Benin: The Republic Of Benin

Introduction

Benin is known officially as the Republic of Benin. This phallus-shaped belt of land extends perpendicularly about 415 miles inland from the Gulf of Guinea – a part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean (World Book). The country is bounded by the Republic of Togo on the West and the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the East. Burkina Faso and the Republic of Niger border Benin on the North. Including both land area and water area, the country is 112,622 square kilometers, which is slightly larger than Tennessee but slightly smaller than Pennsylvania (CIA). The official capital is Porto Novo. However, the nation’s de facto administrative capital and chief commercial center takes place in Cotonou, which is located 20 miles to the West of Porto Novo. Most of government offices and embassies are located in this port city.

The sandbanks and the lack of natural harbors, river mouths, and islands create difficult access to the coast. Behind the coastal strip, the country has a network of lagoons and forests. The coastal area has a transitional equatorial climate with two wet seasons and two dry seasons. Benin has four principal plateaus: the Abomey, the Kétou, the Aplahoué, and the Zagnanado. Soil in these areas consists of clays on a crystalline base. The Mono River, the Couffo River, and the Ouémé River are three major rivers. The Atacora Mountains in the northwest reaches the highest elevation of the country, about 2,000 feet high (World Book). This northern portion of Benin is under the influence of a tropical climate, which is less hot and humid than the southern area and consisting only one wet season and one dry season.

People and Culture

According to the CIA World Fact Book, Benin’s population is 10,160,556 in 2014 (CIA). Pop...

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...his area in 1625. By the 1600’s, the power of the king was primarily based on the European slave-trading posts along the coast. The French annexed Dahomey in 1893 and made it part of French West Africa in 1904. After the French gave Dahomey self-government on December 1958, becoming the Republic of Dahomy. The country became a fully independent nation in August 1960 and changed its name to Benin in 1975.

Since the country independence, Benin’s government frequently changed due to political and social unrest. In early 1980, Mathieu Kérékou was elected to a three-year term as president, professing strict Marxist-Leninist principles. However, the country’s stagnant economy and the collapses of many communist regimes in Eastern Europe encouraged Beninese to ask for a structural adjustment, from a dictatorship to a multiparty democracy. Nicéphore Soglo defeated Kérékou