Akodessawa is an open dirt lot in Lomé, half a football field wide, where narrow alleys run between low wooden tables stacked with skulls, bound bundles, clay figures and cord. It supplies the raw material of Vodun practice across Togo, Benin and Ghana.

The system takes its rules from that lot: mid-tone sandy ground at real chroma, encrusted brown surfaces, bone laid out in hard rows, and the fat hand-painted lettering of West African market signs. Nothing here is staged as mystery. It is midday, outdoors, and densely packed.