Skip to content
Kalọ̀ sí ilé®Bénin Roots

The path of rediscovered roots

Bénin Roots is a brand of roots tourism, memory and reconnection in Benin. Kalọ̀ sí ilé® is its signature journey: a return to the story of those who came before us.

The founding principle

The ancestor must not be reduced to the status of an enslaved person. Before the Atlantic rupture, they belonged to a people, a family, a territory, a culture, a spirituality and a history.

The traveller does not only come to find the place from which their ancestors were deported. They first come to discover who they were.

Six questions to structure the journey

  1. 1Who were they?
  2. 2Where did they come from?
  3. 3How did they live?
  4. 4What happened to them?
  5. 5What did they pass on?
  6. 6What do we find today?

Four pillars

Roots
Finding the peoples, territories, families, cultures and kingdoms.
Memory
Understanding the slave trade, deportation and rupture, without reducing the ancestor to their suffering.
Resilience
Highlighting resistance, survivals and transmissions.
Reconnection
Creating a living dialogue between Benin and the Diaspora.

The place of Vodoun

Vodoun is approached as a living cultural and spiritual heritage, with authenticity, respect for the communities and cultural understanding rather than exoticism. No membership or initiation is involved.

A journey carried by identified people.

[FOUNDER NAME]

Founder of Bénin Roots · Economics journalist

A journalist specialising in economic and development issues, long attentive to the ties between Africa and its diaspora.

Kalọ̀ sí ilé® was born from a conviction: the return begins with the story of those who came before us.

Bénin Roots

Roots tourism, memory and reconnection in Benin.

On the ground

Experienced guides and partners, local coordination, a contact person reachable throughout the stay.

PROGENITEL SARL

The legal entity behind Bénin Roots. Maison Monnou, Akassato, Abomey-Calavi.

+229 01 95 95 62 72 · progenitel@gmail.com

Partners

The hotel, cultural and institutional partners of the 2027 edition are being contracted. They will be presented to you before any commitment.

Get the programme