Benin

Sites marquants de la Route de l’Esclave au Bénin

WHS Score 0.38 Votes 2 Average 0.5
The Highlights of the Slave Route in Bénin comprises eights monuments across the country that symbolize the route enslaved took to reach the coast where they embarked on slave ships. Ouidah was one of the main centers for the sale and embarkation of slaves within the framework of the Atlantic slave trade in the 18th century. Here a series of places of memory are linked to that trade, such as the Door of No Return. More inland, for example at Yaka and Fiditi, places of hiding are selected.
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Full Name
Sites marquants de la Route de l’Esclave au Bénin (ID: 6512)
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Benin
Status
On tentative list 2021 Site history
History of Sites marquants de la Route de l’Esclave au Bénin
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UNESCO
whc.unesco.org
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UNESCO.org
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First published: 25/11/22.

Solivagant

Sites Marquants De La Route De L’Esclave Au Bénin

Sites marquants de la Route de l’Esclave au Bénin (On tentative list)

Sites marquants de la Route de l’Esclave au Bénin by Solivagant

Back in 2008 we gave a pretty thorough visit (including walking the entire "route") to the T List site which was then called “La ville d'Ouidah : quartiers anciens et Route de l'Esclave”. It has since “morphed” into something larger (with a completely new Ref No) via the addition of 4 sites “upcountry” from Ouidah (to make 8 in all) and a new title “Sites marquants de la Route de l’Esclave au Bénin”. We have only visited 1 of these additions but, in this review, as well as covering the original locations, I will share what I have been able to discover about the additions, as part of a wider objective of trying to understand the entire site as it may now be nominated.

The original site, placed on Benin’s T List in 1996, lacked any description or location details but the assumption must be that it covered (at least) the 4, now separately identified, locations in/around Ouidah. I suspect that every visit will commence at the “Fort Portugues” (incorrectly described in the UNESCO description as being in Ketou province). Strictly this isn’t a part of the “slave route” which relates to the c4km "path" along which slaves are supposed to have walked to their embarkation for the Americas having reached Ouidah and been sold for onward transport. But the Fort is clearly a focal point for any history of Slave trading in the Area (See Wiki). Indeed it has, for many years …

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