OUIDAH, Benin, Jan 14 (Reuters) – Isaline Attelly, a native of the Caribbean island of Martinique, had been living in Benin for nearly a year before she learned that her family’s connection to the West African country went back much further.
Genealogical records confirmed her great-grandmother on her mother’s side was born in what is now Benin and, at the height of transatlantic slavery, was trafficked across the Atlantic Ocean.
The discovery last year prompted Attelly, a 28-year-old content creator, to enrol in a new programme offering Beninese citizenship to people of African descent.
The “My Afro Origins” programme is an important piece of President Patrice Talon’s plan to raise his country’s profile, including among prospective tourists, by highlighting its prominent role in the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved people.
“For me, it’s a source of pride. It feels like my journey has come full circle,” Attelly told Reuters after her naturalisation ceremony. “I am proud and very happy to be able to represent my ancestors.”
PROJECTS HIGHLIGHT BENIN’S ROLE IN SLAVERY
The first naturalisation ceremonies have coincided with the unveiling of projects intended to bring that history to life, including a new “Door of No Return” in Ouidah, a common departure point for transatlantic trafficking, and a replica of an 18th-century ship that transported enslaved people with sculptures inside representing nearly 300 captives. Both are still under construction.
The government also plans to open this year a new International Museum of Memory and Slavery at the former residence of Francisco Felix de Souza, a prominent trafficker of enslaved people in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Talon, who survived a coup attempt last month and is expected to end his 10-year tenure after a presidential election in April, has recruited star power to publicise his vision.Filmmaker Spike Lee and his wife Tonya Lee Lewis were last year named ambassadors for the programme to the African-American community.
“Our brothers and sisters in Benin are telling us: come home, welcome us home, come back to the motherland. Come back (to) where your roots are,” Lee told France 24 last year.
In July 2025 American R&B star Ciara became one of the first beneficiaries of Beninese citizenship. She performed last week at a concert in Ouidah as part of an annual festival devoted to voodoo, playing hits such as “Level Up” during a set that ran until 3 a.m.
Her husband, American football quarterback Russell Wilson, attended and said he was hoping to become a citizen himself “real soon”.
PUSH FOR ‘RIGHT OF RETURN’
Around 50 people have received Beninese citizenship since the “My Afro Origins” programme launched last year, according to the Justice Ministry, which is sorting through thousands of applications and receives about 100 more each day.
To qualify, applicants need to be 18 years old and produce documents or a DNA test proving their ties to the continent, and they cannot be citizens of another African country, Foreign Minister Olushegun Adjadi Bakari told Reuters.
At the naturalisation ceremony on December 27 in Cotonou, Benin’s biggest city and economic capital, Attelly and nine others received their citizenship certificates and posed for pictures next to the Beninese flag.
Benin’s programme is similar to an initiative in Ghana that, since 2016, has granted citizenship to 684 members of the African diaspora, according to Kofi Okyere Darko, presidential adviser on diaspora affairs.
CARICOM, the regional bloc of the Caribbean, has endorsed a “right of return” for descendants of enslaved people, as part of a reparations plan adopted in 2014.
Resettlement should be funded by “those states that are responsible for the forced movement and enslavement” of millions of people, CARICOM says, meaning European states and governments.
Though no significant progress has been made towards such a comprehensive effort, Benin’s government hopes the programme can nevertheless strengthen ties between Africans and the diaspora while showcasing the country’s history, said Bakari, the foreign minister.
“We believe that Africa cannot develop without a strong involvement of its diaspora,” he said.
“What we are looking for is people who will definitely recognise themselves as African, having the proof that they are part of this continent.”
(Reporting by Pulcherie Adjoha and Robbie Corey-Boulet in Ouidah; Additional reporting by Emmanuel Bruce in Accra; Editing by Alison Williams)
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