Benin - Great Voodoo Festival (10 days)

Transfer from airport to Hotel in Cotonou

Very close to the Ocean coast, crossing Lake Nokwe by boat, we reach Ganvie, the largest and most beautiful African stilt village. The approximately 25,000 inhabitants, of the Tofinou ethnic group, build their huts on teak stilts and cover the roofs with a thick layer of leaves. Farming fish is the principal activity. The village has been able preserved his particular customs and the environment. In fact despite the long-lasting human presence in a closed environment, the lake is not over fished.

Life unfolds each day within the canoes that men, women and children, thanks to the brightly colored poles, guide with ease. It is with these canoes that men farm and fish, women deliver goods to the market, children go to school and play.
 

Every year, in Benin, the 10 of January is a special day honouring the traditional cults. On that day, we will be in Ouidah.

Ouidah, conquered by the Dahomey army in the XVIII cent and transformed into a terminal for the slaves trade. Today, in Ouidah, with its Afro-Portuguese architecture, we find sitting face to face the python temple and the Catholic Cathedral. The laid back attitude of the locals mixes with the thunder of the distant waves on the beach and the rhythm of the drums creates an atmosphere outside of time, very well described by Bruce Chatwin in his book, "The Vice-Roi of Ouidah".

Walking the streets we visit the python temple and the Portuguese fort, now transformed into a museum, where the history of Ouidah is displayed. Afterwards, we finish our tour of the city by following the “slave route” to the beach where the slaves embarked. On the occasion of 10 January Festival, all the adepts of voodoo gather on the way of Non-return and move to the beach, in honour of ancestors who have been shipped to the New World.

The Royal Palace in Abomey. The walls of the palace are decorated with bas-reliefs representing symbols of the ancient Dahomey kings. Now a museum listed among the World Heritages by the UNESCO, the palace displays the items belonging to the ancient kings: thrones, ancient cult alters, statues, costumes and arms. A way to learn about this Kingdom whose economy was for so long based on the slave trade. A perpetual status of war enabled the Kings to capture and sell thousands slaves.

In the middle of the royal courtyard is a temple build with a mixture of clay and human blood. At the height of their power there were up to 4.000 women in the palace harem.

Walking among the buildings will help the visitor to remember the past splendor of the court, who challenged with pride also the Western powerful armies coming to colonize the continent.

Meeting with ancient community of blacksmiths, since centuries in th4e service of Dahomey Kings and their army.

Crossing Atakora Mountains and visiting isolated fortified dwellings. We enter the Somba territory. "Somba" in the local language means "nude". In certain isolated villages the peoples are still dress in a simple cloth and the women are covered with amulets. These traditions, thanks the tribe geographic isolation, have not yet been contaminated by outsiders. The Somba architecture is characterized by the one family dwellings in the form of small castles three stories high. These beautiful fortified dwellings are separated from the others for reasons of ownership determined in accordance with the size of the cultivable land and also to guarantee the privacy of a group of people who are, by nature, individualists.

Pendjari Reserve is in the north of the country, on the border with Burkina. The name comes form the river crossing the area. The environment is bushy savannah. It is the richest area for animals in West Africa. We can see: monkeys, buffaloes, antelopes and if we are lucky elephants and lions.

Short trekking to discover the ancient villages of the Yom situated on the homonymous mountain. These villages are composed of round huts covered with conical roofs and protected at the top by terracotta vases. The upper part of the village is inhabited by the fetish priests, dressed in a goatskin, and their young initiates. This population has for centuries lived on an archaeological site. It seems the first inhabitants, of Kabye origins from Togo, occupied the mountain in the 9th century A.D. Afterwards, other populations joined the Kabye to form a kind of melting; each group has maintained its own culture and its own rites of initiation, and at the same time the entire population shares common institutions of power and cult practices.

Tour in a small motorboat along the Mono river to discover tiny villages where the old way of extracting salt is still practiced. Our journey will lead us to a marvelous estuary, where the waters of the river and the ocean are meeting, giving birth to contrasting forces playing with each other… Crossing of the lagoons limited by small forests of mangroves… Along the coast the fishermen live in villages built out of branches of palm trees.

Transfer back to Cotonou, where you will have use of day rooms until 1800.  Transfer to airport.