Possession by the Spirits and Fetish Market

 February 26, 2025  Possession by the Spirits and Fetish Market

 We left Ouidah this morning and drove along the coast of the Bight of Benin, part of the Gulf of Guinea, headed for the Togo border and the city of Lomé, the capitol of Togo. 

We stopped along the way to witness the morning fish harvest.  The fishermen go out in the evening with enormous nets, as long as a kilometer and as far offshore as a kilometer.  The nets have very long ropes attached to each end, and in the morning the nets are brought ashore with teams of men on each of the ropes.  We witnessed one team at one end of the net—the other team was not even in view down the coast. 

We didn’t stay the hour or more it would take to bring in the fish.  Our next stop was at an incomplete memorial to the slave trade, being constructed at a place from which many ships carrying slaves departed.  Slaves were transported from here by the Dutch, the Danes, the Portuguese, the French and the British.  About 2/3 of the exported slaves went to Brazil, a fact I had not known.  Here is the Gate of No Return: 

We stopped at a small village where there was to be a voodoo ceremony of “possession of the spirits” today.  The drummers and chanters “lull dancers into a trance, causing eyes to roll back, faces to grimace, and bodies to convulse” according to our program notes.  “Traditional healers, who treat patients with voodoo rites and herbs, stand nearby to revive the dancers.”  When we arrived, the voodoo priest asked permission from the spirits for us to attend the ceremony: 

Permission was granted, and we entered, past a fetish in a spirit house: 

There was a potion in a bowl attached to a tree whose purpose was not revealed to us: 

The ceremony was in a small square, with the drummers off to one side.  The heat was intense, probably in the 90s, with the humidity to match.  The drumming was continuous, the song-like chants were intermittent, and the dancing seemed random. 

Many women had babies on their backs: 

As the priest invoked the spirits, one woman semi-fainted: 

A woman took part of the priest’s construction and danced: 

A man went into a trance under a bench and was helped by others: 

A man with white and yellow coloring on him participated; we weren’t told why he was painted such: 

A woman in a trance-like state crawled on the floor: 

Exhausted just from watching, we were told that the ceremony went on all day; we left after about an hour, and drove to the Togo border where the formalities took a lot of time.  Finally in Togo, we stopped for lunch at a harbor restaurant: 

We then continued on to Lomé, where we stopped at the fetish market to see an extensive selection of items which can be used in voodoo ceremonies.  

We made no purchases, and left for our hotel.  Tomorrow, on to Ghana.