On the new year day, we made a visit to Ganvie in Benin Republic. It's a riverine community off the university town of Calavi. Once we got to the Calavi waterfront, we chattered a wooden boat and hired a tour guide and started our journey to Ganvie a town of not more than 10 km travel on the water. Unfortunately to us, this guy is nothing close to a professional tour guide because he could not communicate in English which would have given me a lot of opportunities to ask questions. He only communicates in French and Izon (local language of the Ganvie people). Secondly he doesn't know how to co-ordinate tours as I did not understand why we had to visit some of the places we did. However, as a photographer, I decided I was going to make every moment count by taking every possible shot at every possible moments.
I was so thrilled at the sight of a full community living in the water similar to what we see in Makoko but the difference here is that, the community does not live in makeshift houses as they do in Makoko. Most houses there were constructed with better quality woods and good roofing sheets contrary to Makoko's shanty houses with thatch roofs. Even though we travelled deep inside the lagoon to see the community, some places we saw were on dry ground. For instance, they have some cemented houses in the community including their Mosque which has a grandeurs structure. Again it has an Art market which tells stories of the history and culture of the people. There are lots of indigenous artists, painters, wood carvers and other art media on display. Some of the Art galleries are found in local hotels in the community. The very existence of these hotels helps the tourists feel much at home as they could spend a little more time in the town.
We visited as a family in the company of my uncle, his three children and their family friend. They live in Cotonou and I was their guest for the New year. Having seen the works I had done in Makoko, my uncle decided to take me to Ganvie so I could do comparative works. Even though I could admit that a one day visit was insufficient to work on any topic but the impact the visit had on me was enormous. For instance, I was so surprised to see Glo and Etisalat branded shops in that remote community. It was also expected to see the community as a predominantly fishing community in fact I was told that more than half of the fishes and other see foods consumed in Cotonou comes from there. However it was also interesting to find some people who lives there but do other works than fishing. For instance, I learnt that some people work as civil servants in both Cotonou and Calavi and they go to work daily from there. One of my biggest discoveries on that visit was that Ganvie people are of Ijaw origin. They are considered strange by other Benin tribes because they don't seem to share any cultural similarity like the way the Yorubas and Igun people and the other tribes share. So when I asked the tour guide the language there for details go to:http://philipsakwari.com.ng/2016/03/22/our-visit-to-ganvie/