Meeting the King of Dassa

To be frank there are not many sights in Dassa, the Royal Palais is a run-down building and was closed at the time of my visit. If it was not for the fading letters on the wall saying Royal Palais, it would pass for another descript building in a dusty town.
The present king chooses to live in a simply house right next to it. He receives visitors, when they bring a bottle of gin and CFA 5000 in cash as a present. As soon as you approach the palace, a young boy provides this information. If you go for it, you give the boy the 3500 CFA for the gin and then wait in a large room, empty except for a throne at one end and large clothes hanging from the wall on the other displaying the names and symbol oof this royal family. The gin is brought by the boy, the king appears clad in an impressive glittery green robe and headdress. You approach his majesty, you bow, you kneel down and the king touches your back and head with a huge white feather. Then you can sit to his feet next to his throne and chitchat with him about his role in local politics and how the kingship is passed on.

It is not automatically a son of a king to succeed, but the royal family lets an oracle decided.

This is Collines country, Dassa is surrounded by small hills topped with gigantic boulders. One of them is a sacred one, right next to the palace. Legends say that during the slave trade population was hiding in these hills trying to avoid capture, very much like the people of Ganvie, the stilt village on Lake Nokoue 30km north of Cotonou. With this kind of dust in the air it did make much sense to climb up, visibility was too poor to get a nice view, taking photos was even more senseless.

Dassa is a focal point for all transport proceeding further north, at the T-junction busses and overloaded trucks turn either left toward Burkina Fasso and Mali or right, if heading for Niger. The road into Dassa’s center is lined with eateries where all these trucks and busses stop, quite a show and commotion. Due to recent kidnappings and attacks in Mali and northern Nigeria the busses now travel in a convoy.