Francesco Merlini
Photographer Francesco Merlini (1986, Italy, currently living in Milan) used to be a news photographer , before he started working on personal and longlasting photography projects. In recent years the work of this young artist has been widely and internationally published in, for example, The British Journal of Photography, The Washington Post, Gup Magazine, Vogue Italy and Vogue UK and LensCulture. Additionally, his work has been exhibited around the world from Japan to Australia and from Europe to the USA. His first book The Flood will be published in 2020.
AKODESSAWA
Togo, June 2019
This market in a suburb of Lomé, the capital of Togo in North-West Africa is not just a market. It is the World’s largest voodoo market; the Akodessawa Marche des Féticheurs.
Animals and parts of animals are the goods for sale here: including snakes, chameleons, cats, dogs, turtles, scorpions, crocodiles, rats, monkeys, antelopes, elephants, parrots, owls, hawks, big felines, hyenas, porcupines, starfishes, sheep, horse, warthogs, baboons, goats, bats, rams, buffalos and fishes. All for the use of voodoo fetishes, rituals and traditional medicines.
The other key ingredient is blood. Not directly found here at the market since it has to be the outcome of a sacrifice that activates the voodoo power. Voodoo is a practice through which humans try to domesticate nature in order to unfold it, admitting the impossibility of total control. Sacrifice is an essential tool within Voodoo to start the dialogue with the world of non-humans. While in Christianity blood is evoked as an idea, in voodoo, blood is seen as the container of the vital energy of the victim.
A fetish is made of animal elements mixed with minerals, industrial products like perfume or soda and “ama”: herbs, roots, leaves that, in according to their combinations, produce different effects. Components are selected not only because of their power but also in according to their aspect and shape and every “sofo”, the voodoo priest, has different recipes that will produce uniques voodoo fetishes.