Benin: the West African country famous for being the birthplace of voodoo

There are three types of magic in Benin. There’s the invisible kind, Vodun (voodoo), which the West African country invented. Then there’s the thinking that hovers over its history — one myth involves the union of a princess and a panther — and then the attractions hiding in plain sight: alluring culture and prime Atlantic coast beaches.

Bookended by Nigeria and Togo, with Burkina Faso and Niger to the north, almost all accounts of the tiny Francophone nation focus on voodoo, culminating in an annual festival. But I wanted to explore Benin’s unofficial “golden triangle”: de-facto capital Cotonou; coastal Ouidah, key in the 17th- to 19th-century transatlantic slave trade; and Abomey, once a regional power known as the Dahomey Kingdom.

To get around I took rickety taxis brousses (bush taxis), amazed and amused as endless passengers piled in. In Cotonou, the zémidjan — moto taxi — rules, and I was soon clinging on as my drivers bumped through alleys, enjoying free street theatre as they paused for petrol. In Fon, Benin’s main language, “Cotonou” means “mouth of the river of death”. The city lacks obvious tourist sites but it felt anything but moribund. A power cut spawned a torchlit tour of contemporary African arts centre Fondation Zinsou. And at bar Le Consulat, in the neighbourhood of Fifadji, I was the sole foreigner but no one batted an eyelid — they were too busy necking La Béninoise beer.

Half an hour away, Unesco stilt village Ganvié is Benin’s main tourist attraction, built in the 17th century on a lake by the Tofinu tribe. Gliding along in a motorised dugout, I felt voyeuristic watching residents getting haircuts or going to church — but I was also mesmerised, the water mirroring Turner-esque clouds in a cerulean sky.

Ouidah houses one of Benin’s finest hotels. Tucked down a beach road, La Casa del Papa’s oceanfront bungalows provided welcome relaxation. The only issue was whether to linger on the empty palm-fringed sands, rocked by Atlantic rollers or plunge into the pool. The restaurant served sublime fish and Beninese staples such as amiwo, a firmer mashed potato made of tomato and corn maize spiked with habanero chilli.

One afternoon I grappled with Benin’s dark past — and the Python Temple’s resident reptiles. “People go to pray in the Catholic church,” explained my guide, Hyppolite. “Then they come to worship the pythons.”

This freewheeling spiritualism is one of Benin’s triumphs yet it has an unhappy past; it was West Africa’s main slave trade hub from the 17th to the 19th centuries, when the kings of Dahomey — Abomey, in modern-day Benin — sold captured rivals to European slavers.

After touring the history museum in the old Portuguese Fort, we traced the “Route des Esclaves” (Slave Route), finishing in the beachfront Gate of No Return, beyond which slaves were shipped to the Americas. But not before looping the “Tree of Forgetfulness”, which was meant to erase memories of their old lives.

In Abomey, the dusty royal palaces still whisper of the town’s chill-inducing heyday, with walls of human blood and a throne of skulls. From 1625 to 1900, protected by Amazon warriors, 12 kings ruled the Dahomey Kingdom; a highlight is meeting their descendants in exchange for gin and a token donation.

Benin is a republic these days, and its kings are largely ceremonial — but they guard some of their forebears’ powers. I pressed for details on their voodoo duties. The question went unanswered. Some magic can’t be explained.

Details

La Casa del Papa (casadelpapa.com), doubles from £70 B&B. In Abomey, chambres d’hôtes Chez Sabine costs from £22.

Ouidah guide Hyppolite (+229 67 05 13 49) works with the local tourist office (office-tourismeouidah.org).

Air France flies from London to Benin via Paris from £411 return.