{"id":43249,"date":"2026-07-04T21:10:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T19:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/?p=43249"},"modified":"2026-07-05T21:12:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T19:12:47","slug":"clotilda-descendant-becomes-first-to-gain-benin-citizenship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/clotilda-descendant-becomes-first-to-gain-benin-citizenship\/","title":{"rendered":"Clotilda descendant becomes first to gain Benin citizenship"},"content":{"rendered":"
By John Sharp<\/div>\n
\n

Cassandra Lewis\u2019s path to citizenship in the African country of Benin<\/a> began decades ago.<\/p>\n

As the youngest of nine children, she grew up listening to her father recount stories that were not fantasy tales of slave ships and kingdoms, but real and harrowing memories passed down through generations. Her father, Johnny Lewis, had received them directly from his great\u2011grandfather, the famed Clotilda survivor and storyteller Kossola \u201cCudjo\u201d Lewis, who instructed young Johnny to carry the stories forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohnny was with him there during the first 15 years of his life and he was able to tell his children,\u201d said Lewis, 61, a fashion designer from Decatur, Ga. \u201cHe did exactly what Cudjo said.”<\/p>\n

In May, the Lewis family\u2019s lineage came full circle. Cassandra Lewis became the first descendant of the 110 enslaved Africans aboard the Clotilda to receive citizenship from the nation of Benin.<\/p>\n

Read further: https:\/\/www.al.com\/news\/2026\/07\/from-africatown-to-benin-clotilda-heirs-historic-african-citizenship-honors-roots.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By John Sharp Cassandra Lewis\u2019s path to citizenship in the African country of Benin began decades ago. As the youngest of nine children, she grew up listening to her father recount stories that were not fantasy tales of slave ships and kingdoms, but real and harrowing memories passed down through generations. Her father, Johnny Lewis, […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","region-benin","type-news-articles","item-year-699","item-theme-ethnic-racial-religious","item-theme-naturalisation-and-marriage"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43250,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43249\/revisions\/43250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}