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Benin: West Africa
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The Benin national football team, nicknamed Les Écureuils (The Squirrels), is the national football team of Benin and is controlled by the Fédération Béninoise de Football. They were known as the Dahomey national football team until 1975, when Dahomey became Benin. They have never made the World Cup and, prior to their qualification for the 2008 African Cup of Nations, made their only African Nations Cup appearance in 2004.
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Throughout the 1970s and 80s, Kerekou took Benin through a Marxist-Leninist period during which the political and economic situation worsened. But the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe in 1989 led to the first multi-party elections, and in 1991, Kerekou became Africa's first leader to be voted peaceably out of office.
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Benin was a colony within French West Africa from 1899 until it gained independence in 1960 as Dahomey. Dahomey was the name of one of the great African kingdoms of the 1700s and 1800s. It was based in Benin.
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Jean-Gontran is an African who is a native of the Republic on Benin and a citizen of France. He obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of Benin and his MBA from Portiere University in France. Jean is a businessman whose dealings in telecommunications, real estate and farming have taken him all over West Africa and other parts of the continent. He has avidly collected African art and this has taken him to remote areas in search of the best deals. James' first trip to Africa was with Jean-Gontran in which Jean-Gontran showed him the tourist side and the native side of travel and living in Africa.
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Benin has played a major role in the Slave trade in the 17-th and 18-th century. From that period you will find many monuments reminding the traveler of the tragic sort of those deported to the West Indies and Brazil.
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President Kérékou and former President Soglo did not run in the 2006 elections, both being barred by the constitution of Benin from running again due to their age and President Kérékou's two recent terms as president. President Kérékou is widely praised for making no effort to change the constitution so that he could remain in office or run again, unlike some African leaders. An election, considered free and fair, was held on March 5, 2006, and resulted in a runoff between Yayi Boni and Adrien Houngbédji. The runoff election was held on March 19 and was won by Yayi Boni, who assumed office on April 6. The success of the fair multiparty elections in Benin won high praise, and Benin is widely considered a model democracy in Africa.
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