| CHACHA PLACE,
THE AUCTION PLACE Situated
in front of the old house of the Brazilian slave trader CHACHA Felix de Souza,
the auction place is the first step, the departure point of the slave route, 4
km long. This place saw the day in 1717 after the defeat of the Houeda kingdom
against that of Agbomé. Having become a territory under his power, King Ghezo,
the King of Abomey at that time entrusted to his friend Chacha Felix all
the administration and running of this new annexed country. Instead killing war
prisoners, they were made to do forced labour but then the idea arose to send
them to work in plantations in Europe and America. From then on prisoners of war,
victim of plunders and adulterers were all sold to Europeans in this place. The
huge success this slave trader found led him to increase his market, from then
on anyone valid was sold, even royalty. The slaves were exchanged for objects,
sometimes of very little value (canons, alcohol, guns, mirrors, hats, bits, and
bobs…). A mirror for example was worth 40 - 50 a slave. Sometimes all the inhabitants
of a whole neighbourhood were sold in one go: like the Brazilian neighbourhood
of Ouidah. After the sale, they were chained on the neck and the hands. Their
departure for another world started from the auction place, the slaves went towards
the "forgetting tree" of for a last ritual. |
| THE
FORGETTING TREE At this
place of the slave route there is a tree with a specific meaning in the Danxome's
people's culture: the forgetting tree. The slaves found in it a ritual. The women,
because they have 7 ribs, went seven times around the tree, the men nine. The
importance of this ritual was to bring the slaves to forget their past, their
culture and their origin. In short their identity. Once this ritual accomplished,
the slaves moved on directly to Zoungbodji, a village not far from the
Brazilian neighbourhood, to be parked in improvised concessions while they awaited
the ships. In one days, in the place of the tree a pkatiman (or hyssop) has been
planted. It is a tree of purification used for infusions during the Ouidah ceremonies.
|
| ZOMAÏ
HUTS The slaves were locked into little blind huts
as they arrived, for 3 to 4 months. This absolute isolation completely disorientated
them; they stayed in obscurity, which also avoided any escapes or rebellion. Zomaï
means " the place where the fire cannot be seen". The survivors were, in
this way, ready for the conditions auraiting them in the boats. The deads were
buried in a mass grave 100-m from the huts. These huts do not exist anymore, but
a monument stands instead to immortalise the memory, it is the memorial of Zoungbodji.
In1992, under directions of UNESCO, archaeological searches were led on this site.
As the bones found were inhumed in the memorial, the objets found are exposed
in the museum of Ouidah. |
| THE
RETURN TREE As the ship arrives, horns sound. The
captives rush toward the return tree. Strong is their belief, and thus they go
round the tree three times to guarantee the return of their soul, after their
death, to the land of their ancestors and of their gods. Not like the forgetting
tree, the return tree, a wild kola tree, has remained since the 17th century;
it is called " Hounti " in Fon tongue. It bears symbolic fruit, used to
make infusions, which help heal elephantiasis. It is a place where are regularly
organised " egungun " dances (dances of the living dead or Kuvito) for
the saying remains " The dead are not dead." |
| THE
NON RETURN DOOR 
This
is the last stop of the slave route, that of despair and desolation. The last
step to elsewhere. Arrived by the sea, the most desperate slaves would take sand
and eat it; others would strangle themselves with their chains, so as to die on
their ancestor's land. To board the ships, they had to cross in little pirogues.
In the ships they were crushed like sardines in the gulleys. Some resisted to
the end of the journeys, others, died along the way, and were thrown into the
sea. At the first world festival of arts, culture and Voodoo, a commemorative
plaque was put up " the slaves, arriving on this beach of Djègbadji wanted
to know for the last time the destiny of Africa, and left without hope of return,
to a horrible and tragic destiny". It is what symbolises the material part
of the memorial of Ouidah: tolerance, mutual communication, and pacific cohesion
of the people. The Republic of Benin and UNESCO have wanted to anchor the memory
of all of this so as not to let historical amnesia to take place, and to allow
silence to kill these dozens of millions of slaves, who have enriched by their
blood and sweat the initiators and destinators of the triangular ebony trade,
a second time. It is the beginning Of the globalisation process where the black
people will be recognised in their role of the world's culture. |
