Lomé

Lomé sits right against the Ghanaian border, a low coastal capital of wide avenues and a beach that runs along the whole city front without ever quite becoming the reason to visit. The Grand Marché is the real engine of the place, a covered maze best known for the cloth traders called Nana Benz who built fortunes reselling wax print. On its edge stands a fetish market where practitioners of vodun sell the ingredients of their trade, a working religious supply store rather than a display for tourists. Weekends bring the city out to the beach bars.