Village on stilts
Ganvie is a typical lake village in Benin, built on stilts and located in Lake Nokoué, near Cotonou. The village with its 30,000 inhabitants and about 3,000 bamboo pile houses is one of the largest lake villages in Benin. The village originated in the lake in the sixteenth or seventeenth century and served as a safe haven for the Tofinu people. They fled here for fear of the Dahomeys, a very fanatical people who were mainly involved in the slave trade. According to their religion, the Dahomeys were not allowed to 'enter' water, so the construction of such a village was the best solution. The name Ganvie also means 'we survived'.The only form of transport are boats carved from tree trunks. The village has one piece of 'fixed' land and on it is the village school. There are also several markets, restaurants, churches and hospitals. The village is now mainly focused on tourism and the fishing industry (breeding and catching), where they used to focus mainly on agriculture.
