Benin

Angelique Kidjo

Angelique Kidjo is a Grammy artist and activist from Benin. She is passionate about the transformation of her continent. 

                          Angelique Kidjo at the 2015 Grammy (Her award was dedicated to women in Africa)

Ouidah Festival Benin

This city is famous for it's voodoo festival-the birthplace for Voodoo religion. Worshipers and tourist travel from far to witness and participate in the festival, which is held from January 7th-14th. A one week festival ...for the chief priest to bless his followers.

"One of the best things to do in Benin is visit the city of Ouidah, the birthplace of the Voodoo religion. Every January, Ouidah is home to the annual Voodoo festival, an amazing, vibrant celebration of Voodoo worshipers. While visiting Ouidah, enter the Temple of Pythons and take a picture with a sacred python around their necks. Or hike through the Sacred Forest of Kpassè. And while walking along the slave trade route, see the slave barracks, the auction block, and the extremely moving and emotional Gate of No Return". -Sara Cooper, ONE Campus volunteer, SUNY Oswego

Female worshipers

This picture from the guardian depicts masquerades from Nigeria that attended the festival.

Scared Python temple (tourist can visit the temple and also carry the snakes)

Benin

Benin is also known as the Republic of Benin. This is a country in West Africa bored by Togo in the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger in the Northern area of the country. Porto-Novo is the countries capital, whilst Cotonou is the commercial city. French is the official language of the people of Benin Republic. West African CFA franc is the national currency.

Country Flag

Country map

Ganvie 

Ganvie appears to be a flooded community, but it is a village built on water with about 20 000 population.  It is located 109km east of Cotonou. This village on stilts lies on Lake Nakoue. It is said that the village was established during the seventh century.

 The village is open for tourist to witness and experience life in an African village. It is the only village in Africa where Hippopotamus and local people are living together in peace and harmony.    The Hippos go in search of food from 7:00-9:00 every mornings and 16:00-19:00 in the evenings. The money gained from tourism will be used to improve the living condition of the local people. You will not be disappointed as you experience life in Ganvie!

Canoes are the means of transport around the village.

Tata Sombas

Tata Sombas are two story mud houses in Northern Benin, located in the South of Natitingou in Atakora Hills. Tatas symbolizes fertility and the women decorate it with their hands.  The doors are opened facing the West side because the indigenes believe that it’s the direction of life. Apparently, the distance of the two houses is built in a way that when an arrow is fired from one rooftop it wouldn’t miss the second house.

The ground floor is used to house livestock at night. The internal floor is for cooking, and upper floor has a flat rooftop for drying grains and a courtyard as sleeping quarters.

Pendjarie Biosphere Reserve

It’s the most protected biosphere reserve in West Africa because of its diverse wildlife. The park was established in 1961 and made a UNESCO world biosphere site in 1986. The reserve covers a total area of land of 2750km with a variety of animals and birds, except for Giraffes and Zebras.

It shares border with Burkina Faso. The National Park is 630 kilometers from Cotonou (Benin, 8 hours driving), 450 kilometers from Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso, 5 hours driving) and 500 kilometers from Niamey (Niger, 6 hours driving). It has a lake and you can watch the animals drink to quench their thirst. It actually has seven natural water holes.

The Park is open throughout the year. December to July are the best month to visit the park because your trip will not be affected by the raining season and driving around the park will be easy, due to low water level.

Dahomey King and his wives

Dahomey Kingdom

Abomey

The ancient capital of the Dahomey kingdom was born in 1625 in a city of Zou department. It is a small town with lesser population. The place to visit is the king’s palace- “Cowrie house”, akuehu, 12 Palaces covers 99 acres of land. The kingdom became wealthy because they sold their captives, prisoners of war as slaves.