Benin, citizenship law for Afro-descendants around the world ready

The victims of the transatlantic trade embarked from Ouidah; but now the country is looking to the future, also focusing on memory tourism

ROME – All Afro-descendants in the world will be able to acquire the citizenship of Benin: this is promised by a bill adopted by the government of Porto-Novo, in power on a strip of the continent that was among those most affected by the transatlantic trade.

WHAT THE RULES SAY

The meaning of the provision is above all symbolic. If approved by parliament, the rules would not guarantee the new Beninese either the right to vote in elections or to work in the public administration. In any case, the bill provides for the granting of citizenship to “all people in the world who have in their family tree a sub-Saharan African ancestor deported outside the continent as part of trafficking”. Slaves often left Ouidah, on the Atlantic coast, still numerous in the 19th century. Among the commitments of the current president of Benin, Patrice Talon, there is also the promotion of tourism of remembrance.