Benin: Ciara’s Beninese Citizenship – Marketing Ploys Can’t Heal the Past

21st November 2025
[The Conversation Africa] African American singer Ciara received citizenship from the Republic of Benin in 2025 as a descendant of enslaved Africans. The images of her ceremony at Ouidah's slave route memorial site, "Door of No Return", were broadcast worldwide. Surrounded by drummers and dignitaries, she held a new Beninese passport aloft, a gesture hailed as both homecoming and healing.

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