Fon

The former Dahomey, now Benin, was always reputed by his soothsayers, sorcerers and healers. The Fon, apparently of Yoruba origin, are specialists in the practice of Voodoo, word also Yoruba. For the practice of the various rites surrounding the Voodoo, the Fon The blacksmiths are commissioned to make a small wooden statue, called a bochio, which under the direction of the fa, the fortune-teller, takes shape and acquires its magical properties as different substances and libations are poured on it, based on blood, palm oil and millet beer, but whose composition is kept secret. Once the image is sacred, it will allow the operator to come into contact with the other world by rejecting the evil forces and attracting the beneficial ones for himself. Other magical figures are placed on the hilt of a cane or in a kind of basket. In their ceremonies they also use small altars, sem, formed by a long iron stem that holds a circular metal platform on which appear, normally seated, characters representing the priests officiants of the ceremony.