Grammy Winner Ciara Granted Benin Citizenship Under Landmark Slavery Descendants Law
US singer and Grammy Award-winner Ciara has officially become a citizen of Benin, becoming one of the first high-profile figures to be granted nationality under a new law recognising descendants of enslaved Africans.
The “1, 2 Step” and “Goodies” hitmaker was awarded citizenship during a formal ceremony in the coastal city of Cotonou. In an Instagram post shared with her millions of followers, Ciara described the moment as an “honour,” thanking Benin “for opening your arms and your heart to me.”
Benin’s government called the move “symbolic, humane and historic,” adding that it was “a return to one’s roots” and “a hand extended to those whom history, in its brutality, had torn from this land.”
The initiative is part of a broader effort by the West African nation to reconnect with the global African diaspora and encourage cultural tourism. Under the My Afro Origins Law, passed in 2023, Benin now offers a clear path to citizenship for people who can trace their ancestry to Africans forcibly taken during the transatlantic slave trade.
The country joins others like Ghana and Guinea-Bissau in using citizenship as a tool for healing and reconnection with the descendants of enslaved people around the world.
Ciara’s announcement follows the recent appointment of acclaimed filmmaker Spike Lee and his wife, Tonya Lewis Lee, as Benin’s official ambassadors for African-Americans in the United States — another move aimed at strengthening diaspora ties.
Benin’s southern coast was once known as the Slave Coast, a central hub in the transatlantic slave trade. Historians estimate that more than a million people were trafficked from the former Kingdom of Whydah — located on present-day Benin’s coastline — to the Americas, Caribbean, and Brazil between the 16th and 18th centuries.
Today, Benin says it is reclaiming that painful history to forge new connections across continents — and Ciara’s citizenship marks a high-profile step in that journey.
