Grand Marché & the Nana Benz Women Traders of Lomé
The Grand Marché is the heart of Lomé — famous for the Nana Benz, the powerful women fabric traders who built fortunes selling Dutch wax-print cloth and became icons of Togolese commerce
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Nana Benz Fabric Hall
The legendary Nana Benz women traders built textile empires selling wax-printed Dutch Vlisco fabric — their stalls in the Grand Marché are a master class in West African trade
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Vlisco Wax Print Selection
Dutch wax printed fabric in hundreds of patterns is piled high at the fabric stalls — each pattern has a name and a story, and serious buyers spend hours making their choice
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Voodoo Object Market
Part of the Grand Marché sells items for spiritual voodoo – skulls, feathers, dried herbs, powders and carved wooden objects for traditional medicine
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Fresh produce Ground level
Female farmers sit on the ground surrounded by peppers, tomatoes, yams and cassava — the agricultural produce of Togo's interior sold fresh every morning
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Mobile phone and electronics line
The market's electronics section sells imported phones, used laptops and charging equipment — the telecommunications infrastructure of West Africa's informal economy
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Market Lunch: Riz Sauce Peanut
Street food vendors at the market serve peanut sauce with rice and grilled plantain — the West African working lunch eaten at plastic tables between stalls