Facts, habits, traditions and all kind of cultural gaps that will make your trip to Benin so special - PART 1

Benin is a tiny country located between Nigeria and Togo in West Africa. Not a lot of people know about this country. That’s where I spent 2 months in 2014, for an internship in order to complete my degree.

As far as I travelled I never felt more “disoriented” than there. The culture and the lifestyle are completely different from western European countries, COM-PLET-LY.
I don’t pretend knowing everything about Benin life, but through this post I want to describe what was special for me during my experience there and can be useful to know if you go there!

-Fongbé: Also called “Fon”, it is the most spread dialect in Benin. Even if French is the official language, it is the most spoken language. Some people speak French and Fongbé, others speak only this language (especially old generation). Fongbé is hard to learn for any people not used to african languages. The pronunciation first but also the way sentences are built is a different concept. For example sun mean month, alun is dry/dryness, and alunsun means january = “month of dryness”.

-Food: I will write a post especially for food. First, for us occidental the food is scarily hot. Piment is everywhere. Otherwise what I felt is that is not really diversified, and for me it was difficult. The base for dishes is rice, corn and yam (and piment). The place I stayed had no electricity and running water so we cooked in a pot on fire and of course there was no fridge so difficult to keep things. But anyway there was no shop where I was, in Benin you mostly buy fresh and then you cook. Most of the time you eat outside because it is hard for us to cook like that and because is it really cheap. You mainly eat street food in Benin. If you go in a place with table and seats they call it maquis. Something that Beninese eat all the time: this dough that they call pâte made from corn (or yam) with the hot sauce rich in palm oil … Not my favourite thing! You like or you don’t but something sure: they have some delicious fruits!

The "pâte" that I ate almost every day ...

-Clothes: A lot of people still wear traditional clothing. They buy the fabric in a market and then go to a couturier. He will make exactly what you want. The best fabric is the wax, a classic in Benin. It is so colourful ! I made couple of things from wax fabric, it was so cool, when my dress was made I asked to do a bag from the left overs. It is really personalised!

A fairly classy traditionnal top and skirt

Otherwise a bit of advice as to what to wear when you go there as a tourist: don’t wear something to short, it is not correct in Benin. People often cover the shoulders also but personally it was too hot… and nobody never told me something (I felt they were more tolerant with tourists for this kind of things). Bring light clothing because I tell you now: you will sweat like a pig (that being said even naked you will sweat like a pig).

Me in my traditional clothing

-Yovo: That mean white in Fon and that’s how they will call you of you are white. Children are used to sing a song in french when they see a white pass: “Yovo Yovo bonsoir, ça va bien, merci”. If I translate the song means: “White, White, Good evening, I am ok thank you”. Sometimes I answered to the children singing the same song but with mewi (black) instead of yovo and they were actually laughing to the joke. It is a bit strange to be called white by everybody. I didn’t care but after spending 2 months in the same area I would have appreciate they call me by my name and not Yovo. But it’s ok, again, you get used to it!

--> PART 2 coming the 8th !