Benin Historical & Political Dynamics
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Among the many autonomous nation-states in Africa, one of the least well-known is Benin, home to slightly over 5 million people living in a republic that has been independent of colonial influence since 1960 (Crystal, 1994). Benin was, in the pre-colonial era, a collection of small, warring principalities, including the Fon Kingdom of Dahomey, founded in the seventeenth century. Portuguese colonial activities centered on the slave trace, but the Portuguese were subjugated by the French and the area that is now Benin became the French Protectorate of Dahomey in 1892 (Crystal, 1994). In this report, the historical and political dynamics in Benin will be analyzed up to the present day. Though there are those authorities who consider Benin today to represent a constitutional democracy functioning under the rule of law, there are also those who would argue that political stability is more of an illusion than a reality in this country and that Benin continues to be engaged in a dynamic process of political as well as economic development (Lefort, 1999). Williams (2002) stated that Benin has history as colorful, complex, and at times brutal as any African country. The history of the Dahomey Kingdom is complex. These kingdoms can be traced to the thirteenth century when the ancestors of the Fon, a close relative of the Yoruba, migrated south from the Niger River to occupy most of present-day Benin and neighboring Togo. By the early seventeenth century,
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The trend of Kerekou's rule was nationalist and he soon clashed with foreign interests. In March 1973, there was some looting of French property, and Levantine businesses were threatened. In November 1974, Kerekou announced that Marxism-Leninism would be the official national ideology; then the government nationalized several companies as well as banking and insurance services. A complete reorganization of the administration was launched.
Other actors û including former officials living in exile in France and elsewhere in Europe û attempted to destabilize the Republic and to eliminate Kerekou, who renamed Dahomey the People's Republic of Benin in December 1975 and launched a single political party, the Parti de la Revolution Popularie du Benin (PRPB). Further, the regime was socialist-communist, despite its willingness to work with Western (i.e., non-communist) nations (Crystal, 1994; Dossou-Yova, 1999).
Dossou-Yova (1999, p. 61) says that between 1975 and 1980, many changes of significance took place in the country:
Schools were nationalized, the legal system was reorganized, religions and spiritual cults were discouraged and local committees played an important part in regional government. In August 1977, the natio
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2777
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)
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