Sahel Reporter

From September 22 to October 17, 2026, the Fnac Paris Saint-Lazare is handing Benin a stage, and this one feels less like a showcase than a genuine breaking point. For close to a month, exhibitions, conversations, debates, cinema and music will turn a Paris department store into a meeting ground where history, memory, spirituality and contemporary creation finally speak to one another out loud.

Paris will beat to Benin’s rhythm for nearly four weeks. Between September 22 and October 17, 2026, the Fnac Saint-Lazare is devoting an exceptional programme to this West African nation, built around a series of events dedicated to its history and its culture. Several of the announced gatherings are organised with the backing of the Embassy of the Republic of Benin in France, and much of the activity will take over the meeting forum on the store’s third floor.

Nothing here is meant as a folkloric postcard. The programme sets out to travel across several faces of Benin at once: its spiritual traditions, its past bound up with the Kingdom of Dahomey and the slave trade, the question of returning cultural property, and equally the country’s contemporary artistic output, its literature, its cuisine and its current music.

The curtain-raiser: a photographer who speaks to the ancestors

The starting signal comes on September 22 with the photographic exhibition “Ayérayé: Éternel”, devoted to the work of Beninese photographer and designer Eustache Ahomagnon. Through October 17, visitors can step into a body of work balanced between photography and textile creation.

The artist explores memory, spirituality and present-day creation through the universe of the Egungun, figures tied to ancestor worship among the Yoruba. The images converse with textile pieces inspired by the forms, materials and movement associated with those traditions.

Right away, the exhibition sets the tone for everything that follows: a Benin deeply attached to its inheritances and, at the same time, resolutely facing forward toward what is being made today.

Three weeks of words, flavours and sound

Spirituality and heritage under discussion

On September 24, a conversation brings together Saskia Cousin Kouton, sociology professor and author, journalist Delphine Bousquet Hazoumè and researcher Richard J.V. Sogan. Their exchange centres on spirituality, traditions and several books devoted to Benin’s heritage.

A chef’s road from Benin to the Michelin star

The following day, chef Georgiana Viou takes the floor. Born in Benin, she will recount her journey and present her book “Oui cheffe ! Du Bénin à l’étoile Michelin. Itinéraire d’une battante”. Her story also opens onto food as a space of cultural transmission: Beninese ingredients and flavours keep shaping her work, even inside a kitchen built between several influences.

Afro futur vibes and vodun gospel

Music then takes over. On September 26, Beninese artist Joe Kingston delivers a showcase around his “Afro futur vibes” universe, where hip-hop meets contemporary African influences. The next day, poet and slam performer Sergent Markus presents his album “Vodun Gospel”, a project fed in part by musical references drawn from vodun culture.

Confronting the heaviest pages: Dahomey, the slave trade and restitution

The programme also steps into the most sensitive chapters of Beninese history.

On October 1, a session turns to Dahomey and the history of slavery. Writer and journalist Vincent Hugeux talks with Frédéric Ravatin, an engineer and scientific scenographer, notably about the work carried out around the “Bateau de la Mémoire” in Ouidah, conceived as a memorial device dedicated to the slave trade.

The next day, the return of cultural property between France and Benin moves to the centre of the debate. Ambassador Angelo Dan, Romain Da Costa and heritage curator Kolawodé Daniel Abidjo look back at a historic process that has left a deep mark on cultural relations between the two countries.

That choice of themes gives the whole event an unusually strong historical and memorial weight. It is no longer only about showing objects or artists, but about asking how a nation tells its own past, protects its heritage and builds its relationship with the rest of the world.

Cinema as the link between memory and the present

October 4 belongs to film, with a screening of “Retour à Ouidah 1993. Les Revenants”, Charles Najman’s documentary about the return to Ouidah, a city intimately bound to the history of vodun and to that of the African diaspora born of the slave trade. A discussion with journalist, producer and programmer Emmanuelle Honorin follows the screening.

Through this film, made in the context of the Ouidah 92 Festival, the programme lets images of the past converse with today’s questions about memory, identity and the ties between Benin and its diaspora.

A contemporary scene that refuses to wait

Living creation is not forgotten either. On September 30, a carte blanche goes to director, co-producer and cinematographer Mr DYRECK. His work, produced between Benin and France, reflects a new generation of artists using the image to tell West Africa’s story differently.

On October 10, music shifts register again with the arrival of singer and jazz artist Mina Agossi, invited to present her album “Dynamic. Tribute to Dinah Washington”.

Finally, on October 17, the programme closes with a showcase by the group Teriba, presented as Benin’s first all-female music band. Formed in 2002, the collective became known for its work around a cappella singing and its determination to champion Beninese cultural heritage.

Why this is a turning point, not just a calendar of events

Across this succession of appointments, the Fnac Saint-Lazare turns its Parisian space into a real window onto Benin for almost four full weeks. From photography to gastronomy, from slam to jazz, from cinema to history, the line-up sketches a plural portrait of a country whose heritage keeps feeding contemporary creation.

It also makes a simple point: Beninese culture cannot be reduced to a frozen inheritance. It is passed on, reinvented and argued over. Between vodun traditions, the memory of Dahomey, the history of the slave trade, the debates on returning artworks and the newest artistic expressions, an entire narrative of Benin moves into the heart of Paris.

Free entry, open doors

Every announced event is free of charge, subject to available seating. The Fnac Saint-Lazare is thus inviting the curious, lovers of African culture, members of the Beninese diaspora and, more broadly, anyone who wants to discover or rediscover a country whose history and creative output hold a singular place in cultural exchanges between Africa and France.