Togo and Benin are two small countries between Ghana and Nigeria. They are where the Caribbean religion of Voodoo originated from and is still largely practiced in the the Carribean, and also in these two countries in West Africa.
Voodoo is a mix of polytheism, totenism, Animism and Ancestralism. Basically the spirit world lives along side the realm we live and the spirits effect every day life through their actions. Trees, animals, rocks, rivers mountains, and many other things can be spirits. This effects how people, respect, give reverence, and sacrifice to these spirits in different ceremonies, and practices.
There is a lot of concentration in modern practice around different objects or totems that hold those spiritual powers and using those to enact some sort of power spiritually or in the reality of life around you. We are all probably familiar with the voodoo doll and that is one example of this.
Voodoo is the creolized and new world way of saying Vodun which mean spirit in Ewe, Fon, and Gon languages which are tribes that live in Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria typically along the coastal and green belts of these countries.
Today I will be showing you inside the voodoo market in Lome, Togo. Here people go to by things of spiritual power. Sometimes in a fun way called African Electronics. So you can think of it as a spiritual electronics market if you will. There are also voodoo practitioners there and shrines so you can get the results you like from the objects and give offers to additional spirits.
Bird and animal parts, and the seller posing with some voodoo dolls. Everything here is forsale.
Monkey heads.
Bird and rodent heads.
A dried iguana this is supposed to be very good for raising the manhood according to their beliefs.
Posing with the skin of a large Boa snake.
An army of voodoo dolls.
The main market shrine.
Artwork on the interior wall of the market.
Another seller with his ware.
More totems and spiritual objects.
A large voodoo doll. The objects nailed to it are snake vertebra and cowrie shells.
A very creepy 3 headed fetish.
A necklass of sneak vertebra.
A basket of sneak heads.
The shrine with the priest or juju man
Thanks for taking a look at something that is very much out of the sphere of understanding and daily life for most of us. Hope you enjoyed your tour through the African Electronics market.
Shot with Canon Digital Eos Rebel
Interesting - tho you could have spun out multiple articles on the specifics ;-) Thanks
Yes there is potential for multiple blogs on a lot of my posts. But I still have a lot of content archives and new experiences every day too. So it is always a balance of time and number of blogs.
Congratulations, your post has been curated by @r2cornell. Also, find us on Discord
Felicitaciones, su publication ha sido votado por @r2cornell. También, encuéntranos en Discord
Wow, these are really amazing items. Sometimes I wonder where our spiritualists in Nigeria usually get there spiritual items. I think this one is a clue. Thanks for sharing with us.
I would love to know also if these items came from real animals or they were carved/moulded
I am afraid they all come from real animals.
Hello @leifasaur . Your market is decorated with strange objects. different. I have never seen these. To me it is terrible. Do you sell these?
I do not sell these, I only visited the market when I was in Lome, Togo. I don't condone what has happened to these animals but I also done condone peoples traditional beliefs either. And actually I think these sorts of fetishes being sold in a market is more a modern day perversion of the older traditional practices. I believe a lot o this is centered around individuals trying to serve their selfish needs. In the traditional community or village there would be a spiritualist/healer if they needed to heal or help someone spiritually or in times of war for protection for their community and warriors they would have gone into the forest and harvested whatever powerful object, plant or animal they would need, no more no less.
Yes friend. Thanks for your reply . this market looks really different. This is completely knew to me...
All the animals...very sad..., but also very interesting....
and for somebody like me to make photos...a paradise.....
Yep pretty much my take on it too.