January 16 – Martyrs' Day in Benin

nPosted on January 16, 2020

Key Points

There doesn’t seem to much data on Martyrs’ Day in the small African nation of Benin, but like all other Martyrs’ Days, it surely commemorates people who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

nWhere or when I don’t know, but while I was looking, I discovered a couple of interesting facts about Benin:

nCapital capers…

Porto-Novo

nThe capital is Porto-Novo, and it’s largest city is Cotonou. Having a capital city that is not the largest city is not all that unusual – for example, in the United States the capital (Washington, D. C.) isn’t even in the top ten of cities, population-wise, ringing in at #20. (You might not be all that surprised to hear that New York City is #1, and L.A. is #2.)

Cotonou

nBut I discovered that Cotonou is not only the largest city in Benin, but it is also the seat of the nation’s government.

nI mean, what does “capital city” mean if it doesn’t mean “seat of government”?

nSo I looked up “capital” in the dictionary, and the definition I found was “the most important city or town of a nation or region, usually the seat of its government and administrative center.”

Porto-Novo, it turns out, WAS the most important city in Benin during the slave-trade times, from the 1500s to the 1800s. Benin has a place called the Slave Route, which was commonly the last bit of Africa an enslaved person walked on before boarding a ship for elsewhere (most commonly somewhere in the New World).

The Point of No Return Monument, above
and below, stands at the end of the Slave Route.

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nIn 1999, Benin President Mathieu Kérékou (who was mostly a dictator who did a lot of harm to his nation) did a good thing: he issued a national apology for the role that Africans had played in the Atlantic slave trade.

nSnake stuff

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nSnakes are revered in Benin – especially one kind of snake called the royal python.

There is even a Temple of Pythons. At 130 square feet in size, it’s the home to 50 to 60 royal pythons! They aren’t fed, but instead are let out of the temple once a week to hunt chickens and mice.

nWhen a royal python enters a house, people seem happy to host it. Most people allow royal pythons to eat and sleep at their house for a day or so before they return them to the Temple.

nBenin and the Kingdom of Benin

nI’ve been talking about the small, modern nation of Benin, which used to be called Dahomey. Before there was colonization by European peoples, though, there was a Kingdom of Benin – located in what is now Nigeria, NOT in what is now Benin!

nBenin-the-nation got its name from a body of water called the Bight of Benin, which is the rounded scallop of water located along the shores of Togo, Benin, and Nigeria. (The scallop located along the shores of Nigeria and Cameroon is called the Bight of Bonny.) I like to think of these “bights” (which means a curve in a coastline or river) as “bites” into the continent.

nBecause of the historical Kingdom of Benin, there are “Benin” things that are only associated with Nigeria, NOT Benin: Benin City and the Benin Bronzes are two examples.

nVenice of Africa

nThere are several African towns built on stilts in lakes or other still-water places – and I have seen at least two of them referred to as “the Venice of Africa.” One of these is Ganvié, Benin: