Abomey, Benin

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Abomey to me is an orange town-although it’s the former capital of the ancient Dahomey Kingdom. Almost everything over there is orange in color-including the shirt of the “taxi moto”:P

Ofcourse you guy do not know what is the name of the place for above!!- it’s the entrance of the Royal Palaces of Abomey! before I even took my camera out, I was told NO PICTURES, NO PICTURES!!! My first impression was the royal palaces are SO PRIMITIVE! Ofcourse you do not want anyone to take photos of them so nobody will ever wanted to come here! However, Once I got to know the history behind all the Bas Reliefs, Appliques and Thrones. I was so amazed by all the stories behind that! I couldn’t take photos of the Main Royal palace at all but I did paid a guide some money so I could take photo of the palace of Akaba,etc(see below). The Mud Houses of the main palace are almost the same!

I hate to say I dislike the way they restored the Palaces…why can’t they restored the original roof with Straws but put the TIN ROOF instead???!!! It’s So Ridiculous!! I believe I will like them more if the palaces are more ORIGINAL!. Anyway, I saw the Thrones of kings from different period but all the Assin is missing?! There’s also a throne built upon the skulls of enemies killed in battle. For The King of Dahomey, they really really like to show off their power by chopping off their enemy’s head! Even on Bas Reliefs on the wall of the building, some are with human head hanging around the neck of a dog or a man hold a human head on his hand!!!! But I couldn’t take pictures in the Royal palaces, so I showed you guys some of the Other More “Cheerful Bas Reliefs “in Agoligabo palace and Houesdadja palace instead!

This kingdom recorded everything through Bas Reliefs and Applique! There’s applique for children to learn and Applique that record all the history! For the applique below, you will see the Kings of Abomey used women as Warriors so when his enemies saw them, they would not be as well prepared as they should be!!

Voodoo was a big thing for the Dahomey kingdom and there’s a mud hut inside the palace that was build with blood to hold Scarify ceremony !! There’s Animal Skull all around that building. And you will found Festish inside every palaces. Festish is an object regarded with awe as being the embodiment or habitation of a potent spirit or as havingmagical potency.  I also saw Festish outside the current Abomey King’s residence! People also like sculture very much. You will find unique sculptures everywhere in Benin- snake man, a men with 3 heads,etc, etc!!!

Powerful people there built mansion with Gigantic “Bas reliefs” to Show off!

Some of the new building have really impressive Entrance- still with ANIMAL HEADS..ERK!!!

It is just so amazing to see all these kind of building in Abomey because it’s truly unique! If you see Appliquý and Bas Reliefs,you know you are in Benin.

Lastly, let me show you my hotel in Abomey, there’s a guard outside my room to protect me!!! 

I slept really well that night even there’s tons of BATS flying all over the place!!

I hope this post won’t scared off a lot of Fashionista to Visit Benin cus to me it’s truly amazing:P I bought some Appliqué souvenirs for memories and you will know I was truly impressed by their unique culture! So, next time, when people tell you about Voodoo, don’t just think of Black Magic, it’s a believe in many people’s mind and we have to respect them:)

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