Au Revoir Benin!

 On Friday we took a day trip to Ouidah.  Ouidah is a not-so-well-known port in Benin that accounts for the theft of millions of West Africans from the continent during the four centuries of the mid-Atlantic slave trade.  It is also a cultural center for vodun, the traditional religion often called voodoo in the US and Caribbean.  Contrary to popular belief, vodun is a deep, rich system of beliefs that is grounded in anything but the witchcraft tales white folx made up about it in order to convert people to Christianity and shun those who refused.

We started off the day at the Python Temple, one of many temples dedicated to many of the sacred symbols in vodun.  Pythons are particularly revered.  There is a whole temple dedicated to them, but you will see python imagery nearly anywhere that there is vodun representation.  Our guide told us about the different buildings within the temple and their purposes within the religion.  We were given the opportunity to hold a python as well as to enter a temple and say a prayer to them.  

Some might say Amare wasn't as brave....he's probably just much smarter!

After the Python Temple we went to the Sacred Forest, that houses many statues of different gods in vodun.  

If you couldn't guess, this god is who you go to with fertility issues.

This monument marks the place where the tree standing behind it fell and then miraculously righted itself the following day.

This is an active vodun temple, so you can only enter it if you've been initiated into the culture.  If you notice the serpent statue to the left in the infinite circle, that's a common symbol of vodun culture.

It is believed that King Kpasse received a sign that he was going to die.  In vodun culture, it is considered a bad omen for your enemy to see your dead body.  It is a signal to them that you are no longer leading your people and therefore your kingdom is vulnerable to attack.  So the king took to the sacred forest and while bathing went underground and sprouted into a large tree.  The tree is still in the forest and believers come to bath on its roots, say prayers and provide offerings for ongoing protection from the king.  

Before leaving the forest our guide offered us a moment to do a silent meditation and feel the vibrations of the forest for ourselves.  In the midst of total chaos traveling with two small children, it afforded me a deep moment to myself.

After we left the forest, we stopped at several additional places in Ouidah including the home of the DeSouza family, the most notable slave trading family in Benin at it height.  If you can believe it the family still lives in the house, though it now is occupied by descendants of both the slave traders and the women they enslaved and raped, bearing children with deeply conflicting roots.  If you have time, you can check out some interviews done with Martine de Souza, one of the descendants and a philanthropist in the community.

The building to the left is the de Souza house and the large tree is where they used to gather captured Africans to inspect them like objects, determining if they would stay and serve the Europeans in Benin or if they would be sent on a ship.

We also drove down the road that enslaved Africans were walked down before boarding boats to the US, South America and the Caribbean.  There is a monument marking the place where Europeans demanded the vodun leaders of the time put powers into a tree that would erase the memories of the Africans to keep them from rebelling or becoming violent on the voyage.  Historically, the vodun leaders did not believe that was possible, but they did the ceremony given the consequences were they not to.  Men walked around the tree nine times, women seven, to erase from their memories everything about their communities and culture.  

Further down the road is a monument to "the dark room."  This was a room where all were taken, bound at the hands and feet and gagged and meant to kneel on the floor of a room in total darkness, being fed nothing but cornmeal and water for three weeks or more.  This is where, our guide said, most got sick or died of starvation.  Those strong enough to survive this torture were then marched on to the beach where many ate handfuls of sand, knowing it would kill them slowly or jumped off of the small boats that took them to the larger boats, drowning to avoid enslavement.

The faces on this monument represent all of the tribes in Benin that passed through Ouidah during the slave trade period.

Finally, the road ends at the Pont de Non Retour (the Point of No Return) monument, marking the last place millions saw their homeland before being indebted into centuries of torture, family separation, erasure of their languages and culture, and racism that rages on to this day.  Next to the Pont de Non Retour, Benin has constructed the Pont de Retour, a monument symbolizing the country's willingness and desire to welcome back all descendants of those stolen.  And if you're reading this thinking this is ancient history, check out Nora Zeale Hurston's book Barracoon, detailing the life of Cudjo Lewis, stolen from the shores of Benin in 1860.  Yes, 1860, not even 200 years ago.

Unfortunately, the monument was being renovated and we were unable to walk up to it.

Ouidah is always a powerful place to be, between its deep ties to the slave trade, which has such an ongoing legacy of white supremacy in my home of the United States and its deeply spiritual vodun traditions, I find myself grateful and humbled to even stand in the space.  Bringing my children here was powerful as well, given the place they'll have as young Black men in America in the not so distant future.

When our tour was over and we bid our guide farewell, we drove down one of my favorite roads in the world.  It's a small dirt road that runs parallel to the ocean with palm trees arching their long trunks in the direction of the ocean.  Small straw homes line the road as well as indigenous plants and cacti.  

We stopped at a beautiful resort called Casa del Papa for lunch.  It was mid-afternoon, so the dining area was pretty much empty, allowing us a private viewing of the sea, sand, and palms.  Our drive home was peaceful, following the same seaside road all the way back to Cotonou.  

Isn't this how you ride in a car alongside the ocean??

Sunday morning we were packed up and headed back to Gabon for our final two weeks of visiting with family.  Check in and flight went on without a hitch and by 4pm we were on our way back to Georgia's house with Landry's sister, Aimee, which was nice since we hadn't yet seen her.