Benin: Contd......

Le 21st Avril, 2009

Bonjour

Memories, images, experiences jostle with each other to be expressed as a sit to write this. Its on few occasions of my life that im ever at a loss for words, this moment happens to be one of them. I am unaware of the correct word which might explain my experiences in Benin over the past weekend. Maybe i can call my trip: crazy, incredulous, breathtaking, fascinating, an eye opener or just downright memorable!

We took a taxi from the market of Lome to Cotonou which is the main administrative center of Benin and its commercial capital as well. The thing with the taxis here in Togo and Benin as well especially the ones which ply across the countries is that they stuff people inside them. So in the front seat instead of two people including the driver, 3 people sit and on the back seats instead of 3,4 people are made to sit. This small addition of 2 people certainly isnt very helpful for the comforts of ones back or his bottom which get entangled in weird angles and positions.
The border of Benin was a two hour drive from the city and after doing with our immigration i was finally stamped out of Togo, not sure as to how would i return because i had with me only a single entry visa which means that you can enter and leave that particular country only once. I had entered on the 29th of March and now i was stamped out. Trying hard not to think about this absolutely ludicrous decision of mine to take such kind of a risk in a foreign land, i encountered pretty unfriendly sights while crossing the border by foot. The locals of Togo do not need a visa as Benin and Togo along with other West African nations are a part of ECOWAS(Economic community of West African nations), something like the EU, still one really fat Togolese soldier who can at best could be described as a mix between Yokozuna and a rhino pushed a man so hard that as a resultant effect of his push some 5 people after him too fell backwards on the ground centimeters ahead of me. Being with two white girls definitely has its advantages as he let us pass without even raising an eyebrow and soon enough we had walked past Togo and entered Benin.
Of course the feeling this time just wasn't the same sa last time when i had crossed the border on road between India and Pakistan but still it does give a person a sense of wonder to see that a gate separates land, humanity, air which essentially is the same everywhere!
Soon enough we were at the Benin's side of immigration and here i encountered another scary omen, a huge African guy nearby started shouting at the top of his voice and suddenly there was army all around him who pinned him, caught his hands and took him into a room just behind the guy who was stamping our visas and 8 army people surrounded this guy and took things like wooden rods, belts, whips inside with them. Spine chilling to say the least. I hope that the guy is doing well now.
After this rather eventful border crossing we continued in the same taxi and reached Cotonou soon enough. The town of Cotonou is maddening to say the least! At 10:30 in the night it was full of traffic, honking cars and zipping motorcycle taxis (called zemie johns according to Lonely planet). There were no traffic lights where we got off but there were neon lights so in the traditional sense one may refer to Cotonou as more developed than Lome if more cars, traffic, pollution, noise, neon lights can be a pointer in that direction. My host Sam has an uncle in Cotonou and so to meet him we took a 'zemie john' to his place. I have to admit the ride was by far THE most scariest, hair raising thing i had ever experienced. The moto taxi driver was cutting all kinds of heavy vehicles, passing between places so narrow that i could actually feel the my jeans brushing past other vehicles. Finally we reached the place (alive!!!), it was in the middle of nowhere if it can be called that because we crossed so many watery puddles formed on mud roads, taken many winding and hairpin turns and had left the main road far behind when we finally reached there. There were no other form of human movements there except the 4 of us and were put up at a motel close by.

After a rather uncomfortable night due to the fact that the pillows were really not cosy and also because we discovered that the bathroom did not have a door and it directly faced the bed,we woke up next morning, kicked to check out this promising country!

First up we went to Ganvie, which is reached after traveling 12 km in a boat through a lake Nakoue. It is essentially a cluster of villages built in the sea and it often referred to sa the Venice of West Africa because the huts, restaurants, bars, shops are all surrounded by the lake and one can commute only through a boat. This place was absolutely fantastic. The people here do have queer habits. THe women are especially averse to getting their pictures clicked. Infact if you notice the 1st picture of the previous post then you will see that the girl is hiding her face to prevent getting clicked. Also the locals here call a white person 'Yovo' and being a brown skinned, it did sound odd but i too was being referred as a Yovo. All the children here, some even as young as 2 years of age would surround us and shout Yovo Yovo cadeau (gift in french). Wherever we went these chants in their sing song fashion continued. SO much so that now when i am back in Togo i actually miss people shouting Yovo Yovo cadeau at me!! This has also become our way of greeting each other these days!! Truly hilarious.
Another thing which was pretty funny was that at one of the bars where we had stopped our boat to buy some souvenirs and get a drink, we came across a pretty looking brown skinned girl which my host and the 2 dutch girls decided was Indian and as a result should hook me up with her. As it turned out she lived in a hotel opposite the bar in the middle of the lake. So these two extremely crazy Dutch girls go and just enter her room where there were two other local boys. They sweet talked them to get inside, woke up the Indian girl who was sleeping and had a nice chat with her and another American girl who was with the group too. I have taught them to say in hindi, 'mujhe tumse pyaar hai'. Now for some reason the girl thought that it was incorrect and the dutch girls replied to that our friend from India has taught me that. To their super excitement she replied back saying that in that case she would like to meet this 'Indian friend' of theirs. Thus i got hauled up by the their super excitement and came face to face with her. Apparently her dad was a Xavierite and had shifted to the States. All of us had a nice long conversation about everything and nothing. After this rather random meeting we went back to the shore on the boat again. After this rather enjoyable boat ride due to a nice cool breeze, warm and a bright azure blue sky, it almost gave a feeling of being a vagabond.

Soon enough it ended as all great things do and we were off to the capital of Benin Porto Novo. The mini van which we took was an extremely crowded one with people stuffed in like hens in a poultry van. Though it did give a chance to see things and people way more closer than a normal tourist ever would. The chants and the scramble of the vendors trying desperately to seal their wares to people inside. The sights, noises of the city of Cotonou, the way of dressing of people of Benin were all rather vividly noticeable and apparent throughout that journey.
Porto Novo as a city is completely different from Lome and Cotonou. Whereas Lome is bustling dotted with bars which occupy every nook and corner of the city playing loud music, Cotonou was simply maddening with its sea of humanity coming from anywhere and everywhere. Porto Novo though was a very relaxed city, the kind where one would assume that life would take its own course, the bars were missing and the roads were winding with a cluster of houses lined up. It was an absolutely delightful place to relax and just observe the diversity of the Western part of this beautiful continent. The motel this time too was extremely weird to say the least as the bathrooms again did not have a door, there was a large horizontal mirror placed parallel to the bed, there was a red night lamp and the tv showed porn movie (for those of you wondering what kind then it was ebony porn but not that it interested me), pretty creepy to say the least but then i guess thats the pitfalls which comes with a budget tour of a place.
We hit the bar around town after resting for some time where for the want of any other vegetarian option i had spaghetti again!! Here i tasted beef again after the day we ate dutch food and i must say that im not a fan of it or anything but its pretty decent!
In the mood to dance, we decided to go to a bar with music as the bar in which we were in showed only a TV channel which had pictures of all the people who had died! Disturbing and not the kind of place where one would ideally like to be after a bottle of beer. Anyway the bar where we finally went turned out to be even more disastrous as there were only 4 girls in there including the 2 with us and it was full of men. Now this kind of a gay bar isn't exactly the one where one would be tempted to dance anyway. SO a couple of drinks later we were out of that place and crashed in our rooms of that extremely suggestive motel where we were put up.

The next day we decided that due to lack of any 'tourist' attractions at the city we will go to Abomey which was 150 kms north of Cotonou as there the Dahomey dynasty which according to lonely planet was very gory and had acquired wealth by indulging in slave trading with the French had a palace which was also a UNESCO world heritage site.

After checking out the GRAND MARCHE which was tres petit and very very quiet as compared to the city of Cotonou and the GRAND MARCHE OF Lome as well, we headed to Cotonou to catch a connecting taxi to Abomey. The taxi ride as again was uncomfortable for a persons essential body parts due to the tendency here to stuff people inside but anyway we did successfully reach in a single piece to Cotonou and caught a connecting taxi to Abomey.
The countryside was stunning to say the least with lush green trees, plantations, mountains in the background. Picturesque!
The drive was a long one for about 4 and a half hours. Finally we were at Abomey and maybe to welcome us the skies opened up and it poured to quite a while like cats and dogs. As a result, puddles of waters, running lakes on the streets were formed la our very own Mumbai and i couldn't help but just smile at the similarity of the situation. But all the similarities ended here because the town was a quaint one with small streets and by lanes, even more relaxed and slow than Porto Novo itself. A beautiful place!
It was already night and was pouring, as a result we decided to stay indoors and check out the city the next day. Finally the next day we set out to get a glimpse into the graphic past of Benin and a large chink of West Africa. The museum, which essentially was a restored palace was a World heritage site as well. Graphic and gory images and colourful carvings of sadism, heads being chopped off, brutal killings, lions and other animals adorned the walls of the palace. This palace was nothing like the majestic ones back in India but infact had thatched huts which one would normally associate with houses in rural India but to our horror we realized that many of these huts were built from mud and blood of enemy soldiers who had been killed in battles. There were other things like skulls kept inside a shaft made out of horse hair meant to ward off mosquitoes but the throne which was mounted on 4 human skulls was downright spine chilling. People talk about the gory and primitive or if i may use the word unevolved past of the continent but here i had the first hand chance to see the brutal deaths depicted by pictures, paintings, gory deaths and processions in which the women were hacking men to death.
The tour also made me come across some rather strange facts, one was the that in the Dahomey dynasty, women were better soldiers then men so often in a battle an army of women would be sent. I obviously did not believe it initially but on later i could completely understand it after seeing the images in which women displayed their raw brutality in killing men. In one of the pictures, one guy was being burnt in flames tied to a tree while two women were simultaneously shooting them and one of then was hacking him with a sword!! The Dahomey dynasty also acquired modern weapons from the Portuguese, Dutch, French and the Germans who trade them in exchange of 15 women with perk breasts (yes thats right!!!) or 20 able bodies slaves. Also one of the kings here had 4000 wives! Yes sir, four thousand wives!
Unnatural as it might sound but as i interact with more and more people this fact becomes digestible because the last president of Togo had 106 children only officially, locals say the number could be close to 300 or something, fathered from uncountable number of women. The current President too has around 70 wives and many many more to come according to people here and pologamy is legally allowed and freely practiced in Ghana, Benin and Togo.

After this rather insightful tour, the pictures of which i could not take because photography was prohibited, we had a much needed lunch served to us by rather unfriendly waitress. We got a taxi back to Cotonou from where we took a taxi to Lome. The immigration was a breeze on the Benin side as the officials seemed way to happy to host two beautiful dutch girls ( i have to admit that their presence is a blessing because then everything becomes pretty simple and officials dont seem keen to harass you, maybe i should send this point to lonely planet as well!). The shock came on the Togo side of the border.
As explained before i had a single entry visa and instead of harassing me, taking bribes from me or issuing a new visa the official at the border simply stamped my visa again and then in no time i was inisde togo on the same visa! Dont know how he made that mistake but surely it was a blessing for me as i did not have to pay anything or wait for a new visa though i hope that it does not give me problems when im flying back to India!!
So this was my trip, crazy because of my decision to go on a single entry visa, incredulous because i actually came back on the same visa, memorable because of the sights and sounds like Yovo Yovo cadeau!! and the Dahomey dynasty and Porto Novo where we went to a gay bar (well almost!!) Still cant choose between any of the words to ill settle for a cliche UNFORGETTABLE!!