The stilt village of Ganvié, the Venice of Africa

November 7, 2014 2:34 PM

Lake Nokoué is a rather large lake (20 km/~12.5 mi wide, 11 km/~6.8 mi long) in the southern part of the West African nation of Benin. In the northern portion of the lake, there is what looks like a large flooded town (Google maps). This is Ganvié, which was established in the 16th or 17th century as a means to escape the Fon people, who were at that time were involved in the slave trade. Because the Dan-homey or Dahomey religion forbade the Fon warriors from entering water, the lagoon was a safe territory. Ganvié has a population of around 20,000 people, largely living in stilt houses, making it likely to be the largest lake village in Africa. For a view of the village, Kuriositas has collected a number of great photos of "the Venice of Africa."
posted by filthy light thief (23 comments total)

I bet you really really really do NOT want to go swimming around there.
posted by sammyo at 3:46 PM on November 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

This world we live in is so huge, and so awesome, in the literal sense of the word. Thanks for this fascinating post.
posted by blue t-shirt at 3:47 PM on November 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

Those Kuriositas photos are amazing. I'd love to go there, but then again it's not as if it's set up for tourism.
posted by ambrosen at 3:48 PM on November 7, 2014

ambrosen: "I'd love to go there, but then again it's not as if it's set up for tourism."

Kinda-sorta, apparently, there's a hotel in the photos, and the article mentions tourism.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 3:57 PM on November 7, 2014

filthy light thief: "Because the Dan-homey or Dahomey religion forbade the Fon warriors from entering water"

Also, this is pretty useless for a group of warriors. They're like those alien invaders from Signs.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 3:57 PM on November 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'd love to go there, but then again it's not as if it's set up for tourism.

Actually, Ganvié is pretty well set-up for tourism. There are several stilt-villages in the southern part of Benin; Ganvié is simply the most well known, with the best tourist infrastructure. You can rent out a car for the 45 minute drive from Cotonou, then rent out a dugout canoe (with or without a motor) and guide for the morning, with plenty of time to return to the air-conditioned comfort of your hotel to take a nap before dinner.

Interesting tidbit from my Fon spouse: Gan means "survive" and fie is from the word for "here." The language spoken in Ganvie today is very very close to Fon.
posted by asnowballschance at 4:12 PM on November 7, 2014 [19 favorites]

asnowballschance, thanks for that information! Can you or your Fon spouse confirm the bit about the Dahomey religion forbade the Fon warriors from entering water? I've read that the religion forbade the warriors, or just the Fon in general, so I didn't know if any of that was true, or a distortion of beliefs and practices?
posted by filthy light thief at 5:18 PM on November 7, 2014

Aw, there used to be a Geocities page called Fon is Fun, but it seems to be defunct now.
posted by ChuraChura at 5:51 PM on November 7, 2014

> There is a part of Ganvié where a floating market takes place but generally the town drifts off idly in various directions.

This is intended literally, as in the buildings drift around. Awesome beyond words.
posted by Poldo at 6:00 PM on November 7, 2014

This place just needs the island from the Life of Pi.
posted by arcticseal at 6:33 PM on November 7, 2014

Thank you for teaching me about this.
posted by dry white toast at 9:12 PM on November 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

How do cultures decide what is the most efficient paddle shape? Unrelated peoples have collectively struck on the most efficient shape/size for a dugout canoe, but those paddles look like stop signs stapled onto handles. Other places, like in the backwaters in Kerla India have similar canoes, similar paddling conditions, but use what appears to be a strand of linguine. How did these respective cultures independently get some things so similar, while so divergent with others?
posted by Keith Talent at 9:15 PM on November 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

Can you or your Fon spouse confirm the bit about the Dahomey religion forbade the Fon warriors from entering water?

My spouse thinks this is hilarious. He expects that more likely, it was just too much of a hassle to chase down refugees who'd fled into the water; however, Benin has several secret societies today that are closely tied to Voodoun. The warriors (as opposed to the Fon as a whole) may have had (and may still have) specific religious practices or rites that forbade them from entering into those waters.

If you're interested in more information on the region, I highly recommend the Abomey Tourism Office. The english translation is a bit spotty, but it's got a ton of information on Danhomey and Voodoun. (Disclaimer: I worked on the original version of that site several years ago.)
posted by asnowballschance at 10:34 PM on November 7, 2014 [10 favorites]

This is what I love about metafilter. Someone makes an interesting post about a slightly remote part of the world I know little or nothing about and soon someone pops in with good sound additional knowledge adding to the thorough awesomeness. Well done metafilter.
posted by adamvasco at 2:21 AM on November 8, 2014 [7 favorites]

I'd love to go there, but then again it's not as if it's set up for tourism.

I travelled across the Sahara desert, north to south, overland, and subsequently stayed in Nigeria for 6 months, in 1980-81. Nowhere I went or stayed was by any stretch of the imagination "set up for tourism". Which is perhaps a big part of what made the trip so amazing, fulfilling and educational.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:41 AM on November 8, 2014

I've been to Tangier Island in the Chesapeake, and at this point much of the commercial fishing and crabbing activity there involves structures on stilts. The shrinking island means land is too precious to use for crab processing, graves or playgrounds. Folks bury their dead in their tiny yards and kids play on the runway of the island's airport. The Tangier people are fearful of the outside world's encroachment, even as they rely on tourists to help pay the bills. I wonder how the Ganvie residents feel about their increased visibility or the interest of tourists.
posted by kinnakeet at 6:01 AM on November 8, 2014

Prologue, the boat they use, is mentioned in the song,"On the Bayou, ''We''re gonna take the Pirogue up the Bayou.I guess it is a testament to some who didn't escape slavery, and added to the language of the Americas.
posted by Oyéah at 9:06 AM on November 8, 2014

Pirogue
posted by Oyéah at 9:13 AM on November 8, 2014

Pirogue is from the Spanish piragua. It's a word applied to similar boats found around the world, rather than being unique to this community's boats.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 9:23 AM on November 8, 2014

How do you know this word or a similar one has not always been their word?
posted by Oyéah at 9:32 AM on November 8, 2014

How do you know this word or a similar one has not always been their word?

You were reading an article using in English using an English word--albeit an uncommon one--for a particular type of canoe. The people in the article use this type of canoe.

It's also a French word and travelers in Francophone West Africa often communicate in French. This type of canoe is used throughout West Africa and it has many different names because people speak many different languages, but people sometimes use the French. Even if we assume that the Spanish etymology is wrong, why would this community somehow be the one whose language the word originated from?

I think this is a good example of how easy it is to misinterpret language data to fit an interesting narrative. It's an uncommon word, so it's natural to assume that the two instances you've encountered it in are connected. But that makes the connections people make completely down to chance--as you could have just as easily encountered the word "pirogue" in an article about a completely different community with a completely different language history.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 10:12 AM on November 8, 2014 [2 favorites]

Having spent some time this summer on a hut over a freshwater lake by the border of Myanmar, the one thing that occurs to me as I look at that presumably freshwater lake is, how the hell do they deal with all the mosquitoes?

More so than anything else, I'm curious about how they manage living over water (extra mosquito joy!) in an area with lots of mosquitoes as is. Certainly mosquito nets and all of that, but g'lord mosquitoes love the roof of a hut over water at sunset. I imagine it's like everything else and you get used to the ways your culture finds to adapt but yeah, that's what I'm curious about.
posted by librarylis at 10:47 AM on November 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

Now I'm very curious about the mosquitos too... They are a big issue for us here in the "Land of 10,000 lakes (and 10,000,000,000 scuzzy little ponds)."

Also, the description "Venice of Africa" led me to expect a lot of stone construction. Instead it seems to all be wood and straw. How does that withstand the water? Do people just build new houses every five or ten years? How do they go about building things in the first place -- and how did they 500 years ago? Do/did they make a foundation platform complete with stilts, and then somehow drop it in the water? Swim down and anchor the posts in the bottom somehow? How deep is the water anyway? What do they do for plumbing -- getting rid of human waste and then getting fresh water for themselves which has not been contaminated with human waste?

Are there engineers and construction workers, professional or amateur, responsible for figuring this stuff out, or do people do their own building and engineering for their own families?
posted by OnceUponATime at 4:29 AM on November 9, 2014