Porto Novo, BENIN

30 APRIL – 2 MAY 2011

PORTO NOVO

This is Benin’s capital – hard to believe as it seems the opposite of Cotonou with museums, quiet, leafy streets and Centre Songhai where I’m staying. Songhai (www.songhai.org) was established back in 1985, using principles of sustainable development utilising local resources, traditional and modern techniques and recycling and absolutely unique to anything I’ve seen in my travels so far here in West Africa! Songhai provides research, teaching and production in sustainable farming along with a very popular boutique that is swamped every morning with folk wanting to buy their eggs, fish, vegetable and fruit produce. Their motto is Africa Stands Up and I’d have to second that. The accommodation is great with the guesthouses set amongst the gardens – the only drawback being the bloody mosquitos that could carry me off if I was any lighter! Honestly I was even bitten through my clothing!! There is a marquee bar and a lovely restaurant here also well patronised by locals and visitors alike, staff are helpful and management make an effort to employ and inform people from all over West Africa.

Church exterior decorations

Even the Sufis are represented here

Advocating tolerance

Coat of Arms

An LP house and those covers are Fela Kuti LPs

Songhai Systeme Integre

Songhai Model

Palm oil nuts

Sell this to the WORLD

BRAVO SONGHAI

I get to meet many of Songhai’s visitors whilst staying here and they come from all over; a female mechanic from Chad, a young student from France, a Mexican religious sister working in Chad (here to learn how to make fruit juice!) and some adult Scouts from Kano, Nigeria here to learn how to establish a likewise establishment for their youth back home who are experiencing 95% unemployment after leaving school.

Porto Novo has three museums – one privately owned, Musee Da Silva that seems to be an odd collection of junk ranging from typewriters to record players to photocopied portraits of African politicians, including Benin’s presidents through the years. The next museum, Musee Ethnographique is thematically organised around birth, life and death promoting the normality of voodoo religion in societies here. The last museum, Musee Honme is a Dahomey Palace, now empty but the guide is very animated as he leads me around the bare rooms. Here in Porto Novo there is even a public jardin: a gorgeous park filled with huge tree, monkeys and a great restaurant. All in all a very relaxing capital city! But soon enough it’s onwards and eastwards towards Nigeria. I talk to every 2^nd Nigerian I meet here trying to find out transport options from here to Lagos. All agree that the 80km will probably take around 4 hours due to ‘heavy traffic’.

FACT: I provide unlimited amusement for small children here – upon sighting me (or any other foreigner) they launch into a rhyme that seems to go: Yovo bonjour, yovo bonsoir, yovo merci, yovo au revior. Always accompanied by much laughter it is obviously light hearted but after a few days, it begins to wear a little thin being addressed by the colour of my skin – reverse racism?