DAY LOCATION ACCOMMODATION
Day 01: Lome, Togo Ibis City Centre
Day 02: Sokode, Togo Central Hotel
Day 03: Kara, Togo Kara Hotel
Day 04: Natitingou, Benin Tata Somba Hotel
Day 05: Bohicon, Benin Dako Hotel
Day 06: Ouidah, Benin Casa del Papa Beach Hotel.
Day 07: Grand Popo, Benin Auberge Beach Hotel
Day 08: Lome, Togo Depart
All accommodation is in air-conditioned rooms with a private bathroom
ITINERARY: It is possible to follow the itinerary in reverse order. All visits are maintained.
Benin & Togo - Sample Itineray
Example Tour of Togo & Benin
Day by Day Itinerary
DAY 01 GULF OF GUINEA
On arrival in Lome, the capital city of Togo, you are met by a representative of dmAFRICA and transferred to your hotel for overnight
DAY 02 LOME TO SOKODE , TOGO-----INCLUDING A DRAMATIC FIRE DANCE
Lome, the capital city of Togo, is a neat and orderly city, with a well-defined diplomatic quarter, with its charming colonial style buildings on the one side and the lively commercial and trading quarter, which is dominated by the large Central Market, on the other side.
The famous Fetish Market, situated a little outside the main commercial quarter, is known for the sale of strange and macabre medicines and other ritual ingredients, which are used to perform voodoo sacrifices. This is where the skillful masters of the local followers of animism come to buy the necessary items to practice their cults. They will intrigue you with some of their home-made gris-gris, which will offer a cure for our everyday problems and ailments……or so they will claim!
From Lome you head north and stop on the way in Atakpame, a typical African town built on hills and within a forest. The locals here have long been famed for their use of the natural resources originating from the forest. In particular skilled workers with tiny weaving looms make large brightly coloured fabric called “Kente”.
Arrival in Sokode is late in the afternoon.
Fire Dance is a traditional ceremony of the Tem people.
In the heart of the village, a great fire lights up the faces of the dancers who start moving on the frenetic rhythm of the drums. The fire dancers, in a state of trance, throw themselves into the embers, grab them with their hands and put them in their mouths; they even run them over their bodies without showing any trace of injury or any sign of pain. Is it a matter of courage? Willpower? Magic? Such a performance is hard to explain. Maybe it really is the fetishes that protect them from fire. We would need to prove it to believe it… and believe it to prove it….
DAY 03 SOKODE TO KARA, TOGO - TRADITIONAL CHIEFS
Depart from Sokode and head for the mountains of Malfakassa-Fazao, home of the Bassar people, who first developed, and then managed to preserve, their traditional techniques to forge iron--- techniques which are “accepted” as part geological fact, and part magic. They will demonstrate the archaic use and process of their old clay blast-furnace, which provides results bordering on alchemy.
In Bassar you will meet the “council” and have an audience with the traditional chief in his “palace”, a spacious hut covered with a very high conical roof.
You will engage with the Kabye people, who live in hilltop villages. Whilst the women are making attractive clay pots, the men forge the iron, shaping it by plunging it into a fire before beating it with a big heavy stone.
DAY 04 KARA -TAMBERMA-NATITINGOU, BENIN - CASTLES OF CLAY
A track across the Atakora Mountains is the access to the mystical and ever-resourceful Tamberma people. For self-defence reasons, these people have been taking refuge for centuries in the heart of the Atakora, a land so difficult to access that they could flee from any kind of invasion or intrusion, especially slave traders coming from Muslim North Africa. According to specialists, their origins are close to the Dogon people of Mali. They share with them an absolute faith in their own ritual traditions. Proof is the presence of big fetishes of a phallic form at the entrance of their houses. Those dwellings, amazingly beautiful, look just like tiny two-storey castles. Some avant-garde architects such as Le Corbusier were amazed by the sturdiness and design of these fortified dwellings.
A little to the East, but still in the Atakora mountains, you cross the border into Benin, and soon after meet with the Betammaribe people (also known as the Somba). Just like the Tamberma, they also build attractive clay castles, but unlike them, they follow a series of very evocative initiation rites.
Young men, between 18 and 20, have their torsos scarred with delicate and complicated geometrical patterns, convinced that these scars are the only way for them to become “real” men in the eyes of the adult community. You will meet some of those young men, who will display their scars and tell of their recollection of the initiation ceremony, and how it affected them personally.
Girls are also initiated in a similar way, although in their case, their stomachs and backs are scarred, when they are between 20 and 22 years old. Should a child be conceived prior to initiation, then the initiation rite would take place as soon as the pregnancy is discovered, for it is believed that the absence of scars could be harmful to the birth.
The initiation rites form a cycle that starts during weaning, when the child’s face is scared, right through to the final rites, which demonstrate that the person has come of age as a member of the tribe. An infinite number of very fine scars on the face are a permanent reminder that you are a Betammaribe.
DAY 05 NATITINGOU TO BOHICON, BENIN - THE MOUNTAIN OF THE FETISH PRIESTS
A gentle walk to discover old Taneka villages located on a mountain of the same name. These villages comprise round houses covered with conical roofs, with the summit protected by terracotta pots. The upper end of the village is inhabited by the young initiated, and by the Fetish priests, who wear a goat skin as their only clothes, and always hold a long pipe. Elsewhere in the village will be those preparing for initiation
This ethnic group has been living on an archaeological site for centuries. It is considered that the first inhabitants, who were originally Kabye, moved to the mountains during the 9th century. Since then, other people have joined them to form a kaleidoscope of tribes and tradition. Each group has retained its own culture and initiation rites, but at the same time, they have developed common religious and constitutional doctrines.
The Taneka consider that, in order to “create” a man, it is necessary to combine time, patience and a lot of blood from sacrificed animals. It is an ever evolving process where life itself becomes a rite of passage in time. They consider that life does not have to be conditioned by a before and an after, but rather it follows an eternal and continuous path.
Continue south and visit the Savalou shrine, which represents an important place of ritual pilgrimage. It is one of the main places where voodoo cults are performed. The many wooden sticks buried in the ground are a reminder of all the masters who have addressed the local deity in prayers to satisfy their everyday needs: a good harvest, a happy marriage, a healthy childbirth, a scholar promotion…
DAY 06 BOHICON TO OUIDAH, BENIN - ROYAL PALACES AND VILLAGES ON STILITS
Depart for a visit to the Royal Palace of Abomey, which has walls decorated with the symbols representing the former kings of the Kingdom of Dahomey, and is now a museum and resting place for the remains of former kings. There is also a temple built with a mixture of clay, gold dust and human blood.
The Kingdom of Dahomey established its power due to a permanent state of war, in which it managed to catch prisoners who were sold as slaves. The royal army also included a female battalion famous for its boldness and aggressive fighting spirit; they became known as the “Amazons of Africa”.
Historians focus on the “secular” aspect of the Kingdom, where the King was considered neither a god nor a priest. Nevertheless, many human sacrifices were performed on the kings’ graves on ceremonial occasions. The power of the Kingdom of Dahomey tended to be recognized and accepted without question in Europe, and especially in France.
Continue north via Cotonou, the main city and port of Benin, to fascinating Ganvie, in the Lake District. Ganvie is remarkable because its houses are built in the lake. They are constructed on large wooden stilts and are covered in makuti matting. We approach Ganvie on board a large pirogue. Not surprisingly, the Tofinou people of Ganvie eek out their living by fishing. Thanks to the remoteness of their settlement, the Tofinou have managed to preserve their traditions as well as their original way to build houses. Everyday life is dominated by the pirogue, guided so skillfully by men, women and children using long, elaborately decorated and coloured poles. They do everything on their pirogues; they fish, they move, they display the goods to sell on the floating market… always singing in rhythm with the movements of the poles...
Continue to Ouidah for overnight
DAY 07 OUIDAH-GRAND POPO, BENN - VOODO AND WILD BEACHES
Ouidah is considered the “capital” of voodoo in Africa, and it is host to several ceremonies where thousands of masters, traditional chiefs and fetish priests all gather to practice their cult. The city was also one of the main slave trading ports, and even today it has an awesome air, even without the foreboding ties to the voodoo. With its decadent Afro-Portuguese architecture and within its narrow streets there is the ironic spectacle of the Temple of Pythons and the Catholic Basilica, which face each other in this awe inspiring atmosphere. The slowness of the people bathed in sunlight… the remote noise of the waves crashing against the sand… the rhythm of the drums… it all represents the whispering echo of the lines of thousands of slaves who were taken on board from those same beaches. This ungodly atmosphere is perfectly described by Chatwin in his book “the Viceroy of Ouidah”. The tour of Ouidah includes The Temple of Pythons, where snakes are worshiped as voodoo fetishes protecting the entire city; the Portuguese Fort, now a museum dedicated to the Slave-Trade ; and The Road of No Return, which enslaved prisoners would walk before stepping on board the ships bound for the New World.
The journey continues with a cruise aboard a pirogue along the Mono River where women still extract salt using methods from an era long since gone. After a short while, there is an estuary, where the river meets the Atlantic Ocean. Here, there are marvellous white sand beaches. The pirogue navigates through lagoons lined with little mangrove forests, and on to villages where the fishermen inhabit small houses made of braided palm leaves and branches. Each day these fishermen brave the Atlantic in their artistically decorated pirogues.
Back at the inn, there is time to relax on the beach in a tropical environment.
DAY 08 GRAND POPO TO LOME, TOGO - BUT FIRST YOU DISCOVER VOODOO!!
Depart after breakfast, and soon cross the border back into Togo.
All along the coasts of Togo and Benin, voodoo is a religion that has been passed on by the ancestors and is still fervently practiced today. Although the uninitiated, with their rigid ideas about voodoo, would have us believe that it only is a vulgar form of black magic, voodoo is a far more rich and complex religion. It is a religion that actually brings order and meaning to the life of millions of people in many parts of the world. It is here, deep in the “bush”, that people venture forth to fully discover their faith. In the heart of a village, you will attend a voodoo ceremony. The frenetic rhythm of chants and drums will often plunge people into a trance as they are possessed by voodoo spirits. It is an awesome experience!
In another village, you visit a healer. All the different people you will meet on this bizarre and macabre “journey” bring complex situations and solutions that are always based on a very “simple” vision of the human being. Their anthropology systematically associates the material with the spiritual. As a consequence, there is nothing surprising in the fact that a physical disease is cured by summoning the patient’s spirit. Our healer cures his patients through the use of herbs and the performance of sacrifices on the various shrines filling his courtyard. You will be able to speak with him, help him do his job and meet some of his patients.
Later, you arrive back in Lome.
There should be time for relaxation on the beach or some shopping.
The dmAFRICA representative will be on hand to help you with suggestions for any shopping you may require such as Tribal art and antique shops, Craftwork, Contemporary paintings from the “Togolese School” which is starting to become quite popular among French and North-American galleries. Items that could be part of popular art collections such as the colourful “advertising” signs in front of the street hairdressers.
This tour is normally arranged by 4 x 4 car or minibus with a driver guide (various languages available) and would include all meals, normally taken in the hotels on a table d’hote basis, with some picnic lunches.
As a guide only, the price for the above arrangements based on two persons travelling together in a double room, would be approximately €250 per person per day. An actual price will be confirmed at the time of booking
Please note dmAFRICA arrangements are normally based on individual quotations with services provided to suit each person’s individual requirements and taste. Often the price per person can be reduced if you are willing to join with other persons who have already booked or be willing to book.
On arrival in Lome, the capital city of Togo, you are met by a representative of dmAFRICA and transferred to your hotel for overnight
DAY 02 LOME TO SOKODE , TOGO-----INCLUDING A DRAMATIC FIRE DANCE
Lome, the capital city of Togo, is a neat and orderly city, with a well-defined diplomatic quarter, with its charming colonial style buildings on the one side and the lively commercial and trading quarter, which is dominated by the large Central Market, on the other side.
The famous Fetish Market, situated a little outside the main commercial quarter, is known for the sale of strange and macabre medicines and other ritual ingredients, which are used to perform voodoo sacrifices. This is where the skillful masters of the local followers of animism come to buy the necessary items to practice their cults. They will intrigue you with some of their home-made gris-gris, which will offer a cure for our everyday problems and ailments……or so they will claim!
From Lome you head north and stop on the way in Atakpame, a typical African town built on hills and within a forest. The locals here have long been famed for their use of the natural resources originating from the forest. In particular skilled workers with tiny weaving looms make large brightly coloured fabric called “Kente”.
Arrival in Sokode is late in the afternoon.
Fire Dance is a traditional ceremony of the Tem people.
In the heart of the village, a great fire lights up the faces of the dancers who start moving on the frenetic rhythm of the drums. The fire dancers, in a state of trance, throw themselves into the embers, grab them with their hands and put them in their mouths; they even run them over their bodies without showing any trace of injury or any sign of pain. Is it a matter of courage? Willpower? Magic? Such a performance is hard to explain. Maybe it really is the fetishes that protect them from fire. We would need to prove it to believe it… and believe it to prove it….
DAY 03 SOKODE TO KARA, TOGO - TRADITIONAL CHIEFS
Depart from Sokode and head for the mountains of Malfakassa-Fazao, home of the Bassar people, who first developed, and then managed to preserve, their traditional techniques to forge iron--- techniques which are “accepted” as part geological fact, and part magic. They will demonstrate the archaic use and process of their old clay blast-furnace, which provides results bordering on alchemy.
In Bassar you will meet the “council” and have an audience with the traditional chief in his “palace”, a spacious hut covered with a very high conical roof.
You will engage with the Kabye people, who live in hilltop villages. Whilst the women are making attractive clay pots, the men forge the iron, shaping it by plunging it into a fire before beating it with a big heavy stone.
DAY 04 KARA -TAMBERMA-NATITINGOU, BENIN - CASTLES OF CLAY
A track across the Atakora Mountains is the access to the mystical and ever-resourceful Tamberma people. For self-defence reasons, these people have been taking refuge for centuries in the heart of the Atakora, a land so difficult to access that they could flee from any kind of invasion or intrusion, especially slave traders coming from Muslim North Africa. According to specialists, their origins are close to the Dogon people of Mali. They share with them an absolute faith in their own ritual traditions. Proof is the presence of big fetishes of a phallic form at the entrance of their houses. Those dwellings, amazingly beautiful, look just like tiny two-storey castles. Some avant-garde architects such as Le Corbusier were amazed by the sturdiness and design of these fortified dwellings.
A little to the East, but still in the Atakora mountains, you cross the border into Benin, and soon after meet with the Betammaribe people (also known as the Somba). Just like the Tamberma, they also build attractive clay castles, but unlike them, they follow a series of very evocative initiation rites.
Young men, between 18 and 20, have their torsos scarred with delicate and complicated geometrical patterns, convinced that these scars are the only way for them to become “real” men in the eyes of the adult community. You will meet some of those young men, who will display their scars and tell of their recollection of the initiation ceremony, and how it affected them personally.
Girls are also initiated in a similar way, although in their case, their stomachs and backs are scarred, when they are between 20 and 22 years old. Should a child be conceived prior to initiation, then the initiation rite would take place as soon as the pregnancy is discovered, for it is believed that the absence of scars could be harmful to the birth.
The initiation rites form a cycle that starts during weaning, when the child’s face is scared, right through to the final rites, which demonstrate that the person has come of age as a member of the tribe. An infinite number of very fine scars on the face are a permanent reminder that you are a Betammaribe.
DAY 05 NATITINGOU TO BOHICON, BENIN - THE MOUNTAIN OF THE FETISH PRIESTS
A gentle walk to discover old Taneka villages located on a mountain of the same name. These villages comprise round houses covered with conical roofs, with the summit protected by terracotta pots. The upper end of the village is inhabited by the young initiated, and by the Fetish priests, who wear a goat skin as their only clothes, and always hold a long pipe. Elsewhere in the village will be those preparing for initiation
This ethnic group has been living on an archaeological site for centuries. It is considered that the first inhabitants, who were originally Kabye, moved to the mountains during the 9th century. Since then, other people have joined them to form a kaleidoscope of tribes and tradition. Each group has retained its own culture and initiation rites, but at the same time, they have developed common religious and constitutional doctrines.
The Taneka consider that, in order to “create” a man, it is necessary to combine time, patience and a lot of blood from sacrificed animals. It is an ever evolving process where life itself becomes a rite of passage in time. They consider that life does not have to be conditioned by a before and an after, but rather it follows an eternal and continuous path.
Continue south and visit the Savalou shrine, which represents an important place of ritual pilgrimage. It is one of the main places where voodoo cults are performed. The many wooden sticks buried in the ground are a reminder of all the masters who have addressed the local deity in prayers to satisfy their everyday needs: a good harvest, a happy marriage, a healthy childbirth, a scholar promotion…
DAY 06 BOHICON TO OUIDAH, BENIN - ROYAL PALACES AND VILLAGES ON STILITS
Depart for a visit to the Royal Palace of Abomey, which has walls decorated with the symbols representing the former kings of the Kingdom of Dahomey, and is now a museum and resting place for the remains of former kings. There is also a temple built with a mixture of clay, gold dust and human blood.
The Kingdom of Dahomey established its power due to a permanent state of war, in which it managed to catch prisoners who were sold as slaves. The royal army also included a female battalion famous for its boldness and aggressive fighting spirit; they became known as the “Amazons of Africa”.
Historians focus on the “secular” aspect of the Kingdom, where the King was considered neither a god nor a priest. Nevertheless, many human sacrifices were performed on the kings’ graves on ceremonial occasions. The power of the Kingdom of Dahomey tended to be recognized and accepted without question in Europe, and especially in France.
Continue north via Cotonou, the main city and port of Benin, to fascinating Ganvie, in the Lake District. Ganvie is remarkable because its houses are built in the lake. They are constructed on large wooden stilts and are covered in makuti matting. We approach Ganvie on board a large pirogue. Not surprisingly, the Tofinou people of Ganvie eek out their living by fishing. Thanks to the remoteness of their settlement, the Tofinou have managed to preserve their traditions as well as their original way to build houses. Everyday life is dominated by the pirogue, guided so skillfully by men, women and children using long, elaborately decorated and coloured poles. They do everything on their pirogues; they fish, they move, they display the goods to sell on the floating market… always singing in rhythm with the movements of the poles...
Continue to Ouidah for overnight
DAY 07 OUIDAH-GRAND POPO, BENN - VOODO AND WILD BEACHES
Ouidah is considered the “capital” of voodoo in Africa, and it is host to several ceremonies where thousands of masters, traditional chiefs and fetish priests all gather to practice their cult. The city was also one of the main slave trading ports, and even today it has an awesome air, even without the foreboding ties to the voodoo. With its decadent Afro-Portuguese architecture and within its narrow streets there is the ironic spectacle of the Temple of Pythons and the Catholic Basilica, which face each other in this awe inspiring atmosphere. The slowness of the people bathed in sunlight… the remote noise of the waves crashing against the sand… the rhythm of the drums… it all represents the whispering echo of the lines of thousands of slaves who were taken on board from those same beaches. This ungodly atmosphere is perfectly described by Chatwin in his book “the Viceroy of Ouidah”. The tour of Ouidah includes The Temple of Pythons, where snakes are worshiped as voodoo fetishes protecting the entire city; the Portuguese Fort, now a museum dedicated to the Slave-Trade ; and The Road of No Return, which enslaved prisoners would walk before stepping on board the ships bound for the New World.
The journey continues with a cruise aboard a pirogue along the Mono River where women still extract salt using methods from an era long since gone. After a short while, there is an estuary, where the river meets the Atlantic Ocean. Here, there are marvellous white sand beaches. The pirogue navigates through lagoons lined with little mangrove forests, and on to villages where the fishermen inhabit small houses made of braided palm leaves and branches. Each day these fishermen brave the Atlantic in their artistically decorated pirogues.
Back at the inn, there is time to relax on the beach in a tropical environment.
DAY 08 GRAND POPO TO LOME, TOGO - BUT FIRST YOU DISCOVER VOODOO!!
Depart after breakfast, and soon cross the border back into Togo.
All along the coasts of Togo and Benin, voodoo is a religion that has been passed on by the ancestors and is still fervently practiced today. Although the uninitiated, with their rigid ideas about voodoo, would have us believe that it only is a vulgar form of black magic, voodoo is a far more rich and complex religion. It is a religion that actually brings order and meaning to the life of millions of people in many parts of the world. It is here, deep in the “bush”, that people venture forth to fully discover their faith. In the heart of a village, you will attend a voodoo ceremony. The frenetic rhythm of chants and drums will often plunge people into a trance as they are possessed by voodoo spirits. It is an awesome experience!
In another village, you visit a healer. All the different people you will meet on this bizarre and macabre “journey” bring complex situations and solutions that are always based on a very “simple” vision of the human being. Their anthropology systematically associates the material with the spiritual. As a consequence, there is nothing surprising in the fact that a physical disease is cured by summoning the patient’s spirit. Our healer cures his patients through the use of herbs and the performance of sacrifices on the various shrines filling his courtyard. You will be able to speak with him, help him do his job and meet some of his patients.
Later, you arrive back in Lome.
There should be time for relaxation on the beach or some shopping.
The dmAFRICA representative will be on hand to help you with suggestions for any shopping you may require such as Tribal art and antique shops, Craftwork, Contemporary paintings from the “Togolese School” which is starting to become quite popular among French and North-American galleries. Items that could be part of popular art collections such as the colourful “advertising” signs in front of the street hairdressers.
This tour is normally arranged by 4 x 4 car or minibus with a driver guide (various languages available) and would include all meals, normally taken in the hotels on a table d’hote basis, with some picnic lunches.
As a guide only, the price for the above arrangements based on two persons travelling together in a double room, would be approximately €250 per person per day. An actual price will be confirmed at the time of booking
Please note dmAFRICA arrangements are normally based on individual quotations with services provided to suit each person’s individual requirements and taste. Often the price per person can be reduced if you are willing to join with other persons who have already booked or be willing to book.