A remote village with 30,000 inhabitants is not common in the most populous countries, China and India, and even more rare is that they all live on the water, which is truly the world's largest water village. Although their ancestors were forced to settle here, they are not worried about eating and drinking at present, and the most feared thing is to go to the toilet.
Located a few dozen kilometers north of Lake Norquay, the capital of Benin, West Africa, due to the low altitude, the Atlantic seawater will be poured into the lake, resulting in a mixed water quality in Lake Noqui, and during the rainy season, a large amount of fresh water from the upstream river will be injected, and freshwater fish will also be brought into the lake, and the fish in the lake are also quite popular.
So why do these people choose to live in the lake? European and American countries arrived on the African continent in the 16th century to plunder resources, and only people could be taken away after more than a hundred years. Therefore, slaves were the largest international trade product on the earth in the 17th century, and these people hid in the lake to avoid the slave trade.
About 300 years ago, almost none of Africa's weak tribal groups escaped this fate, and powerful tribes even took the initiative to cooperate with European colonists in the slave business. The nomadic Fon took the initiative to cooperate with the Dutch, targeting the Tofinu, which has a population of no more than 5,000 people, and their clan has to take refuge in order to avoid becoming black slaves.
Perhaps fortunately in misfortune, the tribesmen learned that the Fon people had the custom of "never entering the water for life", so the whole clan moved to Lake Norquay and gradually built tall buildings in the water based on bamboo and wood. In order to avoid the pursuit and covetousness of the Fon tribe, the name of the clan was changed to "Gonvier", which means all saved.
In fact, there are 37 floating villages in Benin, almost all of which came from the slave trade during the same period. But these water villages are not as large as Gonviete, more than 5 kilometers long and wide, with the increase in population, The area of Gonviei is still expanding, and it has become the largest and most populous water village in the world.
The houses in The Water Village of Gonvière are also very distinctive, except for the public facilities, all buildings are made of bamboo and wood, the bottom tripod is about 2-4 meters high, the highest is 1 meter above the water surface, and the lowest is close to the water. Not afraid of flooding? I am really not afraid, the stilt house with the water is not fixed, and it can rise with the rise of the water level.
Living in the lake, the biggest source of income is naturally fishing, the villagers of Gonvière have gone through twists and turns from the early nomads to the skilled fishermen, and to this day, the wild fish in the lake are still the biggest source of income for the villagers. Before the development of tourism, although there was no level of moderate prosperity, it was not worrying about eating, drinking, and feeding.
In order to experience the life of the villagers in depth, rented one of the cheapest boats, a small sailing boat converted by the youngest fisherman in the village, for only $5 for three hours. After the young man's explanation, I learned that now the villagers know how to protect wild lake fish, and all fish less than two fingers wide are released, and mechanical fishing is not allowed.
Boats row along the central "Central Avenue (really called this name)" all the way to the south of the village, along the way you can see a lot of fishing nets hanging from bamboo poles, these are the most important "breeding bases" for fishermen, and the higher value catches will be temporarily kept in the nets, waiting for buyers to come and buy.
After asking closely, I learned that the villagers' income turned out to be quite good, at least the income of the fishermen was still quite high. For example, this widow named Siweia, after her husband drowned and left three children, all rely on her fishing to survive, but the standard of living is still moderate in the fishing village, because she has a good skill of fishing.
The more famous the tourists, the more the villagers have opened restaurants and homestays and mobile boat shops. The idle nets in fishermen's homes have become a tool for children to earn school fees and pocket money, and a 16-year-old will cast a net at his doorstep every day (parents will not let the boat go to the center of the lake), and if he is lucky, he can make a few dollars in a net.
But water life is still quite inconvenient, fresh water, transportation and living materials must be transported through this small boat, so each household has two or three small boats and a large number of plastic bottles. If it's not a problem, it's awkward to go to the toilet, because there are only about 30 toilets in the water village.
The early villagers were plagued by plague and water pollution because excrement and garbage were discharged haphazardly, and after many collective plagues, the local government mandated that these must be disposed of at designated points. Therefore, if you encounter a toilet queue, you can only row to the nearest shore toilet.