PORTO-NOVO, Dec 3 (NNN-AFRICANEWS) — The Benin government has voted to offer nationality to “people with African ancestry deported as part of the slave trade”.
Many enslaved Africans were dispatched from the shores of West Africa, including Benin.
On Nov 20, the government published the terms of a decree adopted on July 30 allowing Afro-descendants to be recognized as Beninese citizens.
The government said that the slave trade had “left deep wounds on Africa and the descendants of the deported people” and that it wished to help reconnect these descendants with their origins.
Under the new law, applicants for Beninese nationality must meet the following criteria: “Be 18 years of age or older, provide proof of his Afro descent by authenticated testimonies, civil status document or DNA test carried out in a laboratory approved by Benin.”
The applicant’s father or mother must also have been born before 1944.
The applicants must travel to Benin to complete the final steps of the process, and stay in the country until nationality is granted. If they are successful, they will be issued a provisional certificate of nationality valid for three years.
Once they’ve obtained nationality, they will have freedom of entry, stay and exit and the right to a passport. These “new Beninese citizens” will not be able to vote, however, nor work in the country’s public administration.
The move has already aroused great interest among people of African descent particularly among Afro-descendants born in Haiti, Brazil and the Caribbean. People from those countries have become frequent visitors to Benin, notably since the country’s President Patrice Talon made memorials to the slave trade a central tenet of tourism on the country.
Benin is the first country to make such a move, with the leader of the opposition, Eric Houndété, calling it “a totally unprecedented initiative”.
Campaign group State of the African Diaspora (SOAD), which represents the interests of Afro-descendants, also welcomed the development: “We are very pleased with this result, and we will be proposing to the other African countries with which we have diplomatic relations [that they] draw inspiration from this magnificent example.” — NNN-AFRICANEWS
