Benin - Research Article from Encyclopedia of Religious Practices

This encyclopedia article consists of approximately 14 pages of information about Benin.

Benin - Research Article from Encyclopedia of Religious Practices

This encyclopedia article consists of approximately 14 pages of information about Benin.
This section contains 3,885 words
(approx. 13 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Benin Encyclopedia Article

POPULATION 6,787,625
VODUN 57 percent
ROMAN CATHOLIC 21 percent
MUSLIM 15 percent
PROTESTANT 4 percent
INDEPENDENT 3 percent

Benin

Country Overview

Introduction

Set in western Africa along the Gulf of Guinea, the Republic of Benin is a small, narrow country between Togo to the west and Nigeria to the east. To the north is Burkina Faso and Niger. Until 1975 Benin was called Dahomey, a name derived from the former kingdom of Dahomey, which dominated the slave trade between the interior and the Atlantic coast from the early eighteenth to the late nineteenth century. Among the largest ethnic groups represented in Benin are the Fon, Aja, and Gun. The population also contains groups of Yoruba- and Ewe-speaking peoples.

Traditionally Dahomeans have practiced Vodun, a religion involving the worship of hundreds of deities (vodun) who play an intermediary role between the Supreme Being (Mawu) and humans. Beginning in the sixteenth century slaves transported from Dahomey took the...

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This section contains 3,885 words
(approx. 13 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Benin Encyclopedia Article
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Benin from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.