Benin
The country of Benin, slightly smaller then the state of Pennsylvania is
sandwiched between Togo to the west and Nigeria to the east.
Present day Benin was the site of Dahomey, a prominent West African kingdom that
rose in the 15th century. The territory became a French Colony in 1872 and
achieved independence on 1 August 1960, as the Republic of Benin. A succession
of military governments ended in 1972 with the establishment of a government
based on Marxist-Leninist principles. A move to representative government began
in 1989. Two years later, free elections ushered in former Prime Minister
Nicephore SOGLO as president, marking the first successful transfer of power in
Africa from a dictatorship to a democracy. Official language is French
Benin has few natural resources, with less then 20% of the land being arable.
Although it has 120 kilometers of coastline, sandbanks create difficult access
to a coast as there are no natural harbors, river mouths, or islands. Other
challenges, such as inadequate supplies of potable water; poaching threatens
wildlife populations and deforestation face this small country.
Benin has a literacy rate of 40% with 37% of the population living below the
poverty line. The medium age is only 16.5 years with a life expectancy of 50.8
years.
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