Touring Ouidah’s slave route

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, “During the 17th century, several European nations engaged in the Atlantic slave trade maintained trading factories in the Dahomey area and during the 18th century, the English, French and Portuguese all possessed fortified posts in Ouidah. The French first established a factory in Allada in 1670 but moved from there to […]

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, “During the 17th century, several European nations engaged in the Atlantic slave trade maintained trading factories in the Dahomey area and during the 18th century, the English, French and Portuguese all possessed fortified posts in Ouidah. The French first established a factory in Allada in 1670 but moved from there to Ouidah in 1671. Although this factory was abandoned in the 1690s, the French built a fort (known as Fort Saint Louis) in Ouidah in 1704. The European forts in Ouidah were, however, all abandoned about the end of the 18th century, the French establishment being withdrawn in 1797.

“The memory of slavery is not only related to victims, those who suffered the effects of imprisonment, deportation, punishments, and forced labour, but also to those who were left behind and to those who ordered the capture of slaves and participated in the slave trade.”

Although these events happened centuries ago, the town of Djègbajdi, home to these historical facts, has carried with it through generations up till the present, very vivid reminders of what their ancestors went through many years ago. One of such is the Place Des Enchères or Place Chacha located behind Francisco Félix de Souza’s compound. Francisco Félix de Souza was a Brazilian slave merchant from Bahia who settled in the Bight of Benin in the beginning of the 19th century to work at the Portuguese fortress and to take part in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

The origin of the name ‘Chacha’ cannot exactly be traced but it became a title associated with de Souza and is now a coronation title with other Chachas succeeding him. The Place Chacha served as the convening point for the auctioning, bargaining and sale of slaves between the slave masters and soon to be slave owners from the West. Standing tall and energetic is the ‘Forgetting Tree’ around which male slaves went nine times and female slaves seven times as a ritual to wipe out of their memory their homeland, family and all they were once associated with.

Lined up from the Place Chacha through the slave route are different monuments erected in 1992 for the purpose of the Vodun Festival in Ouidah. They include cement sculptures by Cyprien Tokoudagba, the Zounbodji Memorial, the Zomaï Enclosure, and the Tree of Return.

Climaxing all these is the monument, Porte du non-retour (Door of No Return) for which Benin received a tremendous support from organizations such as UNESCO, Prevention in the Museums of Africa (PREMA), the Getty Institute and the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) to build. The edifice is among efforts to conserve, restore and promote the heritage of slavery and the slave trade.

Standing alone and in very striking colours is the monumental piece designed by Fortuné Bandeira, surrounded by four metal sculptural pieces created by Dominique Kouass, which Yves Appolinaire Pédè’s made onto the platforms beside the door alongside Pédè’s cement sculptures reflecting the Egun-guns (masquerades).

Although the sculptures clearly reflect slaves in chains in helpless state with hands up in surrender, the plaque identifying the monument did not reflect this theme. A few metres from the door of no return, is the memorial in the same colours. The door, commissioned by the catholic church in Benin as part of the new millennium celebration, was erected as a memorial to commemorate the arrival of the first Catholic missionaries in Benin.

Described by tourist, Ajay Zener, as being, “the last stage of the road. Last walk towards elsewhere. It is the stage of the despair and desolation”, today Ouidah’s Porte du non-retour (door of no return) has become a UNESCO heritage site because of the many West Africans who unwillingly, with chains around neck, hands and feet, staggered through that route into the unknown world of slavery.