Some Americans and others are taking advantage of a new law in Benin that grants citizenship to those who can trace their lineage to the slave trade. It’s part of efforts by the West African nation to face the role it played.
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The law is open to all over 18 who do not already hold other African citizenship and can provide proof that an ancestor was deported via the slave trade from anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa. Beninese authorities accept DNA tests, authenticated testimonies and family records. An estimated 1.5 million slaves were deported from the Bight of Benin, a territory that includes modern-day Benin and Togo and part of modern-day Nigeria, said Ana Lucia Araujo, a professor of history at Howard University who has spent years researching Benin’s role.
Benin has openly acknowledged its role in the slave trade, a stance not shared by many other African nations that participated. In the 1990s, Benin hosted an international conference, sponsored by UNESCO, to examine how and where slaves were sold. At the “Tree of Forgetfulness,” enslaved people were said to be symbolically forced to forget their past lives.
It originated in the kingdom of Dahomey — in the south of present-day Benin — and revolves around the worship of spirits and ancestors through rituals and offerings. Slavery brought Vodun to the Americas and the Caribbean, where it became Vodou, a blend with Catholicism.
Patrice Talon Ana Lucia Araujo Crime General News Africa Nate Debos World News Politics Race And Ethnicity Nana Akufo-Addo Race And Ethnicity
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