The Slave Road
I've been fascinated by the Voodoo around Ouidah, but Benin is also famous for The Route d’Esclaves (Slave Road) in Ouidah, shortly to be awarded UNESCO status. It tracks the whole sorry slave journey.
The Vice-Roy of Ouidah
- When the Benin area was known as the Kingdom of Dahomey the Atlantic area was named the "Slave Coast", because of this flourishing trade.
- The kings of Dahomey (who had a minimum of 41 wives, as it’s a sacred number), were very much involved in the slave trade.
- It thrived in the region of Dahomey for almost three hundred years, beginning in 1472, with a trade agreement with Portuguese merchants.
- Most notable was Francisco de Sousa (the slave market was outside his house,) who was appointed Viceroy of Ouidah (as recounted in the eponymous book by Bruce Chatwin), to aid him in his endeavours.
- The kings decided who should be enslaved and chose especially any prisoners from other tribes. Though court protocols, which demanded that a proportion of war captives from the kingdom's many battles be decapitated, decreased the number of enslaved people exported from the area.
Along The Slave Road
The Slave Road is a poignant two and a half mile stretch (four kilometres) lined with commemorative statues and monuments, relating to slavery and voodoo. This was the last piece of African soil slaves stepped on, before being transported to the Caribbean or Brazil. The captives were shackled throughout, beginning with arrival at the Plaza Chacha, the commercial auction place where enslaved individuals were sold.
About halfway between the town centre and the beach is the village of Zoungbodji, Here there is a memorial for the mass grave. This was where the bodies of those who died from disease, exhaustion, or abuse before reaching the ships were thrown. Two thirds of the captives died during this process. The memorial is a concrete wall featuring a large mural created by local artists, depicting the suffering of the captives. This is also the site of the Tree of Oblivion, where voodoo rituals were designed to ease the memory of the slaves' origins. Captive men were forced to walk around it nine times and women seven times. Then they were branded with hot irons before their final march to the ocean
Next, to the Zomai House (House of No Light), a dark, windowless hut used to imprison captives for days, in total darkness, to disorient them and prevent any hope of escape. Then, The Tree of Return (more rituals so the soul would return to Africa). Finally, the Gate of No Return, a large concrete and bronze memorial arch erected on the Atlantic beach, in 1995, by UNESCO and local artists. It symbolizes the final departure point where prisoners were were dispatched in pirogues, to reach the larger slave ships waiting offshore. Fifty percent of those who survived to set sail, packed in like sardines, survived.
At the peak of trading, in the 1780s, 102,000 people per decade were sent abroad from The Slave Coast. The British Britain Slave Trade Act, in 1807, banning the trans-Atlantic slave trade was followed by other countries abolishing slavery. The numbers of slaves declined until 1885, when the last slave ship departed for Brazil, which had yet to eradicate slavery. Benin’s capital is named Porto-Novo (Portuguese) meaning 'New Port' as it was originally developed as a port for the slave trade.
The beach is considered to be sacred sacred threshold. Local Voodoo (Vodun) tradition holds that while the physical bodies of the enslaved left on ships, their souls and spirits returned to this shoreline after death to rest in their homeland. Every year, on 10 January, the beach becomes a central hub for the National Vodun Day celebrations. Thousands of practitioners, traditional chiefs, and tourists gather on the sand for ceremonies, drumming, and rituals near the ocean, to celebrate these souls.
Fishing communities till ply their trade, alongside the solemn monuments. There's even a beachfront resort on the wider stretch of golden sand and open-air shacks serve local sea food, primarily fresh barracuda and crab, grilled over charcoal.
