The Door of No Return

Oh right! I said I'd do this every week!

Almost forgot.

Ok. I'm jumping right into some pretty heavy stuff. When I first scrolled through some pictures of Benin, this rather ominous and bleak gate stood out to me.

This is "La Porte du Non Retour" (the Door of No Return) in Ouidah, on the coast of Benin. It is one of 4 such gates on the West African coast which mark the departure point of the millions of Africans who were forcibly taken from their homes, families, and their continent, and exploited as a commodity.

The mantle of the gate portrays bound captives leaving the shore of their homeland behind them, and marching towards the ship that will take them thousands of miles away into a life of servitude.

The other 3 "Doors of No Return" are in the other major centres of the slave trade in Ghana, Senegal, and Gambia. These are still within the original fortresses built as holding centres and trading ports.

The Bight of Benin, which includes the coastlines of Togo, Benin, and Nigeria, accounted for 20% of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade; over 2 million people sold into slavery over 250 years. The Kingdom of Dahomey, the predecessor to present day Benin, was involved in numerous conflicts between neighbouring kingdoms and empires. Dahomey forces conducted countless raids against these different ethnic groups, abducting and selling millions of individuals to European slave traders.

I think the most shocking picture I found while researching this post is this diagram illustrating the design of a slave ship so as to pack as many bodies in as possible. The conditions during the 1-6 month long Atlantic crossing would have been unimaginably horrific.

It's no wonder that an estimated 2.2 million Africans died at sea before ever reaching the Americas.

Also along the route to reach the waiting slave ships was a tree called "The Tree of Forgetfulness," which has ironically since fallen. A marker now stands at the spot where slaves were forced to circle the tree multiple times in a ceremonial ritual meant to erase their minds of their identity and memories of their heritage.

Memorial where the tree once stood

Once again, I've barely scratched the surface on this topic. If you are interested in a more in-depth look at this very dark part of the world's history, here is an excellent video:

On a lighter note, I am going ahead with travel plans, getting my flights booked with the help of Menno Travel (yes, a Mennonite travel agency-they're awesome), and have an appointment next week to make sure my vaccinations are up to date. I was able to cross one thing off my to-do list as well; I registered my travel plans with the federal government. Yay!