Coverage / Benin
Benin
Western Africa
The birthplace of Vodun and heartland of the old Kingdom of Dahomey, Benin packs an outsize cultural weight into a narrow strip of West Africa. The Atlantic south holds Ouidah, capital of Vodun and a sombre station of the slave trade, the stilt village of Ganvie on Lake Nokoue, the royal palaces of Abomey, and the contemporary-art scene of Cotonou. The far north, around the Pendjari and W parks, carries serious travel advisories from cross-border insecurity, so the visitor core runs along the coast and the Dahomey kingdoms.
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What you can do in Benin
Museums & Galleries
- AbomeyJan Feb Nov DecAbomey holds the memory of one of West Africa's most formidable states, the Kingdom of Dahomey, whose kings ruled from here from the 1620s until the French conquest in 1894. Twelve successive kings each raised a palace on the same royal compound, a vast earthen-walled complex that UNESCO inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1985. Inside, the Musee Historique d'Abomey occupies the palaces of Kings Ghezo and Glele and gathers the regalia of the kingdom: the brilliantly coloured appliqué banners that recorded each king's deeds, carved bas-reliefs, thrones, weapons of the famous women warriors the Europeans called the Amazons, and objects that speak plainly of the kingdom's power and its role in the slave trade. It is a hard, honest and unforgettable history. For a first-time visitor it is the single best place to understand the pre-colonial kingdoms of the Gulf of Guinea, told through the objects the kings themselves commissioned.
- CotonouJan Feb Nov DecThe Fondation Zinsou put Cotonou on the map of contemporary African art. Founded in 2005 by the Beninese art historian Marie-Cecile Zinsou and her father, the economist Lionel Zinsou, it was the first institution of its kind in the country, built on a simple radical idea: free access to art for everyone, and above all for Beninese schoolchildren. Its Cotonou exhibition space and libraries show leading artists of Benin and the wider continent, among them the Beninese sculptor Romuald Hazoumè, who works with the jerrycans of the informal fuel trade, and the foundation went on to open a dedicated contemporary-art museum in a colonial villa in Ouidah in 2013. Set against the energy of Dantokpa market and the city's street life, a visit here is the clearest window into how Benin sees itself now, a country that turned its deep artistic heritage into a living contemporary scene. Admission is free, part of the point.
Best months at a glance
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