Happy clapping at the ‘Venice of Africa’

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Our next village visit took on quite a different note, as for a start we weren’t travelling on foot. Soon after crossing the border from Togo into Benin, we visited Ganvie, the largest floating village in Africa. It is situated in the middle of Lake Nokoué and is characterized by colourful wooden stilt houses arranged around artificial islands dating back over 400 years.

By way of background, this unique architecture was born from the history of the Tofinu tribe, who built it as a refuge from the slave trade. In the 17th century, the people of the local Tofinu tribe were desperate to escape from the soldiers of the Fon and Dahomey kingdoms, who captured people and sold them to Portuguese traders. The ancestors of today's residents fled to the lake, which was feared by the soldiers, who believed a terrible demon lived under its surface. Knowing this, the tribe chose to build their homes on stilts in the middle of the water.

It has been sustained over time by their communal socio-ecological aquacultural systems and has now become a global tourist attraction for the country. However, aquaculture has become increasingly challenging to maintain as the village struggles to retain its economic foundation. Additionally, traditional building practices have given way to modern ones, and the village faces ongoing environmental challenges. Today, there are approximately 30,000 people living in the village - they are known as the ‘watermen’, who basically make their living by fishing. But tourism has gradually replaced fishing as Ganvie's main source of revenue.

Whether they’re heading to school or work, or running errands, residents of Ganvié navigate the village by boat, as its buildings sit atop stilts, with stairs leading down to Lake Nokoué. Everything in the village stands on stilts, from the beauty bar to markets, hotels, schools, a hospital, businesses and churches. Narrow canoes called ‘pirogue’ are the only means of transportation, and we saw these often steered by men, women and children using brightly coloured poles. Others used crude attempts at sails to catch any prevailing wind. We also saw fishermen of all ages casting their nets and our visit coincided with a special floating market day, generally led by the women.

But by far the highlight for me was the fortuitous timing that we were there on a Sunday, and given the Benin people are generally quite religious, there were countless church services of all sorts of denominations going on. By sheer good fortune, we were invited to join the congregation of a Celestial Congregation Church, an interesting example of religious syncretism comprising a mix of Christianity and Voodoo. For the cynics amongst us, it could be described as a form of the ‘Happy Clappies’ but for a true cultural experience, it was up there with anything I’ve done. I understand the service went on for around 3-4 hours all up but after about half an hour, we were all exhausted. The service took place in a very primitive shed, with the makeshift floorboards seeming to move under your feet as you moved around. The congregation were clearly segregated with all the women, each one decked out in white including their little caps, on one side of the shed, while on the other side was the ‘band’ along with a young girls’ choir. At the back were the younger boys and girls, while the men, who were clearly running the show were either up around the alter or scattered throughout the room. Needless to say, the very young kids got pretty restless, but there was an older ‘headmistress’ with a long stick keeping an eye on them and giving them the occasional tap on the shoulder if they moved too far out of line. The service was heavily oriented around singing by the girl choir, with the rest of the congregation joining in by dancing voodoo style, with often the very youngest ones setting a cracking pace. Our group was totally embraced by the congregation and before too long we were dancing in with the locals and, skin colour and clothing apart, could well have been confused as part of the congregation. I reckon another half hour and they would have had us all signed up for life! Given the nature of the service, it was difficult to get representative pics, but hopefully the three attached give some flavour of the service.

Next up, we will travel into Ghana and meet up with the very powerful Ashanti ethnic group.

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Comments

[DaveandIssy]

Floating Village
Never heard of this place and sounds fascinating. Floating village in the middle of a previously thought to be haunted lake. Hmmm.

[Nomad Old Farts]

Floating Village
It's actually the second village of this type that I've visited. There is very similar on Tonle Sap, a lake in Cambodia near Siem Reap, home of Angkor Wat. I recommend getting up there to see that if you haven't already - a much cheaper air fare too!

[D MJ Binkley]

Benin
We've been looking at some off the beaten track African countries and this one has been recommended by some friends. Thanks for sharing your experiences.