Ouidah – Door of no return

Just a short walk from my hotel there was a three kilometer dirt path, which is commonly known as the slave route.

It would have started at the market where more than one million shackled and desperate men, women and children were traded and then lead along the path where they were boarded on ships for transportation to the America’s.

This place was known as the door of no return. Close to the door of no return you will come across a museum which tells the story of the slave trade in this part of the world.

There is a small entrance fee and the lady at the entrance will give you a guided tour of the two locked rooms in the complex.

The tour is mostly in French and as you would expect so is most of the information on display. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take many pictures. but who has not seen the pictures of the crammed slave ships and read about the horrible conditions they endured, sometimes for weeks on end.

The nearby arched memorial which is the door of no return is one of the most stunning slave memorials in West Africa.  

The huge arched door stands as a poignant symbol of when the caputred salves were ripped from their homeland never to return. No less poignant is the second closeby memorial.

The symbols speak volumes.

 Tinyteddy’s comments: “This was a real learning curve for me. I had more questions than answers. Definitely interested in learning more. I believe we are visiting some more slave sites on this trip. especially in Ghana”