In the midst of the hospital opening and the daily comings and goings of school and life on the ship, I was able to visit Ganvie, a stilt village on Lake Nokoue, a large lake north of Cotonou. "Village" is actually misleading, this city of over 30,000 people is constructed entirely on stilts in the lake, several kilometers from shore. Here the only mode of transportation is by boat. The men are primarily fishermen and the women take the fish to shore each day to sell.
According to our guide, a native of Ganvie, the village began 300 years ago in the 1700s. At that time, the powerful and numerous Fon tribe sought to conquer other smaller tribes for the Portuguese in an agreement to keep their own people out of slavery. The Tofinu people, in a clever move to protect themselves, built homes in the middle of a lake, knowing that religious practices of the Fon forbade them from pursuing an enemy on water.
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| Market Day |
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| Typical Ganvie Home |
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A pirogue with a sheet of plastic as a makeshift sail
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| It took about 30 minutes to get to the village by boat. And our boat had a motor! |
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A beautiful and peaceful way to see more of Benin
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That is so clever and awesome!
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