Ganvie, Africa’s largest lake village

West Africa is full of fascinating traditional cultures and lifestyles, and one of the most interesting ones I encountered during my travels was the village of Ganvie. Ganvie is a village built on stilts in the middle of Lake Nokoué in southern Benin, close to the city of Cotonou. The village was founded in the 17th century by people looking for peace and safety during the slave trade. 400 years later, Ganvie has a population of some 30,000 people and the village even includes a hospital, post office and school. Over generations the residents of Ganvie have created a unique lifestyle centered around the water and fishing, but poverty and environmental challenges are a threat to the continuation of this lifestyle today.

Building Ganvie Lake Village

Ganvie was first founded by members of the Tofinu tribe. The Tofinu were being pursued by the powerful Fon tribe that sold members of other tribes to Portuguese slave traders. Building a village on a lake wasn’t a physical obstacle for the Fon, but rather it was religious beliefs that prevented the Fon from attacking people living on water. And so the Tofinu created a new home and lifestyle for themselves, naming their town Ganvie, meaning “We survived”. The slave trade stopped a long time ago, but the descendants of the Tofinu continue to live on the lake to this day.

There are approximately 3000 stilt houses in Ganvie today. The structure of these stilt houses is generally built using red ebony wood, which is resistant to rotting and hence ideal for the stilts. The walls are generally built out of palm fronds, while thatched roofs have now been almost exclusively replaced by corrugated metal sheets. Other types of wood and bamboo are also common building materials. These houses typically stand for 15-20 years, but with regular maintenance and replacement of any rotten stilts the houses can last much longer.

Lake Nokoué is only 1-2 meters deep and residents of Ganvie sometimes make artificial land by bringing soil from the land. These patches of land are used to keep a few domesticated animals and, interestingly enough, to teach children how to walk. The village school is a rare building as it is not built on stilts but on artificial land – a patch large enough to have even a football field. Artificial land, together with new forms of building such as concrete stilt construction, are changing the face of Ganvie today.

Daily life and challenges

Ganvie is situated a few kilometers from the nearest land and living on the water shapes the local lifestyle. Doing anything outside the house requires getting into a boat, from visiting neighbours to going to school. The main economic activity in Ganvie is fishing, with men doing the fishing while the women take the fish to town to sell it. The women then bring back other produce to sell in the village, turning their boats into floating markets.

The residents of Ganvie have developed different ways to catch and farm fish. One method of fish farming is to cover an area of the lake with palm fronds that are anchored into the bottom of the lake. As the palm fronds decompose, plankton is created which in turn attracts fish to feed on it. Once enough fish has gathered around, the palm fronds are removed and the fish caught with nets. This cycle is normally repeated every two weeks or so. Waiting longer would mean more fish, but it would be more fish than the people could sell and there is no way to store the fish for longer periods.

Ganvie is often called the “Venice of Africa”, but while living on water may seem romantic at first glance, in reality the residents of Ganvie face many challenges. Poverty is a major daily challenge, but more threatening is pollution. There is no sewage or waste management system in Ganvie, meaning that sewage and other waste goes directly into the lake. What’s even more disturbing is that Lake Nokoué receives a lot of waste and polluting chemicals from surrounding cities and industries. The number of fish is already going down due to the pollution, with water hyacinths that choke up the lake and overfishing making the situation worse. If these challenges are not addressed, it remains to be seen how long the lake can continue to support Ganvie and the lifestyle of its residents.