Benin Republic - Abomey to Grand Popo

We joined a 3 day trip to the Benin Republic - the spiritual home of Voodoo (know as Juju in these parts)- that was organised by the Nigerian Field Society (an anthropological organisation of like minded nerdy-folk)


The organisers, Hans and Maaike, planned an excellent programme with such variety that nobody could have been bored. We began with a travel day and after leaving ikoyi at 7:00am in a convoy with police protection to get to the border. We arrived in Abomey around 4 pm. The border was a bit tedious and took two hours to clear, with Hans and Maaike taking care of officialdom - but as they wouldn't "dash" the border guards they took plenty of time with our papers. Whilst I understand while they didn't do it, it's normal practice to hand over a hundred naira or so ($1) as a sort of tip to each person who needs to stamp your passport - just to get things moving.



ABOMEY

Hotel “Chez Monique” provided an excellent atmosphere to end a day on the bus. We had a large garden to wander around filled with masks, statues, tapestries and beer. There were lots of separate beer corners within the garden and we relaxed and enjoyed each other’s company. Then when we needed a new beer garden we walked a couple of blocks down the wide boulevard to the local beer garden and had a few more..


Francis, the enthusiastic and knowledgeable tour guide, gave us a run down on Benin’s history. There are plenty of historical sites from this once great kingdom.


Beware of the “protector” of one of the sites - the Marlboro man, or so his hat proclaimed! As we took photos of 18th Century palace walls from the street he decided it was his duty to stop us and demand money. Not unusual, but when we paid a nominal fee, he decided to chase our bus through the streets of Abomey for at least half an hour shaking his fist, motioning us to pull over, cutting us off (on an Okada no less!) and then he followed us to Blacksmith Village where he turned our visit to the local blacksmith into a big scene.




We also saw a local voodoo (juju) shrine which was coincidentally in use while we were there so we saw the grisly procedure of chicken sacrifice. This lovely event was followed by a stroll through the local market to watch the humane treatment of the local live produce as it is wrangled with and tied up in order to fit on the back of an okada, bicycle, rooftop, etc





Fuel is expensive in Benin so they sell black Market fuel (often stolen from Nigeria where it's heavily subsidised) by the side of the road in big glass jars

WITCH DOCTOR

Next stop was a trip to the voodoo village and the witch doctor introduced us to fetishes and spitting upon them. When asked if anybody had problems to cure, nobody did. We were a happy healthy group. Or, more likely, everybody was on the verge of passing out from heat exhaustion in the cramped tiny room in which we were viewing the rituals and didn't need to have gin spat on us









The old guy got drunk at talked to this piece of cloth for a while, occasionally laughing - must've been some funny cloth...

This concoction of wax and palm oil and a skull - apart from stinking - is wiped on the little statues (fetishes) to get the gods to help you...

GETTING AROUND



One thing Benin has going for it is the fact that fashionable young ladies like this one can ride okadas (motorbikes) here. In Nigeria that's unheard of (actually a fancy bike like that is too...)

This is the more usual use for an okada - get the whole family and off you go!

TRAIN TO COAST

The next day a train had been arranged especially for our group to take us from a town near Abomey, called Bohicon, to Pahou near the coast. The 3 hour ride seemed short, because it was so enjoyable. The train carriage is 1922 vintage with beautiful hardwood floors and a big back verandah.

The train doesn't run any more - though like everything else around here did once in the "good old days" whenever that was... It's the first train we've been on in Africa






The children who saw this extremely rare sight of a train are so excited that they bounce up and down when they wave at you.










Tanks to Sheryl tank for some of the text :)