Don't Mess With The Birds

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At the border of Benin it is possible to get a 48 hour transit visa, thus saving a lot of time and money messing about at embassies. It isn’t as much of a race through the country as you might think because fortunately, the country is only 100km across and its two principal attractions lie quite close together.

Ganvie is a town built on stilts in the centre of a large, shallow lake. The 27000 Tofinu people that live in the town, are descendents of a large group that escaped the Dahomey slave traders in the 17th century. It took half an hour to reach Ganvie in a precarious wooden boat with a bed sheet sail. It was pleasant to cruise amongst the tumbledown shacks, past fish traps and alongside so many boats, equally likely to be paddled by a seventy year old lady or a four year old boy. Being a quite popular tourist site, many of the inhabitants were begging. However, despite the appearance of their houses, most were overweight, so obviously life isn’t so hard.

Abomey was the capital of the once powerful Dahomey kingdom. The old palace complex was interesting and seeing as no photographs are allowed you will just have to take my word for it. It was tradition for a Dahomey king to hand over more land to his heir than he inherited. Consequently the kingdom was often at war. This was waged with superior firepower of guns and cannons, obtained mainly from the Portuguese in exchange for a constant supply of slaves; typically captives from wars with neighbouring tribes. The infamously fierce Amazons were Dahomey. These female warriors would cut off their right breast in order to be more effective with a bow and arrow.

Unlike the majority of Africa, women in Benin enjoy lofty positions in government and industry. It’s nice to think that this is because the blokes live in fear of them resorting back to their warrior ways.

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Photos

Fisherman on Lake Nokoue
The lake is filled with fish traps and little fishermans huts.

An Old Tofinu Man Sailing Home
It's much more difficult to leave. The stiff head wind had our two guides sweating with their paddles.

Stilt Village of Ganvie
Is it a bit like a manky Venice?

Stilt Village of Ganvie
The newer bamboo huts have corrugated metal rather than thatch roofs, but all look on the brink of collapse.

Stilt Village of Ganvie
The locals don't particularly like having their photo taken so you have to be sneaky like this.

The Ubiquitous Souvenir Shop
Benin is particularly rich in craftwork. If only I had a brought a bigger rucksack.