Written by Rich Pagen

We awoke to the bustling port city of Cotonou, with the sun rising over numerous tanker ships awaiting their opportunity to offload. We drove through morning traffic, dominated by large trucks and motorcycles, including the abundant motorcycle-taxis called Zémidjans. Vegetable stands lined the side of the road, as did vendors selling jugs of smuggled gasoline from Nigeria, a practice accepted by Benin’s government as they cannot supply nearly enough to meet the demands of the country.

We stopped at a Sacred Forest outside the city of Ouidah, where towering trees hosted roosting straw-colored fruit bats, whose screeches carried far across this impressive place. We were led through a series of Vodun (Voodoo) statues representing several of the religion’s spirits, as well as a museum housed in the Fort of São João Baptista de Ajudá, the former center of the Portuguese and African slave trade in this area. We also stopped along an exposed sandy beach at the Door of No Return, the site from which slaves had been shipped across the Atlantic. 

After lunch on a beautiful hotel patio along the coast, we drove out to the shore of marshy Lake Nokoué and boarded small covered boats for the ride out to the lake village of Ganvie. The name of this community of 30,000 people, situated far from the shore, translates to “free at last," and refers to the fact that this place was a safe haven from slave traders. 

Dugout canoes with sails plied past us with the breeze, while long wooden poles were used to move the canoes back up against the wind. Fish traps and nets were everywhere, and the marsh vegetation seemed to go on forever in all directions. Stilted houses sat perched above the water, and we got out to watch a traditional Voodoo mask dance. As the dancers in bright costumes spun and gyrated to the drumbeats, we had no doubt that we were at the epicenter of West Africa’s Voodoo religion.