Cotonou, Benin

           Monday, 29 Jan 2018 – Unfortunately, Sally awoke after less than 2 hours of sleep with leg cramps, and was awake until about an hour before our alarm went off (6:00).  The previous evening the captain had announced that our ship would need more refueling, but this would be done while at anchor.  “Don’t worry,” he said, our excursions would take place as planned.  However, Sally had heard considerable noise before 5:00 AM, at the end of the refueling process and pulling up of the anchor.  Later, it was announced that refueling had taken longer than expected and the ship would not dock at Cotonou, Benin until 10:00.  Even later, we learned that our group was to meet in the Lounge at 12:00 noon – instead of the original 8:15 AM.  Although the café opened for lunch earlier than usual (at 11:00), Sally managed to nap for an hour before that.
            The Republic of Benin is between Togo on the west and Nigeria on the east.  It is twice as large as Togo, but only about 1/8 as large as Nigeria.  Benin is tropical and highly dependent on agriculture.  The official language of Benin is French.  However, indigenous languages such as Fon and Yoruba are commonly spoken.
            Our 5.25-hour long excursion, “Ouidah, the City of Voodoo,” began with the drive from Cotonou to Ouidah taking one hour each way.  Sheila, one of the other dancers often on the floor with us, sat behind us on the coach.  (Her husband, Bob, is less adventurous than she, and didn’t want to go, she told us.)  They are originally from New Jersey, but worked in Washington, DC; now they live in Charlotte, NC.  She tells people three words to remember her name: “Sheila, short, Charlotte.”  Two guides were with us: Sardau and Raoul.  Sitting in the back of the bus was also an armed guard!
            In “local tradition,” Kpasse supposedly founded the town, probably near the end of the sixteenth century.  The town was originally part of the Kingdom of Whydah (later spelled “Ouidah”).

Voodoo Statue

             After a one-hour drive to Ouidah, our first stop was the sacred Kpasse Forest for an introduction to the realm of voodoo deities.  Quite a number of statues were here, one of which was of a naked man with a huge, erect penis; this statue attracted immediate attention of our group!  (We decided to censor the photo.)  In this forest, local residents danced to the beating of drums, whether solely for entertainment of the guests or other reasons is unknown.  Some other of our friends, Rich and Helma, were also there but were traveling on a different tour bus.
            After that, our bus moved on to the Museum of History, which contains a few artifacts related to slavery, such as chains and shackles; and drawings of African royalty, slaves, and slave ships.  Photography was not allowed inside the museum and passengers were quickly scolded when they attempted to photograph the artifacts.  Some ancient remains of cannons outside the museum reminded us that this had been a Portuguese fort, the Fort of St. John the Baptist of Ouidah.  Some side buildings had housed slaves while being held for transport to ships.

Sally with Python

            From the museum, our bus drove on to the Temple of Sacred Pythons.  Here was a small building housing a pit containing many python snakes.  Sally heard our guide say that one type of python was called a whydah/ouidah, though his accent made her hearing (faulty at best!) questionable.  The pythons are called Royal pythons and are worshipped in Benin, especially in Ouidah.  The snakes are a totem in Benin and are important especially in the religion of voodoo.  [The snakes are not fed, but they are let out once a week, when they catch insects and rats.  Sometimes going to nearby houses that are accustomed to them, the snakes are returned if they remain out after 72 hours by the residents because all of the inhabitants of Ouidah are concerned about their divinity.  The snakes can live for 10, 20, or even 50 years.]  Those snakes that we saw appeared to be very sleepy!  Soon the guides were placing snakes around our necks, allowing enough time for someone to take a photo of the event.  Although it seemed dangerous, it was actually only very stressful.  (Jesse was in a big hurry for Sally to finish taking photos of him with the snake so that it could be unwound from his neck!)

Jesse with Python

            The temple is located across the street from the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, showing that residents here have no problem practicing both voodoo and Christianity or Islam.  [Pope Benedict XVI visited this church in Nov 2011.]

Door of no Return

            From the Temple of Sacred Pythons, our bus traveled down a nearby road (the “Route des Esclaves” or the Route of the Slaves), which is more than 4 miles long, by which slaves were force-marched from the fort to the beach.  Numerous statues and monuments, including the Door of no Return, a memorial arch, stand on the beach.  This was the last place slaves walked before embarking a slave ship for the torturous journey across the Atlantic; from that point they would never see their homeland or loved ones again.  According to Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 10.5 million African slaves were shipped to the New World, but only 388,000 of them were shipped directly to North America.  (Not all of these slaves were shipped from Ouidah.  However, West Africa was probably the ancestral home of most of the slaves that ended up in the U.S.)
            Although we thought our tour was finished, before returning to our ship we stopped very near the memorial arch on the property of a hotel, where we were provided snacks and a choice of drinks.
            Before visiting Benin, a talk had been given aboard, that was afterward shown on the ship’s TV, about the history of West Africa.  Included was this historical information:
             In the 1600’s and early 1700’s, the Kingdom of Dahomey, comprised mostly of Fon people, began taking over areas along the coast.  One African king, King Haffon, expanded his kingdom while taking many slaves.  By 1716, when the massive English slave ship the Whydah Galley arrived to purchase 500 slaves from King Haffron to sell in America, the kingdom of Whydan had become a large slave port in the Triangular Trade.  King Haffon received his coronation crown as a gift from Portugal; however, in 1727, the Kingdom of Whydah was captured by the forces of King Agaja of Dahomey. 
             The kings of Dahomey sold their war captives into transatlantic slavery.  By about 1750, the King of Dahomey was earning an estimated 250,000 pounds per year by selling African captives to European slave-traders.
             The Dahomey Kingdom was known for its culture and traditions.  For one, it was famous for instituting an elite female soldier corps in the early 18th century, called Ahosi (the king’s wives), and known by many Europeans as the Dahomean Amazons.  Although it is unknown why women became warriors, perhaps the original warriors were so outnumbered that women were conscripted, also.  Apparently, recruiting women into the Dahomean army was not especially difficult, despite the requirement to climb thorn hedges and risk life and limb in battle.  Most West African women lived lives of forced drudgery.  The female troops of Heso, a later king, lived in his compound and were kept well supplied with tobacco, alcohol and slaves.  To even touch these women meant death.
             In 1862, a British naval officer observed that women heavily outnumbered men in the towns of West Africa.  From the 1760’s until the 1840’s, there were about 600 women in the Dahomean army, but in the 1840’s, the corps increased to as many as 6,000 women.
             The Portuguese, English, Dutch, and French all constructed forts in the city of Ouidah to protect their interests in slaving.  The Portuguese had reached the town which they called Ajuda in 1580 and the Portuguese fort, now housing the Ouidah museum, dates from 1721, and remained with Portugal until 1961.
            We had been warned in advance that restroom facilities in Benin would be very basic – and they were – sometimes nothing more than an old-time American backhouse, and sometimes even less than that!  (However, passengers were usually grateful for whatever existed.)
            Since Sally had not slept well the previous night, she napped for a little while before dinner and we were asleep by 10:00 PM, skipping both swimming and dancing for the day!