Waypoint Journeys × West Africa
Voodoo, Castles & the Slave Coast
8 Days
8 days across three nations at the crossroads of history
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The Europeans who traded here named this part of the Gulf of Guinea by what they took from it: the Slave Coast in Benin and Togo, the Gold Coast in Ghana. For two centuries Ouidah was one of the busiest slaving ports on the Atlantic, and the castles at Cape Coast and Elmina still stand over the beach in Ghana. The same coast is where Vodun is practised openly and daily, in family compounds as much as in temples. And it belongs to people getting on with the present: the cloth traders of Lomé’s Grand Marché, the fishermen working their brush pens on Lake Nokoué, the musicians, designers and street cooks of Accra.
We spend eight days moving west through Benin, Togo and Ghana, and the order matters. You see Ganvié, a lake town founded by people escaping slave raids, and the palaces of Abomey, built by the kingdom that carried out those raids, before you walk the slave route in Ouidah and, at the end of the week, go down into the dungeons at Cape Coast and Elmina. It is a heavy week in places. With five guests at most, there is time to stop, ask questions and talk about what you have seen.
“In Ouidah the python temple and the cathedral face each other across the same small square. Plenty of families here keep faith with both.”
Vodun is a religion with priests, shrines and obligations, practised by millions across West Africa and the diaspora. In Ouidah you visit the Sacred Forest and the Temple of the Pythons with a guide who can explain what you are looking at, and what not to photograph.
In Ouidah you walk the Route des Esclaves, the road captives were marched down to the sea, as far as the Door of No Return. In Ghana you go inside Cape Coast and Elmina Castles, the two most significant slave forts still standing on the African coast.
About 35,000 people live in Ganvié, the largest stilt village in Africa, in houses, schools and shops raised over the water. You travel its channels by pirogue, which is how residents get to school, to market and to work.
The Royal Palaces of Abomey, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, were the seat of the Dahomey kings, who built one of the most powerful states in pre-colonial Africa, much of it on captives sold through Ouidah.
Both crossings are by road, with our team handling the paperwork. The Fon traditions of Benin, the Ewe and Mina cultures of Togo and the Akan and Ga heritage of Ghana overlap in places and differ in others, and you notice it in food, cloth and language.
Lomé’s fetish market, where healers and practitioners buy their remedies; the Grand Marché; the Artisans Village; Makola Market in Accra. People come to these places to work and shop, so bring small notes, some patience and a question or two.
Eight days heading west along one coastline, from a lake village in Benin to the castles of Ghana’s Cape Coast.
Cotonou to Accra
Eight days west along the Slave Coast: three nights in Ouidah with day trips to Ganvie and Abomey, over the border to Lome, then Accra and the castles of Cape Coast and Elmina.
Land at Cadjehoun Airport in Cotonou, Benin’s economic capital, and transfer west along the coast to Ouidah, a low, sandy town of old Afro-Brazilian merchant houses and roadside shrines. It is your base for the first three nights, which means one unpack and a quiet first evening before two full days out.
An early start and a long day in the vehicle. Ganvié sits on Lake Nokoué, and about 35,000 people live there in houses, markets and schools built on stilts. Its founders took to the lake to escape slave raids from Dahomey; you cross it by pirogue, past fishermen tending their pens. Then inland to Abomey and the Royal Palace Museum, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the seat of the Dahomey kings, whose wealth came largely from that same trade. Before the drive back to Ouidah for the night, the underground village of Bohicon and the Chameleon Temple.
A day in Ouidah itself, the spiritual centre of Vodun, a faith practised by millions. At the Temple of the Sacred Pythons, dozens of pythons are kept and revered, directly across from the town’s Cathedral. The Sacred Forest, where devotees gather for the annual Vodun festivals, is a short walk away. Later you follow the Route des Esclaves, the road captives were forced to march to the sea, to the Door of No Return: the memorial on the beach where more than a million enslaved Africans, about one in twelve of all those carried across the Atlantic, left these shores over two centuries.
Out early for Togo: about ninety minutes to the border, then immigration. On the way in, stop at the preserved slave house in Agbodrafo. Lomé is an unhurried capital, and the morning covers Independence Square, the Artisans Village and the National Museum. After lunch comes the Fetish Market, the largest traditional medicine market in West Africa, where healers and Vodun practitioners buy dried herbs, animal parts and carved figures; ask before you photograph. Then the fishing harbour, Art Street and the Grand Marché, where much of the cloth trade is run by women. Overnight in Lomé.
The Ghana border at Aflao is ten minutes from the hotel, so the day starts with passports rather than a drive. After immigration it’s about five hours on the coastal road to Accra, crossing the Volta on the way. You arrive in the afternoon with the evening free; the next two days are full.
A day in Ghana’s capital that starts with independence. The Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park honours the man who led the country to it in 1957, and Independence Square, also called Black Star Square, is where the nation holds its parades. After the National Museum, drive past Osu Castle, the former seat of the presidency and before that a Danish fort, then walk Jamestown, Accra’s oldest neighbourhood, where Ga fishermen still launch canoes from the beach below the lighthouse. In the afternoon, drive west to Cape Coast for the night.
A day for the castles, and for going slowly. Cape Coast Castle, the largest of the slave forts on the Gold Coast, held captives in underground dungeons for weeks before they were shipped across the Atlantic. A short drive west, Elmina Castle is older: the Portuguese built it in 1482, and it is the oldest European building in sub-Saharan Africa. Both are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Local guides take you through the dungeons and the officers’ rooms built above them. Take whatever time you need. Back to Accra in the evening.
A last morning in Accra, with time for a walk or a coffee depending on your flight, then the transfer to Kotoka International Airport.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Expedition Investment
per person
Covers seven nights’ hotels, daily breakfast, the activities in the itinerary and all ground transport
International airfare and visa fees not included
Reserve Your SpotBenin, Togo and Ghana see a steady stream of visitors along this coast, and Ghana in particular is regarded as one of Africa’s safest destinations. The everyday risks are ordinary ones: traffic on the coast road, pickpockets in a crowded market, the midday heat. Our local guides have long relationships in the communities on this route, and we handle both border crossings and every transfer, so the paperwork and logistics are ours to worry about.
