Benin is located on the southern portion of the western
side of Africa where it juts into the Atlantic
Ocean.
It is bordered on the northeast by Niger, on the east
by Nigeria, on the northwest by Burkina
Faso, on the
west by Togo, and on the south by the Bight of Benin
(a "bight" is a type of bay). The country is slightly
smaller than Pennsylvania.
Benin was a French colony from 1872 until it won its independence in 1960. It was originally known as Dahomey. It was infamous due to the African slave trafficking which ended in 1848. The capital is Porto-Novo which is located in the southern section of the country, slightly inland from the Bight of Benin. Benin has a republic form of government. The president is elected by popular vote to a five-year term with eligibility for a second term. The country’s currency is the Communaute Financiere Africaine franc.
The July 2007 estimate of the population was 8,078,314 with a population growth rate of 2.7 percent. The current life expectancy is 53.44 years with women outliving men by two years. Angola has an infant mortality rate of 7.8 percent, greater than many other countries (the United States has a .6 percent infant mortality rate). There is also a high incidence of HIV/AIDS (two percent of the adult population).
French is the official language; however, Fon and Yoruba and other tribal languages are spoken. Benin has only a 34.7 percent literacy rate of people over the age of 15 with almost 25 percent more men being literate than women. There is no majority religion; 43 percent of the population is Christian, 24 percent Muslin, 17 percent Vodoun and the remaining 15.5 percent follow other religions.
Web Sites
Catalog
Search the library's catalog for Benin.
Databases
Enter Benin in these databases:
- eLibrary
- Europa World Year Book
- Gale Virtual Reference Library
- Grolier
- Sirs
- Student Resource Center Gold