This is just a small collection of photographs I took in Benin in 2006, where I travelled in West Africa. I went to see Ouidah, where voodoo thrives and where the footprint of the horrific slave trade had been left; Abomey, where the kings of the Kingdom of Dahomey resided and triggered the slave trade by selling their brothers and sisters to the white man in exchange of guns and gunpowder and where a few royal palaces still remain under the watchful eye of UNESCO; and Porto-Novo, the capital of this exemplary democracy, where I was lucky to witness the inauguration of the new President of the Republic, very lucky to see the present King of Abomey, and to visit the National Assembly and meet the Speaker and the Treasurer of the House! I also went to Cotonou, but I did not take pictures there. Benin is a wonderful place to visit - colourful, save, welcoming and friendly.
