Sacred fish

In Bobo-Dioulasso where I live, there is sacred catfish.

They are the symbol mark of the city.

They protect the city and it is prohibited to kill them.

It would be a honor to take a look at them...

People say that they eat whatever or whoever...

The upstream of the river wherethey live is the sacred place for animists.

With lots of images in my mind, we bought a alive chicken and a litre of local beer (dolo) then headed to the place.

We went as far as we could by bike.

Then walk

Beautiful views !

After one hour of nice walk, we arrived at the place which was dark and humid with strong death smell...

There were many skins of sacrificed animals hung on trees.

We offered dolo to the guy who does the sacrifice ceremony and entered to "the spot" with the chicken.

Any wish can be realized...(people believe)

Unfortunately it is the sacred place so no photo was allowed...

After I did my wish, the guy cut the chicken throat then poured its blood on "the area".

The chicken was released after then moved around on the ground with pain.

It died at the end on its back.

That is the good sign for the wish... (the guy said...)

Then we went to thank the area master, the fish with the chicken's intestines.

Our guide called them with a voice that I can't explain really with words.

He went close to the water surface with the intestines then...

Suddenly long black whiskers came up to the surface and...

Wow !

Because of the rain the day before, the water wasn't transparent so we couldn't recognise their whole body size but they must be huge...

It was a very extraordinary experience...