In pictures: Togo's voodoo market

poon cho tang SG

World pharmacy

In the heart of Togo's capital, Lome, is a market dedicated to the sale of ingredients which traditional healers say can make magic charms.

Joseph, a healer from neighbouring Benin, says:

"This place is like a pharmacy for everybody in the world. When someone has a serious sickness and the hospital cannot help, they come here to the fetish market."

poon cho tang SG

Black powder

"We have many different kinds of animal heads.

"Here we have the head of a crocodile, the head of a cat and lots of monkey heads. We also have different birds like vultures and owls, as well as chameleons, snakes, cobras and vipers.

"To make the medicine, we grind up the heads with herbs and then put the mixture on the fire. This leaves us with a black powder.

"We cut the person's chest or back three times and then rub the powder into the flesh."

WiNtEr'SkiLL SG

oh thats cool

poon cho tang SG

Official approval

"These come from the bush. From all over West Africa. From Ghana, Burkina Faso, Benin, Ivory Coast and from Nigeria.

"The government knows what we are doing and where we are.

"We don't kill any of the animals here ourselves."

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Fertility

"We can help everybody. For example people who cannot have children.

"If you and your wife have no baby after 10 years of trying and you go to hospital and that does not help, we have some medicines here at the market that can help the woman have a baby."

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Goalkeeper charm

"This is the hand of a chimpanzee.

"We use it to prepare something to help the goalkeeper in football.

"We get the left hand of a monkey, a gorilla's hand and then with different herbs we prepare a powder to put on the goalkeeper's body. This makes him very fast.

"If you want to run a marathon then we use the head, heart and four legs of a horse."

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Big bones

"Those large bones at the back are used to protect people's houses.

"Every year the fetish priests go from village to village to prepare the 'house protector'.

"We sell those small statues to the tourists who come from all over the world to our market, which is the biggest fetish market anywhere."

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Long training

"Everything is passed from father to son.

"I have been learning fetish medicine for the past seven years, but still have one-and-a-half years to go.

"We are here to help everybody".

Photos and interview by Mark Dummett

virce SG

darn! human beings are so selfish eh.