Parakou

Parakou began as a Bariba settlement on the trade routes that crossed the Borgou, in country dominated by the horse-riding kingdoms of which Nikki was one of the most important. Its site, on the watershed between the coastal rivers and those running to the Niger, made it a staging point for caravans moving kola nuts, salt, cloth and captives between the Hausa and Yoruba lands and the Sahel, and Dendi and Hausa traders settled beside the Bariba in the quarter still called Zongo, the West African name for a strangers' trading ward.

The French took control of the Borgou in the 1890s, in competition with the British, who held the neighbouring Borgu lands in what became Nigeria. What transformed the town was the railway: the line built north from Cotonou reached Parakou in the mid-1930s and stopped there, making the town the point where everything bound for the north and for landlocked Niger changed from rail to road. Warehouses, transport companies and an administrative centre followed, and the population grew far beyond that of the older royal towns.

Independence in 1960 confirmed the city's role. As Niger's traffic through the port of Cotonou grew, so did Parakou's lorry parks and depots, and the city became the capital of Borgou department and the seat of northern politics; Thomas Boni Yayi, president from 2006 to 2016, came from this region. A university opened in 2001. Rail traffic declined and the station closed to passengers, leaving road haulage to carry the trade, and the city has continued to spread outwards while the insurgency in the far north has pushed soldiers, displaced families and aid operations into it.

Parakou is a Bariba city with a strong Dendi and Hausa presence, and Fulani, Yoruba, Otammari and southern Beninese communities besides. Bariba, or Baatonum, is the language most heard, with Dendi serving as a trade language and French in offices and schools. Islam is the majority religion and shapes the calendar — the fast of Ramadan, the two Eids, and Friday prayer that empties the market for an hour — while Catholic and Protestant churches serve a substantial minority and older customs persist alongside both.

The Bariba are known for horsemanship. At the Gaani festival, whose date moves with the Bariba lunar calendar, riders in heavy robes and turbans parade before their king with drums, trumpets and praise singers; the ceremony's home is Nikki, east of the city, but Parakou families take part and the festival is the great expression of northern identity. Griots and praise poets still attach themselves to notable families, and horses remain a mark of status in the region.

Authority is layered. The traditional chief of Parakou holds a recognised place beside elected mayors and state officials, and disputes over land, marriage and inheritance are often settled in his court before they reach any other. Hospitality is obligatory and greetings are extended: it is normal to ask after a household, its health and its work before any business begins.

About 255,000 people were counted in the commune at the 2013 census, and the city has grown since, making it the largest in northern Benin. It is low-built and wide, with a dense commercial core and quarters spreading along the highways, and the noise of motorcycles from dawn is the constant background.

The economy is trade and transport. Goods for Niger and the northern departments pass through the depots and lorry parks; cotton from the Borgou and Alibori is ginned and shipped; cashew nuts, shea, yams and grain are bought from farmers and sent south. A brewery, cotton processing and small workshops provide the manufacturing, and the university, hospital and government offices provide the salaried jobs. Around all of it works a large informal economy of market traders, mechanics, tailors and motorcycle-taxi riders.

Life outside work runs on the market, the mosque and the compound. Households are large and often multi-generational, water and electricity can be unreliable in the outer quarters, and the afternoon heat empties the streets before the evening fills the maquis and the tea stalls. The insurgency further north is felt here indirectly: more soldiers, more displaced families, fewer travellers, and a constant awareness of what is happening on the borders.

Pounded yam is the pride of Parakou. Boiled yam is beaten in a tall wooden mortar until it becomes a smooth, elastic dough, then torn by hand and dipped in a sauce of groundnut, tomato with meat, or dark leaves, and it is what eating houses and households come back to. Where yams give way to grain, millet and sorghum are cooked into tô, a stiff porridge eaten with okra or baobab-leaf sauce, and rice dishes including the coastal ayimolou, rice and beans, are everyday food.

Northern specialities fill the market. Wagasi, the soft cow's-milk cheese of the north, is sold in abundance here in pale discs and fried in slices until it browns; kilishi, thin sheets of spiced dried meat of Hausa origin, is a Parakou staple and a traveller's gift; afitin, made from fermented néré seeds, gives sauces their pungent depth; and shea butter from the surrounding parkland is used for frying. Grilled mutton and beef, sold by the skewer near the market and the lorry parks, is the classic evening food.

Drinks divide along religious lines. In Muslim households and the Zongo quarter it is strong sweet tea, ginger juice, bissap from hibiscus and sweetened milk; in the maquis it is bottled beer and soft drinks, and in the surrounding villages the cloudy millet beer tchoukoutou is still brewed by women and served in calabashes. Mangoes, oranges and cashew apples come in season from the orchards of the Borgou.