Cotonou turnup and curious observations in Benin

We left Ouidah by night to head to Cotonou to turn up. One of the strangest things I noticed during our Benin trip was how we gassed up the car. Most times we would pull over to the roadside to a shack sometimes manned by kids with tens of 5 liter bottles and lots of refilled alcohol 1 or 1.5 liter bottles, negotiate for petrol and the fuel would be funneled into the car. . After checking into our Airbnb, we went to a cute little place to eat and watch a Congolese live band. Next stop....the dunda. I had carried full dunda regalia...a cute little blue dress and heels....The little blue dress was one of the victims of the Ghana/African black soap disaster in my suitcase... How did I not start lathering in the club when African black soap met sweat? Let's just say I was not winning at life that night..but I was so fresh and so clean:-)

Anyway, when we got to the club, there were very many people outside....and many of them looked like they were born in the late 90s or early 2000s. Most of the girls were wearing sneakers....Aich...I turned to Cediced Soundiata Keita and asked, "Please don't tell me we're coming to the beach and you let me wear heels and a soapy freakum dress..."But I serve a living God. It was actually a club club...the only little hiccup was that they were throwing a huge Halloween party... Hence all the youth around. Feeling a bit silly having come to a Halloween party as ourselves, while most people were walking around looking like Satan's disciples, we went straight to the bar for drinks. Moving past the dangling skeletons, the snakes made of fabric, the infant corpses that decorated the roof, we finally got to the bar. After a drink, I realized that while this might not have been the party I expected, it was the one I was meant to be at. The music was really really really good! Everyone was happy. Danceoffs were happening at every corner of the place. It turned out to actually be a very very very fun night of dancing and drinking till 4am. As I stood there lathering in my sweat soaked, African black soap infused dress, smiling at the foam snakes as I recalled the lovely afternoon with the pythons of Ouidah, moving past dangling skeletons and spider webs, passing youth with grim reaper costumes as I shook my nyash to Davido beats, I thought to myself....""Cotonou turn up has really not disappointed even if it has taken a different form from what I envisioned."

Ouidah, Benin - Rue des esclaves

It began to get really dark and we left as we still wanted to visit Rue des Esclaves (Thé slave route) before leaving Ouidah for Cotonou. I really loved that Rue des Esclaves felt like a living museum. It's not just one particular spot, but a whole few kilometers stretch that ends with the Door of No Return by the Atlantic. Our first stop was at The Forgetting Tree. It was a spot where slaves were first taken. The men were made to go round the tree 9 times and the women 7 times with the objective being to get them confused about where home was, but in reality preparing them for a future where they would never know home, forget their culture and origin and not be able to unite. I know on that long stretch we passed many more heartbreaking monuments, but for me this was the one that really got me...the finality that in one moment one belonged to a certain family, clan, community and suddenly in the next moment, they would be in the middle passage - which if they survived, they would be on their way to endure unimaginable horrors and be broken to not know where home was, who they were, that they once belonged somewhere...have their names taken from them, made to forget their languages, sold and resold till kin and family became a luxury for most.. I mean, I know the word sorry is not strong enough to make up for things of such magnitude, but I want to say that I'm so so sorry for all that the sons and daughters of our continent who were sold off to slavery have endured and I am sorry for the role that we played in allowing this to happen.

As we continued down Rue des esclaves we came across the most beautiful village completely on water. Benin has quite a few of these floating villages. I couldn't help but notice just how beautiful and breathtaking the landscape on rue des esclaves was and reflecting on the fact that for many, this was the last part of the continent they saw.

We finally got to the door of no return as darkness was falling.

Arrival in Benin - Grand Popo, Snake Temple in Ouidah etc.

I was elated to get to my 50th country..my 18th African country - Benin. Better yet, we just walked into Benin from the Togolese-Beninois border. Benin does not need visas for Africans. Amazing, isn’t it? Check out more Africa visa latest updates here.

I experienced so many new and magical things during my Togo-Benin-Ghana trip. A few highlights...Got to Grand Popo, a resort town 20 minutes from the Togo-Benin border on Friday afternoon...Trip was quick, visa process was easy....no visas needed for most Africans coming to Benin. Only hiccup was that my African/Ghana black soap shower gel poured on most of the clothes I came with.... You will soon see why this is important. Spent a lot of beach time in Grand Popo... Lovely lovely views...I might not encourage anyone to dive in wholeheartedly into the ocean though...it has those life threatening waves and currents that I have come to respect and fear from the Atlantic as an Indian ocean typa girl...

Saturday we left for Ouidah - the home of Vodou religion..Forget what Hollywood told you about the religion (poking holes in dolls, hexes etc..) Vodou is a religion primarily practiced by the Fon people of Benin, Nigeria, Ghana and Togo and by people of similar descent in the Americas and Caribbean countries. In Vodou, all creation (plants, animals, objects) are divine and therefore contains the power of the divine. In Ouidah, the pythons of the snake temple are revered and worshipped. I'm not their spokesperson, but they might be the happiest snakes worldwide.. during the day, they roam the city, visit people's houses and are treated with courtesy. At night, they return to the snake temple.

I should add though that I have never been scared of snakes in my life. In fact as a child, I wished to have a pet snake - in addition to the many animals we already had at home. My dad, who also loved all animals... (Mum loves animals, but is terrified of snakes), used to sometimes take me and Wakonyo Kimeria to snake park. He would play with the big snakes and we would get to play with the small ones...So as much as I will go running for the hills if I see a cockroach, grasshopper or cricket....I don't get the same response for snakes. I think they are wonderful. Snake temple was nice. I got to cuddle some pythons, then we went into their main rooms....I loved that our guide knocked before we got in....I think snakes also like a heads up and we took off our shoes as we got into the main snake room housing 50 pythons. Quite curiously, the snake temple is located directly opposite the Ouidah cathedral.