Ganvie

Ganvie is a town built on water. Wooden houses stand on stilts above the shallow surface of Lake Nokoué in southern Benin, linked not by streets but by channels, and every journey here is made by dugout canoe or sailing pirogue. With a population of around 20,000, it is probably the largest lake village in Africa, and it is often called the Venice of Africa.

The village grew out of flight. In the era of the Atlantic slave trade, the Tofinu people took refuge in the marshes and shallows of the lake, where the warriors who raided the mainland for captives to sell to European traders could not follow them; sources place the founding between the 16th and the 18th centuries. Tradition explains the name in the Fon language as meaning that the people were saved here, and holds that the gods protected them on the water. Ganvie is still home to its own traditional monarchy, like many communities in Benin.

The lake, connected to the sea and only about two metres deep, shapes daily life. Farming on the shore gave way long ago to fishing and fish farming. Families build acadja, enclosures of branches planted in the lake bed that attract fish and are harvested after months of care, and the village market takes place on the water, with traders selling fish, bananas and other goods straight from their canoes. Ganvie belongs to the commune of Sô-Ava, together with other stilt villages on Nokoué, and has been on UNESCO's Tentative List for World Heritage since 1996.

Getting there

Ganvie lies on Lake Nokoué north of Cotonou and can only be reached by boat; boats leave from the jetty at Abomey-Calavi on the southern shore. Cotonou Cadjehoun International Airport (COO) is about 12 km away.