2023-11-01 18:32:00
The old fisherman smiles at me with a toothless grin. I wave at him and he nods friendly. Then he turns back to his work. He is sitting on the edge of a pinnace with the other half of his body almost in the water.
On the mast of the wooden boat, a sail made from old flour sacks dangles limply in the breeze. The ship isn’t really making any progress at the moment. But the water is so shallow that the old man pushes himself off the bottom with his left leg and pushes the boat to where he thinks the fish are.
He meticulously gathers his net, gains momentum and throws it out in a high arc in front of him. It unfolds in the air with a hiss before hitting the water loudly. The fisherman catches it again. His movements seem practiced, but there are no fish in the mesh. He spreads his net again and again. Unsuccessful.
Even the hospital in Ganvié is a pile dwelling
We are sitting on the terrace of a restaurant. It was built on stilts over Lake Nokoué in southern Benin. Below us we can see the brownish, cloudy lake water through the cracks in the wooden floor.
All around us there is only water and numerous small houses that – lined up in a veritable labyrinth of canals – form the town of Ganvié. With around 25,000 inhabitants, it is probably the largest place in Africa built on a lake.
In Ganvié there are churches, mosques and even a hospital built on piles
Quelle: Getty Images/Metin Diken
There are several schools, churches and mosques, even a hospital built on piles. However, there is no sewage system. I asked my guide Laurent whether this wouldn’t be a problem for the water quality with several thousand people and an average depth of the lake of just under one meter.
“No no. “No problem at all,” he says. I try to believe him as I look somewhat skeptically at the fish on the plate in front of me. Not long ago the animal was swimming in front of me in the lake below me.
There’s also chicken and goat on the menu, but fish seemed like the appropriate choice in this environment if I wanted something really fresh on my plate. Despite my doubts, I start filleting my main course.
The village protected the tribe from slave traders
There are a few chickens cackling around on the walkways, ledges and roofs of the wooden and tin huts in the area, and I also saw a pig and its piglets on one of the tiny islands that were artificially built up by the lake residents. But the main source of food for the inhabitants of Ganvié is fishing.
“Watermen” – that’s what the locals of Ganvié on Lake Nokoué call themselves. They live from fishing
Quelle: Lennart Adam
“The men go fishing, the women grill and dry the fish and then take it to the market,” says Laurent, who grew up in the stilt village and now lives in nearby Cotonou, the country’s secret capital, where around 700,000 people live.
As a child, he also caught fish in the lake to support his family, he remembers. Laurent now earns his living by showing tourists the pile-dwelling village, his hometown, which is only accessible by boat.
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Ganvié was built over three hundred years ago by members of the Tofinu tribe who hoped to be safe on the water from raiders from the enemy Fon tribe. The Fon warriors, who captured slaves for European traders, avoided the lake like the devil avoided holy water. The trick worked, at least if you believe the literal meaning: “We survived,” says Ganvié in the German translation.
Voodoo has its origins in Benin
A boy of perhaps ten or eleven years old docks his boat on the broad side of our restaurant, ties it to one of the pilings with one hand and begins to sort his catch. I look at the handful of fish in the baskets and vats woven from bamboo and reeds on board the boat. Some of them are still fidgeting, others stare lifelessly into space. “Do you earn enough from fishing?” I ask.
“No, but that’s not the point. Most fish is exchanged for other food that is needed. Vegetables, rice, meat. Everyone offers what they have and gets what they need,” replies the Pimpf.
Fishermen trade their catch for other foods
Quelle: pa/Photoshot/Photoshot rh Dok5
I want to know whether the lake has enough fish for 25,000 people. Yes, usually yes. And if not, the voodoo gods would be asked for a better catch, and they have never let the villagers down.
Benin is voodoo country. The majority of the population believes in this religion, which has its origins here. Around half of the people in the country practice the rites, which often seem strange to outsiders. Laurent also proudly shows me some scars on his chest that show his affiliation to a certain voodoo faith.
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I still get suspicious. It is Sunday and on the way to the Stelzen restaurant we met numerous boats with people who were on their way to one of the many churches in the village. I want to know whether one belief does not exclude the other.
“Not at all. In the morning people go to church and have the priest bless them, and in the evening they sacrifice an animal and go to the voodoo temple. Double is better. Then the swap will work,” says Laurent and laughs.
The author lives in Flensburg, travels a lot and blogs derrufderaale.com.
This article was originally published in August 2020.
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