Of Past and Present

It’s been a very frustrating week so I thought I’d take my mind off of it by telling you all a little bit about the history of Benin. As some may know, Benin was the very heart of what was once known as the “Slave Coast.” Not surprisingly, it earned that name because hundreds of thousands of Africans were transported from Benin, mostly from the port of Ouidah (WEE-da), to Europe and the Americas. Ouidah also happens to be the spiritual capital of the Vodun faithful. The word Vodun is from the Fon language and it is the source of the English word Voodoo. The practice of Vodun was brought from West Africa to the Americas by slaves and became what we know as Voodoo.

During our training we took a day trip to Ouidah and it was fascinating. Our first stop was the Historical Museum, which is housed in a former Portuguese fort. At one time the Portuguese conducted slave auctions within the walls of the compound. The fort served as the site of the diplomatic presence of Portugal in the area until it was annexed by the government of Dahomey in 1961. After taking possession of the fort the Dahomean government began restoration, and in 1967 the fort became the Ouidah Museum of History. Most of the collections are housed in the former Portuguese representative’s residence. Unfortunately, photos are only allowed outside the buildings.

One of the focal points for Vodun is the Sacred Forest. (As always, trees play a pivotal role in my many travels – I should probably meditate on why that is.) It is perhaps the most hallowed place in Ouidah. The photo at left is of me standing at the entrance to the Sacred Forest. According to the most popular version of the story, sometime around 1550 Kpasse became the second king of Savi (9 km north of Ouidah) and founded the city of Ouidah. When he learned that two jealous enemies were plotting his demise, he alerted his two sons, telling them that although he would never die, he would disappear one day. If he should not come out of his room before sunset, he told them, his sons were not to open the door but to understand that he was already gone. After nine days they would see a specific sign from their father which, once understood, would protect them and their families for generations to come. One day these events did come to pass. Today, the sign is still a secret known only to the direct descendants of the king.

Soon after King Kpasse disappeared, his family living in Savi saw a bird they had never seen before. It led them to the Sacred Forest in Ouidah where, upon entering the grounds of the forest, the bird turned into two growling panthers (male and female). The family was frightened until they heard the voice of the king. He gave them an important message: if at any time they were having problems, they could come to the forest and pray to a specific tree in which his spirit would live forever. The tree was then just a little sprout next to a sacred clay pot. Today, behind the ruins of the old French administrative house in the forest, abandoned because the spirits were "too strong" for the French, stands an enormous iroko tree. One also finds active shrines, including a clay pot, next to the tree in which Kpasse's spirit still resides.

Perhaps the most moving, and the most troublesome, feature of contemporary Ouidah is the “Slave Route.” Whether it is the actual route the departing slaves followed or not is less important than what it represents in terms of a didactic experience for both visitors and Beninese alike. As a reinvention of various aspects of the slave trade from the Ouidah port, the Slave Route appeals to visitors on an emotional level as it follows the footsteps of African captives who walked the three miles to the beach and then onto ships destined for the Americas. The route is marked at critical points by sculptures and monuments depicting the atrocities of the slave trade.

The Slave Route officially begins under a large tree (there it is again), where the public auctions are said to have been held. The tree is located just behind the compound of Don Francisco de Souza, who was born in Brazil in 1754 and died in Ouidah in 1849. De Souza, whose father was Portuguese and whose mother was an Amerindian from Brazil, arrived in Ouidah in 1788 and was intimately involved in the transatlantic slave trade for over 60 years. He was named Viceroy of Ouidah by his friend and collaborator, King Ghezo of Abomey. De Souza's influence in the trade spread east to Nigeria and west to Togo. At the height of his involvement he is said to have supplied more than 100 slave ships traveling between the west coast of Africa and the Americas. Today, the name de Souza is among the most numerous in Benin, as Don Francisco had a dozen wives and about 40 children. Our guide during our trip was a woman named Martine de Souza, who had moved away from the de Souza compound just two years ago.

The next major site on the route is the Tree of Forgetting. Sadly, the tree itself is no longer there. The place where the tree is believed to have stood is marked with a sculpture of a three-headed, three-footed, three-armed Vodun spirit called Mami Wata and a small symbolic tree The story goes that all of the enslaved women marched around this tree seven times, and all of the enslaved men, nine times. The intent was to make them forget their origins and cultural identities. In that way they would lose the yearning to return to their homeland and acquiesce more readily to slave life. This process has been compared to the ritual of “zombification” rumored to exist in Haiti, wherein the work of the sorcerer forces one to lose ones identity and become a “living dead.” The failure of this idea is evident in the fact that such identities thrived and continue to thrive in African diasporas throughout the Americas (witness the continued popularity of the Voodoo faith).

After encircling the Tree of Forgetting, the captives are said to have been led to the Zomai Enclosure. The name, translated as "a place where fire can never go," refers to the darkness of the rooms inside. The building itself is no longer standing, but the spot is now commemorated with a contemporary memorial: a sculpture composed of different faces bearing different scarification markings, representing the many enslaved Africans from a variety of ethnic backgrounds who converged in this dark place before they were sent across the ocean. The six Yoruba markings (three on each cheek), and the ten Fon markings (two on each cheek, temples, and forehead) are readily discernible (click photo at left). The piece also includes a scale to represent the ideal of equality among peoples throughout the world.

The customs house, located in the Zoungbodji quarter of the city, controlled and recorded the movement of enslaved Africans from the Abomey kingdom to the coast. A monument is constructed upon what is believed to be the common grave for slaves who died in the Zomai Enclosure, although there have been no archaeological excavations to prove or disprove this theory. To the rear of a rectangular plaza is a large abstract mosaic mural. Black is used to represent Africans chained together, with blood in red, against a white background (click photo).

Before arriving at the beach where they would be loaded onto ships bound for the Americas, the captives are said to have made one last stop along the Slave Route, at the Tree of Return. This point on the route is represented by an actual tree (!), variously reported to be the real Tree of Return or to have been planted in Ouidah during the reign of King Agaja of Abomey (1708-1732). The enslaved Africans are said to have walked around the tree three times to ensure that their spirits, if not their bodies, would return to their native land.

With the Atlantic Ocean as an ominous backdrop, the final monument along Slave Route is the Door of No Return. In the center is a massive arch, built atop a large circular platform. On the upper facing of the arch are four bas-relief sculptures showing of two rows of Africans chained together, converging upon the beach with the ocean in front of them. Different perspectives of this same scene ornament the front, back, and both sides of the entablature. The columns supporting the arch consist of pairs of kneeling male and female figures repeated from the bottom to the top. One either side, four abstract metal sculptures depict families and Africans broken free of chains who wave good-bye.

Every January 10th since 1993, Benin has celebrated National Vodun Day. The festival's main activity is the reenactment of the slave march to the beach. The procession honors the memory of those ancestors lost in the slave trade and celebrates those who survived and passed down the culture and practices of West Africa that flourish today throughout the African Diaspora. Thus, the art and monuments are both historical markers and active ancestral shrines.