Beninese Americans

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Beninese American
Total population
605
(mainly, naturalized Benineses and Americans who descendants of Beninese immigrants. 2000 American Community Survey)
Practitioners of Beninese traditional religion
Related ethnic groups
  • African American
  • Other American groups of West Africa
    • Togolese
    • Nigerian
    • Senegalese
    • Ivorian
    • Malian
    • etc.
  • French

Beninese American are

Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and in other states as New York. As of 2021, there were over 500 Beninese immigrants in the town of Austin, Minnesota.[2]

History

The first people from present-day Benin to came to the modern United States were slaves and arrived to this country in the colonial period. Most of the slaves of

Porto-Novo, from where were brought to the port of Ouidah, place in the which was made the slave shopping. In this place were sold many of the slavers that were brought to the United States.[8]

The slaves brought with them their cultural practices, languages, and religious beliefs rooted in spirit and

ancestor worship, which were key elements of Louisiana Voodoo.[4]
Also Haitians, who migrated Louisiana since the late nineteenth century and also contributed to Voodoo of this state, have the Beninese origin as one of its main origins.

During the twentieth century, most of the Beninese people migrating to foreign countries were headed to Europe, mainly to France and Belgium, because Benin shares with them the same language (as Benin was a French colony since late of nineteenth to 1960), the costs to migrate to these countries were lower than the costs found in countries like the United States and the availability of visas.

However, in the 1980s, some Beninese began migrating to New York, attracted by educational and employment opportunities found in this state. The Benineses who arrived to New York for live there, worked usually in the manufacture or sale of African clothing and hairbraiding, as happened with other West African groups in the state. However, it was not until the 90s when the Beninese population grew significantly in the United States compared to previous Beninese immigration in this country. It was from this decade when the Beninese began to feel attracted to Chicago and other big cities. They promoted the emigration of relatives and friends to these cities.

As in New York, many Beninese women also worked in hairbraiding elsewhere in the United States. In the late 1990s many other Beninese people from Benin and Europe immigrated to United States in one second wave, pursuing also better working conditions and study, well as a graduate education.[9]

Demography

Currently, there Beninese communities in cities such as

Washington, D.C., and in other states as New York and Minnesota. So, great Beninese communities exist in Chicago, where, according to Bobby Dagnon, president of the Association of Beninese of Illinois, the beninese community is growing very rapidly.[10]

Most Beninese who migrate to the United States do so seeking better educational and employment opportunities.[9] Now, many U.S. Beninese immigrants work more than 80 hours a week with the aim, in addition to earn enough money to survive, help their relatives who want to emigrate to the USA.[10]

Organizations

Like other ethnic groups in United States, people of Beninese origin formed organizations and associations to help to other Benineses people in United States.

In 1984 was funded The Association of Beninese Nationals in the U.S.A. (ARBEUA) in

Washington, D.C. It aims to help socially, culturally and economically (to poorest members) to the U.S. Beninese population. The organization has a National General Assembly and the Executive Board to meet each other and organize cultural activities in the capital of the United States. Over time, some U.S. Beninese communities created some new sections of the organization, as in the case of Beninese community of Chicago, whose basic functions are to establish social and cultural events, such as monthly parties and an annual celebration of the Day Independence on August 1.[9] Other Beninese organization is The Association of Beninese of Illinois, a non-profit organization established in 2008 and whose objective is to meet the needs of Benineses in Illinois, especially in Chicago and surrounding areas. The organization also tries to establish a good relationship between the Americans and the Benineses of that state.[11]

Others Beninese associations in United States are: the Union des Béninois des États-Unis pour le Développement ("Unión de benineses en USA for the development"),[12] the Association des Béninois de la Caroline du Nord, USA (Association of Benineses of North Carolina) and the Association Béninois Indiana (Whose goal are: educate children so that they know about Benin, creating institutions to promote mutual understanding and develop union with other communities of Benin in the United States for the implementation of joint projects).[13]

The Benineses in United States have also the University of Benin Alumni Association, North America, in

Westchester, New York.[14]

The Beninese community regularly interact with other communities from West Africa, with which they have cultural ties, such as the Malian, Ivorian, Senegalese or Togolese. In some cities, many Benineses participate in tontine groups, small cooperatives whose purpose is to raise money, through verbal agreement among their members. In the tontine, its members must contribute a fixed amount of money regularly. Thus, these cooperatives allow U.S. Beninese simultaneously collect an amount of money. The Beninese Americans are also the founders of African Hairbraiding Association of Illinois in 2001, to achieve another form of licensing pressing to state for them.[9]

Cultural contributions

Main article: Louisiana Voodoo

Benin's slaves brought to Louisiana the voodoo, followed then by Haitian migrants arrived to that state in the late nineteenth century. Their knowledge of herbs, poisons, and the ritual creation of

amulets, intended to protect oneself or harm others, became key elements of Louisiana Voodoo.[4]

Notable people

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Indeed, Dahomey was one of the main proslavery Kingdoms of West Africa during the colonial period of the Americas and the nineteenth century, arriving to his maximum economic splendor to late of the eighteenth century thanks to its slave trade with the European traders of many areas of the Americas (from the U.S. to Brazil).[6]

References

  1. ^ a b "Table 1. First, Second, and Total Responses to the Ancestry Question by Detailed Ancestry Code: 2000". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2010-12-02.
  2. ^ "Minnesota's most diverse communities? Census points to small cities like Austin and Worthington". Sahan Journal. 2021-09-09. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  3. ^ a b "Question of the Month: Cudjo Lewis: Last African Slave in the U.S.?", by David Pilgrim, Curator, Jim Crow Museum, July 2005, webpage:Ferris-Clotilde Archived 2017-05-25 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ^ a b c Hall, Gwendolyn Midlo (1995). Africans in Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Louisiana State University Press. p. 58.
  5. ^ Google books: Creole: The History and Legacy of Louisiana's Free People of Color. Wrote by Sybil Kein.
  6. ^ EL ELEMENTO SUBSAHÁRICO EN EL LÉXICO VENEZOLANO (in Spanish: The Sub-Saharan element in the Venezuelan lexicon).
  7. ^ Zora Neale Hurston, "Cudjo's Own Story of the Last African Slaver", Journal of Negro History, pp. 662-63.[permanent dead link]
  8. ISBN 0-8214-1572-7
  9. ^ a b c d Encyclopedia of Chicago: Beninese. Wrote by Tracy Steffes.
  10. ^ a b In Chicago, A Slowly Building Beninese Community. Posted by Jon Grae.
  11. ^ "The Association of Beninese of Illinois". Archived from the original on 2013-07-24. Retrieved 2013-06-28.
  12. ^ Union des Béninois des États-Unis pour le Développement Archived 2013-12-10 at the Wayback Machine.
  13. ^ Communiqué Association Béninois Indiana.
  14. ^ Uniben Alumni Reunion 2011

External links

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