In Ouidah, in the south of Benin, indigenous communities who lived from fishing, fish smoking, horticulture, and handicrafts were evicted without prior notice to make way for a luxury tourism mega-project as part of a national plan to establish Benin as an international tourist destination. The evictions have led to unprecedented precariousness, with the destruction of our livelihoods and means of subsistence. They have destroyed farmlands, ancestral homes, fishing materials and equipment, fish smoking structures, sites for selling natural and artisanal products, places of worship, and other personal belongings. To confront the evictions, we organized ourselves into a cooperative, AMAPECH, through which we not only demand compensation from the Beninese government but also conducted a participatory photography workshop to document the conflict and expose the impacts of the evictions from a community perspective. The result has been a collective photobook that showcases the reality of Ouidah as an example of the effects of rogue capitalism.

In the south of Benin, in West Africa, about forty kilometers from Cotonou, on the coastal strip of the village of Kouvênanfidé, in the district of Djêgbadji, municipality of Ouidah, indigenous communities have lived for generations from fishing, fish smoking, horticulture, salt production, and handicrafts. Productive and cultural knowledge has been passed down from generation to generation among the families living on the coast, maintaining social and environmental balance for decades. Fishing and agriculture ensure a balanced diet, coconuts hydrate and refresh us when the midday temperature rises, beliefs and cults organize life, and celebrations with dances and drums maintain social balance and cultural richness. The region is full of mangroves, and the beach is a nesting place for turtles. The mangroves, which have slowly recovered in recent years, are an oasis with a unique ecosystem.

On October 26, 2021, barely a year after the global COVID-19 health emergency erupted and while restrictions were still in place across the country, 4,198 people who had lived in this region for generations were forcibly displaced to establish a luxury tourism mega-project. Excavators and tractors destroyed our homes and sites without prior notice, without allowing us to save our belongings, and without receiving fair compensation or adequate support measures.

Excavators and tractors destroyed our homes and sites without warning, without us being able to save our belongings and without fair compensation or adequate support measures.

Since then, our communities have been subjected to unprecedented precariousness. We have lost cultivable lands, homes where our ancestors lived for generations, fishing materials and equipment, fish-smoking structures, sites for selling natural and artisanal products, places of worship, and other personal belongings. This has been especially painful for our communities, as these places personify our bond with the land and territory, where the spirits of our ancestors rest. They are sacred places, and those with cult fetishes must be protected from public view, as they are not allowed to be seen without the priests’ consent. Now, those that have not been destroyed have been exposed. Except for one particularly significant case, a large fetish near the beach, which was left in place because the excavator driver refused to obey the demolition order.

The evictions have fostered the spread of diseases, disrupted cultural and religious practices with profaned and exposed deities, and abandoned ancestral graves. Land grabs have broken the social fabric and generated serious social consequences, with an increase in school dropouts, divorces, and abandonment of the family home. Regarding the region’s ecosystem, the mangroves have been partially destroyed due to the construction of a bridge to facilitate access to the tourism project. The local population had worked with environmental NGOs for years to restore and protect the mangroves. The tourism project affects the nesting sites of turtles and migratory birds, disrupting the balance of a much larger ecosystem. Together with these organizations, the communities initiated a petition to demand that the government of Benin stop the project.

Since then, the communities have been subjected to unprecedented precariousness. We have lost our land, housing, places of worship, fishing equipment and sites to sale fish and handicrafts.

Demoliciones de casas y sitios espirituales en Ouidah.

Hidden Financial Interests Behind The Development for the Wealthy

The displacement of communities is driven by a mega-project by Benin’s government to construct a net of tourist resorts, hotels, and roads. The project is part of a five-year action plan for 2021-2026. The “Marina Porte du Non-Retour” (The Port of No Return Marina) aims to create an exclusive tourist resort for wealthy African and international tourists near Ouidah, about 40 km from Cotonou. Benin’s government, through its tourism promotion agency, presents the project as a way to capitalize on the beautiful sea, beach, and lagoon area, which is also ecologically and historically significant. The project is part of a broader strategy by Benin’s government to make the country an international tourist destination.

To achieve this, the government has entrusted the operation of this hotel complex to CLUB MED through a 20-year operation contract. However, local communities were not involved in a participatory decision-making process about the development of the area they inhabit. The construction is carried out by the Chinese company Yunnan Construction and Investments Holding Group (YCIH). The logos of several Chinese and transnational banks are displayed on banners around the construction sites. A Tunisian company, called SCET-TUNISIE, is conducting feasibility and impact studies. According to the company’s website, the project budget amounts to 60 million euros and is financed with public money.

The displacement of communities is driven by a mega-project by Benin’s government to construct a net of tourist resorts, hotels, and roads.

Additionally, this tourist complex comes with the construction of a road project called “La Route des Pêches” (The Fishing Road), a large network of roads stretching from Cotonou to Ouidah along the coast. The impacts of this project on other communities and villages on the West African coast are still unknown in the context of the current large public and private investments to expand infrastructure in Africa.

This project should be considered part of a broader initiative to expand infrastructure in West Africa: the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor, which includes a highway of more than 1,000 km built directly next to where the evictions occurred. The highway connects the main ports of five West African countries: Lagos (Nigeria), Cotonou (Benin), Lomé (Togo), Accra (Ghana), and Abidjan (Ivory Coast). This highway is set to become a major African trade route and is part of initiatives aimed at accelerating the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). In addition to increasing trade in West Africa, the corridor will have significant impacts on ecosystems and communities. It will drastically transform the coastline, which is likely to become a densely populated and highly urbanized area.

The website of the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor also mentions partners such as the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), the German cooperation agency GIZ, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the World Bank Group.

This project should be considered part of a broader initiative to expand infrastructure in West Africa: the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor, a highway of more than 1,000 that will connect the ports of five countries.

Collective stories of eviction

From November 21 to 27, 2022, we held a collective creation workshop based on documentary photography in Ouidah with the participation of members of the organizations of the Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles of West Africa (CGLTE-OA) from Benin, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo and Niger, as well as members of the AMAPECH cooperative of Ouidah (Benin). The creative process was coordinated by members of the documentary image organization RUIDO Photo (Spain), members of the peasant organization UNICAM SURI-LVC (Argentina), and members of the human rights organization FIAN International.

To this end, the workshop participants met for seven days to create a photographic series to explain the conflict and provide a collective narrative of the evictions and the impacts of the tourism mega-project. The result has been a photobook in which the photographs taken by the participants are exhibited along with the stories they created.

The objective was to make visible the effects of rogue capitalism through a participatory photography workshop with the affected communities and members of other social organizations

The community struggle continues

After the evictions, many affected families formed a cooperative called AMAPECH to organize our means of survival and the needs resulting from the evictions. Through an assembly represented by producers of handicrafts, salt, artisanal fishing, fish smoking, and horticulture, we collectively confronted the consequences of the touristic megaproject. Our demands are based on obtaining fair compensation and relocation for all displaced people. However, we also want to warn of a development model based on gigantic financial investment projects that transform the common goods of the communities into a business for the benefit of a few.