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Monday, 13 April 2026
Sub-Saharan Africa

Benin builds cultural tourism around transatlantic slave trade history

Monday, 13 April 2026 · 1 min read
Based on: Africanews

Benin (a small West African nation once a major hub of the transatlantic slave trade) is attracting growing numbers of visitors to sites in the coastal town of Ouidah, including the restored Door of No Return — a 17-metre arch commemorating enslaved people shipped to the Americas — and a forthcoming immersive museum housed in a replica of one of the last slave ships to depart the port. Authorities are also promoting Vodun (the animist religion that originated in the region) through events such as the Vodun Days festival, which drew around two million visitors this year. The government aims to raise tourism's share of GDP from roughly six percent to 10–15 percent within a decade, and since 2024 has offered Beninese nationality to anyone who can trace ancestry to enslaved people taken from the region.

Sources
AfricanewsBenin leans into painful past to encourage cultural tourism
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