If a passenger visits better countries he
may learn to improve his own.
And if fortune carries him to worse, he may
learn to enjoy it.
-Samuel Johnson-
What a great night’s sleep. The bed didn’t come with a top sheet, but the
temperature, after a really hot day, dropped perfectly and we didn’t need
on. Pat and I are pretty good sharing a
bed, this was the second time and we are both on the same wave length when it
comes to upgrading and tenting, so we really are getting along like a house on
fire. My nickname for her is ‘Duckie’
and the age difference is not making an iota of difference, well maybe I need
to remind her of something’s sometimes, but we are having a ball together. The even better thing is that Duckie doesn’t
have any gadgets besides her cameras that run on AA batteries, so when we do
upgrade all the power points are mine for my IPod, laptop and camera. Woo hoo!!
Due to the good sleep we were both awake at 6.45am and breakfast wasn’t
until 8am, so after showering and changing I jumped on my computer to blog for
the spare time I had. I really am trying
to keep on top of my blogs and I am currently only 3 days behind, which I am
okay with as I do take a lot of notes each day, but anything further than that
and I start to panic and I hate that feeling when I am on holidays, but I find
after dinner I generally have an hour or so before I get to tired, so I think I
will be able to keep up. I haven’t been
able to load any of them to the internet, but they are ready to go when we do
finally get connection again. Not
surprisingly there has been no Wi-Fi, which I expected, but was hoping for a
slither somewhere down the track. I
would hate to load 23 entries when I get back to Accra in 3 weeks’ time.
At 9.10am we met at the edge of the Togo River for our
boat ride to Togoville, which we could see on the other side of the lake. We were in a large wooden boat, with no motor
and our guy for the journey over and back was called Anna. So it was all going to be arm power, using a
pole to get all 9 of us across the lake.
Needless to say it was a slow trip, but the sun was hiding behind some
clouds, so we got some reprieve from the heat and it was actually a pleasant
journey. Half way across the lake, there
were 4 flags, set in a very large square and Anna explained that this section
of the lake was very sacred and owned by a voodoo woman called Maman Kpounou. It is known for good-luck that the mud from
the floor of the marked square gets scraped off the bottom of the lake, Anna
used his pole for this, and we scrapped a small piece of the mud onto a coin of
any denomination and when we were exactly in the right spot, he told us to
place the coin with the mud on our foreheads, make a wish and then throw the
coin into the lake. We were left with a
muddy bindi on our foreheads and after we had left the square perimeter we were
allowed to rub off the mud from our face.
I am always up for making wishes, no matter what religion or faith and like
all wishes cannot be revealed as they won’t come true, but a wish I did make
and let’s see if it comes true.
We arrived in Togoville an hour later, meeting our guide
for the morning, Nat, and helping Anna carry his sails to a house in the
village, we were taken to the village’s ‘palace’ to meet the Chief. The ‘palace’ is loosely used as it is just a
house that had a thrown looking chair in it for the Chief but I guess when you
compare the place to people that live in mud huts and don’t have electricity; I
guess it is a palace to them. We entered
to find that the Chief was in Lome but his son was around, so we took a seat as
he welcomed us in French and Zoe had to translate for us what he was saying. He showed us some photos from the Treaty of
Togoville, some photos from when the Pope visited in the 1980’s and some
original slave chains from the 1780’s and those suckers were heavy. He had a guestbook that he wanted us all to
sign and flicking back the pages, the book went back to February and I was the
first Australian to sign the book, followed by Patti and Patrick today, but
still, by the looks of it they dint get many Australians through here and there
were a lot of French and Swiss people signing the book. Togoland was a German protectorate in West Africa from
1884 to 1914, encompassing what is now the nation of Togo and most of what
is now the Volta Region of Ghana. The colony was
established during the period generally known as the "Scramble for Africa". The colony was
established in 1884 in part of what was then the Slave Coast and
was gradually extended inland. At the outbreak of the First World
War in 1914 the colony was drawn into the conflict. It was
invaded and quickly overrun by British and French forces during the Togoland
campaign and placed under military rule. In 1916 the territory
was divided into separate British and French administrative zones. The colony was established towards the end of
the period of European colonization in Africa generally
known as the "Scramble for Africa". Two separate
protectorates were established in 1884. In February 1884, the chiefs of the
town of Aneho were kidnapped by German soldiers and forced to sign a treaty of
protection. In the Lome region, the German explorer, medical doctor,
imperial consul and commissioner for West Africa Gustav
Nachtigal was the driving force toward the establishment of the
West African colonies of Togoland. On 5
July 1884 Nachtigal signed a treaty with the local chief, Mlapa III, in which
he declared a German protectorate over a stretch of territory along the Slave Coast on
the Bight of Benin. With the small gunboat
SMS Möwe at anchor, the imperial flag was raised for the first time
on the African continent.
We then took a walk through the village with Nat pointing
out things along the way. Togoville has
a population of 8500 people and the main religion is divided up into Catholic
and Voodoo. Togoville is a town in
southern Togo,
lying on the northern shore of Lake Togo.
It was originally known as Togo. The country took its name from the town
of Togoville when Gustav Nachtigal signed a treaty with the
town's chief, Mlapa III, in
1884, from which Germany claimed over lordship over what became Togo. The main features of the town are Togoville Cathedral, built
in 1910, and a shrine to
the Virgin Mary to mark where she is said
to have appeared on 7 November in the early 1970s, but there are also numerous voodoo shrines and the former royal palace. In June
1984, a monument commemorating the 100th anniversary of the treaty was erected. Togoville is also recognized as a place of
study for High School students. Three main schools are located in the town and
many students come from all over the country and the African continent to
attend school in Togoville.
We even saw the boat that the Pope travelled in when he visited
the city back in 1984. Pope John Paul II
crossed scenic Lake Togo by boat to visit a forest sacred to pagan spirit-worshipers
in Togo. John Paul, was on the first leg
of his seven-nation, 12-day African trip--the third in his seven-year
pontificate and warned Catholics against accepting voodoo rites into the
church. He also rejected polygamy, which is commonly practiced in many parts of
Africa. But he said he welcomed many of the cultural and tribal customs the
local church has incorporated into its services. The highlight of the Pope`s day was the mass
at Kara, celebrated against a backdrop of rolling green hills 270 miles north
of Lome before about 35,000 people, many of them animists and Moslems. The seven tribal languages used during the
mass illustrated the ethnic diversity in the nation of 2.9 million people,
wedged between Benin and Ghana, where one person out of five is a Catholic.
Passing through the village we walked along the pavement
that was made just for the Pope we stopped in at a small artisan shop to have a
look at some local handicrafts that we could buy. I can never leave these places empty handed
and walked out with a necklace for 7000CFA (14AUD), which I think was a little
much, but I did get him down from 20,000, which is a total con of a price, but
I really liked it and was happy to pay the 7000CFA. From here we walked to the Catholic Church of
Togoville. It is interesting that two
religions that are so different can live side by side in such a small village,
and it is how it should be, people respecting each other’s faith and be able to
live in harmony. Literally across from
the Catholic Church was a voodoo fetish (statue) and then as we headed deeper
into this part of the village, it was the voodoo section and our first
introduction to this weird and sometimes misconstrued religion. I’m not saying that it seems a little quacky,
it is-but it is also NOT what the movies portray, well certainly not in this
village of voodoo worshipers and I knew that it was going to be an interesting
experience. After passing some homes
that had some smaller voodoo fetishes (they look like blobs of ghosts) that are
protectors of the homes to the larger ones that are worshiped we came to a
sacred part of the village where Maman Kpounou lived and we were going to see a
small ceremony take place.
I must say I haven’t read a lot about the voodoo
religion, so I really wasn’t sure what to expect, but after we arrived into a
small courtyard we were asked to take our shoes off, which was fine and then
the guys were asked to take off their shirts so that they were bare chested and
given a sarong to wrap around their waist. I was thinking, phew, I am glad that the women
don’t have to do anything, when we were given sarongs and asked to follow Zoe
into a small room. We were all unsure of
what was happening, when we were asked to take off our tops as well and then
the sarong was tied around under our arms.
We were allowed to leave our bra on but we had to tuck in the straps so
that you couldn’t see them. Talk about
getting thrown into the deep end!!! We
were required to cover our western clothing with a sarong because either Maman,
or the religion, I couldn't work out which, was intolerant of western objects.
We were, however, allowed western cameras and as many candid photos that we
wanted, which seemed fair enough after paying $4 a head. So I packed my top into my bag and we
rejoined the men outside to walk to a building at the end of a small alley
which was called the Sacred House. Here
we were to all line up in a single line outside on our knees and told to clap
hands in a descending crescendo 4 times.
Once we had done that (my knees were killing me) we got up and were
allowed to enter the Sacred House, which was basically a small room around
10mx6m wide. We were asked to sit on
mats along the long wall with our feet stretched out in front of us and we
weren’t allowed to cross our legs or our feet at the ankles and here we waited
for about 15 minutes for Maman Kpounou to arrive.
She is like the High Priestess of the voodoo in the
village and she was a sour looking woman who had the look that we were wasting
her time. The Voodoo Priestess sees her
holy role as finding husbands for some and getting rid of husbands for others,
mixed with liberal doses of psychiatric counseling. Maman Kpounou (name
faithfully retained to check the accuracy of her predictions) consented to an
audience with seven Western mzungus. She
was topless and her boobs hung below her waist and she had two young women who
help her with her duties with her and they too we also topless. We were allowed to take photos, but I feel so
bad when there are half naked women in my photos, like I am some sort of
pervert, but it is the religion, we were allowed so I just toughened up and
took some snaps anyway! A small ceremony
was conducted with Nat speaking to the Maman and her not really saying much
back and then we were offered some palm wine, ritual shots of palm alcohol
where palm wine is distilled into nearly pure alcohol, and it tasted like it
too. I think I would believe anything as
well after a few shots of that potent stuff.
We all drank out of the same small shot glass and it reminded me of the
Ethiopian araki, and it took all my might to swallow the vile alcohol and not
spit it straight out with the frowning Maman looking on and then after having
to get back onto our knees and do the clapping thing again a small bowl was
passed down the group to ‘donate’ for the ceremony, which we had no choice and
the price changed from 1000 to 2000 with the Maman there, and who is going to
argue with the most important person in the voodoo religion sitting in front of
us? Uh Uh, not me and after the payment
was made we could get our photo taken with Maman Kpounou which I declined
purely because we had to knell next to her and then we were on our way out to
change back into our clothes and head back to the boat. It was an interesting experience and I am
sure we will be seeing more of this ‘voodoo’ in the coming weeks. The
audience with Maman Kpounou was well-worth the price of admission.
Our trip back to Auberge Du Lac was an uphill battle for
our boat guy Anna as was fighting a head wind and a current that was not in our
favor and what took an hour this morning with favorable weather, took us an
hour and 20 minutes to get back, but it was still overcast, which was a good
thing as the boat didn’t have any shelter and I think we all would have faded
had the sun been in full bloom for the trips.
I was struggling to keep my truckers arm out of the sun as much as
possible, as it was cracking a beautiful red colour from the last few
days. We all felt bad that he was poling
us, with no motor and at one point Harj asked if there was a way we could help,
as it seemed a little unfair with the conditions and 9 people that he was doing
all the work on his own, but Zoe did check with him and he said no, so we just
had to ride out what seemed like a very long trip back. We were all ravenous by the time we got back
at 2.15pm and with a quick lunch from T3-The Wanna Be’s with a delicious
couscous meal, a quick look at Anna’s thongs that he makes and also orphans
from his community also help, which I had to buy a pair and then we were on the
road as we had a border to cross today as we leave Togo and head into Benin
later this afternoon. We were all packed
up and on the road at 3.15pm and 30 minutes later we had already arrived at the
Togo-Benin border. So to think if we had
of driven straight through from border to border of Togo it would only take
around 1.5 hours to cross the whole country!
Pretty cool hey and looking at the map of Benin, being a similar size it
would be roughly the same time. Just
think, you could cross 2 African countries in half a day! Cool magool, but we weren’t doing that on
this trip.
The Togo border was busy.
There were trucks and people everywhere as there was a lot of foot
traffic crossing, and I think even more so than actual vehicles. After parking the truck, which seemed a
mission to start with as we had to move it 3 times, we all climbed off and made
our way to a building that basically had a concrete verandah out the front and
there were a line of desks that had 2 immigration guys and a police officer
looking all official and a little scary and when we had just all gathered the
police officer jumped up and was yelling NO PHOTOS, COME HERE and he pushed his
chair back and looked SO MAD. I was
thinking oh no, who of our group had a camera and when we all turned around
thinking the same thing, thankfully it wasn’t anyone from our group, but some
local ladies, and I think they were actually taking photos of us and not of the
actual office section, but they for caught all the same and when they tried to
slink off it just made him more mad and he went after them calling them back
and he took their phone and camera off them, still shouting at them making sure
that anything they took was deleted, still cursing them and finally after
around 10 minutes they were allowed to leave.
What a scene. Needless to say we
were all a little subdued as we didn’t want to set off the police officer and
after 30 minutes of form filling, we were given the go ahead to move to the
actual immigration office with was behind the building to get stamped out and
then we had to pass back via the immigration people to show them we had been
stamped out, which he just waved us off and we were now officially out of Togo.
Next was the Benin border. We all had visas before the trip started for
Benin, so we weren’t foreseeing any issues and as Zoe went to get the truck, we
decided to walk through with everyone else.
There was a checkpoint to pass that Togo was checking we had the
departure stamp and the 50m on there was a checkpoint that Benin was checking,
which we were waved through and I was thinking that had to be the quickest and
easiest border crossing ever (with no stamps) to realize when Zoe asked why I
was getting back on the truck that there was a similar building as Togo, where
there were 3 Benin officers, all very official and unsmiling sitting on a
concrete verandah processing people.
There were bench seats, and we were told to take a seat while they
processed us here. We had some forms to
fill in this side, which we all did and within 45 minutes we were stamped out,
truck cleared and we were now in BENIN!!! WOO HOO. Crossing into Benin we had to move our
watches forward an hour, so it was close to 6pm when we hit the road for the
last 30 minutes to get to Grand Popo and our camp site for the next 2
nights. It was nice to arrive with some
daylight around for us to pitch the tents, and the location of where we were
was stunning. We were on a patch of land
next to a hotel that was beach front; literally the ocean was 50m away with
nothing but a few fir trees blocking the view.
There was a strong wind, which was welcomed coming of the sea and based
on that and some advice from Zoe we angled our tent in case it got a little
cold during the night. We were told we
could camp on the actual beach if we wanted, but when we arrived there were
groups of people just walking past, and it was a very public beach and I think
it would have been more hassle than it was worth as I would imagine that people
would be curious and we would be getting all kinds of visitors! Yeah I think we can do without that
thanks.
The toilets and showers were a little bit of a hike and
Pat and I did a bit of a recon so we knew where they were and found that they
were squat toilets. They were clean and
they flushed and not really being a fan, purely because I try to avoid using
them, I was going to have to here for the next 2 nights and decided that I just
had to suck it up. A toilet is a toilet
at the end of the day right!? As the
fridge was still in the blink, we haven’t been able to buy any meat as such for
dinner, so the guys had to work with what they could buy at the shops a few
days ago and that turned out to be tinned mash potato and franks and beans out
of a can. Now I know that it doesn’t
sound that appetizing, and I am not sure if it had anything to do with that we
were all famished, but it was a great meal, tasty and delicious and I think I
just may steal that menu idea for the next leg of the trip. As usual Pat went to the bar with the boys
after dinner had been eaten and the truck packed up and I headed for my shower and
then in my tent by 9.40pm to read until my eyes dropped and I was out like a
light when pat came back around 11pm. I
don’t know how the old gal does it as I am so tired, but kudos to her and
goodnight from Benin.
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