Culture

It is believed that Vodun (or 'Voodoo', as it is commonly known) originated in Benin and was introduced to Brazil, the Caribbean Islands and parts of North America by slaves taken from this particular area of the Slave Coast. The indigenous religion of Benin is practiced by about 60% of the population. Since 1992, Vodun has been recognised as one of Benin's official religions, and a National Vodun Holiday is celebrated on January 10.

Many Beninese in the south of the country have Akan-based names indicating the day of the week they were born on. Twins are important in south Beninese culture, and special names for twins are also used.

Local languages are used as the languages of instruction in elementary schools, with French only introduced after several years. Beninese languages are generally transcribed with a separate letter for each speech sound (phoneme), rather than using diacritics as in French or digraphs as in English. This includes Beninese Yoruba, which in Nigeria is written with both diacritics and digraphs.