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With just a little scarf around her waist and a bra to cover her nudity, Sami, 19, traverses the streets of Koumea in the first stage of an initiation rite towards becoming a woman in Togo.

Sami(L) in the first stage of a local ritual to become a woman
© AFP/File

"I am preparing for 'akpema'. We are not allowed to wear clothes during this period," says the young girl, shyly smiling.

Like Sami, hundreds of other girls aged between 16 and 20 years have been preparing themselves for two weeks to undergo 'akpema', a customary ritual that girls from Togo's northern based kabye ethnic group have to undergo to graduate to womanhood.

The kabye group, from which Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe and his late father and Togo leader Gnassingbe Eyadema hail, is in the majority in the north of the west African nation.

At the end of the rites, the teenagers, whose loincloths expose the "tchikita" multicoloured pearls dangling around their hips, return home accompanied by friends to announce their new status to their families.

Young women in Koumea preparing for the "akpema" ritual
© AFP/File

"Akpema is a time for traditional tests and virginity tests for the Kabye girls. All girls in our region old enough to be married must undergo this practical test," said Bekemsi, an elder of Koumea, 450 kilometres (279 miles) north of Lome.

"It is a long process and the girl who makes it through all the stages bestows honour to her parents. It is a sign that she has received good education," he said, seated on a tree trunk in front of mud-and-pole hut.

"In addition to animals offered to the ancestors to beseech their blessing, the girl is supposed to undergo certain traditional ceremonies which vary depending on the villages," explains Yaodem, the traditional chief of Pya-Tchamde village.

"But the true test is in the sacred forest where a girl must sit on a virginity stone opposite a traditional chief, to prove that she has never engaged in sexual intercourse," said Yaodem, warning that misfortune will befall any who tries to mislead the ancestors.

Young women in Koumea preparing for the "akpema" ritual
© AFP/File

Evalo, an assistant to the chief, said if any girl lies the ancestors release a swarm of bees.

"In the case of serious impurity, for example a girl who has already had an abortion, it is a long snake, often a python which will go between her legs. Alternatively she will start bleeding at that stone," said Evalo.

Several thousand girls in northern Togo have undergone these rites. The successful ones receive a small incision under the ear, a sign that they come from a good family.

"It is not an easy test. I felt really awful on the day of the big ceremony in the sacred forest," recounts Essohanam, a vendor of 'tchakpalo', a local beer.

"We formed a long line and all the girls were naked... and the boys were looking at us," she said proudly, carrying the valued scar under her left ear.

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