Akodessawa Fetish Market
The Akodessawa Fetish Market is located at Akodessawa, which is a district of Lomé, the capital of Togo in West Africa. The Akodessawa Fetish Market or Marche des Feticheurs is the world's largest voodoo market[1][2]
The market features monkey heads, skulls, dead birds, crocodiles, skins and other products of dead animals.
Voodoo
Voodoo has a long tradition in Togo. Centuries ago, slaves from Africa brought Yoruba gods to the Caribbean and South America. There it came to mixing of African gods with the saints of Christianity and the symbols of the Catholic Church. In course of time they changed their meaning. When former slaves and their families migrated to West Africa they developed a voodoo cult in the country of origin of their families.
Fetish
The fetish is comparable to the Orisha of Yoruba. A fetish can be God, but also human, plant, animal or material. This depends on the ritual and the situation. In the ritual, the fetish is activated and strengthened. Fetishes may have been special people.
Literature
- Voodoo Africaá Secret Power, 1980, ISBN 978-3853990131
- Afrika. Die Magier der Erde, Studienverlag 2010, ISBN 978-3-7065-4983-7
- The Last Africans, 1977, ISBN 978-3853990025
- Afrika, Asien- Kunst- und Ritualobjekte, 1997, ISBN 3-85218-244-1
- Die Medizin der schwarzen Götter, 1997, ISBN 3-85218-258-1
- Die Medizin der schwarzen Götter: Magie und Heilkunst Afrikas, 1989, ISBN 3-224-16571-5
References
- Roderick Eime (AAP): Fetish central: Akodessewa Fetish Market, in Togo, West Africa – the home of the $20 voodoo doll. Daily Telegraph, 14. März 2016
- "Fetish Market" – Der größte Voodoo-Markt der Welt. Archived 2016-09-25 at the Wayback Machine Terra Mystica, 9. März 2015
External links
Media related to Marché des féticheurs (Akodésséwa) at Wikimedia Commons