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The Slave Road of Ouidah |
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8/16/98 The Slave Road to Ouidah I took a symbolic journey today and with each step I drew closer to the final monument of a once-grim destination. The journey, which I traveled by foot, led me over roughly four kilometers of dry dusty road meant to represent a stretch of 100 that was once known as the Slave Road of Ouidah. In the approximately 150 years since the end of the organized trade of human slaves many things have changed along the Slave Road of Ouidah. Men and women stroll freely back and forth in the early morning sun. Children play games of football beside small concrete homes, and construction of the new regional hospital continues. Despite the new activities of modern life along the road, and in spite of the occasional tourist group that roars by in a cloud of dust on the way to the beach, the people of Benin have made every effort to preserve the Slave Road of Ouidah. By preserving the route that the slaves followed on their way to the new world, present and future generations may remember the lessons of the past and understand the history of this country and continent. During the slave trade Ouidah was one of the largest export points of slaves in all of Africa. The route, which originated in the Kingdom of Abomey, carried captured slaves 100 kilometers south to the beach just beyond the town of Ouidah, where they set sail in the vast holds of merchant ships for the new world. In recognition of this journey made by millions of Africans, and in recognition of the many millions who started the journey but died before reaching their destination, the government of Benin offers the Route des Esclaves and its many symbolic points of historic and cultural significance. The modern route begins on the south end of Ouidah marked only by a tree and a plaque decreeing the tree as a representation of the kingdom of Abomey, the original point of commencement. From this tree the road winds slowly to the outskirts of town lined with statues of the symbols of the various kings who fought against the slave trade. Along the route the slaves followed are many markers that help to tell the story of the journey. Among such markers is a metal sculpture, standing on the ground once occupied by the Tree of Forgetting. During the slave trade, slaves were blind folded and made to circle this tree so that if they managed to escape they wouldn't know which way to run. It is said male slaves circled the tree nine times and females seven. Further down the road, approximately half way between Ouidah and the coast of Benin, lies another sculpture which represents the La Case des Zomai. This point was one of the most important stops on the journey of the slaves because it was in this room without light that slaves were held in complete darkness and silence until the boats arrived to transport them to foreign shores. Slaves who sought to provoke others to rebellion were bound, gagged and beaten. Today two figures sit beside the sculpture to symbolize the slaves who were tortured here because they sought to rebel against their oppressors. The next sight on the road, the Wall of Tears, marks the place where slaves who were injured or deemed to be too weak to make the journey across the ocean were buried alive in mass graves. Due to the treatment they suffered over the course of the route and while being held in the Case de Zomai, this unfortunately was the fate of many of the men and women who were captured during the slave trade. The Wall of Tears commemorates the senseless waste of life and the tremendous mental anguish suffered by the slaves who were to continue on to the new world. Those that continued were witness to the sacrifice of their husbands and wives, friends and family who had managed to survive the horrors of the route but were judged to be worthless by their captors. After the Wall of Tears the road follows the short path to a final point of ritual known as the Tree of Return. There still stands the actual tree that was used in the ritual. Departing slaves circled the tree three times so that when they died in the new world their souls would return to their homeland. The capturing kings insisted on such rituals as this as a means of protecting what they considered to be merchandise. From the Tree of Return, the route followed today empties out into the open sun as the town of Ouidah and most vegetation falls behind for the final stretch of road to the ocean. Walking along this last bit of the slave Road, I can't imagine how it must have felt to be dragged along in chains, away from one's home, away from one's family. How it must have felt to have no way of knowing what was going to happen on the other side of the ocean or even if they'd reach the other side. As I walked out to the beach, I had no way of imagining how it must have felt 150 years ago. Even though I wasn't alone, the word that came to mind to describe the scene was "lonely," and if it's lonely today, it must have been much worse then. Just before the beach, the modern road climbs a slight incline to the bridge that crosses the lagoon and from here tourists of today can smell the ocean air ahead as could the slaves taking their final steps in the motherland. The last monument on the Slave Road of Ouidah is aptly named the Point of No Return. Symbolized by a massive archway inscribed with the images of the departing slaves walking into the sun, the Point of No Return marks the end of the slaves' lives as Africans and the beginning of their lives as prisoners of a foreign culture. Today the Slave Road of Ouidah stands as a reminder of the past and as a hope for a brighter future. It is a testament to one of the most hideous acts in the history of man and a monument to the strength and courage of a people that have managed to survive in spite of the road they were made to travel. END | ||||