Benin: the belly of history. (Tourism).

Although Benin may not be the most obvious tourist destination in West Africa, it is determined to improve infrastructure, attract international investment and increase tourist numbers. STEPHEN WILLIAMS was a recent visitor to this historically important country.

Benin, formerly known as Dahomey or simply the Slave Coast, has a history as colourful, complex and at times brutal, as any African country. Years of post-independence repressive Marxist command-economy policies have been reversed almost overnight, and today Benin enjoys the reputation of being one of the most stable economies in West Africa even if it that economy is almost totally reliant on cotton exports, and dependent on Nigeria for its energy requirements.

COTONOU

Cotonou is Benin's only international airport and commercial hub of the country. The city's modern port provides the region with an efficient alternative to the congestion at Lagos, just 100 miles to its east, and much of the import traffic is in transit to Nigeria.

Tourism is still a fledgling economic sector for Benin, but a new hotel in Cotonou is due to open in 2003 and will bring to three the number of international hotels in the city. It's rewarding to spend some time here - visiting the incredible markets (especially the Dantokapa, one of West Africa's largest and most important), and enjoying the lively nightlife and great African cuisine. There are only two major problems, the first in transport if you are at all nervous of riding pillion on a motorbike. This is a 'mobylette city the streets swarm with them, and finding car taxis can be a problem except outside the airport and international hotels. Secondly, the banking system is slow and it can be expensive in changing money.

Currently, the efficient airport is undergoing a major renovation exercise to improve the terminal facilities. This should attract more international airlines to serve the city and help boost tourist numbers. Benin may not be able to offer the classic sun, sea and sand holiday formulae, the Bight of Benin coastline being too dangerous with rip tides and currents to make ocean swimming safe. But what it can do is offer visitors a glimpse of a rich and varied African culture - and it has one of the best game parks in West Africa, the Pendjari National Park which it shares with its northern neighbour Burkina Faso.

Visiting the Pendjari would probably take a minimum of three weeks, but there are other tourist attractions closer by. With say a week to spend in Benin, I can recommend visiting Porto Novo, Ouidah and Abomey.

PORTO Novo AND OUIDAH

Cotonou may be Benin's commercial hub, but the country's capital is 30kms to the east at Porto Novo. The town feels almost provincial in comparison with Cotonou, and at first sight does not appear to offer much to the tourist. But it does have its charms, some fine architecture, and a trio of museums.

The Royal Palace of King Toffa, originally dating from the 17th century but frequently rebuilt since, is now the Musee Honme - a complex maze of baked mud and thatched roof buildings that once comprised the king's private quarters and assembly rooms within a walled compound. It's useful to visit the Musee Honme before going on to the Musee Ethnographique that exhibits many of the artifacts relating to the Kingdom of Porto Novo, and also has a comprehensive collection of masks, fetishes, musical instruments and costumes.

But save the most time for the Musee de Silva. This is a private museum celebrating Afro-Brazilian culture. Housed in a traditional mid-l9th century Afro-Brazilian home, a series of large rooms on the ground floor displays old carnival floats, and clearly illustrates the direct connection between voodoo ceremonial costumes and the neo-Christian festivities that 'converted' African slaves developed in the New World.

Upstairs are examples of Afro-Brazilian furniture in rooms that replicate the style of Brazilian plantation owners, with living rooms, dining rooms and bedrooms.

In a separate building to the rear of the main house is what can only be described as a bizarre exhibition. On the walls are framed old photographs and pages from European magazines, whilst in display cases are objects such as old muskets and cutlasses, early European jewellery and coins, chains and manacles that were used to transport slaves, and ornate timepieces.

But the final room is the greatest surprise. Here is housed a surreal and fascinating collection of objects as diverse as the first printing press to be shipped to Benin, early cinematic projectors and even a skeleton!

Mr de Souza, who set up the museum, is a descendent of the Brazilian Francisco Felix de Souza (depicted in Bruce Chatwin's biographical novella, The Viceroy), who monopolised the slave trade out of the port of Ouidah in the mid 19th century. Guidab is about 30kms to the west of Cotonou. Before the French colonialists developed the port at Cotonou, Ouidah was Benin's main port. It was also one of the most important slaving centres in West Africa. Hundreds of thousands of African slaves being shipped to Brazil, Cuba and Haiti passed through the 'gate of no return' which is now commemorated with a National Monument to them and their descendants living throughout the world.

While Ouidah is no longer of great importance as a port - even the main Benin-Togo highway skirts the town well to the north - it does remain a voodoo stronghold with shrines and temples dotted around. Many of the houses fly a small white flag, the sign of a voodoo practitioner in residence.

ABOMEY

Less than 100 miles north of Cotonou is the small town of Abomey, and the jewel in the crown of Benin's tourist attractions. Here are found the royal palaces of the great Fon kingdoms of Dahomey. These palaces were declared a World Heritage Centre in 1982 and are currently being restored to something of their former glory with the assistance of UNESCO and Getty Foundation funding.

The history of the Dahomey kingdoms is both complex and brutal. They can be traced back to the 13th century when the ancestors of the Fon, closely related to the Yoruba peoples, migrated south from the Niger River to occupy most of present day Benin and Togo. By the early 17th century they had formed three rival groupings. Intermittent and internecine warfare between these groupings, much like the bitter rivalry between European principalities at this time, characterised the next hundred years.

This rivalry prompted various migrations and one royal line, under King Houegbadja, defeated a local ruler and settled at Abomey. There he established a capital building with labour, captured from his battles, a huge defensive moat. Little trace of this gigantic enterprise exists today, but it measured 15m wide, 6m deep and some 45km in circumference. Houegbadja then began building his royal palace, and from this power base established an administrative bureaucracy, imposing taxation and a rapid military expansion of his kingdom.

A SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 

One of Houegbadja's many conquests were over the Gedevi peoples. The Gedevi ruler was a chief named Dan who submitted to Houegbadja's rule. Houegbadja's son, Akaba, annually demanded more of Dan's land until Dan exclaimed "soon you will be building on my belly". A self-fulfilling prophecy as Akaba took offence, killed Dan and buried him with his stomach split open and a tree planted over him.

Hence the name Dahomey which was the country's name until 1975, 15 years after independence. In the Fon language, home means belly and Dahomey means literally 'from the belly of Dan'.

When Akaba succeeded his father upon Houegbadja's death in 1685, he built his own palace over Dan's grave. The Dahomey tradition insists that each king must build his own palace and expand his kingdom. But it would be another son, Agaja, who after succeeding Akaba, would rule over the kingdom's greatest expansion, extending Dahomey's rule to the coast and making the first contact with Europeans.

This was the key to the Dahomey kingdom's continuing strength and expansion. Trading in slaves for European weapons and other trade goods saw the dynasty become one of the richest and most powerful kingdoms in Africa, until 1892 when the French created a pretext to gather an army at the coast and march on Abomey.

A series of fierce battles ensued until finally, heavily outgunned, the Dahomey kingdom fell. Determined that the French would not seize the Royal palaces, King Behanzin ordered that they be burned to the ground. Ten generations of successive reigns had created a labyrinth of palace buildings, all badly damaged by this rearguard action.

RESTORATION EFFORT

Thanks to a collaborative effort by Benin's Ministry of Culture and Communications, UNESCO and the Getty Conservation Institute, two of the palaces have been rebuilt, and the plan is to eventually restore all the others. It's an enormous undertaking, and the proceeds of the tourism sector play an important part in the project.

One of the most important aspects of the restoration effort is to save the bas-relief wall sculptures that adorn the facades of the palaces. They recount the legends, myths, historic battles, and of course Dahomey's royal lineage. "The bas-reliefs are our only remaining 'written' history" asserts Nondichao Bachalou, one of Benin's foremost historians. "They are our history told on our walls."

Those that survived the fires of 1892 suffered damage due to weather and neglect until a French colonial officer, E.G. Waterlot, began making castes of them in 1911. His foresight helped create the Historic Museum of Abomey in 1945.

But describing the palaces as a museum is not entirely accurate. They continue to play a vital role in the cultural life of the Fon people. Considered sacred, they remain central to a living tradition. Today, the present Dahomey monarch, King Agoli-Agbo III, carries out the ages-old rituals and ceremonies of the Fon peoples within the compounds.

The museum has also served to preserve and stimulate traditional crafts. The renovation of bas-reliefs has trained a new generation of artists whose works adorn many public and private buildings. Similarly, the art of applique tapestries, weaving, metal casting and wood carving are all being encouraged by the steady stream of visitors to the Centre Artisanal within the palace compound.

RELATED ARTICLE: TRAVEL DETAILS

* Porto Nova is 30km east of Cotonou and connected by a busy dual carriageway. A new toll road, almost completed, will help speed the heavy traffic.

There are relatively few hotels in Porto Nova, the two best being Hotel Dona on the northern Boulevard Exterieur ring road, and Hotel Beaurivage on Boulevard Lagunaire.

More central hotel options are the Casa Danza, which offers basic lodgings and has a reasonable restaurant, and it's also possible to stay at one of the few rooms offered to visitors at the Musee de Silva complex.

There are no foreign exchange facilities in Porto Novo, nor are credit cards accepted, and even the larger shops and hotels are reluctant to accept foreign money.

* Abomey is 144km from Cotonou on Benin's major north-south metalled highway. Car hire is available in Cotonou, or regular 'shared' taxis depart the Jonquet Gare Routiere in Cotonou. Alternatively, a train departs daily stopping at Bohicon, just 10kms from Abomey.

There's only one hotel in Bohicon: Hotel Dako, which has 60 rooms, a conference centre, Olympic sized swimming pool and nightclub.

Around Abomey itself, Hotel Guedevy is the newest hotel, but is some 2km from town. Motel d'Abomey is more central and considered the town's best hotel, with a good restaurant, a disco as well as offering luxury bungalows. Closer to the town is Chez Monique, a back-packers favourite, although somewhat over-priced.

Even closer to the town centre is Hotel La Lutta, just a five minute walk from the market place. It is more a country auberge than hotel, and M. JeanConstant Adjolohoun, the friendly owner, is a leading member of the town's tourism organisation. He speaks very good English. Although originally from Ouidah, he is an expert on the town's history.

There are no foreign exchange facilities in Abomey, but cash can be exchanged at some of the larger stores. Travellers' cheques and cash can be negotiated at the Bank of Africa in Bohicon. ATM facilities are not available.