Ganvié stilt village, Lac Nokoué Photo Gallery by Brian McMorrow at pbase.com

Ganvié stilt village, Lac Nokoué

Ganvie is a village of small huts built in the middle of the shallow lake Lac Nokoué. While quite interesting and a highlight of Benin, the unfriendly attitudes most of the inhabitants display towards tourists makes me think perhaps people should take their $£€ elsewhere.

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Allada, Benin, is building a giant new church	St. Mary atop the dome, Allada, Benin	New church, Allada, Benin	New church, Allada, Benin
PTT Benin Bureau de Poste Abomey-Calavi	Sign for the turn for the Ganvié boat landing	Cité Lacustre de Ganvié - Lake City of Ganvie	Table of official fares for tourist visits to Ganvié
Lakeside depot for tourist boats to Ganvié	Fish market at the Ganvié boat landing	Fish market at the Ganvié boat landing	Fish market at the Ganvié boat landing

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comment |

Guest		27-Mar-2011 22:29
Apologies for the mistaken double post. To make things clearer in my original post I should have pointed out that West Africa is the home of voodoo which was "exported" with the unfortunate slaves. It is known in West Africa as juju and at the time I lived there was strongly believed in by many, hence my remark about a photograph capturing part of their soul.

Guest		27-Mar-2011 18:32
I lived in neighbouring Nigeria for many years and visited Ganvie in the nineties. In those days the people did not want to be photographed as they believed a photograph could capture part of their soul. This most particularly applied to the ladies and is why they used their large straw hats to great effect to hide their faces. This was prevalent over many parts of West Africa and was not confined to one religion or tribal group. Money was never the issue. Enjoyed the shots - brought back happy memories. Thank you!

Mia Thacker		26-Sep-2008 15:57
I visited this village last December (2007) and you have totally captured its beauty and essence. I did not however see a monkey chained to a tree. I would love to return someday, I just need to make sure I have enough money to take photos of the locals.

chioma		06-Jun-2008 10:45
wonderful pictures.

Susan Jackson		15-Apr-2008 17:28
This is a lovely collection of photos. I recently returned from a trip to Cotonou, Benin and visited Ganvie. We too took many photos, but were asked by our guide not to give the children money. Our guide is a school teacher from Ganvie and they are trying to teach the children to earn their money through getting an education and hard work. I asked before I took photos and if they turned away, I did not take their picture. One thing that they do need are pens. The children approached us and asked for pens. They were thrilled when I produced 3. I know very little history of this place, our guide didn't tell us a whole lot. My understanding is that Ganvie was populated by people escaping the main land to find saftey from the slave traders. Through a tour of the Portuguese fort we learned that in the history of slave trading in Africa, 60 million people were taken as slaves. 10 million of those came from the small country of Benin. There is a very moving tribute to those people in the city of Ouidah. In 1995 "The Port of No Return" was dedicated to the memory of these people. It is in such a remote part of the world, and I would guess that very few people have been there or even heard of it. Anyone that would like to research the history of slavery should visit Ouidah, Benin. Thank you for sharing your pictures. I treasure mine as a wonderful memory of my trip to Benin.

Brian McMorrow		23-Aug-2007 19:56
Dear guest, how much did you pay to look at these photos? That's what I thought...I did donate a shot of the village (not of a person) to the Empire and Commonwealth Museum in Bristol, UK, for an exhibition on slavery in Africa, Breaking the Chains. I feel that tourism in communities like this give benefits to the community as a whole, ie our locally chartered boat, guides, meals in the village (crappy though they were) etc, and a friendly smile is not too much to ask for.

Guest		23-Aug-2007 13:40
Do you pay these people for taking their photos and making money off of their images? It appears that many are unwilling to be photographed--and since you do it anyway, I think it's only fair that you pay them for intruding on their privacy. So typical of your Western mentality. Go read a book on colonialism and you'll see yourself in the pages.

Robin Warner		21-May-2007 21:19
...one of your best, Brian. Congratulations.

Enny		15-Dec-2006 16:22
lovely galery,v.

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