Lomé, Togo

            Sunday, 28 Jan 2018 – At about 8:45 AM, an announcement told passengers that the local people on the dock of Lomé were welcoming us.  From our portside window near the front of the ship, we could see them; however, they were near the aft exit of the ship.  On our way to breakfast and even as we ate breakfast, we had a better view because the dancing continued for about three hours.  Six drummers, two (men) on stilts, and 12 dancers performed.  Otherwise, since our excursion was scheduled for afternoon, our day began much like the previous five days: breakfast, swimming for a half hour, and then lunch.
            Togo, officially the Togolese Republic, is a very small nation in West Africa, bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east, and Burkina Foso to the north.  It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea.  Togo covers about 22,000 square miles, making it one of the smallest countries in Africa.  Sally had always thought that northwest Africa gives the appearance of a head facing west.  If you can visualize this shape, Togo is on the underside (throat?) of the head, with its coastline (where its capital Lomé is located) facing south.

Map of West Africa

            At 2:15 two busses were waiting on the pier to take passengers on our 3-hour excursion “Voodoo Ceremony in Sanguera.”  The ship was docked in Lomé, and it was a one-hour drive to the village of Sanguera.  Isaac, our tour guide, spoke very broken English, and we didn’t understand much of what he said.

            From the 11th to the 16th century, various tribes entered the West Africa region from all directions. From the 16th century to the 18th century, the coastal region was a major trading center for Europeans to search for slaves, earning Togo and the surrounding region the name “The Slave Coast.”  In 1884, Germany declared a region including present-day Togo as a protectorate called Togoland.  However, after World War I, rule over Togo was transferred to France, where Togo remained until it gained its independence from France in 1960.  Although Togo is supposed to be a democracy, one man (and then his son) has been “President” since 1967.  Even though the official language is French (which appears on billboards and signs), the spoken language seems to be a native one.

          In climate, Togo is tropical sub-Saharan.  Because of the possibility of insects, Jesse wore jeans, but most male passengers wore shorts; Sally wore capris.  Both of us wore short-sleeved shirts, but we also used bug spray.  (However, we didn’t see any mosquitoes or other flying insects.)

Libation Ceremony

            After the busses parked in Sanguera and passengers disembarked, we walked a few yards to where an elder was standing.  He “offered a libation” which involved his pouring a liquid on the dry, dusty ground while he uttered unintelligible words.  After that, a guide told us that we could “enter his compound.”  Throughout the libation, many villagers, including children, were standing around him and us.  Then we all walked several yards farther back into a clearing, where the audience sat on benches facing the clearing.  Young children were everywhere, many sitting among the ship passengers.  Here, we watched tribal members dancing to drums.  Although both men and women took part of the dancing, most of them appeared to be teenage boys.  We were expecting to see some drama unfold.  At first, it appeared that something important might be happening in the middle of the group of dancers, which was to one side and blocked from our view by the dancers.  Two young men and one woman wore grass skirts over their shorts.  Despite the “falling down” of one male dancer who appeared to be in ecstasy and, then, several minutes later, of another dancer, we could not see any action that might be precipitating such behavior, even after the group separated enough for our visibility to improve.  The old man who had offered the libation was not part of that group.  Part of the ceremony included the hacking open of one coconut and then another with a hatchet.  The first coconut appeared to be filled with blood; the other two were filled with the clear liquid which was poured into a cup and several participants drank from it.  Jesse noticed that a few of the men had slight cuts on their arms that were bleeding.

            As the bus drove to and from Sanguera, we found the countryside interesting.  Although the main streets in Lomé were paved, the side streets were simply dirt roads, sometimes with water running down or standing in them.  Since local people walk most places, stands selling food and many other items were very frequent along the road.  Jesse commented that motorcycles were larger here than in Vietnam, but not nearly as large as the Harleys that Americans ride.  Since most of the road traffic consists of motorcycles and a few automobiles, our bus driver used his horn very frequently, warning pedestrians and motorcycles not to get in his way!

            In 3 hours at 3:15, we arrived back at the ship.  We danced for a half-hour before dinner at the café.  At dinner tonight, we learned that a nightclub in Fortaleza, Brazil, was the scene of a deadly shootout early Saturday.  According to CNN, a gunmen opened fire early Saturday at a party in the northeastern Brazilian city of Fortaleza, killing at least 14 people, including eight women.  We were just in Fortaleza 8 days ago on 20 Jan 2018!

Before turning in for the night, we set our clocks forward one hour again – which caused us to go to bed an hour later than we would have preferred, since we were supposed to have an excursion leaving at 8:30 tomorrow morning.  (Now we are 7 hours later than Iowa time.)