TOGO and BENIN

Jekyll and Hyde

The road to Aflao is not that good and it seems a recurring feature that most of the near-border roads in Africa are in poor condition. I am not quite sure why this is.

The border crossing at Aflao is as hectic as described in the Lonely Planet. It is probably the most chaotic border crossing we have encountered so far on our journey through Africa. Arriving at Aflao, you are swamped with an array of people trying to exchange money and help you through the system. We needed to change some money so got the selected money changer to show us the various offices which were scattered illogically. Firstly, you have to go through a barrier and head through what looks like a lorry park to an office where you get registered and given a small piece of paper. You then go to the customs and then the immigration where you fill out an exit form. Be aware of the money changers though. Make sure you get them first to count the money owed to you, and then you count the same money and repeat with the money you owe them. They will try to short change you, as they tried with us, so be aware.

We were sorry to be leaving Ghana, but were keen to get on with our visa gathering exercise and prepare for our push through Central Africa to South Africa, the half way mark. The Togo border was quite straightforward, but the offices are just bamboo shelters. The Customs didn’t have a stamp for the Carnet du Passage but assured me it would be no problem when I presented it at the Togo/Benin crossing. We were through in 90 minutes and headed to Lome, the capital of Togo. We realised the border was actually Lome and I found this odd as I have not come across another country where its capital is the border crossing. The road was not that good and the place appeared generally run down and noticeably very different from Ghana.

We wanted to get our visas for the DRC and Gabon in Lome so we decided to stay nearer to the centre rather than come in from the popular overlander stopover at Chez Alice, which is 12km out of town. We found a reasonable small hotel called Belle Vue which is run by a French couple.

Monday morning we grabbed a taxi whose driver said he knew the way to both embassies. This was not the case and after asking for directions many times we arrived at the DRC Embassy where we were warmly greeted. The application was very straightforward and we were told we could come back at 1.30pm the same day to pick the passports up. Great, so in the meantime we headed to the Gabon Embassy where we were expecting things to be more difficult as we had heard that none of the staff will speak English. Again the taxi driver had to ask for directions, but we lucked into a local who could speak English and knew one of the senior members of the Gabon Embassy. He jumped into the taxi and off we went. When we arrived at the embassy, the person he knew was out of town but we asked him anyway to come in and help us with forms etc. It is true that they will not speak English and I would highly recommend that you take someone with you that does. The reason we wanted to get two visas here was so we would not have to stay longer than necessary in Nigeria. The application forms we were given were poor photo copies and without the translator and help from the embassy staff we would not have been able to fill them in. We gave back the completed forms to the officer and promised to be back as soon as we could with our passports, which were still at the DRC Embassy. We returned to the DRC Embassy at 1.30pm and were given our passports as promised. Not bad going as they had completed formalities in 3 hours. We wondered if we would be able to get both visas in 24 hours....which would surely be a record.

By 2pm we were back at the Gabon Embassy and handed in our passports to a senior lady officer decked in gold jewellery who told us to sit patiently and wait. So we waited and waited. Three hours went by and, as we were about to leave, the same lady came down and was clearly irritated about something....including the fact we could not speak English. She asked for some additional information such as address in Gabon and proof of funds. Luckily another person present could speak English and we managed to explain that we were only going to be in transit and were going to be camping. She walked away telling us to come back in two days time as it takes up to 72 hours to issue visas. I explained that we needed to go to Benin the following day and hoped that we could get the passports back the next day. After she left we were told by another staff member to come back the following morning at 11am, presumably to pick the passports up.

That evening we decided to walk towards the town centre and Banque Atlantique which, according to the Lonely Planet, is the only bank and branch in Togo that accepts Mastercard. It was dark and as we walked onto the coastal main road my senses told me to be wary. It reminded me of Rio de Janeiro in the 80’s. There are no street lights and within 200 metres some police or military came out of the shadows and asked us what we were doing. We explained where we were going and that we were tourist and they advised us not to walk along this road because the area was renowned for night time muggings. I thought they were also looking to extract money from us, so thanking them for their professionalism we headed back to the hotel.

The following morning we went to the Gabon Embassy at 10am only to be told that the visas were not ready and that they would call the driver from the hotel at 3pm to report progress. Nothing more we could do so we headed down to the Grand Marche area for a few hours and enjoyed the vibrant activity. The market is known for its gorgeous cloth and the colours and patterns are really cool. We ate some local tasty food and had a cobbler repair our sandals. We also found a money changer in the main undercover part of the market and his rates were much better than others I had asked. I decided to change some CFA’s into Naira so I would not have to do so at the Benin border in a captured market. We also found the Banque Atlantique and, although it has the Mastercard sign, it definitely does not accept Mastercard.

That evening at around 7pm the driver that took us to the Gabon Embassy told us that he had been called at 5pm and they confirmed the passports were ready. Great, we could at last leave Lome and Togo, neither of which I have been enamoured with. A week earlier the military had shot dead three people that were demonstrating against the high price of fuel. Lome is a decayed city and has the worst roads that we have seen in a capital city so far on our journey. I would not have stopped here at all unless it were for visas. I have heard mid way northwards in Togo, across the border from Ho in Ghana, is very scenic and pleasant. But Ghana versus Togo.....Ghana any day.

The next morning at 8am I jumped in a taxi and went back to the embassy. A few minutes after I arrived the visa officer appeared and gave me the passports. I thanked him for his help and headed back to the hotel and departed for Benin. The drive along the coastal road to the border was unimpressive and an hour later we were ready to exit.

The formalities on the Togo side were straightforward. Immediately, on entering Benin you notice that life in general was better. The people were more friendly and the officials more professional. We were through the Benin border in no time and headed eastwards. We decided not to stay at the popular overlander haunt of Grand Popo and instead head inland to stay on the shores of Lake Aheme in a village called Possotome, which is a Voodoo stronghold.

However, on the way we wanted to go to Quidah and learn about its major involvement in the slave trade. This meant a bit of a detour but when you try to get your head around the fact that over 10 million Africans left Quidah as slaves to go to Brazil, Cuba and Haiti you have to go there and try to comprehend. It had started to rain so a visit to the museum and then a tour along the slave route would be perfect. The tour takes you along a 4km dirt track that the slaves walked in chains from the Portuguese Fort to the ocean, where the boats were waiting to transport them to the other side of the world. Men, woman and children were captured from far and wide by the Dahomey Kingdom and sold to the Europeans. I asked the guide how the Africans felt about the fact that Africans were so cynically involved with this human trade. As you can imagine, the guide was a bit lost for words at this indisputable fact. It is estimated that half of the Africans that left the shores never made it. As we looked through the gateway at the Point of No Return I could well imagine that many of these slaves had not even seen the ocean before and it must have been an absolutely traumatic experience. Before they departed, they had to walk a number of times around a tree to symbolically forget Africa and then a lesser number of times around another tree so that their spirit could find its way back to these shores when they died. It really was very hard to comprehend the reality of what went on here during 400 years of slavery. The sheer numbers itself just beggars belief.

We then retraced our footsteps and headed westwards for 25 kilometres and took the road northwards at the village of Come towards Lokossa. The roads in Benin are very good, in total contrast to Togo. We drove for 18km to the village of Possotome and as it was still pouring with rain we decided to stay at a small hotel called Chez Theo.

This part of Benin is very lush and the lake itself, which is only a few feet deep across its entire length, provides a valuable source of protein in the form of catfish for the locals. That evening we went to a local restaurant ate some tasty Benin style food and watched Spain outclass Germany to go through to the World Cup final. Rene did you make it to South Africa in time ?. We enjoyed our brief stay here and would have liked to have spent more time, but with only a 48hour visa we had to move on.

The following morning we headed towards Abomey which was the capital of the fierce Dahomey Kingdom. The drive along good roads took about two hours and went through scenic villages and bush lands. We checked into a neat lodge called Chez Monique and arranged for a guide to take us on a tour to visit the places of interest, including an underground village and a voodoo village. The Abomey Kingdom were into their gothic art, as you can see by the carvings in the gardens of Chez Monique !!

I am not sure what to make of voodoo, but this area is a stronghold for it. Voodoo, as explained to me, is for peaceful purposes and is only rarely used to bring harm to a person. The King would have his army visit the voodoo villages to give them strength and to make them invisible from their enemies. The voodoo chief went through a series of rituals and blessings on the various fetishes, and you could clearly see where many animals had been sacrificed. One particular moment made me laugh and was quite surreal, when during one of the rituals a Michael Jackson song blared out from his radio. Maybe he is a fan, who knows. Anyway, make what you want of it, but voodoo is deeply embedded in the local culture.

The underground village is a complex of caves and tunnels made by the Dahomey tribe to trick their enemies. The warriors would go underground to live and wait for their enemy to pass by. They would then emerge behind enemy lines and attack. The caves and tunnels were discovered when a large earth moving truck that was building a nearby road collapsed into one of the caves. Whilst we were in the village the heavens opened and we ran for it, so our visit was cut short.

So Togo and Benin, two small countries, were a bit like Jekyll and Hyde. The former I would not be in a rush to go back to and the latter I wish I had been able to spend more days in.

The following morning we left at 6.30am to get to the border in good time. We had read other journals that warned about the problems faced with road blocks (official and unofficial) on the Nigerian side so we wanted to give ourselves a good chance to make it to Ibadan in Nigeria that day. This would then get us within striking distance of Abuja, which was still a further 600km way. Our plan was to be in Abuja at about 5pm to meet up with my friend Bill Hussey from Cornwall. Bill has kindly offered to put us up for a few days, take us to see the north of the country and lend us his driver to go to the embassies to get the remaining three visas that we needed........a good mate indeed.