some lunch at a lovely beach cafe.This town was formerly the capital for about 10 years.

Next up, a journey of about an hour and a half to the Capital Lome. At one point we passed over a railway line that was transporting phosphate which Togo exports. We passed through a couple of police checkpoints with no issues.

The traffic was very light and the road was two lanes in each direction, so we made good time. There was a continual stream of villages and shops along the road. I saw the first mosque of the trip on the way. On reaching the suburbs of Lome, we found that all the side roads off the main International highway were dirt roads. We passed through Togo’s main industrial area which includes refineries, and cement production. In the same area is the port where trucks pick up goods for taking north to Bukina Faso and Mali.

Voodoo fetish market

Our final stop of the day is at a voodoo fetish market, which sells everything you would need for making voodoo medicines, or performing a voodoo ceremony. It is pretty gruesome as it is full of dessicated dead animals including rats, mice, birds, leopards, alligators, snakes, monkeys, cows etc. The bigger animals are just the heads. These are ground down to make soap to bathe in, or a solution to inject. There are also lots of masks and other objects which are blessed by the fetish priest or doctor to protect against danger when travelling, or sleeplessness, or impotency, or basically anything you could think of. Live animals are sacrificed during ceremonies, and it was only in the 1880s that the president made it illegal to sacrifice women.

We went into a small back room where a fetish priest undertakes consultation, and advises what fetishes are required to rid you of your problem, and saw examples of talisman he might give you for protection.

We then drove the 15 minutes to another beach side hotel. Tomorrow we explore more of Lomé, before crossing into Ghana in the afternoon.