Cotonou, Benin
We are now just over halfway through our epic voyage exploring the coast of western Africa, but today was our first day in what is officially called West Africa. Note the difference…the first designation is descriptive only as regards the entire continent, while the second is an actual place name for a specific region. Early this morning, we berthed in the Cotonou, which is the heart and economic center of Benin, although Porto Novo is the actual capital. After splitting up into four groups, we set off on our various morning excursions. As we drove through the bustling town, it was interesting to see how many people were selling cheap gasoline in big bottles along the main road. Our guide told us they get it from sellers in Nigeria, who steal it from pipelines.
My group went first to the town of Abomy-Calavi, where we met up with several motorized pirogues to explore Nokoue Lake. The reason we came here was to visit Ganvie, the largest stilt village in Africa. One can hardly call this a ‘village,’ because it has a population of some 30,000 people. The place is amazing, and one of the most photogenic places imaginable (although many of the inhabitants didn’t want their photos taken). Nevertheless, the stilted structures lent themselves to photography quite nicely (Figure A). According to legend, Ganvie was established long ago when enemy warriors chased a group of people into the lake, but refused to follow them into the water for some religious reason. The escapees then built a settlement in the lake, knowing they would be safe forever from their enemies. The Ganvie villagers seemed very much at ease in their dugout canoes and wood-plank pirogues, and we noticed several very young children out by themselves in dugout canoes transporting containers of water. They must start their aquatic life very early here. In the nearby waters surrounding Ganvie, ingenious enclosures have been constructed with rows of palm fronds and reeds that are surrounded by fine nets, which entrap the good-eating tilapia fish inside. Most of the villagers seem to make their living through fishing, and we saw the results of the morning’s take for sale at the market on the mainland where we embarked the pirogues.
After lunch aboard the ship, we set off again to travel to a very important historical town called Ouidah, which played an important part in the terrible industry known as the Atlantic Slave Trade. Most of the poor slaves that passed through this town were sent to Brazil to work on the Portuguese sugar cane plantations. At Ouidah, we visited the old Portuguese fort, which is now a historic museum, and not surprisingly, the displays were primarily related to the slave trade. There were also some interesting displays concerning the local religions, including Christianity (Catholicism) and Voodoo. We learned that many people in the past and even today ‘practice Catholicism by day and Voodoo by night,’ including the museum guide who showed us around.
A short distance from the old fort was the Kpasse Sacred Forest, where we were welcomed by some of the locals through a Voodoo ceremony. The people were dressed mostly in white clothing and performed a libation ritual to give us an official welcome and permission to enjoy the forest. This sacred site is like a large Zen Garden in that it is surrounded by the bustle and goings-on of everyday Benin life, but is itself a serene place shaded by many large trees, including a gigantic centralized false cola nut tree (Figure B). Several statues of past deities were observed scattered about the forest, as were the ruins of a long-abandoned brick and stone building, but the highlight for several of us must have been the huge gathering of straw-colored fruit bats hanging in some mahogany trees. From a distance, they looked like thousands of elongated dark fruits and big, dead leaves hanging from the branches, but closer inspection verified what they really were…very appealing furry, winged creatures with little fox-like faces. From here, it was back to the busy port of Cotonou and an early evening return to our westward track.
