Benin passed a law back in 2024. It’s supposed to be for reconciliation for the role Benin played in capturing Africans and selling them to slavers. It allows people with African ancestry to apply for Benin citizenship. It’s documented as well as any African government program, which is to say not well. I’ve not done this, though I am tempted to apply in June, just to see what happens, after I deal with other matters. Here is what I’ve been able to find out.
There is a website that you use to apply.
myafroorigins.bj/services/1/recognition-of-b…-descendants
It appears the primary proof requires civil documents. The genetic test is a supplemental piece of documentation and seems to not be needed. There are reports of people with just a DNA test being contacted with a request for documents. Based on reports, sometimes they ask these documents to be with apostille and translated into French; sometimes PDFs from Ancestry.com are enough.
The requirements are thus. You must have an ancestor born before 1944 in a region of historical slavery. This exact region is not defined but appears to include most of the Americas. The ancestor must be denoted as racially African or mixed on their documents (some have had success including a DNA test instead of having a racial indication in the documents), and you must have a document chain showing lineage from you to the ancestor. You cannot have current African citizenship. There appears to be no hard requirements on how distant the ancestor is or the amount of African ancestry. People have applied with ancestors from the 1600s and 6% African genetic markers (unsure how many have been successful).
You apply online with digitized documents. The application fee is $100 US. After application, you will receive a level 1 approval. After about three months, if approved, you will receive a level 2 approval and a certificate of Benin recognition. You then have three years to fly to Cotonou with this and attend a citizenship ceremony where you are made a national. After that, you can apply for a Beninese passport at the office in Cotonou. It appears the passport applications there are fulfilled with passport ready to pick up in a day or two. If you want the ability to vote or hold a government job, you need to reside in Benin for two years and apply to be regularized from national to citizen. This distinction is apparently an entry in your civil file and there is no notation of the difference on your passport. For all practical purposes except for those two, you are a full citizen of Benin.
All of this information was gathered from reading and reports by those who have done the process. The singer Ciara got this citizenship a while ago.
bbc.com/news/articles/cgm2vvmdy28o
