Fetishes Aklama Kpakpewo of the Adan People: Tradition and Interpretation

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2024-2/186-206

Abstract

This article studies the tradition of creating Aklama kpakpewo fetishes of the Adan people, who are a part of the large Ewe ethnic group and live in modern Ghana and Togo. The traditional religion of this society is the Vodun cult, with a complex sacred system formed within it, which includes several levels of hierarchy of deities, spirits, mystical creatures of Aziz, ancestral spirits and amulets of magical properties. All these elements have a physical expression in the form of fetishes, the most typical of which are the Aklama kpakpewo figures. These figures are simple, but extremely diverse, which makes them difficult to interpret. In this paper, the author attempts a comprehensive analysis of this type of fetish based on materials collected by anthropologists and ethnographers starting from the end of the 19th century. The work uses historiographical analysis and an empirical approach. The latter is based on the author's study of a large collection of fetish figures located in museums, private collections, as well as in the author's personal collection.