The excursion which took place on the 11th of October,2013 was partly to enable students have a better knowledge of Benin and also act as a field trip for their various on-going research works.It encompassed three major sites of interest,all located in the city of Ouidah,Benin republic.
They kick-off of the journey was slated for 8:00 am but due to unforeseen circumstances,the journey began around 11:07 am.We arrived the city of Ouidah,another part of Benin republic which happened to be the location of the supposed sites of interest at about 1:20 pm.The first point of call was the village of possotome which housed the factory of possotome bottled mineral water. Possotome village though little in size is, however, known for its internationally recognized mineral water.We were shown the surface fountain-like exit of the mineral water.According to our tour guide,the water has has healing abilities and has been attested to heal those with sickle cell anemia.When asked why the fountain wasn't gushing out,we were told the reason was because the factory was still making use of the water.When it closes by 4:00pm,the water would then start to fully flow.We were however advised not to dip our hands into the fountain basin as most eager students were about to do,but to come back around 4:00pm when the fountain fully flows.This was because the water was considered sacred by the villagers and was used by all.However,we were showed a second exit which was not limited or sacred and we were able to get a drink.The water was quite warm.
Possotome bottled mineral water factory's filter plant
The sacred fountain-like surface exit of possotome mineral water
The public secondary exit of the possotome mineral water
The possotome bottled mineral water factory
Posing beside the factory's numerous fences
After the visit to the village of posstome,we went further into to town and stopped to have a late breakfast in Hotel Village Aheme,where we later got to go on a jolly god boat ride.
Going boat cruising on lake Aheme
After about two hours of relaxing and unwinding,we took off to the second site of interest.The numerous slave trade point monuments mounted in Ouidah. According to the tour guide;
Ouidah is best known for its central role in the slave trade during the 17th , 18th , and 19th centuries, during which time nearly 1,000,000 individuals were boarded onto ships from the beach at Ouidah and were transported across the Atlantic. Originally, however, Ouidah (once Gléwé) was a small village in the small Xwéda kingdom that supported itself through agriculture, hunting and fishing in the coastal lagoons – the inhabitants had very little to do with the sea and its treacherous tides. Ouidah's first encounter with Europeans occurred during the 16th century. Though the slave trade along the Bight of Benin began soon after, it was not until the end of the 17 th century that European traders began purchasing slaves from the Xwéda kingdom in earnest, establishing factories and forts in the town of Gléwé (now Ouidah). The kingdom of Xwéda prospered greatly from this trade, until in 1727 the militaristic kingdom of Dahomey routed the kingdom of Xwéda , killing, capturing and dispersing its citizens, and usurping trade with the Europeans.
Until Dahomey 's colonization by the French, the town of Ouidah remained in Dahomean control. The slave trade was extremely active, and by the middle of the 18 th century the population of Ouidah verged on 10,000 inhabitants, and had reached its economic apogee.The kingdom of Dahomey (including Ouidah) was colonized by the French in 1902; by 1961, however, the country of Dahomey gained independence from France.
Ouidah is a center of the Voodoo religion in Benin , and arguably the world. In 1992 Ouidah held the first international festival dedicated to the art and culture of Voodoo. In addition, the annual Festival of Voodoo on January 10 at Ouidah has been declared a national holiday.
The door of No Return
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| The tree of forgetfulness |
According to local belief, the captives who would leave to "countries of whites" should run 3 times round this tree, a ritual to ensure that their souls, at least, return to Africa, since their bodies for the trip was no return.Because of this ritual, the locals never eat the fruit of this tree, because it would be too laden with pain and suffering.
Those who died before boarding the slave ships were considered lucky people, because they would be buried on their own land. This memorial was erected to these. Some other memorials erected include;
After a painful reminder that slavery was the worst thing ever,we moved on to the last site in our list of to see places; the Python temple ,Zossoungbo,still in the city of Ouidah.According to the tour guide,the python is a respected deity in Ouidah and a story goes that the pythons helped protect the town from invaders so they don't kill it.The pythons are of two types;the small ones called dagbe kpohoun and the big ones known as dagbe dre.The temple is overseen by selected priests with scarifications on the fore-head and both sides of the cheek to identify them.The temple has become a tourist attraction as visitors all over the world come to view the snakes and have pictures taken with them wrapped around their necks...that's at an extra fee of-course.Here are some captions from the experience;
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