At last! My detective work, of course got me to "Plan", a wonderful organization that your pictures have introduced me too!
Benin is an amazing place with an incredible history! The kingdom of Benin was very advanced in commerce and culture. The lostcwax bronzes are world famous and recognized for their beauty and craftsmanship.
I have not previously seen Benin with an e-acute!
Or are there two Benins? The one I know is in Nigeria!
Ahah!! "officially the Republic of Benin (French: République du Bénin) and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa."
At least Dahomey has historical reasoning! These were the peoples that raided, beheaded and sold into slavery their coastal neighbors! Reminds me of the term "Palestinians" which popped up under Arafat in the 1960s and was applied to folk living in Jordan's West Bank, given up by the Jordanians, after their ill-advised attack on Israel in the 6 day war failed. Paradoxically, all my Palestinian friends from the area were Jews! If someone said they were Palestinian, likely they were Jews. But the Jews favored the nomenclature, "Israel" for the new Zionist state in the portion of the "Palestine British Mandate" territory and so the word "Palestine" was like a choice .com name was orphaned, up for grabs for free and Arafat took it! But now there is no ambiguity in the name "Palestinian"
However, Benin, a Nigerian state, was itself a separate rich kingdom with a long history, culture and a major state and trade center and it still exists! So why on earth create another one? Perhaps they want to distance themselves from the cruel slave trade for which they have apologized. There is no doubt, that without the raiding of African tribes by Africans, the evil slave trade to South America, the USA and the Caribbean would have been most difficult, if not impossible to carry out.
Asher