Benin – Ceremonies and Festivals

We entered Benin and visited Ganvie, Africa’s largest village on stilts. Ganvie is spread across Lac Nokoue with the wood and thatch houses built above the water. When the Dan-Homey kings armies were capturing people in the countryside to sell in the Portuguese slave trade, the people of Ganvie were saved from slavery by the Dan-Homey religious traditions…they were forbidden to attack communities on the water.

The people in this unique fishing village live exclusively from fishing (along with a little tourism), use pirogues (canoes) and have a system of underwater plantings that form fences to trap and breed fish. You can visit by catching a motorized boat or pirogue across the lagoon. …View image…

There was also a colorful market on the water. The local women sell their vegetables and other goods from their canoes.

I loved the village with its great big Coke sign displayed…nothing like a little tourism and Coke advertising…View image

Along the road, hand-made pottery was being sold…

… and there was a never-ending procession of people gracefully carrying items on their heads with perfect balance and poise…without dropping a single thing…

Still to come was the Gelede Fon Mask Fesival in the afternoon….

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