Get off the beaten path by studying abroad in West Africa while earning 4 SMCM credits!

The small West African country of Bénin has played a major role in world affairs for over four centuries. Once the site of warring empires stirred up by the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Bénin is now a major tourist destination.

This program investigates this transformation, and how tourism addresses Bénin’s history of slavery and religious diversity. We explore the country’s top tourist destinations as students eager to understand these places as anchors for cross-cultural encounters. That is, these tourist sites bring Bénin’s citizens into conversation across religious and ethnic lines, and with people who descend from the same ancestors (both literally and religiously) who now live in the Americas. Our ultimate aim is to reconcile the beautiful diversity of African Diaspora religions, arts, and cultures against the dark history that inspired such cultural innovation.

The program begins in Porto-Novo, Bénin’s pleasant capital, and seat of a historical kingdom. Then it explores the rich Nàgó–Yorùbá culture of Bénin: We visit historical Yorùbá sites, such as the walls of the ancient Kétu empire, and see Yorùbá cultural performances, including the famous Gẹ̀lẹ̀dẹ́ masquerade that celebrates powerful women. And the course visits newer tourist initiatives, such as the Centre Songhaï, with sustainable agriculture and farm-to-table cuisine. The next destination is Ouidah, once the busiest port in West Africa, where millions of captives were sold to European traders for forced shipment to the Americas. We visit a fort that once housed enslaved people, as well as to the Door of No Return, a beachside monument to these victims. The course will continue putting this dark history into religious and cultural context by paying our respects at the Temple of the Pythons and the Sacred Forest, dedicated to Vodou spirits revered both in West Africa and the Caribbean. The group also enjoys the beach of Grand Popo, decompressing and thinking about the grave history of resilience these other sites commemorate.