An animist shrine with a horned idol covered by blood stains from sacrifices stands on the outskirts of a town in south-central Togo. African Traditional Religion is very common throughout the south of the country but gives way to Islam as one travels north. IMB Photo
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A Muslim woman displays the henna art decorating her fingers. In West Africa, it is customary for a bride and her friends to receive temporary henna tatoos on their hands, arms and feet before a wedding. The twisted metal ring on the woman’s middle finger is a magical amulet believed to be imbued with protective powers. IMB Photo
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Jawbones of sacrificed animals are strung across the front of a room with an ancestral shrine in the Tongo Hills of northern Ghana.
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A traditional Talensi room in the Tongo Hills of Tengzug, Ghana. To the right of its entrance stands an ancestral shrine and the jaw bones of sacrificed donkeys hang above it.
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A traditional Talensi room in the Tongo Hills of Tengzug, Ghana. To the right of its entrance stands an ancestral shrine and the jaw bones of sacrificed donkeys hang above it.
You are free to share and adapt IMB photos. You must give appropriate credit to IMB in a reasonable manner, but not in a way that suggests the organization endorses you or your use. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. Read more
A sacrificed dog’s skull and bones sit atop a personal shrine in the Tengzug chief’s palace in the Tongo Hills of northern Ghana.
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The Tengzuk chief’s palace is a labyrinth of flat-roofed, mud buildings in the Tongo Hills. Throughout the narrow alleys and outside every home are shrines to ancestors and spirits.
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Magical amulets meant to offer protection hang from a Bambara man’s smock in Mali.
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A Bambara child wearing a magical amulet in the village of Falako in Mali.
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