Togo
Togo 2001
We met two witch doctors that day. The witch doctors, both of them, had a kindly demeanor more like a priest than what we think of when we hear the word voodoo.Both were grandfatherly, but this man was older and ill. He suffered from a lung disease, perhaps from smoking the long pipe that rests near his right foot. The pipe is the symbol of power for the witch doctors of this tribe and he has smoked it many times during his long life.
His wife sits next to him, patiently waiting, ready to help him should he want something. She is younger and looks in good health. That’s the benefit of marrying a younger woman. She can take care of you in your old age and her children will take care of her. That plan worked in the old world. Nowadays, children leave home…cross the water to Europe for a better life.