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Some of my photos have been published in the book Survey of Sub-Saharan Africa : A Regional Geography |
| Niger & Benin 02 |
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NigerNov 28Am now in Niamey the capital of Niger, it feels a very pleasant city, tree lined streets, impressive buildings and good roads which hide at first what is one of Africa's poorest countries. I am arranging visas here and relaxing for a few days before I head onto Benin and Togo for the last 3 weeks of my trip. Gao to Niamey bus, another customs stop just inside Niger
Dec 3In Niamey I spent quite a bit of time just wandering about around town. The city is in the desert and you often see camels walking across the bridge into town weighed down with huge bails of hay. One evening at dinner I joined the local restuarant staff with their after ramadam meal. They mixed cassava flour with water and probably sugar (aka African Cornflakes) with peanut butter, spinach, onion, cucumber and tomato, you may not be interested in this description but it tasted real good anyway.BeninDec 3I spent a couple of days travelling by shared taxi (10 in a 504) down through Benin, stopping at Kandi and Parakou. I'm now in Abomey, the centre of the famous Dahomey kingdom that once flourished here. It's a significant UNESCO world heritage site but unfortunately the palace and moped tour around the area were all in French and I missed a lot of the detail. There one bizare tale about the Temple Zewa, a voodoo temple where two women were covered in oil and left to be eaten by red ants. The practice of voodoo is still very active here and you can find things like monkey testicles and bat wings in the fetish markets.Dec 5I am writing from Cotonou, the largest city in Benin, first impressions here when leaving the taxi are chaos, pollution, noise and intense humidity. Taxis seem to communicate with each other and every other slightly animate object using several blasts of their horn and if thats not loud enough then some people walk around ringing bells or banging the box they are carrying on their head to draw your attention to what they're selling. There are petrol stations here but for most people petrol and oil are sold at the side of the road in old Whisky and Gin bottles, you also find glass pumps fitted onto barrels of petrol in small villages. But Cotonou is quite a fun place and there are cheap bars everywhere. Yesterday I found a stall selling xmas decorations and fancy dress outfits. They had a Santa Claus outfit complete with a white mask and beard. Today I visited Ganvie where 18,000 inhabitants live in bamboo huts on stilts several km out on Lac Nokoue. It's a little spoilt by tourism now but still fascinating to visit. The Tofinu people moved here in the 18C to escape the warring Fon kingdoms in the North as religeous customs banned their warriors from venturing into water. Lakeland home on stilts in GanvieI've been travelling by myself the last week, suprisingly there doesn't appear to be many travellers around Niger and Benin. It's been quite difficult negotiating prices wherever I go. There seems to be an additional price for everything and often it starts out 2 or 3 times the normal rate because I'm a white man. My French is improving vastly in this area out of necessity. Sometimes it can seem everyone is trying to get money out of me in any possible way. But you have to keep a positive vibe, at these times I'm often suprised by how genuine and sincerely friendly some people can be. And often the next minute you can find something that'll make you laugh, there is a great sense of humour here. Dec 12After Cotonou and all that travelling I felt like I needed a rest, so I went along to the beach at Grand Popo near the Togo border. Tranquill golden sandy beaches lined as far as the eye can see with palm trees, but the sea has a strong under-current which prevented me swimming. In the morning from my log cabin on the beach I could hear the sound of chanting as locals hauled in nets full of fish onto the beach. An idyllic beach at Grand PopoPeople here are very open and friendly. I made friends with a brother and sister who run the local shop, After a couple of hours there chatting they invited me to eat curried fish soup with them. Their monthly rent on the shop was 4 pounds which was a lot to them but they wouldnt except any payment towards the food they gave me. I then went to Ouidah famous as one of the oldest Portuguese slaving ports and for voodoo. It is voodoo that originates from here that appears in Haiti, Cuba and Brasil and along the road white flags signify practicioners. There is a famous 4km 'route de esclaves' walk down to the beach where slaves would have been lead in chains for the European ships waiting to take them to the new world. In Brazil some of them were able to pay for there own release and made the return journey. As a result there are many Portuguese surnames here, crumbling Brazilian architecture and occaisional samba music playing in bars. Brazilian influence on old architecture in Ouidah Fetish next to Gateway of No Return, OuidahI'm staying here with Mirielle and Maureen, two Canadian aid workers whom I met in Ghana while travelling with Andy. They are working at a refugee camp nearby where there is a mixture of people from all over central Africa but mainly from neighbouring Togo and the Ogoni people in exile from Nigeria. Over 1200 people in all. I don't know a lot about their situation but I had chance to speak to some of the Ogoni people. Some of them have been here for 10 years and say they are too scared to go back to there homeland. They say that where oil is being drilled by Shell there is still pollution that has not been cleaned up and the people still do not have basic living conditions such as clean water and proper roads. Petrol and oil for sale in Whiskey bottles, Ouidah Planned refugee camp, BeninThe UN refugee camp is really well organised inside, there are brick built semi-detached rooms, seperate toilet blocks and a communal area with taps for washing under a light. It's a purpose built new village, a bit like an African village version of Milton Keynes and with the oppurtunities available here for learning new skills it is far better than what most African's get. |
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 08 June 2006 ) |
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African Diary
African photos published
Some of my photos have been published in the book Survey of Sub-Saharan Africa : A Regional Geography
