Before coming to Burkina Faso three years ago, I had only traveled outside of the United States to Canada (which doesn't really count because Rochester, NY is practically Canada anyway), but I always had a little nomad living inside of me who loved learning about other places and cultures and itched to visit exotic places one day. One of the reasons 
I loved going to the library and reading books so much was because it allowed to me be that little nomad by reading stories about people who lived in and traveled to those places I wanted to go so badly. And this is what is so great about village libraries in Burkina. Very few people in this country get to leave their villages to visit the capital city, much less another country, but by reading about them, they get to visit them and learn there is a big, big world outside of their village.
I was reminded of this today when I was reading the book review of Ivette Koura, one of the librarians in Béréba. She read a book about a village in Benin, Ganvié, which is situated on the water and is often called the "Venice of Benin." The village, Ivette discovers, is like any other in that there are restaurants and health clinics, but everyone has to get around by boat and all the children learn how to swim at a young age. The village was founded when the ancestors of the current inhabitants chased them from their village. Those who were menacing the people of Ganvié were forbidden by their religion to enter the water, so they decided to reconstruct their village on stilts in the middle of a nearby lagoon. There, because their enemies could not enter the water, the people of Ganvié were protected in their new home.
Here is what Ivette wrote about the book, La Peur de l'Eau by Dominique Mwankumi:
I loved going to the library and reading books so much was because it allowed to me be that little nomad by reading stories about people who lived in and traveled to those places I wanted to go so badly. And this is what is so great about village libraries in Burkina. Very few people in this country get to leave their villages to visit the capital city, much less another country, but by reading about them, they get to visit them and learn there is a big, big world outside of their village. I was reminded of this today when I was reading the book review of Ivette Koura, one of the librarians in Béréba. She read a book about a village in Benin, Ganvié, which is situated on the water and is often called the "Venice of Benin." The village, Ivette discovers, is like any other in that there are restaurants and health clinics, but everyone has to get around by boat and all the children learn how to swim at a young age. The village was founded when the ancestors of the current inhabitants chased them from their village. Those who were menacing the people of Ganvié were forbidden by their religion to enter the water, so they decided to reconstruct their village on stilts in the middle of a nearby lagoon. There, because their enemies could not enter the water, the people of Ganvié were protected in their new home.
Here is what Ivette wrote about the book, La Peur de l'Eau by Dominique Mwankumi:
Ganvié, une ville Béninoise, dont le nom signifie « la collectivité est sauvé » appelé aussi Vénice de l'Afrique d'une population de quinze mille habitants. Comme dans n'importe quelle autre ville, il y a des écoles, des restaurants, des dispensaires pour les services de santé. Mais ne peut y circuler sans bateau et les enfants apprennent très tôt à manœuvre une pirogue et à nager.
Les habitants de Ganvié, dans l'ancien temps à l'époque de l'esclavage et des guerres fratricides, leurs ancêtres étaient menacés par les soldats d'Abomey et comme la religion de ses habitants leur interdisait de traversés l'eau et même de longer les sites inondés donc les habitants de Ganvié pour leur échapper, les ancêtres ont eu l'idée de s'installer sur l'eau et construire des cases sur pilotis entre le lac et les lagunes et ils étaient parfaitement protégés. Des milles de touristes y vont chaque année attirés par les maisons sur pilotis, le ballet de pirogues et aussi par la tradition vaudou.
Pino, qui est le héros de ce livre, sait que Ganvié est simplement l'endroit où vit sa famille depuis des générations. Son cousin, Alladaye, lui vient du plateau d'Abomey où les habitants ont peur de l'eau venue rendre visite à son cousin à Ganvié. Pino a bord de « la biblio-pirogue » - comme son nom l'indique c'est une bibliothèque ambulante, servante aussi au transport des personnes - est allé retrouver son cousin que le taxi-moto « le Zémidjan » a transporté jusqu'au bord de l'eau.
A Ganvié, le jour du marché, les deux garçons ont un rendez-vous pour la première fois surmontant le peur d'Alladaye avec les techniques de nager que son cousin Pino l'avait appris. La légende dit que le premier qui plonge à l'eau avant le début du marché aura toujours les faveurs des dieux du lac.
