TOUR TO BENIN REPUBLIC

TOUR TO BENIN REPUBLIC

OUIDAH, A SLAVE TRADE TOWN, A SLAVE ROUTE IN BENIN REPUBLIC.

Ouidah is a place you will like to visit,a coastal town in BENIN REPUBLIC.It is about 40 km to west of Cotonou, the economic capital of benin republic. It was the last stop of future slaves bound, "rounded up" in all the region of Abomey further north. Beninese artists especially created sculptures to symbolize every place through which our ancestors went paintfully shipment to Goree in Senegal, Cape Verde Islands before the surviving onces ended in Brazil, the Caribbean or North America. However, I resorted to Dossou my tour guide for crisp, clear explanations for each step of the way.

PLACE OF AUCTIONS,

Renamed PLACE OF THOUSANDS PAINS: Abomey was the hub of the slave trade that was probably the main income source of the powerful kingdom of Danxomé.

After more than 120 kilometers on foot of Abomey, the prisoners there were auctioned and branded the initials of their buyer. They were bartered against guns, guns, alcohol and junk items (mirrors, fabrics, pipes ...).

King Ghézo, powerful monarch of Abomey, created this site. There was send jumble its prisoners of war, those guilty of adultery and victims of raids designed to meet the Slave application.

PLACE OF CHACHA:

This is another historical name of the Place of the auction. Chacha De Souza whose house overlooks the square is a major historical figure in the history of slavery in Benin. His real name Felix Francisco de Souza, of Portuguese origin and was born in 1754 in Brazil, it is the king's friend Ghézo he helped bring to power against his brother.

THE TREE OF FORGETFULNESS:

Situated on the road out of the city, this tree is gone. It was the place of this own ritual to the peoples of Danxomé. In this place was the Tree of Forgetfulness. The male slaves had to turn him nine times and females seven times. These towers are made, slaves were supposed to become amnesic. They forgot completely their past, their origins and their cultural identity to become beings without any will to react or rebel. The monument which marks the site of the Tree of Forgetfulness is the Goddess Mami Wata, the goddess mother of waters,Aroes the greek God of sea.

THE BOX OF ZOMAÏ or THE DARK ROOM:

A few hundred meters away, was in a village of the box Zomaï. A memorial of remembrance replaced. In fact there were several cases, prisoners were herded there in the dark and appalling conditions while awaiting the arrival of the boats. "Zomaï" means fire or light ventures have not to be developped in. Indeed there was a large hermetically closed box where slaves were imprisoned upon their arrival at Zoungbodji and they only went out for transfer to the tree of return. This absolute sequestration totally disoriented slaves and made it extremely difficult any attempt to escape or rebellion. This stay here for the conditioned life of promiscuity and darkness of the holds of slave Also in the place of the box of Zomaï, it exist The monument represents the various ethnic groups whose captives were from. The Yoruba (face with three horizontal scars on the cheeks) were appreciated slavers as "plump" while the Fulani were deemed unsound ... Faces turned up at the sky at the top of the sculpture symbolize the interrogation of the prisoner to face the unknown future.

THE MASS GRAVE MAUSOLEUM:

here were thrown into a mass grave the bodies of prisoners who succumbed in the boxes of Zomaï. Under the auspices of Unesco, an archaeological dig in 1992 uncovered many bones and chains, shackles .... now exhibited in the museum of Ouidah. The bones were found buried again under the slab, over 4 to 10 meters deep. At this place, tourists are not allowed to put on their footwear in honour of the dead ancestors.A cenotaph now stands in the arena,depicting the stages through which the slaves passed.At that point, i let loose my emotion and i shed tears profusely,waiting to back out.But I took my courage to continue following my investigation.

THE TREE OF RETURN:

Leaving Zomaï , slaves had to make three times around the tree. This ceremony meant that the slaves would blast here after their death. The return in question here therefore is not physical but mystical. Slaves were brought to the back of the tree where the ship was announced and they were out of the box of Zomaï to be brought on the beach. It's still a tree of hope, a final farewell point, but the guarantee was said that their matter what, their souls would return to the country of their ancestors. Unlike the tree of forgetfulness, the Tree of Return, a sausage tree, remained since the seventeenth century. It is a place on which regularly organizes ceremonies "Egungun" (dance of ghosts) because "the dead are not dead. The statue symbolizes the king Agadja, another King of Abomey who planted the tree on the bodies of men killed on that occasion.

THE GATE OF NO RETURN:

The Gate of No Return was erected in 1992 to witness his departure: It symbolizes the final stage of the largest deportation which has ever known humanity: THE SLAVE TRADE. The slaves arrived on the beach of Djègbadji trod for the last time on African soil and went without hope of return to a horrible doom. This is what symbolizes part of the monument facing the city of Ouidah. By sea side against the door symbolizes despite the sufferings and pains suffered the return of the breath of the ancestors which had come back beyond the seas and the indissoluble ties that bind the diaspora to the negro African soil. The executioner had killed once in establishing the holocaust of the black slaves. By building in the name of tolerance, mutual listening and the peaceful coexistence of nations monument, the Republic of Benin and Unesco wanted to institute memory to prevent historical amnesia to settle and Silence again to kill tens of millions of slaves by their blood and sweat have enriched the initiators and recipients of the triangular trade of ebony.

It was a great adventure for all the tourist that visited all this places, thank God for the save trip back home. You too can endeavour to pay a visit to Benin Republic!