Akodessewa Fetish Market, Togo
Whatever it is you’re looking for, the Akodessewa Fetish Market in Lomé, Togo will have it. If you can’t find what you’re searching for there, it must not exist, because there’s no way the thing you’re looking for is rarer than a dried llama fetus.
If you’re wondering how Akodessewa became the largest voodoo market in the world, the answer has a lot to do with its location. Togo and Benin are where voodoo, known locally as vodun, originated. It’s fitting then, that voodoo practitioners would want a local one-stop shop for everything from dog heads to elephant feet.
Akodessewa isn’t just an impressive collection of voodoo-themed goods, it’s also a hospital, of sorts. Okay, it is in no way a hospital. If I started inviting strangers into my apartment to rub grass in their eyes, I’d have something that more closely resembles a hospital than this place.
This, of course, doesn’t stop locals from going there to chat with healers who are more than willing to bother the gods for a hangnail remedy.
Did I mention this market has walls of teeth, because it does. Here, have a look.
