A village built on stilts in a lake
Ganvié is a village of thousands of people living in wooden houses on stilts in Lake Nokoué, just north of Cotonou. Its founders, the Tofinu people, are said to have settled on the lake centuries ago to escape slave raiders who would not venture into the water. Everything happens by boat: children paddle to school, women sell fruit and fish from floating markets, and fishermen tend underwater enclosures of branches. Pirogue trips from Abomey-Calavi explore the channels.