Dassa-Zoume: Religious tourism made in Benin Republic

How does one begin to describe the crowd that gathered at the grounds of La Grotte Marial Notre Dame d’Arigbo in Dassa-Zoumé, Republic of Benin, between August 17 and 19, 2018? Words are simply not enough. The pilgrims must have come in their thousands because everywhere you turned, it was a sea of faces. There was hardly an inch of ground that was left unoccupied.

Located on the Cotonou-Parakou railway and on the main north-south travel route in central Benin, Dassa-Zoumé, often shortened to Dassa, has been a significant destination for Catholic pilgrims since the first National Pilgrimage that took place on February 11, 1954 brought together many Christians from all over the Apostolic Vicariate of Dahomey.

Every year since then, pilgrims from across West Africa and beyond have gathered there on the weekend that falls within or succeeding August 15 – the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary – to pray at La Grotte Marial Notre Dame d’Arigbo (the Marian Grotto of Our Lady of Arigbo). Not only pilgrims but also tourists have found the city’s picturesque hills, beautiful scenery and forests (Igbo Idaasha) more than enchanting, turning the small agricultural town into a cluster point.

Dassa was established as a Catholic diocese in the Ecclesiastical Province of Cotonou on June 10, 1995. It was carved out from the Diocese of Abomey.

Lourdes in Africa

The origin of the pilgrimage centre has been a subject of speculations. One version of the story says that Dassa-Zoume was declared a pilgrimage centre after Mary first appeared atop the rocky hill behind the centre.

Andrew Lawrence Nana, a chorister at Sacred Heart Catholic Parish, Badagry, who said he has been going for the pilgrimage for the past 15 years, told me he had heard earlier that before it became a pilgrimage centre, the place where the centre now stands was inhabited by locals who always went to fetch water and do their washing at the stream at the base of the rocky hill. One day, however, a woman went to that place to fetch water when Mary appeared to her. She later related the story to the church authorities.

Nana, however, said he later heard the true story, which is that the origin of the centre is not in any way linked to any apparition. The centre, he said, was created to accommodate Catholic faithful within the locality who could not afford the cost of travelling to Our Lady of Lourdes Pilgrimage Centre in France for a similar spiritual exercise.

The pilgrimage centre in Lourdes has its origins in Marian apparition. The story goes that on February 11, 1858, Bernadette Soubirous, a simple 14-year-old peasant girl, was out with her sister Toinette and neighbour Jeanne Abadie gathering firewood in the cave of Massabielle when she saw a tiny lady (uo petito damizelo) dressed in white, with a golden rosary and blue belt fastened around her waist, and two golden roses at her feet. In subsequent visitations, Bernadette said she heard the lady speak to her, saying, “I am the Immaculate Conception (Que soy era Immaculada Concepciou)”, and asking that a chapel be built there. After church investigations confirmed her visions, a large church was built at the site.

Pope Pius IX in January 1862 authorized Bishop Bertrand-Sévère Laurence to permit the veneration of Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes. In 1863, Joseph-Hugues Fabisch was charged to create a statue of the Virgin Mary according to Bernadette’s description. The work was placed in the grotto and solemnly dedicated on April 4, 1864 in the presence of 20,000 pilgrims. Lourdes thus became a major Marian pilgrimage site.

Perhaps, it is on this basis that there have been speculations that the Dassa-Zoume centre was also inspired by Marian apparition. It is, however, not so.

The initiative to have a Marian grotto in Dassa-Zoume came from Mgr Louis Parisot, who gave the responsibility to Fr. Germain Boucheix, parish priest of Notre Dame Fourviere at Dassa, in 1951, according to a pamphlet handed to this writer by a priest at the centre. The pamphlet contains the history of the centre written in French language, which was later translated for me by a friend.

According to the history, two sites were initially identified – the Grotto of Gome and that of d’Arigbo at Dassa. Eventually, Arigbo was chosen. Mgr Parisot, a Marian devotee, asked Fr. Boucheix to model the Grotto of Arigbo on that of Lourdes on the occasion of the centenary of the promulgation of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Dassa-Zoume was thus to become the Lourdes of Benin Republic.

For the first pilgrimage in 1954, an altar was built at the foot of the rocky hill, Stations of the Cross were set along the slope of the hill, and the statue of the Virgin Mary was installed.

In 1960, Mgr Maury, Apostolic Delegate from Dakar, brought a piece of rock from Massabielle in Lourdes and it was implanted in the Arigbo rock under the Marian statue.

With the help of the Conference of Bishops of Benin, the centre entered a new phase in August 2004, becoming the Centre National de Pelerinage Marial d’Arigbo (CENAPEM) with modern structures. The current Bishop of Dassa, Mgr François Gnonhossou, who assumed office on February 28, 2015, has been working to make the place even more modern.

A prayerful journey

Themed “Tout les ages me diront Bienheureuse”, which translates as “All generations shall call me Blessed”, a key line in the Magnificat, Mary’s canticle in Luke 1:46-55, the 2018 pilgrimage, the 64^th edition, I was told, was different from others before it only in terms of the increased number of Catholics and even non-Catholics from far and wide it attracted.

This year’s pilgrimage began with an opening Mass at 8pm on the first day, which was a Friday. Prayers continued with a Eucharistic adoration from midnight to 5am on Saturday, followed by a Mass for the sick at 6am. Seminars followed thereafter, held simultaneously at different venues and in different languages. I joined the one in English.

Confessions held almost all day at different points and in different languages as well, including French, Mina, Yoruba, Fon, English, and some others that I cannot easily recall and many Catholic faithful seized the opportunity to reconcile themselves to God. English, however, got the short end of the stick due largely to the paucity of English-speaking priests. A fellow pilgrim from Nigeria could not find a queue for confession in English. He had to beg a catechist who could barely speak English to help him get a priest to hear his confession in English.

All through Saturday and going into the wee hours of Sunday, Masses held at different times in different languages. At the same time, people gathered in groups according to their language to hold Catholic prayers like Divine Mercy, Stations of the Cross, and Rosary procession. The Nigerian pilgrims assembled at the foot of the cross in front of the church gate and held their prayers in English.

The group prayers were not compulsory. Those who did not want to be a part of these group prayers offered their petitions to God individually at the different prayer spots. Some prayed at the foot of the cross in front of the church; some offered their petitions in front of the Blessed Sacrament inside the church; some prayed at the Marian Grotto at the foot of the rock; some prayed before Mary’s statue inside the church building; and some prayed at the steps going up the rocky hill atop which many say they had seen Mary appear. There were no restrictions.

It was, indeed, three busy days filled with a flurry of spiritually-enriching activities. If you are spiritually-minded, or if you are the prayerful type, you will find the centre an ideal prayer ground to pray as much as your strength can carry.

I saw pilgrims in their numbers, united in faith, making the tortuous journey through the 14 Stations of the Cross. I saw pilgrims journeying prayerfully up the steps at the foot of the rocky hill, many on their knees. I saw many gathered at the Marian Grotto praying out their hearts and making their petitions to God through Mary the Mother of Jesus, considered in the Catholic faith as a great intercessor for the faithful. I saw folks raise their hands to catch the droplets of water falling from under the Marian statue hewn into the rock and rubbing same on ailing parts of their bodies. I saw a couple of white folks around as well but couldn’t tell whether they were pilgrims or tourists. They were clearly French, however, because they flowed fluently with the locals. It was overwhelming seeing faith at work.

Dassan hospitality

The overwhelming majority of the pilgrims made themselves comfortable in self-made makeshift tents spread across the expansive open field of the church premises or under the shady trees lining the major avenues leading into the church. There were toilets and bathrooms here and there, including mobile toilets, but they were hardly enough for the multitudes that made the open space their home for the three days. So, the open fields were freely converted to toilets and urinals.  

But pilgrims who desired some level of comfort and had the wherewithal found accommodation at the Centre Marial A L’Ombre Du Sanctuaire guest house and some other hotels around, such as Maktub Ferme Auberge chez Armand, Auberge de Dassa Zoume, Jeco Hotel Benin, among others.

At the Centre Marial A L’Ombre Du Sanctuaire guest house, which is run by nuns, you are charged per bed space. At the rate of CFA4,500 (about N2,700 at the exchange rate of N1/CFA1.625) per bed space, a two-bed guestroom costs CFA9,000 (N5,500) per night while a four-bed guestroom costs CFA18,000 (N11,000) per night. I and a fellow pilgrim from Nigeria shared a room with two beds.

Drawn by the mammoth crowd that gathers at the pilgrimage centre every year, a 24-hour market flourished on either side of the entire stretch of the road in front of the centre for the three days. Especially just across the road opposite the centre, which locals call Grotte (Grotto), the market boomed like a full-blown daily market, even though it sported only makeshift stalls, while some hawkers moved up and down the road with their wares. I saw all sorts of wares on display – sacramentals, candles, sweet-smelling incense, shoes, mobile phones, ready-to-wear clothes, African fabric, cooked food, edibles like bread, fruits and others.

Feeding was, therefore, not such a big issue as there was an array of food on display at affordable rates. I ate a plate of rice and beans cooked together garnished with a whole egg and a piece of chicken for CFA500 (about N307). You could eat more or less if you chose. A woman was advertising 20cl glass of fresh fruit juice (containing any of pineapple, water melon, orange, lemon, baobab, etc) for CFA300 (about N185). I later took a glass and it was worth it. So refreshing!

The only snag was the language barrier. You needed to have at least a passing knowledge of French to get by. Republic of Benin is a French-speaking country and so, most of the programmes, including even the closing Mass that held at 10am on the closing Sunday, were held in French. The printed programme of events was also in French, though a portion of it had the Bible readings in English, for the first time, I was told.

During the seminar, some of the Nigerian pilgrims complained that despite several years of attending the pilgrimage, their interest was not being accommodated in terms of holding some of the programmes in English.

In his response, the English-speaking priest, whose name I have taken the discretion to omit here, explained that the pilgrimage was actually a national programme that has over time attracted people from surrounding French-speaking countries like Togo, Mali, Niger, and Chad, and recently English-speaking like Nigeria and Ghana as well.

“It is a national pilgrimage that has become international, and we are working to broaden it to accommodate everyone,” he said.

When this writer tried to get information on how the centre came into being, alas, nothing was documented in English. Rather, I was handed a pamphlet with everything in it written in French. The priest who gave me the pamphlet advised that I get someone who could speak French to assist me with translation.

Miracles and apparitions

I was told that there have been testimonies of miracles received by pilgrims who prayed at the grotto. However, Lawrence Nana from Badagry (mentioned earlier) told this writer that he has personally received no spectacular miracle in that sense; he believes that sleeping and waking up every day is a miracle.

“Truly, people have been giving testimonies. Some people say when they come here and pray for a particular intention, it works for them. As for me, I believe everything that goes on about me is a miracle. For me to sleep and wake up is a miracle; moving up and down is a miracle. Even the fact that I can come here every year is a miracle. I pray every day, even when I’m not here. So, I don’t really link anything that happens in my life to my coming here,” he said.

Nana, who said he has been going for the pilgrimage for the past 15 years during which he has seen many things that have made him believe more in God, told me his first coming was just like someone who was going on a tour. That time, he said, he was chosen as a chorister to join the choir for the Nigerian Mass in Dassa. But on getting to the centre, he began to see things beyond his expectations. Since then, his interest has grown such that he made up his mind never to miss any year. Even in a particular year when his church could not attend as a group, he said he paid his way to the centre to be part of that year’s pilgrimage.

“As we started coming here they told us about apparition right here, and every year we asked so many questions, but as time went on, they clarified it to us that the centre did not spring up as a result of any apparition, the church too has not confirmed any apparition but many people say they have been receiving miracles here and they keep coming back to testify to that,” Nana said.

“Last year, 2017, when I came for this pilgrimage, we were sitting down and waiting for the priest to come in for the grand finale Mass on a Sunday. While waiting, we were reciting the Holy Rosary. All of a sudden we heard some wailing from the other direction. We saw people on that side all standing up and facing the rock and waving their hands. The wailing would subside and then increase again. We couldn’t see what they were seeing and the church wardens prevented us from crossing over because the Mass was about to start.

“However, a friend who sat beside me, out of curiosity, managed to cross over to that side where he joined the wailing crowd. When he came back and I asked him what it was, he said they saw a woman sitting atop the rock who looked like she was carrying a baby in her hand.

“While we were still marvelled at it, the wailing erupted from the side where I sat. When I looked up, I saw a very bright sun. It was at about 9.30 in the morning but the sun was so bright and round. Everybody was shouting, but I managed to look and saw the image of Mother Mary appearing and receding right in the middle of that sun. Some people even started crying because of the wonderful sight; it was like coming face to face with something you have been hearing about but probably thought it was not possible. I had the feeling that something great was happening that day. It was so marvellous – two apparitions, one at the rock top and the other in the sun, all at the same time. What I am telling you is what I saw. It is real,” he narrated.

If you do not have faith as strong as Nana’s, you may not be able to see Mary when she appears, but you will certainly find a quiet location within the precincts of La Grotte Marial Notre Dame d’Arigbo for inner reflection.

CHUKS OLUIGBO