Ganvié, the Village on the Lake
Thousands of people live in a town of houses on stilts in the middle of a lake in Benin. Their ancestors fled there because their hunters believed a demon lived in the water.
What was reported
Ganvié is a large village of houses built on stilts in Lake Nokoué, near Cotonou in Benin, home to tens of thousands of people who travel by boat. Its name is often translated as 'we survived'.
Tradition says the Tofinu people founded it in the 1600s or 1700s to escape warriors of the kingdom of Dahomey, who captured people to sell to European slave traders. The warriors' religious beliefs, it's said, forbade them from entering the lake, where a spirit lived.
Explanations offered
Historians accept that the village was built as a refuge during the era of the slave trade. It's sometimes called the Venice of Africa and is on UNESCO's tentative World Heritage list.
- When
- Founded in the 1600s or 1700s
- Where
- Lake Nokoué, Benin
- Witnesses
- The Tofinu people
- Status
- A real place
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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