‘Love and attraction oil’ prepared by ‘The Ancient Wisdom of Jerusalem’ to enhance attraction, love, fame and favour, purchased in Ghana, unknown manufacturer, c2010.

According to this product’s label the contents have supposedly been prepared by the ‘ancient wisdom of Jerusalem’ and use for ‘attraction, love, fame and favour.’ There are no clues to the contents.

Purchased from an travelling trader called Comfort Owusu, this item is one of several collected for the Science Museum by Jonathan Roberts, lecturer at Mount Saint Vincent University and a specialist in the history of medicine and religion in West Africa. Jonathan’s work focuses on the many forms of healing present in Accra, Ghana, where people have a range of choices in the healthcare they seek. It is unclear how this product travelled to the markets of Accra, but reveals how practices and treatments from different cultures are selectively absorbed and sold, fusing together different medical and healing systems.