{"id":30816,"date":"2025-07-29T20:41:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T20:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/30816\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T20:41:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T20:41:08","slug":"grammy-winner-ciara-gains-benin-citizenship-honoring-enslaved-ancestors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/30816\/","title":{"rendered":"Grammy winner Ciara gains Benin citizenship, honoring enslaved ancestors"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) \u2014 U.S. singer Ciara is one of the first public figures to become a citizen of Benin under a recent law by the small West African country<\/a> granting citizenship to descendants of enslaved people.<\/p>\n

The Grammy-winning performer\u2019s acquisition of citizenship at a ceremony Saturday in the city of Cotonou is part of a broader initiative by Benin to attract the Black diaspora, acknowledge the country\u2019s role in the transatlantic slave trade, and promote tourism focused on slavery-related sites of remembrance.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy legally recognizing these children of Africa, Benin is healing a historical wound. It is an act of justice, but also one of belonging and hope,\u201d Justice Minister Yvon D\u00e9tch\u00e9nou said at the ceremony.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what to know about Benin\u2019s efforts to welcome descendants of enslaved people:<\/p>\n

Benin\u2019s Afro-descendant citizenship law<\/p>\n

In September, Benin passed a law granting citizenship to those who can trace their lineage to the slave trade.<\/p>\n

It is open to anyone above 18 who doesn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

Last week, the government launched My Afro Origins, the digital platform that processes applications.<\/p>\n

While Benin is not the first country<\/a> to grant citizenship to descendants of enslaved people, its citizenship law carries added significance, in part because of the role it played in the transatlantic slave trade.<\/p>\n

A national reckoning with its role in the slave trade<\/p>\n

European merchants deported an estimated 1.5 million enslaved people from the Bight of Benin \u2014 a region that includes present-day Benin, Togo and parts of Nigeria \u2014 to the Americas.<\/p>\n

Beninese kings actively participated in capturing and selling enslaved people to Portuguese, French and British merchants. The former kingdoms and the communities they raided still exist today as tribal networks. <\/p>\n

Benin has long been working to reconcile with its legacy of complicity. It has openly acknowledged its role in the slave trade, a stance not shared by many other African nations that participated. <\/p>\n

In the 1990s, it hosted an international conference to examine how and where enslaved people were sold. In 1999, then-President Mathieu K\u00e9r\u00e9kou apologized to African Americans during a visit to a church in Baltimore.<\/p>\n

\u2018Memorial tourism\u2019<\/p>\n

Alongside this national reckoning, \u201cmemorial tourism\u201d around the legacy of the slave trade has become a key approach of Benin\u2019s government to attract Afro-descendants.<\/p>\n

Memorial sites are mostly in Ouidah<\/a>, one of Africa\u2019s most active slave-trading ports in the 18th and 19th centuries. They include the Slave Route, which was the path marking enslaved people\u2019s final journey to ships, and the Door of No Return, a haunting doorway that opens to the Atlantic Ocean where they left Africa, and their families, for the last time.<\/p>\n

Sind\u00e9 Chekete, the head of Benin\u2019s state-run tourism agency, said these sites give Afro-descendants the opportunity to learn about and honor the struggles and resilience of their ancestors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may inspire some people to say \u2018I want to return to Africa and choose Benin to understand this history\u2019,\u201d Chekete said.<\/p>\n

Following her citizenship ceremony, Ciara toured the historic city, where she walked the Slave Route to the Door of No Return.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetween emotion, reflection and heritage, I experienced a profound return to what truly matters,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ciara is best known for chart-topping hits like \u201cGoodies\u201d and \u201cLevel Up,\u201d her dynamic choreography, and her work in fashion and philanthropy.<\/p>\n

____<\/p>\n

AP\u2019s Africa coverage at: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/africa<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DAKAR, Senegal (AP) \u2014 U.S. singer Ciara is one of the first public figures to become a citizen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,28979,99,447,28980,28981,48,134,482,28982,84,28983,1346,28984],"class_list":["post-30816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-benin","tag-business","tag-celebrities","tag-ciara","tag-cotonou","tag-crime","tag-entertainment","tag-general-news","tag-mathieu-krkou","tag-politics","tag-slavery","tag-world-news","tag-yvon-dtchnou"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}