Being a practicing witch doctor, sorcerer or healer is no simple task, as a wide variety of raw materials are needed to concoct the traditional medicines used to ward off evil spirits and cure people’s ailments.
Monkey Skulls for sale at Lome Fetish Market. Courtesy Julius Cruickshank
Chimpanzee bones, snake skins, dessicated chameleons and dried up birds are just some of the essential ingredients required, as are crocodile skulls, spiders and monkey hides. Thankfully then, for those who swear by the dark side of medicine all these and more can be picked up at the Lome Fetish Market in Togo’s capital.
Joseph, a local Voodoo priest, tells the BBC that Lome Fetish Market is like “a pharmacy for everybody in the world”. Should you come down with a serious fever, headache or worse, and find that the hospital cannot help, this is the place to come.
Now there's an original souvenir... Image courtesy Dominik Schwarz
The unsettling array of ingredients found at Lome’s most unusual one-stop shop can be used for a wide variety of purposes. Some, such as the heads of crocodiles, monkeys and cats, are ground up into a fine powder and mixed with ashes from fire, which is then rubbed on to the chests of willing patients. There are a number of medicines to help women that cannot conceive, while one of the stranger concoctions involves grinding up gorilla and chimpanzee hands into a potion which is given to goalkeepers to help them perform better on the pitch. Larger animal bones meanwhile, are blessed by Voodoo priests and then used to protect people’s houses from thieves and accidents like fire.
Here’s a short video of what one can expect to find on a trip to the market the next time you’re travelling through Lome:
