Portuguese Fort (Ouidah, Benin):

This tour was given in French, so I had to rely solely on my limited French vocabulary and translations. The slaves who left this Portuguese Fort were sent to Brazil and took with them the religion of Voodoo, which can be found and practiced in present day Brazil. Many Brazilians can trace their ancestry back to Benin. This fort was a functioning post in the African Slave Trade until 1737…over 300 years. The fort has been restored into a museum. There are 13 rooms filled with artifacts found on the beaches or in the forest. There is an outdoor section of the fort that was used to store slaves for 15 days in heat, rain, and minimum food; if the slaves survived these 15 days it was determined they were healthy enough to make the journey.

After surviving the 15 days the slaves were chained together and marched to the “Point of No Return,” which is about 3 km. The “Point of No Return,” is where the slaves were told to forget their former lives and anything related to the past. I actually got the opportunity to walk the last 300 meters of the slaves’ journey…I was speechless and still am. Irony: This is the most beautiful beach I have ever seen and in this beauty so many souls were tormented and abandoned…in such beauty lies immense ugliness.

In 2001, a “Door of Return” was built for people returning back to their ancestry. I RETURNED!!!!!!! It is a feeling that I wish my ancestors could have experienced.