Courtesy of Dan Airth
The idea to start a swim school in Benin came to me when I saw these kids hanging off the side of a mud-filled boat in the middle of Lake Nokoue. Every now and then one would disappear under the murky water and then reappear a few seconds later simultaneously laughing and gagging and clinging again to the boat. Then they could empty their buckets into the boat adding to the pile of mud. I wanted to tell them to swim over to my boat but I left them to their fun. I also realized that although these kids lived their whole lives surrounded by water, none of them could actually swim.
Surrounded by Water
Benin is a small, French-speaking country squeezed between Nigeria and Ghana in West Africa. It is part of the Francophone confederation of countries which often are forgotten in what people think of as the emerging Africa. What I also learned from living there for 10 months is that peaceful, democratic African countries don’t make the news. Cotonou, the largest city, is literally surrounded by water on three sides: the Atlantic Ocean, Lake Nokue and a small inlet that connects them. The city is actually below sea-level and when a storm comes, the streets flood and the homes along the beaches are washed away by the high waves. In the storms of 2008, 18,000 homes were destroyed in Cotonou alone. (Nguessan, 2008).
The ocean is an enemy not only because it destroys local’s property, but because so many people drown in the ferocious surf. There are no lifeguards on the beaches along in Cotonou proper, and leaving the city there is nothing but palm-frond huts.
The families who live in them are without water or electricity and cook over open fires. The sand road that runs along the beach, called the Rue de Peche, is passable only with a 4×4 vehicle or a motorcycle and washes out regularly. Because of the lack of infrastructure, there is no place to treat a drowning victim either.
Even compared to the rest of Africa, Benin is far behind creating a chain of resources for addressing the drowning problem. Togo, it’s neighbor, is beginning to understand the importance of water safety and became a member of the International Lifesaving Association in 2012. In countries like Ghana and The Gambia, the British-based non-profit Royal National Lifeguarding Institute (RNLI) is assisting in training lifeguards and establishing safety zones on the local beaches. Ghana also has organized swimming and water-safety schools.
It’s is hard to say how many people drown on these beaches but according to most African experts the numbers are drastically underreported and will never be known. (Kobusingye, 2006). A study in Uganda that investigated this phenomena found that over a 5 year span, there were no reported fatalities due to drowning at the five largest hospitals in the country. This followed an earlier study which surveyed over 7000 Ugandans and found drowning as the leading cause of fatal injury accountable for over 27% of injury-related deaths.
Another study of five countries in Southeast Asia found that the rate of actual drownings in the five countries were about 30 per 100,000. This figure made incidental drowning the number one ranked cause of death for those less than 18 years old. Earlier larger studies put this rate much lower at around 6.6 cases per 100,000.
Paddling to Nowhere
I had the crazy idea I could paddle my way to Ganvie, called the Venice of Africa, in a dugout canoe. Instead of finding Venice, I found rows and rows of rickety, platform houses on stilts dug into the floor of the lake. The world that these people lived in reminded me of the movie Waterworld.
From birth, a watery planet is all they know
Ganvie sprang into being from dire circumstances. In the 1700s, natives trying to escape the Portuguese slave traders, paddled out into the middle of the lake and found a little patch of dry land. The word Ganvie literally means, “safe at last”. Today, the 30,000 residents who make up the floating village live just like their ancestors did; fishing and trading with the mainland. Ganvie is also Benin’s largest tourist destination although most residents don’t see it that way.
My guide and fellow paddler, Frank, was a resident of Ganvie and I asked him if maybe he got bored living in a platform house without electricity or plumbing. His quietly smiled and said “no way” in a native accent. Life has changed quickly in Cotonou with the introduction of cable television and the internet only a few years ago. Even today, life in Ganvie is a kind of escape.
Paddling with Frank out on the lake, I felt the eyes of the women transporting their husband’s daily catch of fish to the dock in Cotonou. There are motorized boats that act as taxis, but if you need to transport a boat load of fish, paddling is the only way. These woman paddlers are amazing athletes as they can paddle the entire eight mile round trip in a day. It took me and Frank two tortuous hours together in an empty dugout canoe to go just one way.
About half way to Ganvie, the rough, heavy wooden paddle burned my muscles and I would have given anything for my light-weight carbon fiber model back in California. Very soon, the recreation factor diminished and I again arrived at the realization I kept making over and over again: Life is not easy in Africa.
Approaching the village, we came upon more of the dredging kids again this time their boats tied up around a patch of land. I didn’t understand what it was until Frank explained what was happening. The kids were dropping off their loads of mud to add to the graveyard where the locals bury their dead.
Africans Can’t Swim
The ocean is not a place of swimming, surfing, paddling or any type of recreation. The only ones who brave it are the strongest and they have the hardest lives of all- fishing. Most Beninise fear the ocean and I met many boys who spent their whole lives on the beach but had never been in the surf. For Beninise, the ocean is just a vast expanse to gaze at and wonder about the world outside.
Almost all of my students had a personal story of someone drowning in the surf. According to UNICEF report, drowning for adolescents “is a result of less supervision and increased independence, increased risk-taking and greater exposure to open water during work or leisure”. Boys are about twice as likely as girls to die from drowning. What this means is that those that those daring few who venture out into the surf are the ones who die.
Africans fear the ocean but they also believe they can’t swim.
I was amazed when a co-worker said that Africans had a different body composition than “yovos” (the local term for white people) making it more difficult for them to float! I showed him pictures of American Olympian Cullen Jones and explained that some of the best young swimmers in the United States were of African descent. However, he still gave me doubtful looks.
Most Africans also see swimming as something only for the rich. If they see a video of Lebron James doing a high-dive in his pristine backyard pool, they believe it. My rich neighbor in Cotonou boasted his status by building a huge gated compound characteristic of West Africa. When I first saw his swimming pool from the roof of my apartment building, I was happy that at least some Beninese enjoy getting in the water. However, after 10 months living next door, I never saw anyone in the pool.
A Failed Dream in Benin
Changing the perception of swimming from a rich man’s luxury to a sport for all is a long road. One reason may be that young people are not inspired to swim. One way to do this is to develop competitive swimmers as sports figures. Amazingly, since 2004, there have been three Beninise swimmers who have actually qualified for the Olympics. However, none of them advanced out of their heats, and are not well-known in Benin.
It’s hard to believe, but the local government made swimming a focus of its national development in 1982, when they opened the door to China to finance an Olympic training complex in Cotonou. The $10 million project included a 35,000 seat soccer stadium and was dubbed Stad de l’Amitie (Friendship Stadium). The aquatic facility is comprised of three pools- two 50-meter lap pools and a 5-meter deep pool with 10-meter diving platform. When finished, it was the first Olympic-sized pool in West Africa.
Today, it is still open to the public but there are hardly any funds to maintain it. Only one of the lap pools is open while the others sit half-full of rain water making the whole facility look derelict. On the far side of the pools, concrete grandstands large enough to accommodate at least a couple thousand spectators loom over the complex. Locals can walk up to the press box at the top which provides a nice view of Cotonou.
The first time I swam the “Stad”, I noticed there were only a few locals sitting at plastic tables scattered around the pool deck and sipping the local beer.
By the time I jumped in and finished my warm-up, they had left their tables and were standing alongside the pool shooting video of me with their cell phones. They asked a million questions and were amazed that I could keep my body afloat. Finally, they always finished with one question, “Can you teach me how to swim?”
I met many locals at the pool but two girls stand out in my mind. One served beer to the pool-side loungers. I told her she was lucky because she must go swimming every day. I was heart-broken when she told me she didn’t have the money to buy a swimsuit. After buying her a swimsuit at the local second-hand clothes market, I saw her jump in the pool for the first time. Another girl had the courage to actually ask me how to swim, and I spent about an hour teaching her how to flutter kick across the pool on a half-full inner tube.
Changing the Tide in Benin
In order to transform life for Beninese, water safety and swimming need to be taught from childhood on. Not surprisingly, learning to swim falls along economic lines; those in rich countries learn to swim while kids in poor countries don’t have the opportunity. Countries like Benin need long-term, sustainable programs to educate children on water safety and swimming.
There are many ways learning to swim can help Beninise. Fostering competitive swimming can bring pride to a nation of young people without much to be proud of. Of course, teaching youth to swim will also potentially save lives. Swimming can also be a bridge for starting recreational businesses like surfing, kayaking or fishing.
Most importantly, teaching kids to swim allows them and their family’s access to sport and the life-sustaining values it creates. As kids in California, our mothers brought us to the pool every week not only to learn to swim but to learn how to overcome our fears and achieve our goals.
Now that I am back in California, I am creating a non-profit called Help Benin Swim. Learning from my experiences abroad, I hope to create a sustainable swim school in Benin. I know there are plenty of young people who want to learn to swim. The key is creating partnerships between pool owners and enterprising swim coaches who have the same vision. We want to provide group classes tailored towards kids with an encouraging and systematic curriculum. Group classes will hopefully keep the price of swim lessons affordable. As a long-time teacher, I know that kids can learn anything when people work together to make it a priority.
For more information, please see my website www.helpbeninswim.weebly.com or reach me at [email protected]. I also have a campain on gofundme at https://www.gofundme.com/HelpBeninSwim.
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Great article…interesting.