There are only two trains a week to Save, so I jumped on a bush taxi to Abomey. In the local language Abomey means ‘within a moat’, as the whole city was located within a big moat. Its quite a dusty place and isnt much to look at on the surface, It is however of great historical importance as it was the capital of the ancient powerful empire of Dahomey. Dahomey was eventually defeated by the french, but the name remained up until the Marxist revolution in the 60s(?), when it was then changed to Benin.
The town was once acres upon acres of kings palaces, whenever a new king took over the empire they had to build a new palace. So after a while the palace complex was pretty massive. When the last king fled the city from the french he burned down most of the palaces. So to this day not much remains, the areas that have been restored aren’t architectually too interesting. A palace compund generally consists of an inner and outer courtyard, with a few long thin low level buildings around the edge. The restored palaces now hold a museum which has some pretty interesting artifacts, including a throne which sits upon the skulls of four defeated enemy chiefs. There are some original walls remaining, including some which are made partly from the blood and guts of defeated enemies. Lovely stuff.
I was staying at a small hotel just off the market, the owner is a bit of a legend and of some standing within the modern day voodoo circles. He was quick to tell me the difference between voodoo and black magic, black magic being the darker of the two and often used for evil purposes. In contrast voodoo is an official religion and the most common in Benin, the people are quick to put you straight on the negative image that it has in the west. The owner offered to take me out on a bike ride of the town to see the rest of the sites, unfortunately it rained just before we were set to go. So he said no problem have a free night at the hotel and we will go tomorrow.
Off we set the next day, the first stop was an important house and tree with an interesting story. One of the earlier Kings (Akwaba?) was having problems with a powerful magician (Dan), to appease the magician he gave hime some of the empires land. After a while the King decided that it was not acceptable to give some land away, so he went to Dans house and killed him. He then planted a tree in the dead mans belly, and changed the name of his kingdom to Dahomey (meaning from Dans belly).
The tour was good and although the sites werent much to look at, the stories behind them were pretty interesting. One temple was devoted to two royal wives who were coated in palm oil and left to be eaten over the course of a few days by some red ants. Generally photos werent allowed for spiritual reasons, and when they were allowed I think my friend was slightly surprised when often I opted out.
The hotel owner is a bit of a legend, he only charges for the hire of a scooter and asks that you buy him a small beer at the end. After giving me a free night it was the least I could do to buy him a large beer, and one for myself of course. Here ends my disjointed and not entirely correct history lesson.
