Benin
It’s difficult to understand the kind of thinking that allows you to trade your own people for money. For some reason, I’d always imagined European merchants sailing into the ports of West Africa and pulling families from their homes. But that’s not how it actually happened. By 1750, the King of Dahomey was making an estimated 250,000 pounds per year from selling his own people. Maybe he thought they were going to royalty overseas and would have a better life. Maybe. In any case, it’s a reminder that it’s not about race. We’re all complicit when it comes to doing terrible things in our own self interest sometimes. Remembering the past, no matter how painful, helps us not to repeat it. Pointing fingers centuries later or carrying guilt around for choices we did not personally make, does not. We must live forward, not backward. It comes down to each person. How can I do better?
When referring to Benin, it is necessary to clarify which Benin. There was a Kingdom of Benin located in modern-day Nigeria. The country of Benin did not come into being until 1975. Before that, it was the Kingdom of Dahomey and there is still a line of royalty from that kingdom, not holding any real power, yet venerated. To read more about the current King of Dahomey, select Dah Sagbadjou Glele.
In the 1650s, King Houegbadja started a group of all-female Fon warriors known as the Dahomey Amazon Warriors. His daughter, Queen Hangbe, strengthed the group and its influence. To learn more, select The legend of Benin’s fearless female warriors and The 1851 Invasion of Abeokuta By the Lethal Dahomey Amazon Warriors.
Pre-colonial Dahomey was divided into three kingdoms: the Fon of Abomey/Dahomey (south), the Goum/Goun of Porto-Novo (south), and the Bariba of Bariba (north). There was a division between the tropical, humid south and the hilly, drier north. The north was predominantly Muslim.
In traditional Dahomeyan society, the ruler of a clan, ethnic group or kingdom had to have ancestral ties with both the place and the people he was governing. When the French began their rule in 1904, there was a distinction between l’indigénat (the native) and le citoyen (the citizen). French is the official national language taught in the schools, but most people speak one of the roughly fifty indigenous languages.
Benin is larger than you might think, about the same size as the US state Ohio. Considered the birth place of Voodoo, it is a way of life for the people of Benin with none of the negative connotations and vindictive practices surrounding Voodoo in the West.
I encourage you to read this very well written article about Benin that delves into more than voodoo, including a meeting with the current ceremonial King of Dahomey: Dark secrets, Voodoo in Benin.
Always ask before making photographs because some believe that having a photograph made pulls away something from your soul.
Most of the people live along the tropical coast of the Bight of Benin. In colonial times, the West African coasts progressed from the Grain Coast, the Ivory Coast, the Gold Coast, and the Slave Coast was present-day Benin and Nigeria.
In any music I listen to from Benin, I’m immediately struck by the intricate layers of rhythms. The music of Benin is fantastic, even in a church service, with hints of my favorite kinds of music: blues, jazz, soul, samba, and funk. Sometimes, I think I hear James Brown. And lots of cowbell.
Yedénou Adjahoui is a legend of traditional Beninese music. To listen, select his name. For more traditional Beninese music, select the links to hear Traditional Yoruba Music from Benin and Danses folkloriques Bariba. Step into the 70s for Abakpé Afro Beat Bariba.
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo is an extremely popular group who have played together for decades.
To hear and see them back in the day, select Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou – Se Ba Ho, and to hear and see them more recently, select L’orchestre Poly-Rythmo en live dans la Bande Passante sur RFI.
To read an article about the group, select Benin’s Orchestre Poly-Rythmo of Cotonou get their big break – after 40 years.
Four-time Grammy winner Angélique Kidjo is a popular music icon from Benin who lives in New York City and sings around the world. Select her name to hear her sing.
Storytellers with music and words, the Literature from Benin is rich in imagination.
Félix Couchoro, identified as a Togolese writer and educator because he lived there later in life, was born in Ouidah, Dahomey and grew up in Grand-Popo. 1n 1928, his book L’esclave was the first published novel by a Benin-born author. He edited the newspaper Éveil Togo-Dahoméen, advocated for freedom of trade between Benin and Togo, and fostered Onitsha-style chapbooks. Onitsha is a 20th century genre of sentimental, moralistic novellas and pamphlets, most written in pidgin English by fledgling writers and sold at the Onitsha market in Nigeria with themes about western urban life and warnings about the dangers of corruption.
Paul Hazoumé, born in 1890 in Porto-Novo and descended from Porto-Novo nobility, is credited with publishing the first Dahomean novel Doguimici in 1939. He edited the newspaper Le Messager du Dahomey, co-founded the Dahomeyan Progressive Union (UPD), and ran for president in 1968. His grand-daughter, Flore Hazoumé is a writer and editor living in Côte d’Ivoire.
Albert Tévoédjrè’s L’Afrique révoltée and Afrique debout, published in 1958 and 1959, criticized French colonialism. He became deputy of Benin’s national assembly and a minister of planning and economic rehabilitation and worked for the United Nations.
Olympe Bhêly-Quenum is a novelist and playwright born in Cotonou, Dahomey in 1928. He traveled and studied in Ghana and France, earning degrees from the University of Caen and the Sorbonne, editing journals, and working in the French foreign service, the Dahomeyan diplomatic service, and for UNESCO.
His novel Snares Without End, and its sequel The Song of the Lake, tells the story of French colonial Benin. Select A Child in the Bush of Ghosts to read an English translation of one of Bhêly-Quenum’s short stories.
Rashidah Ismaili Abubakr was born in Cotonou, Benin in 1941 and came to New York City as a teenager in the late 1950s to become an opera singer, but instead majored in psychology and wrote books of short stories, poetry, and essays. For more about her, select Benin: knowing your place.
Gisèle Hountondji published her autobiography, Une Citronnelle dans la neige in 1986 and various short stories. She participated in the book La petite fille des eaux, a book with a different author writing each new chapter. As did Adélaïde Fassinou, a French teacher and novelist, born in Porto-Novo, Benin in 1955.
Béatrice Lalinon Gbado, children’s writer, founded Ruisseaux d’Afrique, a publishing house specializing in children’s literature.
For an inspiring story of one woman’s fight for literacy in her country, select How One Black Woman Started a Book Revolution in Benin.
Sauces dipped in fufu (boiled, mashed vegetable) are the main staple of Beninese cuisine. Maize (corn) is the fufu of choice in the south and in the north, it is yams. Other foods are acarajé (peeled black-eyed peas formed into a ball and deep fried), aloko (fried plantain), brouchettes of beef, goat or agouti, and peanut soup. The national food is kuli kuli (deep-fried ground peanut balls).
Buvettes are small bars or market stalls where people eat. There are street food vendors everywhere making such foods as Yovo Doko (white pastry made with flour, yeast and sugar and fried, much like beignets), Fried Yam and Potatoes, Akkara (black-eyed beans fritters), Massas (rice and corn meal pancakes), Ablo (steamed cornmeal bread), Akassa (fermented corn dough steamed in banana leaf), Coco (red porridge with red millet grains), Tapioca, and Wassa Wassa. For more information, select Street Food to Try In Benin. There is a Beer Beninoise and Sodabi is a strong liquor made in homes with added vegetables and herbs. Select About the food of Benin to read more.
The heat and humidity deter extensive walking, so a plan for getting around is necessary. The main forms of transporation are:
Taxi brousse (bush taxi): a shared taxi used to get from one city/town to another
Zémidjan (Zem): a motorbike-taxi (fare negotiated) used to get around a city, often city tours are given by guides on Zems
Pirogue is a canoe used to visit Ganvié, the floating village, or take a river trip
BENIN FROM SOUTH TO NORTH
THE COAST
Grand-Popo is a small town along the sliver of beach that extends into southwest Togo. The broad beaches with mangroves, birds, and the Mono River are beautiful, but like the all the beaches of the Bight of Benin, not safe for swimming due to the currents.
Lac Ahémè is known for salt collection, traditional fishing, and farming. Select Possotomè and Lac Ahémè and The tale of two lakes : Lake Ahémè and Nokoué to learn more about these lakes.
Ouidah (Whydah) was once a major port on the Slave Coast. Walk la Route des Esclaves for a historic journey from the colonial official’s house to la Porte du Non Retour (Door of No Return), a monument on the beach in memory of all of the people sold and sent into slavery. Ouidah has a voodoo temple, the Temple of the Pythons, and Fête du Vodoun (Voodoo Day) is celebrated each year on January 10. The Portuguese Fort São João Baptista de Ajudá was built in 1721 and now is a museum. Bronze statues are in the Sacred Forest of Kpasse.
Cotonou is the largest city in Benin with golden sand beaches, palm trees, a national park, a Fetish Market, Dankopta Market, and Notre Dame des Apotres.
Route des Pêches follows the coastline between Cotonou and Ouidah with fishing villages and fresh seafood.
Lake Nokoué is home to the African Openbill and white crested hero.
Ganvié is a floating stilted village on Lake Nokoué with a mosque built on stilts. For more information, select Ganvie, Benin – the Venice of Africa.
Porto-Novo, a much smaller city than nearby Cotonou, is the capital of Benin, with the Royal Palace and gardens, and a museum about the kings of Benin. In Porto-Novo, the Grand Mosque has the fascinating cross-cultural distinction of being built in the baroque-style like the Catholic churches in Portugal as adopted in Brazil, brought to Benin by a Brazilian community, for a Muslim place of worship in 1912. For more about Porto-Novo, select the name.
Musée Honmé, the former palace of King Toffa, is now a museum.
The Songhai Center is a sustainable farming facility with a hotel and restaurant featuring food from the center, so well respected that the Peace Corps uses the place as a center for some of its training.
Adjarra is just outside of Porto Novo and has a market known for drum makers and musical instruments.
Aguégué is a stilt village not far from Porto-Novo. It is a less touristed stilt village option than the popular Ganvié. A guided pirogue from Porto Novo can take you to Aguégué
THE INTERIOR
Abomey is where the Kingdom of Dahomey began, the site of 12 royal palaces over 100 acres. Although most are now destroyed or in ruins, what remains can be visited at Royal Palaces of Abomey.
Bohicon has a wonderful market that some say is the best in Benin.
Parakou is the second largest city in Benin, home of cotton, textile and peanut oil industries, and a place to learn about the Bariba people.
Tchaourou features a market and a cashew factory.
Nikki is the historic capital of Bariba and has its ancient palace and a market.
THE ATAKORA MOUNTAINS IN THE NORTHWEST
Mont Sokbaro (2,159 ft, 658 m) in the Atakora Mountain range is the country’s official highest point right along the border of Benin and Togo. Unofficially, it appears there is another place called Mont Koussou-Kovangou within the Pendjari National Park that is likely higher, however, its existence appears to be shrouded in mystery.
Boukoumbé is known for tata sombas, which are two-story buildings inhabited by the Dita Mari people with a ground floor used for the animals and and upper level for people. Tats touristique allow visitors to see what these houses look like. Some of the tata hotels to stay in as well.
Natitingou is place to learn about the Somba people and their methods of building and making Shea butter.
Tata sombas can be seen between Djougou and Natitingou and even more prevalently between Natitingou and Boukoumbé.
THE NORTH
Pendjari National Park is home to lions, hyenas, cheetahs, hippopatomi, baboons, and elephants.
Select the title for the story of The Lion who had enough of the tourists.
Tanguiéta is the last town before the park gate.
Tonogou has a waterfall (Chutes de Tonogou).
Malanville has a market and is reported to have great chicken and chips served by the Niger River Bridge.
Parc National du “W” du Niger gets its name from the “W” (double-veh) shape of the Niger River just north of the border with Niger.
For additional information, select the links the below:
What’s it Like in Benin?
Our Journey to Benin
Go off the beaten path at Benin, the land of Voodoo
25 Best Tourist Attractions to Visit in Benin
Béhanzin, King of Dahomey: 12 Years of Forced Exile in Martinique
