Togo becomes the 100th United Nations country we have visited and it wins by default as we were not allowed to visit both Senegal and Ivory Coast prior to landing here. Coming into the harbor it became obvious that Lome is a major port. There were ships and cranes everywhere!

The official name of the country is the Togolese Republic. The official language is French. It is a small country (22,000 square miles but only 71 miles wide) with a population of about 8 million people. Its main product is agriculture. From the 16-18th centuries it was a big part of the slave trade and was known as the “slave coast”. It was ruled by the Germans, then the French and gained its independence in 1960. The capital is Lome, where we have docked.

As has become the case with these lesser developed countries the tour options were fairly limited and I selected one that would educate us a bit about their dedication to voodoo practices and experience some of their music and dance. Our first stop was at the local voodoo market where “products” are sold that are associated with voodoo and local medicine practices. It was a bit disgusting as dead animal parts were being sold that are used in voodoo rituals and medicine. If I understood our local guide properly when you are ill you go to the local hospital to be diagnosed. It the doctor feels your malady should be treated by the local tribal doctor you are sent to him for treatment. He, in turn, would send you to the voodoo market to purchase the proper animal part(s) to be returned to the tribal doctor who would transform it into the medicine needed to treat your ills! Hard to believe such practices are still in place today, but apparently old traditions are hard to break in these countries. We did not stay long in the marketplace as the sights and smells prompted us to move on fairly quickly!

Next we were driven to a local school where, even though it was a Sunday, children had gathered to meet us and entertain us with song.

From there it was a short ride to a local Ewe tribal village to experience the music, song and dance of the Togolese people. We were met at the entrance of the village by a fairly large group of singing people, and a local leader (priest?) who performed a ritual welcoming for visitors to their village. Once we entered the village we were met by a procession of village elders and the local king(?)/elder and his entourage, with much singing, drumming and dancing. We were given some free time to explore the village area. The whole event was marred by the fact that there were simply too many people from our ship here and it was difficult to see much of what was going on. Also, I had hoped there would be crafts for sale but surprisingly there were none! I was disappointed I would not be able to secure a souvenir of my visit.

Thus ended our tour of Togo. It was back to the ship for more trivia competition, dinner and a evening show that featured a recently boarded entertainer with the funky stage name of “Foggie Flax”. It turns out he was quite an entertainer and a darn good vocal impersonator, who sang some great songs mimicking the sounds of the original singer.

Tomorrow will be another day at sea, as we work our way to our next port of call, São Tomé & Principe.