The north of Togo is often overlooked by tourists so those lucky enough to venture out there will find an unspoiled region ripe for discoveries…and no foreigners around.

Sokodé, the second largest city in Togo about 340km north of Lomé, is dominated by Islam and is the city with the highest proportion of Muslims in the country (70%).

It’s a bit of a sleepy town except on market days where everyone congregate in the city center.

Continuing our road north bordering a new mountain range, one can’t help but notice the few cars on the roads which are all filled to the brim transporting merchandise.

Now passing through the Faille d’Aledjo where Togolese workforce carved a route through a voluminous rock to facilitate passage on the main commercial road.

Street food and chop bars are very similar to what I had in Ghana though Togo being a French colony, everything somehow tasted better… 🙂

…especially this simple dish of rice and beans which blew me away.

Taking a dirt road towards the small town of Sarakawa, a familiar sight of students walking back home for their lunch break appeared.

With barely any backpacks available (a luxury here), most carry their books and other materials on their head which I find so gracious.

You could hardly tell that a few hundred meters away lies the only park in Togo with any animals left. A sad story to hear that Togo was once full of wildlife but the political unrest of the 90’s and early 2000’s has seen most animals killed by the local population. 🙁  The Sarakawa Reserve belonged to the President and therefore was the only one untouched.

There was no one there when I visited and I had the park all to myself. Sure, it’s quite small and frankly nothing compared with Mole in Ghana, but I got quite a few good sightings. The park was created to entertain the President so a lot of the animals here are not indigenous to the region (i.e. they flew in the zebras and gnus from South Africa). Not the most authentic experience but definitely a great way to spend a morning.

It was the first time I ever laid eyes on gnus (also called wildebeest), usually found in Southern Africa.

A trio of zebras was hanging out nearby, clearly very attached as they never left each others side.

Insanely beautiful…no wonder their attractive pattern has taken over the fashion world.

A waterbuck freshens up in the reservoir.

Others were more shy and hiding in the bushes.

OK, it wasn’t up to the scale of the great migration but seeing them all flee (no idea from what) was a grand sight.

Special areas were wired and contained other exotic species such as ostrich. I’ve always been fascinated by the world’s fastest two-legged animal and its prehistoric-looking feet.

She seemed as surprised to see me!

Her neighbors were a couple of big turtles mainly there for conservation.

They’re being kept safe and well fed with a vegetarian diet of delicious pumpkin and other local crops.

Near the reserve stands a peculiar monument to the old President of Togo, Gnassingbé Eyadéma.

On 24 January 1974, a Togo Air Force C-47 carrying several notable political figures, including the president, crashed near Sarakawa. Rumors are that the French sabotaged it after the President refused to collaborate over the use of a phosphate mine…

The president survived but the French pilot and three other passengers died.  Following the incident, a monument was established by the Togolese government near the crash site.

Moving on to the little town of Pya where a small community still practice traditional ironwork and pottery.

It’s pretty hot in here as the village chief/master blacksmith and his assistant work a metal piece over hot coals. After heating up the metal, the piece is hammered with a big rock repetitively, slowly bending the metal in the desired shape, reheating the piece constantly in between – a very tiring job!

The metal comes from old rail tracks far away and will end up as a gardening tool, knife/machete, or weapon such as arrows.

In the courtyard, a potter is at work starting a traditional urn with clay.

The finished urn will be left to dry for three days before being turned upside down to finalize the bottom which will also be dried for three days. Afterwards, the urn will be baked slowly to harden it and make ready for selling it at the market or using it in the house as a water container or for storing food.

Back in the car, we finally head to the real reason we came all the way to the north of Togo – the alluring Tamberma Valley.

Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, this amazing valley is home to a unique collection of fortified villages with houses like mini fortresses.

These villages were built in the 17th century by people fleeing the slave trade in Benin and remained isolated until very recently. The local Batammariba people are skilled builders and have put together these castle-like structures using only clay, wood and straw, and no tools. The look they created was to help ward off invasions by neighboring tribes and served as a scaring tactic.

A typical house is called a Tata and consists of a series of towers connected by a thick wall with a single entry point meant to trap an enemy should the house be invaded. A hole in the ceiling of the first chamber would allow the house occupants on the roof to shower the enemy with arrows from above. Note also the huge fetish at the entrance of every Tata, used to ward off evil and bad spirits by receiving regular sacrifices (most often chickens).

The only functional room on the ground floor, the kitchen, is also the point of access to the rest of the house which is on the upper floor/rooftop.

Life here revolves around an elevated terrace where all the house chores are conducted such as drying the millet and corn…

…storing the millet and corn in conical containers on top of the towers…

…sleeping, and basically spending most of their leisure time.

A village will have a handful of houses, all belonging to the chief’s many wives.

Spread out all over the valley, the constructions create a surreal place and easily an highlight of any visit to Togo.

Millet grows profusely between the villages and you notice how every Tata proudly displays skulls and other fetishes right outside their door such as this crocodile skull.

The Batammariba people also grow cotton and fields can be seen all around.

Here showing the stages of a cotton flower.

Before they started building the houses though, the locals would live inside giant Baobab trees to hide from enemies.

I squeezed in to look at the tight quarters, definitely not the ideal setup!

Spending some time with the local tribes is a great way to learn about their traditions and daily activities.

Some of the older women can be seen with a tooth of a wild boar inserted into their chin.

I was also able to witness some traditional dancing and celebration.

Working the earth for farming is done rhythmically while singing a very catchy tune.

Market day in the valley happens every Wednesday in Nadoba and is a must-see if you happen to be there then (like I was!).

Everyone comes from all over either walking or biking.

Parking lot for bikes

Some come to sell what they’ve made at home such as fresh cheese.

Tobacco is widely available as practically everyone smokes here. While a lot buy cigarettes, it’s still really common and traditional to smoke with a pipe hence all the tobacco sold by the weight here.

Tobacco

The main reason though everybody shows up here is to sit and socialize at one of the numerous ‘bar’ to sample the latest brew. The brew of choice here is fresh beer made out of millet where millet and water is fermented over heat for a couple of days then stored for another couple of days in order to get the fermentation going. Most bars will have different strength of beer to taste.

Drinking buddies…

I quite liked drinking my beer out of these calabash bowls, makes you drink more though…and it’s only 11am!

The market will be going on all day, selling mainly food, lots of beer, and second-hand clothing for the locals.

This is where I ended my stay in Togo, as only a few meters walk from the market stood the border to cross into Benin… TBC

Living like a local will always be the best way to discover a destination and I had one of the most engaging visit in the village of Davedi in Togo. I got to experience real rural African village life and feel part of the population for a day with their new ecotourism project.

They recently finished construction of their Pineapple Village Lodge, a modest accommodation where you can spend the night and live like the locals (i.e. if you don’t mind the heat and the random visiting insects and animals…).

Isaac and Valentin are both from the village and incredible guides to introduce you to their daily lives and large families.

The small village lies about 60 km north of the capital Lome and survives on pineapple farming and the production of palm wine and local gin.

Pineapple farms abound in various stages of growth.

Two kinds of pineapple are grown here: the white pineapple (left)  which is rounder and milder and the black pineapple (right) with a skinnier frame and sweeter flesh.

Baby pineapples are easily spotted with their bright pink leaves and purple flowers.

Mature pineapples are packed and sold on the street or sent to other villages and towns.

Women sell snacks such as peanuts and groceries on the main road.

Yams are a big staple of Togolese cuisine and I got quite fond of fried yams.

Boiled yams are often the main component of a meal here, served with a vegetable stew or sauce (here tomato and eggs).

Another main staple is banku, the fermented corn dough that I first encountered in Ghana.

Sugarcane is widely available, cheap, and makes for a very pleasant midday snack when the heat is just too much.

Once ridden of their though exterior, the sugarcane sticks are chewed on, releasing a lot of sweet juice before you spit out the leftover stringy bits – highly addictive.

A walk around the village reveals multiple compounds i.e. groups of houses built together. In Western Africa, polygamy is still very much alive and below is where Valentin lives along with his father’s four wives and many kids.

Extended family such as aunts and cousins live right next door and the whole family shares meals and chores in the common courtyard.

Despite its diminutive size, the village still provides the basic services such as a primary school and the ubiquitous hair salon.

The local gas station

Locals playing a game of mancala – it is Saturday and they will play for hours…

Voodoo is widely practiced in Togo and every village has its fetish priest, house, and often tree (seen in the background) for ceremonies and also for locals to come and consult.

All over Western Africa, the birth of twins is rare and considered sacred – they are seen as gods. When a twin dies, the fetish priest will produce a fetish twin doll for the mother who’ll take care of it (i.e. feed, bathe, dress, etc.) all her life and pass it on to her children for generations to come.

Cactus are often used as a deterrent to people who’d want to venture a little too close to the house…

As there is no way of preserving food, here you see leftover banku being boiled to be served again.

Peppers are used in every dish and are usually dried before being crushed and added to sauces and stews.

The red palm fruit is harvested to produce red palm oil, another staple of Western African cuisine.

The fruits are crushed using a traditional technique of stamping with the feet, similar to the way they used to make wine back in the day. Virgin red palm oil has recently earned a healthy reputation and is being praised by nutritionists worldwide.

Village meetings or informal gatherings always happen underneath a big tree to avoid the harsh sun rays.

Village kids

An elder watching the meeting from her doorstep

Women’s attires are always beautiful, made of the local and very colorful wax-print fabric.

So cute I almost wish I could have packed him in my bags…

Kids build these temporary playhouses for Christmas time, a tradition that goes way back.

One of the main sources of income in the village is the production of palm wine, an important alcoholic beverage in West Africa produced from sugary palm saps.

The sap is collected by cutting off a hole in the trunk of the felled palm tree and letting the juice drip underneath into a gourd. Tapping palm trees is a skilled art as the tapper needs to know the exact spot to make the incision as well as the ideal depth.

The white liquid that initially collect tends to be very sweet and non-alcoholic before it is fermented. Very soon, the fermentation begins and creates a lot of bubbling and foaming from the gourd, producing alcohol.

Tasting is encouraged (!) and the still warm juice is a delight to quench your thirst when working in the field.

Sap from a tree will flow for about 2-3 weeks and wine tappers work daily to encourage the flow and ensure the quality of the sap – a back-breaking and very sweaty job.

They break the day with a little singing and dancing (unless it was just to show me off! ;-)) Click on the video for a little taste:

After scraping the hole with a knife or machete, a fire is lit and blown into the hole to facilitate the collection of sap. It also gives a pleasant smokey taste to the resulting palm wine.

Drunk fresh, palm wine contains most of its sugar and tastes really sweet…in a good way.

Fermentation starts soon after the sap is collected and within an hour or two becomes reasonably high in alcohol (up to 4%) which makes palm wine’ shelf life extremely short. It needs to be consumed within 24 hours or it will start turning into vinegar.

Leftover palm wine can also be distilled to create a stronger drink – the local akpeteshie. First fermented in large barrels, it is then boiled to pass the resulting vapor through a copper pipe within cooling barrels…

… where it condenses and drips into sieved jars, then undergoing a second stage of fermentation.

The resulting spirit is between 40% and 50% and we got to enjoy it with the tappers coming back from the fields at the end of a long day…cheers!

The capital of Togo, Lomé, has a unique charm and casualness that sets it apart from other West African capitals. After months of the horrendous traffic in Accra and the generally poor road conditions in Ghana it was a relief to drive serenely amidst the motos which make up most of the transport in Togo. The main road is a lovely palm-fringed boulevard which runs directly from Ghana to Benin on the 56km coastline of the tiny country.

Once known as ‘the pearl of West Africa’ for its attractive beaches, colorful markets and friendly people, Togo is now notorious for the riots and human rights abuses that occurred here in the 1990’s, and again in 2005 when the current president seized power after his despotic father’s death. Things are looking up now though and it’s a great time to visit and discover the country’s hidden gems.

Lomé’s biggest attractions are its markets. The Grand Market is locally called Mama Benz which is the affectionate name given to the big, older women managing the stalls and setting the prices. Thanks to their business acumen, they have amassed a great deal of wealth and are known to all have a chauffeured Mercedes Benz , hence the name!

The market spills over a large number of streets downtown and sells everything from peppers, dried fish, shoes, combs, traditional medicinal remedies and is especially famous for wax-print fabrics which characterize the cultural identity of West African fashion today.

The market you won’t want to miss though is the Akodessewa Fetish Market, the largest Voodoo market in all of Africa. While many think of Haiti as Voodoo’s biggest stronghold, the religion originated in West Africa and is very much alive and thriving here!

Locals come here to seek treatment for everything from the flu or infertility to removing the blackest of curses and Voodoo priests are available to bless and create fetishes and medicines. It can be a bit of a harsh place for tourists if you’re not used to the idea of animal sacrifice as part of worship, but for locals who practice the religion, these are necessities so one must keep an open mind.

Twin fetish dolls

Chameleon

Box of chameleons

You can literally find any kind of creature in various stages of decay and stacked up in the most macabre display you’ve likely seen in your life.

Horse hair are used in traditional ritual dances.

Behind the stacks of carcasses are the Voodoo priests’ ‘offices’ where I ventured to get a little reading…why not!

Hawk in the Voodoo priest’s office

And the visit concludes with Joseph whose job title translates into : Engineer Translator of African Voodoo Forces. He acts as medicine man and advises on which spell is necessary and what animal part is needed to carry it out. He can even predict your future…as well as the price of your visit!

An enlightening tour to say the least and an almost incomprehensible world to most tourists. Despite some of the pictures being quite creepy, remember that Voodoo as practiced here is the white magic and used for good, for someone’s benefits and never to cast any bad spell…