Africa - Part VII

Tuesday:

I woke up early on Tuesday morning - about an hour before the group planned to meet. So I made my way outside and walked around the hotel. I really wanted to walk to the ocean - it was probably about 1/2 mile away (I could see it from my room) but the gate was locked and I knew it was not wise for me to go by myself. 

So I took a few pictures, watched people and enjoyed the quiet morning.

We met for breakfast at the hotel restaurant and we all started our morning with a little caffeine :)

Our breakfast lasted a few hours (every meal did) and I enjoyed a coke, toast and jam. By the last morning, I was a bit tired of egg omelets with raw onions - lol! But the toast and jam were delicious! 

This was our last day in Benin and so we toured Ouidah. Ouidah was one of the most active slave trading posts in all of Africa. It is known as the “Slave Coast”.  

We started the tour at the Ouidah Museum of History and finished down the 4 km of road between town and the coast - the very same road were thousands of people walked, chained, leaving behind their families and their freedoms to board the slave ships.

The Museum contained buildings, objects and illustrations that helped explain the history and culture of the slave trade.

We saw many statues and memorials that marked the slave route and told the story - including the tree of forgetfulness. This tree was significant because men and women were forced to walk around the tree (men, 9 times - women, 7 times) to help them forget their country, where they came from, their family and who they were. 

We also saw the Tree of Return, in which the people would walk around 3 times, ensuring their spirits would return to their homeland after death. 

There is a remarkable monument at the end of the slave route, on the Ouidah beach known as the Door of No Return. This was the last place the people stood before traveling in boats out to the ships that would take them to their future of slavery in another country.

It’s hard to tell in my pictures, but the pictures on the monument show slaves, in chains, walking to the ships. 

This is our tour guide. He was wonderful and full of information. The one problem he and I had is that he kept referring to the kings 41 wives as his 41 “problems” (and then staring at me!). Lol! We had lots of laughs over that - he was a good sport :) At the end of our tour, he did tell me that wives are very important in their culture. That she has the say in whom her husband can/cannot talk with. Example: if someone comes to the door of their house, the wife answers. If she has a bad feeling about a guest she can turn them away, even if they asked to speak to her husband! No questions asked. 

The tour ended at a monument that serves as the counter-part to the Door of No Return - The Memorial of the Great Jubilee. This monument was referred to as the “Freedom Monument”. The curved wall has a cut-out in the shape of Benin, with a cross in front of it which represents the first missionaries in the country.

The monument is remarkable! It was really heart-wrenching to hear the history of the country and the slave trading that took place. This monument brought a smile to my face (everyone’s really) and made our hearts a little less heavy, knowing the country is different now.

Our touring day was not over quite yet…we still had the Python Temple to visit. Yes, PYTHON Temple. Benin is the birthplace of Voodoo and they worship the python snake. 

We went inside this area (which is really small) and learned a bit of history of the python. While our tour guide was talking, he was holding a python. Next thing I knew…he put it around my neck! Seriously. I did not move. I was finally getting used to it when it started moving…and that is when I was like “take it off of me - now!” Lol.

In full disclosure, these snakes do not have fangs or venom. But still. 

They let us walk into the temple, where the snakes have free reign. There was not as many as I was picturing when he was sharing about this - so I went in. They believe there is some kind of healing power in the snakes / water in this place. I just took a couple of pictures, listened a bit more to our tour guide and then got out before any snake could touch me!

After all that fun :) we grabbed some lunch and headed to the airport to start the journey home!