A massive ‘initiation ritual’ dog-meat-eating festival known as Evala, is held every year for  two weeks during the last week of June through to the end of the first week of July, for young men in Kara, Togo, West Africa. To gather strength leading up to the games, young men gorge themselves with dog meat for a week in advance of the opening ceremony because dog meat is the seen as the secret weapon for each Evala competitor’s endurance and agility.

As well as gorging on dog meat, prior to entering the arena a dog is killed and the fat is rubbed onto the body of the fighter to make his him slippery, so his opponent cannot seize him.

Each young man desires the attributes which dogs posses: loyalty, courage, intelligence, endurance, cunning, faithfulness and so on. One week before the games, the young men go into isolation and gorge themselves with dog meat for a full week, under the false belief eating dog meat enable them to take on the dog’s attributes and give them supernatural powers over their opponents.

Wrestling opponents are coated in dog fat, so they can’t be held by their opponent.

The festival is an initiation ritual passage for men over 18 years old to pass from boyhood to manhood, to prove themselves as fully fledged members of the community. The main Evala sporting event is traditional wrestling, which is considered an ancestral tradition, so each year it attracts thousands of people worldwide arrive in Kozah province, 260 miles from Lome, Togo’s capital, to view the spectacular.

Unless a young man has gone though the Evala ritual he will not be considered a member of his community. It is a crucial step in what forges the young man to take on adult responsibilities. Evala expert Kao Blanzoua says: “One is not born an evalon (the singular for evala), one becomes it. To do so, one has to go through the initiation process.”

Wrestling allows the men to showcase their physical dominance and agility over their opponents, as well as their endurance and strength of mind, during the week long event. Huge crowds gather around the favored wrestlers cheering them on to the tune of drums, flutes and other instruments. The show of strength is to mimic how the man would defend his community if needed. Because Evala is a sport, the loser is also on show to prove his dignity in defeat.

The ultimate winner of Evala receives the equivalent of the keys of the community – Togo style. Showered in admiration his new found privileges are vast. Blanzoua says: “He wins the right to consult a witchdoctor about a loved ones sickness, he wins the right to take up arms to protect the community in case of attack, he is allowed to get married and raise a family and when he dies he will be buried in an adult’s tomb instead of a child’s tomb.