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“WOMEN OF THE WATER

Sometimes you arrive in a place that pulls you in completely, Ganvié was such a place.

“Women of Water” weaves together many threads: cultural identity, women’s empowerment, environment, climate change, and of course, the precious element that is water.
It takes you to Ganvié, a fishing village built on water, on the southern coast of Benin in West Africa.

Nicknamed the “Venice of Africa,” this floating city born from people escaping slave trade and hiding on the water, stretches across Lake Nokoué, its stilt houses sheltering some 40,000 inhabitants.Water is everywhere, and yet rare, precious, vital.

Women with children navigate the waters in small wooden pirogues, colorful fabrics stretched as sails to catch the wind.
Ganvie, alive with vibrant energy, and at its center… women, silent warriors: proud, elegant, determined.
They seemed to carry the whole village with their strength and grace, giving life a peaceful rhythm, a balance between survival and beauty, resilience and dignity.

It is they who manage the water, watching over great vessels, measuring, controlling, preserving, ensuring every drop is used with wisdom and caution.

These photographs are not just glimpses of daily life.
They are a tribute to the women of the water: mothers, educators, bearers of memory, transmitters of tradition.

They are the pillars of Ganvié.”