A part of XWØ (Ouidah Ø)

warning, emotionally intense tasking ahead...



Ouidah has one of the most emotionally intense places I've ever visited - the Route des Esclaves, the Route of the Slaves, which runs 4 kilometers from the Portuguese fort, past the Tree of Forgetfulness, to the Door of No Return. Every slave that left Benin's shore (and there were many - the Dahomey Empire was one of the largest supplier of slaves to the New World) walked the Route des Esclaves.

I walked the Route des Esclaves, and I circled the Tree of Forgetfulness, and I walked through the Door of No Return.

The Tree of Forgetfulness is the closest thing we have in the real world to the River Styx - circling it was designed to remove the memories of your past, of your family, of your people, of your language, of your individual identity. It may seem to be just a tree, but imagine being told that by circling this tree, and by passing through this gate, you will never see anyone from your past ever again. Ever. Again.

In the interest of recontextualization, I wanted to use the Route and the Tree and the Door's power for Good, rather than all of the Evil that had stained it for so many years.

I would walk the Route des Esclaves, with broken sandals and no shirt, and write down all the things I wanted to forget in my life, and I would circle the Tree of Forgetfulness, and I would pass through the Door of No Return. Each time I would write a thing I would want to forget, I would take a picture of my surroundings on the Route to aid the aspects of time and linearity.

I started at the Portuguese Fort.



And I began.



"When he told me he didn't want me around anymore."



"When she told me she didn't love me."



"When I told her I loved her when I didn't."



"When I tried to do it."



"When he made me feel stupid."



"When I almost cried when he said it."



"When I should have told her."



"When she never told me."



"When I thought she was the only one who ever would."



"When I looked."



This was the center of the Route. I think this statue is an excellent icon for the entire journey, in the fact that I would have remember all of these things first in order to forget them, and that by putting them here, my act of destruction allows them to continue on.



"When she never said sorry."



"When I never apologized."



"When I took her things without asking."



"When I wrote that note but never gave it to her."



"When they called me that."



"When I paid so much for it."



"When I told her I would call her but I didn't."



"When they destroyed it."



"When they were so cruel."



"When I didn't feel anything."



"When she lied and lied and lied."



"What she did to me."



"That I never told her before she died."

I wrote all of these down on a note, double-sided:




I then returned to the Tree of Forgetfulness:




I circled the tree:





and I buried the note under it.




I walked back to the Door of No Return



And I entered.



I walked down to the sand



and I let the waves wash my feet.