PORTUGUESE FORT - OUIDAH HISTORY MUSEUM

Between the 17th and 18th centuries, several forts were built, including the English fort William in 1682 and the French fort Saint-Louis-de-Grégory, built in 1704 from an earlier settlement probably founded in 1671. As well as the Danish and Dutch forts, both have disappeared. The French fort was razed in 1908. On its site, the current buildings of the PTT, the pharmacy and the hospital of Ouidah were erected. Its model is still visible in the city's history museum.

Fort São João Baptista de Ajuda was built in 1721 by a ship's captain, Joseph de Torres, a native of Bahia. Over the years, it lost its military character, but it remained under Portuguese sovereignty after the annexation of Dahomey by France in 1892, and even after Dahomey gained independence in 1960. It was not until 1961 that this anachronism was put to an end, much to the displeasure of the Portuguese who set fire to the building before leaving. The carcass of a car inside the fort bears witness to this diplomatic incident.

The Portuguese fort is trapezoidal in shape and covers nearly one hectare. In addition to the administrative and military outbuildings, it housed kitchens, a bread oven, a henhouse and an orchard, which ensured a quasi-autonomous existence. Opened in 1967, the museum set up in the fort retraced the history of Ouidah and the slave trade. It closed its doors for a major renovation and the installation of a new museum. Most of the exhibits have been transferred to the House of Memory for the time being.

At the end of 2022 / beginning of 2023, the International Museum of Memory and Slavery (Mime) will take place behind the walls. This is one of the many projects underway as part of the colossal heritage development project. The 662 m² space will host a permanent exhibition that will first evoke the relationship between Africa and Europe before the slave trade, then in a second time the spiral of the trade and finally the fight for freedom. With the ambition to "think the journey from the African point of view". Visitors will be able to observe original objects and reconstructed pieces, as well as numerous immersive audiovisual aids, with which they can follow, for example, the exodus of Cujo Lewis, one of the last survivors of the slave trade, who had to board the Clotilda, the last slave ship that left Ouidah in Alabama in the United States in 1860.