HOINDEH family on the beach in Hewé, during a private ceremony of the MAMI TCHAMBA cult, the only Voodoo cult to question the memory of African slaves.

The history of the Atlantic slave trade is not very active in Africa in a narrative form but it has found other forms of expression. Historical narrative and memory of the past are a part of the ritual space: the body is “owned” in the dance and music, in the incantations, in the process of divination and magic items. The Tchamba cult is one of the most significant expressions of this ritual heritage. It is represented among the populations of Ewe and Mina dialects in the coastal areas of Ghana, Togo and Benin. It is a voodoo cult dedicated to slaves, where the spirits of those who died in captivity and far from their motherland are worshiped. Ironically, those spirits have chosen their former masters’ descendants to take care of the Tchamba altar as well as their bodies, which they possess during ceremonies.