The fetish folk of West Africa

A travel‑based study that probes the belief systems, rituals, and everyday customs of West African coastal communities, focusing on fetishism and folk-lore as keys to local mental life. The narrative combines ethnographic description and anecdote to depict social change under trade and missionary influence, domestic and ceremonial practices, musical traditions, and responses to environmental hardships and pests. Chapters alternate cultural analysis with vivid scenes and short stories drawn from oral tradition, aiming to reveal how myth, religion, and practical survival shape personal and communal identity without reducing those elements to mere superstition.