Magical Medicine: Voodoo market offers spiritual advice and animal talismans

In Lome, Togo, photographer Christina Czybik visited a traditional Voodoo market after enjoying three days of festivities at the Agbogboza Festival in Notse, Togo.

Christina said: “The market was roughly the size of half a soccer field with all its open space and backyards of the small shops.

“It was very hot with the sun burning down. They had large areas where birds, snakes, skins, body parts and other animals were neatly arranged to dry in the sun among the red and grey dust and sand with a scent of decay hanging in the air.

“The birds really caught my eye, they were so many and so colorful!”

Regardless of whether they are alive or dead, every creature is divine in Voodoo and they are frequently sold for animal sacrifice or kept as talismans.

The spirit of Voodoo originates from areas of West Africa, but it did not come together as a collective religion until the enforced immigration of enslaved Africans by European colonists.

Despite significant effort from white slavers to crush African communities, enslaved Africans found a common thread in their faith and ultimately a new integrated religion was born - Voodoo.

There are many schools of Voodoo belief, but all of them are connected by a shared belief in the spirit world and their ancestors' part in it.

Nowadays the religion is still prevalent in Togo and practitioners and tourists alike can find an array of Voodoo goods at markets, including wooden figurines or fetishes - objects believed to have supernatural powers.

Czybik said: “There was so much to look at, so much to discover, so much to see. The merchants tried to sell us everything they had, it is not often that white people stop by.

“We were the only customers at that time. I had so many questions, but unfortunately we did not have much time to have them all answered.”

At Voodoo markets, people can seek advice from Voodoo priestesses or priests who will offer divine aid, either through offering herbal medicine or even faith healing.

While at the market, the photographer accepted the advice of a Voodoo Priest who encouraged her to buy a small stone with a hole in the middle, where lightning had struck it.

Czybik continued: “When I stood in front of his goods, he grabbed one stone and told me that this stone was good as pain relief for Arthrosis and Arthritis.

“I did not question his choice, because I actually have acute Arthrosis and I bought the one he picked for me.”

“I later showed it to one of the African guys who accompanied us and he had a really scared look on his face. He said that this stone scared him, because the lightning stroke is so powerful.”

Voodooists believe in an unknowable creator god, Bondye, who does not interfere in human affairs, so practitioners defer their praise and offerings to spirits subservient to the god, called Loa.

Believers worship specific spirits who are relevant to their own lives, so farmers will praise spirits of agriculture while someone in love might praise or give offerings to Erzulie Freda - the Haitian African spirit of love, beauty, luxury and dancing.

In Western culture Voodoo is often associated with animal sacrifice and even zombies, but in fact the religion is far more complex.

Voodoo spells are used for a wide range of reasons, some are for healing and purification, others are woven for nature and even love.

Practitioners evoke the spirits to bring harmony and peace, birth and rebirth, renewed health and sometimes material happiness.

Although Voodoo is frequently misunderstood by Western cultures, it continues to have a strong presence in African communities.

The photographer added: “They really manage to preserve the long tradition of their animist religion and merge it with modern day trade and business.

“And as some kind of tourist attraction where you can get a deeper look at this often misunderstood and, for many people, strange appearing culture.”

While wondering the market, Christina was struck by the contrast of a young boy grasping his teddybear while attending his mother’s Voodoo stall.

She said: “It was such a surreal picture, this boy cuddling the teddybear, surrounded by all the dead animals, animal parts and animal skins.

“This was just a short moment, but it was a haunting situation, very memorable.”