Tchetti and the Man-Eating Mountain

 January 3

Day #7 – Started : Tchetti                             Ended: Bohicon                        Distance Covered: 93 km

Highlights

• Hidden shrine
• Zangbetos

Click on the images below to enlarge them.

The land between Tchetti and

Djidja is filled with scenic, 

open fields such as this one.

A Zangbeto.  These

dancing haystacks are

known as the protectors

of the night, but during

this time of the year they

are often found at various 

important celebrations

A sacrifice 

on the road

to Bohicon that I nearly passed

by. 

It appears that

the person making the offer

created a circle with cinders

and offered up a bottle of palm

oil and a chicken.  The building

in the back is a shrine.

As our trip starts to take us further south, we are beginning to encounter more forms of traditional beliefs, in particular in the forms of shrines and fetishes.  Note that the term “fetish” does not nearly hold the same connotation in as it does in the United States.  In Benin, a fetish is simply some object (or occasionally a place in nature) that is said to serve as a home to a given spirit.  Thus, those who believe in the fetish and its spirit’s powers will often maintain the areas in which these relics are found and occasionally pay tributes to them.  Tributes frequently include offerings of palm oil, strong liquor, and animal sacrifices.

One of the mini-mountains that the village of
Tchetti is built around

After spending the night in the town of Tchetti, part of our team decided to wake up early and explore one of the nearby mini-mountains.  Normally these hills are off-limits to simple passer-bys, but we had met with one of the village chiefs the night before and he had given us permission to check them out.  Our original plan was to climb to the top and watch the sunrise, but it turned out that most of the slopes were far too steep and slippery to do so safely.  While looking for a potential climbing route, however, we stumbled upon something much more interesting – we found a natural cave that housed two jars and what looked to be some palm oil offerings.  We’d found a fetish!

This all reminded me of a story that I'd heard about Tchetti from some of my village friends, and later on in the day I was able to confirm it with another volunteer who'd stayed with a host family from Tchetti.

The story goes that many years ago, during the slave trade when different ethnic groups were spurred into fighting each other, the people of Tchetti were under attack by the Adja (another ethnic group) and they fled to one of the nearby hills.  The fleeing villagers knew that they were not able to fight off the Adja and that their only chance of survival was to hide, so they spoke to the mountain and asked it to keep them concealed from the attackers.  In response, the mountain opened up and allowed the people of Tchetti inside of it, and then closed its walls around them.  Once the Adja returned to their lands in the south, the mountain opened back up and let the people out.

But there was a catch – the mountain told the villagers that they must now give a human sacrifice in turn for the protection.  The people of Tchetti didn’t want to take the life of one of their own, however, so they neglected the mountain’s demand and went on with their lives.

Time went on and the Adja returned to Tchetti looking for more slaves to bring back south.  Once again, the villagers fled to the mountain and asked it to let them inside for protection.  And once again, the mountain saved them from their attackers.  After letting the people of Tchetti out for the second time, the mountain renewed his demand of a human sacrifice for his labor, but the demand was refused and the people of Tchetti returned to their daily activities.

Alongside the mini-mountain we tried to climb.  White

flags were draped all over the slopes, which are a way

of signifying that voodoo is practiced here and that

there are spirits somewhere

Eventually the Adja returned for a third attack.  The people of Tchetti, used to the routine, headed off to the mountain for the third time and begged him open up for them again.  For the third time, he satisfied their demand and sheltered them from the Adja’s attack.  Once the Adja had left, however, he did not re-open his walls, and the people of Tchetti were trapped inside forever.

It’s said that if you get close enough to the mountain you can still hear to voices of those trapped inside. 

I didn’t hear too much chatter going on within that cave we found, but that little shrine sure was pretty cool.