Can Benin win back its diaspora?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 21 October 2025
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Benin has long tried to highlight its role in the transatlantic slave trade through monuments and memorials in the country, in the hope it would attract tourism.
Now it has a new plan.
It is offering citizenship to descendants of enslaved Africans around the world.
US singers Lauryn Hill and Ciara received their citizenship in July. Filmmaker Spike Lee and his wife Tonya Lewis Lee have also been made Benin’s ambassadors to the African-American population in America.
The move is an attempt to attract talent and money to its shores and showcase the nation’s culture and traditions to a wider audience.
This week on The Inquiry we’re asking: Can Benin win back its diaspora?
Contributors: Dr Bayo Holsey, Association Professor, African American Studies and Anthropology at Emory University, United States Ana Lucia Araujo, Professor in the Department of History at Howard University, United States Dr Leonard Wantchekon, Founder and President of the African School of Economics Tonya Lewis Lee, filmmaker and entrepreneur
Presenter: Tanya Beckett Producer: Daniel Rosney Researcher: Maeve Schaffer Technical producer: Nicky Edwards Production Co-ordinator: Hattie Valentine Editor: Tom Bigwood
(Photo: Ciara receiving citizenship of Benin. Credit: Government of Benin)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.6 | Welcome to The Inquiry with me, Tanya Beckett, from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:11.4 | One question, four expert witnesses and an answer. |
| 0:20.0 | If your ancestors had been sold into slavery, |
| 0:24.1 | how would you feel about reconnecting with the place where they had left two centuries before? |
| 0:31.2 | In July of this year, American singers Lauren Hill and Sierra were made nationals of the West African country Benin. |
| 0:40.2 | I feel incredibly proud to be here with you all. I feel incredibly proud to also be a part of |
| 0:46.9 | the importance of this moment and what it means. The significance of this moment is so, so special. |
| 0:55.9 | Also, filmmaker Spike Lee and his wife, Tanya Lewis Lee, became Benin's ambassadors for African Americans in the United States. |
| 1:06.2 | For me and for Spike, it's about letting people know that Benin is making space for us to have a place on the continent. |
| 1:17.5 | A new Benin government law offers nationality to descendants of people who were taken from their |
| 1:23.8 | homeland as part of the transatlantic slave trade. |
| 1:27.9 | The new ruling is named My Afro Origins and acknowledges Benin's role as a major hub of the |
| 1:35.4 | transatlantic slave trade, in particular through the port of Wieda. |
| 1:40.5 | Overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in Benin, a majestic arch marks the point of no return, |
| 1:46.7 | where through the centuries millions of slaves waited in chains to be shipped to America. |
| 1:52.7 | Other nations in the region that are offering citizenship for descendants of enslaved people |
| 1:57.8 | include Ghana, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone. |
| 2:02.7 | The move by Benin is an attempt to attract talent and money to its shores |
| 2:07.5 | and showcase the country's culture and traditions to a wider audience. |
| 2:13.5 | This week on the inquiry, we're asking, can Benin win back its diaspora? |
| 2:19.5 | Part 1, the Middle Passage. |
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