00:00Gliding across the waters of Lake Togo, this canoe is taking the mystical Aklima tam-tam drum to a sacred
00:07wood,
00:07as Togo's Ekpe Soso Festival gets underway.
00:12The annual event marks the start of the ancestral year.
00:17At its heart, a ritual dating back to 17th century settlers from the Gold Coast, modern-day Ghana.
00:26Ekpe Soso means the taking of the sacred stone.
00:31This stone, which gives the message of the future, explains how to live the future.
00:37The stone is what determines how our grandparents will live the future.
00:42The colour of the sacred stone varies from year to year.
00:46Blue, a sign of abundant crops. Red, famine or war.
00:51Multicoloured means diseased.
00:55This year's stone augurs well.
00:59The stone, white in colour, heralds a year of purity, peace and prosperity.
01:07It advises making offerings to twins and to vulnerable people,
01:11and avoiding quarrels and domestic violence, particularly violence against women.
01:29Like every year, for the past three and a half centuries, hundreds of people gathered for the festival near the
01:36southern city of Anejo.
01:37Most of them voodoo priests or priestesses.
01:46Honestly, it's magnificent, true to Togo.
01:50The Togolese people love to celebrate, and above all, they love to preserve their culture and ancestral traditions.
01:57Today, the outfits are really gorgeous. The women look stunning. It's all magnificent. I absolutely love it.
02:04Voodoo is practiced by more than half of Togo's population. Followers worship a single god through more than 200 deities.
02:14For more the whole
02:14In the kurz ten days.
02:14For more than five days.
02:14For more than three days.
02:15Minh Folha, hear or can you.
02:16So please.
02:16My name is Dr.
02:17Genome.
02:17Please.
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