About Us

Mathieu Yokossipé

Entrepreneur / Guide / Chauffeur

Mathieu was born in Natitingou, but he moved to Ivory Coast with his parents when he was a baby. They lived in the Southwest part of the country in a small village by the name of Buessovoda close to Oumé.

He returned to Benin in 1997 and went back to live in Natitingou where he worked with the Chinese for 5 years in building construction.

He became friends with some young French volunteers in Natitingou and started to guide for them. So Mathieu has over 17 years of experience in guiding.

He loves football and he even played with some of the best players in the world as a youngster in Ivory Coast, including Bonaventure Kalou.

Today he is the "godfather" of his family, with 10 little brothers and 5 sisters. He is also happily married with 2 adorable children, a boy and a girl.

Mathieu is an officially licensed guide of parc Pendjari (badge African Parcs) where he helped form the offical Guide Association.

He really seems to know everyone and he knows his way around entire West-Africa and he speaks multiple local languages. His mother tongue is Waama, but he also speaks Ivory Coast’s languages (Gagou, Baoule, Dioula which is spoken in 5 African countries – Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea and Sierra Leone).

He has been working for Ile de Paix, a Belgian based NGO, for over 10 years now.
Mathieu can even call himself an actor, after starring in the multi-award winning short film "Nobody Dies Here" by French director Simon Panay in 2016.

What characterizes Mathieu the most, is that he wants to make the most out of his life, even in very difficult circumstances. That, and his eternal smile. He really loves to laugh, but won’t say no to good food and drinks either.
Mathieu loves work that is well done and he values the truth above all else, even to the extent that his nickname in Ivory coast was Gbé (which translates to “the truth”).
And most of all, Mathieu also places his clients wishes above his own.

Bart Stes

Business Partner/ Website/ English-Dutch Guide

Bart was born in Antwerp, Belgium, the country where he has lived his entire life. Even at a very young age he was fascinated by travelling and experiencing “strange” cultures.

After his studies in Information Science he started working at VAB, a Belgian roadside & travel assistance company. He worked his way up through the IT department and currently holds the position of IT Manager (Backend).

Although he has a busy work schedule, he continues to travel frequently. One of those trips brought him to Benin, a not so common destination. He got to know the country through his wife who lived there during a 3 month internship in Parakou.

It was on that Benin trip that he first met Mathieu as he was their guide. A connection was quickly established, and although it would be 8 years before they would meet again in person, the continued to stay in touch.

Like Mathieu, Bart also has to children, 2 girls in his case. In 2019 Bart took his family to Benin for another discovery voyage. For his kids (ages 4 and 7) an entire new world opened up.

During this trip the first ideas of starting an official collaboration started to erupt, but it wasn’t until a couple of months later a solid plan emerged. Bart saw some money of a heritage freed up, so he was able to invest in a joint business.

The rest, as they say, is history…

Latest News

We will be ordering our new 15-seater Toyota Hiace minibus in a couple of days

August 29 2019

Foundation of our new enterprise, Atacora Tours

August 7 2019