While teaching in a
middle school among the Kabiye people of northern Togo in the parish of Kabou, I
was frequently asked why priests and Sisters do not marry.  Having been asked
the same question so many times in the past, in and out of school, and having
obviously failed (because of the frequency with which the question was repeated,
perhaps even by the same students), I decided to withhold the answer until I
could find some answer from within the students’ culture.  The next time the
question came up in class, I asked the students to tell me something about their
“Tchojo.”  Without hesitation a student put up his hand and half stood-up to
tell me that when a man is chosen as a Tchojo, he may continue to live with his
wife but is no longer allowed to sleep with her.  There was silence and
stillness in the classroom after the student’s reply, and to my knowledge, I was
never asked that question again in that class.

   
A Tchojo is chosen
and not born.  Each village or group of villages has a Tchojo. He always remain
at home and traditionally wears animal skins.  One of his responsibilities is to
fix the date of feasts for prayer and supplication. You may silently greet a
Tchojo with body language, but you may not stop him to speak with him.