Voodoo's living capital on the Gulf of Guinea
Cotonou is the economic capital of Benin and the commercial heart of one of West Africa's most culturally distinct countries — the birthplace of Vodoun (voodoo), which originated with the Fon and Ewe peoples here and spread across the Atlantic by enslaved Africans to Haiti, Brazil, and the American South. The Dantokpa Market is one of West Africa's largest open-air markets, and the Ouidah Voodoo Festival (January) draws tens of thousands of practitioners from across the global diaspora.
The territory of present-day Benin was home to the powerful Kingdom of Dahomey from the 17th to 19th centuries — a highly organised state with a professional army that included an all-female unit, the Agojie (the 'Dahomey Amazons'), and a significant role in the Atlantic slave trade through the port of Ouidah. France colonized the kingdom in 1894. Independence came in 1960 as Dahomey; the country renamed itself Benin in 1975 after the Bight of Benin. After a Marxist-Leninist period (1975–1989), Benin became one of Africa's earliest peaceful democratic transitions in 1990.