Slaves, Voodoo and French Bread-Benin

After leaving the orderliness of Namibia, we spent four days at sea crossing the pirate infested waters of the Bay of Guniea. Yes, pirates. It seems that the anti-piracy inniatives off the coast of Somolia have been so successful that they have moved to the West Coast of Africa. Complete with piracy drills and anti-piracy defenses, we safely crossed the Bay to land at the Port of Cotonou, Benin.

This tiny country, once called Dahomey, was home to the ferocious Fon tribe and it so dominated the slave trade the coast was called the Slave Coast. For over a century approximately 10,000 slaves a year were sent from it's ports mainly to Brazil and Haiti.

The Fon were also famous for their women fighters. These were the "Amazon Women" some 2500 strong who formed the personal battalion of the Chief and who's legends still carry on today. They so frightened the native tribes and the European's that the region wasn't brought under French control until 1882 and then the slave trade was finally abolished. Within one generation, the Fon changed from being savage warriors to well educated bureaucrats and served the French throughout their African colonies.

The Fon were the reason for our first excursion. There was a tribe called the Tofinu who fled the approaching Fon by building a stilt town in a large lake far from the shore. The Vodoo beliefs of the Fon did not allow them to pursue their enemies on the water and thus, the Tofinu were safe. For over two hundred years they have lived in a settlement called Ganvie and carry on the traditions of fishing as they have for centuries with scant contact with the mainland.

The houses are all on stilts over the water and the only transportation in or out is by boat.

They may have invented fish farming by using fronds from local plants to build enclosures in the water, trapping the fish and allowing them to grow in the enclosed areas until harvest.

 

 

Even with the advanced fish farming method they developed, they still use the traditional ways.

We were there on market day and like in far away water based villages, such as in Cambodia, Vietnam Nam and Thailand, all commerce took place from the small boats, here called pirogues, that were the mainstay of life.

 

 

 

These people mainly practice Vodoo or other animist religions and while there was a large mosque and several churches in the village, many turned away or covered up if you tried to take their picture. They didn't want you taking their souls.

What struck me the most was how many children were working, especially young girls, and how many were not in school. While their smiles were infectious, you have to worry about their future.

 

 

 

 

Leaving Ganvie one had to wonder how long this way of life would continue. The city of Cotonou was only thirty minutes away from the shore of the lake and another twenty minutes by boat to the village. One thing we didn't see much of, as we did in Southeast Asia in similar villages, was a profusion of satellite dishes. We saw none and only a few antenna's. While there was some electricity, there didn't seem to be a lot and you also didn't see anyone talking on cell phones. It was quite an interesting excursion.

Quickly we were back in the real world of an unairconditioned, rather worn bus, fighting the thick traffic of Cotonou. Not being a wealthy country, most of the traffic was motor bikes and the commerce of the people was done on the streets. The stalls stretched from the shores of the lake we had just visited to the port. It's how commerce is done in just developing countries and it looked pretty normal. For new comers to this part of the world, especially after Namibia, it was pretty mind blowing.

I'll save the city part of Benin for the next post and tell you our visit to Togo was all about countryside life,Voodoo Chiefs and some pretty wild dance, but you are probably wondering about French bread. Just like in Viet Nam and Cambodia, one of the legacies of French occupation was that the people love their bread and sell it and eat it everywhere.

 

 

 

 

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I hope you enjoyed seeing this slice of history. It's now cocktail time on the ship so I will stop, but leave one last picture that for me sums up why we love to travel, Africa, and photography: the reaffirming happiness found in a smile.

 

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Ok, where's Africa?

Namibia reputedly has the highest standard of living in Africa. Flush with diamonds, abundant uranium and other minerals, vast fishing grounds, productive agriculture, a relatively honest and stable government, good education and a Gernanic tradition, one gets cleanliness, order, efficiency and a lack of anticipation and excitement of what may be around the corner that we have experienced in other Africa countries. When I asked our guide if all of the country was like what we were experiencing, he said yes, unless ones goes deep into the countryside. That's great for the Namibians, but hard on someone trying write something interesting. I mean how much German efficiency can one take when looking for the next mind blowing shot?

As we left the Port on Sunday morning, this is what we experienced on the streets, not only in Walvis Bay, but Swakopmund as well. Large, well maintained roads, with nary a vehicle on them and no people to be found. Our guide assured us that because it was Sunday morning and Mother's Day as well, traffic would be light. It was non existent.

We headed inland from the port to visit Dune 7, the highest dune in Namibia. Now this is desert. No vegetation, no animals, just sand as far as the eye can see. Unlike the southern desert in Namibia, there are no diamonds here so one is free to roam to their heart's content, although why one would is beyond me. The only things you might run across are dung beetles and an occasional snake. As you travel along the well paved road you see nothing but sand until you reach the dunes area and then the landscape gets interesting.

The dunes done, it was time to head off to Swakopmund, the resort city of Namibia, situated directly on the Atlantic Ocean. The city swells to over one hundred thousand people in season as Namibians and South Africans flock to the wide beaches, great restaurants and good weather.

The first thing that hits one is that all of the signs are in English and all of the buildings look like they were moved here from Bavaria.

We were on a Swakopmund on your own tour and had plenty of time to wander the deserted streets. Outside the small, town museum we had a nice lunch of curry wurst and pfannkuchen with a great view of the beach.

We finally did come across some of the indeginous people. The first in a stop at a weavers shop where one woman was dressed in typical native city dress and then strolling in a park, we came across a group of native women in dress more typical of the tribal lands.

We had one more stop in Namibia,Walvis Bay, the largest town on the coast and historically the most important. It is home to a wonderful harbor as well as a large bird sanctuary. It was also typically German in architecture and every other way one could think up. It is amazing how the Germanic tradition and mind set could still prevail considering Germany lost German West Africa after World War One. The parts of Namibia we visited were truly Germany in Africa.

Next stop will be Cotonou, Benin where we are going into the country side to board canoes and visit a stilted village, in a large lake, inhabited since the 17th century. Then Lome, Togo were we will bypass the city and again head into the countryside to Sanguera, the seat of the Vodoo Religion and home to the Python Temple. Things should get much more interesting.

 

 

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Where Are We?

It's six AM and we are slowly making our way into port, backwards, which means our little slice of heaven suite is looking directly at a landscape that could be of a port anywhere on the coast of Europe. You have blue water, fishing boats gentley bobbing, a town of sturdily built houses rising out of the water, climbing the hillside to the solidy built church near the summit. You look left and you see more tidy houses stretching off into the distance and to the right a port facility that is clean, modern and seems efficient. Yet, when you peer though the binoculars you see this tiny town is truly an outpost surrounded by a sea of rock and sand.

Welcome to Luderitz, Namibia. After two days of being tossed around by heavy seas, we arrived at this little port to visit it's one main attraction, a ghost town called Kolmannskuppe. Luderitz itself is about 20,000 in population and was first visited by the Portuguese explorer Diaz in 1487, but situated on the edge of the Namib Desert, along a treachous rocky coast, there was very little interest in settling the area. Finally in 1884, the town's namesake, Franz Luderitz, bought the port and the surrounding land from a Namib Chief for 2500 German Marks, 200 guns and some toy soldiers. The Chief thought he was getting a great deal because what he was selling was just sand and rock.

Unfortunately for the Chef, who kept on selling vast tracks of land to Luderitz, diamonds were discovered in 1903 and the rush began. Diamonds were so plentiful they were literally just picked up out of the sand. One method of collecting them was to form a line sixty men across and have them crawl across the desert picking up diamonds as they moved forward.

Namibia is the world's largest diamond producer and while today most of the diamonds are mined from the ocean floor by vacuuming up the sand, a huge part of Namibia is off limits to everyone except the diamond workers because so many small diamonds can still be picked out of the sand.

Kolmannskuppe was begun in 1913 and continued in operation until 1956 when it was abandoned as diamond production moved south and onto the ocean floor. Left intact for the desert to reclaim, it is now the major (only) tourist attraction in Luderitz.

As we began our tour the guide warned us to be on the lookout for poisonous snakes: no rattlers, just vipers, puff adders, side-winders. The kind that don't make noise before they bite. Yikes!

You have to hand it to the people that built this town (in the middle of nowhere in the middle of really nowhere) in the early 1900's. The buildings are of an impressive scale and the modern conveniences, every building had electricity, ice and fresh water were delivered daily, the hospital had the first two x-ray machines on the continent, and the sausages were made fresh daily, were impressive for the time.

 

The only part of the town that has been restored is the central meeting hall. It contained the kitchen, gymnasium, concert hall, eating areas and most importantly the bar and bowling alley.

The rest of the town is being slowly reclaimed by the desert.

That's it. A small town on a small bay and a ghost town. Everything was clean, orderly and well scrubbed. No teaming masses, impromptu markets on the side of the road, shanty towns, graffiti, or traffic chaos we have found all over Africa. What would our next stop bring as we traveled to the larger port city of Walvis Bay and the resort town of Swakopmund?

 

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Oh, not again!

After thirty-three hours in transit, with twenty two and a half hours nestled in an aluminum tube flying through the air, that included an eighteen hour straight stretch, we found ourselves back in the comforting confines of Cape Town's Cape Grace Hotel longing to lie down and sleep in a real bed after pretending that sustained sleep was really possible in a lay-flat sleeper seat. Yes, we are back in Africa for our third straight trip.

This time it is a thirty day cruise up the West Coast of Africa, from Cape Town to Casablanca, before heading for Dover, England, that concentrates on some out of the way places like Luderitz and Swakopmund, Namibia; Ganvie, Benin; Lome, Togo and Chefchaouen, Morocco and includes stops at Dakar, Senegal, the Cape Verde Islands, Canary Islands and for some reason Rouen, France and Antwerp, Belgium. I guess the later two are to reintroduce us into Western ways before getting off of the ship.

We got a good night's sleep, opened the curtains and had a great view of Table Mountain for the first time in the last three trips. The Harbor looked pretty good as well. That would be the last time we saw it as the fog quickly moved in.

We had lunch, checked out of the hotel and embarked on the Ocean Princess. We are traveling with our good friends Maureen and Gordon from Vancouver. They have been in South Africa for a week already, having done a safari in Kruger National Park and visiting the Cape of Good Hope and the wine country.

We got our trip off to a great start with dinner at Baia Restaurant. Best known for it's fresh seafood, Kathy noticed a game trio of ostrich, kudu, and springbok each with a special sauce. We ordered it and I must say it was one of the tastiest meals we have ever had and you know experiencing great food is one of the reasons we travel. There is simply nothing like expertly prepared game washed down with a bottle of Kevin Arnold Shiraz and the conviviality of friends to start a trip.

The next morning we took off for a shopping excursion. First stop was Green Market Square in the heart of Downtown Cape Town. Here vendors set up shop selling crafts from all over South Africa. It is a very colorful place.

There's a lot more than jewelry and we did our part to help the local economy. Kathy is quite the bargainer in these bazaars and I have no doubt some to the vendors didn't know what hit them.

After the market it was off more shopping. This time in the many shops selling African wares. Our love of all things African and our familiarity with Cape Town kept us from taking a lot of pictures, but we did load up on a lot of items that we hope you will enjoy seeing at the house.

We did manage to stop at Carolina's, the best wine shop in Cape Town, to pick up some wine for the journey and had a great time talking about wine with the knowledgeable staff. So armed with our purchases it was back to the ship to leave for Namibia. I think the four of us were quite a sight for the folks arriving from a bus tour as our driver kept loading us with packages from the trunk of his BMW.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was great being in Cape Town even if for only a brief time. As with all of Africa, the contrasts are always vivid with the reality of how hard life is for some always just around the corner.

As we left the Harbor the Captain came on the public address system to welcome us aboard and to tell us to batten down the hatches as we would be sailing into heavy seas and fifty knot winds. With a day and a half at sea to get to our first port, we hoped we wouldn't personally find out why it was called the Skeleton Coast.

 

 

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