Benin
The Birthplace of the REAL VOODOO
It seems that even though Benin’s size (about the size of Ohio) is smaller than the rest of its neighbors, it holds more interesting sites that many countries that surround it.
The evidence of the French, Portuguese, Dutch and English colonial empires is still seen in many cities and towns along the south.
Voodoo was born here many years ago and spread to the Americas with the shipping of slaves over the Atlantic. I had a chance to visit a voodoo village to see some of the shrines they have built which was amazing. Hollywood has done a good job at damaging how people view voodoo and it is nothing more than praying to gods like most religions do (with the performing of more rituals.

Catholicism makes up around 30 percent of the population with Islam making up another 20 percent, and voodoo and/or animism finally making up about 50 percent. Even though the monotheistic religions follow their own rituals, many of them incorporate forms of voodoo into their everyday lives.
I had the chance to do the slavery walk which is when colonizers took the many slaves to the ports to be hauled off to different parts of the New World. Along the way, there were many statues of different animals and people that have some significance of the native people.

Lastly seen in a few parts of the country are the stilt villages in which people live and work above the water, mostly doing fishing. This was the highlight of the country for me as we got to see how people function in everyday life. Interesting to see all in a square kilometer was a church, a mosque, and a voodoo shrine…..Why was it interesting? Shows how different people can all get along in a small community and there is no fighting over religion or beliefs….

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Togo
A small country with a big heart and the running Naked Man

Togo was a stop we made in order to get a visa and in turn wait for the visa. The country is very small and we entered it from Ghana and made our way south to the Coast.

We skipped staying in the capital Lome, because of how hectic and hot it was and instead stayed right on the hot and humid beach at a small campground overlooking the Ocean.
Going into Lome only one time to see what the hype was, you can run into very persistent people, trying to take you to the fetish market(for voodoo rituals) where you can find anything from chimp heads, to dried snakes, to skins of different animals. I declined to go as I had already seen one in Mali and the smell in the sun was something out of a dump.
We bush camped one night at a waterfall and got to walk up to it one morning in order to see it. To me, this was the highlight of the country as I enjoy going out into nature and walking and staying in small towns (not big cities).
In an interesting note, it seems that man African cities/villages will have what they call a town idiot who seems to be the person who is always naked. I witnessed my first one in Togo and will continue to look out for them running in the streets or just sitting around naked waving at people enjoying the hot damp climate…..
Most of the time was spent sitting around the beach camp reading, writing and going through pictures as we prepared to enter neighboring Benin……

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