From the rickety wooden balcony, watching Africans in colorful clothes paddling canoes across this lake of stilt houses, I point my camera – and she waves, smiles.
This wasn’t usual; most locals hated their picture taken.
CONTENTS
This is Ganvie – “The Venice of West Africa” as its often-called, since this vast ‘floating village’ perches amid Lake Nokoué.
A History From Hardship
Ganvie was founded in the 16th century with the encroaching Portuguese slave trade, forcing the village of Tofinu onto the lake, fleeing from the nearby slave dealing Kingdom of Dahomey.
Religious beliefs kept the Dahomey from conflict on the lake, which was sacred to them, and so off-limits.
The name Ganvie means “We survived”, reflecting its origins as a sanctuary.
According to legend, the Tofinu were guided to safety by a mystical crocodile when fleeing. And today, crocodiles are considered sacred, and rituals honor their role in the village’s history.
During the 19th century, further threats faced the Tofinu when French colonizers misinterpreted Ganvie as a place of resistance to their rule, but the Tofinu negotiated, ensuring the village remained independent.
In the 21st century, increased tourism has changed traditional practices, with modern construction methods replacing wooden stilt-buildings. Water pollution is another threat to a centuries-old fishing culture.
Ganvie is Africa’s Largest Floating Village
With 30,000 residents in Ganvie, there’s a vast scattering of 3000 buildings amid the lake.
This ‘Floating Village’ sits on tiny islands or wooden stilts above the water.
Getting around is by canoe – to school, the mosque, the church, or visiting neighbors and transporting goods.
Ganvie, like South East Asia, has floating markets of female vendors selling from canoes, shoppers paddling to buy tomatoes, coconuts, firewood, and other goods.
Ganvie is a popular tourist destination and UNESCO recognized it as a World Heritage Site in 1996.
Most tourists take a guided day-trip.
The journey begins at Abomey-Calavi, an embarkation point on the lakeside, after arriving from Cotonou.
Expect to pay … too much.
Foreigners weren’t allowed to go on the local boats, and there were no other foreigners to share a private tour boat, so I traveled alone to Ganvie for 7000 CFA, riding about 30 minutes – some 8 km deep into Lake Nokoué.
I stayed overnight in a friendly, basic guesthouse, bed and wooden walls, but with wonderful views of village life on the water.
Meals were lame: Over-fried chicken and crunchy french fries for 4000 CFA, a bottle of cheap red wine for 6000.
But it was my room-with-a-view, costing 10,000 CFA a night, that was the buzz.
Drinking red – and beer – on a second-floor balcony, I saw loads of local action, shooting discretely with a zoom lens.
Photography Issues
Which was just as well, since people were often unhappy having their photos taken. Some would wave and shout, even screwing their faces and pulling their nose like “You stink, Mister!”
When I wasn’t shooting, the camera stayed hidden.
What can I say, “tourist sights” should expect cameras.
The beauty of Ganvie was impossible to ignore.
Especially with my chance timing, which meant being treated to dazzling, newly dressed colors, as locals celebrated the New Year (it was day 02).
I asked about the local disdain towards photography and the guesthouse guy had said, “People think you’re going to make money from their picture”.
I’d replied, “No, mostly tourists just want to photograph their memories. Maybe local officials should offset this worry with a tourist camera tax?”
Then he said, tourists would show their photos of “Poor Africans” to their friends back home; and “make fun of us”.
This seemed to underline a different issue to which I replied, unlikely.
That foreigners here are interested in Ganvie and African culture. That the enemy isn’t here – they’re back home, disinterested and ignorant.
This travel photography issue remains tricky, particularly in West Africa (and often in the Andes and also in Muslim countries).
Around the world over the years, some individuals have asked – and I’ve agreed to pay – for portraits (but I’ve never sold their image). However, when it comes to public scenes, things get trickier.
With younger generations on the web and loving selfies, maybe this is less of an issue today?
Travels in Benin – 2008
