By tradition Ganvié was founded in the 16th or 17th century by the Tofinu people, who settled on the lake to escape capture by Fon warriors raiding for the slave trade. The community lives in houses raised on stilts, moving between them by dugout canoe, and depends heavily on fishing and on reed-fenced fish farms in the shallows. Often described as one of the largest lake villages in Africa, it lies on Lake Nokoué a short distance north of Cotonou and has been on Benin's UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List since 1996.
More in Benin