Women Travellers Programme

Arrive Cotonou individually. 6pm: group meeting at hotel — the first time all participants are together. Rosalie leads the welcome session personally. Group introductions, itinerary overview, a VBR safety and practical briefing specific to women travelling in Benin Republic, and the cultural context that makes the next 7 days meaningful. Welcome dinner at a women-run Cotonou restaurant.

Morning: Fondation Zinsou — the museum’s female curators lead a private tour focused on women in Beninese artistic and cultural life. Afternoon: structured visit to Dantokpa Market with a focus on the female traders who run the majority of the market’s most profitable sections — the spice quarter, the textile section, and the wholesale produce market. Meeting with 2 female Cotonou entrepreneurs (introduction arranged by VBR). Evening: Cotonou lagoon sunset.

Transfer to Ouidah. The Vodoun tradition has a significant female dimension — female priests (Mambo), female initiates with specific ritual roles, and the goddess Mami Wata who presides over water, wealth, and transformation. Rosalie facilitates a meeting with a female Vodoun priestess. Afternoon: Temple du Serpent and sacred grove. Sunset at La Porte du Non-Retour.

Transfer to Ganvié by pirogue. The lake village is unusual in West African social structure for the prominent role of women in both the market economy and the community governance — women run the inter-village trading pirogues, women hold specific community leadership roles, and women dominate the fish-drying and processing industry that is Ganvié’s primary economic activity. A structured meeting with a female Ganvié community leader arranged by VBR.

Transfer to Porto-Novo. Morning: the Afro-Brazilian Aguda community’s women artisans — the embroidery and textile traditions brought from Brazil and maintained through female family lineages in Porto-Novo. Afternoon: Marché Ouando, where the majority of stall holders and market coordinators are women. Meeting with the female market president — an elected position that carries significant community authority.

Transfer to Grand-Popo. Morning: the women’s fishing cooperative — a female-led commercial fishing enterprise on the Mono river delta that manages one of the most productive fish yields on the coast. Afternoon: beach, swimming, optional yoga session (facilitated if requested). Evening: beach dinner, the Atlantic at night, the last sunset of the tour.

Return to Cotonou. Final afternoon: return visit to the female entrepreneurs met on Day 2 — this time for a structured group conversation rather than an introduction. The group brings their observations from the week; the entrepreneurs share their perspective on women’s economic and social position in Benin Republic. Evening: farewell dinner with the female entrepreneurs as guests — the most meaningful meal of the trip.